I understand Riven but don't agree with her current balance state.

Now you can't make a title like that and not explain why.

My reasoning for making this thread is that i don't feel Riven is completely balanced. Shes a bully in lane and if she gets ahead she just gets stronger and stronger which allows her to bully even harder which allows her to get further and further ahead. Everything she has scales with AD and she scales pretty damn hard.

For example

Riven

Passive Scales up to 50% AD at level 18 starting from 20% and has three charges.

Q- scales with level Rank 1- 40% AD rank 2 - 45% AD Rank 3- 50% AD Rank 4- 55% AD rank 5- 60% AD

W- 100% bonus AD

E- 100% bonus AD shield

R- Gives Riven 20% of her total AD as bonus AD and since all her skills scale from attack damage it temporarily increases the damage of her other skills but thats not all Her ultimate also has an execute portion to the ability which scales from 60% Bonus AD up to a maximum of 180% depending on the enemies missing health scaling at 2.67 percent damage per 1 point of health missing.

These are the current live numbers on Riven.

Now lets get into the nitty gritty here which is what i have the biggest problem with.

Her cooldowns

Currently without any CDR Riven sits on some pretty low cooldowns.

Here are the current live Numbers and im putting these numbers at max rank.

Q- 13 seconds The cooldown starts after the first time broken wings is used NOT after the third part of it is used.

W- 7 seconds

E- 6 Seconds

R- 50 seconds

Now onto why i think shes not balanced.

I was watching boxbox the other day just randomly popped onto his stream and saw him playing Riven but i noticed he was dashing NONSTOP i mean literally every few seconds he was using Q or his E so i look at his build.

Brutalizer/boots of Lucidity.

It all made sense he had a huge chunk of CDR on him (30 percent total 5 percent from runes) So i decided i would talk about this with my theory crafting buddies when we got together later on that day. To understand where im coming from lets put that 30 percent CDR and Update Riven's Abilities with the new cooldowns.

These are the cooldowns with the new 30 percent CDR Q- Formerly 13 seconds Q- Currently 9.1 Seconds

W- Formerly 7 seconds W- Currently 4.9 Seconds

E- Formerly 6 seconds E- Currently 4.2 seconds

R- Formerly 50 seconds R- Currently 35 seconds

Q is a special case because the ability begins the moment Q is used. So depending on how fast someone uses the 3 Q procs after testing this in a custom game and only letting the broken wings countdown (the countdown before you can no longer use broken wings) get to half way. it only had a 5.5-6 second cooldown if i waited all the way to the last second to use broken wings last proc it would only have 2 second cooldown which means that if i waited and used my skills at the right times and not as fast as possible i could immediately use broken wings again after 2 seconds. Thats 2 knockups in around a 5-6 second period plus a stun after every knockup.

Now lets be a bit more realistic as most players wont be able to wait that long.

I consider myself a mid to high average player i am no where near the best but i am by far not the worst. On average (I don't play riven alot) with Brutalizer and Boots of Lucidity i was able to keep my Q at a 4-5 second cooldown with only a second in between each cast of Q and using it in that manner allowed me to have all of my abilities up almost constantly. In a realistic fight that is what i can hope for Weaving Auto's in between each Q allowed plus the other abilities at the appropriate times allowed me to have a knockup and a stun every 4-5 seconds which is devastating.

Remember when Riot Nerfed because he was obliterating bronze because he could Keep people Knocked up every 4-5 seconds and keep them Slowed? This is basically the same Concept with Riven except instead of a single target Knockup its an AOE and instead of a slow its a mini AOE stun.

An average Riven player (Based on what we discussed in our theory group) we figured out that the average Riven player who can utilize the Auto/Q weaving properly would be able to keep their Q at a 5-6 second cooldown and a better one could keep it at 4 using a Q-Auto-Auto combo with 30 percent CDR. I also wanted to see what would happen at 40 percent CDR.

Lets look at the abilities with a 30 percent CDR and a 40 percent CDR

Q- formerly 13 seconds (no CDR) Q- Formerly 9.1 seconds (30 percent CDR) Q- Currently 7.8 seconds (40 percent CDR)

W- Formerly 7 seconds (No CDR) W- Formerly 4.9 seconds (30 percent CDR) W- Currently 4.2 Seconds (40 percent CDR)

E- Formerly 6 seconds (No CDR) E-Formerly 4.2 seconds (30 Percent CDR) E- Currently 3.6 seconds (40 Percent CDR)

R- Formerly 50 seconds (No CDR) R- Formerly 35 seconds (30 percent CDR) R- Currently 30 Seconds (40 percent CDR)

As you can see the cooldowns get quite ridiculous.

In my custom game If i held the charges till the last minute with 40 percent CDR i was actually nearly going over the cooldown limit which was allowing me to immediately use Broken Wings again after the knockup portion of it. Realistically by using Broken wings with a single auto weaved in i had it down to 3 seconds and when weaving 2 autos it was very nearly up immediately. My stun was up immediately after each knockup as long as I weaved in an auto attack and my E was up so much that i rarely took any significant damage and my ultimate was up for every single theoretical fight that could have happened.

Not only was i knockup up the enemy every 4-5 seconds but i was stunning them every 4-5 seconds as well meaning in a solo fight if you were to use your skills at the right times you could technically keep an opponent from fighting back or doing any significant damage to you through a combination of consistent knockups and stuns and shield.

Now how would i solve this?

Very simple i wouldn't hit any scalings wouldn't change how the scalings functioned or touch the ultimate.

What i would touch however is Broken wings and thats it.

Broken wings would go from the cooldown starting on the first cast to the cooldown starting after the third cast and heres why.

Using the numbers above at 30 percent CDR which seems most optimal if you used your spells in combination properly weaving in an auto in between Q's and abilities you would have an AOE knock up on a 9 second cooldown which alone is pretty powerful but you would still have your other low cooldown abilities to keep up the pressure.

but what does this solve? It means that Riven now has a reasonable downtime and vulnerability period after she uses her Q. Currently on live Riven will just Jump in and wail on you and time her abilities to where she can get in hit you stun you and shield out effectively removing any form of counter attack on her unless through a gank. The Shield alone scaling with AD is an incredibly powerful tool but throw in the knockup/stun/Passive procs/ and execute nature of her ultimate she can quickly become extremely overwhelming when ahead and will only bring herself further and further ahead until it requires multiple people to take her down by herself.

Bonus

Xin Zhao look assuming level 18 30 percent CDR

Q- Formerly 5 seconds Q- Currently 3.5 seconds

W- Formerly 12 seconds W- Currently 8.4 seconds

E- Formerly 10 seconds E- Currently 7 seconds

R- Formerly 100 seconds R- Currently 70 seconds

Xin's got some mean cooldowns too but he just doesn't scale as hard and is probably better in the jungle.

TL: DR

No just no read the thread i don't got time for lazy eyes and brains.