IGN = Kyner, I'm a Diamond Draven Main

Catching axes is just the tip of the axe-berg (gotem) with Draven, Understanding the way of the spinning axes, how to AA animation cancel to manipulate axe-drop location, and knowing his power spikes in lane will help you obliterate people and look like an absolute god while doing it.

Draven I think, is the strongest Attack Damage Carry in solo queue game if he's played correctly. However, in order to maximize his impact and become a GOD TIER DRAVEN, you'll need to maintain strong micromanagement.

In this guide I will focus on his mechanics, build paths, how to carry the game as a snowballing Draven, and how to start snowballing Draven to start carrying the game as this snowballing Draven to snowball the game as a snowballing Draven.

This guide will help you become a Draven god.

Play Video

Primary: Precision

Press the Attack

Press The Attack gives you the most reliable and efficient DPS throughout all stages of the game. It is excellent for sectionalizing (Staying in range of single targets without being in range of other threats in team fights) as well as providing your team with 12% more damage to the enemy. Even if you fall behind, this is still insanely useful to have on any adc.

Triumph

More survivability in lane fights, team fights. It is slightly worse however than Overshield against diving assassins or burst mages. I would recommend Overshield against these types of champions instead.

Legend: Bloodline

Survivability, 8% lifesteal at full stacks, strong csing and a few kills will give you this bonus very quickly which gives you sustain in lane against strong poke champs, draven's only real lane problem.

Cut Down

A MUST to maximize DPS especially when sectionalizing as I mentioned earlier. Strong against tanks. Coup de Grace is simply not efficient enough to bring to the table, there are not going to be many instances where someone with less than 40% health goes into Draven range, it's just not efficient. Cut Down is simply better because it's more optimal, and you will do more damage with it throughout the entirety of the game.

Secondary: Sorcery

Celerity

Scales super well with Bloodrush. When Bloodrush is active at max rank you gain an extra 20 AD, your axess do an extra 30 damage 20 minutes in.

Gathering Storm

Turns you into a beast late game. The 20 Attack Damage along with Celerity and Summon Aery just work super well together, that 14 attack damage at minute 20 might not seem like a lot, but it adds up. Nullifying Orb is a strong option as well against heavy AP.

LVL 1 - LVL 2

There are way too many specific instances with different match ups to give you an all around "Heres the best thing to do everytime" but here I can explain to you what Draven is strong at doing, and how you can gain a Health advantage in lane to give you priority (Priority means that you win 1v1) and take control of the lane and how the game progresses from bot lane.

Draven wins trades,simply put. He does not lose an auto attack trade 1v1. He punishes enemy ADCs trying to last hit with his speed boost, and all ins better than any ADC in lane because he cannot be escaped if he is catching axes and lands his Stand Aside. He is the definition of a lane bully. Abuse this.

Early, always push for level 2 advantage and look for an early all in with your support, if it goes well you might get a kill, or you might get their flash and at the very least gain control of the wave early. DO NOT GO HOG WILD AND TAKE A ****TY TRADE BECAUSE YOU ARE TILTED THAT YOUR SUPPORT ISN'T HELPING. Chill. If your support isn't following up with the level 2 advantage by atleast pressuring or trade stancing to some degree. Politely ask them to follow up when you ping. Draven wins hard at 1v1 trades, which means that if your supports are even, your duo will win the trade. This is very general, think about what will happen before you go in for a trade before deciding to do so.

If your support lacks reliable crowd control, take Stand Aside second instead of Blood Rush. The pressure of the slow and draven autos will scare the **** out of them.

LVL 2 - LVL 5

Trade Stance

Use your Blood Rush to run up to enemies and Auto Attack them when they go to last hit, be respectful of the enemy support and don't bait yourself into a large enemy minion wave, though, you should constantly look to harass. Draven does a lot of damage, but if they bring ignite into lane, be respectful of the kill pressure. Draven doesn't have a strong escape, but it doesn't make him immobile.

LVL 6 - LVL 10

At this point you should have your Vampiric Scepter and Serrated Dirk , give or take, and you can start looking to all in. Assuming you and the ADC are even at this point (which if you trade stance, position properly and harass efficiently, won't be the case) you will win the all in 2v2 in every situation, unless you eat all of their CC and damage. Try to bait out their maxed ability, and then go ham.

End of Laning Phase

Take turret, gain map control, Roam for Mid Turret, Dragon, or Vision control of their jungle for picks and look to start snowballing the game.

Weaknesses

Spinning Axe

Standing Still:

Your axe goes where you are going unless you are standing still when it hits the target.

If you are standing still, your Spinning Axe will land in 1 of 3 spots, right on top of you, slightly to the left, or slightly to the right, of the direction you are facing.

Moving:

Where your Spinning Axe lands doesn't depend on luck and doesn't include any RNG (It's not random). Draven's Spinning Axes go exactly straight ahead where you are facing and a certain distance depending on your movement speed, WHEN THE AXE HITS THE TARGET. For example, if you are facing West and moving when your axe applies damage, it will go exactly straight where you are facing, and a distance from you, depending on your movement speed. It's very important that you do these 2 things very consistently to maintain consistent Spinning Axe control now that you know how they work.

1. Auto Attack Animation Shortening.

Get the tempo of your attack speed down and learn how to feel it. You don't want to lose DPS and you don't want to cancel your autos by moving too soon, but you can find that happy medium where you can move for a longer period of time between autos, and you do that by clicking to move after autoing as soon as you can without cancelling your autos, generally it's like 0.3 seconds.

This takes practice, and requires that you feel it out. Once you feel it, you'll be able to manipulate the axes with no problems at all, you'll find it's harder to drop them. It's very easy to lose your DPS though, and can cause you to cancel autos, so be careful.

If you are cancelling, you are trying to auto quicker than your Attack speed, if you aren't doing as much DPS you are moving too long in between autos.

2. Consistent Kiting / Movement

As I said before, your Axes are very specific, there isn't any RNG to where the axes land when you are moving. If you are moving in the exact same direction, they will go in the exact same direction.

When kiting always try to run exactly parallel to the enemy, or if you are DPS ing it is better to run exactly perpendicular, creating a circular zone around them.

Try to imagine the circle you have to be in to auto them, and run around the very outskirt of that.

Blood Rush

Always use immediately before you catch your Spinning Axe this will give you an instant reset to give you that speed boost and the option to use it freely

Stand Aside

Draven's E, Stand Aside is a very strong soft CC engage and disengage. Stand Aside can cancel a lot of enemy abilities and gap closers, executing these cancels correctly make the difference betweeen a Draven Master and a Draven Casual, here is a list of what it's able to cancel consistently. I tried to include viable cancels only, it can cancel any channel of any sort, except for ultimates that are used an engage generally. So it can't cancel Malphite R, Vi R, Jarvan R. Though it can cancel a lot of annoying gap closers, which makes it super useful.

Lee Sin Q and W
Sonic Wave
Safeguard

Vi Q
Vault Breaker

Caitlyn E and Ult
90 Caliber Net
Ace in the Hole

Tristana W
Rocket Jump

Jarvan E Q
Demacian Standard into Dragon Strike

Leona E
Zenith Blade

Jayce E
To The Skies!

Pantheon W
Aegis of Zeonia

Gragas E
Body Slam

Rengar Passive
Unseen Predator

Riven in General
Valor
Broken Wings

Ziggs W
Satchel Charge

Diana
Lunar Rush

Akali R
Shadow Dance

Fiddlesticks R
Crowstorm

Shen Taunt and Ult Channel
Shadow Dash
Stand United

Gnar Hop
Hop

Fizz Q
Urchin Strike

Thresh Lantern
Dark Passage

Teleport Channel

Death's Dance

Build from Vampiric Scepter when you are against assassins and champions that burst you that lack Hard Crowd Control. Very strong against champions like Zed and Talon or Katarina but not as optimal as building Quicksilver Sash against champs like Annie.

Mercurial Scimitar

Do not rush Mercurial Scimitar it's better to pick up Quicksilver Sash and finish your Infinity Edge as your third item than to finish Mercurial Scimitar as your third item. Only grab Quicksilver Sash if they have hard CC (Crowd Control) and it's too difficult to avoid it from positioning, or if you find yourself being zoned out of fights by the threat of their hard CC.

Guardian Angel

Very strong against AD assassins or Heavy AD teams as well. Buy if you find yourself unable to DPS in fights without being one shot by Zed or Talon

Death's Dance is does more damage but if you are lacking any peel or disruptors on your team, it would be better to take Guardian Angel instead.

If they don't have any tanks, and are running an all AD comp like Yasuo top and Zed mid then in that case take both.

Lord Dominik's Regards

Very simply, build against tanks with more health than you. If their tank is ahead and having a large impact on the game, build Lord Dominik's Regards before Infinity Edge to deal with the tank. Always build around the strongest enemy champion if you are behind.

Mortal Reminder

Build if they have a lot of healing, if you're against Fiora, Darius, Soraka and especially if they aren't as tanky. It does not do as much damage as Lord Dominik's Regards so it will not always be the better armour penetration item. Try and get your midlaner to buy grievous.

If you are laning against a Soraka always rush exectuioner's calling and then wait until they start buying armour to upgrade it.

Maw of Malmortius

Very strong against mages with limited CC (Crowd Control) especially Syndra. It is rarely better to take this item instead of Quicksilver Sash into Mercurial Scimitar but if you are finding that you are being one shot by Syndra, Veigar ult or Rumble and other Ability Power champions with minimal CC then it is better to take this instead of Quicksilver Sash.

It gives you a 10% lifesteal bonus, up to 300 magic damage shield when you fall below 30% health and 20 extra AD when the lifeline triggers.

Bloodthirster

Very strong on Draven, however it is 200 gold more than Death's Dance which does give him more surivability against bursting champions. Bloodthirster does give 20% lifesteal which is 5% more lifesteal than Death's Dance but they have the same 80 Attack Damage while Bloodthirster gives you an overshield compared to Death's Dance giving you 10% CDR and 15% of the damage dealt to you is converted to a bleed, to prevent you from being one shot.

This is personal preference, this item should never be rushed early, it is far too expensive and does not help you snowball the game. If you find yourself being one-shot, it's a strong item. However it is personal preference between buying Bloodthirster or Death's Dance

Statikk Shiv

If your team is behind and lacking waveclear, Statikk Shiv remedies that very well, it also does the most damage when it crits, so if you are ahead and don't feel threatened by their champions and want to snowball, Statikk Shiv will give you the most burst damage.

It will lower your DPS (damage per second) if you take it instead of Phantom Dancer so be careful that you don't hurt yourself if you can't maintain the pressure and end the game early from your snowball.

Rapid Firecannon

Immense snowball pressure, long range Axes that can chunk enemy carries to half health, and potentially one shot them with Infinity Edge definitely a strong buy for zoning enemy carries. However it is weaker against tanks, so be careful that you aren't sacrificing your maximum DPS and that you are using it properly.

This item is a tool in itself, it's strong at poking and seiging. It's a weaker DPS item. Constantly look to get that one auto on a squishy, and back off until you can win the fight. Or turn it into a number advantage by poking them out. It is very strong at what it does, but it must be used correctly. Can also provide safer damage in extended team fights.

Ninja Tabi

If the enemy team's major threats are primarily AD, if they have AD assassins or Dive in anyway, this is important to pick up. Also if their team comp is all AD.

Mercury Treads

If their team has a fed Brand Zyra Syndra or is primariliy AP and has point and click Magic Damage coming your way, you need to survive it in order to impact the game if they manage to come into contact with you.

If you have any questions at all, please ask.