How to beat Graves, for all you whiners out there.

So! In the spirit of my thread on how to beat Illaoi, I'm going to make a thread on how to beat Graves, for all you fucking brats out there that demand nerfs for a champion that has healthy amounts of counterplay (unlike, you know, every other ADC out there).

Here we go!

---

So, I'll go through each of his abilities and explain what they do and how they do it, so you can better avoid their damage, and then I'll talk about them overall.

---

Passive:

So, Graves' passive makes his AA into something entirely different. Instead of firing a homing projectile, Graves fires a cone of projectiles that fly and act like mini skillshots (meaning they can be body-blocked and actually miss if you dash, flash or move fast enough). Now, this has a couple drawbacks to it.

• First, Graves' AA range is very low, so nearly any ADC can out-range and out-trade him with autos.

• Second, he can only fire two rounds before he has to stop and reload (if he fires one shot and waits a while, he'll reload anyway), during which time he can't use his AAs at all.

• Third, he does less damage with his AAs unless he fires them point blank; at early levels, each shell does something like 2/3 AA damage. However, at later levels his AAs do more than his total AD, since his AS is so low, and all of them together do a TON of damage (but, again, he has to be right in your face to do anything).

Counterplay

So, what do we know about his passive? It gives him a lot of power if he's in your face, but that power only lasts for two autos, and his AAs aren't guaranteed to hit you. What do we do then, to make his AAs worthless? Well, during lane, keep minions between you and him, and he'll never hit you with an AA, even if he targets you with it. If you don't have any minions to hide behind, then keep a good distance from him if you can, as his shots spread out, you'll only be hit by one or two bullets. For a melee, do what you do for any other ADCs.

Once he fires his two shots, he has much lower damage for a second or two, which is enough time for you to jump in, CC him (he's squishy, remember?) and blow him up.

Things to keep in mind

• His base AS is VERY low, like 0.45s, so he has very, very low AA damage early game.

• His reload speed is slightly affected by AS, so early game, he takes a good 1-2s to reload -- capitalize on that.

• Multiple shots can do more damage than his total AD, so keep your distance if at all possible.

• His AA is not a guaranteed hit, and minions / mobs / other people can block it for you.

• On a crit, he fires 6 shells instead of 4, and with IE, his crits fire 8 shots.

---

Q:

Graves' Q is an interesting hammer-shaped telegraph that fires a bomb that explodes after a delay (or instantly if it hits terrain (important to not just say walls, since it also works on Anivia's wall, Trundle's pillar and the like) and sends fire back up the telegraph (marked by black powder on the ground). The bomb does a small amount of damage as it launches out of Graves' gun, and then a much larger chunk of damage with the explosion back up the powder.

Counterplay

So, how do we deal with his Q? Well, much like when fighting Vayne, Poppy or any other champion with a terrain-based effect, you don't fight him in a position that he can shoot a wall with his Q.

Other than that, it's a straight line. So, you know, by simply moving... nah, that's too crazy.

Things to keep in mind

• The initial cast does very little damage, but watch out for the second tick, which is where all the power is.

• Even if he hits a wall, you don't take damage until the fire hits you -- so just dodge out of it.

• If he doesn't hit a wall, the bomb explodes when the animation shows it hitting the floor.

---

W:

Graves' W does very little damage, has a very weak slow, and restricts vision in a small area. Nothing special to say about it, really. Just be careful of what you can't see.

Just remember that you can't use targeted abilities on targets not in your vision, so Graves can use it to potentially escape.

---

E:

Graves' E makes him dash in a direction a short distance (can cross over small walls) while simultaneously instantly reloading a shell (meaning one more AA) and gaining a stack of True Grit, which increases his armor and MR bit a small amount.

Things to keep in mind

• With E, Graves can do some fancy animation canceling voodoo, and near-instantly fire two AAs.

• The duration on True Grit refreshes each time he autos a non-minion.

• The CD on his dash is reduced for each auto pellet that hits a non-minion. (So, with IE, a maximum of 8s off)

---

R:

Graves fires a huge explosive shell, throws himself backwards a bit, and does a lot of damage. Simple!

Counterplay

• His ult is a line until it gets to the end, where it widens into a cone. So dodge sideways, and blamo, no ult for Graves.

• The explosion does less damage than the shell actually hitting you. So, a tank or someone with higher HP can tank the shot for someone who's nearly dead or a squishy.

*** Things to keep in mind***

• When Graves uses his R, it pushes him back slightly (not very far), but he can use it to hop over dragon/baron walls and things like J4's ult.

• The shell hurts more than the explosion.

---

So, there you go, all Graves' abilities, and how to beat them. Wanna guess what else beats him? Armor.

Basically, don't stand near walls, and use minions / other people to block skillshots and his AA for you -- and dodge things. He's really not that broken, and can easily be beaten by someone with half a brain, but hey, this is League, after all.

If I can beat Graves on a squishy, no mobility champion like Syndra, then guess what? So can you. So please, stop crying broken, and put in a little bit of effort for once in your life. I know society teaches you to be lazy as all hell, but if you wanna win, you gotta go the mile. ^^