Riven is a new semi-mobile melee champion that boasts some good up-front damage, but plays just a little too awkwardly for most to use her to her full effectiveness.

Overall, my experiences with Riven have been quite diverse, with some games being huge successes, while others were less than satisfactory. Take note here that I'm not judging Riven simply by my personal scores or if the game ended in a win. To evaluate the potential of a champion, a successful game is when I felt I could uniquely contribute to the outcome of a match, while a failure is when I know I'm not making enough of an individual impact, or when I know I'm succeeding only by superior team synergy and overall skill. Unique champion contributions are important to touch on here: in higher level games, each champion in the line-up needs to be able to deliver a unique combination of strengths that no other champion can achieve.

I don't believe that Riven has what it takes to contribute unique strengths to a team. While I do like the mechanics of Broken Wings, there's too much delay in her animations, and it's been frustrating to use it against more mobile champions. As well, the aiming mechanics of Broken Wings are a bit buggy, as Riven will automatically aim her skills toward whatever champion your mouse is hovering over. This sounds efficient on paper, but in execution, it means that Riven will occasionally target the wrong champion because it happened to run under your cursor. Usually this isn't a problem because the swings deal AoE damage, but for those of us who play with our cursor very close to our champion (so that we can turn faster without sweeping our mouse across the screen), sometimes someone will run across your character as you use your Q, and you'll automatically track them, hopping backward and away from your intended victim.

In terms of overall strength, however, I wouldn't say that Riven is terrible. As more clever players experiment with new builds, rune pages and masteries, Riven may yet find a place in LoL's competitive scene. But as it currently stands, most players are simply confused as to what unique role Riven can play. Riven can put out a lot of damage if left alone, but there is no real reason to not focus her, as she only has a mediocre shield and a laughable 0.5 second AoE stun for protection. From a fun perspective, I do highly suggest checking out Riven but, in the upper ELO levels, most players will be hard pressed to justify Riven over her Ionian counterpart, Irelia, who boasts strong in-combat mobility and huge crowd control resistances, while still dealing very respectable damage. If you're still set on hopping around with Riven, consider building a CC-heavy team around her, so that they can keep Riven from being focused while she wreaks havoc with that broken sword.

Christopher "Pwyff" Tom, Senior Staff Writer

Need help picking your latest League of Legends champion? Then browse through all of the entries in Pwyff's Buyer's Guide to League of Legends series!