Who needs an ADC when you've got Graves in the jungle?

The jungle can be a scary place. Between monsters trying to kill you and enemy champions coming in and wrecking up the place, it’s always smart to bring some protection. And what's better protection than a shotgun?

Ever since the marksman rework at the end of 2015 Graves has decided that he doesn’t like “labels” being placed on champions. As a result of which, he’s doing his best to break down all the barriers that have traditionally maintained the champion status quo. ADC? Mid? Top? Jungle? It’s all fish in a barrel to him. We spoke to Dardoch, Svenskeren, and Kirei to figure out why Graves is seeing such a rise in popularity and how best to blast your way through the jungle with him.

Can’t touch this

Dardoch fancies himself as a bit of a Graves expert. “I played him a ton when he first got reworked, it’s been first banned against me in all my LCS games pretty much.” Unfortunately for Team Impulse, they didn't ban it this Sunday during Week 3 of the Spring Split, and Dardoch picked up First Blood.

 

He, along with the other pros, think the strongest thing about Graves in the jungle right now is his clear time and his ability to kite. The mechanics on his passive, Buckshot, pushes back neutral monsters with every auto attack.

“He has a really good clear speed and because of his knockback on the creeps, he takes literally no damage. You can start Refillable Potion on him and you don’t get punished too hard, plus he scales super well. He’s straight up broken.”

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If kited correctly, you should be able to make it through the jungle without losing HP. He has two shots, and after using both he’s forced to reload. His E, Quickdraw, dashes him in a target direction and reloads one shell. Mastering his auto attack reload and Quickdraw is essential to jungling with Graves. Dardoch gave us his tips on how to kite effectively with him.

“Gromp and Blue you can kite pretty well. Their auto attack range is shorter range than yours. So auto twice while walking backwards. When you’re reloading, all you do is walk backwards. Wolves and Wraiths [Raptors] you can’t kite - so you kill the baby Wraiths first and on Wolves you just focus the big one until it dies.”

Don’t have time for games

When it comes to the optimal path through the jungle, Kirei suggests starting Red side. “Start with Golems, then Red, then Wraiths. The Golems give you a stun. The Red buff gives you a little health regen as well.” By smiting the large Golem you get a stun on every 6th auto-attack, and the movement slow debuff you get from Red helps Graves kite and stay alive. If you start Hunter's Machete and Refillable Potion you should be able to do an entire jungle clear without losing any health.

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When it comes to itemization, the pros were in consensus about what to start with. Boots of Swiftness, then either Tracker's Knife or Skirmisher’s Saber with the Warrior Enchantment and Youmuu's Ghostblade. After that it really depends on who you’re up against. It’s usually some variation of Maw of Malmortius, Sterak’s Gage, Rapid Firecannon, Mercurial Scimitar, or The Bloodthirster. Svenskeren was a personal fan of the Sterak’s/Maw combination. “With Maw and Sterak’s you get super tanky, even though you do a lot of damage.”

The power of Graves starts in champion select. If you lock in Graves there are legitimately four roles that he can comfortably play (we haven’t seen Graves support… yet). Being such a flex pick makes it incredibly hard to play against, as you have no idea where the he’ll end up going. Svenskeren thinks this is one of the strongest aspects of the pick in the current meta. “It’s kinda hard to pick against Graves because he can play top as well, so you don’t know where he’s going.” If he had to face him in the jungle, he adds “my preference is Elise or Lee Sin. With Lee Sin you can kill the Graves at Level 6, but before that you just need to run.”

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To build around Graves you’re going to need a team with good crowd control. Dardoch suggests champions like “Morgana, Lux, Lissandra, Gnar. Stuff that sets up team fights. Anyone who stops them moving so you can land your Q-R.” Svenskeren also added that you should have at least one tank on the team, “Either support or top, you don’t want five squishies on the team. You need someone to tank for the Graves.”

So next time you’re thinking of tackling the jungle remember -- It’s safer to do it with a shotgun, so you might as well pick the only champion in the League that’s got one. Let us know what you think of Graves and who has played him best so far in the LCS!