About Graves:

Graves is a strong duelist. Hes mainly being played as an ADC on the botlane. When you play Graves, it is your goal to become a mid to late game monster. People pick him for his amazing burst and synergy with bursty supports. His kill potential is amazing and hes very fun to play due to being capable of repositioning with Quickdraw and deleting people with a surprise combo. I hope youll be having as much fun with Graves as Ive had!

Now, let's get to it!Pros

.+ Great Farmer+ Repositionable+ Vision Reduction+ Burst+ AS Steroid+ A Genuine ManCons . - Short range- Cooldown-reliant- High mana costs- CC-sensitive- Pretty slow- Psychopath

PROS P r o s The main reason you play Graves is because of his burst. Period. Its probably the highest burst combo out of all the ADCs. With his AS steroid he can even compete with other ADCs when his skills are on cooldown. Being able to reposition yourself is another big plus. You should always feel like a threat, as he doesnt really fall off at any stage of the game.

C o n s There is one big counter to playing Graves and the main reason why you cant firstpick him in ranked. His range. It currently sits at a range of 525 and only Thresh, Urgot and Teemo, Sivir & Lucian do worse. Its a bit of a shame but your burst and Quickdraw should make up for that. Avoid playing against high ranged poke-compositions.RUNESGreater Quintessence of Attack Speed: These are your go-to runes when youre a more advanced player. They actually helps your sustain with Doran's Blade, helps to last hit more fluently and you can deal more attacks in short trades. You have to be quite experienced at last hitting to use three of these, but theyre worth it.

Greater Quintessence of Attack Damage: The starters runes. This helps your last-hitting and trading with your opponents. Its always nice to have that little extra AD as your burst combo benefits from it as well. When you're getting good at CSing, swap them out for Greater Quintessence of Attack Speed. QUINTS

M A R K S

MARKS

Greater Mark of Attack Damage: Even more extra damage. You scale really well with it and they help you throughout the earlier stages of the game.

Greater Mark of Critical Chance. One of these sometimes means heavy early damage or lucky kills. Don't count on it too much though, you only crit once every hundred attacks. (I have been lucky with it before, so can you!) MARKS

S E A L S

SEALS

Greater Seal of Armor: Seals specialize in defense. Armor seems pretty obvious. Pair them with three health seals to have a slightly easier early game.

Greater Seal of Health. These got buffed in patch 4.5, and theyre actually pretty strong now in the early game. Armor is more beneficial as soon as you reach 900 HP though, so I only take about three of them for the level 2 engage.SEALS

G L Y P H S

GLYPHS

... Greater Glyph of Magic Resist is pretty straightforward. You need this when the other team has a support scaling with AP, and there is an APC in the middle or top lane. Especially against bursty enemy supports like Annie.

Greater Glyph of Attack Speed: You can Mix in a few of these to help you trade, last hit and deal more allround damage when the enemy lacks magic damage.Greater Glyph of Scaling Magic Resist for when the enemy has a lot of AP champions.

MARKS

Offense

Fury to increase your attack speed. Helps to lasthit and trade. Butcher & Feast help you to last hit more easily and sustain in the laning phase. Brute Force & Martial Mastery for more flat Attack Damage. Executioner makes you deal 5% extra damage to anyone below 50% health. Warlord increases all of the BONUS AD by 3,5%. Your basic Attack Damage does not count. Frenzy helps kiting when you're dishing out critical strikes. Devastating Strikes for the (dual) penetration. Havoc an all round 3% damage increase. Dangerous Game keeps you going when you're on fire. Even early on, when minions are about to kill you when you just killed someone, you gain an instant healh & mana boost.

. Defense

Recovery helps a bit with sustaining through your laning phase. You will be exchanging trades and this mastery helps you to recover more easily. Block and Unyielding help to minimize the enemy's damage. Veteran Scars will make you tankier. I've run away with under 36 health before, have you? Juggernaut because of that scaling tankiness

Summoner Spells Choices

Flash

Your number one spell and the best in the game. You can use this offensively and defensively. Mandatory on an ADC for repositioning. You can also use Flash to escape sticky situations, especially when your Quickdraw is on cooldown. Heal

Heal is your second summoner spell for about every ADC. It heals an ally as well, which allows for stronger early 2V2 fights. On top of that you gain a 1 second speed-boost which can be used both offensively and defensively. Heal can be reduced by Ignite and grievous wounds.

- All other summoner spells are inferior to this combo.Leveling upSkill Priority

Maxing order: R>Q>E>WSkilling Order

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18

Buckshot

Smoke Screen

Quickdraw

Collateral Damage

0 Q E Q W Q R Q E Q E R E E W W R W W

With Graves, you have to focus on your physical damage first (Q). I take Smoke Screen at lvl 4 to have a stronger Buckshot at lvl 3. When you are being pushed to your turret by level 2, take Smoke Screen at level 3. Smoke Screen is maxed last because you only use it for the utility, not for the magic damage it provides. Buckshot & Quickdraw are superior to the flat magic damage and extra slow it provides.Take a point in Collateral Damage whenever you can. You gain an amazing powerspike by it at levels 6, 11 & 16. .Abilities explanation.. True Grit

Not the most exciting passive, but a good one anyway. It allows you to be more tanky when dealing damage. It stacks up to 10 times and offers both armor and magic resist. This is good for trading in lane and kiting those annoying bruisers late game. Try not to let it decay by attacking every three seconds.

Buckshot

BUCKSHOT Your "Bread & Butter" skill. Use it to harass, farm creeps and kill stuff altogether. The damage is piercing and it can hit the same target up to three times (every additional bullet only deals 40% damage though). You have to be at point blank to achieve this (which is not very optimal as an ADC). But when i.e. Leona stunlocks the enemy, you can go as close as you want (use your Quickdraw to get there faster) to blow a full combo in their face. Some people use buckshot first and slide in with E to cancel the animation. This is good to secure a kill. It is however not the most efficient way of shooting. By sliding in first, using a basic attack, then use Buckshot to cancel the basic attack-animation and use another basic attack, your damage output will definitely be higher.

Smoke Screen

This is your utility skill. It visually impairs the enemy (who's in the darkness now, Nocturne?). It's also a slow, but not a very effective one. Do NOT forget to use it, as you can blind champions with skillshots, who won't be able to aim them, saving precious time or even dodging their skills while you're at it. It also resets your auto attack. So use it as soon you dealt damage with an auto-attack, don't wait for the animation to end.

Quickdraw

An amazing skill to have. You can hop over small walls with it and buffs your attack speed. The cooldown is lowered as well for every auto attack you deal to your surrounding monsters & enemies. Spam it in teamfights to reposition yourself and increase your DPS at the same time. It has great synergy with your Buckshot, as your damage is amplified the closer you get to your target.

Collateral Damage

Your ultimate skill and a very effective one. It deals massive damage to everyone in a straight line. The damage explodes at the end in a reverse cone for even more damage (although damage is reduced slightly in this particular part).

Full build example

FULL BUILD EXAMPLE

Starting Items

This is a pretty straightforward ADC start. Doran's Blade helps you to sustain, take more damage and deal more damage yourself. A really good item for only 440 gold.We take the Warding Totem to ward brush-camping supports in the laning phase or to prevent ganks when you push the lane.

OK Items to RushOKBASIC OK BASICOK BASIC If you're behind, you can go tripple Doran's Blade for better sustain and tankiness. This is for when you're obligated to hug your turret and are unable to farm very well.OK If you're doing good/alright, we rush Infinity Edge first. Even before your boots. You rely on your abilities so we take as much AD as we can get. The enhanced critical strikes are amazing to trade damage with your enemies. They'll think twice before engaging when you throw a few crits in their face.OK Next we buy our Nikes to kite more easily and to move more freely. Dodging skillshots will be a lot easier now when your Quickdraw is on cooldown. More about boots below.

OK Attack Speed & Critical Chance

My build path contains an attack speed and critical chance item as your second major purchase. Some people go straight to Last Whisper or buy another B. F. Sword. This is possible when you can instantly burst your enemies all of the time, but it will slow your CSing. As I prioritize last-hitting, I take this route. You have three options; my personal favorite is Statikk Shiv.

Choices:.PROS| CONS| .

+ Cheap+ Magic dmg+ Strongest early & mid game - Not lategame Statikk Shiv is a cheap item with very good stats. Its my personal preference because you deal mixed damage and your waveclear will be godly. (The magic dmg can crit by the way!). It's also stronger than the other items in the early & mid game (reaching your powerspike sooner). The downside of it being cheap is that the stats are inferior to Phantom Dancer late game.

| | .

+ / Unit collision+ Great stats - Costly- No extra dmg Phantom Dancer is for when youre doing really well and you got enough cash to spend. You now ignore unit collision which is really beneficial when youre kiting or when low health enemies try to escape through a minion wave. When hitting late game youll be a monster with this baby.

| | .

+ Active boost+ ArP - Low stats You see Youmuu's Ghostblade on a lot of ADCs nowadays. The bad thing about it is that its a mix of everything, but not really focusing on one stat. My opinion is that its better to buy items specializing in certain statistics to maximize your damage. Its a nice item though and good for dueling with your skills on cooldown. Try it out, you never know you might like it!

Life Steal

Against AssassinsThe Bloodthirster is not to be rushed anymore, as the shield you get by stealing life at full health scales with your champions level. Its still great mid to late game, you can get it as your third item when the enemy lacks tankiness instead of rushing Last Whisper. Build up the shield before a teamfight starts by damaging some minions or monsters.

In Your Time of NeedVampiric Scepter can be built earlier on in games where you feel that you need that little extra lifesteal to survive teamfights. If youre pretty confident about yourself, you can wait until you go for The Bloodthirster to buy it.

Against TanksBlade of the Ruined King is a great option in a game where a six-item tank (think Sion, Garen & Dr. Mundo) keeps on walking over you like its nothing and your team fails to help you out for some reason. It helps you kite with your short range, you shred their health and the life steal int all too bad. When theres no tank to be shred, go for The Bloodthirster and a defensive item instead.

Armor Penetration

Only one option when you need to build against armor, and you should get it as your third item if an enemy champion with high amounts of armor is being threat to you earlier on. The Last Whisper ignores 35% of your targets armor, which is huge! When you get this, teamfights will go much smoother for you and you'll be able to facemelt the initators.

Defensive Items

ARMOR When you're facing a full AD team, which occurs more often than not in this meta, there is only one item I like best. Randuin's Omen gives you armor, health and an active slow. The slow helps you to kite even better while the armor and health make you a lot more durable. A very good item overall. Remember to buy it ONLY when there's no magic damage to worry about.

MIX

Guardian Angel is a well-known and very popular item. I must admit that I don't buy it that much, as when the active pops, you mostly die for real only two seconds later. It can be useful to draw attention away from you or buy some time for your team to come and save you. Get it when there's an equal threat from attack damage and ability power.

MAGIC

RESIST Banshee's Veil is one of my favorite items. It will block a spell once every 45 seconds (if you're not taking any damage in that time window). It's great against initiators (i.e Unstoppable Force, Enchanted Crystal Arrow) and assassins Death Mark).

Spirit Visage is not very popular amongst ADC's, although it is an item with 135% gold efficiency without its passive. You can buy it when an APC is really annoying, and there's no real dangerous, gamechanging spell you could block with Banshee's Veil. I only list it here because it amplifies your lifesteal as well.

Mkay Mercurial Scimitar is situational. Buy it when Morgana keeps on binding you for those everlasting three seconds, over and over again, when Lissandra pops out of nowhere and freezes you with her Glacial Prison. It's great against suppressions ( Malzahar & Warwick) as well. You can get it against Zed to remove his Death Mark. It also gives a great boost to your AD and a small speed boost when activated. You could get this as a third item when the enemy lacks tankiness but their CC is giving you hell.

Boots

BASIC

BASIC

Berserker's Greaves are just standard issue boots for an ADC. They are pretty cheap and youll be auto attacking a lot faster.

Mercury's Treads are actually quite viable. Not because of the MR they provide, but because of the tenacity, a very useful stat on a squishy, easy target as yourself. Get it when you're being locked down by CC way too often, rseulting in your death ( Morgana's Dark Binding).

Zephyr is a must have when you hit the endgame and youve got money to spend. Just sell your boots and get this precious little item. It offers so much, and you only lose a minimum of movement speed.

Enchantments

Enchantment: Furor are the go-to boots for those of you who love to kite. The speed boost will be super helpful in kiting and chasing.

Enchantment: Homeguard for when your base is under attack and you want to defend it as soon as possible, and as efficient as possible. A great speed boost and rapid regen!

Enchantment: Alacrity is good on all champions. You just walk faster, the whole time. Its ok to have as an ADC, but I prefer Enchantment: Furor.

Trinkets & Trinket Upgrades

Trinkets

This will be your starting totem in all of your games. It offers a safer laning phase and early vision control. Do not take any of the other trinkets.

This one gains importance after the laning phase. You can facecheck bushes and prevent nasty deaths. Get it mid game when you are farming all the time and sometimes are overextending.

Sweeping Lens has its uses for supports & junglers. As an ADC you're much safer with a trinket which provides vision. If you do take it, it can be a smart idea to use it right before recalling at low health. The last thing you want is to be killed when you're standing on a ward with only 100 HP left.

Greater Stealth Totem

A free Stealth Ward every 90 seconds. When you have a full inventory this can be priceless and life-saving.

Early Game

When going to your lane, you should be really fast. On the purple side you have to go defend the blue buff, on blue side you have to go defend the red buff (by standing in the tribrush). You can try to take first blood in this brush together with your jungler, midlaner and support, but if nobody walked into your trap at 1:40, go shoot your load on good ol' Gromp to support your jungler on his first clear.

Upon reaching the lane, push as fast as possible, using Buckshot as smart as possible. This means last hitting and harassing at the same time with the same Buckshot. Arrange with your support that you go in as soon as you hit lvl 2 (should be after 10 minions). So ping your support to engage on the opponent just when you're about to kill the tenth minion. This way you can get the lead by injuring them and start pushing towards the turret and possibly even get a kill or a few summoners.

If somehow the enemies hit lvl 2 before you, just back off out of range and let the wave push. I cannot stress enough the importance of getting every single last hit on the minions. You want to get ahead ASAP, or at least try to stay even in a tough lane.

Graves is kind of mana hungry in the early game. Try to buy a Mana Potion every now and then to stay in lane longer / harass more frequently.Mid Game

After the first tier turrets have been destroyed, you should keep farming. If the enemies turret is still standing and yours is down, destroy it ASAP to even out the gold. If the middle turret is still standing, go there and try to take it as soon as you destroyed the bottom lane one.

You can never stop farming as an ADC and as a late game menace, you should have the most farm on your team at all times. If you want to know whether you're doing good, try to aim for 80 cs every 10 minutes.

Mid game is where skirmishes begin and fights start over Dragon. Make sure it's warded 24/7 because you don't want the enemies to take it unseen. Even if they take it and you have vision of it, you can time dragon (spawns after 6 minutes) and be ready for the next one.

This is a good time to swap your Warding Totem for a Scrying Orb.

Late Game. . You should almost be full build. If you're not, go farm in an empty lane but make sure you put your trinket in a safe spot. Keep an eye on the minimap and an escape route planned out ahead to make sure you can farm safe without throwing anything away.

Don't forget to upgrade your trinket when you have all of your items. Farsight Orb has a huge range and it allows you to scout objectives and check bushes.

Make sure Baron Nashor is warded 24/7 now and try to take it when their jungler shows himself at the other side of the map.

Keep on pressuring the map now. If you can pick someone off on his own, punish that mistake by taking objectives.

If you are splitpushing and the enemy decides to go for Baron Nashor, then try to think for yourself whether you can take the inhibitor while they're working down Nashor. Tell your team to poke them down, but to avoid engaging at all cost. I would rather get an inhibitor down at this stage than to get the baron buff at a high cost.

STRATEGIESLaning Phase

Laning phase is the most important part of the game. This is where you will either get a lead, go even or get behind your opponent. All you have to do is focus on farming, not getting harassed/caught and wait for initiations of either your support or jungler. Be sure to ward the river and one of the brushes in bottom lane itself when their support is camping it.There are a few ways of getting through that laning phase explained below. Laning phase ends when one of the bottom lane turrets has been destroyed and the laners start rotating to the middle lane.. Splitpushing

This strategy is for when you are behind in particular. As an ADC with an Attack Speed steroid, you can deal massive damage to turrets, taking them down really fast. All you have to do is keep going bottom lane and push the wave when the enemy minions hit your side of the map. Keep pushing until you can start destroying an enemy turret. You really need good ward coverage to do this though. Fall back when the enemy disappeared from the map to hunt you down.

I mainly start splitpushing if everyone starts dancing around the mid turret, and nothing really interesting happens. This is a waste of time and you could be taking objectives. You might think of this as playing too much solo, but trust me when I say that you have to carry yourself in soloqueue.

This means that you'll leave your team 4v5 at your turret. They might be mad if you do this, but they'll stop trashtalking when you took 2 turrets and an inhibitor while only 2 of your teammates died.

It's very important that your team tries to stop the enemies when they figured out what you're doing. This is referred to as "Stop the Ports".

Tips: Have good ward coverage Communicate with your team Ignore trashtalk Help your team on the right moments

Positioning

The hardest to learn, yet one of the most important skills to have when playing as an Attack Damage Carry. The whole point of playing ADC is putting out tons of damage, without being hit in return. Being in a good spot for this is super-important. There's three ways of positioning..

Stand behind your team for protection. Those who want to mutilate you have to go through your team, which makes them an easy target.

Hide yourself behind a wall/in a brush. When a teamfight erupts you can surprise an enemy squishy and blow them up with your combo. Your skills can annihilate an enemy in less than one second. This is dangerous though so don't do this too much (your Flash should be up). FRONTLINE

You're fed, scary and ready to rumble. The other team is too weak to fight you head on and you show them you mean business. Don't get too full of yourself, you're still squishy. Only do this when you're stomping the enemy ridiculously hard.

Kiting

Kiting reminds me of the beach.

Another super-important skill which is really helpful when playing ADC, is kiting. It makes you look really pro as well. The trick is to walk in between each attack, every single time. As soon as you dealt damage, start walking, this way you do not only cancel the animation, but you can chase the enemy much faster as well.

When you're being attacked, shoot, walk away, shoot, walk away and so on. Eventually you will have drained their health bar and you can start chasing the hunter. Attack moving is really helpful for that. If you did not yet develop this technique, go into a custom game and practice it ASAP. Practicing with a friend is not only much more fun, but offers more realistic situations as well.