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Hello. My name is Joxuu and I am a diamond level jungler. I started playing actively in Season 2 and I've been playing actively ever since. I've played bot lane the most but a few seasons ago I decided to main jungle.

This guide will be for jungle Graves whom I have played after his rework. He is one of the strongest junglers at the moment. He is not one of the easiest junglers to learn but I will try my best to help you understand the champion and his game mechanics in this guide.

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+Damage threat on the board. +Great clear speed and sustain. +Good base damages in abilities. +Wins most of the jungle 1v1s. +Has early-mid game pressure.

Graves is in a good position at the moment. On top of having one of the faster junglc clear speeds, he also has lot's of pressure for early game ganks because he can just get red buff and straight up 1v1 so many champions early game. Graves doesn't have a clear stage of the game where he would be really bad. He is decently strong throughout the game whereas most of the champions have one stage of the game where they are not too useful.

The most obvious weakness Graves has is his short ranged auto attacks that can be blocked by controlling a minion wave to block the auto attacks. Open space situation where enemy champ can use ranged advantage is the worst kind of fight for Graves. His abilities also cost a lot of mana so you may want to pay attention to your mana bar when you don't have blue buff. In my opinion Graves' abilities are quite easy to dodge too.

-Mana problems early on. -If you get caught, you're dead. -Close range and blockable AAs. -Easy to dodge/predict abilities. -Lacks in long range combat.

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9x greater mark of armor penetration 9x Greater Seal of Scaling Health 9x Greater Glyph of Scaling Magic Resist 3x Greater Quintessence of Attack Speed

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Explanation >> This set of runes works the best in my opinion. It's main focus is maximizing jungle camp clear speed and survivability. Attack speed helps with jungle clear whereas armor pen helps to kill squishies without armor. Scaling health + magic resist because Graves doesn't really take damage from jungle camps and he has fast clear speed for fast levels. They're almost essential to have some extra survivability.

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Situationals: Greater Mark of Attack Damage Greater Seal of Health Greater Seal of Armor Greater Glyph of Cooldown Reduction Greater Glyph of Magic Resist

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O F F E N S I V E

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M A S T E R I E S

SPEEEEExplanation >> This is the offensive and more popular mastery page used for Graves. You can flip Fury for Sorcery but others are pretty clear in my opinion. Runic Affinity might raise someone's eyebrows but Graves can use red buff really well so it's better than the other choices.

D E F E N S I V E

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M A S T E R I E S

SPEEEEExplanation >> This set of masteries is more defense focused and I guess it's also better for low level / beginner junglers as the masteries help with your jungle sustain. You can flip Runic Armor and Veteran's Scars depending on what you prefer. Others are pretty clear again imo.

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FLASH

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Flash is the most important summoner spell in the game and is also the most used. Graves doesn't have any good escape tools so a well used Flash might get you out of a pinch situation or just finish an enemy trying to escape.

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SMITE

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Smite has been really good for jungles since the S5 pre-season changes. Now you can choose additional effect for the Smite. Jungle camps also give small buffs after you have used Smite on them. Try to use smite in raptor camp to get the extra vision denial going when going for ganks and red smite buff is good for 1v1 situations.

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GHOST

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Ghost is really underrated summoner at the moment. Riot's been buffing it to a point where it's on really low cooldown and really effective for champions like Graves who prefer to stick close to enemy champions. Ghost also helps you get in position faster ganking so you can definitely consider this summoner over Flash.

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Hunter's Talisman is better than it's counterpart Hunter's Machete for those who are unexperienced with Graves. Hunter's Machete clears faster but gets you less mana regen so Talisman is a bit safer and easier choice. Upgrade the first jungle item into Stalker's Blade on your first recall to get blue Smite buff.

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Refillable Potion saves you more gold than buying Health Potion every time you recall. Feel free to use 3 Health Potion start if you're not familiar with Graves' first clear because it's much safer start. Refillable Potion should get you through the first clear even if you make a few mistakes along the way. I don't upgrade to Hunter's Potion because I prefer immediate combat stats.

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Warding Totem is the best starter trinket because you want to ward for invades and counter jungle attempts, especially against good early game junglers like Nidalee. You can ward your second buff for counter jungle attempts for example. Switch your trinket to Sweeping Lens after first recall so you can clear wards near lanes so you can gank with ease. Remember to upgrade trinket at level 9.

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Stalker's Blade - Warrior is the best jungle item for Graves as he doesn't benefit too much from attack speed and getting this item is a big power spike. Don't waste money on buying boots before getting this item. Always try to have Smite up when ganking a lane and use it when in need . Other smite upgrades are also good if you're not cool with Stalker's Blade.

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Berserker's Greaves is situational item. Boots of Swiftness and Mercury's Treads are equally good but it all depends on the situation. Greaves give small increase in DPS whereas Swiftness helps you stick close to more mobile enemy champions and Treads work the best against magic damage heavy teams and/or teams with lot's of CC. Get normal boots as second item and upgrade before getting third item.

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Vision Ward is the most broken item in the game and I'm not even kidding. 75 gold to both clear and grant vision. For the cost of 75 gold you can secure objectives, gank with the knowledge of enemy team having no wards around or saving your teammates from being ganked. You should look to get a vision ward whenever you recall and have the extra gold for it. Use it for objectives / grant lanes vision.

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Youmuu's Ghostblade is a item I would not skip with this build. Graves scales well with attack damage and armor penetration and Youmuu's happens to give the best value for your gold when it comes to combat stats. It's active works kind of like Phantom Dancer like I mentioned above. Use the active when trying to close a distance or to go all out in a combat situation.

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Duskblade of Draktharr is a item with second best value for champions like Graves who like to focus one target down before changing to other targets. The passive Nightfall deals surprisingly a lot of damage and many don't pay attention to the extra sudden damage burst. Extra armor penetration goes well with Youmuu's Ghostblade and armor pen runes.

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Sterak's Gage is a situational item but also one of the most generic defensive items. Maw of Malmortius replaces this item if the enemy team has lot's of magic damage but if you're unsure what to build to be beefier, Sterak's is your item. Maw + Sterak's don't stack anymore but Sterak's is sufficient enough to save you in team fights as you will be one of the priority targets in team fights. Remember that you need to take certain amount of damage within 5 seconds so the time resets if you get out of combat.

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Death's Dance is the life steal item replacement for Bloodthirster. It fits Graves' bursty abilities as it gives both CDR and life steal based on damage dealt by abilities. Bloodthirster is more auto attack based life steal item. Death's Dance also helps your survivability a little bit with it's bleed passive as it gives you time to regenerate back up.

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#1. Collateral Damage 6 / 11 / 16 #2. End of the Line 1 / 3 / 5 / 7 / 9 #3. Quickdraw 2 / 8 / 10 / 12 / 13 #4. Smoke Screen 4 / 14 / 15 / 17 / 18

Collateral Damage is maxed first like ultimates usually are. +150 damage per level up is pretty good for AoE damaging ability like this one. Level up whenever you can. End of the Line is maxed first from basic abilities. If you're not ganking you can get second point on it by level 3. This is your bread and butter ability for jungle clear and burst damage besides ultimate. Quickdraw is maxed second from basic abilities as leveling up Smoke Screen is not all that beneficial. Quickdraw gives more resistances and lowers it's cd as you level it up. Smoke Screen is maxed last because you don't really gain much by leveling it. It's a ability you nail on your first try because it's cooldown is still high even if maxed sooner. |

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.New Destiny

Graves' basic attack fires a cone of 4 bullets which stop on the first unit hit. The first bullet on a target deals 0.7 - 1 total AD (based on level) physical damage, with subsequent bullets dealing a third of that damage per bullet. Structures take 25% reduced damage from Graves' basic attacks. Graves stores two Shells at any time and expends them when he basic attacks. After using them, Graves reloads, delaying his next basic attack significantly.Upon critically striking, Graves fires 6 bullets over a 50% wider cone and deals 40% bonus physical damage (60% with Infinity Edge).

Try to land all bullets on your wanted target in the jungle and in combat. In jungle you can Quickdraw backwards if you want to finish off 2 low hp jungle monsters for example. Minions, monsters and turrets will block your bullets so try to position yourself so that they can't be blocked easily.

.End of the Line Cooldown: 14 / 13 / 12 / 11 / 10 Cost: 60 / 70 / 80 / 90 / 100 Range: 950

Graves fires a narrow missile, dealing 55 / 70 / 85 / 100 / 115 (+0.75 per bonus attack damage) physical damage in a line. After 1 second, the line detonates, dealing 80 / 125 / 170 / 215 / 260 (+0.4 / 0.6 / 0.8 / 1 / 1.2 per bonus attack damage) physical damage in a 'T' shape from where Graves fired it.

Great ability to clear off the smaller minions in the jungle or just to clear minion waves. The ability has nice base damage too, even more when you let it fragment. You should always try to go for the fragment damage if possible by positioning yourself near walls or chasing your opponent close to a nearby wall. There's next to no reaction time if you use it on a wall.

.Smoke Screen Cooldown: 26 / 24 / 22 / 20 / 18 Cost: 70 / 75 / 80 / 85 / 90 Range: 700

Graves fires a smoke canister at the target area, dealing 60 / 110 / 160 / 210 / 260 (+60% of ability power) magic damage upon landing and creating a cloud of smoke 675 units wide for 4 seconds. Enemies inside the smoke cloud will be slowed by 15 / 20 / 25 / 30 / 35 % and will have their vision reduced to only what is inside the smoke cloud.

Overlooked ability sometimes. It's really hard to use this ability properly. When chasing enemy, use it ahead of your enemy to block or slow the planned escape route. In fights always use it in a way that forces your enemy inside of it or to walk in it. At it's best, Smoke Screen can save you from taking 1-2 auto attacks and ~1 ability.

.Quickdraw Cooldown: 18 / 17 / 16 / 15 / 14 Cost: 40 Range: 425

Graves dashes forward, resetting his basic attack timer and refilling one shell. Graves also gains 10 / 15 / 20 / 25 / 30 armor and magic resist for 4 seconds, stacking up to 4 times. Damaging non-minions refreshes the duration of this buff. Quickdraw's cooldown is reduced by 0.5 seconds every time Graves hits an enemy with a bullet.

You can use this ability on cooldown in the jungle as your auto attacks reset it pretty fast but make sure you get the extra shell from it for faster clear. Not much of an escape tool but you can use it over walls which can be really effective against melee champions for example. In 1v1 situations don't be afraid to use it just to position yourself better as later on you will reset this ability by attacking 2-3 times.

.Collateral Damage Cooldown: 100 / 90 / 80 Cost: 100 Range: 1000 + 800

Graves fires an explosive shell in a straight line, dealing 250 / 400 / 550 (+1.5 per bonus attack damage) physical damage to the first target it hits. After hitting a champion or reaching the end of its range, the shell explodes dealing 200 / 320 / 440 (+1.2 per bonus attack damage) physical damage in a cone behind the target. Graves recoils 300 units upon firing.

Great ability to last hit champions. The initial bullet travels 1000 range but actual maximum range is 1800 because the explode radius can hit someone far away even if the bullet doesn't. In team fights and skirmisher's it's often better to use it to hit as many champions as possible. Don't always try to greed kills with it.

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>> Jungling Example jungle clear Play Video Graves has really good sustain and clear speed in the jungle as you can see in the video. I usually fo full clear and have no potions used. Try to land End of the Line on every monster in the camp but at the very least hit it on the big monsters. The most important part of jungle clear is kiting the monsters with Quickdraw and walking between auto attacks so you take as few hits from monsters as possible. If you can't see the video for some reason, the jungle clear is basically starting from Krugs/Gromp, smiting it and then clearing every camp on your way to the second buff where you will use smite again. Finally clear the last camp next to the second buff. Counter jungling is a possibility if you see enemy in bottom for example, you can assume his top side jungle is not taken so you can go get those. Leave a ward after counter jungling so your laners can see where he is going next. (Smiting enemy wolves instead of warding also works). Note: Don't ever counter jungle if your lanes are pushed back if you're not strong enough for a hit and run.

>> Ganking Graves has really good ganks if you get behind or next to enemy champion. I usually start ganking after full clear so I have both blue and red but especially red buff. Always try to have efficient ganks between jungle clears which basically means you try to lose as less as time possible between camps and ganks. After full clear, your last camp is either Gromp or Krugs and there won't be jungle camps left so the best decision is to gank the closest lane top/bottom. Always try to be aware of enemy jungler position when ganking so you won't be counter ganked. You can place a ward down before ganking a lane so you can see if enemy jungler shows up. Try to clear 1 side of the jungle (red or blue side) and gank the closest lane after clearing jungle camps. There are exceptions like lane desperately needing help or you need to counter gank a lane. There is a flaw with this however and you can use it to your advantage too. If you see enemy jungler doing a camp, you can predict where he is going next, like if he just cleared right side of jungle, he will go to left side and gank the closest lane. You can click on enemy jungler to see if he has Gromp buff so you know which camps he has already cleared.

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>> Objectives In mid-game (or at the end of early game) you want to start focusing on objectives. As a jungler your job is not to win your team's lanes or get turrets down. You need to be aware and ready to do dragons/Rift Herald. Especially Rift Herald buff is absolutely disgusting if you have strong melee duelist in top lane. I'd try to gank enemy top lane and giving top laner the buff if he can use it well. "Dragon game" is interesting because of the rotating dragons update. Infernal dragon is the best dragon in the game. It's so good that it's worth to focus on getting your bot lane rolling because that way you have better control and better chances of securing the dragon. Try to have vision ward or at least cover whenever you're doing objective like dragon so you're aware of things happening around it. Next most useful dragon is Ocean, especially for early game. Mountain dragon is neat if you have siege/split push comp or you're just really far ahead. It's not worth wasting time or risking a death or Rift Herald for Cloud dragon.

>> Team fighting You can expect to play team fights like an adc would but with little bit extra room for small errors. Honestly depends a lot on how you like to build Graves but generally you should play like an adc. The ideal situation would be a team composition where you'd have a tank going in and pulling aggro so you have more to work with but with or without tanks the plan is to focus the closest enemy and do maximum amount of damage as possible while maintaining safe position. Keep your eyes open and don't tunnel on worthless enemies though. Amumu diving your back line needs to be dealt with but say enemy mid or adc gets out of position, punish them. Everyone makes mistakes, challenger players make less, bronze players make more but everyone makes them. You just have to be patient and wait for your opportunity to punish a mistake. Always try to be attacking someone though, you can't wait for an opportunity too long. I'd also like to emphasize on the importance of following your team. Above I said everyone makes mistakes and if you go solo and clear jungle camps and leave your team as 4, someone is almost bound to a mistake and you can't do anything about it if you're off on your own. Balance farming and being with your team wisely. It's way too common to see a jungler decide to go clear jungle camps in other side of the map when enemy team is hovering over baron or your team is at the other side of the map. Try to be in a distance where you can join the team fight within a reasonable time.

mafia graves

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T H A N K Y O U

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R E A D E R S

Thanks to: >> MissMaw - For helping me out with coding and visuals. >> H4xDefender - For opinion and suggestions. >> Readers - For surviving this far. I hope you have learned something about Graves. Feel free to ask any question in the comment section.

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