DRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAVEN
By: Dunkmaster TTGOz
Introduction:
Hi guys! This is my in-depth Draven guide. Bare with me as this is my first guide here, and I'm used to guide makings like solomid.net. Draven is one of my go-to ADC's that I can play regardless of what I'm facing. I'll still sometimes even pick Draven into a chase/mobility composition. For example; Cait/Thresh, Vi Jungle. Renekton top, Ahri/Zed/Akali/Fizz mid. There are a bunch of other comps I can think of that should absolutely RAPE Draven, but this intro needs to be short. So lets begin!
Pros:
- TONS of damage
- Can come back easily if behind on kills. ONLY if he has a lot of stacks on his passive and gets a kill to cash them all in for extra gold.
- DRAAAAAAAVEN-ness
- Amazing Attack-Speed boost
- Some kiteability to his kit, not as great as Caitlyn or Ezreal, but he has some good kite potential with his W and E
- Global ult
Cons:
- Sort of a static champion(Not a lot of mobility)
- His escape relies solely on enemy skill, whether he can use his Bloodrush(W), nail his Stand Aside!(E), and has summoner spells up.
- His only form of reliable damage comes from his Q(Spinning Axe.) and whether you can catch them or not.
- Actually takes skill(Kiting, landing axes, catching axes.) Unlike Tristana, Lucian, etc.
- Squishy(Ofcourse)
Summoner Skills:
ABSOLUTELY critical on any and all ADCs. While I'm not saying you NEED to take it, it's just this is the best summoner skill set to go to.
Flash: Absolutely best escape in the entire game. Recommended on ANY champion.
Heal: Gives you a nice and useful speedboost. Also gives you more health(Yay!)
-----------------------------------------
Rune set:
9x Attack Damage Marks
9x Armor Seals
9x Magic Resist Glyphs
3x Attack Speed Quints
Q: Y U NO USE ONE CRITICAL STRIKE MARK ON DRAVEN !>?!?>!?!??#?!?#?!#?!?
A: His passive no longer procs off of Critical Strikes. Before his new passive that gives him extra gold on kills, critical strikes burned the enemy. Before, this one or three crit marks were useful. But not anymore..................
-----------------------------------------
Masteries:
Pretty standard ADC masteries. NEXT!!!
-----------------------------------------
Skill Order:
The way I play Draven.... is a THAT'S SO DRAAAVEN way. (ha haha ha a That's So Raven reference , i hate you if you don't laugh at it.)
But you WILL Max your Q(Spinning Axe) first. Your W(Blood Rush) second, Ultimate Third(Whirling Death), and your E(Stand Aside!) fourth.
As portrayed in this order; QEQWQR then max your Q first, then W secondly and then you know the rest.
-----------------------------------------
Build Order:
Draven isn't like most ADCs.... okay maybe he actually is. But his kit is rather unique. With Spinning Axes and a Catch Axes mechanic, an ability good ONLY if you catch your axe(s), and an R that you can reverse back to you and will automatically reverse at times too.
Start your normal Dolan's(Dorans) Blade, Pot, Yellow Trinket. Or blue trinket, or red trinket. Doesn't matter to me.
First item you SHOULD/NEED to get is Infinity Edge. I guess it's kind of up to you after this but I normally go Blood Thirster next after for #420blazeitup Crits, then you can go on to get Phantom Dancer. OR you could get Phantom Dancer second and BT thirdly. I just like getting BT second for it's damage boost, shield, and massive sustain. Like one massive crit could fill up a quarter of your health bar.
Rest of the build should be self explanatory.
-----------------------------------------
Playstyle:
Draven is a bit of a... weird champion. I don't wanna hurt his feelings so lets put it that way. Let's face it, he has no escape. But he makes up for it in having spinning axes. In all honesty, Draven axes are hard to catch if you're new. I main Draven in the ADC role, and I can honestly say I still have a hard time predicting where his axe will land sometimes.
My way of explaining how to catch his Axes and predicting where they will land: Draven's axes are a bit weird, but also really not weird. They don't fly randomly somewhere, they fly towards the way Draven's facing. For example; If you autoattack a minion, the Axe is gonna just come right back to you or a full "Draven" to the left or right of you.
Another example(The way I use Draven axes); When you autoattack a minion(or anything really), immediately move command back and the axe will fly backwards, and it's an easy catch.
Basically, you should expect the axe to go wherever you're facing. The only random thing to his axes is that they sometimes go left or right, and never just right back to Draven. (For obvious reasons lol.)
-----------------------------------------
In the botlane, the common matchups you should face is; The meta(l0l.)
Let's keep this organized, okay...
Let's start with an Ezreal botlane as ADC!
Ezreal is a Poke ADC. He can poke you from a distance and do a ton of damage. He also has a built in flash that YOUGUESSEDITRIGHT, does damage and poke! Has a cheap global ult, similar to Draven's. Except it doesn't return... ever.
Ezreal Compostion Possibilities;
- Ezreal/Thresh
- Ezreal/Soraka (oh god the horror)
- Ezreal/Lulu (oh god the horror!)
- Ezreal/Janna (OH GOD THE ESCAPES)
- Ezreal/Blitz (Kind of a meh lane.)
- Ezreal/Sona(Squishy botlane, good for Draven muahaha, but they have a ton of poke so watch out.)
- Ezreal/Alistar(Ali can and will tank everything, while zoning you and being annoying with his knock up/headbutt disengage)
Caitlyn is a poke ADC. She is an extremely safe pick option for ADC. She is League of Legend's Sniper champion, she does everything from a distance. Her ult is a kill-secured ability that can be cock-blocked by the enemy support or jungler or anyone really on the other team.
Caitlyn Composition Possibilities:
- Caitlyn/Thresh
- Caitlyn/Blitz(Meh.)
- Caitlyn/Lulu(Meh, Lulu will be annoying as hell.)
- Caitlyn/Soraka(You should win this lane.)
- Caitlyn/Janna(Tons of disengages)
- Caitlyn/Sona(I absolutely hate this lane.)
- Caitlyn/Alistar(Super passive lane, Alistar can't really do too much to help Caitlyn, in my experience.)
Lucian is an A-Okay champion. His autoattack range is relatively short, so you can abuse that by poking him with your axes. However, he will be able to get his stupidly fluid abilities off on you, all the while getting two extra autoattacks in after every ability. Which could ultimately mean you'll get out-dueled everytime unless you have an advantage and can dodge his Q and R.
Lucian Composition Possibilities:
- Lucian/Thresh(Ironic isn't it? But annoying as hell.)
- Lucian/Blitz(Annoying...)
- Lucian/Lulu(ANNOYING)
- Lucian/Soraka(Meh)
- Lucian/Janna(Tons of disengages)
- Lucian/Sona(Such a good composition.)
- Lucian/Alistar(Solid composition, Ali will knock you up and do the combo, and Lucian can just dash in and dish out damage, while Ali pops ult and tanks everything.)
(please note how almost every comp. I listed for Lucian is annoying. Riot please?)
Tristana is an old meta ADC. She seemed to of had disappeared for a bit from the botlane, as I do not face her as much anymore. But Tristana is pretty... annoying aswell. She has a long-range disengage and gap closer that slows you and does magic damage. She has a DoT and built in Grevious wound that explodes upon killing a unit. And a high damage ult that knocks back enemies in an area. She gains range on her autoattacks as she levels. She is extremely mobile.
Tristana Composition Possibilities:
- Tristana/Thresh(Pretty standard, honestly used to this comp, but it can be overbearing at times.)
- Tristana/Blitz(Watch out for blitz holy crap)
- Tristana/Lulu(ANNOYING)
- Tristana/Soraka(Meh)
- Tristana/Janna(Tons of disengages)
- Tristana/Sona(Squishy, kind of nice.)
- Tristana/Alistar(just quit at this point, you'll never ever touch Tristana. Just kidding don't quit, but super hard lane. You might never be able to even touch Tristana in lane.)
When to play Aggressively:
The question I've been getting is how do you know when you should play passively or aggressively? Draven is meant to be a high-damage dealing champion that takes skill, but because of that, he lacks certain mobility most ADCs have nowadays. I.E Lucian's E, Caitlyn's E, Tristana's W, Kalista's Passive, Vayne Q+E.
The first indicator to whether you should start to decide to play aggressively is in Champion Select. If the enemy team has a Thresh/Leona/Blitz or Sona, you may want to consider playing more passively and behind the minions, not doing too much poke. But in most of my games, I face one of those 4 and occasionally different supports and I can play plenty aggressive if my support permits it. Basically, you can only be aggressive with Draven if you're support is open to that idea. The support carries Draven through the first couple of levels, or should. If a botlane loses to a Draven alone without the help of his support, they're probably just bad.
If you're a Draven/Leona botlane, you will TRY to get Level 2 first. Draven/Leona's level 2 is so strong. You get the Q and E first on Draven, while Leona gets her CC-chain. If you guys can successfully hit level 2 first, you should immediately take advantage, and dive in. It should blow a flash or a heal atleast. Hopefully both. While Leona chains the enemy down, Draven can just get free Q's off. Once the enemy ADC attempts to run, he'll pop his E and get one more attack off, hopefully causing a Flash/Heal.
If you're a Draven/Thresh botlane, Thresh is going to have to take some poke and harass for a bit. He'll probably have to do some of his own poke to the other enemies. Thresh is meant to be a champion that dives into a fight with his hook. He builds tank, and he has damn good peel. He's good at everything basically. If Thresh hits a hook and he dives in, as Draven you should follow up. Basically, Thresh is good at doing Defense and Offense at the same time. But if you know you're behind, and Thresh lands a hook and dives in, just follow up with caution.
If you're a Draven/Blitzcrank botlane, just wait for Blitz to land a grab and do his gay-shit and you can do your gay-shit too. 'Nuff said.
If you're a Draven/Sona botlane, basically just let Sona do most of the poke, and you can contribute too. But once you guys hit 6, your ult's can sync nicely and Draven can dish out damage, especially with his E knocking enemies aside.
If you're a Draven/Alistar botlane, you can just farm all game until you get items. Alistar will tank everything, and if he can combo correctly and stuff, you have a free lane. I'll touch up on this composition a bit more maybe.
Draven Early Game
Draven's an all around good champion, except his first few levels can be painful. Level 1 you have to start Q. Otherwise his W is completely useless and his E is shit without either of these abilities. Draven's going to be at his worst early game. He has no escapes besides Flash/Heal and depends on the support, and his Q doesn't have much added damage. It's basically the equivalent of 3/4 of a doran's blade. (No real math done here, just estimating.) Really no added damage until you get a Pickaxe/BFsword. Basically, before you get one of those items and level 6, you should just play defensively if you don't really know what you're doing.
Draven Mid Game
You can finally have some breathing room. That is if you didn't feed 2-3 kills early game. By now you should have all 3 items needed for IE or have Infinity Edge already. Infinity Edge is the power-spike Draven needs. Now Draven should start to hurt a little... or should I say "Alottle"?
Anyways, at this stage, one of the towers should be down. Either your's or the enemy's turret. Or atleast being whittled down, I've had so many games where the jungler won't help our botlane push the lane after a successful gank or something. Getting rid of the enemy turret allows for better ganks, sneak up opportunities, roam ability, and more gold and the minions will push up farther and give the enemy a pain to deal with.
By the end of mid-game, you should have; Infinity Edge, Bloodthirster, and starting Phantom Dancer(If you go with my build, if not you should probably already have IE and Phantom Dancer and starting on Last Whisper or BT even.) The mid-game is Draven's best time to shine.
Draven Late Game
Draven can be a late-game monster. If he has a Last Whisper, he can legit shred anyone in seconds. I remember once one time I was playing Draven and it was about 30 minutes in and I nearly two shotted a Mini-Gnar with Sunfire/Banshee's. Last Whisper is such a good item on Draven, or any ADC for the matter. It's especially good for Draven since he already has a huge damage boost from his Q and then add in the 900-1000 DMG Crits and then the armor shred.
At this point of the game, you should have all your main damage items; Infinity Edge, Blood Thirster, Phantom Dancer, and Last Whisper. Your end-game build should be Infinity Edge, BloodThirster, Phantom Dancer, Last Whisper, Banshee's Veil/Scimitar, and Berseker's Greaves w/ Homeguard. Honestly sometimes I don't get Bloodthirster or Last Whisper and trade those in for Banshee's AND Scimitar. Draven is a very movement-predicable champion due to his axes, and he's just bad at running away in general, so extra defense is good against certain teams. But it all depends on the player, the support, your team as a whole, and the other team.
Now, I must go on to play some games! I will update the guide as time progresses, and add onto it.
Thanks for reading! PM me or post a reply for Questions, Concerns, Opinions etc.
Changelog;
+ Show Spoiler +
1/18/2015 10:46 PM Created!
1/19/2015 9:51 AM Re-did Masteries/Runes and build order.
1/21/2015 9:42 PM Added more play-style details and stuff. Also added Alistar to the Botlane opponent comps.
2/8/2015 12:24 AM Added more pros/cons, touched grammar up, added more gameplay stuff.
2/8/2015 11:41 AM Re-did section on catching axes.
1/19/2015 9:51 AM Re-did Masteries/Runes and build order.
1/21/2015 9:42 PM Added more play-style details and stuff. Also added Alistar to the Botlane opponent comps.
2/8/2015 12:24 AM Added more pros/cons, touched grammar up, added more gameplay stuff.
2/8/2015 11:41 AM Re-did section on catching axes.