How to win lane as Nasus against Riven · 54.61% win rate over 542 Emerald+ games · Updated 2026-07-27
| Stage | Favoured | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Level 1 | Riven | Riven's level 1 Q-dash poke and auto chunk you while you have no Wither and zero stacks to answer. |
| Level 2 | Riven | Her full Q-Q-Q combo with the third-cast AoE stun out-bursts you in her window — you simply can't trade back yet. |
| Level 3 | Even / skill | Wither comes online and neuters her kite and attack speed, but with no ult and few stacks it's a genuine coin-flip on who commits. |
| Levels 4-5 | Even / skill | You can punish an over-extended all-in now with Wither, but her burst still trades evenly if she lands the stun — Skill decides it. |
| Level 6 | Nasus | Fury of the Sands plus a Wither-slowed Riven lets your bonus HP, Spirit Fire shred and lifesteal eat her entire combo. |
| First item | Nasus | Sheen/Iceborn empowers Siphoning Strike and a Wither-locked Riven can't disengage — your duel, your kill. |
| Two+ items | Nasus | Your infinite Q scaling and ult durability bury her — she has no percent-HP or true damage to break your fat bar, and she hard-falls-off. |
Riven owns the first two levels — her three Q dashes, E shield-dash and the third-Q AoE stun let her burst you inside her window before you have any answer. Don't try to trade auto-for-auto here; soak Q last-hits, use Spirit Fire (E) to farm and chip from range, and accept you're behind on tempo. The whole early game is just hoarding stacks and not feeding her a kill — your lifesteal sustains the poke her combo can't fully convert without a stun-kill.
The full Nasus vs Riven report continues with the mid-game plan, the late-game and teamfight plan, every power spike to play around, and the win conditions for both sides — plus cooldown tracking and the live enemy-jungle tracker inside the app.
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Playing the other side? Riven vs Nasus guide →
All Nasus top lane matchups →