Jungle Riven

Vesarixx·Mar 21, 2015·5 votes·1,749 views

Trying to get the hang of some off meta junglers, this seems to work pretty well for Riven in the jungle. If anyone regularly jungles with Riven any tips would be appreciated.

10 Comments

PæanMar 21, 20151 votes

Ive jungled Riven a couple times but never tried your route. Out of curiosity, why start raptors? and even then only take the littles?

I normally go to whichever camp will give the best leash, kruggs for blue side, gromp for red side. Then go to the closest buff then depending on smite timer either take the wolves or straight to 2nd buff. Jungling past the early game lvls 1-5 is a little slow unless you get off a good gank, but once you get warrior enchant and an extra brutilizer or tiamat you can really take off.

If you want another off-meta jungler i would suggest Jayce. Just be sure to start kruggs w/ smite and also start W so you can proc the stun passive a lot more. His first clear is basically horrible but you can manage kruggs>red>wolves>blue and come out around 200 or so hp, but be very very VERY wary of counterjunglers like Lee sin or shaco as they can one shot you if you arent careful.

VesarixxMar 21, 20151 votes

The Raptor mini start is mostly if you can't get a good leash, you can AOE the minis down pretty easily with Q at level 1, but staying for the large one gets you kind of low, so moving on to red, smiting it for the health return and then taking the large raptor once you have your stun leaves you with more health to continue the clear, if you get a good leash though you can start at another camp.

RoMzMar 21, 20151 votes

Nice man I'll be sure to check this out always looking for some fun jungles to play when I get jung in solo q

VesarixxMar 22, 20151 votes

Good luck, let me know how it works out

Madman357Mar 21, 20151 votes

Ditch the mastery point in Bladed Armor and put it somewhere else, that's just a waste of a point. Id also suggest ditching Fury since Riven doesn't really need attack speed and its such a small % it wont amount to a whole lot.

I also think you would be better served with AD quints instead of the lifesteal and CDR since it will let you clear camps quicker. Once you have Rangers Trailblazer in conjunction with potions that lifesteal becomes almost meaningless.

The most ideal play in the jungle currently (as far as im aware) is to return to base as soon as you have enough gold for your machete upgrade and a few potions.

Give this jungle path a try, I think it would work out better for you in the long run:

Krugs (smite, kite back into nearby bot lane brush to leash the little one and kill big one first)

Wolves

Gromp (smite)

Base (get Rangers Trailblazer and 2 pots)

Red

Gank bot/mid if possible

Raptors (smite)

Gank mid if possible

Blue

Gank top/mid if possible

Gromp

Wolves

Krugs

With the above path, you should have 0 problems sustaining in the jungle and can pretty much do whatever you want after you get red.

Also, when first attacking a jungle camp I believe the ideal rotation would be Q > E > Q > W > Q being sure not to waste any of your shield by overlapping it with CC (same goes with overlapping CC).

I did a solo practice run using AD red/armor yellow/MR blue/AD quints, and 21/9/0 masteries (pretty much identical to yours except Bladed Armor and Fury) using the above outlined jungle path and I had 0 issues with my first clear even without a leash.

aaronconlinMar 21, 20151 votes

Does Riven really need the AoE Smite from Ranger's Trailblazer? Her Q and W are both AoE and she can clear camps pretty fast already

VesarixxMar 22, 20151 votes

Trailblazer is pretty much the jungle safety net, makes it easier to come back if you fall behind, plus the health return is pretty good on it as well as the stun, though you could go stalkers blade if you want to focus more on ganks, or skirmishers sabre if you are vs someone you might need to duel early, anything but poachers knife really.

Madman357Mar 22, 20151 votes

Rangers Trailblazer is pretty much a necessity for Riven before she gets her enchant. Her first few clears are really hard for her since she doesn't haven't any inherent sustain. When it comes time to enchant your jungle item changing it to something like Skirmishers might be the best option imo.

VesarixxMar 22, 20151 votes

Yeah bladed Armor might be better for tankier junglers I suppose, the 15% CDR at level 1 though did seem to be about the best option for clearing early as it lets you chain Q and have 3 stacks of your passive plus Q available for the first camp and also gets you to 40% with just item 3723 + item 3158

The lifesteal could probably be swapped out and I might do that at some point but I found it did help with the early clears sustain wise.

The path you suggest does seem to leave your buffs up for quite a while though, and trying to take gromp early usually hurts quite a bit and leaves you pretty low, which is why I usually don't attempt it on the first clear.

I took the Fury mastery just because it's supposed to make the quick combo with Q easier to pull off.

The small Krugg deals pretty high damage proportionate to the amount of health it has, so killing it first results in you taking less damage on pretty much any champion

I usually just try to fast combo the Q and then use the W to interrupt and the E to block auto attacks.

Edit: From the tests I've done so far it seems like the attack speed is pretty helpful on the first clear, the same with the life steal, moving the point from bladed armor to enchanted armor though I was able to clear every camp before needing to back pretty easily

Madman357Mar 22, 20151 votes

Bladed armor is a waste of a point no matter what type of jungler youre playing as.

the 15% CDR at level 1 though did seem to be about the best option for clearing early as it lets you chain Q and have 3 stacks of your passive plus Q available for the first camp and also gets you to 40% with just

From my own testing you can accomplish the same with just CDR glyphs and 5/5 Sorcery. Though you might be just shy of exactly 40% once you have boots/warrior enchant, itll be close enough to be irrelevant.

The path you suggest does seem to leave your buffs up for quite a while though, and trying to take gromp early usually hurts quite a bit and leaves you pretty low, which is why I usually don't attempt it on the first clear.

Yea your buffs will be left up for quite a while, but most junglers struggle enough on their first clears that invading an enemy jungle to try to steal a buff is incredibly risky and thus they wont do it. There are some exceptions to this obviously, such as Lee Sin or Shaco (who will often be trying to assassinate you at your red/blue) but in lower elos counter jungling, especially early on, is almost nonexistent. Leaving the buffs up for after you go back to base allows you maximize the amount of time/benefit you have with them for ganks and clearing camps though, and ive been using this method myself on most of my junglers.

Gromp will leave you low, yes, but that's why you do it last and then immediately return to base. THe fact that it gets you low is irrelevant because youre leaving the jungle anyways and healing up at base.

The small Krugg deals pretty high damage proportionate to the amount of health it has, so killing it first results in you taking less damage on pretty much any champion

It does deal high damage yes, but if you use the strategy I outlined and kite them back into the nearby bot lane bush you can leash the small one and only have to deal with fighting the big one at first, and then kill the small one by itself after. Doing this saves you a fair amount of health.

Youre obviously free to do whatever you want, it just seems like youre investing a lot of resources into improving your first clear, which ends up being a waste in the long run imo, especially since you don't need to.