I'm still working on a few things for this guide. More videos, more information.

I'm not feeling well currently, so updates will be slower than usual.

Hello! My summoner name is Kobu, and I've been an avid League of Legends players for about two and a half years now. Since Draven's release nearly a month ago (from having written this (7/2/2012)), I've been fascinated by this champion. Over the past month of his release, I've practiced and practiced and it's only because of the results I've had that I feel I should share my knowledge.

Before Draven, I was struggling with lifting myself out of 1300 ELO.




So! Clearly, Draven is a competitive AD carry. Before we move on, a BIG WARNING: Draven is NOT easy. What I've learned took weeks of practice.

PRO'S!
- Strong early game
- Strong harass with Spinning Axe
- Medium CC
- Bleeds


CON'S!
- Weaker late game (much depends on how good you are at teamfighting)
- No mortal strike (healing reduction)
- Hard to play (requires micromanaging Axe stacks, cooldowns on W, ...)


Draven is a VERY strong AD hero, with only a few short comings. The SHORTEST of those short comings is the skill required to play Draven correctly. That's what I'm attempting to change with this guide!

Draven does have SOME options with runes. There are a few sets of runes I'd consider:

Set 1 (Standard AD):

This set of runes focuses on being strong the entire game. It's slightly worse than full Armor Pen marks lategame, but makes up for it in it's early game strengths. Additionally, I like to have a little bit of base Attack Damage on Draven for some painful Spinning Axes.

3x Greater Mark of Strength
6x Greater Mark of Desolation Greater Mark of Desolation
9x Greater Seal of Resilience
9x Greater Glyph of Shielding
3x Greater Quintessence of Strength

Set 2: Lifesteal AD:

This set can be used if you're running a kill lane and are looking into using Lifesteal Quintessences. This set is more viable with Janna, given that her Eye of the Storm gives you 50 attack damage (at spell level 5). This build focuses on lategame with pure armor penetration marks.

9x Greater Mark of Desolation Greater Mark of Desolation
9x Greater Seal of Resilience
9x Greater Glyph of Shielding
3x Greater Quintessence of Vampirism

Set 3 (Flat AD):

This set of runes is designed to help you win early encounters in your lane. They give you good durability as well as good damage.

9x Greater Mark of Strength
9x Greater Seal of Resilience
9x Greater Glyph of Shielding
3x Greater Quintessence of Strength


That should finish up Draven's most viable rune choices. Feel free to put whatever spin you feel is necessary onto these runes. These runes are not meant to be set in stone. If you find Movement Speed Quintessences help you catch your axes more often in teamfights, by all means, substitute the runes. This is merely meant to guide you in the right direction.

Draven has some variance in the way you want to do his Masteries, but as an AD Carry, you're gonna be looking at 9-21-0. Masteries go mostly from personal preference, but here are a few solid choices.

Standard AD Carry

This is just a Standard AD Carry Mastery Page. Nothing special. This is the page I use most often on Draven.

Slight Variation

This build opts for points in Havoc instead of lifesteal.

Now we move on to Summoner Spells. There's not a whole lot of variety here, being an AD carry. Here are your options.

- My personal spell of choice. As Draven has no blink, I believe this summoner spell can not be left behind.

- Another spell I prefer. Heal offers many things to an AD carry, especially the ability to bait turret dives. Baiting out attacks and using heal will net you many a kill. BEWARE OF IGNITE. If your opponents have ignite, it's best to use heal early in fights.

- A good spell for AD carry's with the nerfs to heal. Good for countering players who use heal. Not as preferred because of Draven's passive, Wicked Blades.

- A good counter picking spell against an Ashe, or heavy CC teams. Mostly comes down to personal preference. I prefer to get a Quicksilver Sash against CC heavy teams.

Passive: Wicked Blades

Draven's critical strikes deal 30 + (4 × level) bonus physical damage over 4 seconds. Spinning Axe triggers this passive even if it does not critically strike.

This passive is better than it sounds. Your bleeds actually stack, so getting an unexpected kill early (sometimes lategame) is quite common. I owe MANY first blood's to Wicked Blades.
Play Video Spinning Axe

Draven's next attack will deal bonus physical damage. The bonus is equal to a percentage of his total attack damage. The axe will ricochet off the target high up ito the air. If Draven catches it, he automatically readies another Spinning Axe.

Draven can have up to two Spinning Axes readied at once.

Bonus Physical Damage: 45 / 55 / 65 / 75 / 85 % of attack damage
Cooldown: 12 / 11 / 10 / 9 / 8 seconds
Cost: 45 Mana

Your bread and butter damage ability. Ideally, you want to have two axes in play at all times. The mechanics of this ability are a bit complex, so I'll go into detail.

Draven does his best to throw his Spinning Axes in the direction he is currently moving when the axe physically strikes the target. That means if you throw a Spinning Axe at a creep and immediately start running back to your turret, the axe will travel back towards the turret as well. This mechanic should be taken advantage of to catch most of the axes you should be throwing. Get into the habit of moving shortly after your Spinning Axe has left your hand. This will prevent you from losing axes.

The location of where your axes are going to land is shown to everyone in the game, including your enemies. This means you need to be careful where you're leading your axes. Don't lead an axe into range of a Blitzcrank Rocket Grab.

Mastering catching Spinning Axes will define a good Draven from a horrible one. You need to keep track of Spinning Axes both in lane and in teamfights.

Blood Rush

Draven gains increased Movement Speed and Attack Speed. The movement speed bonus decreases rapidly over it's duration. Catching a Spinning Axe will refresh the cooldown of Blood Rush
Cost: 40 mana
Cooldown: 12 seconds
Bonus Movement Speed: 40 / 45 / 50 / 55 / 60%
Bonus Attack Speed: 20 / 25 / 30 / 35 / 40&

This ability is awesome. A short cooldown, AND it refreshes when you catch a Spinning Axe! This is why my guide leaves out Phantom Dancer. This ability is a great tool for burst damage and escaping. It's also useful for triggering Sheen proc's.

Stand Aside

Draven throws his axes, dealing physical damage to targets hit and knocking them aside. Targets hit are also slowed.
Cost: 70 mana
Cooldown: 18 / 17 / 16 / 15 / 14 seconds
Physical Damage: 70 / 105 / 140 / 175 / 210 (+0.5 per bonus attack damage)
Slow: 20 / 25 / 30 / 35 / 40%

Stand Aside deserves more credit than it's given. This ability is actually a VERY strong crowd control. The range is longer than most jungle CC's, so making good getaways is very possible. Additionally, it's AoE, so it's easy to CC both a support and an AD in a tough spot. If that's not enough, it actually disrupts movement based dash abilities. For example, you can cast Stand Aside against a Tristana right as she casts Rocket Jump. She will be deflected, and fall to the ground. This can be used to disrupt dash abilities to kill opponents, or save yourself. The residual slow is only icing on the cake. A great chasing skill, fleeing skill, and channel breaking skill. Great skill.

VIDEO INCOMING HERE

Whirling Death

Draven hurls two massive axes to deal physical damage to each unit struck. Whirling Death slowly reverses direction and returns to Draven after striking an enemy champion. Draven may also activate this ability while the axes are in flight to cause it to return early. Whirling Death deals 8% less damage for each unit hit, down to a minimum of 40%. The damage reduction resets when the axes reverse direction.
Cost: 120 mana
Range: Global
Cooldown: 110 / 100 / 90 seconds
Physical Damage (one hit): 175 / 275 / 375 (+1.1 per bonus attack damage)
Maximum Physical Damage (single target): 350 / 550 / 750 (+2.2 per bonus attack damage)
Minimum Physical Damage (one hit): 70 / 110 / 150 (+0.44 per bonus attack damage)
Minimum Phyiscal Damage (two hits): 140 / 220 / 300 (+0.88 per bonus attack damage)

Feel like the ultimate badass as you hurl two gaint axes at your enemies. Draven's ultimate is an excellent last hitting tool. It's also a great burst damage tool for catching an enemy off guard. Does MASSIVE damage if well aimed.

Generally, I don't think Spell Sequences should be covered, because they're generally quite obvious, but Draven's is more complex, so let's get this started.

If you've paid attention so far, you might have noticed that my skill order is relatively strange. I choose to level Blood Rush to level two at champion level eight. I then leave Blood Rush alone until forced to level it further. This is because the speed from Blood Rush and boots makes your movement speed line up with the rate of falling Spinning Axes. This will cut you some slack in early game encounters in the lane. Pushing towards an enemy while hasted can land you some easy hits, and completely micro free. For this reason, I choose to keep Blood Rush at level 2. Towards lategame you should have a Trinity Force. This will give you runspeed and an on hit slow, so this won't work forever.

Other than that quick note, follow my given spell sequence. As for a general combo to land your spells, this is the most efficient one I've found. Play Video

Draven doesn't have much variety in the items he can build. As an AD carry, he tends to stick to typical AD carry items.

The Canon (Bread and Butter AD items)

Start: Boots of Speed + 3x Health Potion /

From here, you can choose a variety of items. I'll list them in the order you'll most likely want to get the item.

Mercury's Treads are the boots I buy 99.5% of the time on Draven. Unless the enemy team has ZERO crowd control, I'd recommend Mercury's Treads.

I'd get Ninja Tabi only if the enemy team team is severely lacking in CC and you are losing bottom lane.

Infinity Edge is a bread and butter AD carry item. It's an excellent item for Draven, too. Critical strike is good for triggering Wicked Blades and it gives a bunch of attack damage.

Trinity force is a great item for Draven. It gives a LOT of stats that are attractive to a Draven player. Movespeed to track down Spinning Axes, on-hit slows to chase enemies, and Sheen which can be proc'd by casting Blood Rush.

Guardian Angel is a great anti-focus item. Overall an amazing mid-lategame item. Gives both resistances and the passive effect.

Bloodthirster is great for raw damage and lifesteal. These two stats make Draven incredibly hard to kill (through lifesteal) and very painful.

Situational Item(s)

Last Whisper is my most common last item. Just a standard AD item for more AD and armor penetration for lategame.

Quicksilver Sash is an item that should be bought at ANY point in the game if you have a snowballing character with suppression, or you're having issues with CC in general. QSS is one of the strongest items in the entire game, hands down.

Banshee's Veil is another good choice against a heavy magic damage team. Buy a Banshee's Veil if you're looking for more total health (and the spell immunity).

No Phantom Dancer?

NO PHANTOM DANCER. Draven doesn't want attack speed. You want to be focused on catching axes and throwing them. Axes can only be thrown so quickly due to their travel time in their air. For this reason, we stay away from attack speed. Additionally, Draven has Blood Rush.

The support is the most important part of your lane. Ideally, you want a support who wards generously, and has a stun. There are a few champions that do well with Draven.

Good Synergy:

Blitzcrank is my personal favorite support. A well played Blitz strikes fear into the heart of your enemy. His Rocket Grab -> Power Fist -> Stand Aside -> Whirling Death is a great combo for killing enemy AD's quickly.
Play Video Play Video
Leona is a scary initiator. Her initiation combo of Zenith Blade -> Shield of Daybreak -> Eclipse is very deadly. Leona has excellent initiation, stuns, and durability. Her passive combined with Draven's incredibly high damage is a recipe for disaster for your enemies.
Play Video
Running my lifesteal quintessence build is extremely viable with Janna due to the damage Eye of the Storm gives you. Increasing your Attack Damage by FIFTY makes your Spinning Axes hit like trucks (as shown in the following video).
Play Video
Alistar is very strong with Draven. He has solid initiation, crowd control, healing, and durability. All things you're looking for in a support.

Taric is the worst of the supports I would claim Draven has "good synergy" with. Taric likes farm lanes, but a well played, aggressive Taric can do wonders for you.

Bad Synergy:

Soraka encourages boring farm lanes. You're Draven! Take advantage of your early game strength and go out and get some kills. Soraka has no offensive ability, nor any way to CC your enemies.

Another support that loves boring farm lanes. Sona is slightly better(with Draven) than Soraka due to her ultimate, but still not as good as other supports.

Teamfighting with Draven is very difficult to master. You want to, ideally, be thinking one step ahead of your actions at all times. For example, if you're trying to advance towards an enemy with your team, throw a Spinning Axe at a minion, and lead the axe forward.

Advanced Tactics - Bloodrush

This maneuver gives you two Blood Rushes back to back. It's not rocket science, but most guides don't mention it. Throw an axe. Right before you catch the axe, cast Blood Rush(W). When you catch the axe, Blood Rush will cooldown, enabling it to be cast again. This makes for some speedy getaways or quick chases!
Play Video

07/02/2012 - Guide Made.

10/24/2012 - Draven has not been changed yet. Continue rolling all these FotM Ezreals