This is EVERYTHING I can tell you about each and every matchup that has been requested (or assumed) for top lane Riven. This page is for those just stopping by or revisiting to figure out how to play certain matchups
Control+F (Type Champion's name) to quickly find the champion you're facing in lane.
This was last updated 3/24/2022. It will probably be a while till I update it again. It mostly happens when someone requests it or I'm talking with a friend and they ask about matchups.
The longest sections will be color coated for your benefit
One thing that is consistent throughout matchups you struggle with is that Doran's shield will probably help. Having said this, you have to recognize that you're lacking AD and play around the item. Doran's shield is best for short, light trades. Whittle the opponent down and do your best to avoid long trades, having said that, don't take 4 autos on your way out of a fight, trade 3 back if you can without chance of death.
The Rock (Malphite)
Spoiler: Click to view
You can find this image at: Dwayne
- Basically always take q and use it to harass him early. This is the strongest point of the game for this matchup so look to get early advantages. Do you best to not let him get his passive shield back up. Just have some type of damage dealt to him once every 8 seconds or so.
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- If you have trouble in this lane, buy a hexdrinker. It doesn't stop the jungler from camping you, but it DOES stop malphite from one shotting you without any jungle help. Sometimes you can even escape a jungle gank due to hexdrinker. Doran's shield, hexdrinker, and refillable is the ultimate sustain against his q spam if he's maxing it. It can also help if he's building heavily in ap.
- Look for extremely short trades once he gets most of his abilities, also, look for these frequentl. The worst thing is when you're getting camped on malphite ult CD, get deeper wards than normal to combat this. Make sure to wait as long as you need for the damage on your auto to go through
- Many malphite players will walk back into while your conqueror is still stacked, this can be a very good chance to keep it up and win a fight against them. In many cases, you want to shield the ability he's maxing. In addition to this, always go as hard as you need to to finish him off, be absolutely positive or he'll be walking away with 100 hp and tp back for free.
Killer Croc (Renekton)
Spoiler: Click to view
The above picture is from the Jurassic world trailer
I know that isn't a crocodile, but I wanted to use this picture. This lane capitalizes the best on the mistakes you make. Mistakes are extremely punishable, so don't make any obvious ones.
I find that being the one to engage will allow you to win a trade more often. I've found a combo that works well to help you with it. You look for this when he goes up to last hit a minion, in the brief window that he's "stunned" you q onto him, w auto q e out to tank his w (without fury), and if he es you just auto third q auto. I've found this trade to work extremely well for me. Even bagging a kill pretty easily in some instances.
Summary:
- Consider rushing tabi's (I still call them that) to help with the immense damage he deals. Your job is to get out of this lane even or with few deaths. Riven is a very matchup dependent champion, some champions it's incredibly unlikely to get ahead on so just focus on what you're able to do.
- When the lane is pushing to you, never go for cs when he has full fury, just wait for the lane to shove to you. If you walk up when he has 100 fury you will die in most circumstances. If not, he will probably dive you.
- Taking q first can net you an early kill in this matchup. His level one is relatively weak and his w is a long cooldown. If he takes q, its free real estate. Make sure to not miss any autos and if he's running, take the full length qs. Mostly this is able to be achieved with ignite, if you're able to get an early kill on him, pressure the hell out of him to get a huge advantage before he gets his ult, it's likely impossible after that.
- Clipping minions (with your Q) is of course extremely useful in this lane when he has full fury and you want that cannon. In most cases, it's better not to challenge the croc when you don't have an advantage of some type.
- Don't get caught off guard by his w range (its bigger than his auto range). A huge thing to pay attention to is denying him fury. If you're able to keep him away from autoing minions you have the upper hand until the wave bounces.
- He wins at level 6 if you haven't gotten a huge advantage yet. The two types of damage (fury and aoe dot) are just a little too much if you're even/behind. However, if the Renekton is reluctant to use his ult, kill him. Most renekton's don't wait until they're low, but a huge part of killing him is stunlocking him so he can't use his ultimate.
- know his w cooldown (13 seconds) and his q cooldown (8) and trade when these go down. Look for all ins when he uses e (18 sec cd). If he uses his enraged e, it will shred your armor. If you're banking on armor to survive him, try to wait out the debuff by stalling.
A Baker (Pantheon)
Spoiler: Click to view
Image done by Reinavilla on Deviantart
Yes... A baker
This Spartan has a tendency to stab sharp metal objects attached to poles at you. Obviously, this hurts a little. Corrupting pot helps him immensely and adds to his already broken poke. He gets large amounts of mana back as well which give him a close to infinite pool with manaflow band. One of the biggest problems is that good pantheon players will manage their e well, and you will be unable to damage them for that entire rotation
Summary:
- Buy Doran's shield
- Rush Tabi's
- Don't take unnecessary poke from his q without eing it.
- E into your creep wave (back) whenever he ws on you and then look to return with an all in post 6. Until 6 you want to play pretty defensively. With the way his q works he can frequently turn close fights, if you make a mechanical mistake even in a good fight you can still lose it.
- Max q for maximum all in potential
- Do not engage on him until you're positive you can kill him THROUGH his e.
- Make sure to ping his ultimate when he has it so it doesn't catch your teammates off guard.
Pax Jax that commonly Hax
Spoiler: Click to view
You have to manage yourself very wisely in this lane. Jax actually can do very little unless you engage on him, which helps us quite a bit. If he jumps in with e q don't try to dodge the stun. That is not a typo. E into his escape route, eat the stun to the face, then w him and start comboing. If he does not use e, punish him like this. This method isn't going to work every time, but often it does enough. Ignite makes this lane very easy since by the time he ults it's likely too late in most cases or you can just disengage. Similarly to renekton, Jax e cannot be cast while stunned. You can frequently dive a Jax player with your ignite.
Summary:The bottom part came from this source: Do Not Engage
- As my extremely creative image says, Jax really can't do jax if you don't engage on him.
- If he engages on you, it's sometimes worth it to walk into his escape path and obliterate him once the stun falls.
- Use your abilities sparingly before he uses e, afterwards there's nothing to interrupt you or drop your damage.
- The sad thing is, this is one of the few champions that actually outscales Riven for most of the game. I believe at 6 items you can take him if you have massive amounts of lifesteal. Other than that, look to destroy him early game and push objectives quickly. Don't let him recover at all costs.
- Juking into a bush when he pops his e is a nice way to escape or engage on him. I say this because if he pops his e and just runs towards you, you can either dodge it, or be hit when he isn't yet in the bush wasting the dodge effect and part or all of the duration of the stun
- If he ever wastes his e you're as good as guaranteed to win the trade of just kill him.
- When he es, unless you have started your q or can kill him, don't use it, or your w just for damage. They are much more useful with autos weaved in.
- You can also try to use your third q the second his q goes off, the second he jumps, if you q, you should knock him back away from you.
- Know his e cooldown (16 seconds)
- Deny him as much farm as possible to delay his Bork Tabi's Power Spike
The Dunkstar (Darius)
Spoiler: Click to view
In this lane you have to manage yourself well. You can't have trades too long, and you can't let his e be too impactful. The best things to do is engage on him every level. You need to get inside his q so you only get hit by the shaft (saucy). You need to make your trade swift using the main trading combo. e auto w q auto q then walk out. He es you and you auto third q and walk off or go in for the kill. If you fight longer than this and aren't close to a kill you will have a hard time with his passive. If you only get clipped by his q you will be destroyed.
Biggest tip: Don't get more than 2 stacks of bleed at the start of trades, and no more than two at the end. Your goal is that he never accesses his passive.. That's it. If you do that you should be fine. Be careful engaging when you have stacks of bleed, because it can quickly turn on you.
Most Darius players nowadays will be using ghost or some other combat spell, this allows them to turn short trades into all-ins. Sometimes nothing is enough to escape them. Try to keep fights on your side of the lane where ghost is weakest (less aggressive space).
Summary:
- Ganks destroy this champ pre 6. He has no real escape or hard cc. Ask for ganks, receive ganks (sometimes) win lane ezpz
- If he ever starts a trade with e, just obliterate him.
- Watch his e range when its up.
- If he gets a good trade with his e you have to focus on trading before his e comes back up ( 24 seconds )
The devil himself (Teemo)
Spoiler: Click to view
Image by Solracsevla
The best thing you can do is hide in the front bush in the beginning and trade with him (q combo) since he takes e first. This will pop a couple pots if not all. His q causes you trouble, his w makes him hard to catch, and his ult is annoying as all hell. Though if you're on even hps, your all in is much stronger. Beware of him if he has ignite, disengage damage with a flash auto ignite can kill you easily.
Most of these tips don't work quite as well as they used to. His blind duration was increased and now it frequently feels like it's forever, which is always just long enough instead of just short enough. Bringing along tenacity is often a good choice. Perhaps legend: tenacity and unflinching/second wind rather than the main pages. If Teemo decides to pick up armor in addition to you having hexdrinker or you're just falling behind he will be obnoxious to deal with. Finishing maw helps, but when you get really far behind in this lane, he doesn't quite just roll over like he used to.
Summary:
- Be mindful of his summoner spells.
- Don't use abilities during his q blind. the duration is reduced by tenacity, which you tend to have a lot of. The second that green haze drops, strike.
- You HAVE TO engage or you will lose slowly because of his autos
- If you're struggling in this lane, rush hexdrinker.
Charlie Shen
Spoiler: Click to view
Summary Section:
- Watch out for the 6 q. This is a strategy where Shen uses q, engages, autos 3 times, then qs again and gets 3 more auto procs. This is extremely deadly so don't get caught off guard by this.
- Make sure to take tp for this lane and push if you can't follow him.
- Once Black Cleaver is around and you have CDR stacking, he fails to be able to fight you in most cases. Your advantage is in mobility, use it to often kill him with a second rotation just before his e cd comes up.
Make sure to take the tenacity rune so that once it's partially stacked his you can react much sooner after his e so that you don't take 2-3 autos during it.
Slapstick Teacher (Fiora)
Spoiler: Click to view
I did not make, nor own the above image. No clue who did, can't trace it, props to them though.
This "Exotic" instructor can teach you a true lesson if you don't mind your manners.
Jokes aside, you need to be able to avoid her w in most cases. A huge help in this is saving your e for after your third q. If you're able to third q and then dodge her w with your e before it activates this can save you and end her.
Summary Section:
- Vary your approaches. Sometimes e doublecast auto q walk out is a good trade. Other times wait for a riposte. Once your Tenacity starts taking effect you will be in a much better position.
- If she does waste her w at any point in the lane, you can easily destroy the trade or get a kill with ease. just engage before this 24 second window closes
- If you use your third q and she ripostes, just e out of the hitbox immediately.
- Riposte has a 24 second cd. If she uses it you will have lots of fun showing her who's naughty
- Hide your weak spots from her or she'll take control
- Sometimes you can just walk away and reset your vital, this can be very good if you have the time.
Soulja Boy (Garen)
Spoiler: Click to view
Image for "Plug Top," His fire mixtape xD
Massive warning for this lane nowadays. With the introduction of mythics and MS mythic passives, Garen is much faster than he used to be. Keep this in mind or you'll find yourself taking an ignite q e r one shot before you can think straight.
Summary section:
- Take e first
- Use your e every time he uses q to shield all the damage and escape. If you cannot do this correctly, ask a friend to go into a custom and practice till you can get it every time. Sorry if you have no friends... Can't help you there
- Don't fight him while his e is active if his w is also active. Kiting back with autos is a good choice if you can't escape the range of his e.
- Know his w cooldown (23 seconds) and feel free to do just about anything when its down
- His second q in fights or while csing is up just before your e (12-8 second cd). If he positions aggressively while you have a second or two on your e you need to back off till its back up or just eat the 100 dmg.
- Back off if you know his q ult will kill
- Be much more careful in all ins if he brings ignite
- Make sure not to let his passive tick if you can stop it
- Don't trade too aggressively unless you can kill him (his passive)
- If he activates his w after q eing you once you start to damage him it will be like nothing. Cry a little, continue the trade and once his w drops you'll see a huge spike in your damage.
The don.ger (Heimerdinger)
With the changes to his passive giving his large amounts of movement speed this can often prolongue fights just long enough. Dodge his e (often with flash or good play) and bring along a hexdrinker and with ignite you should still be able to kill him. Don't get caught off guard by zhonya's/stopwatch. Maw is a great rush against this champion, follow it up with Goredrinker afterwards.
Spoiler: Click to view
Summary Section:
- Watch out for his tower shots (big ones) e if you can't dodge normally
- Take out his towers if you can and have enough hp to throw around
- Always stay behind creeps in this lane. If he autos you he will be traded on by your creeps and have to overextend to do anything else.
- Do your best to dodge his e and w
- Your jungler will not come
- Only all in at level 6 and beware his flash and movement speed
Tentacle Girl (I...Ill.. Illioweiwae? oh..Illaoi)
Spoiler: Click to view
Summary section:
- Dodge her e every time. If this hits you're likely screwed. often staying behind minions is the best way to do this. You have to get a massive lead on this champion before level 6. Often the only ways to do that are by dodging he and engaging on its relatively short cooldown. Approach parallel to her q on minions and you're likely to get a good fight. If she misses e, her ult damage is reduced by definitely not negligable. Use your cc to lock her up and buy healing debuffs or kiss the game goodbye. If your jungler wants to fight, know that if she clicks r and you can't finish her off, leave them to die. No use giving her a double kill every time. Most players don't know how to dip if Illaoi ults early enough.
- If she hits her e, most of the time disengaging and losing the cs is your only choice.
- Don't try to recall while being a vessel, you have to dodge the tentacles
- You win trades as long as you don't get hit by wall tentacles or her E
- Try to dodge her q if possible because it's basically a lightning helix
Big Booty Beauty (Irelia)
Spoiler: Click to view
Summary Section:
e her es (at the very least) could eq or ew to be safer in some situations. (don't w if she has her q, its best to just w her once she lands on you in that situation as far as I know.)
Play moderately defensively trying to gauge how much damage she can deal at any time
level 6 she'll most likely be able to out-duel you in a normal fight, if you have her lower you can probably just kill her regardless of what she does.
Notice minions she could q to and go onto you.
Focus on engaging and ruling the lane with short trades when she qs to a minion. Always stand in front of the minion as it dies so that you can punish her.
Pikachu (Kennen)
Spoiler: Click to view
Image by Charapple on Deviantart
I actually underestimated this match up at a time. It all depends on the Kennen's reaction time. I'd say below about gold 2 you should be fine just spamming engages. Above that the Kennen can react quick enough and not get hit by your w if he has experience with the champ, then you have to sit through another 6 seconds of autos. If you just constantly take his autos you won't be able to run in at him, you will need to go e level 2 when you get the first minion in lane or take w and get an amazing trade. Keep in mind he will still be level 1 once you get level two if you didn't mess up or get destroyed by RNG with minion push. There's a very distinct range that is just TOO close for him to be to you, it seems to be slightly shorter than his auto range, possibly 50-100 units if you have any clue what I mean by that. At that point you can land w even if he uses e as fast as he can react. If he actually predicts it I'd be extremely astonished...
Ever since Kennen's Q buff, going without a hexdrinker is basically forfeiting the match. Many junglers will also camp for a Kennen player, keep this in mind. Similarly to the Malphite matchup this can really ruin a lane. Rushing Maw into this champion can make it much more feasible.
Summary Section:
- Longsword helps you rush hexdrinker by lv 6 which can be very useful. Most times though, doran's shield is the ideal start.
- Watch out for his charged auto, e it or back off until he uses it. This allows you to avoid his enhanced auto damage and the following w which can proc electrocute.
- You may be able to bait out his e just be walking near him or using q towards him. Its not a very long CD but it is what it is. You get his e, you have a brief period of time to engage on him.
- Rushing Maw is very useful in this matchup. He basically deals no damage if you do.
- Early engages are risky but can pay off.
- When you go in you have to make a judgement call on the Kennen's reactions. If you're able to catch him with some cc (w/third q) it's likely to be a decent trade, if not it's likely to be a midly damaging one.
Akali
Spoiler: Click to view
Summary Section:
- Rush Hexdrinker immediately and bait her into using all her mobility on you. This should be an easy kill once she uses second r, just eats the hexdrinker shield, then dies because she has no e/r/w up. Nullifying orb can also be pretty useful in this game. Also, if you're positive you're hitting her in shroud and she should die from cc lock, don't be afraid to ult. Trying to deal with where she pops up afterwards is sometimes impossible.
- be aware of her q range and don't let her auto you (its like 300 range or something, so don't get caught of guard by this range.)
- Never walk towards her shrowd unless she has like 0 health.
- Treat her shroud like teemo blind (Don't use abilities if possible) hit her every time she peaks out of shroud
- Scanner can help but is not necessary in this lane
Blue Man Group (Ryze)
Spoiler: Click to view
Summary Section:
- If he builds armor this can be very challenging, often however, maw and ignite can net you a few kills. Ryze cannot root you while he's stunned, this often gets high damage trades that can lead to an all in to follow up with.
Putin (Vladimir)
Spoiler: Click to view
This image is a picture of Vladimir Putin riding a bear, here is the original site: Silly Bear
Summary Section:
- Take q first
- Engage constantly past level 2. If he doesn't react immediately, you should be able to get to him by using your e q (landing on him). If he does react immediately, and you don't get in auto range after second q just leave it
- Go LS 3 or doran's shield.
- Focus on predicting when he will q (mainly whenever it is up and you are in range)
- Trade on him constantly. Negate his sustain with ignite. Get kills on him early and set him behind as much as you can. This lane is not to put you ahead, its to get him behind and keep him behind all game.
- His w is actually very short, he can be stunned the second he starts rising out of pool. Use this window to hit w or ulti where he is unlikely to expect it.
- If he uses his w he will take 20% current hp which makes him lose the trade pretty easily
Ashe's Bae (Tryndamere)
Spoiler: Click to view
Author of image is unknown
Summary Section:
- Take q first and engage from front bush before he can get fury
- Continue zoning him and keep him off cs so he can't build fury. Make sure to recognize his runes and play too them. Also known as, don't try to fight a lethal tempo Tryndamere with stacks... It's not gonna turn out well.
- Treat it like a Nasus lane
- When Trynd uses w, be careful, your attack damage just dropped quite a bit.
Kawaii Schoolgirl (Poppy) (updated)
Spoiler: Click to view
Ever since the Movement speed change to her w this lane is slightly harder. Dodge the second parts of her qs and don't use dashes into her w after it's activated.
- Start e, and get another point in it at level 4. This will still allow you to max q by 9 and catch up points by level 8, it however makes it difficult for poppy q/passive to get any damage on you. You have a really good shot with conqueror and black cleaver later on, you just have to get there without dying to walls.
- Don't get anywhere near walls at all. This champion can often dive, auto q and walk out while taking minimal damage. If you're able to stun them when they go for something like this it can bring in big trades, if they use w it's gonna be tough.
- Once she gets cinder with some armor it will be hard to do anything to her till you get BC... She just enjoys her time around you too much, 2 clingy 4 me
Metal Man (MordeKaiser)
Spoiler: Click to view
BECUASE HE TOLD ME TOOOO xD I had a viewer named Kamixxae asked for this so here I am! Making a matchup for mordekaiser
- His q has a very small range actually, the second you step in it the morde will generally q, just step back an inch and dodge it.
- use your e or your q or even nothing when he uses his e depending on the situation. e or q are to dodge, in some instances, you can just take the ride to him without having to dash, but keep in mind this gives him a stack of his passive.
- Watch out for close range es from morde. If he uses it close to his person he can actually push you away from him. You don't want this.
- Always keep in mind his w, it's a lot of extra health and if you're not expecting it, it can ruin a good fight.
- Also, his w charges based on his damage dealt AND DAMAGE DEALT TO HIM! don't forget this!
- His ult steals stats so try to get him in kill range quickly and force him to waste his ult when he's already dead or to just not use it at all.
Akshan
This is the first section without pictures. It won't be the last. If you want me to add them, leave a comment and next time I update I'll find something creative. I put an absurd amount of work into finding pictures for all the previous matchups and I'm just not into the extra effort for these 5 matchups I'm adding.
In most cases, for this matchup, I'd suggest a dodge. I think the champion is just a little too good at everything he does. Even if you manage to get behind him, he can circle back the other way instead. Having said this, the main way to outplay the champion is to approach with an early stun and get behind him to cancel his e very early. I avoid fighting the champion until level 6 in most cases. If he gets a little too ballsy with tower poking and I can garantee two tower shots (a quick flash w and third q auto) I can generally just barely kill him. In most cases, however, this champion will be able to kite too well. His passive gives him movement speed and hitting his q does as well. On top of the shield from his passive, he can also buy shieldbow with Tabi's and it makes him nearly impossible to take down. He falls off slightly late game but if he builds well it can still make it very difficult to challenge him.
Sett
Against Sett, you're going to want to play around cooldowns. Ignite and this will often get you the upper hand. Recognize his keystone and play around it. In most cases, however, if he has no e or w due to an earlier trade you can just barely finish him off before he gets a second rotation. Flashing (or dodging) his w (if it's charged) and baiting his e can make the lane much easier.
Yone
Against this champion, playing around his e cd is important. Without his e, it can be difficult to fight. The spacing is incredibly important for the Yone player. If you're able to get an early lead and avoid his q knock ups/r cc the lane will be easy for you. If not, you're likely going to have a rough time once he finishes shieldbow and tabi. Often flashing his ult or quickly moving to avoid it is what sets apart the men from the boys in this lane.
Ornn
In most cases, while facing this champion, you just have to focus on avoiding his w cough (end of animation when he adds brittle marks). If you're able to avoid getting the brittle mark things become much easier. Having said this, CDR/Black Cleaver/Conqueror are going to be the things that win this lane for you. Second/Third/Fourth rotations are often what are going to decide this lane. Attack Ornn before he becomes invincible or you'll have to struggle. Avoiding parts of his ultimate or the cough will be a huge help though.
Gwen
I've found Gwen thankfully pretty easy to deal with. Honestly, read her w ability. Once you understand that, the matchup becomes much easier. Don't fight her if you know the fight is terrible, backing away when she ults and coming back later can frequently work. Get
Executioner's Calling early on in this lane, it will help a lot.
Aatrox
This lane is honestly daunting anytime I face it. I frequently seem to face good Aatrox players that know how to space and build armor. The ease this champion has with turning around fights is rather something to be envious of. Dodging the w initially or getting out of it generally isn't incredibly difficult. The good Aatrox players are going to place their first q over a spot where you're trying to cs, and if you engage they're going to second q and e backwards every time. If that q hits its gonna make the game rough.
Recent Changes
Spoiler: Click to view
So, I'm just gonna put my updates here
- Finished updating a 1/5th of it, would love some criticism on those
- Generalized formatting for all sections
- Fixed coding errors
- Reviewed all coding up to trundle, but only have finished text update to shen
- I literally get nothing from updating this specific part of my guide but the joy and satisfaction of knowing it's helped people. If it helped you, let me know. Also, you're welcome Kamixxae
- GAHHHHHHHHHHHHH It's that time of the year. I said it'd be updated again by now so here I am, updating it again.
- Basically what I'm doing it making it the main top laners, less focus on uncommon matchups so that its easier to manage updates now, and in the future.
- I'll get a few of them done today and we'll see where it goes from there. I'm dedicating an hour or two to it. Hopefully I can make streaming work out as a career. I'm taking a break from streaming to do this, so be grateful :P.
- This has been completely updated now! Enjoy!
March 25th 2022 finished editing. Took about 4 hours, hopefully I've caught up most of the matchups. Any new sifnificant tips have been noted. A few matchups have been added as well including Akshan/Sett/Sylas/Ornn/Yone/Aatrox. I haven't gotten any comments praising my picture usage in a very long time so I'll avoid using more here.
Build Guide By Seth346
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