TOP 5 RIVEN COUNTERS TOP

Top 5 Riven Top Lane Counters

Riven is a high mobility, high burst top laner that excels at short trades, animation cancel combos, and flashy outplays. Once mastered, she can dominate solo lanes, snowball fights, and split-push relentlessly with Valor (E) shields, Ki Burst (W) stuns, and Blade of the Exile (R) finishing power.

But here’s the truth — Riven is exploitable. She's cooldown-reliant, item-dependent, and extremely punishable if you can weather her early aggression, out-range her, or shut down her combo flow with CC or sustain.

Here are 5 of the most consistent counters to Riven that punish her early windows, deny her resets, and keep her from snowballing out of lane.

1. Malphite

• Playstyle: Anti-AD tank / engage frontline
• Strengths:
  • Naturally tanks all of Riven’s burst with early armor stacking.
  • E (Ground Slam) lowers her attack speed — critical for her trades.
  • Unstoppable Force (R) guarantees engage or disengage when she dives.

Play Tips:

• Start Doran’s Shield + Second Wind for maximum lane survival.
• Rush Plated Steelcaps and Iceborn Gauntlet / Frozen Heart.
• Let her push — punish with ult + jungle setup every time she missteps.

2. Teemo

• Playstyle: Ranged lane bully / blind abuser
• Strengths:
  • Q (Blinding Dart) shuts down Riven’s auto-attack resets.
  • Can kite her endlessly with move speed and poison ticks.
  • Keeps lane shoved, zones Riven off with blind + auto harassment.

Play Tips:

• Abuse her cooldowns — trade when her Q combo is on cooldown.
• Keep wave near your tower to force risky engages from her.
• Set up shrooms at flanks and lane bushes to deny all-in angles.

3. Quinn

• Playstyle: Ranged duelist / roam threat
• Strengths:
  • Can poke her out of lane with auto + Q trades.
  • Q blind cripples her damage and denies trade windows.
  • Ultimate (R) allows Quinn to roam while Riven is stuck trying to scale.

Play Tips:

• Harass constantly and deny her early CS with auto + Q combos.
• Freeze near your turret to force overcommits — punish with E disengage.
• After 6, roam hard — deny her 1v1 scaling by snowballing map.

4. Nasus

• Playstyle: Scaling tank / sustain duelist
• Strengths:
  • Outscales Riven hard if he survives lane.
  • Wither (W) destroys her mobility and combo speed.
  • R (Fury of the Sands) lets him outlast her in extended trades.

Play Tips:

• Play extremely safe early — take Doran’s Shield + Wither at level 2.
• Farm under tower and stack Q — don’t take unnecessary trades.
• Post-6, trade only with R + Wither — you win every extended fight.

5. Sett

• Playstyle: Brawler tank / counter-engage skirmisher
• Strengths:
  • E (Facebreaker) stops Riven’s Q chains and stuns in minion waves.
  • Wins all-ins early with true damage W and higher base stats.
  • His R (The Show Stopper) punishes her if she dives into you.

Play Tips:

• Brawl at level 2–3 when your damage is highest — look for auto > Q > E combos.
• Position around your minion wave to maximize E stun value.
• Let her engage first, then turn with W — she can’t out-DPS your full combo if timed well.