@Riot Let's talk about the Draven change

Declined·9/2/2015, 6:05:20 PM·1 votes·1,161 views

Let's discuss the new addition to Draven' passive

If Draven kills 6 minions in a row without dropping an axe, he gains 2 extra Adoration stacks

For the sake of this thread let's refer to it as DRA (Draven's Rubbish Addition) After some tests, let me show you what DRA actually do.

  • Each minion kill gives you a 6 sec window. (same as the cd on spinning axe)
  • Once you reach 6 stacks of DRA it grants 2 Adoration stacks and reset the counter.
  • If a minion die, to causes other than Draven, all DRA stacks are lost, including allied summoners.

So what does that actually mean for Draven?

  • DRA only lasts 6 sec, from the moment of the minion death
    • Not enough to be useful from one minion wave to the next.
    • Q is reset when catching axes as well, which is usually 0.75 sec after the minion dies, so you're awarded a full second less because of attack animation, travel time of the attack, and the time it requires to move and pick up axes.
  • The minion deaths must be caused by Draven, if they die to natural causes (other minions) or friendly champions all DRA stacks are lost.
  • Minion wave often only consists of 6 minions, which means you have to get all of them in order to receive an extra 2 stacks.
  • This feels like a noob trap, as you would be afraid of missing out of 2 measly stacks, when you would make it up by hitting something and catching the axes twice (usually the enemy).
  • DRA is reset upon reaching 6 stacks.
  • Should you be fortunate to actually reach this, it resets.

**Conclusion: ** The conditions are so harsh that it turns into more of a noob trap than an actual fallback pattern, and quite misleading with the short description. I was under the impression I had to focus on not dropping axes and would be rewarded for doing so, not worry about missing CS and competing against my own team. Completely useless on other game modes.

I would very much like to know, is this intended behavior?

PS. The icon sucks, if anything I want the old Icon from Wicked Blades back to avoid confusion, not a miniature of the Whirling Death.

8 Comments

Melissee9/2/2015, 6:08:10 PM1 votes

While I personally dislike Draven, this change does ruin his gameplay. Might as well give him a passive that otherwise interacts with his axe catching.

Stiv12349/2/2015, 6:23:04 PM1 votes
  • DRA only lasts 6 sec, from the moment of the minion death
  • The minion deaths must be caused by Draven, if they die to natural causes (other minions) or friendly champions all DRA stacks are lost.

How do you know it works like this?

Gunslinger7449/29/2015, 1:39:23 PM1 votes

Draven is my most played ADC and I personally think that he's in a bad spot, the word that he snowballs to oblivion has gone out from Bronze V to LCS and he is treated as such: by being focused to shit at all times. I wouldn't say DRA is an enormous issue, as I'm sure most adcs would understand that 4 extra gold value on your passive won't exactly do more than the 200 damage on the enemy ADC you could deal instead of killing that last creep. I think this change was aimed more at the mid to late game where Draven will be oneshotting creeps anyway.

Right now, I don't see much of a reason to play the Glorious Executioner over something like Lucian or Graves, with their AoE and burst they can dish out team wide damage and immediately dash out of danger with E as opposed to Draven's mediocre W move speed. I think he needs a change, but everything about him is so embedded into the character that changing him is terribly hard. Any real buffs to his passive would make his snowballing absolutely stupid, even though I'd love to get like a 25% stack cash in on assist so I can finally stop worrying about supports going 3/0/0 and then flaming Draven for being useless (I don't have a passive, dumbshit. You're to blame for that.) I think a few of Draven's issues would be fixed if item 3104 was buyable on SR. Because it would effectively give him his old passive back.

I personally think a W buff along the lines of and active +% move speed when moving towards low health enemy champions, and maybe even a passive % move speed buff when moving towards a falling axe. Of course the axes falling a set distance away from Draven would pose issues, but I think that's a stupid mechanic in the first place.