Champion Focus: Graves, the Outlaw

Why do we keep seeing Graves on the Rift?

The answer is actually more simple than you'd expect: he fits the ADC role perfectly in the current meta.  When considering which champions to play, teams look for a number of key characteristics that are extremely important to team compositions and popular strategies.  Let's analyze why Graves has become so popular in this role.

1.  Wave Clear.  Graves is a master of wave clear and harass with his Buckshot.  This ability allows him to control a lane--either pushing it out for a split push, or freezing a lane without losing CS.  Graves is not alone in his ability to wave clear effectively--in fact, most ADC champions have some form of area of effect ability that allows them to farm multiple minions.  However, the fact that the damage is not mitigated by the number of targets (like Caitlyn's Piltover Peacemaker) and has a fairly large area of effect (larger than Jinx's Switcheroo!, for example) allows the Graves player to reliably predict the effect of Buckshot on both minions and opponents.  This is also why champions like Vayne and Draven--although quite powerful--don't appear as often in LCS matches.

2.  Mobility.  Mobility is a must for ADCs, especially with the prevalence of high mobility champions in every position in the current meta.  Most ADC champions are equipped with some sort of ability that augments their movement--the ones who don't (Varus and Kog'Maw for example) rely on their support to make up for their lack of movement, and show up only rarely.  Dash abilities (like Lucian's Relentless Pursuit) especially are strong for their low cooldown flash-esque ability to both engage and disengage fairly easily.  Graves has one of these with his Quickdraw (albeit it only allows him to get over very thin walls, but it is enough to avoid skill shots and escape ganks--as well as a gap closer to give your enemies a full face of Buckshot.  And it comes with a perk: an attack speed boost that lasts for 4 seconds.

3.  Sustain.  Sustain is an essential part of any laning phase, but is especially challenging for squishy AD carries.  Because of their glass cannon builds, lack of scaling Magic Resist, and lack of abilities in their kits for health restoration, AD carries rely heavily on their support to provide the necessary tools to allow them to stay for an extended period of time in the long bottom lane.  However, Graves is one of the rare ADCs that has sustain incorporated into his kit with True Grit.  This passively increases his Armor and Magic Resist as long as he's doing damage or receiving it.  This makes him one of the more resilient ADCs, and can do well enough on his own while is Support wanders to place wards and assist other lanes.  Freeing up the Support to do other things is an essential component of lane pressure in the current meta.

4.  Crowd Control.  Most ADCs have some sort of ability that acts as a zoning tool to influence positioning and punish CSing--whether it comes in traps (like Caitlyn or Jinx), damage spikes (Tristana's Explosive Charge, both the passive and the active), or an AoE slow (Varus's Hail of Arrows).  Graves's Crowd Control comes in the form of an area of effect slow that also reduces vision dramatically.  Although anyone within the radius will be able to spot their attacker (should someone outside their vision take a shot at them), it can be used to greatly limit the ability of an ally to help out.  In addition, the slow can help contain and potentially zone away potential follow up should an attacker continue to follow.

5.  Burst Damage.  This is probably the reason we've seen the most of Graves.  Although his auto attack isn't the strongest (at least in base scaling stats--he only receives an 8/10 for attack on his profile), his potential for close quarters burst damage makes him a formidable laning foe.  With a combination of his Buckshot at close range to make sure the target is hit by all three bullets (max damage 108/171/234/297/360 + 144% bonus AD) and Collateral Damage (250/400/550 + 150% bonus AD) he can easily lay down a significant amount of hurt in a short window of time--not to mention the auto attacks he adds to the equation.

Graves has steadily risen to the top of the food chain because of his unique capability to lay down so much damage and keep himself relatively healthy in lane.  With his kit, he's the perfect strong primarily AD carry to bring to the plate.  With the way the meta is going, we'll most likely remain a constant unless the nerf hammer gives him a wallop over the head.

Incidentally, FORG1VEN tends to build Graves the exact same way every time, despite the different lane matchups, picks and bans, and anything else that would normally call for customization in the build pattern.

Build Order:

• Doran's Blade, Health Potion, Warding Totem
• B.F. Sword (boots if gold allows)
• Infinity Edge (Farsight Orb at level 9)
• Statikk Shiv
• Berserker's Greaves
• Last Whisper
• Bloodthirster
• Furor Enchantment for boots
• Quicksilver Sash
• Mercurial Scimitar