Graves isn't an ADC?
I don't get it. It says he's a marksman, yet when i play him in ranked, people are like "boi wtf you doing pick a real adc". If he's not an ADC what is he?
18 Comments
A mistake.
He's more commonly found in the role of jungler now. While Riot classifies him as an ADC for some reason, he is rarely played in that role.
His meta role atm is Jg with Top being a popular second
He was designed as an ADC but his rework in preseason 6 made him better at dealing with short range champs and they added a knockback to his basic attack which makes it so he can reduce the damage the jungle does to him by a shitton
People will hate you for trying this but I think Essence Reaver into Shiv is actually a decent midgame build for Graves if you wanna run him bot instead of top, but I'd play this with a tank and look to do it in lanes like Xayah, Twitch, Vayne, Kog where you can easily get into short range and burst the hell out of em while they're weak early
Tho most of the time you're going to build raw AD, I think the popular top build was something like Death's Dance into Phantom Dancer or something like that (sustain/tanky/duelist style)
Riot has an interesting habit of labeling champions based on their main(?) function. Urgot, Kindred, and Graves are all considered "marksmen" by Riot, but they're ill equipped to actually play the ADC role. Grave's main source of damage is Q, which eats mana and wouldn't let him stay in lane for very long, along with basic attacks that can be intercepted, which would be terrible for trades. Kindred's attack animation is clunky, she has a small range, and she's kinda got low movespeed. Add her being squishy to that mix, and you've got a dead ADC if you try her there. Urgot is Urgot, so you know.
This is why Riot's trying to redefine classes; They want to properly sort champions by their strengths instead of what their kit is.
He is an attack damage carry, but he plays more like a fighter than marksman
He is, but he's not commonly seen bot ever since his rework gave him two AAs before needing to reload.
Out of all the lifesteal options Death Dance is still the best for him. Just works amazingly with his kit. Crit I have no idea how well it works but he does do something with it in his passive I believe.
He's not particularly good adc, as he has very short range, his Q is unlikely to ever get the full damage off, and his autoattacks get intercepted by whatever is in the way, meaning the other adc can sit in their minion line or behind their support and be entirely safe while killing you.
It's like kindred she is technically an adc but she works better in the jungle With how her passive works. Kindred is an adc but you wouldnt really see a lot of people playing her bot lane.
I play him top lane sometimes, and I rush death's dance into pd into ie into rfc into ga. Its fun and people won't hate you since he isn't that oppressive against melees.