Let's talk Riven balance :)
lvl7boxboxfangirllcsbigplays here. I haven't wanted to do this. Because I know how the boards feel about anything involving Riven. But I decided to put a little more faith in my fellow players. Be warned. If you expect the words gut, delete or remove to be used in this post, you will be disappointed.
Riven needs nerfs. But what kind of nerfs? Usually those talking about Riven nerfs are bronze-plat and just talk about what is "annoying" or "unfair" about her. While I appreciate your struggle, I feel the same facing Janna, Syndra or Fiora. But you won't see me demanding they be removed. Or making drastic, uneducated suggestions for champion destroying reworks.
Spite aside. The biggest problem with Riven is skill gap. Coming from a background of fighting games, rts games and platformers. I consider this a quality. But some people don't. I think the best thing to do with Riven is address the 40% win rate 1-5 games to 60% 125+. I would NEVER do this by dumbing down mechanics however. Turning Riven into Garen's current stat check noob friendly state isn't the answer.
The solution is to bring down the reward for mastering her. My proposal would narrow the win rate skill gap. Without hurting her skill cap at all. I simply propose to lower the reward for doing well on Riven, while also lowering the punishment for doing bad on her. Allowing Riot to better balance her for top tier players without her being worthless in low tiers.
Specifically my suggestion would be:
Nerf Q AD Ratio by 5% per hit. A total 15% loss over all 3 hits.
Nerf passive AD Ratio to 20-40% from 25-50%. A large hit on her fast combos. 5-10% per hit.
Buff base HP regen by 1 per 5 at level 1 and by 4 per 5 at level 18.
Buff the base damage of Riven's Q by 5 at 1 point and 10 per hit at 5 points. Encouraging leveling it first and a damage loss otherwise when Riven picks E first into hard matchups.
These changes would make Riven less famine when behind or played badly. Less feast when ahead or played well. By tuning down her rewards for success and tuning down her punishment for failure.
Thank you for reading, sincerely you friendly neighborhood Rovin Main.
Edit: for other Rovin mains who think these cuts are drastic. Keep in mind Darius, Camille, Yasuo and Jayce are seeing nerfs. While Lethality is being buffed. Meaning Ribbon is about to get a lot stronger by default of meta :)
