Skill Sequence

ABILITY SEQUENCE
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18


Having Spinning Axe with two axes spinning and one off cooldown before a fight is generally how you will have maximum damage. Blood Rush before you catch an axe will maximize your DPS. Leading your spinning axe into the enemy and then using Blood Rush can be a very effective way of bullying your lane. Your Stand Aside can stop every gap-closer in the game except for Vi and Malphite ults. Position well for your ultimate always. Be wary of your opponents and their damage potential. Your Stand Aside and Whirling Death have cast times so using Stand Aside right before your ult will give you maximum damage/utility and make the most efficient use of your champion.

One of the deadliest mistakes you can make is not activating your spinning axe before it expires - this can lower your DPS considerably. You’ll be stuck with only one axe for ~10 seconds, and your friends will all laugh at you.


Items

Offensive:



Defensive:



The Bloodthirster first is godly, and next you can go either Infinity Edge into Zeal / Last Whisper or straight into Phantom Dancer if they built no armor. Normally I go The Bloodthirster into Zeal/ Last Whisper.

Why these items? The Bloodthirster gives the most flat AD which scales incredibly well on Draven. As it is incredibly cost efficient it is generally a great buy in almost every game. Follow it up with a Zeal, Last Whisper, Phantom Dancer and Infinity Edge or necessary defensive items follow suit. Potential defensive items include Randuin's Omen, Guardian Angel, Warmog's Armor, and Banshee's Veil, depending on enemy type and strength.

Depending on the item builds of the opponent, you can change your build slightly. If you have a massive lead and your opponents are not building armor, Infinity Edge instead of The Bloodthirster (but followed with a quick Vampiric Scepter!) is great for chunking down people instantly. Watch your auto attacks do more damage than enemy AP Carries’ spells!

Noob Traps:



Sword of the Divine is not very effective as the Criticial Strikes do not apply the bonus damage from Spinning Axe. Thus all the critical strike items have no synergy but are built anyways since it will maximize your overall DPS in your end build. Zephyr is too expensive and the utility it gives you is not vital on Draven. On an AD Carry, if you eat CC and don’t have Cleanse, you’ll probably die, tenacity or not. Blade of the Ruined King is not very effective as Draven looks to kill opponents down extremely fast and the low AD and passive are simply not damage effective with Draven's kit.

Situational:



Sometimes Phantom Dancer is skipped for more burst damage. While Phantom Dancer is cost efficient and vital in a max DPS build it is necessary to maximize your damage from ultimate if positioning well vs champions like Singed is impossible. Stacking pure damage is fine in situations where you are behind since a well-placed ultimate can easily chunk 50% of the enemy backlines health.

Very rarely, you might see the need to build an early The Brutalizer into The Black Cleaver. This might come up once every 100 games against multiple AP carries that build armor. The health and armor penetration could be just the right mix to pull through.
Even more rarely, Frozen Mallet can be a 5th or 6th item. Most of the time you’d rather grab red buff though.


Early Game

Starting:

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OPTIONAL


Doran's Blade with Lifesteal Quints is good in non-sustain lanes. Sometimes it’s worth investing in many potions or Long Sword / Health Potion if the early game might go terribly wrong. If you find yourself behind very early, try a Elixir of Fortitude to give a quick stat boost back into it.

Friends:



Anything that will have presence in lane is a good partner. Kill lanes and sustain lanes are fine but not as reliable as generic poke supports. Leona, Taric, and Blitzcrank are all extremely aggressive lanes. Janna and Lulu provide neutral lanes that can play defensively or go aggressive in a second’s notice. Soraka and Sona provide passive or push-heavy lanes. Thresh can be played in any style, that champ is OP!

Early Strategy

With golem advantage you can crush your lane opponents by hitting level 2 first. Double golems spawn at 1:40 and with careful kiting, you can kill them without suffering much damage then arrive to lane in time to get all the creeps. If the enemy has that advantage, you must take great care for the 1st level especially if they are double poke. Since Draven has no early escapes, many lanes will all-in if they hit level 2 before you. After taking note of that, Draven generally out-trades AD carries very well so always position to trade 1v1 and avoid trading if both of them can hit you back. Never walk into a Taric Dazzle, always try to walk away from it. Remember, Draven is a lane bully and an early-game powerhouse. If there’s a chance for you to go for a kill, take it! If the enemy carry tries to fight you, fight him back! BE A MAN!

If the jungler will have a lot of kill potential make sure to play safe around ~3:20 (or 2:10 if they start red). These are prime times for sneaky enemy ganks that Draven will have no counterplay to.

Draven is very strong at csing and shoves lanes naturally to keep his axes up. 100 CS at 10 minutes is a realistic goal with enough practice. Always practice, it's very obvious when you make improvement in your CS if you play 1v0. Never trade too much harass for a CS, it's always game dependent. Remember that a health pot heals 150 HP and costs about as much gold as 2 creeps, so if you are taking more than 2 hits per 2 creeps that you kill, your positioning needs improvement!


Mid Game

You should play your mid-game based explicitly on how your early game went in all lanes. Are you playing well but other lanes are struggling? Try to farm to ensure a lategame victory. Are all lanes even? Look to force an objective to take advantage of Draven’s early-game damage. Are you losing? Try to group and push to even the global gold score.
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After an early The Bloodthirster, Zeal is a fantastic second item to help you get around the map and add to your midgame DPS. Against enemies stacking armor or fed tanks, grab a Last Whisper instead.

Start teamfighting as soon as you’ve established a dominance over the enemy ADC and are free to fight while he’s forced to farm, OR when your allies are all far ahead in their lanes. Farm for lategame when your teammates are struggling. Always stand in the back and wait for CC to be blown before you engage. It’s critical that you don’t get stunned before you can output damage. In a situation where you’ve caught an enemy out of position, go all-in but be wary of a counterengage. Kite, kite, kite, and DPS. Use your Stand Aside to help get away from diving champs. As soon as enemy tanks are forced to back off under your crushing axes, go straight for enemy AD carries.

In the midgame, Turrets > Dragons > Barons > Kills. If you have the option to push rather than dive, then push! If you can force an enemy back then grab Dragon, don’t get greedy, take the global gold. Never force a Baron when you’re not 100% sure you can get it. While Draven DOES do immense damage to the beast, getting caught with Baron’s AD debuff can spell a world of pain for you.


Synergies

Since Draven is so strong in lane, he can be picked and do even or better in almost every match up. If your team has peel and a reliable frontline then Draven can simply shred everything from the tanks to the backline. Draven is especially adept at ‘pick’ compositions that focus on singling out an opponent rather than an AoE clash. Because of his astronomical single-target DPS, Draven excels at knocking down champs one by one.

Draven would not work well in a poke comp, as he brings relatively small poke of his own. In a situation where he won't get any protection whatsoever, or his team is full of assassins, Draven will also struggle. That means if your allies have picked Nidalee, Akali, Diana, Lux, Xerath or Talon, reconsider your Draven pick.

Generally anything can work with his tremendous power. If your lane partner can eat the focus of enemy champions then Draven can easily overpower and destroy the enemy duo. Taric and Lulu are examples of champions that bring everything that Draven needs to lane – defensive peel, offensive CC, and a steroid or buff. They both do decent damage themselves, so by presenting an offensive threat, they take pressure off Draven.


Enemies

Dravens biggest weakness is that he can be camped hard by strong junglers and CC lanes. Also without enough experience, double-poke lanes might destroy you. When far behind, a poke lane or a sustain lane might snowball an advantage very hard if you don't change your playstyle. As Draven doesn’t have a dash or Flash, Taric’s targeted stun and burst are very strong against him in lane. Draven can self-peel to a small extent, but champions with multiple gap-closers ( Diana, Akali, Ahri ) can wreak havoc on him in teamfights.

If the enemy early-picks Xin Zhao, Volibear, Jarvan IV, or any other FOTM jungler with early durability and CC, make sure your allied support player has the CC to protect you. Early wards save Dravens!

Caitlyn and Taric are two of the hardest laners for Draven to go against, and the two of them together are almost too much for him to overcome. Miss Fortune fares well against Draven depending on the support that each of them has.