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How to play as Graves ?

Cadelanne··3 votes·9,392 views

Really I LOVE the champion and people are saying that he's strong but I really don't understand how to win with it. Unless I get a few lucky kills early that I can use to snowball I'm always lightyears behind in damages and have little to no impact on the game past the laning phase.

I really wonder what I should be doing. If I can't get good ganks or counterganks, which will happen in a lot of games then I'm absolutly irrelevant troughout the whole game. I do a good job for my elo at warding, getting intel on ennemy jungler and getting vision in general but that's it. Even in games where odds turn in my favor and feed me I don't carry or feel like I'm a major threat

In fight I don't understand how I can pull anything out of this char. I have 0 damage on frontliners, if I'm CC I die instantly because I am not very tanky, and I don't have the tools to flank backline. That's very frustrating because I see people having fun with this chapion and doing good with it but I don't understand how.

8 Comments

Lipstick Pig2 votes

I looked at your match history to see how your farming is.

It is a little hard to judge, because most games are like 30 minutes plus.

What kinda farm do you average at 10 minutes?

I am silver ranked, but I farm very well for a pleb.

Whenever I try and "git gud" with a new champ, the FIRST thing I do, is try and get good at farming on that champ.

Knowing the AA damage, knowing when to use spells to maximize CS.

If you have better CS early, that's more damage, meaning easier to CS, meaning more CS, meaning more damage.

It's a snowball.

Just saying EVERY chap feels strong to me when I have 70 or 80 cs at 10

Every champ feels like garbage when i have 50 or less.

60 at ten is the LOWEST I feel like I can even play with.

Good luck.

P.S. graves is a little weird in this regard, because his AA shotgun spread.

I played him top lane, and it took more work than your average champ to CS well.

Cadelanne1 votes

[{quoted}](name=F33Der Pan,realm=NA,application-id=3ErqAdtq,discussion-id=dbX4l4oo,comment-id=0000,timestamp=2019-02-09T19:33:39.749+0000)

I looked at your match history to see how your farming is.

It is a little hard to judge, because most games are like 30 minutes plus.

What kinda farm do you average at 10 minutes?

I am silver ranked, but I farm very well for a pleb.

Whenever I try and "git gud" with a new champ, the FIRST thing I do, is try and get good at farming on that champ.

Knowing the AA damage, knowing when to use spells to maximize CS.

If you have better CS early, that's more damage, meaning easier to CS, meaning more CS, meaning more damage.

It's a snowball.

Just saying EVERY chap feels strong to me when I have 70 or 80 cs at 10

Every champ feels like garbage when i have 50 or less.

60 at ten is the LOWEST I feel like I can even play with.

Good luck.

P.S. graves is a little weird in this regard, because his AA shotgun spread.

I played him top lane, and it took more work than your average champ to CS well.

I average at 50 - 60 at 10 minutes, from replays. But I'm not sure it's a good idea to just farm and gank less. I just took a look at a handfull of challenger replays and they're also at 50 - 60 cs at 10 minutes in the jungle so I think my farm / team support ratio is ok. Anyway I never feel late in items at this point in a game.

Raiko Horikawa2 votes

Did not really play him Jgl after Jgl changes but Graves lives off rushing red > gank and getting his lead by clearing as fast as possible afterwards. Graves has a mediocre early a decent mid (depending on how far ahead you are) and a beast late (talking about 2 shotting about anyone, that is if you actually crit).

Means be annoying and gank early then farm up til 2 items and/or annoy the enemy Jgler unless it is a Kha.

ModCaliCoastReplay2 votes

Graves is my jungle main...a few tips:

  1. You really have to master the knockback on New Destiny in order to maximize his clears/ability to come to lane with full health. He can handle a great deal of camps with a fraction of the hits most junglers take - watch some pros play him, they'll take red or blue and get hit once or twice at most - but you have to learn to wait and time autos and E's to interrupt enemy attack animations.
  2. Master your E wallthrus in order to move around the map effectively and gank unexpectedly.
  3. Graves excels at making casual, early ganks as he crosses through the map. Don't tryhard for kills; but help your laners apply pressure.
  4. In this vein, he also excels at scuttle takes because he actually is pretty good at early dueling, again, if you learn how to use New Destiny properly. Take scuttles as early as you can to get gold and vision. I will actually often simply go either a red or blue start, then immediately to scuttle and a gank attempt, even crossing through mid to take the second scuttle.
  5. Graves sucks at early multi-target clears. Try to avoid the raptors or krugs in particular until you have at least level 3 and your full kit, or you'll be too weak to gank any lane afterwards.
  6. Find a build that works for you. I play him with heavy lifesteal, which always gives him the chance to make crazy outplays as a full pellet burst will heal him for quite a bit. But you have to find what works for you. You will always need damage, but the amount of pen/lifesteal/movespeed/crit/tankiness in your middle-of-the-game slots is crazy variable and adjustable to your tastes.
  7. You must get ahead in order to not fall behind. Graves is absolutely dominant when ahead, with fast clears and brutal kill pressure, but generally only if he's on at least a level and an early finished item advantage.
Cadelanne1 votes

Again a game, I get 1v1ed by a Xin while I have an item advantage and we're both lvl 5. This char is just shit now.

ModCaliCoastReplay2 votes

XinZhao and Hecarim are your worst matchups generally, because you have to stay away from melee range to maximize your kiting, and they can simply dash to you instead.

They are good bans; in addition, when playing against them, never burn your E until they've used their own gap closers, or you'll just get cut down.

Daddy Ants1 votes

{quoted}

Again a game, I get 1v1ed by a Xin while I have an item advantage and we're both lvl 5. This char is just shit now.

Xin's broken though.

Graves isn't shit...

Rustypug1 votes

im weird when it comes to graves i love taking him adc with a cc or sustain support my build is item 3031 item 1001(boots of your choice) item 3046 item 3026 item 3812 item 3072 my runes are dark harvest, sudden impact, eyeball, ultimate hunter or ravenous and my secondary is triumph and whichever rune is good for the situation i max my q instead of E for more damage i like taking him adc because he can go great with supports and hes not that bad at farming in lane since hes also a jungler i feel like its better to fight incoming enemy junglers or contest over objs better not saying its something you should do in comp but its pretty fun in my opinion*[sg-lulu]*

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