
[11.4] BEASTMODE GRAVES [VERY IN-DEPTH]
By Polarshift | Updated on February 18, 2021





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Runes: Standard Phase Rush












+10% Attack Speed
+9 Adaptive (5.4 AD or 9 AP)
+6 Armor
Spells:


Challenging Smite

Flash
Items
Ability Order Jungle
Threats & Synergies






Taliyah
Extremely annoying abilities to verse against. First of all she is AP. Second of all, you are a champion that wants to get close to his enemies and she wants the exact opposite. To finish, her abilities just counter you to oblivion (Q does counter you, but her E is the ultimate counter.) You definitely want to run Phase Rush and get an MR item.






Bard
Great champion to coordinate invades and ganks with.


Champion Build Guide

Hello everyone, welcome to my in-depth guide!
My name is Polarshift. I'm a player that has always been interested in a bunch of roles and champions, allowing me to possess quite a lot of general game-knowledge. So why don't I use my knowledge to help other people out that are interested in the same champions that I enjoy to play? Before I make any of these guides, I like to do my own little research about the champion to correct any wrong views I might have, thus raising the quality of these guides. I hope that you enjoy reading my guide and that it'll answer any questions you had.
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I've spent a lot of time on this guide and I'd love it if you'd like to follow me on Twitch. Come and join my Discord community server if you have any more questions or would like to chill, join giveaways and be updated for more guides and tips!
Currently I have guides available on Graves, Ryze, Warwick, Rengar, Draven and Yasuo!
Please upvote and leave a comment if you liked the guide so more people get to see it!
+ Ability sequence, rune setups and smite choice.
+ In-Depth Itemization. Read the notes on the builds too.
+ All kinds of combos, tricks and animation cancels.
+ Different types of jungle paths and how to gank as Graves.
+ A different approach to playing Graves: Midlane.
PROS
+ Among the fastest jungle clearing in the game.
+ Has a lot of mobility and repositioning ability.
+ Great at invading and splitting the map.
+ Very versatile with runes and item setups.
+ Mechanical, fast-paced and quite fun to play.
+ Can be flexed in all roles except Support.
+ His W is among the most broken abilities in the game.
CONS
- Might feel "clunky" and "weird to control" at first.
- Since your auto attacks are projectiles they can easily be blocked in tankier teamcompositions.
- Again, because your AA's are projectiles Graves feels bad fighting in minionwaves or towerdiving.
- You have to stand in very close vicinity of enemies to deal the big damage you want.
- You rely on the enemy overextending or your team having CC for ganks.
Graves also has the ability to dodge skillshots with his dash and Galeforce; allowing you to outplay your opponents.
Depending on your first jungle clear you might want to put an extra level into Q at level 3. This is often the case when you want to fullclear from Blue all the way to Krugs and don't plan on fighting before you clear. This will allow you to clear your birds faster, since your W is not really useful to clear birds when you dont have your Hunter's Talisman yet. The rest of the abilities will be leveled in the same order. I highly suggest you read the abilities yourself so you know exactly what they do.
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Electrocute Usually taken on midlane Graves, since you'll be trading a lot and it only has a 20 second cooldown. Enemies will definitely underestimate your damage! |
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Conqueror Not in the jungle and arguably not midlane anymore either. Takes too long to stack, especially after the nerf to 12 stacks. |
Secondary rune choices (which are very flexible on Graves):
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Inspiration In the Inspiration Tree you can take Magical Footwear and Future's Market. But I don't recommend this since there are better options currently. |
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Blue Smite Blue Smite (hailblade) tends to be better if you want to have that extra utility (slow) on your ganks and invades. Will help you a bit if your team doesn't have any utility for the gank. |
Graves doesn't require a lot to learn but there are a few tricks!
I recommend using Practice Tool to try some of these out:
#1. Q+R This is your bread and butter combo for a lot of damage. The best use of this combo is when you're close to a wall so your Q ricochet will connect too.
#2. Q+Flash, W+Flash and R+Flash. Go into practice tool and you will notice that you can do neat little tricks with both your Q+Flash and W+Flash. Q+Flash is obviously faster than Flashing and then using Q, because the Q will have to load after you flashed. You can 'input-buffer' your W so it shoots out immediately after you flash to catch your opponent offguard (search it up if you dont know what inputbuffering is).
#3. E+Q and Q+E, when you have no ammo. Graves has a neat little trick: Normally when you use Q you will be locked in position until the animation is done, but when you don't have ANY bullets left you can combo with E+Q or Q+E and it wont lock you in place. My most used combo for faster damage output.
#4. You can E and R over walls, even some walls you wouldn't expect you could dash over. For example the walls around Red and Gromp. Try this out yourself.
#5. Dashing into a wall will cancel your dash animation; used to basic attack faster.
#6. Remember to cancel your second basic attack with your E to deal more damage faster. (example given: AA + AA + E + AA)
#7. W animation can be cancelled by your Q,E and Flash.
#8. Certain matchups require you to use your Oracle Lense well. For example you can use your Oracle Lense to see Kha'zix or Shaco while he's invisible. This will allow you to hit your R for damage and get yourself out of melee-range at the same time.
#9. You can shoot on targets through wards, just focus the ward and it will shoot through it, only using 1 pellet for the ward.
Now we are at the most fun part about Graves. His clear can be very versatile, healthy and at the same time very quick. You can keep your E passive 'Grit' (extra armor!) while doing a lot of those clears. This will definitely help when you encounter an enemy invading you. Kite all camps with a basic attack and then dash (using E) to gain one more ammunition. Now there are a few routes that Graves can take depending on enemy matchups.
There are multiple scenarios in which you might want to change your junglepathing:
- Versus fullclear champions you can decide to fullclear too OR you can decide to invade while they are at their weakest (Karthus, Olaf).
- Versus heavy gank matchups.
- Versus bad, invading matchups (Nidalee, etc).
3 camps into a gank or invade: You start Blue or Red and take Gromp. After that you can invade, gank or reverse clear back to scuttle by doing raptors and wolves. Doing just red buff and jumping over the wall to take enemy camps is a possibility too. If you're gonna do this ward for invades on own blue. |
Blue buff into fullclear: You start at Blue buff with your E and kite towards your Gromp. Take your Gromp by using smite and take wolves after. Put the point you get from leveling up into Q and clear Raptors, Red Buff and Krugs. After this you can do the rift scuttler and back, invade or gank. |
Red to Gromp: You clear Red buff with your E. Afterwards you clear your Raptors with the red buff you've just received. After clearing Raptors you head towards Wolves and complete the full-clear. Take scuttle and look for an invade on enemy Krugs + Raptors, gank a lane or reset and go to your own Krugs. |
#1. Cover as much terrain as you can before you arrive for the gank. Dont walk straight at the enemy! Circle around them so you have more time to autoattack and less to walk! You can also be creative with your ganking path, for example when you're on the blueside team by jumping over the herald pit and ganking the enemy toplaner from behind!
#2. Don't let the enemy jump on you to escape when you're ganking. Happens when you gank from behind mostly; don't let Maokai, Pantheon or Renekton dash to you and escape for free. Think about what pathing is the best to gank with.
#3. Think about when the next minionwave arrives. Not the most important thing, but since Graves doesnt fight that well in minionwaves this is something to think about. Later in the game you clear minions fast and it will not be as important to think about anymore.
#4. Use your Phase Rush, Nimbus Cloak and Fleet Footwork rune to chase enemies and use your Red Smite to deal more damage. These runes will allow you to stay close to your enemy and dish out a lot of damage. Just be careful about sticking too close to, lets say a Renekton, since it's okay if you don't kill him; but not okay if you don't survive and lose crucial tempo!
#5. Dont use your smokescreen immediately on top of the enemy, use it in front of them where they have to walk so they get slowed and blinded for a long while if they decide to take that path.
#6. Towerdiving is not impossible on Graves but keep in mind that towers and minions will prevent your autoattacks from reaching the enemy.
#7. This point counts for every jungler: wait for enemies to use their escaping tools. For example, if Renekton and Galio don't have their dashes, they will be easier to catch.
#8. But my laners are pushing all the time! Great! Now you can invade, dive the enemy or take an objective. But for real, in higher ranks, people will look at the position and state of the minionwaves before they even walk to gank a lane (e.g. is it pushing or de-pushing).
#9. If something is impossible to gank, don't bother. You will only waste time and possibly throw the game. Focus on other lanes and try to farm up yourself so you atleast have those lanes to help you out. When you've got enough of a lead you can always come back to possibly gank that lane.
Graves midlane is a pretty strong pick, but sometimes it will be impossible to kill the enemy laner. In this case, you just want to take (enemy) jungle camps and apply pressure around the map by roaming.
The average setup in the midlane mid is to go electrocute and build full lethality. Do not build Doran's Shield first item because it nullifies the reason you picked Graves in the first place, which is pressure. Starting Doran's Blade is ideal; a Long Sword and three potions is not as strong as this. Builds on Graves are pretty much the same and you can find them all the way on top of this page.
If you need to know anything else come join me on my Discord: https://discord.gg/dp64fR9
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