Talk:Riven/@comment-9775822-20160909063145/@comment-4834593-20160911171010

The short answer is no, tank Riven is not viable.

The long answer is more complicated. The best Riven build was, is, and will always be, going nearly full damage. As menionted earlier, this actually gives her some tankyness too, as her shield scales with AD. However, this is also because Riven's kit is meant in every way to avoid big fights and instead pick smaller skirmishes, either by taking on someone in a side lane, or by taking on an AD carry (or other squishy, of course) after the teamfight starts and the AD carry's team is busy with your team. This is simply because Riven dashes around a lot and has two cc's, but both short. She cannot truly lock someone down for long - at least not as long as you have to lock down an average tank, diver or juggernaut to dispose of them - but she can single out an enemy and dispose of them.

The best way to single out enemies and dispose of them - mostly when you're looking at a kit with a 3.4-4.6 AD scaling just counting offensive abilities (did I mention the 20% bonus AD you get when you use your ultimate?) - is by building full damage. The best way to do this, is by, at the same time, also going full cooldown reduction. I don't think I have to explain why you want 45% cdr on Riven. Therefore, you'll want to start with a Black Cleaver even if only because of the 20% cdr, accelerating your cdr power spike, and because it also grants a bit of AD, the situationally very powerful Phage passive and the armor shred. After that, you need 20% more, which means buying cdr boots and a Caulfield's Warhammer that you can then turn into a Youmuu's Ghostblade or Death's Dance, whatever you prefer (which for me means I always take Death's Dance), and then continue with Bloodthirster and Guardian Angel. If needed, you can take a Mercurial Scimitar or Hexdrinker if you want their passives/actives. Bloodthirster and Guardian Angel together are a bit of a "yes" answer to your question though. Coupled with a Death's Dance, this build gives you over 30% life steal, a shield on your E as well as the Bloodthirster shield, the Death's Dance burst reduction, and the Guardian Angel stats and passive. That all together allows you to take on nearly any fight without dying, as long as you don't take some 4 or 5 man focus.

There is also a slightly more "yes" answer to your question, though it's still for 70% a no. When falling behind, you can decide to, instead of cdr boots and a Caulfield's item, buy a Trinity Force and Mercury Threads. Trinity Force grants less AD - and therefore less damage - but the Sheen passive makes up for a large part of that, as well as making your burst more frontloaded, while it also gives you 20% cdr and a bit of health. After this, go for a Ravenous Hydra (by this point you're pretty fucked if you don't start buying some sustain) and then take a Sterak's Gage (because of how it works together with Trinity Force) and Guardian Angel. This build means you'll be dealing less damage, but it's also an effective way of actually building some tankyness without sacrificing too much damage, like you would when buying items like Dead Man's Plate or Spirit Visage. I would like to warn, however, that you really need to think about it before deciding to go this route, as, mostly with Trinity Force (which you have to buy early because of the cdr rush that is so important on Riven), you're wasting stats. You won't be using the mana (obviously), you already have the Phage passive on Black Cleaver, and the attack speed is not going to do too much either, except when killing a ward or pushing a tower (in which case you'd probably be faster with less attack speed and more attack damage). Also with Sterak's Gage, the item is only good because there's already a Trinity Force in your build, as Riven normally builds so much AD that the bonus you get from Sterak's doesn't really matter too much, but Trinity Force only scales from base AD.

The good thing about these two builds, above everything else, is that you don't need to choose between them until after you've finished your Black Cleaver, and by that time you probably know how the game is going (hint: if you don't you either aren't paying enough attention to what's happening to your team or you're so far ahead you can splitpush and just 1v3 when they come for you).

So a tl;dr for the long answer: You'll want to go either Black Cleaver - CDR boots - Death's Dance/Youmuu's Ghostblade - Bloodthirster + GA - Sixth item, or Black Cleaver - Trinity Force - Mercury Threads - Ravenous Hydra - Sterak's Gage - Guardian Angel.