Draven Build Guide by scars_and_flames

Introduction

My name is scars and flames, I'm playing on euw, mostly blind pick (I'm stuck at 1100 elo) and I always enjoyed playing off-meta.

I started playing Draven top one month ago on behalf of a friend of mine.

Why top?

At the time Draven was released many people seemed to overestimate him, stopped playing him. The reason was his axe. His axe gives him an incredible damageboost on his autoattacks and once you lose it, your damage falls off and your team will complain about you not doing enough damage.

Catching the axe is something that is pretty hard to do in the heat of a teamfight, even more, if you duell another carry 1 on 1 as he will outdamage you while you run around in circles trying to catch the axe.

Therefore you need to build tanky to be able to withstand the damage.

Pro's and Con's

Runes

• Greater Quintessence of Attack Damage will give you more damage early on. It scales with Spinning Axe and helps you with lasthitting.
• Greater Quintessence of Health is a good choice if you are new to ranged carries or against high burst like Jax.

• Greater Mark of Desolation are good in every stage of the game. Squishy champions usually don't build armor, so you will have an advantage later.
• Greater Mark of Attack Damage will boost your early game. You only have 47 AD at Lvl 1, these marks will give you nearly 9 AD.

• As the game progresses, the enemy AP mid will hit harder. To withstand spells, you have to get tankier the same way with Greather Glyph of Shielding
• Playing against Vladimir top? Kennen hitting his Thundering Shuriken too often? Greater Glyph of Magic Resist will provide extra MR to make them not hurt so much.

• Most of the time, you will face AD Bruisers on top. Greater Seal of Armor is a great choice to deal with them.
• Greater Seal of Vitality provides a nice boost in HP. Quite useful, but armor is better most of the time.

Masteries

Pretty much self-explanatory. Summoner's Wrath for the added AD, Lethality for the added critical damage, and some health and resistances in the defensive tree.

Summoner Spells

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Items

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Have you ever played against Olaf top? You will know 1 thing: You are screwed without boots. Olaf will throw his Undertow at you and deal massive damage with his Reckless Swing.

That won't happen to you, if you start with Boots of Speed. You either dodge his axe or slow him with Stand Aside and walk away like a sir.
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80 Health, 10 AD and some lifesteal for only 475g! It will increase your damage and survivability for little cost.
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Avarice Blade gives you some critical hit chance and what is best about it, are the passives. You gain 2 golds every 10 seconds and everytime you kill a unit you gain 2 gold. It's like having Twisted Fate in your team, but better.
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Phage will not only provide good health and damage, but also a neat passive which will help you with harassing. The slow can also help you, if you're being ganked and need to make a run for it.
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Mercury's Treads are the undoubted numero uno in terms of boots. They grant not only magic resistance, but also tenacity. Draven is a carry, even if played as a bruiser where he becomes some sort of semi-carry, and carries are susceptible to CC. You could also run Berserker's Greaves if you believe you can handle the full duration of CC going down on you, since they will increase your damage by adding attackspeed.
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Wit's End increases your dps by a fair amount and grants you up to 60 magic resistance to survive those pesky mages.
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This beauty builds out of your Avarice Blade and provides you with attackspeed, critical hit chance and some movementspeed. Activating it will grant you extreme critical hit chance and attackspeed, which will result into your Wicked Blades to proc on every autoattack.
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What to upgrade your Phage into is somewhat situational. If you feel that your already respectable amount of tankiness still isn't sufficient, go for Frozen Mallet. If you want to deal a lot of damage with added critical damage, attackspeed and movementspeed, go for Trinity Force.
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Health alone won't keep you alive. Since we don't build Warmog's Armor, we need something else to sustain ourselves. The Bloodthirster gives you a lot attackdamage and big chunks of lifesteal, which works with your Spinning Axe which is counted as an autoattack with more AD.
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Maw of Malmortius will provide you with tons of AD and in case you are getting focused, you will gain a temporary shield which absorbs 400 damage.
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Guardian Angel is what I like to call a "generic lastpick". It offers you great survivability thanks to its passive which pays off extremely well due to your high resistances. Those 750 HP could turn a teamfight to your favor and even win the game.

Tipps and Tricks

• The added damage from Spinning Axe counts as bonus-AD, which also affects lifesteal resulting in more health being regenerated.
• Spinning Axe will fly either on top of you or slightly next to you. Catching it will not cost you any mana, so try to catch as many as possible.
• Thrown axes will follow you to the direction you're going to. This helps you to harass using Hit-And-Run-techniques.

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• Blood Rush is very useful if you have to dodge any predictable skillshots (like Olaf's Undertow or Cho'gath's Rupture). It's overall a great escape-tool.
• Catching Spinning Axe will refresh Blood Rush's cooldown. Try to have an axe ready to refresh Blood Rush in case you are getting ganked.
• Activating Blood Rush also procs Sheen which makes Trinity Force a decent choice for Draven.

• Stand Aside's slow combined with Blood Rush makes Draven to one of the best escapers without a blink or dash-ability.
• Stand Aside has an in-built knockback, which interrupts any channel. Use it to interrupt ultimates like Galio's Idol of Durand or Nunu's Absolute Zero.

• While it's pretty decent to kill runners, using it in meleerange is impossible to dodge without flash or any other blink/dash.
• Try not to throw it from risky positions like the enemy jungle. It reveals your position as soon as it is redirected.

Common opponents on top

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Difficulty: Medium
Tipps: She can't trade before hitting level 6. Punish her with Spinning Axe once she gets into range. If you're lower than 50% of your HP, recall to base or try to heal up by other means because she will kill you with Shadow Dance

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Difficulty: Hard
Tipps: Don't waste your mana on him, just focus on farming. He will outheal your damage easily and if you happen to stand in his Rupture all you can do is using Stand Aside and Blood Rush to get away from him, otherwise he will deal tons of damage.

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Difficulty: Easy
Tipps: Kite all day long. He can't do much as long as you keep your range from his Apprehend. Remember that Noxian Guillotine deals heavy amounts of true damage.

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Difficulty: Medium
Tipps: Staying behind your minions will disable his Infected Cleaver. Try to kill him pre-6 and deny his minions. Upon hitting level 6 you can't kill him if you're not far ahead, so don't try to 1v1 him afterwards.

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Difficulty: Medium
Tipps: Avoid her Cocoon because it enables her whole damagecombo. Try to get to your tower, if she uses Rappel to close the distance, which will either force her to dive you or cancel her skill.

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Difficulty: Hard
Tipps: Stay at your turret and farm up as much as possible. Fiora's early burst is insane and can quickly result into her getting fed.

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Difficulty: Easy
Tipps: Keep him from farming with Parrrley. He can only harass you with Parrrley which costs him a lot of mana. If he uses Cannon Barrage to force a fight, run with Stand Aside and Blood Rush.

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Difficulty: Easy
Tipps: Kiting is the key to success. Garen has no gapclosers and his Decisive Strike is slightly weaker than your Blood Rush. Try to hit him every 5-6 seconds so he can't use his passive Perseverance.

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Difficulty: Easy
Tipps: His only sustain is his Spirit of Dread, which heals him for only a small amount of health. You can counter his Devastating Charge by throwing Stand Aside onto him right in the moment he would hit you.

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Difficulty: Medium
Tipps: His turrets deal a ****load of damage if you stay in their range for too long. If you manage to get close to Heimerdinger you beat him quite easily, but getting into range is hard to achieve.

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Difficulty: Easy
Tipps: She can't trade your damage by any means. If she goes in for a last-hit, punish her with Spinning Axe.

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Difficulty: Medium
Tipps: He can't do much if you dodge his combo ( Demacian Standard into Dragon Strike). Once he gets his Philosopher's Stone he will outsustain your damage if you don't get hyperagressive.
Note: Hitting him with Stand Aside while he performs his combo will stop the animation and leave Jarvan where he was but you will still be knocked up.

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Difficulty: Hard
Tipps: Stay passive and farm. He's even deadlier than Fiora, his stun hinders your escapes and he deals scary amounts of damage. You might want to get Heal or Exhaust instead of Ignite to deal with him.

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Difficulty: Medium
Tipps: Shock Blast deals only mediocre damage early and is easy to dodge. Keep in mind that To The Skies! has more range than your autoattacks.

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Difficulty: Medium
Tipps: Don't pick fights early. Kayle has high damageoutput thanks to Reckoning. Try to bait her Righteous Fury and punish her once its effect expires.

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Difficulty: Medium
Tipps: Try to dodge his Thundering Shuriken. If he innitiates with his ultimate, make a run for it with Stand Aside + Blood Rush.

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Difficulty: Medium
Tipps: Stay with your creeps. Taste Their Fear does immense damage when you're isolated. Also try to ward the brush Kha'Zix likes to move in to stop him from regaining his passive.

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Difficulty: Medium
Tipps: Stay behind your creeps and/or dodge his Sonic Wave. Try to deny his farm and run around a bit if he trades with you.

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Difficulty: Easy
Tipps: Keep autoattacking him to keep his shield from refreshing. If he hits you with Seismic Shard, watch his actions. If he runs at you activate Blood Rush after he gets the movementspeed-buff, otherwise harass the hell out of him.

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Difficulty: Easy
Tipps: He has no CC and he can only use Siphon of Destruction if you come in range to autoattack him. Recall if you have less than 40% of your health, because it is very likely for Mordekaiser to dive you and kill you with his feared Ignite- Children of the Grave Combo.

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Difficulty: Hard
Tipps: You can't keep him from farming his Siphoning Strike. If he uses Wither on you, wait for Stand Aside until the end of Wither.

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Difficulty: Easy
Tipps: She has nice sustain but lacks damage. Her autoattack-range is slightly lower than yours. She can't trade with you pre-6 and when she transforms into cougar, she loses a lot of her range.

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Difficulty: Easy
Tipps: Olaf has to land Undertow in order to deal damage. Being ranged helps you to dodge his axes, if this isn't sufficient you can also use Blood Rush which is easy to reenable.

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Difficulty: Hard
Tipps: Stay passive and farm. If he camps the sidebush, buy Wriggle's Lantern and ward it frequently.

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Difficulty: Medium
Tipps: Cull the Meek provides good sustain and once he gets his The Brutalizer, he will terrorize you if he manages to come close to you. He's one of those champions who punish you badly for bad positioning.

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Difficulty: Hard
Tipps: Play extremely passive on this one. Rengars will try to jump you anytime they can so stay as far away from the brush as possible. Consider getting Ninja Tabi if or an early Wit's End depending on his playstyle (AP or AD).

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Difficulty: Medium
Tipps: Keep your distance and you are safe. She outtrades you and once she gets near to you you can't get rid of her, even with Stand Aside.

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Difficulty: Medium-Hard
Tipps: Shen is pure horror for any champion who deals physical damage. Fortunately Shadow Dash's range indicator is slightly shorter than its actual range, which will cause Shen-players to run at you, if they want to taunt you. This lets you harass very easily if you after hitting him with Spinning Axe.

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Difficulty: Easy
Tipps: Kite all day. Shyvana has no sustain and will most likely push the wave to your tower and start counterjungling. Always buy a Sight Ward upon recalling to ward your red/blue.

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Difficulty: Hard
Tipps: Singed will be as annoying as possible. He will go total tryhard-mode, as the game progresses and will rape your face if you let yourself be kited into his Poison Trail. Playing super-agressive pre-6 is the only thing which will help you post-6, because he will simply **** you up once he gets his Insanity Potion.

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Difficulty: Easy
Tipps: No match for you. You outrun his Nevermove easily with Stand Aside. He can't handle your harass pre-6 and even after getting his ultimate, it's hard for him to heal up against the high amount of damage you deal.

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Difficulty: Hard
Tipps: Another burst-assassin. He will jump at you and deal massive damage adn the worst about it is the silence which disables your escape-combo. Stay passive.

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Difficulty: Medium
Tipps: His Blinding Dart will decrease your damage, but only your autoattack-damage. The bonusdamage of Spinning Axe and Wicked Blades will still be applied. He still is a bit annoying but he can't render you useless like he does with many other champions.

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Difficulty: Easy
Tipps: He's like a better Shyvana in lane. He has more sustain and pushes like a boss, if he goes Phoenix Stance first. If he goes Tiger Stance first, you will have an easy lane.

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Difficulty: Medium
Tipps: His earlygame is extremely weak, so try to force him out of lane as early as possible. Once he hits Level 9 he will be able to cast his Transfusion non-stop and be hyper-sustained.

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Difficulty: Easy
Tipps: Pretty the same as Hecarim. He has no sustain ( Chosen of the Storm is only availlable every 2 minutes if he drops below a certain health-percentage) and is pure-melee with no pushing-capabilities.

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Difficulty: Medium
Tipps: If you are too passive, he will simply outsustain your harass. Try to force him out of lane early because he can set up ganks if you have bad positioning.

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Difficulty: Medium
Tipps: He lacks damage without the proper items and is quite manahungry. Harass him when he tries to go for lasthits.

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Difficulty: Hard
Tipps: He has some high damage early and sustain. Some Xins will try to get one or two hits of his Three Talon Strike onto a minion to knock you up with Audacious Charge followed up with some autoattacks.

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Difficulty: Easy
Tipps: He can't do much against you. Harass him as much as possible and if he tries to cast spells on you, just outrun his ghouls, they're slow as hell.

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Difficulty: Hard
Tipps: When he uses Living Shadow in a straight line in front of you, use Stand Aside to prevent him from using his damage-combo. Try to force him out of lane early and deny his farm. Don't let yourself get hit by his passive too much, once you're under 50% of your health and try to heal up.

Summary

Thanks to jhoijhoi for her BBCode-Guide, which can be found here.

To end this guide, enjoy some music (: