Keep in mind his W range, play around the outskirts of it, if he's threatening to engage be sure to E when he walks in range, if he doesn't headbutt, disengage, if he does and you cancel it, aslong as he doesn't have flash you're free to heavily punish them in laning. Alistar's level 1 is 1 of the worst in the game, DO NOT BE SCARED to go in and push him out of lane level 1.
Amumu
Play behind minions, if he's forcing his way through the minions trade with him, get to a place where getting hit by his Q doesn't matter, after he has no Q charges the champion is a walking sack of gold.
Ashe
very obnoxious champ, learn to sit back and relax, if you're not careful and you walk up too far, you're going to get caught and you will die in the earlier levels, you outscale in mid-game so there's no need to worry about falling behind
Bard
surprisingly a very annoying lane, the champion is a lot tankier than you'll initially think. Try and get on the ADC and ignore him as much as possible, once you get items and armor pen he shouldn't be too big of a threat, but there's a few matchups with him you should be warry of i.e caitlyn bard
Blitzcrank
Blitzcrank's level 1 is punishable, if you get Q'd aslong as your support is up with you, you should realistically win, it's when he gets level 2 is when his combos starts to become deadly. Play diagonal to him in laning, if he paths for the bottom bush you path towards river, just make sure you've got an escape route incase you're unaware of where their jungler is at
Brand
avoid his stun at all costs, everytime you go in on this character make sure it kills. Be warry of every bush that's unwarded, his level 1 isn't terribly strong but when he's 3 his stun is an actual serious threat.
Braum
despite popular belief, this champion is manageable to play into, force his shield and play around minions, after those 2 are down there's not much he can do in terms of protecting his ADC.
Caitlyn
due to the fact that she outranges you she's hard to play into, but if you E her E she's a sitting duck. Try to burn her flash if possible. Having 1 less movement option to worry about will help you majorly
Camille
She's got her E gimmick, that's about all, don't fight her level 1, she will win.
Ezreal
try closing the gap between this champion, same as with Caitlyn the fact he outranges you is a huge problem. Force his movement options (flash and E) After his movement options are ran out he's quite easy to deal with. You outscale towards the later end of the game so don't feel too pressured to force anything early
Heimerdinger
Watch out for his grenade, you 1 shot his turrets which is nice, but you lack range and a dash to truly engage on this champion, that's not to say it's impossible. He shouldn't be too much of a worry but paired with the right support/adcs he has the potential to be a threat
Janna
squishy target, be mindful of her Q and that's about it, she doesn't do a whole lot, once you get items she really just pops like a zit
Jinx
Make sure the game doesn't go to 40 minutes, she's very squishy and with HoB should be exterminated after all 3 autos, don't stand in the wave to avoid her Q AOE but don't stand too far as where you can't walk behind a minion incase she W's
Jhin
With movement speed creep being a thing, this character if ahead can prove to be tough, stay away from low minions especially the first 3 melees. If he's caught early he has no means to stand his ground, if he goes for a 4th shot early when youre above half HP, if you have HoB up, walk forward and allow him, your 3 autos will prove more than worth the trade. He's a simple laner, which makes it very easy to play into. If paired with a xerath this matchup becomes 1 of the hardest in the game.
Kai'Sa
in a 1v1 you should almost always win up until the later half of the game. Don't get isolated early by her Q, standing behind minions will significantly increase your odds of winning against this champion. Don't let her get a crazy lead, other than that you should steamroll her at even gold
Kalista
You're going to need to be very mindful about this champion's laning and who the support matchup is. This champion's damage output with HoB can make her a serious problem to lane against but she'll fall off crazy towards the later half of the game. Sit back and relax if you're unconfident in your ability to win early.
Karma
Play diagonally behind the minions to her, she is likely going to solo win laning-phase for the enemy and that's fine, you'll be able to deal with her once you have items, but you wont win early. Patience is key.
Karthus
As long as you take cleanse for his exhaust, you're free to run at this character as you please, his lack of movement options and fighting back potential isn't enough. He's a walking cash-out so abuse it while you can
Kog'Maw
Be mindful of his W, when he uses his W make sure you have a way to vision cancel or walk away, if he ghosts towards you and you have no-where to go, your best bet is to just fight him and hope to 1 shot him
Lulu
Her polymorph and knock-up can be very unfun to play into, but she's quite squishy, once you have items I'd recommend dealing with her first or atleast neutralizing her by forcing her to waste her supportive abilities on herself.
Lux
Paired with the right champions, she can be a lethal threat. If they draft double poke/arcane comet lanes your best bet is to rush a vamp scepter as early as possible and to sit on it.
Malphite
If he's support malphite you won't have to worry until level 6 where he really shines. His full AP build is easier to deal with than his full tank 1, if he's top lane you need flash to deal with him. He's an anti-carry, if you give him any reason to flash ult you, he will. Be mindful and respect him. If he's full tank you can't deal with him till LDR.
Maokai
Respect this character at all costs, if you don't have a support that can deal with his W, he's gonna jump on you and knock you out of all your axes. no axes = no fun. Once his W is down you're free to just run at him and try to kill him, wait his aftershock out if possible.
Leona
Play outside of her E range, if she E's you match with your E. If she randomly R's you, evaluate your situation, if she doesn't have any follow-up, simply ignore it. if she threatens a follow-up immediately cleanse and disengage
Milio
This champion can be a little tricky to catch out, his shields make him a little tankier than you may think. If you dodge/flash his Q he doesn't have anything to stop you from cashing out on him
Miss Fortune
Any poke champion is going to cause you trouble and MF is no exception. if you're having trouble against her poke build, try vamp scepter early. Try avoiding staying behind any low HP targets/minions to avoid early game Q. If she has a CC support make sure at all costs you avoid getting CC'd in her R
Morgana
This champion doesn't do a whole lot, Play diagonally to her in the wave, Dodge her Q, if she's alone you can even cleanse her Q if she lands it and run her down.
Nami
Squishy character. If caught out she dies extremely fast, if she doesn't have exhaust don't be afraid to cleanse her bubble.
Nautilus
One of the hardest matchups in the game. steer clear of any walls he forces you into, as even if he misses he will just auto you. His Q is reduced by 50% upon connected to a wall, so if you try flashing away be mindful he can hook you back in again. He is going to be entirely dependent on his ADC aswell, respect this champion and path for success. Play diagonally/inside minion wave if possible
Neeko
Hold TAB/scoreboard. If you don't see her on the map and her icon glows. That means she's on vision in disguise, count waves and be cautious. As long as you don't run into every wave blind you should be more than fine.
Nilah
1 of the worst matchups to play. Her early game is about her weakest part so try and make sure u burst her as fast as possible early, don't push toward her because then she'll freely farm under tower, try zoning and slow pushing. Her lack of range makes it impossible to utilize her passive. If you somehow can't stop her in lane that's fine, when you have items you should be able to chunk her, if she W's don't bother autoing, walk out, if you can't, wait it out then auto. Don't allow her to freely E onto you, keeping distance is your saving grace.
Pantheon
most pantheon players will be spamming their W as soon as they get in range of you, learn this distance and E whenever they get close, if they don't W, just disengage, if you cancel it force his E, if he's used both you can full engage and kill him quite easily.
Poppy
Don't play against walls and be mindful of her E, you can cancel her with your E the same way as pantheon and alistar. Step on her shield passive whenever possible to avoid her turning the trade.
Pyke
Things to look out for: His early game burst, and his flash E. Play diagonally to the wave, if he Q's and you have no where to run, E to cancel him. Make sure your bushes are warded and you don't get cheesed
Rakan
This matchup gets worse depending on who they've got on ADC. After his W he doesn't have a whole lot, his early game W isn't something to fear unless they have immediate follow up, you can try E'ing him when he walks forward to disengage but once he gets level 6 he becomes increasingly more difficult to deal with, catch out, and punish. Play with caution
Rell
she's always going to look for an engage on you, if she walks up be ready to E. If she's dismounted be warry of her flash W combo. This is a champion you're going to have to surrender respect to until she doesn't have her abilities up.
Rammus
cancel his Q with your E, and take cleanse. Rush armor pen early and don't underestimate how much damage this champion can actually deal. A lot of draven players like picking this champion whenever picked/banned out. So they're very likely easily tiltable
Renata Glasc
All you have to worry about is her little grabby spell, Don't get grabbed and try not to get R'd. The biggest threat of her R is actually you 1 shotting your teammates so be mindful. Force her revive, if she revives herself you can ignore her and focus the ADC, if she revives the ADC burst them as fast as possible.
Samira
Paired with an engage support this champion is threatening to be very lethal. Once she W's you can just E and burst her, you can also hold-out till her R then immediately E. This matchup is almost entirely dependent on what supports are played on both sides. You should have the edge early game but if she's allowed to get ahead in teamfights towards mid game your best shot is praying you're able to 1 shot her.
Senna
Don't line up with her, stay out of a straight line from her and any object she may be able to poke you with Q. Control wards are useful to hold onto incase she tries auto canceling or intimating you, 9 out of 10 times it'll catch them off guard leading to their untimely demise. Try your best to keep this champion behind and away from late game.
Seraphine
This champion is a wave clearing bot, if you try to contest waves you're only gonna find yourself getting poked down to death. Wait till first item and R execute stacks, at this point you're free to run at her however you like, try and make sure you burn her flash before you throw your ult to confirm getting the kill. Make sure you've got cleanse for her R so that she doesn't have grounds to fight back
Sett
Sett has a very hard time dealing versus any ranged champ, stay out of the wave so he doesn't flash E you, because if he connects something on the other side of his E you get stunned. If he R's you into the wall make sure u save E for his W sweet spot.
Shaco
character can be obnoxious due to boxes and Q but that's his only gimmick, nothing to worry about, if his boxes are giving you troubles you can always buy a sweeper
Shen
Keep a mental timer on his R, try to E targets out of his W, try force his W, back-out and wait it out, then re-engage.
Sivir
champion doesn't pose a threat to anyone, just stay away from her W on wave and don't let her scale. Force her E before you R and you're good.
Smolder
He's going to W wave on repeat, so play outside of the wave, when you have items you're able to engage on him, once he E's, you need to make a decision on whether you're going to back off or commit to killing/bursting.
Sona
Don't allow her to gain stacks off repeat Q'ing you, her Q is longer than your auto range. Her weakest point is early, that being said you can almost always 1 shot her. Be warry of her ultimate, that's going to be her biggest threat, without that she's a walking bag of cash
Soraka
Playing against an actual talented soraka player can serve to be quite the challenge, tell your support to build anti-heal if possible. If they're unable to it'll be up to you whether you think damage or anti-heal is more important, make sure to stay out of her Qs, do this by when she walks up that means she's going to Q, If she does this and you can't trade at the very least 2 autos don't bother trying to trade at all. Once mid game rolls around the matchup gets a lot easier. Don't be upset if you don't win laning, just make sure not to hard lose.
Swain
Swain's early max range E's can be a little tricky to dodge. If you can't avoid them put yourself in a spot to where you can't be combo'd by his support. With his health and armor stacking, a lot of draven players neglect to build armor pen and health% damage items (BOTRK & LDR) and end up getting choked out towards mid-late game.
Sylas
Sylas support can deal a lot more damage than you think, as long as you learn to play around and not to get hit by his E-2 you will be completely fine. If he has any R that is detrimental (malphite, vi, liss, cass etc) respect him as though playing against those
Syndra
Don't let this character scale and don't ego buying magic resist. It'll be your lifeline. Don't play directly behind her balls, when she wastes E you're free to run at her as u will. Most syndra players will anticipate you walking in the opposite direction once they throw Q. So running in 1 direction will throw them off sometimes. Test the waters in the early game to see how they play so in the late game you won't fall for the same tricks.
Tahm Kench
Save E for his W, only going to be tricky into certain matchups. i.e senna tahm, don't neglect armor pen
Taliyah
Taliyah support often deals more damage than players anticipate. Do your best to avoid her knock-up, if you do get hit by it and you're still in range to trade, instantly cleanse will throw them off and more often than not lead to a kill.
Thresh
Thresh isn't problematic if you're already going cleanse, try to play diagonally around the minions. Don't allow him to walk and E, E'ing him when he does this it allows for great trading potential.
Tristana
This matchup is going to be entirely dictated on the rune/summoner-spells she goes. If she goes lethal your life is going to be a whole lot easier. If she goes HoB keep in mind her early trading in laning is going to be greater than yours. Once you have items you'll be able to dispose of her effectively.
Taric
your damage output is usually more than enough to kill any target before his ultimate pops. If he E's you E. If it lands, cleanse. Prevent him from going melee because he will outheal you.
Twisted Fate
Gold card bot, if you don't have cleanse you can't deal with him. A QSS will do you well, you need to accept that fact and commit onto him if he does get in range. If he gets caught out he has no means to fight back other than waiting till his next gold card. You have more than enough damage to kill him before then, that being said he is still extremely obnoxious
Twitch
If you don't like HoB that is too bad, HoB is going to be the determining factor on making this matchup playable past first item. Don't be scared of twitch before first item, once he gets BOTRK and engages on you with Q + ultimate, you NEED to fight back. You will be able to outburst him, with lethal you simply don't have the means to deal with him.
Varus
Varus is going to be 1 of your hardest ADC matchups. It requires you to play completely differently to even match him, combined with the fact a good majority of the support matchups paired with him makes this matchup extremely sharp. He'll usually start E level 1, careful taking unnecessary damage from this, Don't stand in the wave so you don't get minion blocked, have him pick either to push the wave or to poke you, no need to give him both. Survive laning until you've managed to get an item or 2 and you have a decent amount of passive stacks under your belt. Look for an engage by having cleanse and or flash up. If he R's and still has flash, cleanse and force his flash. If he R's and doesn't have flash if you're feeling lucky you can flash over it. After you do this it's pretty much a free kill if support doesn't interfere.
Vayne
Vayne is normally an easy matchup but due to her presence recently as a top-tier ADC her damage/burst can be quite a pain to deal with if she has the right support, but, with that being said she's low range and squishy. Once you have items you should be able to squash her like a bug.
Veigar
Not having tools to deal with this champion once he's scaled will be very, very hard. Even whilst up entire items getting hit by or stuck inside stun cage without cleanse/flash can turn extremely deadly. Support matchup is going to be massively important here both yours and his. His early game is quite laughable without outside assistance (jungle, mid), you can threaten dives on him or freezes without much of him having a say in it. The most important thing is you have way more agency than him, so abuse it to end the game as fast as possible, or to set up objective advantages.
Vel'Koz
artillery mages are always going to be quite difficult for you to deal with due to the fact Draven doesn't have a dash, he's going to be played support, so play inside the wave, force him to steal CS if he wants to hit you. You also get coverage from his Q, once his knock-up is gone he's as good as dead if he's in range. The scariest part is if he's matched with another artillery mage or another poke champion. Consider vamp scepter if they're poking you out early.
Vi
Anti-carry champion. Doesn't matter what lane it's in or you're in, you will be targeted with ult, if you're smurfing, I would seriously consider going edge of night around 4th item.
Xayah
Don't line for her to poke you with her feather autos through the minions, force her R before trying to fully commit to her (using sums). Be mindful of where your axes are dropping, worst thing you can do is greeding 1 ontop of a group of feathers.
Yasuo
Permaban yasuo, I'll save you the time, don't play into this matchup
But if you're so insistent on playing it out, his level 1 is weak comparatively, his windwall is on a reasonably long cooldown. Forcing his spells and summoners early is going to get you very far, if he W's poorly run at him full speed. If his W prevents you from doing anything, wait it out. If he continues to walk up punish him, if he remains in his windwall do not try to auto him under any circumstance.
Xerath
artillery mage. He's worse to deal with than vel'koz off the fact he has more synergy with most of the ADCs in the game (Jhin xerath being 1 of the worst matchups in the entire game for draven) and minions don't block his damage, your best bet is just getting a vamp scepter early and just trying to get laning over as fast as possible, if you manage to get an E off, run at him, if he hits his stun cleanse and run at him, force his flash. Without his flash he's very vulnerable.
Yone
His level 1 is impressively strong, Watch his Q + R combo, if he E's towards you, E and trade. Don't be scared to force his abilities and to punish. Don't ego his Q if he's got R, and don't ego his R if he's got Q. He will 1 shot you if he manages to sneak a combo on you so be cautious, other than that gimmick you'll be fine.
Yuumi
Champion is just worthless, if it's not playing lane with any of the champions it has synergy with, it pretty much loses lane by default. cleanse her exhaust, and E her if she hops out. Not too much to be said about this matchup
Zac
Zac support, as long as you're paying attention to his E and saving E for it, you'll be fine, watch choke points (i.e unwarded bushes/terrain fog of war) and care for his flash Q combo
Zeri
keep her away from walls when all-inning, save your E for when she starts walking close enough to the wall to E. Her laning is easy enough to play into, when it starts to get late game be warry of her R burst damage. It will take you by surprise if she gets ahead enough.
Ziggs
another artillery mage, 1 of draven's hardest matchups, sit back and try your best to live laning, look for all-ins only. Make sure his blast-charge (knock-up) is down before you decide whether you want to flash for him or not. If he's low enough to 1 auto go for it, if not you're better off just hoping he walks back in and makes the same mistake. Vamp scepter early into this is a must if you have 0 lane agency, if you can't find an opening just bite the bullet and buy it, it'll save you a headache.
Zilean
similarly to alistar, zilean has 1 of the weakest level 1s in the game. The character wont serve much of a threat until level 6. Once he's 6 you're going to need to be ready to either swap targets on the person he's ulted or being content with the fact you're not getting a kill and backing off fully. If he's Q'd you, jump into the wave, force his ADC to lose as much CS as possible by his bombs killing them. If he slows you need to be ready to cleanse. This character is 1 of the most frustrating champions to deal with for draven, especially if the zilean is good.
Zyra
Zyra similarly to an artillery mage, is just gonna poke you down until you can no longer lane. Be warry of any unwarded bushes because at 2 item she is fully able to 1 shot you, paired with other picks this can prove to be 1 of the trickest champions to play into. If she's alone running at her and cleansing her stun could end up with a kill due to her immobile kit. If she is dealing too much damage early on poking you out, buy a vamp scepter.
Alistar
Alistar's weakest part of laning is levels 1 and for the most part 2, just keep in mind he's pretty much a walking caster minion until 3. Once 6 he's 1 of the best diving champions in the game, matched with HoB you're going to have a delightful time with an Alistar who actually understands his champion.
Amumu
All though on "paper" this character sounds strong, when facing against players who actually understand the game will quickly figure out Amumu really just doesn't do anything, he Qs 2x and just kind of sits there, if he's got glacial if they fight back he sort of just dies. It leaves much to be desired and with draven it's just very hit or miss.
Ashe
decent into some matchups, terrible into others. If you have an ashe support who actually walks up and knows how to trade, into certain matchups it enables you to all in when you couldn't otherwise.
Bard
The only thing that holds this champion back from being strong with Draven is the player base. If you're playing with a bard who understands the concept that they go into fog of war and portal onto the enemy you're going to find yourself having a significantly more enjoyable time comparative to the bard who will roam and accomplish nothing. Atleast you get solo XP, be content with sitting back and letting him scale if worst comes to worst.
Blitzcrank
Blitzcrank's level 1 is equivalent to Alistar's level 1, it's awful. He lacks follow up, so often times you can find yourself on the losing end if he hits a hook in the earlier levels and they don't panic flash but instead commit since minions will be targeting you and blitz. Once he starts getting levels the game becomes significantly easier as his burst because a genuine threat. Force a side of the lane being right or left to force them on 1 side of the minion wave, this will give your blitzcrank an easier time to land his hook considering the enemies will be on 1 side of the wave. This concept applies to all hook champions.
Brand
Mage support, Draven doesn't need damage, but brand is likely the best of the bunch, even if he doesn't do much in laning his presence in the game is impactful enough to *sometimes* surrender laning for. He does enough damage to cheese a kill or 2 on his own and that can lead to snowballing a lead on the enemy in XP and gold. Hit or miss, but leaves much to be desired in terms of better support options
Braum
Braum provides burst while also providing disengage. With HoB braum's passive ends up becoming extremely lethal. Make sure to push forward to make way for your braum as his engage is quite lacking.
Caitlyn
Caitlyn support is not good, most of the ADC supports are not good, not a whole lot you can do with this pick, it deals damage sometimes. That's about where the pros end.
Camille
Camille's level 1 engage is surprisingly strong, don't be afraid to engage with her. She spikes again at level 6 making it so enemies can't escape your burst. Not a favorite pick but it's better than most of the other "non-traditional" supportive picks
Galio
Galio is an engage champion that falls short of being a great pick, it's niche and can provide a decent amount of peel and burst if he's full AP. Don't be afraid to run into fights if he has R, his diving potential is greater than most champions in bot.
Janna
The utility this champion provides is what makes it 1 of Draven's favorite picks, it shines in making your short-trades even stronger. One of the biggest mistakes people make is thinking that you can just run at the enemy with a janna and win, it simply isn't the case. This champion needs levels so all-inning just isn't a possibility until either 1-2 items or enemy is low%HP.
Karma
A good karma can make laning almost laughably easy. Sit back and scale to mid-game, initiate short trades until enemy is low. If they stay whilst low, look for dive-angles/all-ins. She falls off mid-game so make the most of laning, try slow-pushing/freezing and letting her deal with the enemies, deny them of gold and XP as much as possible for a smooth transition to the mid-game.
Leona
A personal favorite, once Leona has some levels, fighting becomes a literal breeze as her lock-down capabilities is 1 of the strongest in the game. She can make an excellent diver if she's content with the fact she is more than likely going to die for it. An excellent champions held back from how a good majority of the players picking Leona simply don't know how to play her. Even as an autofill pick their performance is most of the time acceptable
Lulu
Lulu's high skill ceiling makes it almost impossible to gauge where this champion should actually belong, but most of the time their ability to neutralize enemy threats while providing a decent amount of utility for you leaves this character consistently a strong pick. Most of these enchanters scale with levels, so level 1s are going to be lacking in just about every factor. Into harder matchups I would respect your laner a bit more until level 3-6
Lux
Lux provides a decent amount of disengage whilst mainly excelling in poke and zoning, cheesing bushes and holding angles with lux will enable her to 1 shot the enemy and all around giving you an easier laning. It isn't exactly what you'd want but by all means it's not a terrible pick
Maokai
Maokai in his current stage (as of patch 14.3) is desirable for every ADC to have, his flash engage and ultimate is game changing. Make sure you're watching for those flash W's to follow up, 9x out of 10 it's going to result in a free kill. So pay attention and enable him to make those plays by walking up and zoning enemies into each other. His level 1 and 2 are quite weak so make sure not to overcommit until 3.
Milio
Millio is a walking free cleanse, his speedups, extra range, and disengage are very desirable. When he gives you extra range don't be afraid to walk up and burst the enemy down with HoB. His early game is quite strong, allow him to walk up and poke those enemies with his burn. This will help you zone enemies off waves more effectively which that lose of gold and XP will add up throughout laning phase very fast
Morgana
Morgana can either be the best pick or be 1 of the worst. It's good when it's good, bad when it's bad. Into hook champions this character almost completely neutralizes every threat imaginable. Whilst against other enchanters can feel like having a yuumi running around aimlessly in your lane. It's very hit or miss but when it hits it's VERY strong
Nami
It doesn't matter who's playing Nami, they can be autofilled for all I care. If she starts her 3 bubbles your level 1 is the up there with some of the strongest in the game. It doesn't take an excellent Nami to do an excellent job like a lot of other champions on this list. There's rarely a point in the game where you can't force fights with her.
Nautilus
Nautilus is 1 of the strongest champions with Draven with his great lock down potential. Similarly with all hook champions, try forcing 1 side of the lane, that way if the enemy wants to avoid getting poked down by your burst they'll have to group on the opposite side, allowing your nautilus an easier time to hit either target. If he starts W, play safe until hook. After he gets Q you have the agency to do whatever with your lane. Feel free to slow push, dive if they're low. Just keep in mind since you have so much agency you will be a focus for the enemy jungler to gank. Keep in mind where he is, if you're unaware don't force an overcommitment, because this lane is strong doesn't mean it's unlosable.
Neeko
Neeko's base damage on her spells early game is where the champion shines the most. She is able to solo zone both laners from the lane, don't overcommit as she doesn't have much of a follow up, let her play up and let her poke and catch enemies out, once they've been caught rush towards them for an excellent trade or even a kill. This champion is just like laning with a Lux.
Pantheon
I'm not a fan, although silver players will swear by this pick with draven, Pantheon is too niche, it deals way too much damage at low%HP often times leading him to stealing most of your kills. His stun is pretty mediocre compared to other picks, you're better off just telling him to pick some other engage support as you'll have a more enjoyable time.
Poppy
Only picked as a counterpick. She isn't picking it because she wants to synergize with you, if she can neutralize the enemy support (alistar,pyke,pantheon,etc) it can turn out to not be an entirely worthless pick, but just as laning with a pantheon you might aswell just pick any other engage support.
Pyke
Pyke is held back by the playerbase, his burst with HoB basically threatens killing any squishy at any given moment in the lane. Whilst not being as good of a pick as thresh, this character can get the job done very effectively. Similarly with all hook champions, try forcing 1 side of the lane, that way if the enemy wants to avoid getting poked down by your burst they'll have to group on the opposite side, allowing your Pyke an easier time to hit either target.
Rakan
Rakan is held back by the playerbase, his excellent engage and disengage is ideal for Draven, but for him to successfully pull it off is going to drastically depend on how good the Rakan player actually is. If you can find a great rakan player to duo with you are going to have a very enjoyable time. His W level 1 can be scary for the enemy to play into, but if he gets caught out level 1 he's likely as good as dead since he doesn't have much of a means of escape until he levels E. Just to be safe, wait until 2/3 before engaging with him
Seraphine
Seraphine in my opinion in the supportive role is just a weaker Sona, she provides damage and utility but not to the extent of Sona. You get all of the cons of Sona but only a few of the pros. She spikes at level 6 with her strong ultimate but that's about all you have to work with.
Sett
Sett support is a weaker engage support, he has a very hard time dealing with ranged champions making it almost impossible to deal with them if he doesn't have flash up. If he manages to get a good E off on the minion wave it'll almost always result in them flashing or you getting a kill. His diving potential is where he shines the most. If he's content with dying closing the distance with flash isn't something you have to worry about anymore.
Shaco
I'd rather an extra caster minion I can control in my lane. Shaco is a gimmicky obnoxious champion who doesn't provide anything except being able to steal your XP. It's 1 of my least favorite champions to lane with because there is no lane to play. Best bet is usually to just surrender laning phase and hope to God you're gonna get a lead in the mid game when teamfights start happening.
Shen
Shen's strong early game with engage and map pressure is about all the positives this champion brings. It's 1 of the weakest in the game and he needs levels to operate. There's a reason why the play-rate has dropped off considerably all across the board. It's niche, it's not the worst but he sort of just sits there and does nothing until he has flash taunt back up.
Sona
A lot of Draven players will disagree with this 1. Some might even say this it's controversial, you are going to have a rough time laning. That's just a fact, you are the support. Use your superior laning phase pressure to help her get to late game. If Sona can make it through laning phase it's likely going to result in a free win. Don't autopilot and throw laning over being upset you can't engage, have patience and you will be rewarded.
Soraka
Soraka is held back by the fact the Soraka is an autofill champion, you're either going to get a player who knows what they're doing or a player who doesn't. Even then the bar is set quite low on the performance, you will notice a drastic difference nonetheless. If your soraka isn't too good, try to avoid all ins and play on the safer side. If you're confident in your soraka's abilities play as aggressive as you like within reason. She can either be your angel or your demon.
Swain
Swain's ability to catch enemies out with his E is about all this character can provide. The players who would lock in pantheon are going to be the same players who lock in swain support, autofilled toplaners. Whilst having more range with his E than pantheon this pick ends up falling short of a lot of things, most of the time I end up quite frustrated with laning with 1 of these players. If you're having trouble just try and play laning safer and wait till mid-game to get ahead in teamfights, that's about all you can do
Sylas
Don't be scared to fight with this champion, his engage and damage is very high, but more likely than not you're going to die for these trades. Your KDA isn't going to be pretty, this pick is entirely dependent on who is playing it. It can either leave you 15/0 or 15/15. similarly to hook champions, force enemies to 1 side of the lane so Sylas will have an easier time finding those E engages. This champion has some diving potential but your best bet is to feel the waters and gauge if he's proficient at his champion or not.
Tahm Kench
Tahm Kench support really doesn't provide you with anything besides his R escape which is the only thing that synergizes with Draven as his disegage is on the weaker end. Your best bet is telling him to pick any other engage, tahm needs gold and items to operate which is why he's only been reserved in the bot-lane for champions like senna.
Taliyah
This pick is going to be dependent on how good of a pick she is into the enemy champion and how well she can pilot her champion. Into champions with a dash or an engage she can deal with these picks surprisingly well. (alistar,pyke,leo,etc) Try creating lane agency for her to roam, she is going to be a lot more impactful helping others rather than your lane. With Draven's strong laning most of the time you'll be able to stand your own, but into stronger lanes wait for her to come and if you're being threatened to be dove just drop the wave.
Taric
A Taric can be a blessing or a curse. Taric is a champion held back from his lack of mobility and whoever is piloting him. Allow him to hit the wave to keep you both healthy and allow him to look for stun angles, learn to position yourself diagonally to him so his stun covers most of laning. Building resists can come in handy as the cast time on his ultimate can become a hinderance since you could be bursted before it goes off. If this isn't a threat do not fret.
Thresh
A good Thresh player is my all-time favorite champion to play with. If he can understand the concept of playing back to allow you to walk forward and do as you please and lantern you out you are going to have a wonderful time playing. Similarly with all hook champions, try forcing 1 side of the lane, that way if the enemy wants to avoid getting poked down by your burst they'll have to group on the opposite side, allowing your Thresh an easier time to hit either target. Your early game pressure is great, if he starts flay, allow him to walk through the wave, if he starts hook, pressure a side of the lane. Once he has lantern if you're unaware of where the jungler is at, try stabilizing the wave state. You can have him playing back so you're free to walk all the way up and threaten to poke them down in order to push wave in, when jungler shows you'll be completely safe to lantern back and reset.
Twitch
Twitch support just like all of the other ADC supports just doesn't provide you with anything you want. It just sucks to lane with. Your best bet is letting him scale or just surrendering lane pressure to allow him to roam and make plays around the map.
Varus
Varus support just like all of the other ADC supports just doesn't provide you with anything you want. He doesn't have burst until level 6 and even then it's quite mediocre up until 2-3 items. This is 1 of the most irritating champions to lane with, if you're struggling with laning just surrender lane prio and hope to get ahead mid game. Getting out of laning phase down only 650gold is a blessing.
Veigar
Veigar support isn't too terrible in-terms of the other mages that can be played. Veigar's E can be a useful tool for catching out enemies who lack movement options. His burst can also cheese a few kills on his own which will indirectly put you ahead. Hit or miss champion and more likely than not it's going to miss.
Vel'Koz
Vel'koz support is another 1 of those mage picks that just doesn't work, more likely that not he's going to be a hinderance either by stealing kills or minions. Most matchups are going to deal with his poke just fine, I would happily take mostly any other option. Your best bet is to get through laning and hope he can stand his own in the mid-game where he can maybe look to cheese a kill or 2.
Xerath
Xerath support unlike vel'koz support can actually zone and deal damage, but that about ends the list of his pros. Your job is to get him through laning so he can become the carry, it's a selfish pick and unfun to play with. It's better than most mage options but you're going to lack control over the game if you can't manage to snag a lead anywhere throughout the game.
Yuumi
Yuumi is a buzz-kill. Laning solo sometimes become preferable considering you're getting solo XP. If you manage to make it through laning only down 600gold this pick "can" turn out to be quite good, but it is a MASSIVE gamble. 1 I am very unwilling to make everytime.
Zyra
Zyra is the crème de la crème of terrible popular picks, she pokes the enemies out and sometimes gets them low. That's about all she provides, you will have no control of your own wave since half the time it'll be pushed towards them making you extremely vulnerable to ganks. She provides close to nothing in terms of disengage, this is a pick unlike the niche picks like shaco/swain/pantheon support that is mainstream, so you'll see it quite often. Just focus on getting through laning and if you pick up a kill or 2 off a dive on enemies who refuse to reset after being poked out, the game will become significantly easier for you.
Senna
Senna is held back by the playerbase, her laning-phase is quite weak, your job as Draven is to make sure she gets through it with ideally even gold, if you can manage this, the game becomes quite trivial, pressure the enemies into standing inside the wave or in a straight line to senna, this will enable her to poke them down and slow them, sometimes managing to heal you in the process. Her disengage can be a pretty useful tool to get out of those tricky situations but all ins are very hard to pull-off with this champion on your team.
Synergies
IdealStrongOkLowNone
Alistar
Alistar's weakest part of laning is levels 1 and for the most part 2, just keep in mind he's pretty much a walking caster minion until 3. Once 6 he's 1 of the best diving champions in the game, matched with HoB you're going to have a delightful time with an Alistar who actually understands his champion.
Amumu
All though on "paper" this character sounds strong, when facing against players who actually understand the game will quickly figure out Amumu really just doesn't do anything, he Qs 2x and just kind of sits there, if he's got glacial if they fight back he sort of just dies. It leaves much to be desired and with draven it's just very hit or miss.
Ashe
decent into some matchups, terrible into others. If you have an ashe support who actually walks up and knows how to trade, into certain matchups it enables you to all in when you couldn't otherwise.
Bard
The only thing that holds this champion back from being strong with Draven is the player base. If you're playing with a bard who understands the concept that they go into fog of war and portal onto the enemy you're going to find yourself having a significantly more enjoyable time comparative to the bard who will roam and accomplish nothing. Atleast you get solo XP, be content with sitting back and letting him scale if worst comes to worst.
Blitzcrank
Blitzcrank's level 1 is equivalent to Alistar's level 1, it's awful. He lacks follow up, so often times you can find yourself on the losing end if he hits a hook in the earlier levels and they don't panic flash but instead commit since minions will be targeting you and blitz. Once he starts getting levels the game becomes significantly easier as his burst because a genuine threat. Force a side of the lane being right or left to force them on 1 side of the minion wave, this will give your blitzcrank an easier time to land his hook considering the enemies will be on 1 side of the wave. This concept applies to all hook champions.
Brand
Mage support, Draven doesn't need damage, but brand is likely the best of the bunch, even if he doesn't do much in laning his presence in the game is impactful enough to *sometimes* surrender laning for. He does enough damage to cheese a kill or 2 on his own and that can lead to snowballing a lead on the enemy in XP and gold. Hit or miss, but leaves much to be desired in terms of better support options
Braum
Braum provides burst while also providing disengage. With HoB braum's passive ends up becoming extremely lethal. Make sure to push forward to make way for your braum as his engage is quite lacking.
Caitlyn
Caitlyn support is not good, most of the ADC supports are not good, not a whole lot you can do with this pick, it deals damage sometimes. That's about where the pros end.
Camille
Camille's level 1 engage is surprisingly strong, don't be afraid to engage with her. She spikes again at level 6 making it so enemies can't escape your burst. Not a favorite pick but it's better than most of the other "non-traditional" supportive picks
Galio
Galio is an engage champion that falls short of being a great pick, it's niche and can provide a decent amount of peel and burst if he's full AP. Don't be afraid to run into fights if he has R, his diving potential is greater than most champions in bot.
Janna
The utility this champion provides is what makes it 1 of Draven's favorite picks, it shines in making your short-trades even stronger. One of the biggest mistakes people make is thinking that you can just run at the enemy with a janna and win, it simply isn't the case. This champion needs levels so all-inning just isn't a possibility until either 1-2 items or enemy is low%HP.
Karma
A good karma can make laning almost laughably easy. Sit back and scale to mid-game, initiate short trades until enemy is low. If they stay whilst low, look for dive-angles/all-ins. She falls off mid-game so make the most of laning, try slow-pushing/freezing and letting her deal with the enemies, deny them of gold and XP as much as possible for a smooth transition to the mid-game.
Leona
A personal favorite, once Leona has some levels, fighting becomes a literal breeze as her lock-down capabilities is 1 of the strongest in the game. She can make an excellent diver if she's content with the fact she is more than likely going to die for it. An excellent champions held back from how a good majority of the players picking Leona simply don't know how to play her. Even as an autofill pick their performance is most of the time acceptable
Lulu
Lulu's high skill ceiling makes it almost impossible to gauge where this champion should actually belong, but most of the time their ability to neutralize enemy threats while providing a decent amount of utility for you leaves this character consistently a strong pick. Most of these enchanters scale with levels, so level 1s are going to be lacking in just about every factor. Into harder matchups I would respect your laner a bit more until level 3-6
Lux
Lux provides a decent amount of disengage whilst mainly excelling in poke and zoning, cheesing bushes and holding angles with lux will enable her to 1 shot the enemy and all around giving you an easier laning. It isn't exactly what you'd want but by all means it's not a terrible pick
Maokai
Maokai in his current stage (as of patch 14.3) is desirable for every ADC to have, his flash engage and ultimate is game changing. Make sure you're watching for those flash W's to follow up, 9x out of 10 it's going to result in a free kill. So pay attention and enable him to make those plays by walking up and zoning enemies into each other. His level 1 and 2 are quite weak so make sure not to overcommit until 3.
Milio
Millio is a walking free cleanse, his speedups, extra range, and disengage are very desirable. When he gives you extra range don't be afraid to walk up and burst the enemy down with HoB. His early game is quite strong, allow him to walk up and poke those enemies with his burn. This will help you zone enemies off waves more effectively which that lose of gold and XP will add up throughout laning phase very fast
Morgana
Morgana can either be the best pick or be 1 of the worst. It's good when it's good, bad when it's bad. Into hook champions this character almost completely neutralizes every threat imaginable. Whilst against other enchanters can feel like having a yuumi running around aimlessly in your lane. It's very hit or miss but when it hits it's VERY strong
Nami
It doesn't matter who's playing Nami, they can be autofilled for all I care. If she starts her 3 bubbles your level 1 is the up there with some of the strongest in the game. It doesn't take an excellent Nami to do an excellent job like a lot of other champions on this list. There's rarely a point in the game where you can't force fights with her.
Nautilus
Nautilus is 1 of the strongest champions with Draven with his great lock down potential. Similarly with all hook champions, try forcing 1 side of the lane, that way if the enemy wants to avoid getting poked down by your burst they'll have to group on the opposite side, allowing your nautilus an easier time to hit either target. If he starts W, play safe until hook. After he gets Q you have the agency to do whatever with your lane. Feel free to slow push, dive if they're low. Just keep in mind since you have so much agency you will be a focus for the enemy jungler to gank. Keep in mind where he is, if you're unaware don't force an overcommitment, because this lane is strong doesn't mean it's unlosable.
Neeko
Neeko's base damage on her spells early game is where the champion shines the most. She is able to solo zone both laners from the lane, don't overcommit as she doesn't have much of a follow up, let her play up and let her poke and catch enemies out, once they've been caught rush towards them for an excellent trade or even a kill. This champion is just like laning with a Lux.
Pantheon
I'm not a fan, although silver players will swear by this pick with draven, Pantheon is too niche, it deals way too much damage at low%HP often times leading him to stealing most of your kills. His stun is pretty mediocre compared to other picks, you're better off just telling him to pick some other engage support as you'll have a more enjoyable time.
Poppy
Only picked as a counterpick. She isn't picking it because she wants to synergize with you, if she can neutralize the enemy support (alistar,pyke,pantheon,etc) it can turn out to not be an entirely worthless pick, but just as laning with a pantheon you might aswell just pick any other engage support.
Pyke
Pyke is held back by the playerbase, his burst with HoB basically threatens killing any squishy at any given moment in the lane. Whilst not being as good of a pick as thresh, this character can get the job done very effectively. Similarly with all hook champions, try forcing 1 side of the lane, that way if the enemy wants to avoid getting poked down by your burst they'll have to group on the opposite side, allowing your Pyke an easier time to hit either target.
Rakan
Rakan is held back by the playerbase, his excellent engage and disengage is ideal for Draven, but for him to successfully pull it off is going to drastically depend on how good the Rakan player actually is. If you can find a great rakan player to duo with you are going to have a very enjoyable time. His W level 1 can be scary for the enemy to play into, but if he gets caught out level 1 he's likely as good as dead since he doesn't have much of a means of escape until he levels E. Just to be safe, wait until 2/3 before engaging with him
Seraphine
Seraphine in my opinion in the supportive role is just a weaker Sona, she provides damage and utility but not to the extent of Sona. You get all of the cons of Sona but only a few of the pros. She spikes at level 6 with her strong ultimate but that's about all you have to work with.
Sett
Sett support is a weaker engage support, he has a very hard time dealing with ranged champions making it almost impossible to deal with them if he doesn't have flash up. If he manages to get a good E off on the minion wave it'll almost always result in them flashing or you getting a kill. His diving potential is where he shines the most. If he's content with dying closing the distance with flash isn't something you have to worry about anymore.
Shaco
I'd rather an extra caster minion I can control in my lane. Shaco is a gimmicky obnoxious champion who doesn't provide anything except being able to steal your XP. It's 1 of my least favorite champions to lane with because there is no lane to play. Best bet is usually to just surrender laning phase and hope to God you're gonna get a lead in the mid game when teamfights start happening.
Shen
Shen's strong early game with engage and map pressure is about all the positives this champion brings. It's 1 of the weakest in the game and he needs levels to operate. There's a reason why the play-rate has dropped off considerably all across the board. It's niche, it's not the worst but he sort of just sits there and does nothing until he has flash taunt back up.
Sona
A lot of Draven players will disagree with this 1. Some might even say this it's controversial, you are going to have a rough time laning. That's just a fact, you are the support. Use your superior laning phase pressure to help her get to late game. If Sona can make it through laning phase it's likely going to result in a free win. Don't autopilot and throw laning over being upset you can't engage, have patience and you will be rewarded.
Soraka
Soraka is held back by the fact the Soraka is an autofill champion, you're either going to get a player who knows what they're doing or a player who doesn't. Even then the bar is set quite low on the performance, you will notice a drastic difference nonetheless. If your soraka isn't too good, try to avoid all ins and play on the safer side. If you're confident in your soraka's abilities play as aggressive as you like within reason. She can either be your angel or your demon.
Swain
Swain's ability to catch enemies out with his E is about all this character can provide. The players who would lock in pantheon are going to be the same players who lock in swain support, autofilled toplaners. Whilst having more range with his E than pantheon this pick ends up falling short of a lot of things, most of the time I end up quite frustrated with laning with 1 of these players. If you're having trouble just try and play laning safer and wait till mid-game to get ahead in teamfights, that's about all you can do
Sylas
Don't be scared to fight with this champion, his engage and damage is very high, but more likely than not you're going to die for these trades. Your KDA isn't going to be pretty, this pick is entirely dependent on who is playing it. It can either leave you 15/0 or 15/15. similarly to hook champions, force enemies to 1 side of the lane so Sylas will have an easier time finding those E engages. This champion has some diving potential but your best bet is to feel the waters and gauge if he's proficient at his champion or not.
Tahm Kench
Tahm Kench support really doesn't provide you with anything besides his R escape which is the only thing that synergizes with Draven as his disegage is on the weaker end. Your best bet is telling him to pick any other engage, tahm needs gold and items to operate which is why he's only been reserved in the bot-lane for champions like senna.
Taliyah
This pick is going to be dependent on how good of a pick she is into the enemy champion and how well she can pilot her champion. Into champions with a dash or an engage she can deal with these picks surprisingly well. (alistar,pyke,leo,etc) Try creating lane agency for her to roam, she is going to be a lot more impactful helping others rather than your lane. With Draven's strong laning most of the time you'll be able to stand your own, but into stronger lanes wait for her to come and if you're being threatened to be dove just drop the wave.
Taric
A Taric can be a blessing or a curse. Taric is a champion held back from his lack of mobility and whoever is piloting him. Allow him to hit the wave to keep you both healthy and allow him to look for stun angles, learn to position yourself diagonally to him so his stun covers most of laning. Building resists can come in handy as the cast time on his ultimate can become a hinderance since you could be bursted before it goes off. If this isn't a threat do not fret.
Thresh
A good Thresh player is my all-time favorite champion to play with. If he can understand the concept of playing back to allow you to walk forward and do as you please and lantern you out you are going to have a wonderful time playing. Similarly with all hook champions, try forcing 1 side of the lane, that way if the enemy wants to avoid getting poked down by your burst they'll have to group on the opposite side, allowing your Thresh an easier time to hit either target. Your early game pressure is great, if he starts flay, allow him to walk through the wave, if he starts hook, pressure a side of the lane. Once he has lantern if you're unaware of where the jungler is at, try stabilizing the wave state. You can have him playing back so you're free to walk all the way up and threaten to poke them down in order to push wave in, when jungler shows you'll be completely safe to lantern back and reset.
Twitch
Twitch support just like all of the other ADC supports just doesn't provide you with anything you want. It just sucks to lane with. Your best bet is letting him scale or just surrendering lane pressure to allow him to roam and make plays around the map.
Varus
Varus support just like all of the other ADC supports just doesn't provide you with anything you want. He doesn't have burst until level 6 and even then it's quite mediocre up until 2-3 items. This is 1 of the most irritating champions to lane with, if you're struggling with laning just surrender lane prio and hope to get ahead mid game. Getting out of laning phase down only 650gold is a blessing.
Veigar
Veigar support isn't too terrible in-terms of the other mages that can be played. Veigar's E can be a useful tool for catching out enemies who lack movement options. His burst can also cheese a few kills on his own which will indirectly put you ahead. Hit or miss champion and more likely than not it's going to miss.
Vel'Koz
Vel'koz support is another 1 of those mage picks that just doesn't work, more likely that not he's going to be a hinderance either by stealing kills or minions. Most matchups are going to deal with his poke just fine, I would happily take mostly any other option. Your best bet is to get through laning and hope he can stand his own in the mid-game where he can maybe look to cheese a kill or 2.
Xerath
Xerath support unlike vel'koz support can actually zone and deal damage, but that about ends the list of his pros. Your job is to get him through laning so he can become the carry, it's a selfish pick and unfun to play with. It's better than most mage options but you're going to lack control over the game if you can't manage to snag a lead anywhere throughout the game.
Yuumi
Yuumi is a buzz-kill. Laning solo sometimes become preferable considering you're getting solo XP. If you manage to make it through laning only down 600gold this pick "can" turn out to be quite good, but it is a MASSIVE gamble. 1 I am very unwilling to make everytime.
Zyra
Zyra is the crème de la crème of terrible popular picks, she pokes the enemies out and sometimes gets them low. That's about all she provides, you will have no control of your own wave since half the time it'll be pushed towards them making you extremely vulnerable to ganks. She provides close to nothing in terms of disengage, this is a pick unlike the niche picks like shaco/swain/pantheon support that is mainstream, so you'll see it quite often. Just focus on getting through laning and if you pick up a kill or 2 off a dive on enemies who refuse to reset after being poked out, the game will become significantly easier for you.
Senna
Senna is held back by the playerbase, her laning-phase is quite weak, your job as Draven is to make sure she gets through it with ideally even gold, if you can manage this, the game becomes quite trivial, pressure the enemies into standing inside the wave or in a straight line to senna, this will enable her to poke them down and slow them, sometimes managing to heal you in the process. Her disengage can be a pretty useful tool to get out of those tricky situations but all ins are very hard to pull-off with this champion on your team.
Who am I?
I'm Mcdonald's Manager, I've been Challenger since Season 7, to those who know the name widely regard me as the best player to touch this champion.
Some of my greatest achievements have been:
80%+ winrate to challenger
70%+ winrate 1k+LP challenger
44W-1L to masters
99W-0L and managing to throw the last game (99W-1L)
peak Rank 1 & 2 early season
peak Rank 13 end season
I've managed all this while never having a setup of my own, which some find that hard to believe. I've went from place to place borderline homeless but through the kindness of strangers providing me a desktop to play on, currently I get around by playing on my brothers laptop and wifi internet. Even through it all I've prevailed with strategies and systems I've developed on my own through extensive self-research and trail and error, psychological tricks that I've yet to see/hear discussed by anyone else.
Throughout my years I've met a lot of players too scared to play Draven because of the mechanical prowess required to navigate the rift with him, I'm here to teach you that even if you have limited hardware or think you have bad mechanics, you can not only just succeed, but EXCEL with Draven. So strap in as I teach you everything you need to know to think like a Challenger, whether you're an aspiring Draven player or a veteran looking to sharpen his gameplay.
Hail of Blades - enables Draven's strengths and makes them even stronger, it allows for a strong early game, and an even stronger mid & late game. I've been exclusively running Hail of Blades for the past +3 years and has become virtually synonymous with me in high elo NA as i've been the only 1 to have mastered this playstyle. What Draven players fail to realize, is you need to give in order to take, what do I mean by this? As a mousetrap requires cheese, the enemy needs an incentive to play into your trap. We need to allow enemy access and entry, give them what they want. Only when they've overstepped to be completely dominated and puinished to the absolute maximum since Hail of Blades gives you that sheer amount of burst to your damage that Lethal Tempo just can't offer to Draven.
These are my only social contacts: Discord - @Tunkkimuna / Tunkkimuna#6415 Twitch - https://www.twitch.tv/mcdnldsmngrxdd If you're looking for additional help & coaching feel free to reach out (rates dependent on your rank)
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Gamelosing threats: These are going to be your hardest matchups, besides levels 1-3 you are going to hard lose at every point in the game to these combos, but that's not to say they're unwinnable. The most important thing you can do against these champions is to NOT DIE if you need to give a wave, give a wave. Your best bet is sitting back and making sure your waves are good, our goal is to farm passive stacks and hope for an opportunity on getting an execute with R stacks or a kill. If we can escape laning slightly behind Gold/XP or even; then we've made it through the hardest part of the game. Solo carrying is out of the question (unless you are monstrously ahead), you are going to need to be team reliant. Wait for your team to help you deal with these picks towards mid/late game, do everything in your power to help your team deal with them, teamplay is your saving grace.If you're unable to deal with them that is okay, help your team in whatever way possible, whether that be dealing with their top, mid, and or jungle, or simply sacrificing resources to make sure your team stays ahead (I.E dropping a wave to secure an objective) the more your team succeeds the more you succeed.
Outscaling threats: Besides beating you extremely hard late game, most if not all you'll stomp in laning. Deny them the opportunity to scale and make sure they stay behind, the mistake a lot of Draven players make is repeatedly pushing in every wave under their tower. While you do create lane pressure and agency you're allowing them to freely farm and soak XP, fight for level 2 prio and slow push a large wave. Once under their tower you can either stay to poke them down, or recall (This is referred to as a cheater recall) This will put your wave in a state that'll push back to you, if you stay do not hard shove. Thin the wave out so they can't crash it, (make sure the enemy minion wave has more than yours by no more than 4). This will put them in a state of panic where they either have to stay to shove the wave in, or reset losing 1-2waves of Gold and XP. This is when you want to be looking for kills or trades to force them into making a terrible decision. Once you want to reset, transfer your freeze into a slow push, do this by simply matching your minions to the amount of minions they have (or up to -1 or -2) keep them off the wave and await your next wave. Once next wave comes kill as fast as possible and reset. When you've created a sufficient lead, look for diving opportunity / dragon/ roaming plays.
Poke threats: Poke picks are solely designed to shut you down and fully deny you your chance at snowballing. Due to Draven's lack of mobility options (not having a dash), short range (no long-ranged abilities to assist farming), and choreographed movement patterns (picking up axes). You become a very easy target to hit skillshots on and zone if they have the correct tools to do so. Laning is going to be miserable until you have items to deal with them, just like "Game-losing threats" try your absolute best not to die in lane. If you're struggling to stay alive buy early lifesteal ( Vampiric Scepter), the weakness of their picks is once you've caught them out, they don't have any tools to survive besides Flash (exceptions: Satchel Charge & Arcane Shift) Look for opportunities to catch them out and force extended trades, this will likely result in them burning Flash which is very beneficial for us. Having flash advantage is the determining factor between getting a kill and not, evaluate whether you win an all-in or not, if your support is in position and they've overstepped, go for the kill. After laning phase is over life becomes easier, but that doesn't mean you're out of the storm just yet. Still look for those same opportunities even after laning is over because they're going to start looking to deny you enteries into team-fights. Have your team escort you into the fight OR you can force the enemy into you by threatening to obtain lane prio over the objective you're fighting over. As a general rule of thumb, it is best to play diagonally against most skillshot champions, that way there's a minion wave between you and them.
Hail of Blades - Hail of Blades allows an entirely different playstyle for Draven, it rewards positioning and precision drastically increasing Draven's skill ceiling, but in contrast making his margin of error even smaller. Once mastered there isn't a scenario where Hail of Blades doesn't outshine Lethal Tempo. Hail of Blades provides a seemless transition from the early game lane bully he's known for, to a mid/late-game burst hypercarry ranged assassin. In order to utilize this, wait till you're inrange fully before you start autoing, attacking at the edge can lead to only managing to getting 1-2 autos off, weave in and out of combat with the enemy. Position yourself to provoke the enemy into bad plays, build up pressure and go for the kill only when the moment is right.
Lethal Tempo - Lethal tempo has become the golden standard for Draven since it was rework. It provides a consistent ramping damage but leaves much to be desired in the burst department. If you're new to Draven, lethal can be a good pair of training wheels, but those who are looking to master Draven I highly recommend looking into Hail of Blades
Taste of Blood - Only other option is Cheap Shot, which isn't good unless you have an engage support, it's situational and even then the sustain given by Taste of Blood is too good to pass up for most matchups. If you're confused on what to go, always default to Taste of Blood
Relentless Hunter - out of all the treasure runes at the moment, I believe Relentless Hunterto be the best due to movement-speed creep being at an all time high, but that being said I think all except ultimate hunter are very viable and all work, experiment and find which works best for you.
Legend: Bloodline - your build path lacks lifesteal, this 1 is pretty much non-negotiable aswell.
Coup de Grace- I believe this to be the best in slot for what's left in the tree, but that being said you can realistically swap this out for anything else in this tree, most people go Presence of Mind. Basically everything is viable except Overheal
Adaptive Force - Double adaptive; attack speed shard isn't need due to the fact of having Hail of Blades. With double adaptive your trading in lane becomes a lot more impactful in those early levels, it takes time to get used to but the pros far outweigh the cons. Health Scaling - your early game is already very good due to having Hail of Blades, there's no reason to go Flat Health since most problems you'll face will be out of lane.
Presence of Mind - Due to needing to close distance between you and your enemies, presence of mind is preferable. Allowing you to be more careless spamming Blood Rush for short auto trades. If you don't have issues with your mana consumption Triumph would be the best alternative.
Legend: Bloodline - Just as for Hail of Blades your build lacks early lifesteal. This is pretty much non-negotiable since there isn't a better option.
Coup de Grace- both Cut Down & Last Stand have their applications, cut-down into tankier comps, last-stand into situations where you're going to stay on lower %HP. Overall Coup de Grace is just consistently the best
Eyeball Collection - If you're going domination for any of the treasure runes, Eyeball is simply the best.
Treasure Hunter - with Lethal Tempo treasure hunter becomes a lot more needed since not having the added burst from Hail of Blades you'll be needing raw stats from items as compensation.
Attack Speed - if you're going Lethal Tempoyou need the extra attack speed to get autos faster off on both the enemies and the minions, going double adaptive with lethal is unoptimal in my personal opinion. Flat Health - we will be going flat health this time around since without Hail of Blades your early game is considerably weaker.
I've included everything you need to know into 1 clear video, the manuscript can be found in the description box on the youtube video One trick not included is E buffering, same as R buffering, you simply wait till the target is about to stun you and you press E. This can be useful to cancel abilities, most noteable examples: || Warwick - Infinite Duress || Malzahar
- Nether Grasp || Nautilus - Dredge Line || Leona - Zenith Blade ||
Full speed:
Slowed down:
Items & Summoner Spells 6:
For the bulk of Items & Summoner Spells I've included everything you need to know on the front-page. (situational items, full build alternatives & other summoner spells) You can access this by hovering over the "NOTES" or clicking the "NOTES" dropdown menu if you're on mobile. This section will only include my full build and my default Summoner Spells as an indepth explanation to why I choose to itemize this way.
Youmuu's Ghostblade - This is my go to 1st item, movement speed creep has become a very glaring issue in this game and it's only becoming worse. You can't deal damage to the enemy if they're always faster than you. You'll almost always be faster than your opponent to fights and rotations, having the power to cut-off and zone, or being the first to lane puts you in the driver's seat to command the enemy to play into you rather than you play into them. A very powerful concept to learn and practice, don't be afraid to use the active off-cooldown to get to places, better you use it than not use it at all, with it's low cooldown it's quite an effective tool and sometimes can even replace the need to finish boots till a good ways into your 2nd or 3rd item.
Hubris - an alternative purchase to Youmuu's Ghostblade, Hubris is an effective tool to make snowballing that much easier. Although it gives similar stats to youmuu's while being 300 gold more expensive, after getting a kill the item begins to pay for itself. When you're in those snowballing games, definitely consider purchasing Hubris early on, as this will give you that much needed damage boost, look to have a 3-5+ takedown lead before purchasing.
The Collector - Moving onto our 2nd item The Collector, for what this item gives, it simply isn't matched. The passive synergy with Draven will pick up those kills that would've otherwise gotten away. Compared to other alternatives The Collector simply outdamages. Other options like Opportunity + Long Sword (3050gold) falls short in DPS even after the nerf to Collector. The 20% Critical strike sets you up for future itemization aswell which we'll get into.
Lord Dominik's Regards - 3rd being lord dominik's regard, it synergizes with both lethality from Youmuu's Ghostblade & The Collector providing much needed armor pen. After running all the numbers, this item is mathimatically proven to be the best, even if the enemies aren't building armor, if their base armor surpasses 70-80 it outdamages Infinity Edge while being 300 gold cheaper. Beyond just numbers and DPS, Lord dominik's allows you to build entirely situationally after as you won't be outscaled by defensive stats.
Infinity Edge - in most cases I'll go Infinity Edge 4th, due to our previous 2 items and how Critical strike is calculated in this game, infinity edge starts to become extremely gold efficient past 60%. Since we've already got Lord Dominik's Regards, we can realistically drop this for any situational item. If you're looking for pure damage this is your best option by far.
Flash & Cleanse - are your go to summoner spells. The worst thing that can happen to Draven is denied the opportunity to deal damage (exhaust, CC), taking cleanse is a very good way to prevent this, there are rarely games that don't have some form of CC, but when you do run across those rare games, consider Flash & Exhaust or Flash & Heal
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Gameplay 7:
Gameplay is going to focus on the 3 main stages of the game, early - mid - late. This is going to focus solely on snowballing and creating a lead. If you're unsure how to deal from behind, refer back to chapter 3: hardest matchups and individual matchups in the counters & synergies section.
Early game: Building a fortress/starting a slow push - early game pressure is 1 of the most important things you can have, and it all stems from the first wave. There's a lot more you can do with the wave other than shove it in repeatedly into the enemy
(From left to right) 1st image: as can be seen the first and second wave I've managed to secure a minion lead. I am close to my minions to deny Kai'Sa walking up entirely or from isolate Icathian Rain, standing behind the wave also denies Blitzcrank landing Rocket Grab. If Blitzcrank were to throw a hook I have a free passage way to poke Kai'Sa out entirely.
2nd image: Now that cannon wave has arrived, I have maintained my minion advantage and have improved on it. I am a complete cannon up now with an HP lead on Kai'Sa. building upon the same idea, I stay behind the minion pressuring them into making a decision. If they take the fight they will lose, if they back off we'll get a free recall, in only 2 waves I have built myself a fortress, an unbreakable wall.
3rd image: With Leona holding choke in the 3rd bush it has allowed me to walk up completely. Kai'Sa ignoring this threat attempts to walk up allowing Leona to hit her Zenith Blade. Kai'Sa now having lost the trade completely, loses her HP bar and ends up using both her summoners, talk about great value!
4th image: The aftermath had resulted in both Kai'Sa and Blitzcrank losing both of their summoner spells, Kai'Sa had lost almost her enitre HP bar aswell. This sets up an incredibly easy dive resulting in Draven cashing out and Kai'Sa losing the entire cannon wave and more.
Once reset, the enemy's wave will slow bush back to you. Because we've just gotten a lead, we can allow this and Kai'Sa can do nothing about it. If she tries to, she will be punished and die, making the situation worst, which is what ended up happening this game.
1st image: As we can see, the minion wave has thinned out from tower to 6 vs 3, therefore pushing back towards me.
2nd & 3rd image: Kai'Sa desperately attempting to fix this wave trying to avoid a catastrophe from unfolding, happens to walk directly into Leona's trap, getting hit by Zenith Blade and dying due to not having Flash having burned it from earlier. I am freely allowed to walk through this wave having disjointed Blitzcrank's recall timer from the earlier dive. It doesn't take a lot to get the ball rolling, once you've built up pressure the enemy can often times crumble incredibly fast.
4th image: Since we didn't push the wave in, the Kai'Sa and Blitzcrank are suffering greatly, they're unable to gain gold let alone XP. Out of desperation, the Blitzcrank has walked up too far, and gets caught for it. Without him having Flash from earlier, he is as good as dead. As for Kai'Sa although she is safe staying outside Leona's range, her lane is as good as over.
Aftermath: With her wanting to reset after the whole exchange, I hold the wave at my tower until she does. I then transition my freeze into a slow push allowing me an excellent back timer further pushing my lead. In 6 minutes, I have created a 1.7k gold lead, and a 3 level lead in a Grandmaster/Challenger game.
Transfering that lead into the mid-game: Now that we're up a healthy chunk of gold, after we get first tower were going to rotate to the mid-lane. We're going to establish mid-lane prio by making sure our waves are pushed towards the enemy to create map pressure.
Since I have established mid prio, and with my team pressuring for dragon. This gives me free access to the entire side of the board, which allows me to waltz into their jungler and catch their Vel'Koz out. With the minions pushing mid I'm able to see Kindred on the map. Knowing fully where she is at I can collapse on her with Leona or assist Karthus & Ornn kill the overextended Kai'Sa. Knowing how far behind Kai'Sa already is, I leave those 2 to deal with the bigger threat Kindred, an added bonus is she is already in mid-lane, the lane I want to be in.
Now in mid-game, we need to set ourselves up for success. How do we do that? By securing objectives and maintaining map dominance.
1st image: while no objectives are up, I am creating map threats the enemy is forced to respond to. This allows mid and top to gain pressure, as they'll be no enemies in it, I will get my recall off and initiate the tactic I was planning for the whole time, to rotate back on over to mid so I'll have mid prio in time for dragon.
2nd image: Now that dragon is spawning soon, I now have complete dominance over mid-lane. Since the enemies were distracted with bot-lane (the lane I just pushed out) I'm freely able to control mid lane and almost both halves of the map! really goes to show how important lane-pressure is
3rd image: We're now able to all collapse on Zed and Kindred due to that deadly pressure put mid-lane, we've successfully forced them into a bad trade costing them dragon and 2 shut-downs. A mistake that can often times be game losing,
Late game - finding ways to end: Mid-game and late-game for Draven aren't much different, The only difference is these fights are a lot higher stakes. 1 misplay can be game-losing and 1 good play can be game-winning. Things are a lot less scripted and you'll need to adapt & adjust on the fly, try to stay mid-lane as pushing sidelanes as Draven is incredibly risky and will result in death more times than not if you're not careful.
1st image - positioning yourself correctly in a teamfight: Due to our lack of midlane presence, aswell as Vel'Koz and Zed running from there, they've created a barrier between us and our mid-lane escape route, if we were to force it, it would end very horribly. Thankfully we have well established bot prio, we want to play towards the side where we have priority, this is where we want to pressure towards while killing dragon. Dragging the fight away from Vel'Koz's & Zed's position has made them almost completely obsolete as by the time they've arrived to the fight we're well on our way back to base a dragon ahead.
2nd image - picking and choosing our objectives: Evaluate what it is you can, and can not get away with. Due to our toplaner Yone dying we've lost our entire hold on mid-lane, although next dragon for us is soul we simply can't punch through mid to make that happen. We shift towards topside and take baron nashor as fast as possible. Just because you can't get the objective you want, doesn't mean you shouldn't create agency elsewhere on the map and take something of near value. This is a common theme for top-laners and can be done on Draven aswell with his ability to create agency and take objectives & towers with relative ease.
3rd image - always having escape routes while killing the enemy: Dying in an end game fight is 1 of the worst things that can happen. If you're the only 1 performing on your team, dying can result in losing your grip on the game or straight up losing instantly. This is why when poking and pressuring the enemies, it is very crucial to make sure you've got somewhere you can run to when things don't go in your favour. Although we're only fighting a 3v3, Draven & Kled are at half HP with Jayce & Senna coming to assist their teammates. This fight can go very sour very quickly, even with baron minions serving as a wall for skill shots, it's still very important to be warry of any potential threats of overstaying. IT IS VERY IMPORTANT TO PLAY SMART, there is a difference between playing smart and playing safe. It's better to die as a team than sit back "playing safe" and let them fight a 4v5. Evaluate what it is your teammates want and work with them, because I stayed and fought them off, we ended up winning instantly after that teamfight, 1 bad fight can determine your entire game. We all make mistakes, some less than others, the most important thing to do is be critical of yourself and evaluate what you could've done better, even if you think you're not at fault.
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The Conclusion/Item set importer 8:
If you made it this far, thank you for reading, I really do appreciate it. If you found this guide helpful, give it a like and share it with others, if you disliked it down vote it and leave a comment on what I can improve on future guides. For additional help as stated before, I offer personalized coaching session aswell as stream at https://www.twitch.tv/mcdnldsmngrxdd , if you have any questions or comments please put them below or send them when I'm streaming, if you need to reach out contact me on discord: @Tunkkimuna - Tunkkimuna#6415.
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