Graves Counters: Who Beats Graves

Updated for patch 26.21. Ability details come from Riot’s official game data for this patch.

Graves counters are junglers who punish his basic attacks or block his Quickdraw dash. He’s a 425-range marksman jungler whose damage comes from a shotgun that fires 4 bullets and has to reload, plus an exploding shell, a smoke cloud, a dash that grants resistances and a long-range blast for his ultimate.

Nothing here comes from a win-rate table. The five picks were matched against Graves one ability at a time, using patch 26.21 text.

Why is Graves hard to counter?

• New Destiny (passive): his attacks fire 4 bullets that can’t pass through units, and he must reload when he runs out of ammo. Non-champions struck by several bullets get knocked back.
• End of the Line (Q): an explosive shell that detonates after 1 second, or sooner if it collides with terrain. Cooldown 13/11.25/9.5/7.75/6.
• Smoke Screen (W): a canister that leaves a cloud of smoke reducing sight range; enemies hit by the initial impact take magic damage and are briefly slowed. Cooldown 26/24/22/20/18.
• Quickdraw (E): a forward dash with an Armor and Magic Resist boost for several seconds, or two stacks of True Grit if he dashes toward an enemy champion. His basic attacks lower its cooldown and refresh the boost. Cooldown 16/15/14/13/12.
• Collateral Damage (R): a shell that deals heavy damage to the first champion it hits, then explodes in a cone. Cooldown 100/80/60.

Graves fights like a tank who happens to carry a shotgun. Quickdraw is a dash, a resistance buff and a cooldown that shrinks with every basic attack, so a Graves who keeps shooting keeps dashing and keeps his Armor up. That loop has a soft spot, though. Everything hangs on the basic attack landing: no attacks, no Quickdraw refunds, no refreshed resistances. And with 425 range he’s a marksman who has to stand fairly close to shoot at all (the bullets also stop at the first unit in the way). Deny the attacks or the dash, and the loop falls apart.

Which champions are the best Graves counters?

Rammus

Curl up with Defensive Ball Curl (W) and Rammus becomes a spiky wall of Armor and Magic Resist that hurts whoever shoots it. Graves is a champion who attacks. Frenzying Taunt (E) then forces him into a reckless assault against Rammus, which means he spends the taunt shooting into the curl and paying for every bullet. Powerball (Q) rolls in and slows, Soaring Slam (R) knocks up enemies near the center if he casts it mid-roll, and Spiked Shell (passive) turns all that Armor into Attack Damage. Honestly, it’s one of the few junglers Graves would rather avoid entirely.

Jax

For a short time after casting Counter Strike (E), Jax dodges every incoming attack, then counterattacks and stuns everyone around him. Graves deals almost all his damage with attacks. Line those two facts up and you can see the problem for him: the shotgun goes quiet for the dodge window, then he’s stunned at 425 range or closer. Leap Strike (Q) jumps to any unit, ward or minion included, so a Graves who dashes away hasn’t really escaped. To be fair, Graves still out-ranges him on paper, but Jax’s passive keeps stacking Attack Speed through a long fight, and his ultimate’s active hands him extra resistances right when the shotgun comes back online.

Poppy

Activate Steadfast Presence (W) and enemy dashes around Poppy get stopped, with the dasher slowed and grounded. Quickdraw is a dash. So is Graves’s whole idea of a fight, really, since the resistance boost and the True Grit stacks both come from dashing. Heroic Charge (E) carries Graves into a wall for a stun, Hammer Shock (Q) leaves a zone that slows and then explodes, and Keeper’s Verdict (R) knocks him very far away from whatever camp he was taking. Iron Ambassador (passive) gives her a shield when she picks the buckler back up.

Nocturne

Paranoia (R) cuts the sight radius of every enemy champion and removes their ally vision, then launches Nocturne at a nearby target. Graves already uses Smoke Screen to shrink your sight. Now it’s his turn. Shroud of Darkness (W) puts up a barrier that blocks one enemy ability, a decent answer to Collateral Damage if the timing works, and doubles Nocturne’s passive Attack Speed when it does. Unspeakable Horror (E) fears the target if they can’t get out of range in time, which is hard when your one dash is on cooldown. Umbra Blades (passive) heals him on its empowered hits.

Kindred

Kindred’s 500 attack range beats Graves’s 425, and the gap gets wider, since every 4 completed Hunts add more basic attack range. Dance of Arrows (Q) tumbles while firing up to three arrows, which helps stay outside shotgun distance, and Mounting Dread (E) slows the target before the third attack sends Wolf to pounce. Thing is, Kindred needs Hunts for those upgrades, so this one is about taking Graves’s camps and marked targets early. And if Collateral Damage is coming for a low teammate? Lamb’s Respite (R) drops a zone in which, for its duration, nobody dies at all (funny enough, that includes Graves).

How do you play against Graves in the jungle?

• Fight him while he reloads. New Destiny forces a reload when the ammo runs out, and that’s a gap in his damage.
• Stand behind minions or monsters. His bullets can’t pass through units, so the first body in the line soaks the shot.
• Track Quickdraw. At 16 seconds on rank 1 it’s long, but his basic attacks keep lowering it, so the real number depends on how freely he’s shooting.
• Get out of Smoke Screen fast. Only the initial impact slows and deals damage; after that, the cloud just reduces sight range.
• Don’t stand next to walls against End of the Line. The shell detonates early when it collides with terrain.

Which items counter Graves?

Armor and anything that punishes basic attacks. Plated Steelcaps give 25 Armor, and Plating trims damage from attacks by 10%, cheap protection against a champion who does his work with the shotgun. Randuin’s Omen brings 350 Health and 75 Armor, cuts Critical Strike damage by 30% (worth it if he’s building crit), and its Humility active slows nearby enemies by 70% for 2 seconds. Frozen Heart reduces the Attack Speed of nearby champions by 20% with 75 Armor on top, and fewer attacks mean fewer Quickdraw refunds. Dead Man’s Plate pairs 55 Armor with 350 Health for tanks who need to walk up to him. Damage dealers get Death’s Dance, which spreads part of a burst over 3 seconds, while mages can hold Zhonya’s Hourglass for 2.5 seconds of Stasis through Collateral Damage. Full numbers for each are in our items database.

When is Graves at his weakest?

Out of ammo and out of Quickdraw. New Destiny makes him reload once the shells run out, and Quickdraw is a 16 second cooldown at rank 1 that only shrinks while he keeps hitting things, so a Graves who has emptied the gun and spent the dash is, for a few seconds, a 425-range champion with no escape and no resistance boost. That’s when you jump him.

He’s also weaker when nothing stands still in front of him. Bullets stop at the first unit, so ducking behind a minion or a camp spoils his shot. Isn’t that what tanks are for? In practice, yes: the more bodies between Graves and his real target, the less he does.

New to the jungle? Our guide to LoL roles covers what the role asks of you. Want other matchups? Browse our other matchup pages. His cosmetics sit on the Graves skins page, and for random-champion games there’s a separate Graves ARAM guide. Put simply, Graves counters take away his attacks or his dash, and the best ones manage both.

FAQ

Who counters Graves the most?

Junglers who punish or block his basic attacks and dash: Rammus, Jax, Poppy, Nocturne and Kindred.

Does Rammus counter Graves?

Yes. Defensive Ball Curl greatly increases Rammus’s Armor and Magic Resist and returns damage to attackers, and Frenzying Taunt forces Graves to attack him while it is active.

Can bullets from Graves pass through minions?

No. His passive, New Destiny, fires 4 bullets per attack that cannot pass through units, so minions and monsters in the line absorb them.

How does Quickdraw’s cooldown work?

Quickdraw has a base cooldown of 16/15/14/13/12 seconds, and each basic attack that hits an enemy lowers it and refreshes the Armor and Magic Resist boost.

Where do these picks come from?

From comparing Graves’s ability descriptions for patch 26.21 with each counter’s kit. Match statistics were not used.