I would like to play a primarily AD Riven, but lately I just haven't been doing as much late game damage as I would like to :\

Usually I start the game with a blade, and work into a berserker's greaves and BT midgame. After this, I'll build a brutalizer and then either a cleaver or a last whisper depending on how much armor their team has.

Is a crit Riven better than simply straight AD? I've built that before aswell, but still haven't had as much damage as I would like.

Feed back and other tips for a fairly new player greatly appreciated. Thanks

I usually jungle with her, but as far as items go, I find that I do a lot of damage with this item path:

Doran's Blade
Wriggle's Lantern
Brutalizer
Bloodthirster
Infinity Edge
2nd Bloodthirster

That said, you probably will need some tankiness in there so you don't die instantly. I personally prefer Ninja Tabi and Merc Treads as boots (attack speed is less useful on Riven, since she is mainly using her abilities for damage, and just attacking once or twice in between to proc her passive).

Warmog's or a Frozen Mallet combined with Atma's Impaler will give you some tankiness without sacrificing too much in the way of damage also. In that case I usually will start Warmog's or Atma's immediately after getting a Bloodthirster. The Lifesteal you have from your other items usually works well enough to keep you alive up to that point in my experience.

Awesome ^_^ Thank you very much for your response!

I may just be nubish, but by the point I feel I'd be able to build the 1st Bloodthirster in your build, we would be well into the mid game and several team-fights would already have occurred. I forgot to mention in the OP, but I do have trouble staying alive often in team fights, due to being focused early, or simply getting caught by AoE late game if I've been unable to complete a warmogs.

Do you have any advice for staying alive until this point?

Well what are your mastery and rune setups like? Also, do you lane or jungle with her? And which abilities do you emphasize leveling up?

Grabbing an extra Doran's Blade might help you stay alive better early, and also the defensive boots and Wriggle's Lantern help a lot with that. Having a high AD lets her E shield for a good bit (and on low CD, too).

If you're in a fight and find that you're getting thrashed, use your mobility to get out as quickly as you can. Ki Burst on them for a short stun, then Valor away from them for a quick shield, and follow up with Broken Wings in a direction away from the fight. Hopefully your teammates can fend them off while you escape.

Remember to head for the squishy champions in a teamfight. If you can go around behind the team without them noticing, and your allies initiate the fight, you can pick off squishies quickly, or at least scatter them. Get in their face and stun them like Riven is supposed to.

If you ever have the gold, don't just stick straight to the item path I gave you earlier. That Bloodthirster is a pretty key item, and if you ever find yourself at the base with enough gold to grab an early BF Sword, it makes a huge difference. Riven's abilities all scale great with AD, so not only will it boost your autoattack damage AND passive proc damage, but you'll shield yourself for more with Valor, and hit harder with all your offensive abilities.

CAUTION: WALL OF TEXT!

Riven isn't a tanky DPS imo. She does not have any abilities that can really support her "tanky" part, which is why i build her full AD, with AD marks and quints, armor seals, and MR glyphs, as well as 24/3/3 masteries.

By starting with a Doran's Blade, and building another one as soon as you recall, you have early game dominance. This will make your Broken Wings deal about 45 more damage total, your Ki Burst deal another 20 damage, and your Valor give you another 20 health, not to mention the 10 extra damage on every stack of Runic Blade. Comboing Broken Wings and Ki Burst with autoattacks in between = really amazing harass. Last hitting is also not hard, with Valor - just dash in, last hit, Broken Wings out if you must.

After that, you should build Mercury's Treads or Ionian Boots of Lucidity, just because pretty much all other boots are useless on her. She does NOT depend on attack speed at all, or crit damage, just AD. All her skills refresh her autoattack timer, so there is no point in building AS, and crit damage takes away from the damage of your abilities, which is what's important. The Brutalizer is a good item for the transition to mid game, providing a bunch of AD, some armor penetration, and CDR, all of which benefits Riven. It is not necessary to upgrade this to Youmuu's, although sometimes, this is good, but the crit chance isn't needed.

Another item i feel is great for Riven is Sword of the Occult. I have NO idea why nobody uses this. Riven can easily get 10 stacks, and with effort, 20 stacks, resulting in more damage than a Bloodthirster. As long as you play smart, and stack enough AD for your Valor to give you a decent shield, you will be fine with SotO.

By now you should be in mid-endgame. Start building a Bloodthirster or a Last Whisper, depending on your needs - are they stacking armor or are you just ripping them apart, but need more sustain? You could also build the Youmuu's for the active escape. Finally, just build a Frozen Mallet or a Banshee's for a little survivability and a decent passive.

That's just my two cents on Riven's abilities ;P

/walloftext

DO NOT BUILD FROZEN MALLET ON RIVEN.

Riven does not need to build super "tanky". However, a few armor or MR items are good. Her defense comes from her E, putting a shield to absorb damage based on how high her AD is. Higher AD=higher health. No need to build more health. And to recast it as fast as possible, you NEED cooldown reduction. This is why Brutalizer should be your #2 or #3 item. Not only that, but CDR lowers the cooldown on her stun, meaning that you are locking down your opponent more often and thus taking less damage. There has been so many fights that I have been able to rotate the shield and stun (when shield is down but still on cooldown) to make me take next to no damage while pulverizing my opponent.

Armor and Magic Resist synergize incredibly well with her E. Taking less damage means that her shield lasts longer, and you can take more hits without actually lowering your health pool. This is why pure health items like Frozen Mallet and Warmogg's are fairly useless to Riven. Just get more AD, CDR, and Armor/MR and you have something much better than health. If you DO need more health for some reason, get a Kindlegem (health and CDR) and maybe even upgrade it to a Spirit Visage for some cheap, tasty MR and CDR.

Infinity Edge is better than Bloodthirster. If you are relying on her abilities to deal damage, you are doing it wrong. She should be autoattacking after each ability to take advantage of her passive. Her passive gets to be pretty huge once you stack enough AD. Now, I'm not saying that you need to wait to attack between each press of Q, but while they are knocked up or stunned you should be hitting to take advantage of those charges. Infinity Edge gives more AD than an unstacked Bloodthirster, which makes it more reliable, while also making those charged hits hurt like hell. If you upgrade your Brutalizer to Youmuu's, the active seems almost designed to burn up those charges late-game and tear apart anyone you have stunned. Any other attack speed items are for a more advanced, theoretical build that I haven't tested much yet.

Before I go into any more playstyle tips, here is my generic build:

Wriggle's
Mercury's Treads
Brutalizer
Infinity Edge
Thornmail/Randuin's Omen/Force of Nature/Spirit Visage/Guardian's Angel depending on who is hurting me on the other team.
Wards/Last Whisper/another defense item
Then I upgrade Wriggle's to Bloodthirster so I still have lifesteal, and Brutalizer to Youmuu's.

Wriggle's is an incredible starting item. The starting armor and lifesteal really help your sustainability. It also helps you farm faster, and lets you take out jungle or dragon much faster. You would be surprised how fast you can get ahead of your opponents if you can jump into the jungle to clear a camp while waiting on minions. The free ward is more useful than you might think.

The rest of the items are hopefully self-explanatory. The defense item you get should depend both on your opponents as well as how fast you are getting money. Something like the Force of Nature is expensive and won't help you right away, but getting a Spirit Visage can hold you over for a long time and give you an early boost. The Guardian's Angel is not so much for the resurrect, but it has really high amounts of both armor and magic resist on a single item, which makes it decent for a hybrid defense while still having slots for damage.

Doran's blade is nice, but you get a small early game boost at the cost of midgame. It could just be my play style, but every time I've tried the 2x doran's, I've ended up frustrated. Now I just ignore them and start with cloth armor and 3x health pots.

Riven has a lot of issues in team fights. She isn't as tanky as other champions, and she doesn't have as many disables or aoes, and her only real advantage is mobility. In a teamfight, being a mobile ganker isn't very useful. This is why you need to wait until your team has engaged, then rush in (usually with either Q or E) and hit W to stun everyone. You might be focused at this point, but you should be able to take out the carry before anyone recovers. The BEST way to get into a teamfight is to circle around and come in from a side area to take out any stragglers. Riven excels at 1v1, and you need to exploit it.

does anybody know if its better to have cooldown blues or mr blues???

cuz can't you just build hexdrinker /mercury treads if you are vs rumble or kennen o.o

Hello there. I found a new build just today, and I like to share. What I like to build is a attack damage Riven with a bit of armor.

I first start off with a Long Sword and go off to my lane. I use Q to quickly get to the bush (The enemy side of the bush) and wait until an enemy enter. Once the enemy enter, I can deal 300+ damage from Q to them (Runes would be better) and if your partner catch up, you can give a finishing kill with ignite if needed. After that if you kill them, you should already have some good money and time to recall for a boot/armor. If you have enough money to buy sword of the occult, go buy it or just keep going until you die, so you can keep your levels and coins high.

After you get the sword of the Occult, you should be strong already if you get the runes, around 100+.
After buying that, I'd go ahead and try to buy the Ninja Tabi Shoe, that'll help you attack the enemy with a lot more ease. The armor are great early game, letting you attack with a better chance of living.
Once you are able to buy it, hopefully, you already got some kills, giving you extra attack damage for every kills. If you do have enough kill to stacks damage to 150+, you can gank anyone and kill them quickly just by stunning them and finishing them off.. After getting the two items, buy a B.F sword, and you should already be 250+ before 15 minutes.
Once you start ganking and killing to 20 stacks, you should get 400+ already... By the way, for the B.F sword, you can buy a bloodthirster or infinity edge, your choice...
Anyway, after getting the 3 items, the enemies are probably group up or they might have a fed player.
Therefore, I'd buy armors/magic resist. I buy Guardian Angel so I can get both resistance earlier, and I would buy Thornmail/Force of Nature, depending on which is a bigger threat. Now, hopefully, you are able to kill the whole group of enemies! =D

After the armor, you should have 1 space left. You can buy either the Bloodthirster or Infinity Edge, or if you want to be a bit more tanky, buy Frozen Mallet for more health and you can slow the other's speed in case they might've flash or some other escape ability.

If you want to know what I use exactly, then... I don't know exactly what to say... I never get to finish my build... but it would probably be...

Sword of the Occult - Ninja Tabi - Bloodthirster - Guardian Angel - Thornmail - Infinity Edge
(If you want your ability to give you health, get HexTech Gunblade and replace your weapon of choice)


NOTE:
The beginning of the game can MAJORLY affect you around less than 10 minutes. Try to partner up with a good player so you can get assists/kills for sword of the occult. Pairing up with a bad partner can result in a bad start. You should have the 4 friends to play with, because the other lane may feed the enemy, and making it harder.