I recently had the (dis)pleasure of facing a Graves top lane as Garen. Normally I can play around top laners who are supposed to have advantages over me early (teemo, darius, quinn, etc.), but I got dumpstered by this Graves. Does anyone have any tips on how to play against him?
Prob cant beat him. Farm and wait til later in the game when youre tankier than him in teamfight. Dont go for the noob item path and pick up black cleaver first item. Get a sunfire first item, always build to survive and skirmish with your matchup and then go for core after.
umm. wait for jungle ganks?
There is a general consensus that Graves top is semi-broken atm, if you are melee you basicly lose because his shots are that much more potent at melee range. I generally don't even bothter trying to win the lane against him, the best one can do is not feed him, wait for jungle ganks or if you have a teamcomp that allows it, bring a long range adc that would otherwise counter him in lane top.
edit: Come to think of it, long range mages can probably also deal with him. And also maybe Gnar? Should be able to trade effectively since Graves autos are blocked by minions. Just speculation on my part here, I utterly hate this matchup myself.
