Riven Hail of Blades MID
About Riven
Riven is a highly mobile bruiser with excellent survivability and one of the highest burst damage potentials among fighters. A large portion of her damage comes from her Passive (Runic Blade), which empowers her basic attacks after casting abilities, combined with the massive amount of bonus AD she gains when activating her ultimate, Blade of the Exile.
Over the years, Riot has gradually shaped Riven into a champion that truly shines during the mid game, excelling as a durable fighter in 1v1s, 1v2s, and even full 5v5 teamfights.
However, this is not your typical Riven guide. This guide focuses on a completely different playstyle: an assassin-oriented, carry-focused Riven that revolves around cheese plays, flanks, and one-shotting priority targets before they have any chance to react.
Instead of winning through extended fights, the goal is to find the perfect angle, eliminate your target instantly, and take over the fight before the enemy can respond.
[Edit about new patch!]
Soon HOB is gonna be buffed 6% ad bonus, thats gonna be a huge scale, i'll test it as soon patch is live
How to use Hail of Blades
The key to making Hail of Blades work is maximizing the damage from Riven's Passive (Runic Blade).
In a standard combo, Riven casts so many abilities that it's actually very common to finish the combo without consuming all of your passive stacks. This means you're often leaving a significant amount of damage on the table.
Hail of Blades solves this problem by allowing you to consume your passive stacks almost instantly. The increased attack speed lets you weave empowered auto attacks between your abilities much faster, dramatically increasing your single-target DPS and making your burst combo significantly more lethal.
The result is a playstyle focused on deleting priority targets before they have time to react, rather than relying on extended trades.
PROS & CONS HOB
PROS
- Strong short-trading potential.
- Scales surprisingly well into the mid and late game.
- Excellent synergy with crit builds.
- Greatly improves your ability to one-shot squishy targets.
CONS
- Weak in extended fights.
- 10-second cooldown.
- Designed for single-target burst.
- Forces you to give up the Precision tree.
Runes
The standard Hail of Blades setup uses the rune page shown above. For the secondary tree, you normally run Inspiration with Cash Back and Jack of All Trades.
Should either of these runes be nerfed, you can switch to the Precision tree and take Legend: Haste alongside Cut Down.
When playing into a lane matchup or team composition with heavy crowd control, do not hesitate to take the Tenacity and Slow Resist shard instead of the health shard, as shown in the example.
Build & Summoner Spells
Summoner Spells
DestelloIgnite
Flash Destello is one of the highest-impact Summoner Spells on Riven. It provides immense playmaking potential and can single-handedly win games, making it an absolute must-pick.
Ignite Ignite makes it much easier to secure solo kills and helps lower the target’s HP enough to maximize the execute damage from Riven’s ultimate.
In certain matchups, you can take Exhaust Extenuación against champions with heavy CC and burst damage. It allows you to deny their all-in, survive their initial combo, and then run them down once their main cooldowns are gone. Vex Vex is a good example.
Build
Build Overview
In most matchups, Doran’s Shield is your preferred starting item. It provides excellent defensive value while also helping you maximize Jack of All Trades, as it grants three different stats.
When playing a lane where you have meaningful kill pressure, you should start Doran’s Blade instead.
When you know you can safely survive the lane until your first recall without getting solo killed, you can start Long Sword + Refillable Potion. Once you recall with at least 450 gold, purchase Doran’s Shield to further increase your survivability and improve your Jack of All Trades progression.
If you go vs AD.
If you go vs CC.
Your boot choice is primarily matchup-dependent. If the enemy team does not have much auto-attack-based damage or crowd control, you can opt for the Omnivamp Boots instead.
Your ideal recall is at 875 gold for a Pickaxe. If you cannot afford it, buy Long Swords instead.
Your ideal recall is at 875 gold for a Pickaxe. If you cannot afford it, buy Long Swords instead.
Standard build.
The core build is Bastionbreaker or Voltaic Cyclosword, followed by Umbral Glaive, Death’s Dance, Fieldhunter’s, and Lord Dominik’s Regards. The exact purchase order can change depending on how much armor the enemy team is stacking. For your final item, build whatever provides the most value for the specific game. Options include Maw of Malmortius, Edge of Night, or Endless Hunger for additional sustain and tenacity. Alternatively, you can simply stack even more lethality. The build is generally played with around 50–60 Ability Haste, as the main priority is maximizing the damage of a single burst rotation, rather than optimizing for extended fights. The combination of Riven’s Passive, Hail of Blades, and Fieldhunter’s allows you to nearly kill any champion with less than 100 armor using just three empowered auto attacks in roughly 1.5 seconds.
See the explanation in the previous “Summoner Spells” section.
This clip shows how, with the following items, you can one-shot a target using only Auto Attack → W → Auto Attack.
About optional items:
- Maw Maw of Malmortius : You build this against heavy AP damage. (Example: Akali Akali ).
- Profane Hydra Profane Hydra : You build this into Bone Plating to remove it before committing to your all-in. It may seem minor, but you can proc Bone Plating with E → Tiamat Tiamat, then fully engage on your next rotation once it has expired. This also works extremely well against Yasuo’s Passive shield , Malzahar’s Passive spell shield , and other similar effects that need to be triggered or removed before committing to an all-in.
- Lord Dominks Lord Dominik's Regards: Build this when the enemy team has extreme amounts of health, against champions such as Dr. Mundo Dr. Mundo or Skarner Skarner. In most cases, I prefer Mortal Reminder. If they rely on shields, you counter them with Serpent’s Fang Serpent's Fang; if they rely on healing or sustain, you apply Grievous Wounds through Mortal Reminder. The main priority is to remove as much of their self-mitigation as possible, allowing your rune and item setup to retain enough burst damage to one-shot them.
- Serpent's Fang Serpent's Fang : Serpent’s Fang is an extremely underrated item, as it performs exceptionally well against Immortal Shieldbow, Barrier, enchanters, and bruisers with built-in shields. Your goal is to maximize your burst damage and convert as much of it as possible into true or effectively unmitigated damage. You need to prevent the enemy from reducing your damage through shields, healing, armor, or other forms of self-mitigation. Every part of the build contributes to making your burst as oppressive as possible: one item provides true damage, another deals damage based on the target’s maximum health, while other effects add critical strikes, lethality, or armor penetration. The overall objective is simple: your damage needs to hit extremely hard and leave the target with as little counterplay as possible.
Laning Phase
During the laning phase, you are essentially a minion until level 6. Play passively, focus on farming, and try to preserve as much HP as possible. When playing Riven mid, you should expect to face difficult matchups while also dealing with the enemy jungler and support showing up every couple of minutes.
When necessary, start Doran’s Shield and rush the first component toward either Mercury’s Treads or Plated Steelcaps. I only prioritize Omnivamp Boots when I am already ahead and neither of the defensive boot options is required.
You need to wait for a skirmish, roam, or rotation that gives you an opportunity to clean up a target with a single combo.
Once you complete one or two items, you can start one-shotting almost any target.
Teamfights
In teamfights, your main goal is to patiently wait for the right opening to either Flash onto the enemy backline or use your third Q to close the gap and reach their squishiest targets. Once you are in range, your job is to one-shot them before they can react.
You are playing as an assassin, not a bruiser. You are not your team’s frontline, so avoid entering the fight from the front or wasting your damage on low-priority targets.
Dealing irrelevant DPS to a tank or bruiser can also waste your Hail of Blades cooldown, preventing you from using it on the target that actually matters. Always look to approach the fight from the side or from behind, using fog of war and terrain to set up a flank onto the enemy carries.
How to play the map:
I heavily prioritize side-lane pressure. Look for solo kills by setting up picks through cheese plays, using Oracle Lens and Umbral Glaive to deny vision. This allows you to remain in fog of war while constantly threatening an all-in.
The additional gold generated through Treasure Hunter, Cash Back, and the wards destroyed with Umbral Glaive adds up very quickly. I have tracked the gold gained from vision denial alone and it exceeded 200 gold, meaning these combined sources can realistically generate close to 1,000 extra gold over the course of a game.
To summarize: play the side lane, stay out of vision, deny enemy wards, push the wave, and look for a flank or pick.
Final Thoughts
Keep in mind that this playstyle, build, and rune setup are designed around an assassin-oriented approach. Positioning mistakes are punished much more heavily than with a traditional setup. Overall, the standard Conqueror bruiser build is the safer option, and thanks to how strong bruiser items currently are, it's the more consistent choice if your goal is simply to climb and gain LP.
If you int, don't blame me. Play this build at your own risk.
Clips
You'll find all of my socials below, where I regularly post edited clips featuring the crazy one-shots this playstyle can pull off. If you enjoyed the guide and want to see these builds in action, be sure to follow me on Twitch and my social media. I'd really appreciate the support!
