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Graves-The Outlaw


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Pros:

+High burst damage.
+Great attack speed buff.
+Good escape/chase spell.
+Can blind enemies.
+Lot's of aoe.



Cons:

-Fairly short range.
-Needs to be in close range to deal maximum damage of his combo.
-Slow base attack speed.
-No crowd control (cc).

Graves gets increased armor and magic resist the longer he stays in combat. Try to have it full stacked everytime fighting in lane or teamfights since it gives a ton or armor/magic resist.


Graves fires a smoke canister at the targeted area creating a cloud of smoke. enemies inside the smoke cloud have reduced sight range and reduced movement speed. This spell works good with your burst combo, though its a really epic spell for late game, since you can blind whoever you want for about 1,5 seconds. making it really hard for them to do anything during that time.

Graves dashes forward gaining an attack speed boost for several seconds. Hitting enemies with basic attack reduces the cooldown. Great chasing/escaping tool, and good for doing high damage because of the attackspeed boost,though its not super far range so cant be used over all terrains. Also hit enemies while you run from them if your in range for it since the cooldown goes down 1second every autoshot.

Graves fires an explosive shell dealing heavy damage to the first champion it hits. After hitting a champion or reaching its end of its range, the shell explodes dealing damage in a cone. You should always use this when you can hit multiple targets with it, since its a great aoe. really good to start with in teamfights to quickly get someone low or maybe kill them with just the Collateral Damage, Buckshot combo. Also note that it deals damage in a cone after it hitted a champion so the range is actually longer than it shows.

> > >
Always take in level 6/11/16.

always take whenever except 6/11/16 since its defintely your higest damage ability.

The second thing you wanna max out is since its a pretty long cd so you want to have it shorted, and also a great attack speed buff.

Last you max since you will only need this to blind/slow enemies, and youre not in such a need to max it early.

Recommended summoner spells:

, obvious to take since you need escape tools on every ad carry. Should ALWAYS be taken.

, good against heavy cc team, though i run it almost every game since i feel you can output more dmg by cleansing the Exhaust (which you always be affected by as adc), than going ignite. you can also cleanse the enemies ignite's.

, good damage output spell, also good when fighting enemies like0 dr.mundo or Soraka, every champ who heals good tbh, since it will decrease every health incomming on the ignited target by 50%.

good spell if you want to bait turret dives, or fighting 1v1/2v2 in lane. Though not so good in late game since you will almost guaranteed have a heal reduction spell on yourself.

imo a better version of heal, since it wont be affected by Ignite and other healing reduction spells, also good for baiting turret dives, might not be so good 2v2 as Heal since Barrier only affects you, but imo still its a better summoner to take than Heal.

Marks: 9x of theese, since it gives you attack damage. Some people do go 9x greater mark of armor penetration but since you get armor pen from your mastery page ( Weapon Expertise ) i feel that going pure ad marks is better.

Seal: 9x of theese since it gives you alot of armor, since its flat armor it gives you alot more surviveability in early/laning phase.

glyph: i am going 9x of theese, though you can go , but i prefer having a high amount of mr in late game on Graves

Quintessence , same as marks, some people prefer armor pen here to but i dont since i think you get enough from your masteries.

This rune page should give you: 15 physical damage, 13 armor and 24 magic resist at lvl 18.

Since Graves is a standard attack damage carry you should always go 21/9/0 page.
This is the masteries i go: 1 in Summoner's Wrath 3 in-> Fury 4 in-> Deadliness 1 in -> Weapon Expertise 3 in-> Havoc 2 in-> Lethality 2 in-> Brute Force 1 in -> Frenzy 3 in-> Sunder 1 in -> Executioner , moving to the defense page i go: 4 in Durability -> 3 in Hardiness -> 1 in Resistance -> 1 in veteran's scar, making Graves more tanky.
Lets talk abit about the masteries, 21/9/0 page:
Summoner's Wrath Makes you stronger when youve ignited a target, 5 extra ad/ap always good.
Fury pretty obvious why you take 3 in this, attackspeed scales really good on every adc, especially on Graves since he has pretty slow base-attackspeed.
Deadliness also a really obvious mastery to take, gives you attack damage.
Weapon Expertise an armor penetration mastery that decreases the enemy armor by 8% which is really good, increases your damage on every target, especially helps you to easier kill tanks who is diving into you.
Havoc just a simple damage increase on all of your damage by 2%. Ofcourse good on every damage dealing champ.
Lethality increases your crit damage by 5%, just a good mastery for higher critical chances..
Brute Force no need to talk about, gives you attack damage.
Frenzy gives you 10% attack speed everytime you hit a critical strike, really strong in late game especially when you get your Infinity Edge.
Sunder gives you even more armor pen, makes your ad attacks do higher dmg.
Executioner always a good spell, deals 5% increased dmg to targets below 50%, helps you last hit and increases damage done to low healthed people.
Durability gives you health per lvl (6hp per lvl), gives you 108 hp at lvl 18, makes you more tanky.
Hardiness gives you armor to take less physical damage.
Resistance gives you magic resist to take less magic damage.
veteran's scar gives you 30 hp makes you tanky in early game.

Here's a picture of the mastery page i use:

The most standard full build on graves will mostly be:

Though you can priority alot of different items on Graves, like Bloodthirster and Phantom Dancer if you want to have a core build with burst, or you can do Infinity Edge Phantom Dancer for heavy autoshots. Hexdrinker is a good mid game to add into your core build if you are getting bursted my heavy ap damage, though should always be sold in late game or maybe upgraded to Maw of Malmortius if you still feel like your getting bursted by ap damage. Mercury's Treads is an item i buy quite often on attack damage carries, it's really good against heavy cc teams like Sona Amumu, also gives a small amount of magic resist. Mercurial Scimitar this item i take in thoose situation's where you really need a defensive item but lack damage. If you do not lack damage go Guardian Angel, a much more better defensive passive than Mercurial Scimitar. And also upgrade your shoes to Enchantment: Furor when you feel like you can afford it, but do not let it go before some big item like Bloodthirster or Phantom Dancer. Frozen Mallet great tanky item and kiting item, purchased if your getting hunted down alot. Blade of the Ruined King great if you want to have heck lifesteal.

final build:

example core build:

example core build:

This bot lane with Graves Taric is a heavy burst combo since bot have tons of damage and the armor graves gets from Shatter and truegrit is immense. This is a real kill lane.

Leona is super strong with Graves since she can just charge onto her enemies and you follow up with Quickdraw and burst them down insanly fast, this is a killing lane , the same as the last one since [[graves works really well with burst supports.

Blitz Graves is the same as the others, you just hook them in and cc's them and burst them as much as you possibly can. This is the lane i prefer most as Graves since you almost have a guaranteed kill everytime Blitzcrank lands a hook in lvl 6+.

If you take skill out of account and supports then generally graves will destroy Ezreal.
Why?
- Both have a strong q, graves' q being far easier to land than Ezreal's q.
- Graves has an armor passive True Grit leading to him taking substantially less damage than Ezreal will [this is the key factor imo...]
- Graves Attackspeed buff Quickdraw simply means he will beat Ezreal in a straight up fight.
Graves is better than Ezreal in 1v1's. The only way Ezreal can win is if he pokes Graves down before they fight and then dukes Graves' q with his . He must then also continue to land his q's for his own AS buff and extra damage.
The fact that Ezreal must do that to win prooves Graves is a counter pick for Ereal must outplay Graves to win.

Since Vayne has such short autoshots its really easy for Graves to just walk up to her and Buckshot her in the face doing hardcore poke, also since Graves almost always goes with an aggressive support its easy too kill Vayne since she escape tools isn't super strong. And always remember to not stand close to walls since her Condemn stuns you when your'e knocked into the wall.

The way Sivir counters Graves is with her long ranged spells and her Spell Shield, since it can easily destroy graves burst. And since she has huge range on her main spell Boomerang Blade she can just stand far back to farm and poke since Graves is quite short ranged.

Here graves will definetly need a strong offensive support like Blitzcrank or Leona since otherwise caitlyn will easily just poke you down hard with her ultra mega super far range and hardcore poke with Headshot and Piltover Peacemaker. But with strong engage support you can probably zone Caitlyn abit harder to be able to compete against her in creep slains and 2v2 fights.

MF not only outranges Graves, her trade is also a lot better, her poke is better and her passive makes it easier than on most champions to just completely dodge his Q every time he dashes in by simply running back a few steps. MF's Trade damage is very high because of her Q mainly. If you run into to hit her, she can just hit back, instant Q and another autoshot. 250 damage with rank 1 Q. Ouch. Now, Graves dashes in and uses Buckshot on Miss Fortune and she just tanks it and fights back since shes so strong in early game. Though if you just play as safe as possible and might try to get some good engages if your with a Blitzcrank or something, then you will easily outscale her later into the game.

Early game:
Graves is really strong in the early laning phase because of his burst potentiall, with strong engage/kill supports you should always try to zone the adc for abit in the earliest leves and might hit a strong engage on him an draw first blood. Though when poking with Buckshot make sure you dont hit minions to much since it will probably result in your lane getting hardcored pushed and their jungler will 99% chance gank you. Also when support junglers are in your team like Alistar or Maokai remember to ask for the second redbuff, increasing your killing pressure. Always take the last hit on creeps to get the gold but not push up your lane, the only time you wanna push up your lane is when your team might come down to take the turret or when you just got a kill in the lane and want to push up creeps to turret and then go back.

Mid game:

Around mid game when dragon starts to be popular, you can really shine as Graves since your burst is insanely mid game and you can probably take down the enemies ap or ad carry to about 20/30% hp with full combo if you have decent items. Always use your Smoke Screen on the enemy who has strongest cc in my opinion like Amumu or some1 like maybe Zyra and Leona to make it really hard for them to land their stuns in time. You should always be careful of how you use your Buckshot in mid game since you will be focused, though it deals more damage the closer you are to your target, so always look at the enemy you wanna Buckshot and see if you can walk up to his face and do it or if you just wanna do a long ranged Buckshot to deal abit less damage. In every team fight, you should make up a list of your enemy and place the one that is the highest threat highest up on the list and the lowest threath lowest down on the list, and then you look on who you can attack without being in a position to get caught, if there is 2 targets who is easy to just attack, you just pick the one with the highest threat, making you always focusing the right target.
A common list might look something like this: > > > >

In late game
Graves might turn abit more into an autshot killer more than the burster he is in early/midgame, the reason is because Buckshot dosent scales super well into late game. smokescreen can be gamechanging in late game team fight since you can just blind the enemies ad/ap carry if their just abit out of position and just kill them without them not even noticing their getting fully focused.
Baron
Baron can also be gamechanging in the late game, the Baron pit is an excellent place to teamfight for graves since his aoe's spells will hit so many targets and deals tons of damage. Graves is also great at stealing Baron with Collateral Damage, just before you can last hit baron you should try to Smoke Screen the enemies jungler to make him blind.
In teamfights as every adc you should always stay in the back line and deal as much damage as possible, the only time you wanna get near your enemy is when youre gonna Buckshot them into the face, though be careful that when doing this you do not wanna get caught, so always do it carefully. And always remember to use the list in teamfights that i talk about in the Mid Game chapter.

Tips and Tricks
Remember that this spell will deal damage in a cone when it hits it target or reaches the end of its travel, so if an enemy is far away with low health and you cant reach him with Collateral Damage, look if their is a minion pack behind im than you might can hit the minion pack and kill the running enemy with the second explode.
smokescreen This spell can be used in so many ways, its good for closing the gap when your getting chased since it will slow everyone who passes through it with 30%. It can ofcourse also be used to slow down the enemy when you are chasing him. But in my opinion its most effective in teamfights to blind your enemies, it does so much though it might seem like it dosent help anything.
When poking enemies remember that using Quickdraw to get onto your enemy will increase the damage of Buckshot since it deals more damage the closer you are to your enemy.

Thats all on my guide.
Thank you for checking out this guide, make sure to leave feedback on what you think is good and what is not good. This is one of my first guide so it might not be the prettiest one but i think you cn learn alot from it. Remember to upvote it and leave a comment if you liked it! :D.

Also check out my Adc ezreal guide: Here.