Dead Man Walkin' - Graves in Pro Play
Riot·5/19/2014, 6:36:15 PM·0 votes·2,917 views
You would never know it to look at the 2014 LCS Spring Split, but Graves was once one of the premier AD carries in League of Legends. However, after only one pick in the entire 2014 Spring Split, Graves was picked 7 times in the 2014 LCS NA Playoffs and 3 more times at All Stars. What makes Graves a good champion, what kept him from being played all season before his recent explosion in popularity, and why did he ultimately fall flat? Find out below!
He’s tanky for an AD carry, which lets him face off well against Assassins. His passive gives him up to 30 Armor and MR late game, which can make all the difference in a 1v1 matchup against the burst damage of an assassin. Obviously, that tankiness comes in handy in team fights as well.
When compared to other AD carries, he is extremely bursty, which allows him to beat marksmen with higher sustained DPS simply by shortening the fight to 1 or 2 seconds. Of course, that burst also comes in handy during team fights, where Graves can lay down a ton of AoE damage.
But even if he’s not fighting, and just split-pushing, he has a number of strengths. Late-game, WildTurtle likes that he can “clear waves quickly”, allowing him to “group up with the team quickly”. Essentially, while Vayne would have to auto-attack down a whole wave, taking 5-6 seconds, Graves can walk up to a wave, buckshot it (with maybe 2-3 auto attacks for good measure), and leave. This leaves his team without an AD carry for less time, allows him to push more quickly, and leaves him exposed for less time.
Riskiness
The biggest issue facing Graves is that he is an inherently risky champion. WildTurtle thinks that Graves biggest weaknesses is “the fact that he has to really get in there to do damage”. The reason for this is simple: he has to use Quickdraw, his lone mobility skill, to buff his attack speed and deal the full potential of his damage. This means if he uses his dash to disengage, he loses time on his steroid. On the other hand, “he has to Quickdraw forward in a team fight to do really good damage, which is really scary because he can get bursted down”.
Weak Siege
If you look at today’s most popular AD carries, they all have some advantage in sieging towers. Lucian has his double-tap from his Lightslinger passive (not to mention his ultimate, The Culling), Caitlyn has her long range, and so on. Graves, however, has a lot of trouble sieging. He has no burst damage to towers, has low range, and if he does get caught, he has to use his steroid just to escape, crucially hurting his ability to do damage. This was incredibly notable in Game 4 of Millennium vs Ninjas in Pyjamas:
Snowbally
A lot of split-pushing AD carries become strong duelists just from farming. Vayne is a perfect example; her kit has so much single-target damage that whether or not she gets a lot of kills, she becomes terrifying in 1v1 situations. Graves, on the other hand, wins duels in large part due to his burst, meaning if he fails to get sufficient items, his low range plays against him, especially against long ranged AD carries with escapes, like Caitlyn. The thing WildTurtle hates most about Graves is “falling behind, because it’s really hard to come back with his kit.”
Where is Graves best? His best matchup, according to several pro players, is Morgana. Her Spell Shield does nothing to mitigate his damage, her Dark Binding is relatively easy for him to dodge, allowing him to aggress straight onto the enemy AD carry and burst them down quickly.
As noted in The State of AD Carries, as long as games revolve around teamfights and towers, teams will need an AD carry. As an AD carry, Graves only threatens towers best by winning team fights. As such, he will continue to be a niche pick for as long as sieging remains a critical component of most professional compositions.
Mattias "Gentleman Gustaf" Lehman is a League of Legends math-crafter turned esports journalist who spends his spare time staring at mountains of League of Legends data. Follow him @GentlemanGustaf on Twitter.
Strengths
Split-Pushing Split pushing is one of the key functions of many AD carries. Why? Because they pick up incredible damage towards the late game, and can 1v1 most targets. This is not true of all AD carries (you wouldn’t split push with Ashe), but it’s very true of AD carries with mobility, like Graves and Vayne. Graves is one of the best split-pushing AD carries in the game for a number of reasons, with tools that make him especially strong against bruisers, assassins, and other AD carries. To deal with bruisers, he is incredibly good at kiting. As long as he keeps attacking, the cooldown on his Quickdraw is quite low, which means that in 1v1s vs melee champions, he can avoid taking damage for much of a fight.
He’s tanky for an AD carry, which lets him face off well against Assassins. His passive gives him up to 30 Armor and MR late game, which can make all the difference in a 1v1 matchup against the burst damage of an assassin. Obviously, that tankiness comes in handy in team fights as well.
When compared to other AD carries, he is extremely bursty, which allows him to beat marksmen with higher sustained DPS simply by shortening the fight to 1 or 2 seconds. Of course, that burst also comes in handy during team fights, where Graves can lay down a ton of AoE damage.
But even if he’s not fighting, and just split-pushing, he has a number of strengths. Late-game, WildTurtle likes that he can “clear waves quickly”, allowing him to “group up with the team quickly”. Essentially, while Vayne would have to auto-attack down a whole wave, taking 5-6 seconds, Graves can walk up to a wave, buckshot it (with maybe 2-3 auto attacks for good measure), and leave. This leaves his team without an AD carry for less time, allows him to push more quickly, and leaves him exposed for less time.
Weaknesses
Graves went a grand total of 3-7 between the playoffs and All Stars, and was only on the winning side in games in which he was on a heavily favored team anyway, with two wins from Cloud 9 and one win from Fnatic. So despite his strengths, there are a few things holding him back. The main one is his short range, which causes him a number of problems.
Riskiness
The biggest issue facing Graves is that he is an inherently risky champion. WildTurtle thinks that Graves biggest weaknesses is “the fact that he has to really get in there to do damage”. The reason for this is simple: he has to use Quickdraw, his lone mobility skill, to buff his attack speed and deal the full potential of his damage. This means if he uses his dash to disengage, he loses time on his steroid. On the other hand, “he has to Quickdraw forward in a team fight to do really good damage, which is really scary because he can get bursted down”.
Weak Siege
If you look at today’s most popular AD carries, they all have some advantage in sieging towers. Lucian has his double-tap from his Lightslinger passive (not to mention his ultimate, The Culling), Caitlyn has her long range, and so on. Graves, however, has a lot of trouble sieging. He has no burst damage to towers, has low range, and if he does get caught, he has to use his steroid just to escape, crucially hurting his ability to do damage. This was incredibly notable in Game 4 of Millennium vs Ninjas in Pyjamas:
Snowbally
A lot of split-pushing AD carries become strong duelists just from farming. Vayne is a perfect example; her kit has so much single-target damage that whether or not she gets a lot of kills, she becomes terrifying in 1v1 situations. Graves, on the other hand, wins duels in large part due to his burst, meaning if he fails to get sufficient items, his low range plays against him, especially against long ranged AD carries with escapes, like Caitlyn. The thing WildTurtle hates most about Graves is “falling behind, because it’s really hard to come back with his kit.”
Matchups
Where is Graves best? His best matchup, according to several pro players, is Morgana. Her Spell Shield does nothing to mitigate his damage, her Dark Binding is relatively easy for him to dodge, allowing him to aggress straight onto the enemy AD carry and burst them down quickly.
As noted in The State of AD Carries, as long as games revolve around teamfights and towers, teams will need an AD carry. As an AD carry, Graves only threatens towers best by winning team fights. As such, he will continue to be a niche pick for as long as sieging remains a critical component of most professional compositions.
Mattias "Gentleman Gustaf" Lehman is a League of Legends math-crafter turned esports journalist who spends his spare time staring at mountains of League of Legends data. Follow him @GentlemanGustaf on Twitter.