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Teamfight section is in current work/I'll be adding content soon.

Hi, I'm Candy, and I have been playing League of Legends since mid S3. I mained ADC for 2 years on the NA server. My rank is Gold 2(peak) and Graves is my main. I played him for more than 200 games. Here is my first guide on MobaFire. I hope it will help you having a better understanding about Graves and the ADC role. I'm currently working hard to improve as ADC and it's taking most of my time. It explain pretty much why my guide haven't been updated for the last weeks.
Now you should remember that : Sivir, Graves and Kalista are top 3 adc's right now.

My Season 4 ranked stats.

Before you start reading this guide, here are some important accronyms you need to learn :

AoE -> area of effect, an ability which covers an area, rather than a single character.
Carry -> A character who, if played properly, wins late game fights for a team. Typically these heroes are weak early game and require a lot of farming.
CC -> crowd control. Moves that interfere with the other champions actions such as stun, fear, knockbacks/ups and blind.
DOT(s) -> Damage over time.
Dps -> Damage per second. Also referes to characters who job it is to deal damage (As opposed to support and tanks).
Farm(s) -> Farming involves the amassing of gold for player. This is usually best done by killing a lot of creeps and killing them very quickly. Certain Heroes like Ashe and Tristana are great farmers: The first has a +gold passive, and the latter has an AOE passive.
Harass -> to annoy the enemy with small bursts of non lethal damage, often forcing them to go heal or be set up for a gank.
Proc -> refers to a weapon, item or ability activating with the "Chance on Hit" or "Chance on Use" effect (an ability or a spell). "Programmed Random OCcurence"
Silence -> A debuff which prevents any abilities being used by a champion (summoner spells excluded)
Skillshot -> an ability that fires a projectile that can be dodged. For example: Morgana's cage, Ashe's ultimate arrow
Snowball -> an item that grows with kills, that can quickly become very dangerous unless kept in checked by death.
Kite -> to draw a hero away from a comfort zone such as tower or allies and into a gank, creepwave, or other painful situation.

Pros

+ Amazing burst. + Chase/escape with Quickdraw. + Best auto-attack animation. + Great farmer.

Cons

- Slow base attack speed. - No great CC overall. - Short auto-attack range. - Mana hungry throughout game.

Let's start this guide with the runes

First Rune Set (The Basic One):

The Damage Set (No Lane Sustain):

In both cases, it will depend on your laning phase. Running straight Attack speed/AD quints is the current "meta" for most ADC's because it provides enough damage to snowball.
I also used to run 4.5% back in patch 3.9 because I was more comfortable with it, but it's always up to you. Try to stay in the meta line non-meta|meta|non-meta <= it will keep you safe. Also read the graph about the current runes statistic.

• MARKS: AD marks are used to last hit (farming). Always try to beat your opponent’s CS (even against easy farming champions as Lucian and Tristana).
• SEALS: Armor seals are a must to have for every ADC, even with Graves passive. Fortunately with Graves passive, you have the flat 12,69 armor + your passive (fully stacked), which gives a total of almost 42.69 (1/2/3 at 6/11/16) free armor to win trades! You can also mix 5 Greater Seal of Armor and 4 Greater Seal of Health
• GLYPHS: Because of Graves’ passive, I go with flat Magic resistance to scale well early game. After that you can take an MR item if it's needed. Also, a good friend told me that going 4 Greater Glyph of Attack Speed is also an option.
• QUINTESSENCES: It's your choice whether you take AD for more damage output/more last hit or Lifesteal for more lane sustain. Both are good options.

Tier 1| 4 points in Fury for the attack speed boost, 1 in Butcher to help last hitting. Tier 2| 3 points in Brute Force / Feast to sustain with Doran's Blade. Tier 3| 1 points in Spell Weaving to increase your Buckshot/ Smoke Screen/ Collateral Damage damage by 3% after landing 3 auto's on a target. 1 point in Martial Mastery for 5 flat AD. 3 points in Executioner because it is pretty good overall with Graves and his Collateral Damage. Tier 4| 1 point in Blade Weaving to increase your Buckshot/ Smoke Screen/ Collateral Damage by 3% after landing your abilities. (It should be something like Smoke Screen/ Buckshot combo to give bonus 2% extra damage on Collateral Damage). After that we have Dangerous Game , which is a really useful mastery since you do AoE damage. Tier 5| 1 point in Frenzy for extra attack speed combined with Phantom Dancer and Infinity Edge put 3 point in Devastating Strikes to get the basic armor-pen that an ADC need. Tier 6| 1 point in Havoc gives 3% extra damage which is a big boost.

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Tier 1| 2 points in Block will reduce auto-attack damage by 2. Yes, I know 2 isn't a lot, but it helps to take less damage from early AAs. Put 2 points in Recovery for extra health regeneration. Tier 2| 1 point in Unyielding to reduce ALL damage by 2 from enemy champions. Tier 3| 3 points in Veteran Scars give 36 extra health. Tier 4| 1 point in Juggernaut gives a 3% health bonus.

True Grit is Graves passive and this is what makes him strong in laning/teamfight sequence. It's like having a temporary item advantage on your enemy and this is really not negligible. You're harder to take down therefore you're able to deal more damage.

Graves gains 1 / 2 / 3 bonus armor and magic resistance every second he remains in combat (stacks up to 10 times). Graves is considered in combat if he has dealt or received damage in the last 3 seconds.

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Buckshot is your main damage tool so max it first.

Graves fires three bullets in a cone, dealing physical damage to all enemies in their path. Enemies at close range can be hit by multiple projectiles, but each bullet beyond the first will deal only 35% damage.

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Smoke Screen is another damage tool, but I personally don't put a point in until levels 4/14/15/17/18 because your attack speed steroid is more important and will allow you to deal more damage than a Smoke Screen, which has a high cooldown. In some cases you can max it second if you tend to lose your damage trades bot-lane against the other ADC.

Graves fires a smoke canister at the target area, dealing magic damage upon landing and creating a cloud of smoke 250 wide for 4 seconds. Enemies inside the smoke cloud will be slowed and will have their vision reduced to 675 range; everything else will look like it is in the Fog of War.

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Quickdraw is an awesome ability to have as an ADC, as it gives you an extra attack speed boost up to 30/40/50/60/70%. It can also be used as an escape tool.

Graves dashes forward, gaining an attack speed boost for 4 seconds. Using autoattacks on enemy units, but not structures, lowers the cooldown of Quickdraw by 1 second each autoattack.

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Collateral Damage is Graves ultimate, and in my opinion it's a pretty good ult because it deals some good damage. However, it has a high cooldown. Use it with caution and try to finish squishy target or use it as an AoE during teamfights for the overall damage.

Graves fires an explosive shell in a straight line, dealing heavy physical damage to the first champion it hits (also damages non-champion enemies whilst in flight). After hitting a champion or reaching the end of its range, the shell explodes dealing physical damage in a cone behind the target

Play with Smartcast!

I prefer playing with Smartcast. Skillshots are more reactive and easier to land. You're not forced to use it, but it's definitely good when you have a smaller reaction time when facing the enemy. For instance : Getting flashed on by an ennemy and successfully escaping because of a fast finger and smartcast.

Heal is now really good since it got buffed. I recommend it if you're able to properly use it. Most of the time it can save you from DoTs spells like Blaze and let you snowball by getting a kill with the bonus movement speed. It can also allow you to escape if you position yourself badly.

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Barrier can be good to have on every ADC, since it gives you a shield. Can be used to dive/win damage trade. It shields your champion for 95 + (20 × level) for 2 seconds, 210 sec cooldown.

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Cleanse is really good but hard to master. I mean, it removes every disable like a DoT/Grab or any other CC but you lose your Heal which is pretty bad when facing a lot of damage. It also requires a much smaller reaction time, 210 sec cooldown.

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FlashMandatory as ADC, gives you extra mobility/escapes.



Ignite Can be used to deal more true damage and reduce heals on the enemy ADC but not as worth as Heal. It has a 210 sec cooldown. (I never used it as ADC, but it always depends if you know Graves or not and if you'll be able to trade w/o defensive spell.)



Okay it can be good on a support... but not on an ADC.

Nope. We're mana hungry yes, but we're not crazy! Losing a summoner spells to take this = not worth it.

Not a TOP laner.

Not a support.

Not a jungler.

Not useful as ADC.

I would have a lot to say about CS/Last hitting but here is the basic.

AA cs-ing

Wait until a minion have +/- around your current AD to kill it. Level 1 it should be around 80(Lvl 1)/82(Lvl 2)/86(Lvl 3) (with a Doran's Blade and have 2.9k gold at 9:00min if you get 80% of 95 minion spawned.

I might introduce you to a new term "Freezing a lane", it's quite simple : When behind, you can freeze a lane, what you'll need to do is wait until your minion fight with enemy minion, you proceed like if you were cs-ing but instead, you wait until the last second to cs. You don't push and don't cs until the closest enemy minion is about to die. Basically if you freeze a lane it's because you already lost your first tower,losing trade, or the ADC/Support are rotating bot to mid-lane to pressure his tower. When finally your enemy bot lane are trying to get mid tower with the jungle/mid, start to spam ability to try getting bot tower if you haven't already. Don't take useless risk by solopushing.

Spell cs-ing

You can use your Buckshot to cs, but be careful, using spell burn fast mana. You should use spell when you're behind and farming under-tower (tower stealing cs because minion too weak to get 2 hitted) or when you have no incoming minion and a wave is attacking your tower.

Jungle camp

Golem

I recommend killing golem when your wave is pushed or when you destroyed the enemy bot-tower.

Dragon

Now dragon is more important than anything in the game. It's crucial to get timer/vision of it because of his buffs. When you're able to pick up a kill bot lane you should try rush dragon and force your jungler and mid to help securing it. If anyone in your team kill the enemy jungler, dragon is most likely to be the first thing you should try to get since it "can't" get stolen by smite.(It depend in some cases, inhib is always better.) You killed the ADC/Support and your jungler is near bot,another easy way to make dragon.
rule

Baron

Baron is a tricky part, since it's a turning point of the game, it's not something to play with. You have to be positioned at the right place and be ready for any steal/fight attemps. In most case you'll let your team tank his basic damage and lifesteal any of his ability. Try avoiding any free damage that the enemy could deal to you, you're the Attack damage carry if they find a way to put you down, you're making your team 20% to 30% weaker which is most likely to end up in a losing fight that can cost you the game.
There is two thing to consider : If you're back to the wall and have NO way to survive from a fight in the pit or infront. Try do deal as much damage as you can to the priority target before dying ; ability/item/summoners spells. Priority should be something around this depending on who is fed between de carries roles, 1-Mid 2-ADC 3- Aggresive top-laners ( Riven, Jax) 4- Aggressive junglers ( Lee Sin Rek'Sai)
Number 1 and 2 depends on how strong they are in this game, who to take out first is a decision you and your team are supposed to make.
In the complete opposite, if everything is looking fine and your team are reasonably high in health and baron is low; position yourself on how you think you will be able to deal the more damage with an emergency escape if anything goes wrong. I've seen some ad-carries let all their teammates peels infront of Baron while they were dealing damage in the back of the pit and escape death by flashing/escape tool over the wall.

STARTING ITEM

Doran's Blade is the basic start when ADC-ing,
This is one of best starter items, that give nice HP boost, damage and low lifesteal.
Why?
80 HP - half of Ruby Crystal (475 g). 237 g.
8 Damage - almost a Long Sword. 360 g.
3% Lifesteal - 30% of Vampiric Scepter (450 g). 135 g.
237+415+135=787g, and we need to pay only 440 g.
And a regular pots with Greater Totem.

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FIRST BACK (AHEAD/1875 G).

When ahead, try to push your lane, in my opinion getting those item early B. F. Sword Boots will make you snowball in lane and keep a good advantage on your opponent.

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FIRST BACK(BEHIND/1125 G).

When behind, take sustain item to let you cs properly Vampiric Scepter and Boots are item to rush Vampiric Scepter is very good with a Doran's Blade even when ahead 10% lifesteal is always good.

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CORE[WHEN THE FUN BEGINS]

This core build will let you dominate mid/late game : Berserker's Greaves give you a nice attack speed boost, Bloodthirster is 80 bonus AD + 15% lifesteal which is awesome, you can trade 1v1 without any problem and regen on the next minions wave(edit: It's even more easy now to trade since BT give a temp shield "Your life steal overheals you, converting the excess healing into a shield that absorbs up to 50-450 damage and decays when out of combat for 15 seconds".)
IMPORTANT Rushing Infinity Edge is now meta but it's trickier to trade in lane since you won't have any LS except Doran's Blade, but deals a lot of damage.

LAST ITEM CHOICES

I recommend this item when facing against hard cc team/champion [ Annie, Ashe etc.] , it always depend on the way you play.

Is good when they REALLY focus you first. You can take it as survivability item. Always good on a ADC because we're the main damage dealer.

Same as G-A but is very useful when kiting is needed or against high mobility champion such as Shyvana, Hecarim etc. Some say this item is not worth the price but I think in some match-up it really shows the opposite. Quoted: This item is famous for is kiting ability.

Really good if facing ad mid fed/ADC fed, can sometime help you to kite if used wisely like, you proc randuin's active and E away while still A-A'ing.

Nullify apc burst, sometime save you from death like Ahri charm or any other spell. A must have item.

A lot of support are compatible with Graves but I got a lookup on that : + Healing ability.
+ Can tower dive with Unbreakable Will.
+ Have CC spell : Pulverize , Headbutt.

- Can't harass with auto-attack because of is melee range.
- Heal not really useful when fighting(not much to make a come back).
- Rely on bush.
Ratings 7/10.

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Favorite. + Amazing CC.
+ Tanky early and late game with : Eclipse.
+ Amazing passive increases your damage overall Sunlight.
+ Tower dive capacity.

- No healing ability.
- Skillshot based.
- Rely on bush.
Ratings 8/10.

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+ Healing ability.
+ Amazing laning phase due to her long range A-A/Poke and Tidecaller's Blessing buff.
+ Have CC spells : Stun with Aqua Prison, slow with Tidecaller's Blessing and a slow+knockback with Tidal Wave .

- Nami is really squishy in earlygame. If you have a silence or an aggressive cc like Leona you can kill her quickly.
- Nami ultimate is very long, but it travels slowly. Try your best to get out of the way of the waves.
Ratings 8/10.

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Favorite. *Similar to Leona
+ Amazing CC.
+ Tanky early and late game because Stand Behind Me.
+ Tower dive capacity.
+ Unbreakable is really strong in laning/teamfight if played quickly enough and generally will always find a use no matter when played.

- No healing ability.
- Skillshot based.
- Rely on bush.
Ratings 9/10.

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+ Dark Binding is the best root spell in the whole game.
+ Good harass with Tormented Shadow.
+ Soul Shackles is a magic AoE stun.
+ Black Shield is a great anti-cc overall. Find is use in every game, it includes laning phase to late game teamfight.

- Weak when Black Shield is on cooldown.
- Will often be out of mana in laning phase.
Ratings 8/10.

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+ 2 knockback Howling Gale, Monsoon.
+ Strong shield through the game.
+ "Healing ability" Monsoon.

- Heal has high cooldown.
- Tornado his a skillshot.
Ratings 6/10.

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Favorite. + Grab gives easy kill.
+ Overall low cooldown on ability.
+ Can silence with Static Field

- Static Field passive is annoying when laning.
- No healing ability.
- Skillshot based.
Ratings 8/10.

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Favorite. + His hook can do miracle in all type of situation.
+ Can save you from bad situation or soak up some damage with Dark Passage.
+ Can zone out enemy with The Box.

- Skillshot based.
- No healing ability.
- Thresh require to be decent at the game and have a high skill cap to be properly played.
Ratings 9/10.

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Favorite. + Have a good shield.
+ Harass, is Q potential is too damn high.
+ Can slow.
+ An amazing ult that can turn back a bad situation.

- Slow without Mobility Boots.
Ratings 9/10.

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+ Heal ability.
+ Good harass.
+ Ult is a AoE stun.
+ Give mobility.

- Mana hungry when you get poke(heal).
- Huge cooldown on her ult at (6/11).
Ratings 7/10.

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+ Have a good poke/treath potential.
+ Can stun!
+ Ult does decent AoE magic damage + a stun which create teamfight opportunity often.
+ Her basic attack range is really big.

- Somewhat item reliant.
- Slow.
Ratings 8/10.

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+ Heal ability.
+ Give mana/silence.
+ Ult Wish have unlimited range.
+ W is really useful, she is anoying to lane against.
+ She will get focused before you, which is a good thing when fighting.

- Weak when facing aggressive combo.
Ratings 9.5/10(since rework).

Really hard

Our hardest counter in-game, let me explain why :
Both Sivir and Graves are basically the same champs in a sense that they both have burst damage and attack speed steroids, they just have different kits to accomplish their roles. Graves has more burst. Sivir has a fracking shield. Shield wins in a 1v1 fight.
Your only way to win : Stay near creeps. Sivir's Q doesn't do much if it hits minions. E>Q when Sivir's shield is down. She's dead if you can do that. The problem with that though is that good players have good positioning. Sivir won't be in your dash range unless she wants to be. And if she wants to be, it's because she's baiting you with her shield. Try not to get countered next time. But until then, good luck!

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Hard/Really hard

Another hard lane, Urgot is really good against Graves with his passive which decreases attack damage. His E decreases armor from the target so Graves has no damage and no armor for a short time.
Graves range isn't good against Urgot so it's easy to hit him with E + Q every time.
Your only way to win : dodge his E, burst him when shield is on CD and ask to your jungler to babysit early level.

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Medium/Hard

Her auto-attack range is way bigger than ours 650 > 525 so she will poke you every chance she can.
Your only way to win : Ask for an aggressive support because Graves easily out trades Cait. Same as Urgot asks for early gank.

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Hard/Really hard

MF not only outranges Graves, her trade is also a lot better, her poke is better and her passive makes it easier than on most champions to just completely dodge his Q every time he dashes in by simply running back a few steps. MF's Trade damage is very high because of her Q mainly. If he runs in to hit you, you can always hit back (longer range), instant Q and another AA. 250 damage with rank 1 Q. Ouch. Now, Graves dashes in and uses Q on you and you tank it. What you must do is immediatly fight back. Throw an E behind him, turn W on and just AA and spam Q. You can easily force a summoner spells this way and force him to either B or play really defensively.
Your only way to win : play really defensively , spam ping and cry for early ganks because she will nullify your basic lifesteal. Praise our lord Qtpie since MF is not considered as a good ADC.

Since Graves is rarely picked in ranked , I would still recommend him.
(He's FoTM)
Why?
He's good overall, even when laning against op ADC like Jinx/ Kalista(With a supp like Leona, Blitz, Thresh or even Nami) he can still trade with them through the whole game(assuming you know how to cs).
I only consider Jinx Kalista Sivir Draven(Strong mechanics) when playing as bot-lane.

Playing ranked agaisnt Jinx :


Playing ranked against Lucian :
He his not a problem anymore, since passive and most of his ability got nerfed.

http://na.leagueoflegends.com/en/news/game-updates/patch
I recommend to ALWAYS read patch note to stay updated of incoming change on the rift.
http://www.lolcounter.com/ : Gives you useful information to counter-pick.
http://www.lolking.net/ : Gives you a lists of high elo streamers,guide,information on champions,in-game items,lists, a model viewer(skin)
http://op.gg/mmr/region=NA : Gives your exact MMR.
LoL Database : http://leagueoflegends.wikia.com/wiki/League_of_Legends_Wiki
Another LoL Database : http://lol.gamepedia.com/League_of_Legends_Wiki

Social/League of Legend related information :
http://www.surrenderat20.net/index.html : Gives you the latest update on patch to come.
http://www.reddit.com/r/leagueoflegends/top/ : Gives you interesting fact/topic about LoL.
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCWnxwCzrG6SmJgyVz5WGXcw : Youtube channel of a good friend.

It's not only for Grave but also every ADC, always, always try to farm at your best to scale through the game. There is many option/viable build to do, adapt it to your current game(i.e: Mundo stack health, get Blade of the Ruined King instead of Bloodthirster. Remember to kite as well, using the key A help a lot if you're not used to. Avoid flashing to obtain kill you always need an escape tool, don't throw it away for nothing(500g+double buff can be acceptable). Last thing : let your team peel for you, never go infront/ahead of your TOP-laner/jungler.
Creep score board.

Still my first guide but I feel confident, I just hope I've transmitted my Graves experience to you, everythings is said for now and of course if you appreciate my guide, put a green rate. I would also like to make a shout-out to everyone who made constructed criticism.
Candy