Welcome to the League of Legends Champion Spotlight featuring Graves, the Outlaw.
Graves is a ranged physical DPS champion with a penchant for running into melee to deal extra damage.
Graves’s passive is True Grit. As Graves engages in combat, his armor and magic resist increase over time.
Buckshot fires off three shots in a cone, each of them damaging all enemies struck. These shots can hit single enemies multiple times. I max Buckshot right away.
Smokescreen damages all enemies in a target area and then shrouds that area in smoke for a few seconds.
Enemies inside the area are slowed and cannot see out of it unless attacked. I take one point in Smokescreen early and leave it there until later.
Quickdraw causes Graves to dash in any direction, gaining bonus attack speed for a few seconds.
Quickdraw cools down faster every time Graves lands a basic attack. I take a point in Quickdraw at level 2 and max it by level 13.
Collateral Damage is Graves’s ultimate. First he fires a skill-shot nuke that damages the first enemy champion it hits.
At the end of its range, or after hitting an enemy champion, it explodes into a cone of fire, damaging enemies it encounters.
I take Collateral Damage at levels 6, 11, and 16.
Graves can deal a ton of burst damage in early levels.
Here I Quickdraw up to Sona, block out Kog’Maw with Smokescreen and blast her with Buckshot.
I retreat before Kog’Maw can counter-attack, so I come out ahead.
Graves’s abilities also let him escape from sticky situations. I get ganked from behind by that trickster Twisted Fate.
I Quickdraw up to him, tag him with Buckshot, and Flash out. As I get chased, I land Smokescreen in front of my chasing enemies.
As they follow they’re unable to hit me and I make it out thanks to a heal from Soraka.
Smokescreen can also completely bait your opponents. Here I get ganked by Udyr and have to run.
I drop Smokescreen right as Warwick comes to gank, but since Udyr can’t see out, we collapse on him right away.
Udyr falls to our damage output and we push back in, forcing Sona and Kog’Maw to retreat.
Graves’s mobility lets him dive against turrets quite well.
I walk directly up to Kog’Maw, land Buckshot, one basic attack, and then Quickdraw out of turret range, allowing Soraka to kill him with Infuse as I juke away from Icathian Surprise.
We get into a teamfight in bottom river. I Exhaust Sion to keep him away from Soraka.
I push into melee range with Quickdraw and unload Buckshot to take him down pretty quickly.
Once he falls I switch over to a close target and start hitting Udyr.
Unfortunately I don’t have a lot of mana, but when able, I cast Quickdraw for the increased attack speed and take him down before pretty much melting through Kog’Maw and Twisted Fate.
Throughout the fight my health bar had been moving up and down, so thanks to the lifesteal from Bloodthirster, I was able to survive the whole fight.
By getting a fairly early Frozen Mallet, I’m able to tank a bit of damage and then regain it with Bloodthirster.
I play aggressively against the enemy team, causing them to turn and fight me.
I Flash out, fire Collateral Damage into the enemy team, and jump back in with Quickdraw.
We kill Sona and completely push them off of the inhibitor, taking it down.
Graves’s area of affect abilities and high mobility also make him a great defender in Dominion.
As my opponents try to capture the Quarry, I lead in with Collateral Damage and Buckshot to clear them off the point and charge in with Flash.
As I push back Lee Sin, I lead Xerath with Smokescreen and grab two kills before jumping on Garen with Quickdraw into Buckshot.
Unfortunately he makes it out, but it leaves me to capture the Boneyard.
You’ll also want to utilize your mobility in Dominion’s teamfights.
While I start out fighting Xerath, I want to stay near minions so that I can keep both Sanguine Blade and True Grit fully stacked.
When Shaco appears, I turn and help destroy him before fighting Xerath again.
Nocturne makes the mistake of wandering in for an easy kill, but again instead of chasing Xerath, I continue pushing the minion wave to keep my stats maxed and capture the Drill.
Once I start channeling on the capture point and Xerath comes to disrupt my capture, I jump in with Quickdraw, slow him with Smokescreen and follow him for a kill with basic attacks.
Buckshot gives Graves a lot of power in melee-heavy games as well.
As Shaco Deceives over the wall, I back up with Quickdraw, lay down a Smokescreen, and deal tons of damage with Buckshot.
As he Hallucinates, I prime Collateral Damage, certain to kill both him and his clone.
Graves also has a special interaction with Nocturne. Tag him with Smokescreen and see what happens.
“I got your ‘darkness’” / “Who’s in the dark now?” (note: These are voice-over lines from Graves. Use those)
For runes I take armor penetration marks, flat armor seals, flat magic resist glyphs, and flat damage quintessences.
This setup grants me early game dominance and enough durability to withstand melee encounters.
My masteries are 21/0/9, taking standard physical damage masteries in offense and one point in neutral buff duration in utility.
I take Exhaust and Flash, mastering the former in the offense tree.
In Classic I open with a Doran’s Blade or two and add Berserker’s Greaves.
My first two items are almost always Bloodthirster and Phantom Dancer.
I want two other major items in Frozen Mallet and Infinity Edge, while adding Last Whisper once armor becomes a major issue.
In Dominion I use a very similar build, opening with a Prospector’s Blade instead of Doran’s Blades and taking a Sanguine Blade instead of Bloodthirster.
I also tend to grab Last Whisper a little earlier.
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