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Riven Laning Help

OoohCreamy·3/15/2015, 9:28:13 PM·2 votes·2,219 views

A while back I decided to pick up Riven, and ever since I've mained her as my top laner. Its safe to say i have over 100+ games with her by now. SO Basically i know her mechanics, the AA>Q>M>AA combo i got that down and so forth. What i need help on is a few match ups. (By the way i play a Cool-down Riven, which means not tanky but not full damage somewhere in between) Also i have a full Runepage for her complete with 9x marks of damage, 3x quint damage, 9x Seals of Armour, 9x Scaling Cooldown Reduction . Ill tell you guys what i usually do and you can see if im doing something wrong or how i can go about fixing it.

Riven vs. MonkeyKing

Against this matchup, I really feel like im doing something wrong, since i pretty much always lose lane to him. Wukongs always manage to out-trade me and bully me a ton. I usually start off with my E (Shield) to avoid his q auto attack cancels which will outrade me 90% of the time and I try to play relatively safe. The problems usually arrive at level 4-5 ish when he has his clone escape. He jumps in gets a couple hits off and then escapes with clone before i can trade back. By level 6 i just back off since he has more kill pressure than me with his ult. For this matchup should i just try to avoid skirmishes in general, which seems a little hard since he just E's past minion waves and Clones out when hes done. How would i go about laning safely, since im pretty sure unless they misplay like tower dive i cant really kill them without ganks. I usually do a item 1036 + item 2003 start, should i do a item 1029 build?

Riven vs. XinZhao

This one isnt too bad as i dont usually lose lane to them, but i always give up a kill for a kill or im a kill and some cs behind. I know his q will cancel my third one and xins like to dash in and such so any advice for this? I usually try w>e when he comes in and then hitting my q combo but early game, he always out trades me and so i have to fall back and i get zoned of out cs a ton sometimes. Also a tactic i try is always having a 3rd Q cast up so when he dashes in i can 3q>E>W out but for some reason i get outraded still. I know he relies on auto attacks a bit so i try building item 3047 early, is this a safe thing to do? BTW i swap these out later for item 3158 for the 40% cool down reduction.

Riven vs. DrMundo Darius

Against both these guys its kinda a similar issue. I definitely know thier way tankier early on, and can out trade me by 4-5 so should i try to bully a little pre 4-5? or should i start wolves, (assuming its ok with jg) to hit the level 2 and tele to lane with pots after? I can dodge mundos cleavers with e but he just walks up to me a little and hits it directly?

Theres a couple others like LeeSin which just if they hit that q wreck my so early and with his r pre 6 its barely anything i can do without jg. So any tips, builds, mechanical tips i should try ? Thanks for the help, im really trying to get better and better with her cause im not trying to go into a game and feed lol

20 Comments

Soulmaker3/16/2015, 2:22:28 PM2 votes

Against Wukong you cannot trade very early if he is good. If he didn't start cloth + 5 then he is bad and you should punish him - hardcore push the lane so he cant trade in your minions and b when you have money for 2 longswords. If you b fast enough and use 3rd Q to jump over turrets/inhis to get back top faster he won't be able to win a trade vs 3 longswords Riven without dying (if he didnt start cloth). Just all-in him with ignite and burn his flash, then hardcore push him so you hit 6 before him, then E-R-Q-Auto and go in the direction he will run, once he reveals himself just catch up to him and THEN stun him. You will have 2 more Qs and Flash to do so. If you get a kill the lane is over for him, since you will b for a brutalizer.

If the Wukong is good he will start cloth 5 and trade with you early until you are out of pots and he zones you because he has 2 more pots. Then he will go come back top with either Ninja Tabi or a Chain Vest and your best bet is to rush 2 Dorans + vamp 4 pots and farm under turret until you can flash burst carries in teamfights. If he doesn't get Ninja Tabi or Chain Vest, your all-in will be stronger at 6 provided you really can do the QAAQAAQAA in 1.5 sec like you say (with movement command). A full AD Wukong loses to full AD Riven at 6 unless he got a kill from somewhere else and is a longsword/Dorans ahead of you.

Darius is impossible to beat if he has even half a brain. He is a strong counter - not a hardcounter like Quinn but a very strong counter like Pantheon. He can build full armor + HP and still nuke you in less than 5 seconds. You must start E to get CS without being poked. If he didn't start cloth 5 then he probably sucks, so you can try to push a little at level 4 so you have more creeps and all-in him with ignite. Remember, it's always worth if they don't have flash and you do, because you can hardcore push him and get 6 before him, dive him and flash out. Like I said, he needs half a brain to kill you - if he doesnt have even half a brain and doesnt start cloth armor to build later into ninja tabi and builds full AD, PUNISH HIM. All-in him every time you have your ult up, make him feed. Everybody who doesnt suck at top knows that Ninja Tabi is the best item vs Riven and it building from cloth 5 makes everything easier.

Against Mundo you should never lose - he is weak pre-6 compared to you, you can still execute him at 6 with ignite. You can dodge every cleaver easily. Rush BT if he is going sunfire because then he can own you. With 23% lifesteal from a BT and Dorans you make that sunfire obsolete.

Lee Sin is a complete skill matchup. He is Q dependent. Fight in minions, or use Q + Movement command to go behind him and back and forth and back and forth with your dashes.

SpliceAsNice3/15/2015, 10:28:56 PM2 votes

Nice post overall, I'm glad you gave a little info on where you struggle rather than the alternative. I have a very similar problem with all of these match ups except I have yet to play against a good Xin Zhao or Mundo. I'm no pro and what I do does not always work so please take this with a grain of salt.

Darius : This match-up is just a pain in the ass. No matter how far ahead you are, he will still kill you throughout the game. It's best not to fight him at level one because his passive + ignite is deadly. I think it's safe to say Darius is a Riven counter in general so I suggest using E to dodge his Q dmg so you can CS decently (but expect to fall behind either way) and taking TP to help out with drag fights/bot ganks. If he misses Q or uses W to AA a minion that is your small window of opportunity to go all in. Try to memorize cooldowns and respond appropriately. item 1029 + 5 item 2003

MonkeyKing : Wukong is mobile, invisible and he shreds hella armor. I usually take item 1036 + 3 item 2003. Whenever he uses decoy, though, you can still use your AoEs to dmg him. Careful about standing too close to the decoy because it can turn the trade into his favor. I haven't figured out the ropes to this match-up just yet, because he can just use his gap closer to initiate a trade, Q, and Decoy away - taking virtually no minion dmg. I try to keep a pink on me so he can't juke away before the chance to kill him falls through my fingers.

LeeSin : Just force trades when he misses Q, but be weary of the position of his wave because I see a lot of Riven's go too ham when the opportunity presents itself and end up giving a kill on accident.

One match-up I regularly struggle with is Malphite . He just stacks armor and baits out my Valor so he can send out his cheese wheel of doom. It basically becomes a farm lane, but it'd be nice if you had any tips VS him too!

SnowfaII3/16/2015, 12:12:29 AM1 votes

So how do u play Riven vs Riven?

The Fat Punisher3/17/2015, 2:31:10 AM1 votes

Riven is worthless garbage. i wouldn't even play her if i were you.

Scramrail3/16/2015, 4:36:32 PM1 votes

MonkeyKing

Start E and use it whenever you suspect he is going to hit you with Q. Wu's poke combo is going to be E>Q>W, so you should be able to shield most of that damage with that in mind. Most of the time when Wu clones away from his trade he is going to be heading straight back behind his minions. If his wave is small enough, you should be able to Q into such a position that you can stun him even if he's still stealthed, giving you time to finish your Qs and get some AAs and win the trade.

Also note that Wu has mana, and if he's spamming his full poke combo at you he's going to go oom fairly quickly.

Don't be afraid of his ult. While it is strong, if you counter with your own ult you should be able to win. You also wont reasonably be able to escape it without losing a ton of health in the process, and he can always just E>Q you again after it finishes. Your best bet if he all ins you is to try to all in him back, trying to save your control for AFTER his ult finishes because im pretty sure even if you CC him his ult continues to do damage. (correct me if im wrong though)

Its also worth mentioning while the damage from his Decoy can be decent early on, it becomes pretty negligible fairly quickly since he will max it last and it scales with AP not AD.

XinZhao

Start Q. This shouldn't be a particularly difficult matchup to win, at least early on. Once Xin gets some items completed you might have some serious difficulty with him unless youre well ahead of him. If he Es in, you need to W>E out because he likely also used his Q. If you can get him to waste his Q and W by negating his all in with your mobility you should be able to win every trade. If he stops trying to trade and just wants to play Farmville, you should be able to do the same thing but in reverse. Use your Qs to move in on him, and watch to see when he pops his Q/W then W him and walk away. If he tries to E into you, you should be able to escape with E, using your Q knockup if needed. Even if you don't get much damage on him you should still win the trade.

Malphite

Start E. Just make sure you only ever E his Q because that's what he's going to be maxxing first. Alternative would be to E his ult if you can react fast enough. Ive never played this matchup myself so im not really sure how well a Riven could do. I know Malph usually builds tanky and considering his passive and his Q youll be at a disadvantage pretty much all game in terms of 1v1 potential.

Darius

Start E. Another matchup I dont have much experience with, but I dont think you ever really have an upper hand in this lane unless you get some early kills with jungle assistance. Against less experienced players its usually fairly easy to bait out their Q and E, but to be honest these abilities aren't going to be dealing as much damage as his W anyways (especially if youre close to him since his Q damage is higher if youre farther away). At the end of the day though, I think his kit is just stronger than yours 1v1 wise so its advised to just avoid fighting him if possible. Use your E to avoid his Q harass or E if you cant bait it out regularly and look for kills in other lanes.

Its also worth noting (though im sure with so many games played youre more than aware of this) that its a good idea in some matchups to put some early points into your E opposed to your Q simply to prevent poke damage.

Pæan3/16/2015, 7:26:24 PM1 votes

To understand a little of the matchups I've watched some of BoxBox's games, they've helped me understand when to go in and when to deny the enemy laner experience. Didn't make me an uber-pro riven player but the information helped regardless. https://www.youtube.com/user/boxboxvods/videos

OoohCreamy3/15/2015, 11:47:35 PM1 votes

also if any other rivens have issues let me know so someone else could help or maybe i could too