u/Phrogboy2

Title.

I cant for the life of me play against these two fuckers. They both ignore all my damage with innate resistances (malphite can just stack armor and keep hitting me for 200 dmg per auto and garen doesnt care about my damage and cant retailate so much worse than what i can hit him for.) I cannot go even in lane because they are so much of a threat to me that i cant walk up to get cs properly. Help.

Context: Long time top player (Low diamond) who's never touched riven properly until recently. I play champs like Fiora, Camille, Irelia and some tanks usually, recently wanted to pick up Riven due to the fun moveset.

Oh my god she feels weak. And im not saying "Why cant i press buttons randomly and win?!?!?!?!" weak, more like "Why am i losing to this 0-2 Cho'Gath while up 1k gold??" weak. I'd say i am competent with my combos and macro to some extent, but it feels like Riven is just outdated and outpowered by basically any champ at top. Low resistances (Like laughably low in current meta, compared to other top laners,) abyssmal hp pool with no built-in sustain, and the pure ad dmg forces her to respect any champ that she faces even after a huge lead in gold and xp simply due to the fact that she cannot 100-0 anyone effectively, and short trades become much less viable after a period of time and some items.

On top of the low base stats and bad buildpath (Which currently doesnt give you any resistances or tangible amount of hp as of 26.13,) she is also extremely punishing. Even if you play lane perfectly, one miscalculated e or one greedy extra aa can either get you killed or leave you with 30% hp, which again, you cant replenish due to no sustain. This makes her frustrating and stressful to play compared to someone like Fiora, who can still outplay you or sustain herself to get a better position in a minute or two.

As for the buildpath, as of 26.13, Riven does not build any resistances or hp (aside from Eclipse's small shield, if you count that) because she loses tempo and falls off the damage curve if she does. She also doesn't go cleaver for that reason, making her survivability laughable compared to someone who builds triforce, eclipse (yeah, except they have sustain and better base stats so they dont care) and tabis (Again Riven gains so much from cd or ls boots, making it counterintuitive to build resistances.) If you dont have 1.5 items and boots by the time your enemy has 1 items, good luck keeping that snowball going on your own, as they are now a better fighter, and most probably a better trader than you.

I understand people say her mobility is her strongest part because she can short trade then dash out etcetc. While this is definitely true, it is only true until the 7-8 minute mark. After that, the enemy just either;

-Outsustains you, rendering your trade power useless (Nasus, Fiora due to buildpath and passive, Cho'Gath...)
-Doesn't let you short trade due to their gap closers and cc's (Garen and Darius, [And before you say "oo they dont have mobility huehuehueue" keep in mind ghost, flash, stormraider's surge and and dmp exists. They are not as immobile as you believe anymore, especially in lane,] Irelia, etc.)
-Just short trades you better. (Long, LONG list of champs that'd fill this entire post to list)

If Riven doesnt have a 5-0 lead, every single champ does better what Riven tries to do that game. The jack of all trades master of none trait disappears when you are easily shut down like such since you cant split, duel, or flank with full effectiveness. Even in scenarios you can, That might not be the role your team needs you to fill either, so you might just have to flank a Lulu-Kog simply because you're no good anywhere else.

On top of all this, a better Riven exists in the game! Ambessa has just as many dashes, much better survivability with a bigger shield and better buildpath, better resistances and hp, and innate armorpen from ult. She is just as mobile and a nuisance while not having any of Riven's bad traits (which there are a lot of.) Yes she does not have the 100-0 dmg late game Riven possesses, but good luck getting that done before the 30-min mark.

In short, Riven's kit and base stats make her feel like a hassle that is just not worth it. Yes she can pop off in games, but so can anyone else when they get a lead. And they are not prone to fall of as drastically as Riven because their kit enables them to still be useful, whereas with Riven if you die 1 or 2 times you are now a below average champion.

Am i wrong? Keep in mind these are my thoughts after about 50 games with her. I have over 14 years of League experience and been a top main ever since. I dont know whether my thoughts and impressions are correct or im just misunderstanding Riven and her fighting power. It never feels like i have the upper hand against my enemy in lane, and i should never hard engage. And like i said, short trades feel either impossible or irrelevant, so after 10 minutes im a sitting duck, except for the games where im fed. Any tips? What should i improve to fix this feeling of helplessness with this champ?