Riven is one of the most challenging League of Legends champions to master. To make the job of mastering Riven less challenging, we can eliminate one obstacle right away, the part of figuring out the correct build. The build we are gonna focus on today is the one used by the highest-rated Riven players such as Viper.
Best Riven Items
Eclipse
This is by far one of my favorite champion/item synergies. Eclipse has a passive shield which procs every once in a while after you hit 3 consecutive spells. As Riven has extremely fast-casting abilities the shield is so easy to activate. Also, the shield is really great for catching enemies off guard, and it provides massive protection especially when combined with E.
Sundered Sky
Riven is a champion that likes to go for short trades and Sundered Sky really plays into this kind of style. It does so because it has a periodic basic attack amplifier. Riven can make the best use of this item because she can spam its passive amplifier as soon as it comes up!
Death’s Dance
Death’s Dance is another standard item for Riven. It provides great amounts of armor, ability haste, and attack damage. It also has an interesting passive that delays the damage that Riven takes. Instead of taking damage instantly, Riven will bleed over time. The good thing is, that the bleed stops if we kill an enemy, meaning that we can survive situations we otherwise could not
Maw of Malmortious
Maw of Malmortious is like Death’s Dance, but instead of giving you armor, it gives you magic resistance. It’s not related in the sense that it has the “bleed” passive, but it does have a shield that protects you against ability power. Having both Death’s Dance and Maw of Malmortious will make your defenses really solid.
Guardian Angel
To make your late game smoother, I recommend snatching a Guardian Angel. Its revive passive is great for giving you confidence in initiating fights, and the item is generally good for repelling enemies.
Boots
The aggressive option for Riven boots are the Ionian boots. They are great as they will reduce the cooldowns of all our spells, which are the key of Riven’s kit. Casting spells more frequently = more damage, more damage = more kills, and so on. In short, they are really good for snowballing.
As usual, the two defensive options will be the Plated Steelcaps and Mercury’s Treads. Plated Steelcaps are our main way of defending against full ad comps or just basic attack-heavy champions such as Vayne. Mercury Thread’s are mainly taken for their tenacity which reduces CC duration.
Riven Runes
- Conqueror
- Triumph
- Legend: Haste
- Last Stand
- Nimbus Cloak
- Transcendence
Conqueror is an absolute must-have for Riven, when fully stacked, it greatly improves the damage and gives really nice amounts of healing. Triumph is great for extended fights and team fights. Haste is another essential for cooldown reduction. Nimbus Cloak is amazing for catching enemies after casting flash, due to its movement speed boost. Transcendence is used for scaling ability haste.
In Conclusion
Riven is one of the hardest League of Legends champions to play and master. To make the road somewhat easier, we can do a thing that requires minimal effort, take the most efficient build. The build I prefer is the one outlined above, and it is guaranteed to work in almost any game!