Graves Top Help

SirShaggy·1/23/2016, 4:57:14 PM·1 votes·808 views

Hi guys! I'm trying to expand my top lane champions and wanted to pick up some kind of bruiser, but I really don't enjoy playing most melee champions. It seems that Graves top lane is seeing some professional play as a ranged bruiser with decent bulk so I'm gonna give him a shot. He's a relatively new pick and there's not much information about how he works out there. Any suggestions on how to play around his ammo system, what runes/masteries I should use, item builds (I know Sterak/Maw/Ghostblade are really good), matchups, etc?

TL;DR Please give me Graves top advice.

3 Comments

Furor Nexis1/23/2016, 5:17:25 PM2 votes

Usually I find Armor Pen/seals or scaling health/MR glyphs /AD quints runes for Graves on toplane works nicely. You can chunk through enemy armor early and with a little help from junglers (or if your enemy messes up) you can get a kill pretty early. I generally find getting the following items in order works for me.

item 3142 > item 3009 item 3053 > item 3071 > item 3742 > item 3143 and whatever final item is your decision

As a top laner, don't worry about your reload speed. If you're chasing, try and get them to run along the walls as your Q blows instantly when it hits a wall. Your smoke grenade also severely reduces vision and slows enemies, and your ult can be a good finisher as it splashes, or can be used as a burst getaway if things go sideways. Also your boots sync well with your dash so you can get away pretty quickly if you're slowed.

Furor Nexis1/25/2016, 10:59:12 PM1 votes

Well, the reload can be quickened if you gain attack speed. I experimented with item 3078 for little while and it helped me hit that little bit faster.