Hello, and welcome to my second build ever on Mobafire, for none other than Draven, The Glorious Executioner! Having played him on the Public Beta Environment for the week prior to this, as well as multiple games on the live server, i feel that i am qualified enough to be giving advice to players who are just picking him up now, and wish to learn tips and tricks on this incredibly fun champion. While i'm no professional by any stretch, and am rather new to making guides, im hoping that you find success when using my guide, and would appreciate if you would leave feedback as to how you liked my guide in the comments. Without further adieu, ladies and gentlemen, Please enjoy my guide to Draven!

It would mean a lot to me if you guys could check out my buddy's Draven and Darius builds on here. For some reason we cant figure out, even when we both post our builds at almost the same time, his dont show up but mine do. We both opened accounts on here on the same, so were pretty confused as to why this is going on. Here's the link for those willing to check it out!


Thanks in advance! And if anyone has any idea why this is happening, please post a comment on his build!

Edit: To make things easier, i added GorillaPimping's two builds to my own, at his request. Credit for the 2nd build and Dominion build go to him!

-Pros-

• Really interesting kit and playstyle
• You get to have a really high attack speed, always a good time
• Really powerful attack damage buff with Q, similar to Darius and his OP Q ;)
• Sports one of THE coolest skins in the game

-Cons-

• Semi Squishy
• The urge to catch your Spinning Axe often leads an unskilled Draven to his death
• Kind of a pedophile, Often accused of lurking while there is an Annie on the team

Draven's role as an AD carry means that he is best played in bottom lane, with a support. When i play Draven with friends, however, i found that he works well with another AD carry at bottom, such as Darius, doing major damage to the enemy laners. This is personal preference however, and most likely will be met with failure if you try to replicate this strategy in ranked ;)

• Wicked Blades (Passive)
  
  Wicked Blades is a passive similar to Darius's, but different at the same time. While not every attack of Draven's will apply the bleed to the enemy, every time he crits or hits them with his Q, they get a bleed on them, draining them of health over 4 seconds.
  
  
• Spinning Axe (Q)
  
  As Draven's Q is the center of his kit, it is only logical that one would max this by 9 first. Putting one point in this at the start is essential for it to play off of his E, and it also inflicts a bleed, one of the benefits of his passive (similar to, but also vastly different than his brother, Darius's passive. Draven does inflict a bleed on enemy champions and minions, but only one stack, and it is only inflicted on critical strikes and when Draven uses his Q). His Q does not always return to where you were standing; in fact, it will only do so when you are standing still (and even then, there is a chance that it will falter off to the side). However, after the axe leaves your hand, the game tries to estimate where you will be in the next couple seconds, and tries to get the axe to land there. If you right click towards your turret after the axe leaves your hand, then the axe will land closer to your turret then the enemy champions, for example.
  
  
• Blood Rush (W)
  
  Draven's W is a very short movement and attack speed buff (Attack speed buff lasts longer than the movement speed buff) that refreshes when Draven catches an axe. this should be picked up second or third, but maxed last.
  
  
• Stand Aside (E)
  
  Draven's E is a move that pushes enemies aside, and applies a short slow to them. While focusing on throwing and catching both of Draven's axes, this ability is easily forgotten, as it does not refresh off of an axe catch. However, if you are chasing an enemy Champion, not only does it apply the useful slow for catching up, it also pushes their minion wave to each side, allowing you to easily catch your axes while chasing. Take this at level two or three, but max it second as it is another source of damage for Draven, and the slow is invaluable. Leveling it early also nets you a very handy cool down reduction, increases the duration of the slow, and by just how much the enemy is slowed, important for stopping them in their tracks and earning yourself a kill.
  
  
• Whirling Death (R)
  
  Ah, Draven's Ultimate. A Global Ult that works similarly to Ezreals, except for the fact that it does a bit less damage, but has the ability to turn around and return to Draven. It's crazy, and it might sound crazy powerful, but you need to keep a few things in mind while using it. Draven hurls both of his axes in a straight line, anywhere on the map. However, there is a catch. Each champion that the ultimate passes through, causes the move to deal progressively less damage over time. As well, as soon as the ultimate hits a champion the move begins to slow down, and eventually turns around to come back to Draven. The moment it turns around, though, the damage debuffs it obtained after passing through enemy champions disappears! While the debuffs are reapplied as the ultimate passes through champions on the return, this ensures that the person to receive the ultimate in the face first takes just as much damage as the person in the back, in the end.
  
  Oh, one more thing about his Ultimate. Draven can turn it around whenever he wants. Lets say you misjudge your timing by a hair, and you throw the ultimate across the map towards an enemy trying to run back to base. but to your dismay, you threw it too far ahead of them. They think they have won, and its a sad day for Draven. But of course, they haven't. Just as they thought they were safe, the axes come whirling back down and pick up the kill, and your team rejoices at how amazing you are, and you go and relish in Noxian women. Just an average day for Draven ;)

Draven's role as an AD carry means that you should always be one upping your counterpart in the other lane, as far as attack damage goes. If they have 90 AD, you should have 100 AD. Building Draven straight attack damage is often not a very safe path, however, so i will explain how i build him, and how each item will help you.


I've noticed that while Draven's Q scales with attack damage, and stacking him with a ton of AD seems viable, he ends up moving a lot to catch all the axes he throws. In my experience, a good way to counter the DPS he loses while he is walking, is to build some attack speed right off the bat with some Berserker's Greaves. That way, when you have two spinning blades up (Yes, Draven's Q can allow him to have two axes readied at once!) you will be able to do a ton of damage while on the run.


Mercury's Treads give you invaluable tenacity that really really helps Draven, whether he be in lane or in a teamfight. Having the time on stuns reduced is always a safe route for an AD carry, as they will likely be focused in teamfights, and being able to get away sooner is never a bad idea. (The magic resist is always helpful, too)

Buying two Doran's Blades is generally a good path to take while you are playing Draven, as they give you a decent amount of lifesteal and allow you to one up your opponent in lane AD wise. Trading damage with Draven is very important if you want to make sure you don't slip, and begin to feed the enemy. Any time your enemy damages you, you generally want to try to match, or if possible, do greater damage to them in return, so they don't get the upper hand. IF you manage to get a few lucky kills off the start and you already have your boots of choice, it is possible to grab a Pickaxe from the store as well, to further your damage output and begin building your Infinity Edge, and for those who are REALLY snowballing like crazy, if at all possible, buy a B. F. Sword instead. This will put you much further ahead of the enemy and allow you to not only get a huge attack damage boost, but get you a great start on your Infinity Edge. HOWEVER. I have never taken this path, and would only suggest it if you are certain you will not fail to trade damage with the enemy when they come back, likely with their own Doran's Blade.


These two items are really important to every Draven build, and personally, i dont think i would ever build him without them. Both items have modifiers that give Draven a HUGE critical strike chance. This is important, because Draven's passive, Wicked Blades, inflicts a bleed on the enemy with every critical strike. If you boost his Crit chance, attack damage, and attack speed all at once with just these two items, it puts you ahead of the enemy by a tremendous amount. I used to prefer building my AD carry's with Bloodthirster as soon as possible, to give myself extra sustain, but have since discovered that getting that later is a more viable option for Draven, and likely most other AD carries. however, i DO like to grab a Vampiric Scepter, so i am not left without much sustain. Force of habbit, maybe? But this should especially be done if you did not pick up Doran's Blades at the beginning, for whatever reason.


My friend and I had a discussion about this one. He suggested that Draven could utilize Black Cleaver fairly well, as it gives Draven three things he loves: Attack Damage, Attack speed, and Armor Penetration (sort of). While this is all true, and some certainly prefer this, in my oppinion it is better to go with the Last Whisper. Black Cleaver does give you attack speed, and a fair amount of attack damage, but the third attribute really isnt Armor Penetration. Each consecutive strike with said item lowers the enemies defenses, but it requires you to attack over and over again repeatedly to be effective. The armor reduction also doesn't scale nearly as well as Last Whisper's armor penetration does, and so although it gives you less of a damage boost and no attack speed boost, Last Whisper is the choice id rather go with for shredding armor.


Bloodthirster, when full, gives you 100 damage and 20% lifesteal. Late game, this bonus is huge, and if you don't die often you get to keep the item full, which helps you keep your health bar full. its win win, and the attack damage takes precedence over a defensive item such as Banshee's Veil, in my opinion.


In my experience with Draven, i have either won or lost the game too early to tell you which one of these items works better on him. On other AD carry champions, i would usually go with a Banshee's Veil, as the Mana boost is nice as well as the occasional life saving spell shield, against jerks like Veigar. Whenever I take Guardian Angel, I am usually targeted the second i am revived again, as the other team is frustrated they didnt get the easy kill on me they anticipated. I usually take this if i am playing a character such as Riven, who has extremely high evasiveness with all her jumps and dashes, giving me the option to get out of there as soon as im back up, or turn arond and fight. If you find yourself fighting an AD heavy team, taking the Guardian Angel might not be such a bad idea, for the 68 armor, but it all boils down to the situation and personal preference in this case.

It was brought to my attention that i should check out the effect that Sheen would have on my game. Until now, i hadn't heard of Sheen's passive, and i'm sure that just by mousing over the name in this paragraph, you can see where i'm going with this. By grabbing Sheen as soon as you have your Berserker's Greaves and Doran's Blades, you will be able to non stop activate Sheens passive every single time you catch your axe and activate your W. Although this is a difficult technique to master, if you can successfully do so you will be absolutely DOMINATING early game, leading to an amazing late game. Something to keep in mind!

When playing Draven, there are actually a few summoner spells i would suggest trying with him to maximize your success. They are, in terms of preference, as follows:

• 

  Flash

  
  I am nearly always seen sporting Flash as one of my summoner spells. As Draven has no built in escape mechanism other than his movespeed buff and slow, it is important for him to take Flash to negate the disadvantage he has put on him.
  
  
• 

  Ignite

  
  Next to Flash, i usually have Ignite with me so that i can be sure i pick up a kill on someone as they try to run away, behind their turret. Having your bleed and ignite on them is a lot safer, and more likely to kill them, than you chasing them through their turret, and making the exchange 1 for 1, rather than a kill for you and none for them.
  
  
• 

  Heal

  
  For players just picking Draven up for the first time, or still trying to get the hang of his axes, it is recommended that you pick up Heal in order to negate any damage you may take trying to catch an axe that bounced a little too close to their turret
  
  
• 

  Cleanse

  
  Many of my friends use Cleanse while playing with Draven, as the spell allows you to get rid of any stuns or slows on you. this works well with Flash, as it lets you escape nearly any attack. It also helps you deal a bunch of damage, by making sure you catch every axe that bounces off the enemy. Even if they manage to stun you and try to disrupt your catches, you are able to remove the debuff and grab your axe for another throw.

Any other summoner spells, i would not recommend, simply because of how much better the previous spells could work for you. If you find yourself doing great with a summoner spell not listed above, then you can go right ahead and keep using it, i'm not your dad ;) these are just the ones that work well with his abilities, in my opinion.

The masteries i have set up on Draven work best with someone using the spell Ignite. It would be wise to change the masteries depending on which summoner spell you choose, i.e. moving a point out of Summoner's Wrath into Summoner's Resolve if you have Heal, and not Ignite.

Draven, although he may not look the part, is a ranged AD carry. As such, i build him with runes that allow him to tear through their armor from afar, utilizing Armor Penetration marks and 3 AD Marks. As he is an AD carry, defense against all types of harmful things is necessary, and as such i equip him with Seals of resilience, and glyph's of warding. For quintessences i use three Quintessences of strength.

Why do i use glyph's of warding, and NOT mana regen per level, you may ask?

Draven's most used ability, his Q, throws his axe at the enemy, dealing bonus damage equal to a percentage of his AD. While the move itself costs 45 mana, if you use it correctly and catch his axe every time he throws it, you will not need to cast the spell again, as you automatically (and at no cost) ready another spinning axe for throwing.

Farming with Draven is interesting. Once you proc your Q, your attacks become much more powerful, making minion waves a very minor threat to anything in your lane. However, you need to be careful knowing this. If you want to keep your lane a little pushed, to let your Jungler come in and help you with a kill, you need to make sure not to use your Q to dominate the minions. Simply last hitting will make sure that you not only keep your lane reasonably frozen, but allows you to pay attention to the enemy and know when to initiate. Instead of you juggling your axes like an idiot and having your Jungler buddy charge in right under your nose to his death, you will be able to activate your Spinning Axes and throw your E, Stand Aside, slowing the other champion who was dead from the start.

Draven excels at chasing Enemy champs, surprisingly. His Q is quite smart (a move, being smart, who knew?) and will cause the axe to fall in your path if you are running. this way, if you are chasing the enemy you will not need to stop every second to stand under your axe and catch it. You can run at the enemy, axes a-spinnin, and pop your W for a speed boost. Hit the enemy with your Q, catch it, and repeat! Keeping that in mind, Draven can also use this mechanic to escape. While running away, pop your W, Throw your axe, (laugh as you watch the axe FLY across the map to land in your hand) Catch your axe, W, Repeat, and you're safe!

Using your E is also a good plan in both of those scenarios. DON'T FORGET ABOUT IT D:
Using it to slow them down right before they reach their turret is a good plan in a chase, and slowing them if they are gaining on you too much is also viable, if you are the prey.

One more tip: If you are a fan of playing custom games or normals, like me, it is important to know that when playing against another Draven, it is possible to steal their Spinning Axe's from right under their nose, denying them their source of damage, as well as giving yourself a readied axe to throw. Try to use this to your advantage, but don't be reckless with this knowledge, and don't put them in a position where they can do the same to you!

(Thanks to Sliptrigger!)

In closing, Draven is crazy fun to play and super original. I'm really bad at ending things with a bang.. so, please rate and comment on my guide! i hope you found it useful, learned something new, and have tons of fun playing as Draven, The Glorious Executioner!

"Draven out!"