I need help playing Graves (long post, TL;DR)
Hello, I don't know if this is the right board, I write this post to ask help from Graves players (not necessarily mains). (Sorry for the long post)
Well, I do really enjoy the champion thematically, but I can't seem to play him properly: I always feel like I'm either stomping or get stomped. I will put some problems I have while playing Graves:
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I find ganking difficult especially if my ally has no CC. Ganking long-ranged champions like zoe or xerath feels impossible
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Positioning in teamfights: if I stand near frontline, I get chainstunned and killed or poked and forced to go back; If I stand behind my frontline, I don't a chance to deal damage because enemies retreat unless we have some really hard engage like zac/malphite/seju. Having such a short range tells me to stay near front line, but then I just get right clicked by the enemy adc.
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buildpath: deathdance or blackcleaver? Crit or lethality? I enjoy blowing the enemies with some insane crits, but then I suffer poke or CC. If I go for tankier builds I deal absolutely no damage. For runes I've tried precision/domination or precision/sorcery
There have been a couple of games where I started really well, going like 5/0 in the first 15 minutes, but then I couldn't capitalize on this advantage because I had no way to engage, enemies just ran away and eventually recovered. Should I just splitpush and join fights occasionally? Sometimes I just have orrible games where I fall behind because lanes are ungankable and long ranged enemies kill me before I can even show up to land a Q.
- counterjungling: I'm not much of a counterjungler, but I keep reading that graves is a good counterjungler. I wonder: why? I mean: it's obvious I can counterjungle slow champions like sejuani, but then who? Lee sin? He either fights me and kill me, or if he sees the fight is unfavourable he jumps away, making a chase impossibile and very risky. Kha? No way I'm too squishy. Bruiser like vi/J4/xin? Still too squishy, if I mistep they kill me or run away because I have no way to catch up (or worse another enemy shows up). If I have the upperhand they just burn flash and I cannot reach them: next time they make sure to run as soon as they see me or to bring an ally.
TL;DR: I enjoy playing Graves, but I find him a feast or famine champion. I must be playing him in a wrong way: I feel very team-dependent and if I fall behind I feel useless. halp.