@@taxevasion6765 we also hope arcane will reboot demacia's lore [like full on reboots demacia, no like with pnz] by destroying previously established stories including mageseeker but what are the chances of that!?
i think that when you start playing league, and guet you ass whooped by a riven you either start playing the champ, or you just hold a grudge against her for the rest of your life, i chose the second option.
Top lane is literally "braindead stat checker fucks the braindead mobility, braindead mobility fucks the braindead range, braindead range then fucks braindead stat checker"
Might just be because every year she finds a way to com back, she is uninteresting to play against, as she jsut all in you perma or play vuss. there is NOTHING hard with the champ :p try and do the combos in practice you'll be able to do it in like, 15 mins max she should just have somehting, not mana but something that has drawbacks.
That's because Riot basically made her bugs features at this point, and they balance her around it. For then to remove it now, I'd say they'll need to rework her a bit
@@Tiagocf2 And i feel like someone at riot would fix those bugs in one patch, fuck things up so bad that everyone complains, then it gets reverted hard like 2 patches later.
@@del2183 There are a few champs like her where the only 'counterplay' to the character is hoping the player doesn't know how to do something, lee is another one that comes to mind. Thing is we are over a decade past the window where these champs could have had any significant changes, riot knows that the 1tricks of these characters will quit if they do anything to them now
He's the only one that plays her in a sort of different way than the other mentioned too. He puts way more focus on autos than abilities, its quite interesting to see
A friend of mine recently started playing her because he got her Broken Covenant skin and really wanted to see her Griddy dance emote. He’s really good with her too so it’s a win for him
Similar story on how I was into Riven atleast 3-4 years ago. In Garena servers when the first spirit blossom event happened there's a free spirit blossom riven you can earn for free. I find it ironic that right now in the Sea server if I ever see riven players with some mastery they always use that skin.
you seem to not give enough emphasis on the fact that she cannot deal with tanks. If you're up against riven you should look to rush Tabis and you auto-win your lane without doing basically anything special. And don't get me started on the fact that she doesn't have any sort of healing sustain (which ALL toplaners have), therefore a small mistake can be punishing and can ruin your whole game
Bringing Pantheon as an example of an AD caster who falls off late-game... that's what us Pantheon players want you to believe as we point and click empW-Q-E one shot your kaisa in a fraction of a second and then have a spell that gives us complete invulnerability from the rest of the team. Or manage to sidelane duel pretty much any champion in the game. The 30% passive armor pen is nothing to scoff at.
Bro, this. Current Pantheon actually scales quite well, yea he still sucks against split pushers but anything other than that? He can and will hold up a fight, even possibly kill the enemy. Hes also a decent blind pick, a true gigachad. Love playing Pantheon.
speaking as a Senna, absolutely. Pantheon is *the* quintessential example of a CC assassin and I love him for it. you always know where you stand with a Pantheon, even if that place is a grey screen.
@@joseph4445 Lmao, he cant. Theres a reason even Spearshot hates split pushers, they get too tanky, have too much sustain and a lot of them outscale pantheon. Mundo? Fiora? Jax? What elo are you even playing in to see Pantheon beat those 3 late game? Edit: In fact, pantheon has negative winrate against ALL of the champions you mentioned, Mundo being the lowest at 44% winrate. You either dont play enough Pantheon or play in iron my guy.
In general, girls get more popularity. I mean, almost, if you count the 10 most popular champions in the history of the division lol, you will find Lee Thresh and Yasuo, but the rest are all girls, and also the girls get more skins, and I forgot another reason. To main Riven, she is a bunny girl. I feel afraid that lol will transform . Like genchin impact in the future or have done
@@BlackHair-zx4qc Riot gave a statistic that nearly every male player doesn't care about the gender of the champ they are playing as long as that champ is powerful while over 90% of female players only play female champs.
@@Aliens1337 Maybe it's Riot's problem because it makes the female characters more powerful so they can sell skins. It's a funnier piece of information. 3 of the characters with the highest skin rate are females, and I don't know who 4 is. Maybe another female. I mean, exploiting the female for material gain is a terrible thing for me, and it's not just Riot's problem. All mob games are like this
I've been in love with this champion for so many seasons, she's so fun and rewarding to play, even as low elo player you get your moments of spotlight, her builds vary a lot through the seasons as well as her role in a team
0:50 that Jax took negative damage from a full MF ult 😞 Edit: I love the explanations being made as if the same thing wouldn't have happened if this were a Teemo whose only armor was a Zhonya's and didn't use the active. Guys. I've played a lot of adc and top alike. This is just the way the game is played as long as the top laner isn't dumb enough to be out of exp range of 50 cs
@@captaintenacity8761 Typical adc things. Be underleveled from sharing exp in a lane with 2 people, the top laner 4 levels over you regardless of being 5/0 or 0/5 with 30 less cs just waving his level gap over you. Good times, good times.
Well the 7 level difference would be it. Guarantee you she had no items and actually built lethality. Jax E reduces AoE damage by 25% and his ult gives him armour.
I can at least give you the reason I do it: I mostly play mages that Zed feasts on so it's a good insurance for the laning phase, but furthermore from my observation Zed mains are extremely devoted to their champion... meaning they legit can't play anything else properly. So not only do I get rid of a champion who's a pain in my ass, I also end up facing a guy who can barely play the champion they picked.
@@insheepsclothing5574 actually im a zed main/otp myself, i 100% agree with what you said right here. i literally CANNOT play anything else. I just wanted to see a vars video on it because i do like his information delivery style.
Zed used to be my perma ban but at the moment there are champs who are much worse to face. Especially since Zeds hydra rush farming play style is not really a thing anymore
Zed is incredibly weak nowadays. I honestly prefer to play against him than every other midlaner. This season alone i've witnessed at least 8 fed zeds that couldnt carry the game, both in my and in the enemy team
Riven is a troll pick outside of the highest echelons of solo queue (she's almost unplayable in pro) due to being hard countered by heavily armored units.
Riven main here. Thank you for this video! I started playing League not so long ago and got her as a reward. Recently got Silver 3 and still in love with her. She feels great and fun. Yeah, she can fall behind easily but if done right she is the force to reckon with. This game is quite fun, love to everyone
@@lissandrafreljord7913 think riot could make a “cool” tank support character that has low damage, high utility, but is still fun to play? Or, is it the lack of damage that makes a tanky support not cool or popular?
7:37 well i feel like Camille is more of an Anti-Carry than Riven because her R is exclusively single Target and her E won't really hit multiple enemies. That could also explain the presence of Camille support because Camille R is probably one of the best lockdown abilities in the game cause it basically traps one opponent and makes them vulnerable for a few seconds. Riven on the other hand has more potential to carry a teamfight herself.
im new to the game and i just went against a riven so i really wish this was a “why no one plays” 😭😭😭😭😭😭😭 was trying out top recently like last night with friends and this womans tower dive is insane and it didnt help i was playing kayle 😭😭😭😭😭 really good video tho keep up the good work vars 🥰
if you try out toplane, you should start playing stuff like Malphite, Garen, Mundo, Cho'gath. They are better to start understanding the role tbh. Riven takes you too much time and doesn't teach the macro side only the micro. But if you insist on playing her, maybe start watching Alois (the dude he mentioned in the one trick ponies section, his channel is called AloisNL and he has a lot of educational content on a lot of champions not only Riven.)
Kayle is probably the most abusable match up if the riven knows the matchup better. Wouldn't suggest trying out top lane by playing kayle, that champ gets stomped if you aren't sure what you're doing
@@ryanfitzpatrick3008 oh for sure the laning phase sucked 😭😭😭😭😭 but once riven started roaming a bit more and wasn’t really getting anything out of it i was able to hit lvl 11 and then eventually lvl 16 😁
"Yone has to hit an enemy, Yasuo has to move around a lot." I like how you included those as though they weren't just... things you do on those champions. Felt very tongue-in-cheek. xD
"Riven is one of the few champions who moveset contains enough skill expression to where mechanics can make up for bad decisions." No, that hasn't been the case for a long long time. Literally every single high mobility champion is capable of this. Riven is not even close to being special, or rare in this regard.
I would love to see an Everything Wrong With Bel'Veth. Also, Riven is one of those characters who I started playing because the crafting tab gave me a skin for her. No regrets. But also, her kit being centered around "freedom" is thematically fitting since she's trying to get free from Noxus (please excuse me if I'm rusty on lore, I haven't read it for awhile).
Gonna be honest, i can count on one hand the number of Riven players I've seen over the last year+. And I'm one of them. She might be the lowest playrate of the 4 horsewomen champions.
The only times i see Riven being picked, i instantly pick Renekton/Malphite/Poppy and shes complete dogshit. I climbed to D3 without seeing a SINGLE Riven, and the one i saw in D2 got stomped anyways cause she banned Renekton and i picked Poppy lmfao i really don't know how people complain about her so much.
@@Gojiradogzillagodzilla they wanna beat her with champs that she can beat, also most people don't play tanks and especially not the tanks that hard counter her.
@@1lik3Fir33mbl3m but its not only tanks that counter her nowadays. Volibear, Urgot, Kennen, even Camille and Garen have a high winrate against her so people have tons of options... but they either get counterpick or pick shit like Aatrox/GP into Riven and then complain, when they literally wasted their pick into a champ she bursts.
This has been very insightful. I'm a Riven OTP since season 4. 1 Million mastery points (50-100 games per season~). You did a really good analysis of her strengths, but you didn't talk about her weaknesses.
As a season 5 hay-day riven main, I can say seasons 7-9 were the most fun with how fighting game/combo based she was with the extended fights. Nowadays the leads we get are extinguished by catchup exp, gold and non existent death timers. I do still play her and will continue to do so, just don't look for me top lane
Wowow there, 8:25 theres a big difference of a 500 shield equipped on a champ with superb mobility, that accompanies %max hp *hybrid* damage and is not tied to the champions other defensive options (mobility) whatsoever and a 400 shield thats attached to the champions most important (and only) defensive utility and offensive too as most of her animation cancels are bound to E, and also is her best dash.
One of my favorite examples to talk about this champion is how back in Season 3 a young pro midlaner by the name of Faker shocked the world by bringing her into the midlane and absolutely destroying the competition. This was 17 year old Faker too, back when he could hands diff literally everyone in the world. Lifetime he's a perfect 6-0 when picking her (which is more often than several typical Mid champs like Kata, Vex, and Yone).
Whenever i think about going back to play league i think "do i wanna go back to dealing with riven players?" and i dont even open the game. league free for 11 months now, praise the gods.
I mean, I feel like it's much simpler why people play riven. Sure she gets results and does massive AoE damage late game, but the fun part is pressing all of the buttons that quickly and doing true combos that nobody can interact with. The joy of 100%-0%'ing someone after using all of your abilities perfectly is pure bliss. ...and she makes for sick montages.
The poppy player must be good otherwise the lane Is Just gonna be neutralized with no One killin each other and riven still having a chance to get in a teamfight and kill people, its true that riven cant make a mistake or She Will get pinned and q'd and lose half hp, but if poppy uses her W wrong riven can force flash or even kill if poppy only has tabi or chain vest
@BomberDavi that's true enough, but the skill floor on poppy and the armor build advantage make it much more in favor of poppy. Another match up similar to this is Darius Yorick where fundamentally if the yorick has any skill whatsoever the lane is his win.
I wish I had time to learn Riven for good. I tried to learn her 2 times and second time I got decent enough to 1v9 games in low Diamond, but this happened 5-6 years ago. If I were to return to LoL, I'd return only for Riven. Does anyone has some tips for picking up this champion?
Riven used to be way better. You could play her into most matchups, with current items / game mechanics I wouldnt blindpick Riven ever (Master+) She's still fun and my favorite champion but without a doubt she's less rewarding than ever before. Note: Sundered Sky should be removed ASAP, not healthy for Riven or the game
I have the utmost respect for skilled Riven players. The freedom and strength she holds only comes out when piloted by an at least moderately proficient/knowledge player, so I know when I get beaten by one, I'm the worse player 9 times out of 10. It still won't stop me from complaining about her though, since the salt has been ingrained too deeply into me.
Riven was most played champion at top lane at one point because how strong she is She is still strong but there have been new champions and how other champions does Riven's job easier and much less time spent practicing
To all the people saying: no one plays riven Remember that frozen heart ninja tabis are 3400 gold combined,3400 to shutdown riven(who has no maxhealth or true damage),the moment tanks fall off you would all start going back to baning her
As a Riven main, I agree. Those 2 items can literally make riven useless 1v1 wise. Even BC is not enough, but who knows if grudge + lethality items can fix that. In this meta Riven doesn't feel like she's able to match tanks now compared to last season. I do think a drain tank/bruiser build like rav hydra, shojin, BC, sundered sky, and death stance, maw, or possible a jak'sho can help match tanks I think.
@@gallanomarkandrea.1787 I definitely lost to Riven as a tank, because I didnt respect her early game enough, but obviously if you sit back and wait to get the armor necessary, she is basically useless
that's just skill issue tbh LDR and BotRK exists and people still plays tanks if your champion is so reliant in one-comboing the enemy that 2000g worth of armor (2 chain vests + armor from boots) completely counters it, I'm sorry but the champion is deeply flawed and not because tanks are op
Riven is either broken against a glass cannon team with no armor across all 5 members or completely useless against a normal team with just 2 heavily armored targets.
I like that you mentioned fightinggames in the context of riven, ive always drawn that parallel too haha As an intermediate to advanced Tekken player, i cant get good at riven though. Granted i didnt try nearly enough to be good yet, but damn shes not easy at all.
At least with certain fighting games you get a buffer for cancels, even systems like gatlings or chains for normals. Riven's cancels are more like links and considering how she also needs to have the correct positioning within an XY axis and her being about the only character who uses that sort of cancel as an integral part of her mechanical expression? Yeah, I can see why she's so difficult. I'd rather learn Naoto dash-cancel combos than try learning Riven. At least that mf looks cool instead of ice sliding around with old League animations.
MMMMM, I think the better title is "Why EVERYONE USED to play Riven but not anymore" . Becuase as of right now there are VERY few people pick riven. Hell, Garen, urgot, and malphite have been picked more often due to how eaiser and more rewarding they are compare to Riven.
This title is much more apt, indeed. I remember seeing Riven enjoying much higher pickrates, but so many champions do her job better, and even Phlox admitted she has design identity problems that need to be addressed.
@@torri776 I would say shes still good, but, for example, a Riven player has to be 3 times as good as a Camille player, just to make Riven as good as Camille. Obviously Im exaggerating, but you get my idea.
@@Rells2coolpeoplehavebadtastes. Speaking as a Riven player myself, that is no exaggeration. A good Camille can feel rewarding in every scenario whereas Riven seems more dependent on punishing mistakes and lack of vision, which is why she gets pentas in high elo consistently.
@@torri776 As a low elo Riven player, I feel like her kit just dosent do enough. If her damage was more consistent or the ult was on a lower cooldow or if she had anti defensive properties then I think she would feel better. But I probably say that because Im bad at her.
Because not only does she have the hallmark of a broken kit: Mobility and hard-cc, but she has both on a single spell. And so like yone, her kit is busted.
Vars, can you make why everyone plays Nautilus, he is presents both in SoloQ and proplay, easy to pick up, always appears regardless of meta and strong champion, high tempo with q the wall and very strong engage with 2 point and click CC, 1 hook cc with big hitbox ?
What is your view on Camille she went from top laner being recognized as the 4 horse woman but now she reduce to a support will this stick and signify her end of being a top laner
Camille has transitioned to a horsewoman of the bot lane. I suspect the same could be done with Irelia and Riven if people really wanted to, though Camille's mobility is a cut above those two.
Well there's one thing that Riven is pretty different compared to other bruisers I think. Lack of built in sustain, Riven can only use either of this 2 sustain items rav hydra and sundered sky. Bork is off limits bcuz its more of an on hit attack speed base champs.
She doesn't have a built-in sustain but she benefits a lot from outside sustain sources (like runes and items) because late game her E becomes pretty spammable and it gives her a shield that also scales with her damage (AD)
This video is amazing but unfortunately it doesn't really hold up to the Riven current state in the game: Don't get me wrong she's still played, but she's at one of her lowest peak of playrate due to how much the game's bullshit is taking over top lane. Every other skirmisher basically destroys you with a couple of exceptions (such as Gwen), and tanks are insanely hard to kill after just tabis. BC is extremely underwhelming and we lost Serylda as bruisers too, you really have to commit on the lethality in order to actually deal some damage with that, without even mentioning Rav Hydra really lost the power it used to have on Riven. Added to the overall sugarcoating of the early game (low respawn timers, early homeguards when you die, item components less strong, higher hp and survivability on everyone) really hindered Riven's snowball potential. Toghether with tabi changes (that now blocks every damage that gets trough autos, not just auto damage), everlasting bugs (Q doing whatever it wants, the only good sustain item is bugged and doesn't crit), and overall kit oldness (one example: why does Aatrox gets his ult extended on kill and Riven doesn't?) really made her feel like not worth sometimes. Moreover, nowdays there's a huge amount of unstoppable autos around (Jax's W after rework being the last), that your W really doesn't stop much besides normal autos nowdays (and the poor Sion which is one of the few tanks that Riven really stomps early). She's still insanely fun... but I wish we'd had some "2024 power" like 80% of the rooster.
I always consider there is two roles in top. one is the play maker, and another is counter maker. like Garen vs Irelia, Irelia would be the one making play while Garen punish bad play. this role depend on who have more kit not counter champ. like Urgot is counter champ for Riven but Riven still is a play maker while Urgot is a counter maker. if Urgot commit E to make play it's hard to land and need Riven to miss play in the first place. while using E when Riven Q for the third time would land 100% and cancel her Q.
at 0:30 you said: "This episode of why no one plays"
we only hope
@@taxevasion6765 we also hope arcane will reboot demacia's lore [like full on reboots demacia, no like with pnz] by destroying previously established stories including mageseeker but what are the chances of that!?
@@Rev1n0soh no because we can't have a world where the people dressed in white do evil things that would be terible
WOOPS.
@@VarsVerumXD ?
i think that when you start playing league, and guet you ass whooped by a riven you either start playing the champ, or you just hold a grudge against her for the rest of your life, i chose the second option.
I chose the first😉
Top lane is literally "braindead stat checker fucks the braindead mobility, braindead mobility fucks the braindead range, braindead range then fucks braindead stat checker"
@@vaporsouls6752 Mad
@@vaporsouls6752 so true lmao
Might just be because every year she finds a way to com back, she is uninteresting to play against, as she jsut all in you perma or play vuss. there is NOTHING hard with the champ :p try and do the combos in practice you'll be able to do it in like, 15 mins max she should just have somehting, not mana but something that has drawbacks.
3:34 not the thresh bming after dodging the naut hook only to immediately miss his hook in return
Average support interaction
Im guilty of this, but as Pyke🤣
I'm still amazed that she basically functions so well mainly through a bug that lets you cancel everything to pretty much instaburst people.
That's how combos were born in fighting games too, so it's kinda perfect.
That's because Riot basically made her bugs features at this point, and they balance her around it.
For then to remove it now, I'd say they'll need to rework her a bit
@@Tiagocf2 And i feel like someone at riot would fix those bugs in one patch, fuck things up so bad that everyone complains, then it gets reverted hard like 2 patches later.
@@Tiagocf2 They most certainly need to rework her.
@@del2183 There are a few champs like her where the only 'counterplay' to the character is hoping the player doesn't know how to do something, lee is another one that comes to mind. Thing is we are over a decade past the window where these champs could have had any significant changes, riot knows that the 1tricks of these characters will quit if they do anything to them now
3:06 ah yes, my favorite riven onetrick.
Alouise
AloisNL best educational content imo
FOUND THE BEAN TOES
@@Discotechque
FOUND A MENTOS
FANTA MENTOS GANG
He's the only one that plays her in a sort of different way than the other mentioned too. He puts way more focus on autos than abilities, its quite interesting to see
can confirm riven DOES have sauce, good vid mr. vars
A friend of mine recently started playing her because he got her Broken Covenant skin and really wanted to see her Griddy dance emote. He’s really good with her too so it’s a win for him
Similar story on how I was into Riven atleast 3-4 years ago. In Garena servers when the first spirit blossom event happened there's a free spirit blossom riven you can earn for free. I find it ironic that right now in the Sea server if I ever see riven players with some mastery they always use that skin.
@@gallanomarkandrea.1787 funny probably because it’s was free, they like the skin or both
you seem to not give enough emphasis on the fact that she cannot deal with tanks. If you're up against riven you should look to rush Tabis and you auto-win your lane without doing basically anything special. And don't get me started on the fact that she doesn't have any sort of healing sustain (which ALL toplaners have), therefore a small mistake can be punishing and can ruin your whole game
Bringing Pantheon as an example of an AD caster who falls off late-game... that's what us Pantheon players want you to believe as we point and click empW-Q-E one shot your kaisa in a fraction of a second and then have a spell that gives us complete invulnerability from the rest of the team.
Or manage to sidelane duel pretty much any champion in the game. The 30% passive armor pen is nothing to scoff at.
Bro, this. Current Pantheon actually scales quite well, yea he still sucks against split pushers but anything other than that? He can and will hold up a fight, even possibly kill the enemy. Hes also a decent blind pick, a true gigachad. Love playing Pantheon.
speaking as a Senna, absolutely. Pantheon is *the* quintessential example of a CC assassin and I love him for it. you always know where you stand with a Pantheon, even if that place is a grey screen.
Pantheon scales very well into late wdym
@@Gojiradogzillagodzilla He actually can respond to splitpushers quite well.
Botrk on Pantheon means that literally any champion will have
@@joseph4445 Lmao, he cant. Theres a reason even Spearshot hates split pushers, they get too tanky, have too much sustain and a lot of them outscale pantheon.
Mundo? Fiora? Jax? What elo are you even playing in to see Pantheon beat those 3 late game?
Edit: In fact, pantheon has negative winrate against ALL of the champions you mentioned, Mundo being the lowest at 44% winrate. You either dont play enough Pantheon or play in iron my guy.
4 dashes, 1 shots the ADC, she's both a bruiser and an assassin, you wonder why people like her
In general, girls get more popularity. I mean, almost, if you count the 10 most popular champions in the history of the division lol, you will find Lee Thresh and Yasuo, but the rest are all girls, and also the girls get more skins, and I forgot another reason. To main Riven, she is a bunny girl. I feel afraid that lol will transform . Like genchin impact in the future or have done
for the love of god, who doesnt oneshot adc?
@@larfee5191 only one i can think of is (non-ap/non-ad) yuumi if she's in the bathroom afk
@@BlackHair-zx4qc Riot gave a statistic that nearly every male player doesn't care about the gender of the champ they are playing as long as that champ is powerful while over 90% of female players only play female champs.
@@Aliens1337 Maybe it's Riot's problem because it makes the female characters more powerful so they can sell skins. It's a funnier piece of information. 3 of the characters with the highest skin rate are females, and I don't know who 4 is. Maybe another female. I mean, exploiting the female for material gain is a terrible thing for me, and it's not just Riot's problem. All mob games are like this
Boxbox’s old videos singlehandedly got me into league.
I've been in love with this champion for so many seasons, she's so fun and rewarding to play, even as low elo player you get your moments of spotlight, her builds vary a lot through the seasons as well as her role in a team
0:50 that Jax took negative damage from a full MF ult 😞
Edit: I love the explanations being made as if the same thing wouldn't have happened if this were a Teemo whose only armor was a Zhonya's and didn't use the active. Guys. I've played a lot of adc and top alike. This is just the way the game is played as long as the top laner isn't dumb enough to be out of exp range of 50 cs
Hollon, you’re right. What in the actual f*ck was that about 🫢
i mean she was lvl 6... while jax was 12. imagine the item diff as well
@@captaintenacity8761 Typical adc things. Be underleveled from sharing exp in a lane with 2 people, the top laner 4 levels over you regardless of being 5/0 or 0/5 with 30 less cs just waving his level gap over you. Good times, good times.
Well the 7 level difference would be it.
Guarantee you she had no items and actually built lethality. Jax E reduces AoE damage by 25% and his ult gives him armour.
he had Deaths Dance too probably
when are we getting "why everyone bans zed?"
I can at least give you the reason I do it: I mostly play mages that Zed feasts on so it's a good insurance for the laning phase, but furthermore from my observation Zed mains are extremely devoted to their champion... meaning they legit can't play anything else properly. So not only do I get rid of a champion who's a pain in my ass, I also end up facing a guy who can barely play the champion they picked.
@@insheepsclothing5574 actually im a zed main/otp myself, i 100% agree with what you said right here. i literally CANNOT play anything else. I just wanted to see a vars video on it because i do like his information delivery style.
I've ban Kayn every game since S.12
Zed used to be my perma ban but at the moment there are champs who are much worse to face. Especially since Zeds hydra rush farming play style is not really a thing anymore
Zed is incredibly weak nowadays. I honestly prefer to play against him than every other midlaner. This season alone i've witnessed at least 8 fed zeds that couldnt carry the game, both in my and in the enemy team
I don't think I've seen a riven in my game in literally years
Riven is a troll pick outside of the highest echelons of solo queue (she's almost unplayable in pro) due to being hard countered by heavily armored units.
Riven main here. Thank you for this video! I started playing League not so long ago and got her as a reward. Recently got Silver 3 and still in love with her. She feels great and fun. Yeah, she can fall behind easily but if done right she is the force to reckon with. This game is quite fun, love to everyone
There’s two types of rivens, trash Riven players and high elo one trick with a 60% WR Riven. Which one will you go against? Let the RNG decide.
Why everyone plays riven:
Because we all thought at one point we could do what box box did
We were wrong
But
We could dream
Because people like flashy mechanics. So mobility + damage + cool character design makes them automatically popular.
@@lissandrafreljord7913 think riot could make a “cool” tank support character that has low damage, high utility, but is still fun to play? Or, is it the lack of damage that makes a tanky support not cool or popular?
i mean rell was pretty close, but she's super inconsistent and her ceiling isn't the highest@@mathwiz3145
@@mathwiz3145rakan or Camille or ksante mid or top
7:37 well i feel like Camille is more of an Anti-Carry than Riven because her R is exclusively single Target and her E won't really hit multiple enemies. That could also explain the presence of Camille support because Camille R is probably one of the best lockdown abilities in the game cause it basically traps one opponent and makes them vulnerable for a few seconds. Riven on the other hand has more potential to carry a teamfight herself.
mention : counterplay vs her is real with enough room (unlike fiora ult ) and her dmg isnt bullshit % max hp true dmg
The 4 Horse Girls of Apocalypse. Playing Malphite in similar game skill is the only consistent counter on them.
"Or the abundance of 200 years champs" is a fantastic dig. Well played sir.
I play Riven becaue her OG voice actress is Christina Vee...
I waited a long time for this episode on Riven, one of my favorite champs. Thank you Vars !!!
What are you talking about no one played Riven for years
"Yasuo has to move around..." lmao.
1:30 that's really cool. And says something about the team bihind her that she can consistently hold such a dedicated playerbase
im new to the game and i just went against a riven so i really wish this was a “why no one plays” 😭😭😭😭😭😭😭 was trying out top recently like last night with friends and this womans tower dive is insane and it didnt help i was playing kayle 😭😭😭😭😭 really good video tho keep up the good work vars 🥰
if you try out toplane, you should start playing stuff like Malphite, Garen, Mundo, Cho'gath. They are better to start understanding the role tbh. Riven takes you too much time and doesn't teach the macro side only the micro.
But if you insist on playing her, maybe start watching Alois (the dude he mentioned in the one trick ponies section, his channel is called AloisNL and he has a lot of educational content on a lot of champions not only Riven.)
@@1lik3Fir33mbl3m oh i wasnt trying her!! i was playing kayle into one with a decent mastery (since i play with friends who’ve played longer than me)
Kayle is probably the most abusable match up if the riven knows the matchup better.
Wouldn't suggest trying out top lane by playing kayle, that champ gets stomped if you aren't sure what you're doing
@@ryanfitzpatrick3008 oh for sure the laning phase sucked 😭😭😭😭😭 but once riven started roaming a bit more and wasn’t really getting anything out of it i was able to hit lvl 11 and then eventually lvl 16 😁
"Yone has to hit an enemy, Yasuo has to move around a lot."
I like how you included those as though they weren't just... things you do on those champions. Felt very tongue-in-cheek. xD
I can't remember the last time I played against a riven
"Riven is one of the few champions who moveset contains enough skill expression to where mechanics can make up for bad decisions."
No, that hasn't been the case for a long long time. Literally every single high mobility champion is capable of this. Riven is not even close to being special, or rare in this regard.
I would love to see an Everything Wrong With Bel'Veth.
Also, Riven is one of those characters who I started playing because the crafting tab gave me a skin for her. No regrets. But also, her kit being centered around "freedom" is thematically fitting since she's trying to get free from Noxus (please excuse me if I'm rusty on lore, I haven't read it for awhile).
At least she only deals Physical damage unlike the other three horsewomen
That's why she's so worthless against Tanks. The others can at least do decently into Tanks, and in the case of Fiora, completely obliterate them.
her absurd mobility makes up for that.
@@Okami400no it doesn’t do shit for her aside from not diying if you try to out scale a tank riven is gone be behind after 2 armor items and tabies
Gonna be honest, i can count on one hand the number of Riven players I've seen over the last year+. And I'm one of them. She might be the lowest playrate of the 4 horsewomen champions.
0:30 I wish it was a "why no one plays"
I’m gonna be honest…I haven’t seen a SINGLE riven player in over a year
Everyone be too busy on their K'Santes, Fioras, and Aatroxs
The only times i see Riven being picked, i instantly pick Renekton/Malphite/Poppy and shes complete dogshit. I climbed to D3 without seeing a SINGLE Riven, and the one i saw in D2 got stomped anyways cause she banned Renekton and i picked Poppy lmfao i really don't know how people complain about her so much.
@@Gojiradogzillagodzilla they wanna beat her with champs that she can beat, also most people don't play tanks and especially not the tanks that hard counter her.
@@1lik3Fir33mbl3m but its not only tanks that counter her nowadays. Volibear, Urgot, Kennen, even Camille and Garen have a high winrate against her so people have tons of options... but they either get counterpick or pick shit like Aatrox/GP into Riven and then complain, when they literally wasted their pick into a champ she bursts.
@@Gojiradogzillagodzilla Urgot also works decently against a riven, no amount of cancel dashes can compete with good ol passive shotgun
This has been very insightful. I'm a Riven OTP since season 4. 1 Million mastery points (50-100 games per season~). You did a really good analysis of her strengths, but you didn't talk about her weaknesses.
As a season 5 hay-day riven main, I can say seasons 7-9 were the most fun with how fighting game/combo based she was with the extended fights. Nowadays the leads we get are extinguished by catchup exp, gold and non existent death timers. I do still play her and will continue to do so, just don't look for me top lane
Wowow there, 8:25 theres a big difference of a 500 shield equipped on a champ with superb mobility, that accompanies %max hp *hybrid* damage and is not tied to the champions other defensive options (mobility) whatsoever and a 400 shield thats attached to the champions most important (and only) defensive utility and offensive too as most of her animation cancels are bound to E, and also is her best dash.
1:19
"Don't remind me..."
*PTSD intensifies*
Hi elo players play her because she is versatile and scales well
Lo elo players play her because shes fun
One of my favorite examples to talk about this champion is how back in Season 3 a young pro midlaner by the name of Faker shocked the world by bringing her into the midlane and absolutely destroying the competition. This was 17 year old Faker too, back when he could hands diff literally everyone in the world. Lifetime he's a perfect 6-0 when picking her (which is more often than several typical Mid champs like Kata, Vex, and Yone).
Good video man, thanks for it
Did you watch like the first 2 mins of the video
probably he means throu the history of league in general because nowdays shes not that good
Whenever i think about going back to play league i think "do i wanna go back to dealing with riven players?" and i dont even open the game.
league free for 11 months now, praise the gods.
The reson why riven is my Maines that she is extremely atrective
I mean, I feel like it's much simpler why people play riven. Sure she gets results and does massive AoE damage late game, but the fun part is pressing all of the buttons that quickly and doing true combos that nobody can interact with. The joy of 100%-0%'ing someone after using all of your abilities perfectly is pure bliss. ...and she makes for sick montages.
I think Gwen is considered a pseudo-horsewoman
She has insane dps, but she❤lacks cc and defense, even though she has her w, she can easily be destroyed against a pantheon, renekton or sett
@CORAGEMPURA011097 I'd argue that she has more soft cc than fiora has and she o ly has hard cc if she counter the opponents cc
as a wiseman said. riven play see something we can't , a line that if they follow perfectly will make them outplay everything.
She's very free in terms of mobility, until poppy exists. Then you will realize true pain.
The poppy player must be good otherwise the lane Is Just gonna be neutralized with no One killin each other and riven still having a chance to get in a teamfight and kill people, its true that riven cant make a mistake or She Will get pinned and q'd and lose half hp, but if poppy uses her W wrong riven can force flash or even kill if poppy only has tabi or chain vest
@BomberDavi that's true enough, but the skill floor on poppy and the armor build advantage make it much more in favor of poppy. Another match up similar to this is Darius Yorick where fundamentally if the yorick has any skill whatsoever the lane is his win.
0:23 i really heard synapse, i was expecting ending there
0:05 WHY IS CAMILLE BUILT LIKE A PIXAR MOM DAMNNNNN
I wish I had time to learn Riven for good. I tried to learn her 2 times and second time I got decent enough to 1v9 games in low Diamond, but this happened 5-6 years ago. If I were to return to LoL, I'd return only for Riven.
Does anyone has some tips for picking up this champion?
Never seen one riven in solo queue for the past 2 years
I like the music in the background. Old Pick/Ban phase music from proplay
As a Shen otp... it hurts me how the Shen in te background miss the taunt under turret and how he engage an amumu next to a Riven...
Riven used to be way better. You could play her into most matchups, with current items / game mechanics I wouldnt blindpick Riven ever (Master+)
She's still fun and my favorite champion but without a doubt she's less rewarding than ever before.
Note: Sundered Sky should be removed ASAP, not healthy for Riven or the game
How can a lastpick be a blindpick?
I have the utmost respect for skilled Riven players. The freedom and strength she holds only comes out when piloted by an at least moderately proficient/knowledge player, so I know when I get beaten by one, I'm the worse player 9 times out of 10.
It still won't stop me from complaining about her though, since the salt has been ingrained too deeply into me.
PANTH SCALES REALLY WELL AS 1 W ONE SHOTS YOU
Riven was most played champion at top lane at one point because how strong she is
She is still strong but there have been new champions and how other champions does Riven's job easier and much less time spent practicing
Rivens animation cancelling bug abused being branded as a mechanic will forever be an insult.
Now I want an Irelia video, not just the rework retrospective
I don’t think I’ve seen her in at least 100 games she’s not that big in my Elo tbh I’m rly low so I guess no skill makes it harder to play lmao
We got it!!! ❤❤❤
To all the people saying: no one plays riven
Remember that frozen heart ninja tabis are 3400 gold combined,3400 to shutdown riven(who has no maxhealth or true damage),the moment tanks fall off you would all start going back to baning her
As a Riven main, I agree. Those 2 items can literally make riven useless 1v1 wise. Even BC is not enough, but who knows if grudge + lethality items can fix that. In this meta Riven doesn't feel like she's able to match tanks now compared to last season. I do think a drain tank/bruiser build like rav hydra, shojin, BC, sundered sky, and death stance, maw, or possible a jak'sho can help match tanks I think.
@@gallanomarkandrea.1787 I definitely lost to Riven as a tank, because I didnt respect her early game enough, but obviously if you sit back and wait to get the armor necessary, she is basically useless
that's just skill issue tbh
LDR and BotRK exists and people still plays tanks
if your champion is so reliant in one-comboing the enemy that 2000g worth of armor (2 chain vests + armor from boots) completely counters it, I'm sorry but the champion is deeply flawed and not because tanks are op
@@Tiagocf2 ah yes you are speaking facts,KAPPACHUNGUSMAXIMUSDELEXUEEDITIon
Riven is either broken against a glass cannon team with no armor across all 5 members or completely useless against a normal team with just 2 heavily armored targets.
What always surprises me is the more cinematic footage for gameplay. How do you get to capture those?
You could check Dudu Duelista, a Brazillian riven one trick, one of the best riven one tricks too!
I like that you mentioned fightinggames in the context of riven, ive always drawn that parallel too haha
As an intermediate to advanced Tekken player, i cant get good at riven though. Granted i didnt try nearly enough
to be good yet, but damn shes not easy at all.
At least with certain fighting games you get a buffer for cancels, even systems like gatlings or chains for normals.
Riven's cancels are more like links and considering how she also needs to have the correct positioning within an XY axis and her being about the only character who uses that sort of cancel as an integral part of her mechanical expression? Yeah, I can see why she's so difficult. I'd rather learn Naoto dash-cancel combos than try learning Riven. At least that mf looks cool instead of ice sliding around with old League animations.
funny how riven never gets a notable nerf but kayn gets nerfed per patch so that hess "balanceed"
Shes more of why no one plays from her pick rate history but ok 😭
yeah but all players are one tricks.
so its not that nobody plays her but a lot of one tricks play her ig
@@Sushilordd yea prob 99% riven pick rate just comes from her otps cuz even if I face one it will be otp
i was about to sleep but yaaay ty for posting
NGL I really thought your next video was gonna be on the skarner rework, are you waiting for the release onto live servers?
I'd argue Gwen is also one of those 4 horsewoman of top lane. She is basically AP Fiora.
i ranked up to GM from emerald playing only riven this season since ive been playing her for 7 years now
At 3:02 Why u didnt name "Best Riven NA" he was like the first to OTP Riven and will also having a good audience.
Riven was the og overloaded champion along with lee sin and nidalee
my favorite champ, got rolled by her one game playing camille and I picker her up and never looked back. currently sitting at 700k mastery
Pantheon doesn't fall off late
idk tbh i see her like once every 30 games, not a lot of people play her
riven is not fool-proof, but she's so unrestricted it makes her fool-proof
He had to upload this alongwith alois' riven vod
MMMMM, I think the better title is "Why EVERYONE USED to play Riven but not anymore" . Becuase as of right now there are VERY few people pick riven.
Hell, Garen, urgot, and malphite have been picked more often due to how eaiser and more rewarding they are compare to Riven.
Pretty much.
This title is much more apt, indeed. I remember seeing Riven enjoying much higher pickrates, but so many champions do her job better, and even Phlox admitted she has design identity problems that need to be addressed.
@@torri776 I would say shes still good, but, for example, a Riven player has to be 3 times as good as a Camille player, just to make Riven as good as Camille. Obviously Im exaggerating, but you get my idea.
@@Rells2coolpeoplehavebadtastes. Speaking as a Riven player myself, that is no exaggeration. A good Camille can feel rewarding in every scenario whereas Riven seems more dependent on punishing mistakes and lack of vision, which is why she gets pentas in high elo consistently.
@@torri776 As a low elo Riven player, I feel like her kit just dosent do enough. If her damage was more consistent or the ult was on a lower cooldow or if she had anti defensive properties then I think she would feel better. But I probably say that because Im bad at her.
@vars any chance the shen rework video coming along?
im secretly good asf t riven, shes so fun bec feels like im in an arcade fighting game
Because not only does she have the hallmark of a broken kit: Mobility and hard-cc, but she has both on a single spell.
And so like yone, her kit is busted.
Vars, can you make why everyone plays Nautilus, he is presents both in SoloQ and proplay, easy to pick up, always appears regardless of meta and strong champion, high tempo with q the wall and very strong engage with 2 point and click CC, 1 hook cc with big hitbox ?
I was waiting for a view about her!
What is your view on Camille she went from top laner being recognized as the 4 horse woman but now she reduce to a support will this stick and signify her end of being a top laner
Camille has transitioned to a horsewoman of the bot lane. I suspect the same could be done with Irelia and Riven if people really wanted to, though Camille's mobility is a cut above those two.
Maybe its time for what happened to camille when she has more supp games than top
The irony is that i dont see this champ ever
Well there's one thing that Riven is pretty different compared to other bruisers I think. Lack of built in sustain, Riven can only use either of this 2 sustain items rav hydra and sundered sky. Bork is off limits bcuz its more of an on hit attack speed base champs.
She doesn't have a built-in sustain but she benefits a lot from outside sustain sources (like runes and items) because late game her E becomes pretty spammable and it gives her a shield that also scales with her damage (AD)
Can we get another teemo video or a video on who you think is the face of the game these days
Jinx lux ahri or ez,the fourhoursmen of riot cash grab
what limit riven are the the limit of player who use her
This video is amazing but unfortunately it doesn't really hold up to the Riven current state in the game:
Don't get me wrong she's still played, but she's at one of her lowest peak of playrate due to how much the game's bullshit is taking over top lane.
Every other skirmisher basically destroys you with a couple of exceptions (such as Gwen), and tanks are insanely hard to kill after just tabis.
BC is extremely underwhelming and we lost Serylda as bruisers too, you really have to commit on the lethality in order to actually deal some damage with that, without even mentioning Rav Hydra really lost the power it used to have on Riven.
Added to the overall sugarcoating of the early game (low respawn timers, early homeguards when you die, item components less strong, higher hp and survivability on everyone) really hindered Riven's snowball potential.
Toghether with tabi changes (that now blocks every damage that gets trough autos, not just auto damage), everlasting bugs (Q doing whatever it wants, the only good sustain item is bugged and doesn't crit), and overall kit oldness (one example: why does Aatrox gets his ult extended on kill and Riven doesn't?) really made her feel like not worth sometimes.
Moreover, nowdays there's a huge amount of unstoppable autos around (Jax's W after rework being the last), that your W really doesn't stop much besides normal autos nowdays (and the poor Sion which is one of the few tanks that Riven really stomps early).
She's still insanely fun... but I wish we'd had some "2024 power" like 80% of the rooster.
She gets ult reset in wild Rift
aw yes the most fair of the four horse women of top lane to face
reposting rumble e is quite good imo, you dont get the magic pen of it right?
IV BEEN WAITING
Only one horsewomen remains... Irelia
Hope one day Gwen joins the 4 horse women, maybe if riot gives her a ad ratio
I always consider there is two roles in top. one is the play maker, and another is counter maker.
like Garen vs Irelia, Irelia would be the one making play while Garen punish bad play. this role depend on who have more kit not counter champ.
like Urgot is counter champ for Riven but Riven still is a play maker while Urgot is a counter maker. if Urgot commit E to make play it's hard to land and need Riven to miss play in the first place. while using E when Riven Q for the third time would land 100% and cancel her Q.