Talk:Riven/@comment-26177260-20160804152510/@comment-24496127-20160819020238

Riven's early game is nowhere near what it once was, and most top laners that are melee also have a disengage tht stops her in her tracks and lets them walk away. Many can even just straight up beat her in her current state, and she doesn't really become an issue unless she gets about two kills.

I think calling her tanky isn't exactly correct. She can mitigate damage, but it's easy enough to get through later game with some items, especially if Riven lacks resistances. However, Riven building resistences decreases how much ad you have, thereby also decreasing how large the shield itself is, which makes getting tanky items a one-off thing at best. Essentially, Riven is "tanky" for one second. It can feel crappy when she's ahead and it;s 1v1, but that 1 second in a teamfight is gone in the blink of an Eye, and then she either has to do her thing or she likely just killed herself.

Something else to consider is that Riven has near the lowest regen in the game, and buying lifesteal will delay her cdr, so any damage you manage to do to her before a fight is likely to stay on her. Less so in the early game because of health potions, but in the early game I don't think anyone finds her shield to be really frustratng anymore, since it has a high cooldown and relatively low base.

Basically, she really struggles to actually get past the frontline and do her job, and even then it's rare that she gets to cleanly execute her combo like she wants. The only reason I can imagine her being as strong as you're saying is if you were fighting her on her terms throughout the game. As in running at her or getting in her range while alone and then losing a fight just because she happened to shield a lot of your damage? That's the only time it really seems strong, especially if she's ahead, and the best thing you could've done in that case is just not fight her. Clear waves as much as you can, and wait for a tank with some cc to help, because she's just as squishy as you are if you limit her movement, and he escape is also how she fights, so unlike a zed, she can't do both.

@Naze

I honestly think it's somewhat valid to compare her to an assassin, because when it comes down to it, her ideal case scenario is the same as theirs. Everyone of them wants to get to the backline and blowup the squishies, and if they're caught on the frontline, they're likely dead. If you look at it that way, she is an assassin. I mean, you don't see someone pick Riven expecting to take damage like a Garen or Darius would. When I look at champions and try to define them, I tend to look at what scenario they would function best in is, because ultimately, that's how people are going to play them.

That said, she's a pretty shitty assassin. Except for when she's not.

Assassin is kind of the only way to play her though, and when it works it's frustrating, and when it doesn't, it's frustrating. There's no middle ground with Riven, and that's her problem in my opinion. The reason she's so weak right now is because it's just an uphill battle to make her work, but when she does work, it leaves an impression that people don't forget, which is why even now people will complain about her.