Talk:Riven/@comment-5077844-20150113115846/@comment-15244341-20150117170703

I've actually mentioned a weakness. Riven has no sustain. Cero. Zilch. Nada. When it comes to top lane the most important tool is not just having raw damage for trading, but sustain to top it off, as you probably know. Maokai is the best example of this. You try to trade with him as mostly any champion. He CCs, deals some damage, and runs away. Then he heals for a crap ton. So it doesn't even matter that you just did 15% of his HP bar and he did 12, because he is going to heal 3% of his HP and a champ with no sustain isn't (not actual numbers, just an example).

Riven does a lot of damage. But she has zero ways to recover health before lifesteal (vamp scepter is mostly a "give up kills, try to farm) and she has a cap of 5 pots. The nerfs to her HP regen were MASSIVE in making her a much worse top lane pick. Not to mention the shield duration, which is Riven's only mitigation tool (other than dodging, of course). Midlane I'm pretty sure she just gets harassed to hell by most popular mid laners.