Suggestion about Riven powerflow
I have two major suggestions about changes to Riven's kit. First, her passive currently causes her next autoattack after using an ability to be empowered. This is an essential part of Riven's combo in lane and early trading ability but as the game progresses becomes increasingly less (not irre-) relevant. In part this has to due with the nature of Riven's abilities (decent base damages, high AD scalings) making spamming her abilities fast and more damaging in nature than her autoattacks which for their cast time do less damage and provide less utility than her abilities (or appear to).
This is not to say that Riven will not use her auto attacks at later stages in the game, especially in a duel that she knows will be extended but in most situations post 25 minutes or so a Riven will commit a full combo of her spells without a single auto attack and kill any relatively squishy target (assuming that the Riven herself is not doing poorly). These are my observations on the flow of Riven's ability usage.
What I would suggest is that all of Riven's abilities be made slightly weaker and her passive changed to making her next autoattack enhance her next ability (with boost high enough to compensate for her lost damage from autoattacks). This will slow down Riven's combo's later on in the game and give incentives to use her abilities (ie third proc of q) in various combinations depending on her opponents rather than killing an enemy within the duration of w third q. This will pressure Riven player's to maintain good form as they play and give opponents more opportunities to react (flash to safety-burned flash? attempt to turn the scenario into a duel rather than massacre, survive long enough to use crowd control and booket!).
My understanding of Riven's intended playstyle is that she's supposed to weave in and out of a fight and have moments of high threat/presence and others of weakness where she will be punished for overextending with her abilities on cooldown – in some ways similar to our favorite bug-monster. Although Kha'Zix is an assassin his kit encourages play far different from Zed (with new ult's window of escape), Veigar or Le'Blanc – the sort of did my rotation-bye I hope you've died but otherwise there's not much I can do). Kha'Zix and Riven are a different breed of assassin that, unless extremely fed, fight in extended trades more as glass-cannon bruisers that rely on utility and mobility to dis- and reengage skirmishes/duels at their preference. They don't showup and blow you up. They showup and, over the next ten or so seconds destroy almost any non-full tank.
They are, perhaps, superior skirmishers than the three 'typical' assassins due to the enduring damage-nature of their kits but less reliable in teamfights – they are less likely to 'instantly' blowup their 'assigned' target. And that is ok. In fact, that's great. They have a different niche – but Riven as she stands relies on some form of RQQQWR with perhaps a single auto to kill her target. That is not the kind of fighter that I think (am not going to look up the link of I think Xypherous commenting on Riven's 'battle dancer' playstyle (and how an early release may have hindered that).
Where my first suggestion revolves around the flow of Riven's damage, my second ties into her map-wide mobility. While I don't think that its the end of the game that Riven has equal or superior mapwide mobility to almost any champion (ie running from botlane to toplane – hell I've outran Rammus over a thirty second period with full cdr Riven!) without the hefty mana costs that go along with it for the first thirty or so minutes it certainly isn't specifically reasonable that the enemy lane opponent knows that basing at similar times will almost always result in a gold / xp lead for Riven who easily returns to lane in less time, or for the jungler who knows that with 'only' a powerful slow Riven is nigh impossible to gank given that she can travel from the middle of toplane to tower in the two seconds or so most slows are active and walk from there.
It gets worse. While the enemy laner eventually - quickly purchases boots to be less susceptible to ganks or being chased down by the enemy laner, Riven has just purchased another longsword. Thats pretty awkward when it comes to dueling Riven back in lane in terms of pure offensive/defensive stats. This helps Riven acquire and maintain an advantage. Later on in the game Riven can rush botlane to clear a large wave of creeps in a way that few champions safely can with baron up safe with the knowledge that her mobility should make the play safe. Some champions can do this, and that is fine. It just also helps those champions snowball as they pickup a few hundred gp here and there and save their team's tower several hundred hp's worth of damage.
The recent changes to Gragas E made me think - why not Riven? The goal as I understand it was to reward Gragas player's for using his E offensively (to choose and understand the danger that they would be putting themselves into by moving 'forward' versus the damage and mobility loss of using the ability more defensively). If, say, Riven's shield doesn't take any damage (or takes 40 damage from two ranged creep auto's) what complicated decision making did Riven make? Was there any risk? Was the spell used purely as a low cd, no resource gapcloser? If Riven's Q's third proc doesn't interact with a single enemy unit what was the opportunity cost?
If Kassadin uses his jump carelessly he can probably buy enough time to survive it's cooldown (zhonias, cdr, roa, flash, walking) however if he is forced to ult again after that, and maybe a third time (chasing ability of the initial threat or their team) he will quickly run out of Mana. If Gragas uses his bodyslam carelessly he will findhimself waiting an extra six or so seconds for that ability to comeup. I like the idea of giving the option of using powerful gapclosers to save precious seconds circling certain terrain features, or simply racing towards a location while also providing an important opportunity cost causing the decision to be just that – a decision and not a reflex.
If Riven wants to use her abilities for superior mapwide movement - fine! Great! Have the cooldown of Kha'Zix's jump at level one on a level one e. And the same on a level 5 e too! Hue hue...! Or perhaps a little lower (aw). Reward Riven for using her Shield. Riven's E spell can be an offensive move where the (now increased) cooldown is decreased every time she is hit (by over 40 damage minumum? Maybe?) or if her shield takes more than 'half of its value' or something by a higher, flat amount such that after taking damage the cooldown returns to its present value. If Riven use's her gapcloser excessively defensively – fine! Clearly she traveled the distance she needed (at least for the time being) such that her shield was Not broken (and the cooldown not reduced). And now, as the result of playing hyper defensively Riven will need to continue to play hyper defensively for an extended period of time while she waits out her cooldowns. Similar concept with her Q. Increase the cooldown. If Riven doesn't hit anyone with it nothing happens and if she does reduce it.
Jumping over walls then dashing away is fun for the Riven player. It rewards not panicking under a situation and choking and having a good sense of which directions are viable escape routes. Increase that. Make it so that fewer rotations are possible throughout the course of the escape. Honestly I think its a little silly that BoxBox (nothing against the streamer) can consistently make 'amazing Riven escapes' when he overextends by running into the enemy base and out on the other edge of the map (top to bot or vice versa). Again and again. Against players who are aware of his intentions and have no realistic response (they aren't fast enough) other than losing baron. Make the Riven player attempting to do that time her shield with towershots. Make her sit on it for an extra three seconds. 500 damage will not kill a full hp Riven even if it happens three times under three turrets so spam that e when its off cooldown! Or don't. Time it, and be rewarded for waiting if that silly escape route is your desire.
If anyone has comments or suggestions let me know.
