As a Riven main since 2013, I give this video 100/100. Just pure dedication and hard work! I remember V1per was asked why Riven was his favorite, and he said because she is just sooo much fun. Indeed, no matter what match-up you are against, hard or easy, there's always a chance you get clapped if you don't execute her right. Unlike other champions you might get bored if you play too often, I never felt like it when picking her.
masterpiece riven video, you can really see the work you put into it and the love you have for the champion and league. Thanks for the great content, keep it up !
Riven's problem is that armor makes her useless and her damage isn't high enough lategame to oneshot carries. So at 6 items, you end up with a "bruiser" who's too squishy to survive teamfights but doesn't have enough damage to assassinate carries. On top of that she's difficult to pull off mechanically where champs like jax and fiora can just outscale and stat-check at various points of the game.
Have you ever played Riven in diamond+? She can't split late game like other hullbreaker abusers because most toplaners 1v1 and outsustain her unless she is absurdly ahead, she is useless in teamfights without flash, and her flat AD with no % or pen built into her kit is countered by a single armor item and tabis
@@tylerpark9687riven power farms like no one else. Riven wins by being up an item. If you reach 3 items when they are at 2 you steam roll everyone. Practice getting 10 cs/min and carry with gold.
Fantastic video, in regards to the recent Riven buffs, yeah, nobody was asking for that, everyone just wanted a little bit of built in armor pen, that was all.
I'll just be honest here. I used to be a Riven otp back in the day, but ever since Gwen came out? Never played her again. Not worth the effort. Gwen has everything Riven main wants. True Damage, high scalling, Attk speed boost, Armor & MR boost. Like, why would you need to cancel auto-animation if you can just kill the enemy with a stacked Q?
Best video you've made so far boss, keep it up. Here's my thoughts as 8 year Riven OTP with 5m+ mastery: The biggest problem with Riven is that, over the years, she has completely lost her identity. There really is no singular reason to pick Riven that another champ couldn't do better (teamfight, splitpush, scale, early snowball, utility, etc.). She's decent at doing everything (based on how skilled you are), but doesn't excel at anything. That is why she is so popular for boosting and looks so overpowered when people smurf with her. If you are better than your opponent in all aspects, Riven is the best champ to pick to abuse your knowledge advantage, since she can do basically everything. She is able to punish mistakes bad players make at all stages of the game, so she's a great champion for smurfing/boosting. In order to succeed and consistently climb with Riven, you actually need to be much more skilled than your opponent in comparison to other champs. Riven is still the ONLY bruiser/carry in top lane that has ZERO ways to deal with tanks in her kit. No armor pen, armor shred, mixed dmg, magic dmg, max % HP dmg, true dmg. ALL of her damage is flat physical. The enemy can build 1100g Tabis/Steelcaps and you become useless. If Riot showed how much damage these boots actually block each game, entire community would rage and complain. She needs items to deal with armor stacking - at least two items, but usually 3+. Until she reaches that, tanks can build just straight armor and destroy her with just base damage on their abilities. If they build Ice Gauntlet which also gives sheen proc, she has no hope to win with equal gold. She also has ZERO sustain, which means she has a rough time reaching those items that she desperately needs. If you mess up even ONE time in lane your game is over. She can't rely on scaling like Camille/Fiora/Jax or be useful from behind like a tank. Riven can't just sit back and play passively to scale, other bruisers will just do the same and scale harder than her. She needs to have an advantage in order to win games. But durability patch and other nerfs/buffs have taken away her early game power, making it hard to snowball and get an advantage. These incoming buffs don't even solve her main problems, it's just something to stir players up and see how the changes affect her. I honestly don't think Riot even knows what to do with her. IMO, she needs some kind of armor pen or armor shred in her kit. For example, when she presses R her Passive autos will apply some armor penetration until the R buff ends. Hopefully the buff and mythic removal/item changes will help her, but right now she's just 100% not worth the effort it takes to climb with her. Pick K'sante and 1v9 carry with True dmg while being unkillable.
I couldn't agree more with you as a OTP Riven since 2016 and abandoning LOL since 2020, especially the part where you can't make mistakes with her or your lane is over versus the popular champs from today
@@hugogiles5399 In a way I like that tho, you have to be better than your opponent on every level in order to beat him and you can't afford to make mistakes, the problem is that rn it's so unrewarding, if you're better than your opponent it still doesn't matter cuz they build tabi and you can't even get close to the wave anymore, it's just unrewarding af. You would expect a champion who needs to be piloted to perfection to work to actually be strong when piloted correctly, since 1 mistake for her means game over ff15, but she simply isn't.
@_VinSi No that is actually pretty toxic, if the other player is just as good as you and they're playing a much easier champion they auto win i guess. In order to be a much better player than your opponent you would need to smurf which is just stupid. It's not fun at all that i have to work my ass off while the enemy is just chilling
I think you covered pretty much everything and I really appreciate we both agree on the fact that Riven (Q bugs aside) is perfectly balanced where she is, probably the most balanced she has been since release. The problem is Riven's kit was fresh and unique for several years, but right now we've plenty of champions that have mobility steroids and Riven's range (contrary to popular belief) is really short and you cannot afford to spend two Q to gap close or you will basically lose 60% of your damage. So yeah, Riven is now still a unique champion for her combo based kit and a reminiscence of a fighting game character, but the current META and game state don't reward anyone willing to play her. I've seen and coached a lot of low elo players over years and their main issue always is a poor understanding of what you can/cannot do. Most silvers Riven mains can Q cancel quite decently, but they still have no understanding of tempo, power spikes and so on. And no matter how fast you're with your mouse, mechanics in modern league means way less. Since mythics introduction the skill expression flatten out and outplays relay more your champion having the stats to do something or not. Figuring that has been the best thing for me, as I'm now finally free from League. It has been a good journey, Best!
Hello bro, sorry but I wasnt aware of the Brazil League scene. Keep it up and I hope to see you on other servers showing them what the Best Riven Brazil can do 💚💛
The guy showed when talked about Rueven isn't Rueve, he's a Brazilian streamer OTP Lee Sin called Jovirone. Anyway, very good video, I got a lot of nostalgy in this video
This video is pure bliss to watch. It details the history of Riven's success over the years, all crashing down over the ultimate conclusion that Riven is unfortunately severely outdated. One of the few champions in the game alongside Gragas to not receive major changes in their kit, Riven's dashes now feel like walking when everyone else has infinitely better dashes and movement speed steroids tacked on, the latter of which Riven doesn't even have. Oh and speaking of the matchups listed at 14:26: Malphite: Hard lane counter to Riven. If Malph's team knows what they're doing, they can take advantage of not only having an infinitely better frontliner, which is a privilege that Malphite retains, and force teamfights with a 5v4 provided both teams are equal. Renekton: One of the weakest counters, despite being infamous for being Riven's biggest counter. He got plenty of changes that make Riven feel weak. His level 1 is terrible though so it's easily abusable, but if he gets to level 2 or 3, he's already won the lane with his broken empowered W stun which lasts longer than both Riven ccs combined. Jayce: Haven't seen him in recent times, though I can imagine he's always been annoying to deal with as a Riven player. Kite from range, switch stances to outrun Riven's Qs because movement speed from his passive, melee E Riven if she does close the gap, then switch back to range to get Riven low (Riven has no sustain) before switching back to melee and killing Riven with an all-in. Kennen: Broken when his E gives armor as opposed to his ultimate. Fiora: There was a time when Riven and Fiora were on par with each other, but due to changes to laning, Riven sucks at playing passive because her kit encourages aggression, which current laning simply won't allow. Pushing into Fiora will risk a freeze, putting Riven at a severe disadvantage in a match where Fiora is already the better scaling champion. Quinn: Haven't seen Quinn, but proccing her passive onto Riven gives movement and attack speed, in addition to her Q and E just being blatantly unfun to fight. Plus, she's a better roamer. Karma: When played Top, it's impossible to die as Karma against Riven. Not only does Karma have a fantastic pre-6 ultimate negating Riven's damage, but her Q is great for kiting a champ who's feeling slower and slower per champion release. Tryndamere: While on the weak side, Trynd can simply just let Riven push into him. He can't win early fights unless he's lucky, so he should just frustrate the Riven player by playing passive and freezing. He's mostly uninteractive, not really a hard counter. Olaf: Better DPS, better all-in pre and post 6, Ultimate speeds him up and makes him impervious to Riven's W. He also outscales Riven in teamfights and 1v1 combat. Sett: Soft counter to Riven, has a level one that completely negates hers, and with Bone Plating he's just really hard to punish. He does similar damage to Riven but is also a better frontliner given his juggernaut/tank status. Jax: Loses early levels very hard, but if he freezes, he can greatly outscale. Darius: Actual beneficiary of the bruiser durability changes as mentioned in the video, can't ever die to Riven if he knows what he's doing. Riven also can't fight him when he has Ghost up since he will outrun Riven's tiny dashes. Garen: Beatable earlygame but once he gets movement speed items he just outruns Riven just by walking and pressing Q, and it's impossible to engage on him as a result. His damage is not the problem - he's just very speedy. Gragas: This is a more even matchup. I don't think it's at all bad because Gragas is arguably harder to play than Riven and is very difficult to master. That being said though, his ultimate is better in teamfights. Illaoi: Statchecker whose E deals 99% of Riven's health even when the latter is 4 kills ahead. Teemo: His early laning is difficult to contest, and his post 6 crushes Riven's aggressive game plan. Warwick: The best 1v1 tank with 5 times Riven's cc provided he has his ultimate. It's impossible for a Riven to ever kill a Warwick following the durability update. He has better sustain, DPS, can lower your damage via E and fear before chaining into Infinite Duress to crush you. It's just onesided, whether he's top with Barrier or jungle. Rumble: Better ultimate, Q is tricky to outdamage and his W discourages interaction. Poppy: Iceborn Gauntlet abuser who is a textbook Riven counter by way of her W stunning Riven at her own engage. Also has an ultimate that can protect her team from a flawless Riven flank. Vayne: Passive can help her close the gap when she needs to play aggressively onto Riven. Her Q and E are infamous for countering melee champions (Riven has no ranged attacks sans Wind Slash which is a finisher, not a poke tool), which is why she became a toplaner in the first place.
Thank you for this video, really informative, detailed yet relatively short. Sadly, more than half of the community will keep hating Riven cause they refuse to buy armor against her and feed, when just getting Tabis makes her life a living hell.
Riven was designed as a champion where being a melee is her only weakness (which is hardly a tradeoff in a game with flash), she has more than enough damage and mobility (if used wisely), and her ult unleashes her full potential, reforging the blade and increasing her range. but now other champs can out-damage her with no mechanics; the most unbalanced, overpowered champion by design and they're just building armor and unless a lead was acquired early game I can no longer deal enogh damage to kill this malphite who presses one button and 1shots my ADC
Thats some great video about riven, im riven otp, while thunderlord or how it was called or fervor were deleted, riven was so fun to play with klepto, summon aery, I also played it with arcane comet, endless posibilities, but now? as u said, she gets countered in so many matchups, however, I would say that jax isnt that big threat now for riven. The worst champ I have no chance against is KSante, this champion is so broken and I really hate him. What I didnt expect is that her popularity got so low, now when Alois is teaching everything u need to know about her, I expected much more players to start playing her, however, its a long path to win with her in higher elo. So sad, bye old riven
im a riven main since 2014 and it took me a long time to master her, riven is the only reason i still play this game and its really sad to see her current state, for everyone i recommend playing riven mid or jg, top its not a good lane for riven anymore
Aside from other champions being too strong/items being bad for her, i think there are 2 healthy, long term solutions for her: 1- Make her R give passive armor pen, this way shes not too oppressive in lane but scales better, they did this for Pantheon and it did wonders for him; Or 2- Make her passive do less damage, but magical instead of physical damage. This way shes not invalidated completely by tanks or tabis, but will still need items to do meaningful damage. Nerf her E if she gets too strong, but one of these should be completely fine. Also fix her Q bug for fucks sake, its been there for literal years now. Edit: typo
god bless you brother i thought of the first one but thought it was op af if they gave her armor pen without nerfing the damage of it but making the passive just deals magic damage is an amaziing idea
I wish riot would fix the backwards Q bug, instead of ignoring it. They're completely aware that it exists, but just turn a blind eye everytime it's mentioned. There was a huge thread in league subreddit about it, but got removed because mods of this subreddit are something else. I've even talked with Vandiril about it and he was aware of the reddit thread as well, but still didn't make a video.
I am a riven main since day 1 2011 i was 2500 elo + s1-s4 i will never forget when we learned about the animation cancel . If they every change riven i will never play or come back to the game .
Riven main here since 2016, she was really an enjoyable champion to use and never felt bored using her. I think my peak was, when the conqueror was too op + shojin the damage output was insane, and she was unkillable. Brutalizer will be brought back next season right? I hope she gets it back. 😈
God I love this video, I like it when my champ Riven gets attention from the community, makes me think she's relavent in a way XD. I do think 1 major difference between riven and other bruisers is almost all of them are fast auto attack base, short cd base (I'm talking about 1 or 2 abilities that is lower than Riven Q and W like fiora Q, jax w, Darius Q, yas and yone q, malphite W, and etc.) and some champs that are on hit base like Irelia. I think the MAIN difference is that Riven is not your "fight to death" kind of champion, she thrives on short fights or fights were she wants to delay the fight for her CDs to comeback, since with mediocre lvl CD of her Q would be around 6 to 5 seconds and W right around 4 to 3 seconds while E helping her block damage t help delay her CD. But if you think about it, Riven really gets out match with champs that just auto attack you to death and have way more lower CDs bcuz here design that way. I do hope riot would not only fix her, but also help match her with other champs. I do have 1 idea that either be broken or not, "give her R attack speed so that she can match with other champs, OR have her R give her permanent passive during the duration of R), since mid to late game her R gets lower CD and it would make REALLY good sense if Riven thrives with this change, but thats my only opinion cuz this change might be too broken to her.
riven is, for me, the worst champ in the game, every toplaners has either true damage, armor pen, are super tanky and deal massive amount of damage ( sion, malphite, ... ), lifesteal and she has none but she needs some of those to deal with the others bruiser people dont understand that riven is hard not by her combo but by her laning phase facing a fucking warwick coming back to full life without any items and still dealing amazing amount of damage with cc, damage reduction, magic and physical damage, grant attack speed on missing health
amazing video, riven is the sole reason why I started playing league cause I watched one streamer playing her and fell in love with the gameplay. until now i still love riven and pick her when i play top, even tho like the video said she really is in a weird spot and kinda feels lack luster. hopefully riot will do something for us riven community!
Amazing video, I picked up riven at the start of this year and have been spamming her nonstop, your videos along with Alois’ channel helped me so much to get better and I recently hit emerald one tricking riven (previously Gold 2)
Riven is just pre-nerf reworked Irelia. The kits allow players to maneuver it and the champion is able to out perform every other picks in the game when falls on the right hand. Riven kits had reach the peak after so many other champions released she's no special anymore.
BoxBox is definitely the one that made me have eyes on riven since i like to challenge myself with mechanics and uniqueness. I loved watching montages, and it really did look flashy before but i guess it is just basic and outdated now. Right now in the top lane it almost no longer make sense to spend a lot of time and energy against an opponent who just press few buttons. Well this is only not true if you still continue to have fun with the champion after a defeat or victory besides that is most important, to have fun. Riven was fun for me and up until now appreciate mechanics learned but it is not rewarding and easily punished by losing lane or having even matchups. Heavy snowball does mean power in the lane but also means easy fall off. Often late game there is also too much cc that can stop you on non stomp matches. Well at this point, this is top lane in general. Well, as i continue to play league ill probably avoid playing riven for now to avoid stress, but ill continue to keep the mechanics learned in my heart, and hope to see riven being effective soon or more fun. "Riven is OP" statements are also so outdated, just wanna put it out there Thank you for the video as an eye opener to reality, Love the dedication.
This video is very good! But please work on your audio balancng. Dropping the TTA would be nice too, I would rather listen to a real voice that might mispronounce a few things than a grating morgan-freeman-alike voice.
Holy crap! You put so much effort into this video, it's incredible. I've been practicing her for about a month now, and I've learned some of this. But the history and analysis is so deep. Thanks!
While i do agree just giving riven armor pen as a passive, like how pantheon gets armor pen when he puts points in his ult the simpler and lazier approach for rito should've been allowing her passive to just simply ignore a percentage of armor; this way the skill expression is still there as if you're able to effectively use riven's passive then it falls on the player to make her work
Riven kind of lost her identity. As you said, there are champions that do what Riven does but are much easier and do it better. Yasuo kinda suffers the same issue but at least he has a niche of being able to win against mages in the midlane in the early game, while Yone gets his ass kicked by most of them
Riven is a very complicated champion high risk high reward thus riot releases easy to use or alnost no combo needed to peel carries only riven mains understand the proper combo
Amazing video. Would like to see something similar on Irelia as she is in a similar spot i feel like. I would really love if you could find the time to do one. I also agree to everything you said, about her switching to a 3-4+ hyper carry/ the toxicity of hullbreaker and durability patch/ other champs that just outvalue her
@@yanhemei8837 she is very unpopular, has a lot of losing matchups, she has issues with armor stackers as well and is forced into the same buildpath every game. She is in a similar spot the only diff is she spikes hard 1 item and falls off 3+. She is never played in competitive, has low success in high elo (its mostly Irelking and general irel that find success). She is in the same spot of you can pick Jax and do her stuff with a fraction of the effort.
I remember Irelia is picked or banned for s9 worlds for hard countering mages, and they also played her on top, She is doing pretty well in worlds from s8 -s11@@popamihnea6695
Very well-made video. I think her Q should apply some Armour Penetration, her W stun should be 1-1.5 seconds and her e shield should last for 2 seconds and scale with level up to a 1/5 of her max health. R could stay as is and the AD ratios as well. Thoughts?
Do you even realised what you've just... Do you know what a 1 1.5 second stun, that is instant and you literally can't dodge/predict is? Imagine if you could not flash Malphite R, would that be fun?
@@KyotlT5102 Overpowered? Sure, because all champions also have 4 dashes, 2 stuns, get basically an item by pressing R. Riven is ridiculously overloaded, the thing is, She was one of the only overloaded champions before, now, almost everyone is. You want a overloaded champion with good numbers, you're beyond delusional.
@deividymario2408 Well we will just see how she does this season since I'm delusional bud. Riven is between an assassin and half bruiser right now. You know 1-1.5s is not long compared to some taunts and other stuns in this game. She'd still have her squishy defences for counterplay. Might as well just turn Riven into an assassin.
Riven; Q + AA + Q + AA + E + AA + Q + AA + W + AA + R + Q + AA + E +AA + Q + Q + AA Bla, bla bla. Garen Giga Chad Challenger rank 1 Infinite LP: Q + E + Ignite + R = Demacia baby.
Maybe I’m the only one who has this problem, but I would also add that after the new champions, I almost constantly play hell as a team with them. All the time in the middle it’s Yasuo, then Naafiri, then Zed, I constantly fight in full tabi and zhony(
I resent that @11:32 you did not include Shen! lol. Shen is so fun, and has so much skill expression. Even if he has fallen behind like Riven in damage potential. Though, I do guess the list was more so for the less effort aspect of fun expression.
Huh Duh, Riven's player base is dropping. No sht, that champ is clunky af, and Riot balance her around those clunky spaghetti code (for example: Q direction based on where she face physically rather than cursor position). If you dont want to learn that tedious fast Q combo or animation cancelling, then 70% riven damage is gone. Good luck doing those tricks and fast Q 40 times per match perfectly because that mental toll adds up. Riven is a snowballing, 0 counter-play-combo champ, the only thing limits her is the player's ability and item. There are many OTP that reached challenger with Riven because she is strong with potential. Not sure why people keep crying when she is in a decent spot right now, plus Riot hears the Riven's main cry immediately while champs like Yorick, Skarrner or Velkoz that sit in the closet for year
It is not worth playing riven any more. If you spend same amount of time and effort play high skilled champ like Fiora or Jax, you can get a much higher rank, and live with a much easier life. And I really think top player should at least hit diamond before start playing riven. Riven is like a Supercar. She requires high driving skill, high fuel cost and high maintenance fee, in comparison, Aatrox, Darius are like GTR, Hellcat. They are more economic in the way you can enjoy playing them with spending relatively short amount of time in learning and mastering. If you do not have a great understanding on all top champs mechanics and mathups knowledge, and great fundementals, don't play riven. But the funny thing is, right now, riven is like 80s old supercar, it still looks cool with her unique mechanics and all the new skins, but she has long been abandened by Riot.
what kind of joke is this "bad matchups" part? Malphite is easy, jayce and kennen are easy, tryndamere sett are easy, illaoi is insanely easy, rumble is easy. Fiora, Darius, Karma, Olaf, Warwick, Poppy are doable. Quinn Vayne Renekton Garen Gragas Teemo are playable but every champ should have counters ^^. Rivens counters are pretty much all skill matchups and no actual counters
