Talk:Riven/@comment-7633726-20130410032214/@comment-7633726-20130410180702

Ok, look, I main mid lane currently, seeing as my main is Syndra. She has good poke, she's got devastating burst. I never said that burst was bad. Early game, the main game is poke and pull until the other is low enough to be bursted down. The thing is, as I said before, Riven has no poke to wittle them down, so she has to rely on minions to do that for her. I get that she's basically ungankable, but that's not what makes a mid champion. I love Valor and Broken Wings, but let's say you just reached level three, so you have all three of your abilities. Valor in, but you're not there yet, so you use a Broken Wings, lessening your burst, you're there, so now you've got three options: 1. Use Ki Strike to keep  them there 2. AA to use up a charge on her passive or 3. use another Broken Wings. I, personally, would use Ki Strike, then AA, then Broken Wings away because if I don't, I won't have any way to get back away from my opponent.

Good snowballing doesn't automatically mean a champion can go any lane. A shield doesn't mean shit if you can damage your opponent because they keep you at a distance, even when you try to close the distance. Syndra is perfect for this. Her E is a knock back, and potential stun if she hits you with one of the spheres from her Q or R.

Good teamfight presence doesn't automatically mean you can go any lane. LeBlanc has shit teamfight presence and she's a good mid in the right hands.

So basically, Riven just doesn't have the kit to be able to go mid. Her stun, while AoE, is her AA range, and therefore useless against a proper mid with a decent range. Yes she has gap closers, but those are useless if she's just going to feed her opponent kills by closing that gap, because if you unload on your opponent, then you've got no escape mechanism at all left, and you will die because of it, because your opponent will be within their tower range and unload their combo on you and they will win while you try to run as they follow you, ensuring their kill.

I have faced Riven mid as Elise, who isn't the best mid because of her lack of range, and I had control of that lane the entire laning phase. She called for three ganks from her Alistar. First time, I drove them both off at about 1/4 health each, while I was sitting pretty at about 1/2. Second time, I killed Riven and drove Alistar off, again, at about 1/4 health. The third time, they fed me a double kill. I've seen a Riven mid in ranked and they lost soundly because the other tean had a proper mid.

Melee mid champions are possible. (Katarina, Akali, Kayle, Diana) However, they need to be able to play the poke and pull game until bursting their opponent down is a realistic possibility. Riven cannot do this. Katarina can. Akali can. Kayle can. Diana can. But not Riven.