Hi, I'm a Graves onetrick and casual enjoyer of the Jungle here to share my knowledge, macro, and build with you all.

I'm going to be focusing mainly on my Armor Pen Bruiser build for this guide, but the other builds on display are all perfectly viable and I implore you to try them out when you get the chance.

Pros

+ Strong at Every Point in the Game + Fast, Easy Clear + Low skill floor, high skill ceiling + Great for learning macro + Strong Dueling

Graves's main strength is that he works regardless of what part of the game you play him in. If you get ahead, you become an unstoppable god who bullies the enemy Jungler out of the game and 1v2's with ease. If you get behind, you hit your Black Cleaver spike and become just as powerful as anyone else. His ability to bounce back from being behind, fast clearing, and power level staying relatively constant makes him the perfect jungler to learn Macro.

Cons

- Weak ganks without Red Buff - No hard Crowd Control - Very low range - Easy to dodge abilities - Never excels at any point in the game

Unfortunately, Graves' strongest assets are also his greatest weakness. Being 7/10 at all stages of the game means that champions like Lee Sin or Karthus who are especially strong at certain points are your hardest matchups. Despite the fact that his damage and dueling potential is high, there isn't much he can do to prevent someone running away.

SORCERY

Phase Rush is the best rune for Graves if you aren't going full lifesteal. The early movement speed and great secondaries allow him to flourish and assert his power over enemy champions in the early-midgame. He procs it very easily, as resetting your autoattack with Quickdraw and then landing an End of the Line will nearly instantly grant you enough movespeed to run away or chase. For subrunes, I recommend taking full movement speed subrunes, including Waterwalking, Celerity, and Nimbus Cloak.

SUMMONER SPELLS - FLASH: Flash is nearly always the best option for the way graves wants to operate. It's always effective at every phase of the game and is one of if not the best mobility options in the game. SMITE: As with every Jungler, Smite is mandatory for play. Smite and Flash are what every Jungler takes in 99% of cases, unless they have an ability to replace Flash's function. GHOST: Ghost is a fun option on Graves if you want to make his ganks just a little bit better. It's not going to help you if you get jumped on, but it will help you more than something like ignite.

PASSIVE ABILITY

NEW DESTINY (Passive): New Destiny gives Graves a fast clear and strong burst damage. The easiest way to speed up your clear is to always aim for the jungle monster furthest away from you with your autoattacks, which will help you to splash your damage around and damage more enemies at once.

Q

END OF THE LINE (Q): End of the Line is Graves's main damage tool aside from his autoattacks. Because it detonates faster if it hits a wall, try to maneuver around your opponent with your Quickdraw to hit both explosions for massive damage.

W

SMOKE SCREEN (W): Graves's W is one of the many things that makes him a strong duelist. Smoke Screen directly on an enemy helps, but its' real effectiveness in duels comes from kiting around it, forcing your opponent to maneuver around it while you pelt them with autoattacks.

E

QUICKDRAW (E): Quickdraw is Graves's main mobility and defense tool. You'll want to keep your armor at maximum between camps by sometimes using it for movement instead of damage. It's worth it to show up to a scuttle fight with 80+ armor, even if it loses 1-2 seconds on your clear.

R

COLLATERAL DAMAGE (R): Graves's ultimate is good for two things - Kiting and Sniping. It has an insane range which you can use to finish off opponents from an entire lane away. It also knocks you back, functioning as a mini-flash if you need someone far away from you quickly.

Graves maxes Q-E-W, starting with Quickdraw for the early autoattack reset for clearing your first buff and with two points in End of the Line before a point in Smoke Screen for the additional AoE damage for a faster clear.

Level 9 and 13 are Graves's biggest powerspikes. At level 9, Graves can start oneshotting squishies, and at level 13 he can duel almost anyone.

Eclipse

Black Cleaver

Serylda's Grudge

Eclipse into Black Cleaver is Graves's strongest core every single game. After that, you can build pretty much whatever you want. I recommend Serylda's Grudge, as the slow can keep enemies in your smoke longer and the armor pen stacks with Eclipse and Black Cleaver making you an astounding duelist. Another great choice is Lord Dominik's Regards, which allows you to spend the last 3 slots of your build working towards that sweet sweet Infinity Edge spike.

Early Game → Keep your CS and farm up → Invade if given the opportunity → Keep your grit stacks up → Check your lanes if your camps are down → If you get a kill, go for objectives → Avoid dying, even for objectives

The fun part of Graves is that he can play as aggressively as you want. If you want to just chill, farm, and get objectives, you scale well into the midgame. If you want to invade constantly and check your lanes, he can do that too. If you want to play passively, remember that Graves's full clear leaves time for him to gank toplane or midlane. While yes, you can permafarm, it's worth it to at least get some pressure on your laners. Even if you don't get the kill, they're missing out on minions and if you chunk them it sets up your laner for a kill. If you want to play aggressively, try using the topside vertical jungling strategy. You can clear your topside camp and then Quickdraw over the Baron wall, enabling you to take your opponent's buff. This works in 8/10 games, since starting topside is relatively uncommon. After taking their buff, I like to circle around and take their Krugs, then full clear from my gromp and red buff which gets me to level 4, a ton of gold, and starting at botside, which lets you get a free scuttle and then gank botlane.

Midgame is the strongest point in the game for you. This is when you go for kills and fight over dragons. Once you hit level 11, Collateral Damage begins to be how you start a fight instead of how you end it. The insane burst you get from Autoattack > Q > R is enough to kill any squishy target you find. Against tanks, your 3 armor pen items will allow you to ignore most of their armor, so it's your job to take them down in teamfights and skirmishes. Grit stacks are important now as well. The armor you get from Quickdraw scales incredibly quickly, up to 144 at max rank. Level 13 is the best time to be graves because you have your 2 item power spike and insane armor and magic resist. From here, you can either build crit, more bruiser items, or lethality depending on what you need. You can never go wrong with the collector and Edge of Night, but if you really want infinity edge damage nothing is stopping you.

Midgame → Play aggressively as possible → If you're ahead, you can splitpush → Play around your Collateral Damage → Take objectives whenever they're up → Remember to buy control wards and sweepers → Fight the enemy Jungler as often as possible if you can

Late Game → Pick off Key Targets → Shred the armor of Enemy Tanks → Use your ultimate to steal objectives and prevent enemies from fleeing → Try to smokescreen as a followup to engages → If you get an ace, try to take sidelane towers → Play safer than you think you need to

Lategame is different depending on your build. If you're relatively tanky, you can follow up on engages and fight with your team. If not, you'll fall into more of assassin territory, oneshotting enemy ADC's and skirmishers whenever you can. Try to avoid hiding in bushes if you're able to oneshot people. While yes, it might work some of the time, wards are more common now than ever as vision control is a constant struggle. If you get hit by a single crowd control ability post 25 minutes, you're probably dead. If you're fighting with your team, prioritize tanks or bruisers, as you shred them very quickly. It's always a good idea to learn to dodge, but if you're bad at it I recommend taking Edge of Night. If you're going crit, Mercurial Scimitar can take you squarely into offtank territory, as Grit stacks and MR items go together very well.