Our Standard AD Carry Runepage:

Graves' Ability Set:

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Passive: True Grit



Graves gains 1 / 2 / 3 bonus armor and magic resistance every second he remains in combat. This bonus stacks up to 10 times. Graves is considered in combat if he has dealt or received damage in the last 3 seconds.


Quite simply, this makes Graves get tankier as fights go on, giving him a distinct advantage over the enemy AD carry in teamfights or duels.

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Q: Buckshot



Graves fires three bullets in a cone, dealing physical damage to all enemies in their path. Enemies at close range can be hit by multiple projectiles, but each bullet beyond the first will deal only 35% damage.


Buckshot is the biggest chunk of Graves' burst potential due to its good AD scaling and multiple shot effect. To use this to its best potential, use your E to close distance with the enemy before using it to ensure you get the full damage of each bullet.

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W: Smoke Screen



Graves fires a smoke canister at the target area, dealing magic damage upon landing and creating a cloud of smoke for 4 seconds. Enemies inside the smoke cloud will be slowed and will have their vision reduced to only what is inside the smoke cloud and enemies attacking them; everything else will look like it is in the Fog of War.


Smoke screen has multiple uses due to its slow and vision reduction effects. You can use it to slow enemies when going in for burst or escaping, you can use it to harass the enemy AD carry while they CS to make them miss last hits, or you can use it to blind enemies in teamfights while you reposition.

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E: Quickdraw



Graves dashes forward, gaining an attack speed boost for 4 seconds. Using autoattacks on enemy units, but not structures, lowers the cooldown of Quickdraw by 1 second each autoattack.


Quickdraw is both your escape and your steroid, so on lane you have to make the decision whether to use the attack speed bonus in a fight, or save the dash as an escape. In teamfights however, you can use the cooldown reduction from autoattacks to get both benefits from the ability. Your E can also be used to escape or chase over some walls, such as the one behind golems.

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R: Collateral Damage



Graves fires an explosive shell in a straight line, dealing heavy physical damage to the first champion it hits (also damages non-champion enemies whilst in flight). After hitting a champion or reaching the end of its range, the shell explodes dealing physical damage in a cone behind the target.


Your ult is another large amount of burst, doing about twice the damage of your Q. On lane you can use it as part of your burst to do maximum damage or to pick off enemies who try to escape. It has a 1000 unit range, almost double your autoattack range, so it can be used in teamfights either to pick off escaping characters or to chunk the enemies while initiating. As your ultimate also applies the effect of black cleaver, using it on a grouped up team at the start of a fight can give your team an advantage over the other.

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Graves Spell Order:



We max Q first, as it's our main burst spell. Next in priority is E, as the attack speed steroid scales well with levels. Finally is W for multiple reasons: the damage increase is insignificant as it scales with AP, the vision reduction does not increase with levels and the slow increases minimally with levels. Ultimate should always be taken at 6, 11 and 16.

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First items:

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Your starting items are situational depending on your lane matchup.
Doran's Blade: Take with kill lane supports like Leona or against weak early game ADCs like Vayne
Longsword + 2 potions: Take on a poke lane i.e Sona support.
Boots + 4 potions: Take in every other situatio.

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Early Game:

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Doran's blade is the first item you should take of the three, as it is the most gold efficient and has the most early game strength. Pick up vampiric scepter second before you begin committing to trades or fights, and then finally finish your beserker's greaves.

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Core Items:

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BT and PD are your two most important items as Graves. Phantom Dancer is a great item for mobility as well as poke or burst due to the crit chance and attack speed. Bloodthirster has the same base damage as IE as well as scaling up to an extra 40 with farm, to maximize your E+Q+R combo due to the AD scaling.

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Start of Teamfight Phase:

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As the laning phase ends and the teamfight phase begins, you'll need survivability as your third item as your tank line likely won't have built up much resistance yet. Guardian Angel is a general purpose survivability item as it offers both armor and MR, and the passive has the potential to turn around teamfights. It's also the most optimal against teams stacking multiple AD, such as Zed mid. Mercurial Scimitar is a situational choice as it only offers MR and the active in the way of survivability, and thus is good against AP heavy teams with high CC, like Leona support and Amumu jungle. Warmog's Armor is a straight boost to your health pool, to help you duel enemy ADCs. Frozen Mallet is solely for the purpose of kiting, so is a good pick if your enemies do not have many gap closers. Banshee's is a solid pick post rework because it now gives a strong amount of sustain. Against an early poke/burst ap support like Zyra, you can also pick up the Spectre's Cowl early to keep yourself up through lane if you're having trouble.

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Late Game:

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Your last two items should be Infinity Edge and either Last Whisper or Black Cleaver, depending on the enemy's build. If they aren't building armor, pick up Infinity Edge first. If they've stacked it mid game, then pick up Last Whisper then Infinity Edge. If you took IE first, the amount of armor on your enemies determines what your last item should be. 100 armor is the point at which last whisper becomes more efficient than black cleaver, so build accordingly.

Burst

Pros:

• Heavy CC
• Very Tanky
• AoE abilities for teamfights

Cons:

• Can get into nasty situations with E
• No disengage when fights go wrong
• E and R are skillshots

Pros:

• Silence and knock-up make it hard to escape
• Mana barrier can trick enemies into diving
• Catching enemies out with Q can make teamfights 4v5

Cons:

• Can pull the wrong enemy, i.e Alistar
• Q has a fairly short range and slow speed so is hard to land
• Often banned

Pros:

• Can't miss his stun
• Natural tankiness with W passive
• Easy to play

Cons:

• Slow moving stun projectile easy to react to
• Short stun range
• High mana costs

Poke

Pros:

• Large AoE stun
• Lots of harass with Q + Power chord
• Nice amount of CC and mobility with E and R

Cons:

• Very squishy
• Poke means she's out of position
• Tricky to play well

Pros:

• Q harass deals damage often and slows
• Ult is good for baiting enemies
• Instant cast targeted CC

Cons:

• No sustain on lane
• Very low base movement speed making it hard to harass effectively
• Low base HP makes her squishy

Sustain

Pros:

• Hard to kill due to natural tankiness + ult
• Can tower dive at 6 with ult and W
• W+Q combo can initiate fights on lane easily

Cons:

• E pushes lane
• W+Q can go wrong and get enemies out of danger
• Can be kited easily

Pros:

• Ult can save people on other lanes too
• Good for baiting enemies with heals
• Lets you out-sustain enemies by poking and healing

Cons:

• Has no hard CC
• Squishy
• Q can steal CS and push lane

Counters to Graves:

Champions Graves Counters:

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Early Game:

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On lane, your method of play depends on your support. With a burst like Blitzcrank or Leona, wait until your support has caught out the enemy AD carry and E+Q in. You'll probably pick up early kills if your support is competent. While they're dead, push the lane up with Q before recalling so that your opponent loses minion kills to the turret.


What to do if you're behind:


Pick up a second doran's blade for extra on-lane tankiness, then play passively and farm until you have your bloodthirster. At that point either call for jungle ganks to reverse the snowball, or continue to farm and poke with your extra sustain until you have your survivability item and the enemy's turret down, at which point you can begin to force teamfights as normal by roaming.

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Mid Game:

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Generally you'll want to push down the enemy turret as soon you get your third main item up, so that teamfights can begin. After the turret is down, you can roam mid with your support and get your AP carry fed for fights, and then take their turret to ensure control of dragon.

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Late Game:

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Teamfights are an important element to winning games, and as your team's main source of damage you need to think about dealing maximum damage while also staying alive. The things you need to take into account are:

• The tank line. Never go in front of the tank of your team, or you'll be focused down almost immediately.
• CC. Either be ready to avoid skillshots like Blitzcrank's Q, to cleanse or pop mercurial scimitar, or away from champions like Lulu or Taric which comes under...
• Positioning. You need to be aware of your enemies and their potential, as well as what you can do to avoid it. For example, against a Vayne you'll want to stay away from walls, and against Blitzcrank you want to keep minions between you and him.
• Focus. Or, not. As an AD carry your job isn't to focus down enemy carries, it's to deal the most damage you can. You should attack the closest enemy, kiting them where possible, in order to deal damage and stay alive.