Riven Health Costs, would this be balanced?

Crowe Stalker·6/2/2015, 5:47:52 AM·3 votes·905 views

So I'm curious about something. You'd have to live under a rock to have not, at some point, encountered a Riven, either on your team or the enemy team. One of the big reasons I hate this absolutely ridiculous (to me) champion is she has no real costs on Resources, and scales ridiculously hard on Attack Damage. Her trades at top lane with any melee top laner can end up doing a third of your health bar if you aren't careful. I have always hated her, and have been thinking of one particular change I feel may bring Balance to her: Health Costs on Abilities.

Now, I've actually asked people about this before and this gets a surprisingly good response (though I always frame it as 'This gives Risk/Reward gameplay she doesn't have right now.') I want to know the Communities' thoughts on this particular idea for a change to Riven.

13 Comments

xRivoline6/2/2015, 6:06:42 AM5 votes

why do you guys answer to a bronze 3 player? bronze 3 cry about riven. dude learn the game lol

ZeeDrakon6/2/2015, 5:59:01 AM3 votes

dont think its good. she already is really risky because shes so easily snowballed upon, you already have to be better than the enemy toplaner with their champ (on average) to be succesful with her, and her lategame already sucks enough :/

KMannnnn16/2/2015, 6:03:01 AM2 votes

Health casters need a form of extra built-in sustain in their kit in order to be usable. Aatrox W, DrMundo Zac Mordekaiser passives, Vladimir Q, even Olaf W with his E having a recoil mechanic. Riven has her shield, but having a shield cost HP seems a bit counter intuitive, and let's be real, her shield is definitely at the top of most peoples' "Riven OP Plz Nerf" lists.

Changing her into a health caster with no other changes would gut her, guaranteed, as having HP be your primary and secondary resources throws your power budget all out of whack, and giving Riven extra sustain is something I don't think anyone really wants.

NemeBro6/2/2015, 6:02:58 AM2 votes

{quoted}

So I'm curious about something. You'd have to live under a rock to have not, at some point, encountered a Riven, either on your team or the enemy team. One of the big reasons I hate this absolutely ridiculous (to me) champion is she has no real costs on Resources, and scales ridiculously hard on Attack Damage. Her trades at top lane with any melee top laner can end up doing a third of your health bar if you aren't careful. I have always hated her, and have been thinking of one particular change I feel may bring Balance to her: Health Costs on Abilities.

Now, I've actually asked people about this before and this gets a surprisingly good response (though I always frame it as 'This gives Risk/Reward gameplay she doesn't have right now.') I want to know the Communities' thoughts on this particular idea for a change to Riven.

She already has some of the lowest health sustain in the game. Having her abilities cost health would make her completely awful, lol.

xShunV6/2/2015, 8:44:48 AM2 votes

She's already had plenty of nerfs done to her. Her hp sustain is already pretty low. The only real defense she has is her dash/shield which lasts for about a second, and most just use to cover distance. Other than that, most of the players I've seen (myself included) rely on lifesteal to keep her up and going, such as item 3074 and item 3072 . Having her abilities take health, considering they're usually combo'ed together would gut her pretty hard, more than what's already been done. My advice: know how to build against her. She's ad so go with high armor. Immobilize her if you can because she's pretty mobile and will use her Q to either retreat or gain distance/hammer on you, and wait for her abilities to go on cd (especially her ult) before completely jumping in.

Boulderox6/5/2015, 6:28:42 PM2 votes

The problem with riven is blind picks. if I play Aatrox for some god awful reason, i can't build 2 or 3 armor items on Aatrox because building anything other than damage is dumber than AP Zed , It's the fact that some champs CANNOT afford to build tanky or that wastes there ability, but riven shits on every one of them because she has more combo potential and mobility.

ScreamPaste6/2/2015, 6:05:19 AM1 votes

This would make her the weakest champion in the game, lol.

Crowe Stalker6/5/2015, 6:21:13 PM1 votes

All right, then can someone exactly she entails? Like, why do you pick Riven, what do you think when you play Riven against certain Champions? Ranged, Tanks, Bruisers, Assassins?