Best Drake in League of Legends 2023

Shadman Sabik Zaim
By Shadman Sabik Zaim
8 Min Read
Image Credit: Riot Games

In this article, we talk about the best Drake in League of Legends for 2023.

Season 13 has been quite an interesting year thus far for League of Legends. Riot has been doing a bunch of reworks, changes, etc., thus far. This comes after a disappointing start to the year with all sorts of problems with the community.

While the year started with many negatives, there have been a lot of positives thus far. Ranked Split 1 is coming to an end, and Split 2 will be starting soon after that. Also, Riot is making many systems changes to combat toxicity. Other than those, there have been a lot of sweeping changes balance-wise in an attempt to improve the game.

That said, the meta this year has been fairly bot centric. With the Marksmen changes in 13.1B and item changes in Patch 13.10, the emphasis has gone to the bot lane. Pro play is enough proof of that. As bot lane has become that important, so has to stack Drakes. Thus, in this article, we look into the Drake statistics of League of Legends and conclude what the best Drake is.

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Drake Rankings

While some people would think that ranking the Drakes will be easy, it is not, as there are many criteria to judge it on. You could easily go the statistic way and just rank them from 1 to 6. However, Drakes have two main factors to judge as follows.

  • Stats gained per Stack (Dragon Slayer)
  • Soul Effect

The first one gets applied based on how many of that Drake is killed, and the other is an effect that is granted when a team kills the fourth Drake. Souls are always random in each game, as after the first two Drakes are killed, the terrain changes according to the element of the Drake that is giving the Soul.

Thus, let’s briefly rank the Drakes in terms of single kill and Soul effect and then give an overall ranking for the Drakes.

Single Drake Kill Rankings For Stack Effect

Here are the rankings for the stack effect each drake gives.

  1. Mountain Drake
  2. Infernal Drake
  3. Hextech Drake
  4. Ocean Drake
  5. Cloud Drake
  6. Chemtech Drake

If you go by statistics, it is very hard to differentiate between the top 5. Chemtech Drake is by far the weakest, while the rest are within a percent in terms of win rate. In my opinion, Mountain Drake is the best of the lot, considering the percentage of defensive stats it gives. Infernal and Hextech Drakes are close to that and will give more offensive stats. Then we have Ocean and Cloud Drakes, which have nice effects but are better with more stacks than the single one.

Overall, this is the ranking that sits best with me considering how impact the top 3 of this list can be impact in terms of surviving with 1 HP or doing that extra bit of damage to finish off a target.

Drake Soul Ranking

While Single Drake For Stacks is nice, let’s discuss the Soul Effect rankings.

  1. Mountain Drake
  2. Infernal Drake
  3. Cloud Drake
  4. Hextech Drake
  5. Ocean Drake
  6. Chemtech Drake

Yet again, Chemtech Drake lands at the bottom while Mountain Drake lands at the top. The shield provided by Mountain Drake, combined with the stack effect, is excellent. Meanwhile, Infernal Drake is better with the Soul and Cloud Drake. Hextech Drake’s Soul effect is nice, but it’s not as impactful as the rest, while Ocean Drake is just great in certain situations.

Let’s jump into the overall rankings for the Drake effects.

Overall Rankings

6. Chemtech Drake

Chemtech Drake
Image Credit: League of Legends Wiki

It is no debate that Chemtech Drake is the worst Drake in League of Legends. Whether you experience it via playing games or just looking at the stats, there is no good way to look at this Drake. In such an abysmal state, we must acknowledge how bad it is.

While the stacking effect of tenacity and healing/shielding can be nice, it really doesn’t change the outcome too much. There are a lot of cc and other ways to combat these buffs easily. What’s worse is the Soul effect. It is so bad that it is not even worth getting at times. The buff of doing more damage when you have less than 50% HP only benefits tanks and bruisers, nothing more. In the current meta, this is the worst Drake in the game.

5. Ocean Drake

Ocean Drake
Image Credit: League of Legends Wiki

Next is the Ocean Drake, which is ok as a Soul and Single Effect. The Drake is great in certain situations and compositions. The individual effect is better with more stacks, while the soul is great for extended fights. Overall, the Drake is not bad, but sadly, the game has better Drakes.

4. Cloud Drake

Cloud Drake
Image Credit: League of Legends Wiki

Cloud Drake comes in fourth as the stack effect is not great in itself, while the Soul is great. The Drake benefits many champions in the game, and it gets given a boost in terms of moving around the map.

This Drake is very good at pro play, using the movement speed to reposition or rotate around the map. It is nice and definitely worth getting to get an edge.

3. Hextech Drake

Hextech Drake
Image Credit: League of Legends Wiki

Next is the Hextech Drake, as it has some of the better stats of the Drake. The best part about this Drake is the map change with the Hextech Rifts. The extra attack speed and the overall slows and chain damage effect from the Soul are great. This is an excellent Drake, and it definitely tilts games in favor of the team with the Soul.

2. Infernal Drake

Infernal Drake
Image Credit: League of Legends Wiki

What’s not to love about the Infernal Drake? More damage in both Soul and Stack Effect, and it is great to have. The faster you kill your enemies, the better. Hence, this is one of the best drakes available in any scenario.

1. Mountain Drake

Mountain Drake
Image Credit: League of Legends Wiki

However, the best Drake is easily the Mountain Drake as it has the best effects among all of them. This Drake gives excellent defensive stats to have and helps more in fights than much damage. It easily turns games over their heads and greatly diminishes burst damage. With all those factors, this is easily the most impactful Drake in the game.

By Shadman Sabik Zaim Deputy Editor
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Shadman is a Deputy Editor of League of Legends and other Riot IPs (excluding VALORANT) at GameRiv. He is a computer science and engineering graduate who got into games pretty early. Also, he takes pride in trying multiple types of games and got into League of Legends pretty early. Games, Board Games, Writing, Music, and Sports are his passions and hobbies.