Agree with pretty much everything you said. My only comment is that her ultimate did need a nerf early game, but you are right in saying she got nothing to make up for it, something she probably should have gotten. She might have needed the short cooldown to fight someone like darius, but against many other top laners, that low cooldown was overkill.

I disagree with everything on this thread and I'm going to post a quick, lousy guide to Riven on lolking in hopes of ending these threads.

I may not be some high elo player but I think in my time as a Riven main as well, I've learned a few tricks I'm willing to throw out there.

I'll give a link to it when I'm done. If you disagree with any of my advice tell me why IN DETAIL, because I know that what I do to get around the League of Warmogs meta works, and if you're unwilling to experiment a bit, I'll leave you to continue losing.

No offense, but you have an ~800/900 LKS rating according to LoLKing. That's pretty low.

You can probably build AP on Riven and win in that bracket.

That would be assuming that everyone in that elo deserves to be there, and you know as well as I do that many people don't. But I'm not here to argue about elo, I'm here to argue about the dynamics of a champion and why what I do works, with justification as to why it works. If I understand how something works it shouldn't really matter what elo I'm in if chances are I'm right. Feel free to completely ignore everything I'm going to post though just because I'm low in ranked, which I fail to take seriously or play at all anymore due to the massive pool of **** it's drowning in and the futility of any attempts to swim out.

Great forum topic! I have felt divided about the changes this season. Riven is much harder to play, but I find my skill with her more rewarding than before.

For one, I still LOVE Riven because I can still play against any top lane and win, no matter the counter. That said, I feel unable to carry games. Items like Black Cleaver are great, but ALL tanky dps use them, so it isn't really interesting or special (unlike stacking BTs was). What I have found is that:

A) winning lanes is just as easy, but gets fewer kills than before
B) carrying games is harder (everyone too tanky)
C) Builds are less interesting, although Ravenous hydra is the best item ever.

http://www.lolking.net/guides/86913

Enjoy. Think of this what you will, it's not my problem if you're unwilling to look into it and give it a shot.

Be sure to read the "Author's Notes".

This guide does not provide anything really useful.

I have done games with the OP and they are not a fan of fromal and I actually agree with this. If you are shielding for 400+ every 5ish seconds it makes since to get more AD instead of health.

The issue is that riven is enough of a burst champ that she does suffer from the massive health enemies get from warmogs now. This applies to even champs like LeBlanc and talon who are all about that quick mostly single target damage.

Read the items' Author Notes again. Read it carefully. It offers plenty of useful info for the League of Warmogs health tank meta. It's a simple as changing your build to fit a situation, you know, that thing you're SUPPOSED TO DO for every single game instead of making the same 6 items over and over again.

I'll even quote it:

"Infinity Edge and Atma's on Riven? Are you mad as a hatter?!:

You'll probably stop reading here since I'm willing to bet you're a stubborn QQer who is unwilling to experiment with new builds and the obvious reason behind them. Either way I will never forget the game that I went up against an AP, Health-tank hybrid Cho' Gath with like 5k Health and enough AP to 2-shot most of our team with his Q,W combo. He was rampaging through us like a wrecking ball until I realized he had no armor, like most health-tanks. I noticed my abilities were capable of doing a lot of damage to him already, but not before he destroyed me with his own. I built Infinity Edge and thought it was hilarious how just 3 critical hits after I expended all of my abilities on him brought him down time and time again no matter how much health he had. After that I started building Riven with IE every time, and making Atma's and Maw of Malmortius my defense items against either AD or AP (plus the Atma's crit boost is nice). At that point if squishy enemies survived my abilties, a single crit or 2 just instakilled them. This was during Season 2 and I found that it still holds true in Season 3 and just cuts through health tanks like butter. Warmogs stackers became a non-problem for me, and the only way to fight back was to build a LOT of armor; more than necessary for most champions. I'm a hyper-aggressive Riven player. I HATE having to back up after I burn my abilities because damage drops in that period of time, and your passive only gets you so far. So I made a way to deal just about as much damage as my abilities even when my abilities are down. Just because you don't autoattack a lot as Riven doesn't mean that you will NEVER run into a time where you simply have to autoattack yet find that you don't have enough damage to fight with while you're doing it. I found building crit to be the most common-sense workaround. If you're a metasheep though you can keep doing whatever you do as Riven and complaining about it on the forums instead of giving it a shot.

I recommend IE for health tanks every time, Atma's if you need armor, Maw of Malmortius if you need Magic Resist, and BoTRK if you need neither of those but more mid-cooldown sustain."


Please do tell me how that's not useful information... I GAVE you a simple ITEM LIST that can kill HEALTH TANKS EASIER.
What is it you're looking for? Did you not want a solution to massive amounts of health? That's kind of exactly what I gave you. If you're going to sit around every game you play and complain about how enemies are capable of building to counter you without even taking some tips to get around it you might as well just keep doing what you're doing and getting the same results every single time.

See that huge button bar below every section that says "Read Author Notes"? Click it. Actually READ the author notes I made, they're specifically to explain everything I do and why it works.

I read the guide as well and I think there are some good points.

For one, 2 Dorans could easily be exchanged for ruby crystal and long sword, saving 600 gold and getting very nearly the same stats.

I still think IE is dumb <3

That said, building Black Cleaver late (finishing it) makes sense as well since it does not give you much more from its upgrade.

Anyway, good forum topic. Perhaps the real message is that we cannot play Riven as a totally bursty champ now that Riot decided they like us to stack health. My other "fun" champions (Poppy, Akali) were also hurt by this.

Thank you. But I'd still like an explanation as to why you think IE is dumb. You'll still have your typical BT or Hydra if you prefer, LW, health+AD item of choice and you can also have another one of the other items I put in the situational category depending on enemy team comp. I just fail to see what there isn't to like about an IE on a melee that's completely dependent on abilities for almost anything. It allows her to still have her massive burst damage while she can't use her abilities.