Disclaimer: Draven is currently by far the most difficult champion in the game. You aren't going to be able to master him in just a couple of matches.
Skills:
Passive:
Wicked Blades (Innate): Draven's critical strikes deal 30 + (4 × level) bonus physical damage over 4 seconds. Spinning Axe also causes this effect even if it does not critically strike.
The passive is alright, but nothing spectacular. It's mainly going to boost your earlygame harrass with Spinning Axe. The proc by crit is fairly redundant because Spinning Axes should be able to keep is up 100% of the time anyway, but it's nice if you happen to land a crit while Spinning Axe is on cooldown, for instance. A built-in mini ignite, allows you to pick up kills that you thought you had missed.
An interesting thing to note is that this skill doesn't benefit from additional damage, so this means that Armor Penetration runes should be the most beneficial for Draven, as long as you can lasthit properly without the additional damage.
Q:
Spinning Axe (Active): Draven's next attack will deal bonus physical damage. The bonus is equal to a percentage of his total attack damage.
This axe will ricochet off the target high up into the air. So long as Draven catches it, Spinning Axe will keep applying to his next attack.
Cooldown permitting, Draven can have up to two Spinning Axes readied at once.
Draven's trademark skill. It just is an all around amazing skill. You are going to be able to harrass the opposition starting from level one, and along with your passive, you are one of the most damaging AD carries at level one. This is an auto attack enhancer, but it rather uniquely doesn't reset your auto attack timer. After this attack hits the enemy, the blade will bounce off them, and catching it gives you another axe to throw.
Mastering this skill is absolutely crucial to becoming a better Draven player. I'll get more in depth later on in the guide, but it's important to note that the axe will lead your movement, meaning that in most situations catching the axe is quite natural. Also, using this in conjunction with Blood Rush makes Draven an amazing chaser and kiter.
W:
Blood Rush (Active): Draven gains increased movement speed for 1.5 seconds and increased attack speed for 3 seconds. The movement speed bonus decreases rapidly over its duration.
Catching a Spinning Axe will refresh Blood Rush's cooldown.
Cost: 40 mana Cooldown: 12 seconds
Bonus Movement Speed: 40 / 45 / 50 / 55 / 60%
Bonus Attack Speed: 20 / 25 / 30 / 35 / 40% An important thing to note is that the movespeed isn't constant. It rapidly decreases over the 1.5 second duration. It only reaches the full movespeed bonus right at the beginning of the move, and rapidly decreases to your normal movespeed by the end of the duration.
By itself, this skill is rather lackluster. A mediocre attack speed bonus that lasts for a short time, and a movement speed bonus that lasts for an incredibly short time, even decreasing during the tiny duration. However, the main selling point of this skill is the fact that catching a Spinning Axe refreshes its cooldown. This enables a skilled Draven player to kite and chase seemingly endlessly, and is an absolutely crucial skill to master.
The last of the normal skills of Draven is certainly not the worst. Even though on the surface the skill looks rather mediocre, in reality it's an amazing skill and one of the best normal skills an AD carry has in the entire game.
Draven shoots out a blade that knocks enemies to the sides, effectively interrupting channels and stunning them for nearly a second, after which they are also slowed for 2 seconds. This is an amazing skill. You can use it to outrange a Galio ulti, to stop a Katarina ulti or a Nunu ulti, to check brushes, to slow down enemies for a chase, to save allies, and so on. The skill deals some damage, but that is definitely not the main point of the move. However, as Draven doesn't really use any mana during laning, this skill is very good to use to lasthit some minions if you are geting zoned. This skill, again, is very important to master and has a lot of potential.
R:
Whirling Death (Active): 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 champions. 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.
Draven's ultimate. It's a global ultimate like Ezreal's, with a couple of differences. First off, after reaching its destination it returns to Draven, hitting enemies for a second time. Second, it's always going to return when it hits an enemy champion or the edge of the map, and Draven can also return it whenever he pleases by pressing the skill button again.
Even though on paper it doesn't seem all that great, and perhaps after trying it our for the first few times it still doesn't feel that great, it still is an awesome ultimate. First off, it has almost no cast time, which is a huge advantage in comparison to Ezreal's ultimate. Second, it deals quite a bit of damage, and can be used to snipe escaping foes. Third, it's amazing for farming and seems to clear entire waves far better than Ezreal's ultimate. Most importantly, though, the low cast time makes it usable as a finisher move in your normal killing combo, because the cast time is very low. Firing this after using Stand Aside's slow and reactivating it at the right time can easily guarantee an undodgeable double hit for a lot of burst damage.
Runes:
The runes are going to be rather standard for an AD carry:
You're going to want 9 flat armor Seals and 9 flat magic resist or 9 magic resist per level Glyphs(Depending on opposing lane). The marks and quints are slightly trickier, though. You can decide to go with flat AD marks and Quints for easier lasthitting, which is a fine choice. However, if you are confident in your ability to lasthit with a slightly lower damage, it might be worthwhile to go with APen marks and AD quints, or even APen quints as well. The reason for this is that your passive scales with APen but not AD, and the difference can be significant while harrassing in lane. Movespeed quints might also be worth considering for the easier chasing and kiting. It's not a huge deal either way, though.
Summoner Spells:
Flash: I believe that Flash is absolutely mandatory on Draven. He has no proper escape moves, and he's going to get dived. There is no alternative.
As for the second summoner spell, I'd go with one of:
Cleanse: My preferred summoner for Draven. He's got no real escape and hence being able to Cleanse and build some distance in between you and your foe is going to be incredibly useful. In addition, useful against Exhaust during laning, as nearly every support is carrying it.
Heal: Heal is very good in the laning, and also has added utility with healbaiting. Limited use in teambattles because of frequent ignites, but is probably the strongest summoner for laning and healbaits are just amazing.
Ignite: This is for laning with an offensive support like Alistar against someone like Soraka, where you want to go for the kills and want to also reduce the healing. However, your lategame is going to be more vulnerable and you really want to pick up a couple of early kills when going this route.
Masteries:
I personally use the standard 21-9-0 ranged AD mastery setup with all the left side offensive masteries and armor, improved defensive summoner, and the health masteries. 21-0-9 is also a good option, and it's up to your personal preference.
Skill Order
I have experimented with a lot of different variations, and this is what has worked the best for me. However, the Champion is still rather fresh, and it's possible that there is a better skill order to follow:
1. Q 2. W 3. E
-> R > Q > E > W
The reason for getting one of each skills at the beginning is simple. At level one, you want to harrass with your Q. At level 2, you want to be able to use your chasing abilities to dish out some heavy harrass. Finally, at level 3 you want your E because it really helps for last hitting and chasing and escaping and is far more crucial to get than an extra 10% of damage for your Q.
After that, you max out Q first because it's your primary source of damage, and E second. I feel that level 1 W is enough for most purposes, because again you don't need a ton of attack speed and because the increased damage and especially the increased slow and the decreased cooldown on E just are really nice. Ulti is taken whenever possible, obviously.
However, this might not be optimal, so feel free to experiment.
Items: First of all: Too much attack speed is a waste on Draven. In my opinion, you only need enough attack speed to comfortably throw two blades at a time. There's no time to fit in an attack in between or it's either going to slow the combo down or require you to double your attack speed, which just isn't possible. In my opinion, a Zeal and the buff from your W is enough.
With that said, the build I personally prefer most of the time is: Boots + 3 hp pots Doran, Berzerker Grieves (Doran, Vamp Scepter if cannot afford BF right away, but Zerkers before either of these), BF Sword (Vamp Scepter if not earlier), The Bloodthirster -> Zeal -> Infinity Edge -> Last Whisper -> Guardian Angel -> Trinity Force
The reasoning for this build: BT and IE add a lot of damage to your abilities and make Q hit like a truck, while with the Zeal you have the helpful movespeed, more crit for IE, and enough attack speed to use your Q as comfortably as possible. Last Whisper can be gotten before IE if people are stacking armor. GA can be replaced with QSS if there's only a single CC you absolutely must avoid at all costs(Urgot swap). Trinity Force vs PD comes down to a simple fact: After PD's MS nerf, they both give the same movespeed, and so the Trinity Force just offers far more than the Phantom Dancer. If the enemies aren't building any armor or you are completely stomping the enemy team, you can go Trinity Force before Last Whisper. However, Last Whisper is an extremely crucial item for Draven because of it affecting all of his abilities, and cannot be delayed for too long.
Spinning Axe: This is the most important mechanic to master. The axe is going to lead you to whatever direction you are going to at the moment you hit your target. If you are standing still, it will either bounce directly at you or very close to you. If you are walking forward, it will bounce forward so that if you continue walking forward continuously you are going to catch it.
Early harrassing: The most simple harrass Draven can do with the Spinning Axe. First of all, you want to have your Spinning Axe ready to go. You can keep it up by using it to lasthit, or you can just activate it as you are about to attack. Then, you will attack the opponent and move backwards before hitting them, running to safety and catching the axe. After this you can continue to lasthit with it, or continue harrassing in the same way. Even at level one you will be dealing over 100 damage per hit, and everyone will be hard pressed to trade with you, so take advantage of it(Unless you're against something like Alistar that can just kill you).
Simple chasing: So let's assume that your opposing support has went back to base, and the carry is alone. How to take advantage of the situation?
You want to first activate the Spinning Axe(It's usually a good idea to have it active beforehand by using it to lasthit), use Blood Rush if necessary to get close enough to the opponent, and then attack the opponent. Move forward before the attack hits the opponent and after it lands, click the indicator for where the blade will land. After you catch it, activate Blood Rush again and attack the enemy with another Spinning Axe. You can begin this starting from level 2, and if they have no means of disabling you or getting to the safety of a turret or building a large enough gap(Flash), then they are going to die to this simple combo.
Intermediate chasing: In order to do this comfortably, you want at least 25% bonus attack speed(Berzerker's Greaves). This is basically the same thing as above, except after the first Spinning Axe, you run forward until your attack timer is up, auto attack once, then move forward to the indicator, pick the Spinning Axe up, and use it and Blood Rush and repeat. This allows you to fit in an additional attack in between the Spinning Axes, adding quite a bit of damage. It might take a while getting used to, but it's very important in order to grab some quick kills when the situation arises.
Advanced chasing: This requires you to have two Spinning Axes active. A simple way to achieve this is to first use a Spinning Axe to assist with your last hitting, and as you are ready to begin the onslaught, activate the second Axe. You are going to be basically doing the exact same thing as with the intermediate chasing, except you will need to make absolutely sure that you are moving towards the enemy every time a Spinning Axe hits the enemy, and that you pick them all up. It should naturally go in such a way that you keep picking them up, and continuously attacking your opponent with Spinning Axes, activating Blood Rush after every other catch. The damage is surprisingly high, and you might kill the opposing ranged carry in as few as 5 attacks if you get the opportunity.
Whenever possible, you should always use the advanced method of chasing. However, sometimes you just don't have the possibility of having a second axe ready, so one of the otheres will have to do.
love the disclaimer, especially combined with the fact that he was released only a few short days ago and that you have enough mastery with every champ to determine which is in fact the most difficult champion
I don't know how on earth you can suggest taking E over W, or not building "too much" attack speed. The cooldown on his E is still 14 seconds, ie, forever an age, and the more levels you have in W, the easier it is to catch your axes and it doesn't even cost more mana with levels. Furthermore building more attack speed makes it easier to throw axes in between spinning axes. Also, having something like 1.8 attack speed with a single phantom dancer makes you wreck turrets.
On June 16 2012 12:57 gtrsrs wrote: love the disclaimer, especially combined with the fact that he was released only a few short days ago and that you have enough mastery with every champ to determine which is in fact the most difficult champion
you add nothing to the discussion and in fact have derailed it.
this guy took the time to type out a guide. he probably has more experience playing draven then most of us. and all u can do is whine and moan.
for the most part team liquid is a haven of intelligence and thoughtful discussions the like of which are very difficult to find on the internet. you unfortunately are not a part of that.
if you dont like this thread then instead of whining about it why dont u make your own or stfu.
but that's just the thing, the TL community as a whole has decided to not make champion topics on champions that were released in the very patch we are currently in on account of the fact that no one can possibly have a solidified build or experience with most yet alone all of the champion's matchups
"more experience playing draven than most of us" is not much of a qualification considering draven is 6300 IP and has been out for just over a week ffs. "most of us" haven't bought draven yet, some of us have bought him and not tried him yet, few of us have bought him tried him and liked him, and NONE of us are qualified to write a guide on him yet
sorry shikyo, love you buddy but this is a little premature imf
and somewhat ironically, i think we as a whole DECIDED to not do early guides after the disaster that was my vayne guide. just go search for the vayne champion thread here and you'll see why. I'M not saying that it isn't the best vayne build. but i think i can conclusively say everyone else agrees it's the worst vayne build.
its not like what he wrote is written in stone. he even said at one point he might be wrong.
i fall into the camp of a guy who got draven and didnt necessarily like him. but i see there is potential there for good things. i picked up a solid tip (arpen affecting passive) already from this guide and its not even done. the guy who wrote the guide has played a fair amount of draven, so if he can make picking up this unintuitive champ a bit easier then i am willing to see what he has to say. nothing says you have to take him at his word, and i think most people who come to this thread realize that draven has not been figured out yet.
that said, i do understand not wanting to make a thread a week after the champ comes out. u should have said that instead of the snide comment u did make.
This guy benefits more from IE first than any other ranged AD because of his passive. He wants as much crit chance as possible, so I wouldn't fault anyone for going Zeal before IE.
This guy is ridiculously hard to play effectively. In addition to juggling axes, you have to determine when to refresh it, when to get the 2nd axe, when to catch it and when not to, etc. Add to it that it's extremely difficult to get maximum value out of his knockback given how it fires, you have to remember to always refresh his W, AND his ult is difficult to aim at long distances and you have probably the highest skill cap in the game.
I agree with PD late being fine, but IE should still be your I WANT IT ASAP item. Also if you're in a bursty lane bot it can be worthwhile to max E over W.
At the moment I usually max W if I have a slow, farmy lane for midgame teamfights but I feel that a maxed E does more bot. As for juggling, to me it seems very easy early on because you can dictate where it moves so easily. For teamfights, I'd consider only using Q for AS resets if it's messy.
On June 16 2012 12:57 gtrsrs wrote: love the disclaimer, especially combined with the fact that he was released only a few short days ago and that you have enough mastery with every champ to determine which is in fact the most difficult champion
Well I have no problems controlling Ezreal or Cassiopeia or Anivia, any other suggestions?
I wonder why I've had more success with BT first instead of IE.
On June 16 2012 16:01 ManyCookies wrote: What are you sissies blabbering about? All ya need is the 5 Ds of Draven; Draven, Draven, Draven, Draven, and the Draaaaaaven. Got that sonnies?
Does his Q scale with crit chance, or does it only apply to base damage e.g Sheen?
The extra damage that Q deals isn't multiplied by crit but you can still crit with the normal damage. Your question is confusing but I guess you're correct.
Maybe it's premature to make a thread but I at least know how to control him while many others don't, it seems. Who does it hurt, anyway? Draven doesn't have obvious controls that you don't need explained like nearly every other champion.
I think he is like Cassiopeia. I think most people regards him as being UP because he is hard to manage. Once people figured out how to manage him in mid/late game teamfights, he will need to be nerfed. Hard.
On July 02 2012 07:09 r.Evo wrote: ... you'd need to actually have a need for the Mana to make use of a Manamune (e.g. Urgot, Yorick) so... sorry, no. bad idea.
I just figured with using blood rush constantly I'n fights you would run through mana fast. But for just teamfights that would be kinda not necessary I guess. Does his q count as an ability or a basic attack or both.
By the way this is naturally really outdated, I'll update everything when I have the time >_>
However I currently think that Draven is a rather situational pick. He has a really short range, no escape, no survivability and no ashe-like CC so I think that he needs a specific teamcomp in order to work well(A lot of CC basically).
However in the best-case scenario, and especially in duels where he's stronger than you, he's just completely impossible to run away from. He also can kite some specific melees really well. The ult also wrecks teamfights.
I'm still not certain about the build, IE PD is a safe option that always works, however the Bloodthirster might be good for the same reason as it is good for Vayne - you are short-ranged and are going to be in the middle of everything alot, and it also gives a nice bonus for all the AD-scaling skills you have.
Trinity Force is still something I want to try out some more, it seems to function extremely nicely with him as it just might be that he needs to weave in and out of autoattack range because of his short reach and then the sheen procs will be the most beneficial, the slow and movespeed are amazing as well.
Also final thing, 25 armor pen runes seems to indeed be the way to go with him. As you're juggling your Qs properly you should get every lasthit regardless and the armor pen makes his passive hit like a truck, along with the higher damage from Q.
In certain lane matchups (I haven't thought about this more specifically but Taric at least seems good) he should absolutely wreck them, especially if they have no proper escape because his W spam is impossible to run away from.
(Repeated some stuff but oh well)
Does anyone have a vod of doublelift playing as Draven? I haven't seen that, would really love to.
Ok so how the hell do you play against him in bot lane?
I was going as graves with a janna vs draven and taric.
I couldn't do anything. If I stepped out and try to farm or harass he would out dps me and I would have taric up on my ass. I feel that our bot comp was counterpicked because I am starting to wonder if an aggressive bot is a counter to draven no?
How does one counter/play against him strategically
On July 20 2012 09:55 heroyi wrote: Ok so how the hell do you play against him in bot lane?
I was going as graves with a janna vs draven and taric.
I couldn't do anything. If I stepped out and try to farm or harass he would out dps me and I would have taric up on my ass. I feel that our bot comp was counterpicked because I am starting to wonder if an aggressive bot is a counter to draven no?
How does one counter/play against him strategically
He's practically MF. Just turn it into a farm lane under your tower. If he's got a support with some cc (in your case Taric), don't get aggressive unless you feel like getting bursted and bleed all over from his passive. Once other lanes are roaming or if your tower falls, you win regardless. Draven can't contribute to a teamfight to save his life. Him taking out bot tower is practically suicide.
On July 20 2012 09:55 heroyi wrote: Ok so how the hell do you play against him in bot lane?
I was going as graves with a janna vs draven and taric.
I couldn't do anything. If I stepped out and try to farm or harass he would out dps me and I would have taric up on my ass. I feel that our bot comp was counterpicked because I am starting to wonder if an aggressive bot is a counter to draven no?
How does one counter/play against him strategically
He's practically MF. Just turn it into a farm lane under your tower. If he's got a support with some cc (in your case Taric), don't get aggressive unless you feel like getting bursted and bleed all over from his passive. Once other lanes are roaming or if your tower falls, you win regardless. Draven can't contribute to a teamfight to save his life. Him taking out bot tower is practically suicide.
Yeah an AD carry can't contribute to a team fight...
Vs draven/taric specifically something passive with Soraka or super aggressive like leona/corki or graves/blitz would prolly work best. Janna should probably work fine as well but something else would likely be best
On July 20 2012 09:55 heroyi wrote: Ok so how the hell do you play against him in bot lane?
I was going as graves with a janna vs draven and taric.
I couldn't do anything. If I stepped out and try to farm or harass he would out dps me and I would have taric up on my ass. I feel that our bot comp was counterpicked because I am starting to wonder if an aggressive bot is a counter to draven no?
How does one counter/play against him strategically
He's practically MF. Just turn it into a farm lane under your tower. If he's got a support with some cc (in your case Taric), don't get aggressive unless you feel like getting bursted and bleed all over from his passive. Once other lanes are roaming or if your tower falls, you win regardless. Draven can't contribute to a teamfight to save his life. Him taking out bot tower is practically suicide.
Yeah an AD carry can't contribute to a team fight...
Vs draven/taric specifically something passive with Soraka or super aggressive like leona/corki or graves/blitz would prolly work best. Janna should probably work fine as well but something else would likely be best
Oh sue me, I didn't mention the auto attack damage an AD carry can dish out. They TOTALLY don't rely on what their kit can provide in a teamfight yeah?
What's Draven got? Is he going to catch his Q all day during a full 5v5 teamfight? Grats you just cut down a huge portion of his DPS. His W is nice, but lasts so short and you may as well just use it as a hopeful escape. His E's effect is so miniscule and not worth putting points into for a long time and you won't see its full effect by the time he's level 18. And even then, when everyone else is decently armed, it doesn't amount to much. Not only that, there's room to juke it since it's a skill shot.
Only thing he's got in a teamfight is his ult. Look at what other AD carries provide with their kit. Then look at Draven or MF.
On July 20 2012 09:55 heroyi wrote: Ok so how the hell do you play against him in bot lane?
I was going as graves with a janna vs draven and taric.
I couldn't do anything. If I stepped out and try to farm or harass he would out dps me and I would have taric up on my ass. I feel that our bot comp was counterpicked because I am starting to wonder if an aggressive bot is a counter to draven no?
How does one counter/play against him strategically
He's practically MF. Just turn it into a farm lane under your tower. If he's got a support with some cc (in your case Taric), don't get aggressive unless you feel like getting bursted and bleed all over from his passive. Once other lanes are roaming or if your tower falls, you win regardless. Draven can't contribute to a teamfight to save his life. Him taking out bot tower is practically suicide.
Yeah an AD carry can't contribute to a team fight...
Vs draven/taric specifically something passive with Soraka or super aggressive like leona/corki or graves/blitz would prolly work best. Janna should probably work fine as well but something else would likely be best
Oh sue me, I didn't mention the auto attack damage an AD carry can dish out. They TOTALLY don't rely on what their kit can provide in a teamfight yeah?
What's Draven got? Is he going to catch his Q all day during a full 5v5 teamfight? Grats you just cut down a huge portion of his DPS. His W is nice, but lasts so short and you may as well just use it as a hopeful escape. His E's effect is so miniscule and not worth putting points into for a long time and you won't see its full effect by the time he's level 18. And even then, when everyone else is decently armed, it doesn't amount to much. Not only that, there's room to juke it since it's a skill shot.
Only thing he's got in a teamfight is his ult. Look at what other AD carries provide with their kit. Then look at Draven or MF.
wait I thought his q isnt a skillshot. It states that his next autoattack does blah blah blah...
So from what i am reading is that i should just play really passively? doesnt sound that great considering he will be more than twice my cs by then...
I stopped playing Draven because I felt "mastering" him was counter-intuitive to playing other ADs. The way you have to play him almost makes it so that you have to over commit. If you can't over comit, you can't use his full damage, so it's like wtf? Then he's just a worse Sivir.
On July 20 2012 09:55 heroyi wrote: Ok so how the hell do you play against him in bot lane?
I was going as graves with a janna vs draven and taric.
I couldn't do anything. If I stepped out and try to farm or harass he would out dps me and I would have taric up on my ass. I feel that our bot comp was counterpicked because I am starting to wonder if an aggressive bot is a counter to draven no?
How does one counter/play against him strategically
He's practically MF. Just turn it into a farm lane under your tower. If he's got a support with some cc (in your case Taric), don't get aggressive unless you feel like getting bursted and bleed all over from his passive. Once other lanes are roaming or if your tower falls, you win regardless. Draven can't contribute to a teamfight to save his life. Him taking out bot tower is practically suicide.
Yeah an AD carry can't contribute to a team fight...
Vs draven/taric specifically something passive with Soraka or super aggressive like leona/corki or graves/blitz would prolly work best. Janna should probably work fine as well but something else would likely be best
Oh sue me, I didn't mention the auto attack damage an AD carry can dish out. They TOTALLY don't rely on what their kit can provide in a teamfight yeah?
What's Draven got? Is he going to catch his Q all day during a full 5v5 teamfight? Grats you just cut down a huge portion of his DPS. His W is nice, but lasts so short and you may as well just use it as a hopeful escape. His E's effect is so miniscule and not worth putting points into for a long time and you won't see its full effect by the time he's level 18. And even then, when everyone else is decently armed, it doesn't amount to much. Not only that, there's room to juke it since it's a skill shot.
Only thing he's got in a teamfight is his ult. Look at what other AD carries provide with their kit. Then look at Draven or MF.
While i agree that Draven is not as strong as lets say Vayne or Kog in the late teamfights, you underestimate him heavily. Have you ever played him? Your Opinions on his skills in teamfights are just wrong. Q: Of course he wont catch any axes in teamfights, he would lose to much damage. Just see the skill as Burstdamage and don't catch the axe. It adds some nice damage and your Passive. W: The AspdBoost is not as high as lets say Graves, but it still should not be underestimated. The huge MspdBoost is an excelent way to reposition yourself if a Bruiser jumps you. E: His E is what makes Draven in Teamfights good. This skill is imo plain OP. It repositions all enemys hit, cancels all channels and slows them by a fair bit. In the laningphase this skill is already good, but if you can hit it in a teamfight and hit 3+ members of the enemy team, your team and you can do damage for close to a secound while they cant do anything. I love this skill, it's the reason why i play Draven. R: I don't like his ult in teamfights. Its good for catching someone who tries to get away with low health, but in teamfights i usually just throw it into the enemy team as soon as our team initiates.
With 6 items he wont win vs Vayne or Kog. But against any other AD Carry he looks good.
Just picked up draven last week. Easily the most fun AD Carry I've ever played. Highly recommend giving him a shot if you think bot lane is boring as hell.
If Infinity Edge wasn't completely ruining item diversity in LoL, Black Cleaver would be the item to get on Draven. It might even be stronger than IE rush as long as your team has some other source of crazy deeps to back you up.
After some testing, I feel that Bloodthirster is better as a first item than BC. If cleaver gave more attack damage, maybe I'd buy it, but as is it just doesn't compare to piles of lifesteal and 5-45 more attack damage.
I tested Draven for 45 Games for now and must say he is pretty fun and pretty strong to play against almost any lane not containing blitzcrank
his ability to trade is really underrated by almost every other carry so u can dominate your lane quiet early (mostly at lvl 2 with your steroid) and as Sufficiency said since u can go 25 armpen on him he hits like a truck : O
I've been starting Boots + 3 pots in farming lanes (soraka/sona) and LongSword + 2 pots in kill lanes (taric/leona). Beserkers Greaves, 1-2 Dorans Blades and Vamp Scepter every game unless I can rush a BF and still have $ for pots. Bloodthirster is still IMO mandatory first major item especially after its buff to 70 (+30) damage.
Now the new attack speed items have a few viable options:
Phantom Dancer: 50% attack speed, 30% critical chance, 5% movement speed >> Still a classic item for any AD carry and best when paired with Infinity Edge.
Runann's Hurricane: 70% attack speed, auto attacks hit 2 extra targets for 10 + 50% AD >> Never bought this item on Draven and it doesn't feel very strong on him.
Sword of the Divine: 45% attack speed, Active: 100% critical chance & attack speed for 3 seconds or 3 attacks. >> This has been my goto item after BT on Draven every game. It fits his playstyle perfectly.
Explanation: Draven benefits from AD and Spinning axes as his primary source of damage and his spinning axes proc his passive. Draven is not a standard auto-attacker in that he wants to continue to juggle axes to keep his damage high. This means he benefits less from attack speed than let's say Ashe (you're only going to get 1 auto-attack between axes anyway). When he can't catch his axes his damage falls off from other AD carries. That's when you can activate SotD's ability. Always try to enter fights with 2 spinning axes ready. Keep juggling them during the fight as long as feasible. Once you drop all your spinning axes activate SotD and you will continue to burst down anyone. The guaranteed crits mean you'll proc his passive 3 times and they stack! You'll also gain massive heals from BT. At this point your next spinning ax should be ready so you're never punished for SotD being on cool down like normal AD carries.
Hope everyone starts wreaking house with Draven because I'd love to see him in some tournaments soon. I'd also like to hear anyone else's thoughts on him.
Ok, I can't seem to make draven work for me any more since Riot changed his passive to bonus gold instead of the bleed. I just can't seem to finish people off and lose fights while they get away with low health. I'm beginning to think that if you can't score the first blood in your lane then you pretty much lose as draven because his new passive is very snowbally both for and against you. Ignite seems like a must in order to secure that first kill but barrier beats it.
I typically skill Q>W>Q then try to trade at level 3 with double axes. Is this wrong? Should I skill Q>E>Q instead for the CC? Has anyone had success going in at level 1 with just double axes?
On September 18 2013 21:54 Ghost-z wrote: Ok, I can't seem to make draven work for me any more since Riot changed his passive to bonus gold instead of the bleed. I just can't seem to finish people off and lose fights while they get away with low health. I'm beginning to think that if you can't score the first blood in your lane then you pretty much lose as draven because his new passive is very snowbally both for and against you. Ignite seems like a must in order to secure that first kill but barrier beats it.
I typically skill Q>W>Q then try to trade at level 3 with double axes. Is this wrong? Should I skill Q>E>Q instead for the CC? Has anyone had success going in at level 1 with just double axes?
I dont think the bleed was as big as people say, besides his main steroid is the obnoxious like + 300 ad youre getting from his axes lategame anyways imo.
E is REALLY strong which people dont seem to realize, its an utterly obnoxious fucking skill. mini stun + knockback + damage yes pls.
you can poke them anytime with axes and should be able to outtrade almost anyone, and if you manage a kill on them or the support or something, then you can really snowball pretty stupidly hard.
Haven't played him too terribly much lately because there were a few patches where Vayne and her 650 condemn range and unnerfed Twitch expunge were running around, and they were basically impossible to win matchups.
Losing the bleed was huge. Like realllly freaking huge. I went from getting first blood nearly every game (often times with my support doing almost nothing) to practically never getting it. The real problem is Draven's level 1-3 isn't that scary anymore. It's extremely easy to not even have to recall from it and even if they do recall, applying enough damage after their recall to get the kill pre-6 is extremely difficult. By and large Draven has to sit and auto. He's much less compelling when lane domination is extremely difficult to achieve, because his steroids are conditional.
I generally go Q>E>Q, but I have had problems finishing off kills too, so I do not think it is necessarily your skill order causing the problems.
I'll give him a whirl again since Vayne can't condemn me before I can auto her now, and Twitch isn't as obnoxious.
Losing 30 + (4 × level) bonus physical damage from his passive is actually huge at early levels. His two axe combo at level 1 lost 68 damage! Essentially since draven never built crit until mid/late we can look at his passive change as a direct nerf to his Q damage. If you were good at catching axes you basically lost over 30 AD per hit. He's still going to truck people with axes when fed though but his early game got hit hard.
I'm going to try several games where I don't trade during levels 1-3 and instead wait until 5 or 6 depending on the matchup.
Has anyone tried Triforce Draven? He seems like he could use the triforce proc and most of the stats really well, but the AP and mana kind of go to waste.
On September 22 2013 01:29 Tooplark wrote: Has anyone tried Triforce Draven? He seems like he could use the triforce proc and most of the stats really well, but the AP and mana kind of go to waste.
the ADC on my team likes going bt-> trinity on draven, and he seems to be stomping with it.
I've heard good things about Triforce on Draven because of his W refresh but I've never tried that myself. I'm curious about how the speed boost from phage affects is axe catching.
People seem to be levelling Q at lvl 3 for draven, IMO getting all three skills at lvl 3 is by far stronger (I typically go Q E W Q)
One of the other issues I'm having with his passive change is that I feel forced to run a full AD page (or AD + LS quints) to have any early presence in lane. I used to be able to go full ArPen and still do the same damage early (1~2 dmg lower at lvl 1 and got way better after that) and scale better into late game. Any other draven players feel they have been forced to swap from ArPen to AD on him for runes?
I tried triforce a bit but wasn't really impressed, draven simply scales too hard off AD to make the sheen proc really worth it. I've been experimenting with double BT as first two major items, I feel it matches dravens style of play much better than going for crit/as early. He pretty much has to be aggresive in teamfights otherwise he does no damage, unlike typical adc's that are better at poking/kiting, the extra lifesteal makes you quite a bit harder to kill and with W up you have enough AS to juggle 2 axes comfortably. I'd usually follow that up with PD/IE/LW with LW earlier if they have made armour early.
On September 22 2013 21:03 Ghost-z wrote: I've heard good things about Triforce on Draven because of his W refresh but I've never tried that myself. I'm curious about how the speed boost from phage affects is axe catching.
Im guessing it gets better the better you get at draven.. so could be hit or miss for people below diamond.
To Handfish: Arpen was fine because his bleed didn't scale with physical damage at all, only levels. Now, yeah you need the flat AD to not lose trades.
And if you are buying Trinity on Draven for the phage its really not effective, as the bonus MS you get is minimal due to soft caps and with just boots 2 + zeal your movespeed is already way past the 2nd soft cap (2 caps, 415 ms which is 80% reduction and 490 which is around 20% reduction?).
Draven can get huge amounts of procs due to his W refresh, but overall I think Trinity is very meh. Stacking AD/crit/arpen is probably better on him because his Q with some ad is insane.
On September 23 2013 05:55 Dusty wrote: To Handfish: Arpen was fine because his bleed didn't scale with physical damage at all, only levels. Now, yeah you need the flat AD to not lose trades.
And if you are buying Trinity on Draven for the phage its really not effective, as the bonus MS you get is minimal due to soft caps and with just boots 2 + zeal your movespeed is already way past the 2nd soft cap (2 caps, 415 ms which is 80% reduction and 490 which is around 20% reduction?).
Draven can get huge amounts of procs due to his W refresh, but overall I think Trinity is very meh. Stacking AD/crit/arpen is probably better on him because his Q with some ad is insane.
(have not actually tried trinity draven)
After watching someone play BT->Trinity->LW Draven I have to conclude that it is scary strong. massive massive lifesteal, damage, mobility, and tankiness... He regularly mans up in 1v2/1v3 and comes out ahead.