Hello everyone this is my second guide here on Mobafire, and this time I'll be focusing Draven The Glorious Executioner, which is my favorite ad carry of the League.
Well I believe that nowadays Draven is bit underrated, when you see professional players always picking carries like Ezreal or Corki, or even Graves, people tend to forget about some other good ad carries.
Well whenever I see or play as Draven, I really think that people underestimate Draven and underrate him.
So here in this guide I'll show why Draven can match any other 'top' ad carry, or even overpass it. Draven has a unique gameplay mechanism and has an absolutely stunning damage output if used correctly.

LORE: "'The best' is wherever I decide to set the bar each day."
Unlike his brother Darius, victory in battle was never enough for Draven. He craved recognition, acclaim, and glory. He first sought greatness in the Noxian military, but his flair for the dramatic went severely underappreciated. Thirsting for a method to share ''Draven'' with the world, he turned his attention to the prison system. There he carved out the celebrity he desired by turning the tedious affair of executions into a premiere spectacle. At Draven's first execution, he shocked onlookers when he ordered the doomed prisoner to run for dear life. Just before the man managed to flee from sight, Draven brought him down with a flawless throw of his axe. Soon, all Draven’s executions became a gauntlet through which Noxian prisoners raced for a final chance at life. He used this trial as his own personal stage, and turned executions into a leading form of entertainment. He rallied onlookers into a frenzy, while desperate prisoners scrambled to evade him. They never succeeded. Rejecting the solemn, black uniforms of Noxian executioners Draven donned bright outfits and developed flashy signature moves to distinguish himself. Crowds flocked to see Draven in action, and tales of his performances spread quickly. As his popularity grew, so did his already-inflated ego. He belonged at the center of attention. Before long, the scope of his ambitions outgrew the population of Noxus. He decided that the glorious exploits of Draven should be put on display for the entire world.

Well in this chapter I'll list some of the supports I think that match the best with Draven, and explain why:

- : Blitz is a support that matches perfectly well with almost any ad carry champion, if you're support really knows how to play Blitz, he'll buy you some time with the combo Rocket Grab + Power Fist; with this combo he'll pull ur enemy, stun him briefly and knock him in the air, u can probably gain almost 2 seconds, if you spam basic attacks with your Spinning Axe on [Q] and you use your Blood Rush buff for some more attack speed, you can easily nuke out your enemy, it's pretty easy to deal first blood with this combination;

- : Sona is good cause you heal whenever she cans, Sona can deal good damage, can slow and buff, basically, you won't be able to play that aggressive, like with Blitzcrank, but it will give you a lot of sustain, and once you and your Sona support reach level 6, with Sona's Crescendo, you can easily nuke your bot lane enemies, using your ultimate Whirling Death as well;

- : Here's another champion, that in my opinion, fits very well with Draven's play style. Nunu & Willump has that Ice Blast that can deal some considerable damage, but most of all, will slow your enemy for a couple seconds, this again, will give you time to trigger your Spinning Axe and your Blood Rush buff and chase down your enemy, being able to slow him again using Stand Aside ; Another thing is, Nunu & Willump is very tanky and has some good sustain as well with his Consume;

- : Well a bit like Nunu & Willump's play style, instead of slowing, Taric can actually stun any foe for 1.5 seconds, plus he can deal some damage, again you come with your Spinning Axe + Blood Rush combo;

- : Alistar is like a bodyguard for Draven, you can farm easily if you have Alistar as support, he can protect your pretty well, and can do some combos with Draven. Alistar can use his Headbutt to throw the enemy towards you, you should slow him using Stand Aside and then start using basic attacks with Spinning Axe. Alistar can also Pulverize and stun your enemy, then you should repeat the same combo ahead, plus when reaching lvl 6, Alistar becomes really tank with his ultimate Unbreakable Will, which will make it easier for a turret dive;

Notice that, to maximize the effectiveness of these combos you should master Draven's Spinning Axe mechanism, for full damage output.
These are, in my opinion, the supports that fit well with Draven, If you find any other support good with him, please share, im always willing to upgrade and learn.

I'll list some of those champions, I believe, that counter Draven:

- : Fits well with any carry in the game, but it's a living nightmare for the opposite carry, try to avoid his Rocket Grab, Power Fist and his nuke + silence skill Static Field, if you manage to keep ur distance and hide between minions, Blitz won't be a problem;

Since Draven is not an ad carry with long range, I think that if you catch an enemy player that pick a carry with more range than and he plays aggressive, I think you might have some problems, and probably you'll have to play defensive and wait for the right time to strike:

- : Here, the only problem I can see here is that, Cait is actually the ad carry with the longest basic attack range in the game, and if she wants to harrass you, she can easily do it just spamming auto attacks; And try not to fall to critical health or she'll use her ultimate Ace in the Hole and knock you down, unless you find cover on your support;

- : He's a bully can can cause you some troubles if willing to play aggressive, he can send you his Noxian Corrosive Charge and then spam his Acid Hunter insta locking on you, which will deal some considerable damage, you'll have to play carefully and avoid those high range strikes;

- : Bit alike Caitlyn's explanation, he has more range than Draven and can poke you with basic attacks, the problem here is that, his Q ability Piercing Arrow as the most skill shot range in the game, and if he manages to mark you with 3 stacks of Blighted Quiver, if he strikes with his Q, those marks will detonate and deal some considerable damage to you, plus, Varus can poke you and then he can just use his ultimate Chain of Corruption to immobilize and finish you; so play carefully and use an advantage, Draven is quicker than Varus, he has all that range, but is actually a slow *** xD

These are the ones, that I believe will cause more trouble to Draven, of course you should avoid assassins or burst damage champions that can nuke you easily, like LeBlanc, Akali, Rengar or Fizz, or maybe even playing carefully against a tricky Teemo, if he goes a bit more AP with some attack speed, he can use his Blinding Dart and kill you with basic attacks + poison; you should be careful;

In this section I'll list some champions that are piece of cake for Draven;

- : Squishy carry, with no escaping mechanism (besides Flash), you can kill her easy with your Spinning Axe triggered and slow her with Stand Aside, careful with Frost Shot, cause it can turn dificult to catch your spinning axe;

- : Extremely low ranged carry, has that Tumble skill that can avoid some of your Stand Aside strikes, but once you manage to hit it, you can easily nuke Vayne, at level 6, be careful cause her damage increases a lot when she turns on her Final Hour ultimate, as well as gaining invisiblity for 1 seconds when rolling;

- : Even having more basic attack range than Draven, Ez is really really squishy, and if you manage to poke him 2 times with Spinning Axe (at champion lvl 1), you will surely drop Ez's health to half; He has that Arcane Shift skill that allows him to escape some messy situations, but once he uses it and you manage to land your Stand Aside you will nuke Ez easily;

- : Yeah, a support, Soraka as we know is really really annoying cause of that silence spam and constante mana and health refill on your opponents, but if you have your Spinning Axe on, that silence wont really affect you, so you can spam your basic attack on Soraka, then use Stand Aside to slow her down and finish her, Soraka is really really weak and squishy when it comes to defense;

Well there are many other champions that you can drop easy, like a squishy Annie, Sona, LeBlanc (when hitting first]], any ap carry or assassin, if u manage to time your attack and strike by surprise, you can nuke any carry in the game;

Draven's skills are based in attack damage, none of his skills have ability power influence, so lets check his abilities:

Wicked Blades (Passive): Whenever Draven deals a critical blow, it cause enemies to bleed and take damage for 4 seconds [(30 damage + 4 x Draven's level) so 102 damage at level 18); Draven's Wicked Blades also trigger whenever Draven hits with his Spinning Axe;

Spinning Axe (Q skill): Draven's next basic attack will deal an extra (45/55/65/75/85% at level 5) his attack damage as bonus damage and his axe will flip into the air; a marker will appear on the ground, that will be the place where the axe will land; If Draven catch the axe he can send another Spinning Axe;
Draven can have 2 Spinning Axes at once;
This is basically a skill that increases your damage output as long as you can control the axe;

Blood Rush (W skill): Draven's movemente speed increases by (40/45/50/55/60% at level 5) for 1.5 seconds and his attack speed increases by (20/25/30/35/40% at level 5) for 3 seconds;
Catching a Spinning Axe will refresh the cooldown on Blood Rush;

Stand Aside (E skill): Draven throws his axe in a line dealing (70/105/140/175/210 + 0.5 per bonus attack damage), knocking the enemies aside and slowing them by (20/25/30/35/40% at level 5) for 2 seconds;

Whirling Death (Ultimate): Draven sends out two massive blades damaging all units on the way by (175/275/375 + 1.1 per bonus attack damage) reducing by 8% for each unit hit, down to a minimum of 40%. This effect resets when Whirling Death changes direction. Whirling Death changes direction back to Draven when hitting an enemy champion, reaching the boundaries of the map or upon reactivation;


Well for a better understandement of Draven's skills mechanism I suggest you take a look at Draven's Champion Spotlight, pay attention to the first 3 minutes os the video and it'll show you how the skills work.

Since Draven is an AD carry champion, here's my suggestion of which runes should be use to improve Draven's power:
9 x Greater Mark of Attack Damage;
9 x Greater Seal of Armor;
9 x Greater Glyph of Attack Speed;
3 x Greater Quintessence of Desolation;

This combination or runes will give you some good armor against the other ad carry, some good initial attack speed and some extra attack damage and armor penetration. This should guarantee you the first blood kill if you play it right.

Here's my personal choice of spells for Draven:

Heal: This is a main spell for ad carry, it can save you many times and prevent you from suffering a first blood kill, as well as healing your near mates;

Flash: Very Useful as well, awesome escaping mechanism combined with your Blood Rush skill, and if you manage to throw a Spinning Axe and catch while running away from your enemy you can spam your Blood Rush skill and escape easily;

OR

If your support doesnt use Exhaust, you can always have it;

Exhaust: You can have it, it will slow your opponent and reduce is capacities, usually your support has this spell;

Ignite: Ignite is a very used spell, in my opinion, you don't really need it on draven, I'd rather have Heal, Ignite deals true damage for some time, its good when your oponnent tries to leave with low HP left, although Draven has his passive Wicked Blades that deals damage over the time; but you use Ignite if you have a support like Soraka or Sona which have some powerful heals;

Since your Q skill will be the base of your ad carry play style i suggest starting with Spinning Axe at level 1 and max it as soon as possible;
Go for Stand Aside at level 2 for some crowd control (slow) effect, but max this skill at last;
As usual upgrade your ultimate Whirling Death at 6,11 and 16;
Get your Blood Rush once you hit level 3 and once you're done with Spinning Axe, max it next;

Draven is a pretty good farmer, you can easily last hit minions to get your gold, and this is easier if you have your Spinning Axe active, you don't really need to wait until the minion is really low cause you hit real hard.
Once you have some good attack damage and attack speed you don't really need your Spinning Axe active.
Begining at level 1, many players choose to start with Boots and take a few Health Potion, if you start like this, you'll have to time your last hits on minions, even with Spinning Axe, cause you start with basic attack damage (+ runes and masteries), so it can be a bit harder, but if you start with a Doran's Blade, you will notice a great difference in early game farming, cause you have some more attack damage (+10) and some good 3% Life Steal;

Well here I'll show my item list for Draven and explain why I use it.
Notice that this list can suffer some changes depending on which is your support;

Boots of Speed: you can start with these if you have a support with some crowd control, since you start with boots, your damage won't increase initially, so if you're playing with Alistar or Blitzcrank you can go and pick some boots and Health Potion. Whenever you can, manage to upgrade your Boots for some Berserker's Greaves;

Doran's Blade: this item will greatly increase your damage in early game, even more if you trigger Spinning Axe, but you will become slower and more vulnerable to early game ganks or even escape from a 2v2 lane fight; so I advice picking Doran's Blade if you have supports that can sustain you, like Soraka with HP and MP refill, Taric, which has stun, that can buy you some time to escape from dangerous situation, or even Janna, that will passively increases your movement speed, a bit, and has some crowd control as well; So you should evaluate your support, the other teams bot lane before going for a starting Doran's Blade;

Well my first 3 items on Draven are actually Doran's Bladex2 and Berserker's Greaves, with these 3 items, you already have some good movement speed, 6% life steal, 20 extra AD and some more health, this will reflect on your damage, when triggering Spinning Axe;

B. F. Sword: This is the next item to buy on Draven's item list, this will dramatically increase your damage (+45) outupt and will make it sweet to farm, you don't even have to put that Spinning Axe on to hit those minions, you can farm pretty well;

Vampiric Scepter: Next item that will give you some sustain, cause you'll have 16% life steal, if u didnt sell those Doran's Blades;

The Bloodthirster OR Infinity Edge: Well both are key items on Draven's item list, but this decision on which to get 1st, will depend on the course of your game, if you face a very powerful lane, you should go for Bloodthirster so you can have some awesome Life Steal (20% max stack) and 100 Attack damage max and notice you will only spend 900 golds, cause you have Vampiric Scepter already and B. F. Sword; OR if you just want to nuke your enemies, you can go for Infinity Edge, which will give you an amazing critical hit strike damage, critical hit chance, but notice that will have to spend 2180 golds, cause you only have B. F. Sword, so you can buy Pickaxe early and then you will only need 1205 golds;
Notice that both these items can be key items on Draven's item list;

Zeal: Now that you have either Bloodthirster or Infinity Edge, you have some good attack damage, but if your choice was Bloodthirster, you aren't doing much criticals, so Zeal will be good, even if you picked Infinity Edge, this will give you some good attack speed (+20%) and movement speed (+6%); finish this Zeal updating It to Phantom Dancer (+55% attack speed, +30% critical hit chance and +12% movement speed);

Phantom Dancer: Very important item on Draven's list, boosts your attack speed, movement speed and critical hit chance, very useful item for Draven;

Last Whisper: Once you're done with attack damage boost, attack speed boost and critical hit chance, you should go for some armor penetration, and nothing better than Last Whisper, you'll have +40 attack damage and 40% armor penetration, which will make it easier to nuke your enemies;

Frozen Mallet: Since all carries tend to be squishy, a Frozen Mallet will solve some of those problems, it will give you an health boost of 700, some attack damage as well (+20) and most important, Frozen Mallet's passive is great for enemies who try to escape from you, every hit they take will slow them (by 40% for 2.5 seconds, 30% in this case cause it's ranged basic attacks), so will make it harder for your enemies to escape from your attacks; very good overall item, fits very well in Draven;

My Sugestion (Final Items)

I'll list some items that can fit well in Draven's item list, and explain why:

Trinity Force: This is the most complete item in League Of Legends, it can boost almost every single attribute of any champion, but on Trinity Force what really boost Draven's capacities is Sheen's passive, because since you can spam your Blood Rush, if you control your Spinning Axe mechanism of course, in intervals of 2 seconds ( Sheen's passive cooldown, you will deal 100% extra damage (base on your actual attack damage) with the next basic attack (up to max of 185% extra damage if you deal the hit with Spinning Axe at rank 5: Sheen's effect (100%) + Spinning Axe effect (85% at rank 5);
Phage's passive also triggers when you have Trinity Force, and can be useful as well, although it has only a 25% chance of triggering.
So if you choose to buy Trinity Force for Draven I advice trading it for Frozen Mallet, just remove it from your item list and go for Trinity Force;

Madred's Bloodrazor: This item can be really good on Draven, but you should just go for it if your enemy team has a really great tanky composition, cause Madred's Bloodrazor is an anti-tank item, cause for each basic attack you deal health based damage (4% of targets maximum HP - caped at 120 vs monster), and this can be really good against tanky enemies; Madred's Bloodrazor also gives you a bit of armor (+25), a boost in attack damage (+40) and a boost in attack speed (+40%);
If you decide to get Madred's Bloodrazor I advice trading it for Last Whisper on the main item list; You'll lose some armor penetration, but you'll deal health based damage with each basic attack;

The Black Cleaver: This item can be used on Draven's item list cause it gives a good boost on attack damage (+55), attack speed boost (+30%) and the good thing is its passive which lowers the armor of enemies hit by 15 for 5 seconds (this effect stacks up to 3 times);
If you want to get this item, I advice trading it for Last Whisper, again you'll lose armor penetration, but you'll be able to lower your enemies armor by a maximum amount of 45, for 5 seconds;

Guardian Angel: This is an item that is generally used on every ad carry, grants you some more armor (+68) and magic resist (+38), but what's really interesting here is that you can revive when you get killed (with a 6 minute cooldown), with a good amount of HP (750) and mana (375); well I recommend this if you're playing ranked and team fights are very close, when there's not really a stronger team, trade Guardian Angel for Frozen Mallet on the item list!

Well there's nothing much to say about how to play Draven in a team fight, as you know, since you're playing an AD carry, you will be the primary target for the enemy team, so stay behind your mates and wait for them to engage the enemy team, then start spinning all over the place!! You can use your Whirling Death to 'open' a team fight, but remember: always stay safe, behind your team mates!

In my opinion the only difference between normal and ranked matches using Draven is, you should be more patient and wait for the right time to strike, playing ranked queues you will find harder opponents and experienced players, so play with some more caution but never lose your killer instinct when playing Draven, specially if you counter the enemy team's ad carry.

13/08/2012 - Created the guide; Very simple layout and explanation about Draven;
11/10/2012 - Finished the 1st great update in this guide, adding a:

• Support/Combos section;
• Draven's Counters section;
• Draven's Victims section;
• Summary Section;
• Alternative Items Sections;

12/10/2012 - Update some sections already existent:

• Updated Items Section;
• Draven's Skills Section;
• Summoner Spells Section;
• Farming Section;

Well, here's a little summary about what I think about Draven:

• Extremely powerful ad carry, with awesome burst damage;
• Once you start playing, it will be hard to master, but once you do, you'll be incredibly poweful;
• Usually underrated and underestimated, and you can use that to surprise counter your foes;
• Unique gameplay mechanism;
• Global map Ultimate;
• Can counter every single AD carry if mastered;

So guys, if you ever need any hints or tips about Draven, you can send me some PMs here on mobafire or find me in League Of Legends, EU west server.
I hope you like the guide! Please vote and comment! :)
Thanks!