Her four core items remain the strongest in an ideal game, however her final item can depend on whether or not she has a huge lead or whether she needs extra survivability against a team with hard CC.
Ninja Tabis are preferred to Mercury’s Treads against an AD-heavy team, and vice versa against an AP-heavy team. The following build and build options are V1per’s preferred item progression.
Riven just feels so good once you get to this point. Youmuu’s Ghostblade is also great as a third item, as this gives you 40% CDR through items which makes you super difficult to shut down. Once you have these two items, you’re in a really good spot to start taking over the game. V1per: Riven’s two-item spike, Black Cleaver and Death’s Dance, is one of the strongest powerspikes in the game. With the introduction of lethality, Riven’s build is arguably in the most creative place it’s ever been, as she is able to buy tankier bruiser items or high-burst assassin items depending on the situation. Over the years, there have been many different items that have synergised well with Riven, bringing her in and out of the meta on multiple occasions. That being said, Riven is not a champ you can just first time into any of these, you need to know what you’re doing, but Riven wins early against all of these champs if you start Doran’s Blade (except Mordekaiser, where you’d start Long Sword and 3 Health Potions). All these champs are played a lot right now and Riven does well into all of them. V1per: Riven’s most comfortable matchups in my opinion are Jax, Mordekaiser and Camille. While Riven is weaker than most Top Lane powerhouses while they’re behind in a match, a skilled Riven pilot can put the team on their back and carry them to a glorious victory when it comes down to skill. However, if you get help from your Jungler or punish their mistakes after level 6 you can find a way around their poke and pick up some kills too.įollowing the same logic, Riven will feel most in her element when her opponents struggle against mobility and burst damage. If he just saves his E (Thundering Blow) for when you move forward then he can just deny your engage and continue poking you down. Lucian is honestly nearly unplayable as a matchup, you just have to farm and hope for ganks while he farms and dashes away from all of your damage. He outpokes her to make this extremely difficult, but you can potentially go all-in at level 1 and coinflip the game on that fight I haven’t had a lot of trouble since thinking like this but it might be hard if you’re unfamiliar with the matchup. Renekton is able to break her shield, which makes it incredibly hard to all-in on him through the game. V1per: Riven’s biggest counters are Renekton, Lucian and Jayce.