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Draven Build Guide by mcdnldsmngrxdd

ADC (SEASON 15 SPLIT 2) [ALL MATCHUPS & SYNERGIES] Challenger Draven Guide

ADC (SEASON 15 SPLIT 2) [ALL MATCHUPS & SYNERGIES] Challenger Draven Guide

Updated on May 8, 2025
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League of Legends Build Guide Author mcdnldsmngrxdd Build Guide By mcdnldsmngrxdd 52 4 125,868 Views 9 Comments
52 4 125,868 Views 9 Comments
League of Legends Build Guide Author mcdnldsmngrxdd Draven Build Guide By mcdnldsmngrxdd Updated on May 8, 2025
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Runes: Lethal Tempo

1 2 3
Precision
Lethal Tempo
Triumph
Legend: Alacrity
Cut Down

Sorcery
Absolute Focus
Gathering Storm
Bonus:

+10% Attack Speed
+9 Adaptive (5.4 AD or 9 AP)
+65 Base Health

Spells:

1 2 3 4 5 6 7
Default choice
LoL Summoner Spell: Barrier

Barrier

LoL Summoner Spell: Flash

Flash

Threats & Synergies

Threats Synergies
Extreme Major Even Minor Tiny
Show All
None Low Ok Strong Ideal
Extreme Threats
Ideal Synergies
Synergies
Ideal Strong Ok Low None

Champion Build Guide

(SEASON 15 SPLIT 2) [ALL MATCHUPS & SYNERGIES] Challenger Draven Guide

By mcdnldsmngrxdd

PSA: REMEMBER TO HOVER OVER THE NOTES TO READ THEM. WITH THE SEASON CHANGE I'VE MOVED A LOT OF STUFF AROUND AND HAD TO ADD AND REMOVE SECTIONS.





TABLE OF CONTENTS:

INTRODUCTION 1:



Social Contacts:
Discord - @mcdnldsmngrxdd / Tunkkimuna#6415
Twitch - https://www.twitch.tv/mcdonaldsmanagerlol
Contact my discord for coaching. Rates are $35US an hour.

Who am I?
I'm Mcdonald's Manager, I've been Challenger since Season 7, to those who know the name widely regard me as the best player to touch this champion.

Some of my greatest achievements have been:
  • 80%+ winrate to challenger
  • 70%+ winrate 1k+LP challenger
  • 44W-1L to masters
  • 99W-0L and managing to throw the last game (99W-1L)
  • peak Rank 1 & 2 early season
  • peak Rank 13 end season

I've managed all this while never having a setup of my own, which some find that hard to believe. I've went from place to place borderline homeless but through the kindness of strangers providing me a desktop to play on, currently I get around by playing on my brothers laptop and wifi internet. Even through it all I've prevailed with strategies and systems I've developed on my own through extensive self-research and trail and error, psychological tricks that I've yet to see/hear discussed by anyone else.


Throughout my years I've met a lot of players too scared to play Draven because of the mechanical prowess required to navigate the rift with him, I'm here to teach you that even if you have limited hardware or think you have bad mechanics, you can not only just succeed, but EXCEL with Draven. So strap in as I teach you everything you need to know to think like a Challenger, whether you're an aspiring Draven player or a veteran looking to sharpen his gameplay.

Why no Hail of Blades anymore?

Hail of Blades - HoB in my opinion isn't really that viable anymore, due to domination tree being gutted with the new season and AD being removed from the item, metas swapping around, I believe that precision + sorcery work very well together. hover over the notes on my rune page and items. As this was orginally a HoB guide I've had to change a lot of stuff around and did some revamping, please leave a comment if I've missed anything or I have outdated/conflicting information with builds/items. I just wanted to get something out there for you guys since I'm busy on my rank 1 climb, thanks to you guys I've been able to buy a setup and were currently 1400LP going strong, I really appreciate all your guy's support and those who are stopping by for the first time I hope you enjoy and feedback is appreciated. :)

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

STRENGTHS AND WEAKNESSES 2:



Strengths
Strong laning
Great trading potential
Snowballs very quick when ahead
Lane agency
Trading kills is Draven favoured
Strong mid-game
Versatile
Rewarding to learn
Zoning/Objective control

Weaknesses
Low range
Easily poked
Limited mobility
Vulnerable to ganks
Easy to shut-down
Weak late-game
Hard to comeback
Low transferable game-knowledge
Challenging to learn

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

HARDEST MATCHUPS-COMBOS 3:


Game losing threats

Samira + Nautilus / Maokai / Rell
Nilah + Nautilus / Maokai / Rell
Caitlyn + Bard / Zyra
Yasuo + Leona / Nautilus / Maokai / Rell

Outscaling threats

Senna + Tahm Kench / Swain
Lulu + Kog'Maw / Twitch
Seraphine + Sona / Senna

Poke threats

Ashe + Lux / Xerath / Karma / Zyra
Ziggs + Lux / Xerath / Karma / Zyra
Jhin + Xerath
Ezreal + Xerath / Vel'Koz / Lux / Zyra / Karma
Xerath + Zyra / Lux / Vel'Koz / Ziggs / Karma
Lux + Seraphine / Zyra


General tips & tricks vs hard matchups

Gamelosing threats: These are going to be your hardest matchups, besides levels 1-3 you are going to hard lose at every point in the game to these combos, but that's not to say they're unwinnable. The most important thing you can do against these champions is to NOT DIE if you need to give a wave, give a wave. Your best bet is sitting back and making sure your waves are good, our goal is to farm passive stacks and hope for an opportunity on getting an execute with R stacks or a kill. If we can escape laning slightly behind Gold/XP or even; then we've made it through the hardest part of the game. Solo carrying is out of the question (unless you are monstrously ahead), you are going to need to be team reliant. Wait for your team to help you deal with these picks towards mid/late game, do everything in your power to help your team deal with them, teamplay is your saving grace. If you're unable to deal with them that is okay, help your team in whatever way possible, whether that be dealing with their top, mid, and or jungle, or simply sacrificing resources to make sure your team stays ahead (I.E dropping a wave to secure an objective) the more your team succeeds the more you succeed.

Outscaling threats: Besides beating you extremely hard late game, most if not all you'll stomp in laning. Deny them the opportunity to scale and make sure they stay behind, the mistake a lot of Draven players make is repeatedly pushing in every wave under their tower. While you do create lane pressure and agency you're allowing them to freely farm and soak XP, fight for level 2 prio and slow push a large wave. Once under their tower you can either stay to poke them down, or recall (This is referred to as a cheater recall) This will put your wave in a state that'll push back to you, if you stay do not hard shove. Thin the wave out so they can't crash it, (make sure the enemy minion wave has more than yours by no more than 4). This will put them in a state of panic where they either have to stay to shove the wave in, or reset losing 1-2waves of Gold and XP. This is when you want to be looking for kills or trades to force them into making a terrible decision. Once you want to reset, transfer your freeze into a slow push, do this by simply matching your minions to the amount of minions they have (or up to -1 or -2) keep them off the wave and await your next wave. Once next wave comes kill as fast as possible and reset. When you've created a sufficient lead, look for diving opportunity / dragon/ roaming plays.

Poke threats: Poke picks are solely designed to shut you down and fully deny you your chance at snowballing. Due to Draven's lack of mobility options (not having a dash), short range (no long-ranged abilities to assist farming), and choreographed movement patterns (picking up axes). You become a very easy target to hit skillshots on and zone if they have the correct tools to do so. Laning is going to be miserable until you have items to deal with them, just like "Game-losing threats" try your absolute best not to die in lane. If you're struggling to stay alive buy early lifesteal ( Vampiric Scepter), the weakness of their picks is once you've caught them out, they don't have any tools to survive besides Flash (exceptions: Satchel Charge & Arcane Shift) Look for opportunities to catch them out and force extended trades, this will likely result in them burning Flash which is very beneficial for us. Having flash advantage is the determining factor between getting a kill and not, evaluate whether you win an all-in or not, if your support is in position and they've overstepped, go for the kill. After laning phase is over life becomes easier, but that doesn't mean you're out of the storm just yet. Still look for those same opportunities even after laning is over because they're going to start looking to deny you enteries into team-fights. Have your team escort you into the fight OR you can force the enemy into you by threatening to obtain lane prio over the objective you're fighting over. As a general rule of thumb, it is best to play diagonally against most skillshot champions, that way there's a minion wave between you and them.

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

REDACTED 4:



READ THE NOTES ON THE RUNES


__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Tips & Tricks 5:



I've included everything you need to know into 1 clear video, the manuscript can be found in the description box on the youtube video

One trick not included is E buffering, same as R buffering, you simply wait till the target is about to stun you and you press E. This can be useful to cancel abilities, most noteable examples: || Warwick - Infinite Duress || Malzahar
- Nether Grasp || Nautilus - Dredge Line || Leona - Zenith Blade ||
Full speed:

Slowed down:


Items & Summoner Spells 6:



For the bulk of Items & Summoner Spells I've included everything you need to know on the front-page. (situational items, full build alternatives & other summoner spells) You can access this by hovering over the "NOTES" or clicking the "NOTES" dropdown menu if you're on mobile. This section will only include my full build and my default Summoner Spells as an indepth explanation to why I choose to itemize this way.

Bloodthirster - This is my go to 1st item, it's an all around well balanced item that allows draven to survive and stay on the map longer than most other ADCs, it makes poke matchups a lot more playable and trading very forgiving. Look to try back on BF sword on your 1st-2nd back as not being able to finish BF is going to put you at a massive component disadvantage to the enemy which in the early game is super important.

Youmuu's Ghostblade - An alternative to Bloodthirster into short trade comps and champions, movement speed creep has become a very glaring issue in this game and it's only becoming worse. You can't deal damage to the enemy if they're always faster than you. You'll almost always be faster than your opponent to fights and rotations, having the power to cut-off and zone, or being the first to lane puts you in the driver's seat to command the enemy to play into you rather than you play into them. A very powerful concept to learn and practice, don't be afraid to use the active off-cooldown to get to places, better you use it than not use it at all, with it's low cooldown it's quite an effective tool and sometimes can even replace the need to finish boots till a good ways into your 2nd or 3rd item. If champions are 1 shotting you, definitely look into this item rather than bloodthirster as lifesteal is pretty meaningless if you die before you get to use it :P

Lord Dominik's Regards - 2rd being lord dominik's regard, it synergizes with both lethality from Youmuu's Ghostblade & The Collector providing much needed armor pen. After running all the numbers, this item is mathimatically proven to be the best, even if the enemies aren't building armor, if their base armor surpasses 70 it outdamages Infinity Edge while being 500 gold cheaper. Beyond just numbers and DPS, Lord dominik's allows you to build entirely situationally after as you won't be outscaled by defensive stats.


Infinity Edge - in most cases I'll go Infinity Edge 3th if I'm going Bloodthirster if you're going Youmuu's Ghostbladeconsider going The Collector 3rd, you can hover over the tank draven notes for more information on guardian's angel 3rd. due to already having Lord Dominik's Regards bought, IE with Bloodthirster deals the highest DPS out of all other items. The reason why it doesn't with Ghostblade is the lethality synergy.


The Collector - If you're going Youmuu's Ghostbladeconsider going The Collector 3rd due to the synergies on lethality and the armor pen from LDR, for what this item gives, it simply isn't matched. The passive synergy with Draven will pick up those kills that would've otherwise gotten away. Compared to other alternatives The Collector simply outdamages. Other options like Opportunity + Long Sword (3050gold) falls short in DPS even after the nerf.



REDACTED - HOVER OVER NOTES ON BUILD.

Flash & Barrier - are your go to summoner spells. Barrier is an all around good choice and should be your default whenever deciding which summoner spell to take. Into burst comps such as lucian consider Exhaust, into heavy CC like leona consider Cleanse
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Gameplay 7:




Gameplay is going to focus on the 3 main stages of the game, early - mid - late. This is going to focus solely on snowballing and creating a lead. If you're unsure how to deal from behind, refer back to chapter 3: hardest matchups and individual matchups in the counters & synergies section.

Early game: Building a fortress/starting a slow push - early game pressure is 1 of the most important things you can have, and it all stems from the first wave. There's a lot more you can do with the wave other than shove it in repeatedly into the enemy










(From left to right) 1st image: as can be seen the first and second wave I've managed to secure a minion lead. I am close to my minions to deny Kai'Sa walking up entirely or from isolate Icathian Rain, standing behind the wave also denies Blitzcrank landing Rocket Grab. If Blitzcrank were to throw a hook I have a free passage way to poke Kai'Sa out entirely.

2nd image: Now that cannon wave has arrived, I have maintained my minion advantage and have improved on it. I am a complete cannon up now with an HP lead on Kai'Sa. building upon the same idea, I stay behind the minion pressuring them into making a decision. If they take the fight they will lose, if they back off we'll get a free recall, in only 2 waves I have built myself a fortress, an unbreakable wall.

3rd image: With Leona holding choke in the 3rd bush it has allowed me to walk up completely. Kai'Sa ignoring this threat attempts to walk up allowing Leona to hit her Zenith Blade. Kai'Sa now having lost the trade completely, loses her HP bar and ends up using both her summoners, talk about great value!

4th image: The aftermath had resulted in both Kai'Sa and Blitzcrank losing both of their summoner spells, Kai'Sa had lost almost her enitre HP bar aswell. This sets up an incredibly easy dive resulting in Draven cashing out and Kai'Sa losing the entire cannon wave and more.

Once reset, the enemy's wave will slow bush back to you. Because we've just gotten a lead, we can allow this and Kai'Sa can do nothing about it. If she tries to, she will be punished and die, making the situation worst, which is what ended up happening this game.










1st image: As we can see, the minion wave has thinned out from tower to 6 vs 3, therefore pushing back towards me.

2nd & 3rd image: Kai'Sa desperately attempting to fix this wave trying to avoid a catastrophe from unfolding, happens to walk directly into Leona's trap, getting hit by Zenith Blade and dying due to not having Flash having burned it from earlier. I am freely allowed to walk through this wave having disjointed Blitzcrank's recall timer from the earlier dive. It doesn't take a lot to get the ball rolling, once you've built up pressure the enemy can often times crumble incredibly fast.

4th image: Since we didn't push the wave in, the Kai'Sa and Blitzcrank are suffering greatly, they're unable to gain gold let alone XP. Out of desperation, the Blitzcrank has walked up too far, and gets caught for it. Without him having Flash from earlier, he is as good as dead. As for Kai'Sa although she is safe staying outside Leona's range, her lane is as good as over.

Aftermath: With her wanting to reset after the whole exchange, I hold the wave at my tower until she does. I then transition my freeze into a slow push allowing me an excellent back timer further pushing my lead. In 6 minutes, I have created a 1.7k gold lead, and a 3 level lead in a Grandmaster/Challenger game.


Transfering that lead into the mid-game: Now that we're up a healthy chunk of gold, after we get first tower were going to rotate to the mid-lane. We're going to establish mid-lane prio by making sure our waves are pushed towards the enemy to create map pressure.

Since I have established mid prio, and with my team pressuring for dragon. This gives me free access to the entire side of the board, which allows me to waltz into their jungler and catch their Vel'Koz out. With the minions pushing mid I'm able to see Kindred on the map. Knowing fully where she is at I can collapse on her with Leona or assist Karthus & Ornn kill the overextended Kai'Sa. Knowing how far behind Kai'Sa already is, I leave those 2 to deal with the bigger threat Kindred, an added bonus is she is already in mid-lane, the lane I want to be in.

Now in mid-game, we need to set ourselves up for success. How do we do that? By securing objectives and maintaining map dominance.




1st image: while no objectives are up, I am creating map threats the enemy is forced to respond to. This allows mid and top to gain pressure, as they'll be no enemies in it, I will get my recall off and initiate the tactic I was planning for the whole time, to rotate back on over to mid so I'll have mid prio in time for dragon.

2nd image: Now that dragon is spawning soon, I now have complete dominance over mid-lane. Since the enemies were distracted with bot-lane (the lane I just pushed out) I'm freely able to control mid lane and almost both halves of the map! really goes to show how important lane-pressure is

3rd image: We're now able to all collapse on Zed and Kindred due to that deadly pressure put mid-lane, we've successfully forced them into a bad trade costing them dragon and 2 shut-downs. A mistake that can often times be game losing,


Late game - finding ways to end: Mid-game and late-game for Draven aren't much different, The only difference is these fights are a lot higher stakes. 1 misplay can be game-losing and 1 good play can be game-winning. Things are a lot less scripted and you'll need to adapt & adjust on the fly, try to stay mid-lane as pushing sidelanes as Draven is incredibly risky and will result in death more times than not if you're not careful.


















1st image - positioning yourself correctly in a teamfight: Due to our lack of midlane presence, aswell as Vel'Koz and Zed running from there, they've created a barrier between us and our mid-lane escape route, if we were to force it, it would end very horribly. Thankfully we have well established bot prio, we want to play towards the side where we have priority, this is where we want to pressure towards while killing dragon. Dragging the fight away from Vel'Koz's & Zed's position has made them almost completely obsolete as by the time they've arrived to the fight we're well on our way back to base a dragon ahead.

2nd image - picking and choosing our objectives: Evaluate what it is you can, and can not get away with. Due to our toplaner Yone dying we've lost our entire hold on mid-lane, although next dragon for us is soul we simply can't punch through mid to make that happen. We shift towards topside and take baron nashor as fast as possible. Just because you can't get the objective you want, doesn't mean you shouldn't create agency elsewhere on the map and take something of near value. This is a common theme for top-laners and can be done on Draven aswell with his ability to create agency and take objectives & towers with relative ease.

3rd image - always having escape routes while killing the enemy: Dying in an end game fight is 1 of the worst things that can happen. If you're the only 1 performing on your team, dying can result in losing your grip on the game or straight up losing instantly. This is why when poking and pressuring the enemies, it is very crucial to make sure you've got somewhere you can run to when things don't go in your favour. Although we're only fighting a 3v3, Draven & Kled are at half HP with Jayce & Senna coming to assist their teammates. This fight can go very sour very quickly, even with baron minions serving as a wall for skill shots, it's still very important to be warry of any potential threats of overstaying. IT IS VERY IMPORTANT TO PLAY SMART, there is a difference between playing smart and playing safe. It's better to die as a team than sit back "playing safe" and let them fight a 4v5. Evaluate what it is your teammates want and work with them, because I stayed and fought them off, we ended up winning instantly after that teamfight, 1 bad fight can determine your entire game. We all make mistakes, some less than others, the most important thing to do is be critical of yourself and evaluate what you could've done better, even if you think you're not at fault.
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

The Conclusion/Item set importer 8:



If you made it this far, thank you for reading, I really do appreciate it. If you found this guide helpful, give it a like and share it with others, if you disliked it down vote it and leave a comment on what I can improve on future guides. For additional help as stated before, I offer personalized coaching session aswell as stream at https://www.twitch.tv/mcdonaldsmanagerlol , if you have any questions or comments please put them below or send them when I'm streaming, if you need to reach out contact me on discord: @mcdnldsmngrxdd - Tunkkimuna#6415.

-Mcdonald's Manager




Item set importer:

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