User blog comment:Care Level/RE: PBE Riven Nerf/@comment-5035765-20131219005636/@comment-9593635-20131219022604

She did deserve some changes. Her pick rate was top-10 (but not top-3) and her win-rate was "good" at best; she's was statistically worse than Caitlyn, who is "strong" but not commonly called "OP". That being said "any other top" also got buffed with s4 masteries, and nerfed with item changes.

The calculations make exactly the difference I described above: She does less damage even after taking a huge hit to her roaming and skirmishing ability due to item nerfs (which hurt every top) and being pigeonholed into maxing Q, and this is on top of big hits to her laning ability (20 damage at level 1 is a lot and the shield change is massive for trades).

I'm not saying that "Riven should have stayed the same", but I think that the manner that she was changed in subtracts more than just "damage on Q and shield duration", it has a huge impact on literally everything that defined her as a champion. "Strong, snowbally laner with good roaming and carry potential" is now neither a particularly strong nor snowbally laner, nor a noteworthy star in the roaming game (keep in mind that every toplaner had their roaming hit by the two core item changes). Her kit still has carry potential, sure, but now she needs to get straight-up fed in order to capitalize on that, and her weakened laning isn't making that any more possible.