Talk:Riven/@comment-4829762-20121217233858/@comment-5707860-20121220011905

Riven is a very strong top laner in solo que but for a new player learning the game shes not the best to learn. biggest reason i say that is because she is a resourceless champ, her skills are only affected by her cooldowns. you should never start the game learning a champ without mana as that will cause major issues for your gameplay when you diverse yourself to other champs.

before i go into her top lane matchups i would like to say that if you mainly play normals go with Leyrann's answer and skip over mine. if you are playing rank then give mine a visit. all my matchup experiences are from 1200-1600 elo.

Counters:

Akali - She does no damage until she hits 6 even when she does hit 6 you should be able to drop her before she drops you. Her pre6 game is god awful just standard combo harass and her health will melt. the best time to do this is when she goes in to CS or when she is trying to harass you with her Q.

Fiora - AutoAttacking carries are awful in this game and Fiora is one of them. Her passive sustain is crappy just standard combo her pre6. if you can, try to avoid to AA when she uses her W. as long as you dont windslash during her ult you will be ok.

Nasus - in his own way nasus is a carry as well. he will want to to farm up his Q until late game to be relevant. everytime he uses his Q on a minion to CS go in to harass him for free damage since hes Q'in minions that means he cant Q you. this lane usually ends up with him farming under tower. when that happens, DO NOT GET  BAITED into trying to finish him when he hits 6. you need to be absolutly sure you can kill him if you are diving becuz his slow means free tower shots and most likely you spent all your dashes to get to him.

Singed - this is an absolute kill lane for Riven. if you cannot kill him, then you need to deny him as much as possible pre6. you need to set up your kill lane at lvl 1. most singed will start with fling at lvl 1. when he goes in to CS start your combo and if you can, position yourself so you get flung into his escape path. rinse and repeat as much as possible. he can only semi safely CS when he has fling up and it is one of the most expensive lvl 1 skills in the game. each time he flings he is down 100 mana. after a couple of flings he will be low on mana so if he wants to CS after that, he has to eat an entire harass combo from you which can and should result in an early kill.

Tryndamere - see Fiora. his saving grace is if the gods are smiling on him those crits will hurt. very rare to see him in a real game anymore.

Vladimir - see Akali. except hes pretty bad against Riven until lvl 9.

Warwick - same approach as Nasus matchup except he will be Q'in you instead of minions. you need to make him pay for it everytime he goes in to harass you. you need to win lane before he gets his frozen heart. at this point his Q and AA's will outdamage your combo.

Countered By:

Darius - build tanky do lots of damage, Darius in a nutshell.

Garen - Silence + Spin will out trade any combo you do. it only gets worse since his W also reduces your damage.

Jax - if you go back a page or two you will see i had an all out arguement with Leyrann concerning the Jax vs Riven match (also the Riven vs Renekton match you will see later). at lvl 3 Riven no longer becomes dangerous to Jax while Jax will only grow more dangerous as the lvls pass on.

if Riven engages on Jax, Jax will hit E and Riven can no longer use the AA portion of her combo which is about 50% of her damage. at that point Riven can either turn away or just use her skills to damage him and save her AA passives. if she chooses to fight, Jax will sit there and trade her hit for hit(his pasives allows him to have more AA in the trade) along with using Q and W (the W should be used as a AA reset). after the 2 second on the E is over Riven is stunned and Jax will walk away and the AA passive that Riven saved up is gone. Riven cannot catch up to Jax because of the 1second stun put on Riven along with the fact that Jax has a higher base movement speed then Riven. this only gets worse as they lvl up.

if you go to page three you can find the entire arguement.

Jayce - Ever since his E was nerfed most Jayce's max Q now for harass and wave clear. the match up is pretty simple. you dash to engage on him he knocks you back. you have to spend more dashes to reengage so you lose out on part of your damage. if you cant scare him into running away from you after your skills are on cooldown you will lose the trade.

Kennen - you cant catch this bugger. if you try to engage he speeds up and runs away. after your dashes are gone you are open to free harass from him.

Malphite - ARMOR ARMOR ARMOR or armour for you Brits.

Olaf - see Darius. whether or not you he kills you early will depend on if he can land his axes.

Renekton - im keeping this short since im tired. at lvl 3 Renekton will do as much damage as you but the major difference is that his Q gives him sustain which will make all the difference in the lane. Riven only has the advantage pre 3 afterwards its starts to favor Renekton. Leyrann will argue this to death with me but that is my stance on it. for more info go to page 3.

Rumble - he chases you with flame, you engage he runs with his shield when your skills are down he harpoons you for slowdown and starts to chase you with flame again very annoying since the shield and flame are on a 6second cooldown.

Teemo - i hate this basturd. hes one of the champs that forces you to all in early game if you want to even engage him. otherwise you will lose on the free harass he gets. mid/late game if you cannot kill him in one combo do not even bother engaging on him since he will kill you 1v1.

Xin Zhao - see Darius. he doesnt even need to build tanky to win trades against riven. His skillset is built around his AA.

Yorick - someone on the Yorick page said this and its very much true "Yorick walks into a bar, there is no counter".

I know i left out a good amount of champs but its either i have a limited amount of experience with them or they go even with Riven in lane and it becomes a farm fest.

even/farmfest - cho'gath, nidalee, irelia, leesin, shen( in theory, hes permabanned in ranked but i would think he builds tanky to the point where riven cant kill him and just farms all day)

limited/zero exp. - dianna(not important shes getting nerfed hard), elise, jarvan, kha'zix, rengar, sion, wukong, zed

Concering build you dont need to build an early Vamp Scep but brutalizer is a must. sustain has been hit to the point that its almost better to just get the damage first and keep sustain with a pot or 2.

as for skilling the first three lvls you do not need to go Q-E-W. if you are in a kill lane you need to start Q-W the first two lvls to secure it. this is especially true for normal games, start with a longsword and two pots get the early lvl 2 while harassing during lvl 1 and go for the kill. i played some normal games with some friends last week and the 4 times i got to top Riven i did this exact pattern and it netted a first blood and a hard carry every game.