I bought and tried out Graves - he's a beast. I honestly think he's OP right now - he seems to outclass other AD carries. Graves is a lot like Caitlyn, except better in virtually every way. Reasoning and rambling in the spoiler below:
Twitch and Vayne have the highest base and scaling Attack Damage out of all the AD carries in the game. At level 1/18, Twitch has 54.71/108.26 AD and Vayne has 53.25/108.5 AD. Graves compares easily with 51/103.7 AD. Graves has a slightly above average attack range (550) which is enough to ensure that he can't be outranged by many opponents.
Graves has beats other AD carries by about 50 HP with higher scaling and 100 MP with higher scaling, with the exception of Miss Fortune. Graves has comparable but slightly higher Armor than other AD carries.
Graves' skillset compares best to Caitlyn's. They both have a ranged damaging attack on their Q, but Graves' does 3 to 4 times more damage. Caitlyn's Q also has a short channel which makes it easy to dodge and hard for her to find the time to cast. Graves' casts instantly.
They both have ground targeted CC on their W's, but Caitlyn's is a small trap that takes time to set and deploy whereas Graves' Smokescreen is another instant cast. Cait's traps offer some map vision and a stronger disable (snare versus slow/sight reduction), but Graves' more reliably affects targets in teamfights and offers stronger zone control because of it's larger area of effect. The two abilities have near equal damage.
They both have positioning on their E, but Graves' casts instantly (go figure, faster than Cait's). The ranges are comparable (Graves' 425 to Cait's 400). Cait's does base damage equal to about 1.5 basic attacks and applies a short (1~2sec) slow, Graves' gives him a four second AS roid equal in power to a recurve bow (at rank 1. By rank 5, it's two recurve bows.)
Finally, both have long range damaging abilities for the ultimates. Caitlyn has better range on her ult, which is great except that Cait's does less damage, has a long channel (Graves' is instant cast), and Graves' is AoE.
I play Graves on SR or TT, and almost always open Doran's Blade to maximize on his above average level 1 stats. I run ArmorPen/Flat Armor/MR per lvl/MS runes, 11/0/19 Masteries, and Flash with Exhaust or Teleport in any lane. Build order is Doran's Blade -> boots1 -> beserker's/zeal/wriggles. More offense: phantom dancer/IE/Atmogs/more phantom dancers/bloodthirster. More defense: Guardian Angel/Atmogs/Frozen Mallet. EDIT: also Wit's End.
Reasoning and rambling for my build in the spoiler:
Graves has superb level 1 stats so I like to maximize on that with Doran's Blade.
Graves scales very well with AS because of his auto attacks and his E. He really gets going once his AS gets high enough. I like to get Beserker's Greaves and Zeal relatively early to get him "into his stride".
Graves scales very well with Life Steal. The lifesteal from Doran's Blade offers Graves some sustain, but I like to build a Wriggle's Lantern (if I need early armor) or Emblem of Valor (if I'd rather the HP5 and want Stark's Fervor later). I get the Vamperic Scepter early, very rarely before boots1, usually just before boots2, very rarely not until after zeal.
I like to finish Zeal into Phantom Dancer over Trinity Force because the AS, Crit, and MS all scale phenominally with Graves, whereas the Sheen in Trinity (AP, Mana, and infrequently used sheen proc) are a little bit of wasted gold.
I haven't played enough to firm up late game item choices, but I want to play around with IE, Guardian Angel, Atmogs, Frozen Mallet, more Phantom Dancers, and Bloodthirster.
Add me in LoL and I'd love to (try to) demonstrate some Graves for you!
Last edited by Diligence109; 11-04-2011 at 12:43 PM.
I bought and tried out Graves - he's a beast. I honestly think he's OP right now - he seems to outclass other AD carries. Graves is a lot like Caitlyn, except better in virtually every way. Reasoning and rambling in the spoiler below:
Twitch and Vayne have the highest base and scaling Attack Damage out of all the AD carries in the game. At level 1/18, Twitch has 54.71/108.26 AD and Vayne has 53.25/108.5 AD. Graves compares easily with 51/103.7 AD. Graves has a slightly above average attack range (550) which is enough to ensure that he can't be outranged by many opponents.
Graves has beats other AD carries by about 50 HP with higher scaling and 100 MP with higher scaling, with the exception of Miss Fortune. Graves has comparable but slightly higher Armor than other AD carries.
Graves' skillset compares best to Caitlyn's. They both have a ranged damaging attack on their Q, but Graves' does 3 to 4 times more damage. Caitlyn's Q also has a short channel which makes it easy to dodge and hard for her to find the time to cast. Graves' casts instantly.
They both have ground targeted CC on their W's, but Caitlyn's is a small trap that takes time to set and deploy whereas Graves' Smokescreen is another instant cast. Cait's traps offer some map vision and a stronger disable (snare versus slow/sight reduction), but Graves' more reliably affects targets in teamfights and offers stronger zone control because of it's larger area of effect. The two abilities have near equal damage.
They both have positioning on their E, but Graves' casts instantly (go figure, faster than Cait's). The ranges are comparable (Graves' 425 to Cait's 400). Cait's does base damage equal to about 1.5 basic attacks and applies a short (1~2sec) slow, Graves' gives him a four second AS roid equal in power to a recurve bow (at rank 1. By rank 5, it's two recurve bows.)
Finally, both have long range damaging abilities for the ultimates. Caitlyn has better range on her ult, which is great except that Cait's does less damage, has a long channel (Graves' is instant cast), and Graves' is AoE.
I play Graves on SR or TT, and almost always open Doran's Blade to maximize on his above average level 1 stats. I run ArmorPen/Flat Armor/MR per lvl/MS runes, 11/0/19 Masteries, and Flash with Exhaust or Teleport in any lane. Build order is Doran's Blade -> boots1 -> beserker's/zeal/wriggles. More offense: phantom dancer/IE/Atmogs/more phantom dancers/bloodthirster. More defense: Guardian Angel/Atmogs/Frozen Mallet.
Reasoning and rambling for my build in the spoiler:
Graves has superb level 1 stats so I like to maximize on that with Doran's Blade.
Graves scales very well with AS because of his auto attacks and his E. He really gets going once his AS gets high enough. I like to get Beserker's Greaves and Zeal relatively early to get him "into his stride".
Graves scales very well with Life Steal. The lifesteal from Doran's Blade offers Graves some sustain, but I like to build a Wriggle's Lantern (if I need early armor) or Emblem of Valor (if I'd rather the HP5 and want Stark's Fervor later). I get the Vamperic Scepter early, very rarely before boots1, usually just before boots2, very rarely not until after zeal.
I like to finish Zeal into Phantom Dancer over Trinity Force because the AS, Crit, and MS all scale phenominally with Graves, whereas the Sheen in Trinity (AP, Mana, and infrequently used sheen proc) are a little bit of wasted gold.
I haven't played enough to firm up late game item choices, but I want to play around with IE, Guardian Angel, Atmogs, Frozen Mallet, more Phantom Dancers, and Bloodthirster.
Add me in LoL and I'd love to (try to) demonstrate some Graves for you!
I would totally own you with sona. Dance *****!!!! I played a game vs gang and graves. Graves flashed to me and shot me with his q for 200 damage then I got crited with parley for 250. Instant death
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Originally Posted by CraeSC111
I would totally own you with sona. Dance *****!!!! I played a game vs gang and graves. Graves flashed to me and shot me with his q for 200 damage then I got crited with parley for 250. Instant death
Wait, you owned a graves and gangplank by dying to them?