Patch note analysis: Riven and health regeneration

Another high-profile nerf from the most recent patch befell Riven, the Exile. According to Riot, the nerfs were aimed at softening her lane dominance by reducing her base and scaling health regeneration by a significant amount and greatly increasing the cooldown on her ultimate, Blade of the Exile.

Prior to the nerf, Riven had the highest base health regen in the game (the next highest was Leona at 9.4 HP/5). She also tied for second in scaling health regeneration, losing out only to Sion and Darius.

Base health regen reduced to 6 from 10.4
Health regen per level reduced to 0.5 from 0.9

While Riven's nerfs appear significant, it's unclear exactly how hard she'll be hit by the health regeneration change. How much sustain Riven will lose during laning and how it will affect her viability is a question on every Riven player's mind.

The calculations

In order to calculate how much health Riven lost due to the nerf, we have to take into account both the scaling and base health regeneration. To do this, we need to know roughly how long Riven spends at each level while laning. Because the exact amount of time spent in lane is different for every game, these calculations will be fairly rough-- so bear with me on this one.

Let's assume Riven stays in lane until she reaches level seven. I entered a few custom games to estimate how long it takes on average to gain the first six levels, and I reached an estimate of around 45 seconds. The rest of this article is based on that assumption.

Below are Riven's earlier and current levels of health regeneration at levels 1-6.

	Old HP/5	New HP/5
Lvl 1	10.4	6
Lvl 2	11.3	6.5
Lvl 3	12.2	7
Lvl 4	13.1	7.5
Lvl 5	14	8
Lvl 6	14.9	8.5

Assuming Riven stays in lane for 6 levels, spends an average of 45 seconds at each level and stays below 100 percent health all the time, she now "loses" the following amounts of hit points at each level:

(OldHP5 - NewHp5) (45 seconds / 5) = HP lost

	Old HP/5	New HP/5	Diff	HP lost
Lvl 1	10.4	6	4.4	39.6
Lvl 2	11.3	6.5	4.8	43.2
Lvl 3	12.2	7	5.2	46.8
Lvl 4	13.1	7.5	5.6	50.4
Lvl 5	14	8	6	54
Lvl 6	14.9	8.5	6.4	57.6

Add up the totals of HP lost per level and you get the total HP lost during those first levels: 291.6 HP

Remember, this is an estimate-- it's not meant to describe the loss precisely. It's highly unlikely that Riven is below full health for that entire time, so she wouldn't always be able to gain health back in this way. Additionally, Riven could die, recall or do a variety of other things that would make this calculation inaccurate.

However, it does suggest that Riven's health regen wasn't actually hurt all that much. Two potions will replenish that lost health, but it does mean Riven essentially loses two free health pots while laning for the first six levels.

An overlooked buff

Although Riot nerfed Riven's health regeneration, it simultaneously gave a seemingly insignificant buff to the shield amount on Valor. While the shield only received a flat increase of 10 hit points, this change actually counteracts most of the health regeneration that Riven lost.

Valor
Shield amount increased to 70/100/130/160/190 from 60/90/120/150/180

Assume it takes four minutes and 30 seconds to reach level seven. The first rank of Valor has a 10 second cooldown and shields for an extra 10 hit points than it did before. Without putting any points into the ability or accounting for cooldown reduction, it's possible to cast Valor 27 times during that time period. If it's cast on every cooldown and shields for the full amount each time, the small buff accounts for an added 270 hit points in sustain.

This is an ideal situation, as the shield won't be cast on every cooldown or shield for the full amount each time. However, when cast repeatedly in lane, that 10 HP buff begins to add up to at least somewhat compensate for Riven's lost sustain. If cast on every other cooldown, it still shields close to the health value of one health potion. All things considered, Riven's sustain didn't take much of a hit in the most recent patch.

Although Riven's sustain was only slightly reduced last patch, the extra 35 seconds on the first rank of Blade of the Exile is the real nerf. It does damage her ability to snowball in lane, but luckily the later ranks of the ability don't suffer as greatly.

Bottom line: While a cursory glance might suggest that Riven lost a substantial amount of sustain last patch, in reality the regeneration nerfs weren't all that severe and were in part counteracted by the increase in her shield amount. The nerf to her ultimate is more severe, but Riven is still a great laner and strong AD caster.