How to beat Draven

Common role: ADC

A snowball lane-bully marksman who catches spinning axes for huge early damage.

What makes Draven dangerous

Draven does enormous early damage by catching his spinning axes for stacking bonus attacks, and killing champions grants him gold bounty (Adoration stacks). If he snowballs, his lead spirals out of control. But if you deny him — force him to drop axes or die without cashing in — he falls behind fast.

How to play against Draven

• 1Make him move to catch axes. His axes land away from him — every time you force him to reposition or dodge, he risks dropping an axe and losing his damage ramp.
• 2Deny his snowball: he loses his stacked gold bounty on death without spending it. Playing safe and shutting him down denies a huge chunk of gold.
• 3He has no escape — only his W speed boost. Hard CC and dive punish an over-extended Draven hard.
• 4Respect his level 1-2 all-in but out-scale him. Draven is strongest early; survive the lane and most ADCs match or beat him later.

Weaknesses to exploit

• ✓No escape besides a speed buff — vulnerable to CC and dives.
• ✓Loses stacked gold bounty on death.
• ✓Managing axes limits his mobility in fights.
• ✓Falls off relative to hyper-scaling ADCs.

Abilities & how to counter them

What each of Draven's abilities does — and how to play around it.

• P
  League of Draven

  Draven gains his fans' Adoration when he catches a Spinning Axe or kills a minion, monster, or tower. Killing enemy champions grants Draven bonus gold based on how much Adoration he has.

  Strong: kills bank stacking gold bounty (Adoration). Weak: he loses it on death without cashing in — killing him denies a huge gold swing.

• Q
  Spinning Axe

  Draven's next attack will deal bonus physical damage. This axe will ricochet off the target high up into the air. If Draven catches it, he automatically readies another Spinning Axe. Draven can have two Spinning Axes at once.

  Strong: spinning axes stack massive early auto damage. Weak: axes land away from him — force him to move/dodge and he risks dropping them and losing his ramp.

• W
  Blood Rush

  Draven gains increased Move Speed and Attack Speed. The Move Speed bonus decreases rapidly over its duration. Catching a Spinning Axe will refresh the cooldown of Blood Rush.

• E
  Stand Aside

  Draven throws his axes, dealing physical damage to targets hit and knocking them aside. Targets hit are slowed.

• R
  Whirling Death

  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 champion. Draven may also activate this ability while the axes are in flight to cause it to return early. Deals less damage for each unit hit and resets when the axes reverse direction. Executes enemies who have less health than Draven's number of Adoration stacks.

Itemization

Draven is an early-game crit AD marksman. Don't try to out-trade his early spike — play safe, deny his snowball, and punish with hard CC and dives. Exhaust in fights and armor blunt his massive auto damage.

This guide covers Draven's core kit and playstyle — advice that holds up across patches.