Hey guys, this is my first guide ^__^. My name is Keith 'CyniX' Harrison. I come from a Starcraft 2 background and I live in Australia, I also like Senjougahara from the anime Bakemonogatari. I hope I can provide an enjoyable, high quality and helpful guide for anyone reading.
This guide is on Draven whom I feel is quite a unique ADC in LoL. The reason for this is because his iconic ability Spinning Axe replaces his auto attacks and dictates so much of the positioning and decision making through the whole game. It's a skill that requires constant attention and is half the learning curve of Draven.
I started playing him almost exclusively about a month or so ago from watching Destiny's stream, don't hate. He is unique due to his Spinning Axe. How people use this very positional and powerful ability is a big factor in what separates the good from the bad Dravens.
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Pros / Cons
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Pros
+ Insane damage from Spinning Axe which can crit!
+ Spinning Axe Can be caught and reused for no mana
+ Blood Rush attack/movement speed buff, catching an axe resets its cooldown
+ Stand Aside slow/knock-aside which can cancel abilities
+ Has a semi- Ignite effect from his passive Wicked Blades
+ Fun to use global Ultimate Whirling Death
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- Cons
- As with most ADCs he's squishy
- Short Range auto-attacks compared with ADCs like Caitlyn
- Higher learning curve
- Can be vulnerable when catching axes
- A lot of effort goes into catching axes and can distract you from looking at the minimap
- Movement speed duration of Blood Rush is fairly short
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Standard... all I have to say is, if you run Cleanse instead of Ignite, put a point in Summoner's Resolve instead of Summoner's Wrath .
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Runes
Runes
Greater Mark of Armor Penetration
9
Greater Quintessence of Attack Damage
3
Greater Seal of Armor
9
Greater Glyph of Scaling Magic Resist
9
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- Greater Mark of Armor Penetration These tend to scale a lot better than Greater Mark of Attack Damage however you can switch between the two if it is your style or you only have 1 set.
- Greater Seal of Armor standard... you're usually going to be up against an ADC as well so it helps a lot to reduce their damage plus minion damage.
- Greater Glyph of Scaling Magic Resist These are standard, however I've recently been experimenting with Greater Glyph of Attack Speed for more aggressive capabilities if I'm not worried about magic damage.
It would also be appropriate to go Greater Glyph of Magic Resist against magic damage poke lanes such as Sona and her Hymn of Valor. These glyphs are also strong against an enemy mid champion with strong roam capabilities such as Evelynn, Ahri and Katarina
- Greater Quintessence of Attack Damage Great for early game damage for harassing and CS'ing, However you can use Greater Quintessence of Armor Penetration, they are worse early game but scale better late game
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Summoner Spells
Recommended Summoner Spells
Can often secure kills and has a useful health reduction effect
I choose this in a lane with stuns (esp. Taric) or against a CC heavy team.
Absolutely necessary. Good for securing kills or escaping
Not recommended Summoner Spells.
Heal is not recommended because of how effective the healing reduction the enemy's Ignite occurs and especially not recommended against a Miss Fortune due to Impure Shots.
Barrier isn't better in most cases instead of an Ignite or Cleanse, I'm assuming Flash is 100% necessary due to its unrivalled utility. This is because if you give up Cleanse then you're going to take the damage from an Ignite and the effects of Exhaust which means you're killing the other ADC slower and will take more shots if you're fleeing due to slower move speed and on top of that, there isn't a unique 'bonus' for Barrier yet in the masteries. Barrier's duration is also only 2 seconds meaning some of the ticks of the Ignite will eat into your real HP. Barrier also has very little utility late game due to the nature of the damage output of everyone at that stage. The ability to remove a stun or other disable late game using Cleanse is much more useful.
Ghost isn't terrible however you already have a ghost-like ability with your Blood Rush and if you're diligent on catching axes you will be able to continually refresh Blood Rush in a lot of instances. The defensive capabilities of Cleanse, especially late game and the damage + healing reduction of Ignite just tend to exceed the utility and consistency of Ghost
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Items
Item Sequence
The Bloodthirster
3000
Phantom Dancer
2800
Infinity Edge
3800
Enchantment: Furor
650
Last Whisper
2290
Guardian Angel
2600
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Before I start listing the items and talking about why I get them I want to say, the mentality you should have for the early game is 'how can I get The Bloodthirster as fast as appropriately possible. This is because if you get your 1st 'big' item before the other adc, it is an enormous advantage due to the sheer jump in power.
Because of this, I don't get any Doran's Blade unless absolutely necessary which is almost never with Draven because it can critically delay The Bloodthirster. I also delay T1 or T2 boots if I can get a B. F. Sword on my 1st trip back. Just to keep things in perspective a fully fed The Bloodthirster is equivalent in just its AD as two B. F. Sword and a Long Sword. so if you are ever in an instance where the enemy adc only has stacked Doran's Blade and Berserker's Greaves you do sooooo much more damage to them and you'll wreck them
Because of the Season 3 patch. Boots are no longer a huge priority due to the -25 movespeed nerf and The Bloodthirster now starts at +70AD instead of +60AD and only requires 30 creeps to fully charge.
Now to the items...
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- : Starting with this gives around 20% more damage in the early game and some sustain. This makes CS easier and makes your Spinning Axe harassment more brutal. However start with 3x Health Potion and Boots of Speed in an instance if you really need the sustain/mobility such as needing to dodge a Blitzcrank's Rocket Grab.
: This item builds from the Long Sword into The Bloodthirster and gives a lot of sustain. In a lot of cases on your 1st trip home you wont be able to afford a B. F. Sword but will have enough for either Vampiric Scepter and Berserker's Greaves + some Health Potion's or if you're unlucky you wont be able to afford the Berserker's Greaves and only pots + scepter
: These boots are the best choice for Draven giving much needed attack speed and mobility. Get after Vampiric Scepter or delay both if you can somehow afford a B. F. Sword or The Bloodthirster.
: This is your first big item and is a huge damage boost in the early game, especially when fully charged. You lose half of your stacks if you die. If you get this before your enemy gets his first big item you're usually in a very good spot.
: I was tossing up between this and Zephyr for a long time, due to the movement speed nerf, however I still feel this is better after a lot of experimentation. The reason is the critical chance exceeds the utility you get from the greater movement speed of Zephyr and it has better synergy Infinity Edge. This item gives the attack speed to really support the damage from The Bloodthirster. Get a Quicksilver Sash after this if the team has CC which is going to be really hard to deal with even if you kite; especially if you're not running Cleanse. You can build this into a Mercurial Scimitar later into the game.
: The fact that Draven's Spinning Axe can crit makes the passive of Infinity Edge and the huge spike in AD and critical chance create another big spike in damage output for Draven. However if you're facing a team that is stacking armour early, buy a Last Whisper before this item, in most cases though, get this item before Last Whisper.
: This item makes kiting quite easier/effective and if the enemy team has a lot of slow/cc which you foresee will give you trouble or you just really like to emphasise your boss like kiting skillz (like me ofc) then get this after Phantom Dancer otherwise get it sometime after Infinity Edge when you have the money.
: relatively cheap compared to IE and BT, this item is necessary to continue doing insane amounts of damage even when the enemy team gets armour. It also gives a nice +40AD.
: This gives a fair amount of durability and its passive revives you if you fall to 0 health however the cooldown on the passive is 5 minutes. It is appropriate to get this item after an Infinity Edge if the team has a high chance of inevitably bursting you down with some kind of annoying gap closer like Akali's Shadow Dance ability and Vi's Assault and Battery; or a high burst near unavoidable ultimate like Mordekaiser's Children of the Grave.
Too be quite honest I haven't experimented too much with the final item of this build. But I feel this final slot can be changed to the Mercurial Scimitar or a Statikk Shiv depending on the situation.
: Remeber to buy 1-4 health pots depending on your situation with spare gold, especially in the early game and if you have an uncooperative support you also may need to buy wards.
This will seem obvious after you play Draven for a while. We want to max Spinning Axe first while getting a point in Stand Aside at level 4 for the handy utility/escape mechanism. Getting a point in Whirling Death whenever you can for it's damage and maxing Blood Rush 2nd because of its importance in champion fighting and for its movement speed utility.
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Ability Explanation
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I will soon be making a video which I feel will be able to make it more clear how the mechanics of Draven's abilities work and also some tips and tricks with them. Once it's done I'll edit it into this guide
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- : This ability as said before acts like a mini- Ignite doing damage over time upon either dealing a critical strike, or hitting something with a Spinning Axe. It can secure you an otherwise lost kill and sometimes you'll get lucky and not miss a CS because of it.
: Your source of damage. This ability has a lot to talk about which is why I'll be mainly making a video but I'll try to describe the main parts of it in this section. This ability makes your next attack a spinning axe instead of a regular auto-attack.
Two axes can be readied making your next two auto-attacks spinning axes. Once thrown the axe will ricochet off the target and will land in a spot determined by your movement. Everyone, including the enemy will see where the axe will land. If you're standing still as you threw the axe it will land close to you and you often won't need to move to catch it, if you're moving as you throw it, it will land in a spot in front of your direction such that you can catch it if you continue moving at that speed in that direction.
: This is an attack speed and movement speed steroid. It has a fairly low mana cost and its cooldown is reset upon catching an axe meaning you can spam it when killing enemy champs or drag/baron. Use it to get to lane faster, escape an enemy, or as a gap closer to an enemy.
: This isn't used as much as your Q or W however it still has its usefulness. This ability has a knock-aside and slows them briefly. Use this to slow an enemy if they're CC'd or in range to make sure they can't escape. Can also be used to escape from chasers or disrupt an ability with the knock-aside, I don't have a full list of abilities it disrupts but it will cancel (I think) all channelling abilities such as Caitlyn's Ace in the Hole and Katarina's Death Lotus and also cancel a lot of jump or charge abilities like Tristana's Rocket Jump if used at the right time or Shen's Shadow Dash. I haven't been able to find a comprehensive list of what it cancels/disrupts but if someone is using an ability to gap close you or use some kind of big scary channelling ability Stand Aside that sh1t!
: This is a global ultimate where you send two blades out and once you press R again or until it makes contact with an enemy champion it'll slowly reverse direction and come back and damage enemies again if they don't dodge it. The direction that it comes back can be slightly changed, if you move somewhere else, it comes back to your direction meaning you can curve it's trajectory back to you which can sometimes secure a kill. This also damages minions/monsters.
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Gameplay
In the early game you want to be last hitting as much as possible as per usual. If you spawned on the blue side or if you're jungler started at red on the purple side it can be useful to kill Golems or Wolves for a quicker level 2 than your opponent. I often like to do this and do a big all-in at lvl 2 or 3 if it's suitable which means you should also have good communication with your support.
Supports that have great synergy with Draven are ones with a stun such as Taric, Leona or Nami because he can go to town on them with a lot of Spinning Axe's.
When laning, you can harass the enemy by having 1 or 2 Spinning Axe's up and using Blood Rush to quickly rush to them and deal big damage. Catching an axe refreshes the Blood Rush cooldown to continue the aggression or run away.
When doing an all in you want to include a Stand Aside to make dodging your Whirling Death and escaping harder.
In team fights if feasible harass with Spinning Axe and wait to use your Whirling Death when they're clumped up, such as being in a choke. Try not to be a tryhard with your Whirling Death and aim for across the map kills... it's often not worth it because you'll obviously miss 19 times out of 20. Remember to keep kiting and keep an eye on the ground to get your axes, your axes are a very important source of your damage.
Using Stand Aside at the right time in a team fight to cancel an ability is advised, don't use it as a damage source, only use it for it's utility to knock-aside or slow. You can sometimes save a team mate with it as well.
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Summary
Draven has proven to be a fun challenge to learn and makes you feel rewarded for having good mechanics. This is my first guide on Mobafire, I was almost tempted to make one on Rengar but I lost a bit of motivation with him when he got nerf'd again. In any case I hope you all find This guide helpful and enjoyable and I'd like any feedback you could give ^____^. Please comment/rate.
Have fun with Draven!
Last edited by DGWoLF; Thu, 27th-Dec-2012 at 1:29 PM.
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