Riot have released their Champion Spotlight for Draven, the ranged carry that’s dropping in the next League of Legends patch. He’s looking interesting to play, as well as a complete pain in the arse for anyone laning against him.
The main mechanic revolves around his spinning blades, which are a pair of throwing axes that enhance your basic attacks. Once you’ve thrown one, it ricochets off your target, highlighting its landing point on the floor. If you can be there when it gets there, it’ll instantly refresh your cooldown on on the ability, as well as his Bloodlust, which increases movement speed and attack damage. It not only means that it looks like he’ll deal insane damage if played right, but also that he needs to be very aware of where he is and what capabilities the enemy team has.
In the video, there’s a moment where he runs back to catch a blade and gets swapped by Urgot, which gives me hope that Riot are moving more towards interesting play beyond just the abilities, but also in position and teamfight potential, which is definitely somewhere that League of Legends can expand into, providing a more dynamic team fighting game, and also just forcing you to make more decisions on the battlefield. The rewards for Draven catching his blades are so great, that you’re fighting against temptation to keep yourself alive. Which sounds great.
We’ll have a review of Draven shortly after release.