I'm a Riven main (well, on SR) but on Dominion I've never really liked playing her.

The primary reason for this is that Riven loves to get kited around. You can solve this to an extent by running certain summoners (I've heard some love Cleanse/Ghost) and by buying certain equipment, but this just exacerbates the problem: what's so good about Riven is her amazing attack damage scaling.

Lately my Riven builds have started centering around dealing with her Dominion mobility weaknesses. I do feel this is a very real weakness, because you lose out on a lot of AD. All of your abilities become weaker, but the trade-off is that you can force people to fight you, and stay in fights more easily.

I've been using something like:

Prospecter's Blade/boots/2x pots to start, then a very fast Phage, Vamp Scepter, and finished Frozen Mallet. At this point I don't hit very hard, but I can really stick to someone. If I'm still having problems getting kited around (say by someone like Ezreal) I'll go Ghostblade and Warden's Mail before getting Senguine Blade. At some point in the game I want to have Last Whisper, but when I build it depends on how badly I need mobility and sticking power.

My last build looked like: Ghostblade, Merc Treads, Mallet, Senguine, Warden's, and Last Whisper. I was running Ignite and Revive. I like Ignite on Riven because it has awesome synergy with Entropy (good item on Riven if I want to build it) and her ult.

How do you build Riven?

Riven, Mobility Weakness. Does not computer.

O.o

LW
Face
Keyboard

best Riven build

Ha.

Watch what happens when the enemy team has a Lulu and an Ezreal with a Phage.

She can cover distance, but by time she's used her abilities to close in, she's out of stuff.

I'm not saying she isn't good or effective. However when I watch Riven players on high elo dominion games they're usually running around not dying but not contributing very much for that reason.

It's been a pretty long time since I last played Riven in Dominion. I lost interest in playing her because it seemed like I'd always get matched up against opponents like Ezreal or Lux who can kite Riven quite capably despite her high mobility. Having a series of short range dashes just isn't the same as having one long range dash against opponents like that.

The other major issue is her late game scaling, or lack thereof. I think even her designer Xypherous noted that Riven falls off late game, perhaps by design. You wouldn't think so since her AD ratios are quite good. But maybe it has to do with how players typically build her. Frozen Mallet for example is a very hefty investment that amounts to a guaranteed movement speed slow on autoattack plus a lot of HP. But it provides comparatively little AD despite how much gold is spent on it. Youmuu's Ghostblade seems to be another popular item to buy on her for the amount of CDR and armor penetration gained by having it, but she gains stats like crit that aren't necessarily bad for her but just isn't as good as raw AD by comparison. Then again, the active effect might help in situations like you described where her inherent mobility just isn't enough to get the job done. A short burst of speed like the one provided by Youmuu's Ghostblade could be quite invaluable. I just haven't played her enough to know one way or another.

I thought about giving her another go with a new set of runes. I originally used armor penetration reds and quints. But maybe next time I'll consider AD/lvl reds and flat AD quints. With AD/lvl reds, you'll gain 21 AD (2.34 AD @ level 18 x 9) and with flat AD quints, you'll gain 6.75 AD (2.25 AD x 3). Since you'll be sacrificing all of that flat armor penetration, you'll have to compensate by building an early Last Whisper. Doesn't seem like a bad idea when you consider how popular Frozen Heart has become as a staple item in many different builds. My hope is that itemizing more for raw AD and scaling armor penetration will solve her late game damage problem.

But this is all just theorycraft. I hope someone who plays Riven more frequently will chime in with their thoughts.

Unless I'm bot lane, I don't find sanguine to be worth the price as I'm not constantly at 7 charges.

Personally, I like CDR boots, but often need mercs against roots and silences, LW and frozen heart (HURR RUVEN DUN USE MANA), wardens and maw.

You can also get brutalizer, if you need the CDR because you went mercs but for the love of god, don't waste money upgrading to ghostblade until it's your final item.

I think Talith strongly disapproves of Mallet, and prefers to build large AD items like Maw and BF Swords.

What I usually see Talith build:

P. Blade, Ionion/Mercs/Tabi, Brutalizer, LW, cheap AD+defense items

Max Q first, spam AoE, dodge in and out of fights.

What I usually like to build:

Brutalizer, Ionion, Maw, Warden's, LW, Entropy

Level W and E evenly over Q, spam your passive for damage and your shield for survivability, and try to win the fight in one engagement. Stronger late game, weaker mid-late early game.

Try both and pick the style that fits you better.