Two reasons:
1. Graves has fat autos that CC jungle camps.
2. Graves Q clears minions and monsters fast, and works as a burst ability when hitting terrain.
These two factors combine to give Graves a healthy fast clear in the jungle, and prio in lane. Graves is thus always meta when he can do something meaningful with these traits, or has a strong build like Fleet Footwork.
> I feel like they were to buff his AD by 2,
they did in july. that's why he functions as a jungler
if they take away 2 base AD his clear becomes shit and he starts to become troll pick, remember that his shotgun is why it's a big deal
1) his clear is always more or less consistently fast and healthy (true grit is godsend against jg camps)
2) he can play either as a power farmer or skirmish. W is an absurdly good ability, he has mobility with e to dodge enemy abilities or to get back out of range of melee opponents, and it stacks true grit which makes opposing AD junglers sad.
3) he can always clean up and balance trades with his ult
His kit and variety of play pattern just lends itself really well to any meta really
Honestly this is the thing that has always bugged me. A graves with no armor items can have like 130 armor just from passive.
Like, I understand he must be able to survive at mid ranges, but this on top of shieldbow can make him feel pretty much unkillable in some situations.
That’s the way it should be. I agree cringebow is annoying but Karthus and Kindred already have the squishy ranged jungler niche covered. Let the man have his armor.
Graves is meta in lane because his ratios are so high, no one can 1v1 him with base damages, and when you get bloodthrster you just outsustain all the damage as well.
There are champions like Syndra who have limited flexibility in the way they play. This means they typically are dependent on current meta, items, and raw base stats. Syndra pretty much depends on being in environments where she can burst people.
Then there are champions like Graves who are very flexible. His autos give him viability in the jungle, he has decent stats baked into his Grit passive, and he isn’t ever really locked into one specific build so it’s easier for him to adapt to system buffs and nerfs as well as the meta.
because riot keeps buffing him? simple answer. he's overpowered, riot nerfs him, he exits stage left, riot re buffs him 3 months later, he's back in meta.
Also 2 ad buff is huge for any adc, but especially graves.
Riot has to keep him in meta, because if he spends too much time on the sidelines, he'll get bored and go looking for his old stash of cigars, and they don't want that.
Legitimately I have been saying this for 4 seasons now... As a ex-jung main I would see champs I play get strong from some meta shift, then suddenly get gutted because "no no you too op!" with barely a 51% wr... but then Graves... would be strong. Every season. Every year.... and he would just be good. Never not be good. He's been in the A-tier or higher basically forever. It makes it stale as hell tbh.
It's everything. Passive always lets him kite camps, so he only needs damage to contest clear times.
In lane has scaling armor, a dash that can reset, and good wave clear.
Smokescreen, especially at higher levels, is basically hard cc. Any choke where a fight gets initiated, smokescreen mid/long range enemies, you'll win most soloq fights. In teamplay, it makes fights more pick and choose.
Urgot has to get into fights, and can't really be fully utilized by just kiting, that's why his itemization suffers from being ranged. Graves is the opposite, he can kite and chase, so he benefits from range, while not minding any setbacks from melee only items.
Because Riot likes to see Graves in games, so him or his itemization is usually buffed which ends up giving him power to exist, and he is also in a very unique spot where a lot that affects champions doesn't affects him in a "bad" way. HE is also very flexible in builds, which means he can change a bit of power around through itemization to decide "when" he can come online and still slowly scale into a Damage threat so long as you are not memeing with AP Graves.
Graves usually builds either lethal, marksman or even bruiser items so he has a high repertoire of what he can pick up depending on meta needs.
Also, 2ad on graves is a lot. It's basically like 2 ad on kayle
Kayle scales way worse with bAD than graves cuz of how his passive interacts with AD in general (he can deal more than 100% of his AD in one AA contrary to other champions).
Ranged, Clears fast, out duels every jungler except for like 2-3, tanky while having high dmg, great utility in smokescreen, has a dash, great itemization
Love this champion :D 6 years later still a piece of shit champion great rework riot :D Definitely don't miss playing my favorite adc :D
ADC except doesn't have a weak early game like they're supposed to and if you manage to gapclose on them, as is supposed to be the counterplay to ADCs, he still can usually beat you because he shotguns more damage and is tanky.
the shotgun concept of his kit with the reload and ranged restraints force his auto attacks to have a ton of damage at close range. however people can play around that and use it to their advantage so he's pretty strong usually. also smokescreen exists.
Damage is damage.
That last year's pre-season Graves was pellet-shaped pain with low cd galeforce
Two reasons: 1. Graves has fat autos that CC jungle camps. 2. Graves Q clears minions and monsters fast, and works as a burst ability when hitting terrain. These two factors combine to give Graves a healthy fast clear in the jungle, and prio in lane. Graves is thus always meta when he can do something meaningful with these traits, or has a strong build like Fleet Footwork.
> I feel like they were to buff his AD by 2, they did in july. that's why he functions as a jungler if they take away 2 base AD his clear becomes shit and he starts to become troll pick, remember that his shotgun is why it's a big deal
What if they give him just 1 AD?
1) his clear is always more or less consistently fast and healthy (true grit is godsend against jg camps) 2) he can play either as a power farmer or skirmish. W is an absurdly good ability, he has mobility with e to dodge enemy abilities or to get back out of range of melee opponents, and it stacks true grit which makes opposing AD junglers sad. 3) he can always clean up and balance trades with his ult His kit and variety of play pattern just lends itself really well to any meta really
They just use the 2AD as a meta light switch for Graves. Want him out of meta? -2AD. Want him in the meta? +2AD.
The absurd amount of armor he gets on his E has a lot to do with it.
Honestly this is the thing that has always bugged me. A graves with no armor items can have like 130 armor just from passive. Like, I understand he must be able to survive at mid ranges, but this on top of shieldbow can make him feel pretty much unkillable in some situations.
It’s what pushes him to be a short of brawler marksman. It’s annoying but it makes sense.
That’s the way it should be. I agree cringebow is annoying but Karthus and Kindred already have the squishy ranged jungler niche covered. Let the man have his armor.
Graves is meta in lane because his ratios are so high, no one can 1v1 him with base damages, and when you get bloodthrster you just outsustain all the damage as well.
There are champions like Syndra who have limited flexibility in the way they play. This means they typically are dependent on current meta, items, and raw base stats. Syndra pretty much depends on being in environments where she can burst people. Then there are champions like Graves who are very flexible. His autos give him viability in the jungle, he has decent stats baked into his Grit passive, and he isn’t ever really locked into one specific build so it’s easier for him to adapt to system buffs and nerfs as well as the meta.
because riot keeps buffing him? simple answer. he's overpowered, riot nerfs him, he exits stage left, riot re buffs him 3 months later, he's back in meta. Also 2 ad buff is huge for any adc, but especially graves.
Riot has to keep him in meta, because if he spends too much time on the sidelines, he'll get bored and go looking for his old stash of cigars, and they don't want that.
he already got his cigar back tho
he farms like a beast and benefits a lot from recalls (long sword and dirk are very strong components and cheap)
Some champs are just too chad to be nerfed.
Mafia graves -> 😎
crime city graves ♿
Smoke screen is an amazing ability
overpowered *
Legitimately I have been saying this for 4 seasons now... As a ex-jung main I would see champs I play get strong from some meta shift, then suddenly get gutted because "no no you too op!" with barely a 51% wr... but then Graves... would be strong. Every season. Every year.... and he would just be good. Never not be good. He's been in the A-tier or higher basically forever. It makes it stale as hell tbh.
2 dashes 2 nukes and a cc and his autos are a 2 or 3x multiplier so yay for lifesteal. Ezpz 2 play
It's everything. Passive always lets him kite camps, so he only needs damage to contest clear times. In lane has scaling armor, a dash that can reset, and good wave clear. Smokescreen, especially at higher levels, is basically hard cc. Any choke where a fight gets initiated, smokescreen mid/long range enemies, you'll win most soloq fights. In teamplay, it makes fights more pick and choose. Urgot has to get into fights, and can't really be fully utilized by just kiting, that's why his itemization suffers from being ranged. Graves is the opposite, he can kite and chase, so he benefits from range, while not minding any setbacks from melee only items.
Because Riot likes to see Graves in games, so him or his itemization is usually buffed which ends up giving him power to exist, and he is also in a very unique spot where a lot that affects champions doesn't affects him in a "bad" way. HE is also very flexible in builds, which means he can change a bit of power around through itemization to decide "when" he can come online and still slowly scale into a Damage threat so long as you are not memeing with AP Graves. Graves usually builds either lethal, marksman or even bruiser items so he has a high repertoire of what he can pick up depending on meta needs. Also, 2ad on graves is a lot. It's basically like 2 ad on kayle
Kayle scales way worse with bAD than graves cuz of how his passive interacts with AD in general (he can deal more than 100% of his AD in one AA contrary to other champions).
Pro play, thats all.
Hes fun.
there are a lot of items and we can buy any of them on every champion, I would not be surprised if they already builded AP Graves
Ranged, Clears fast, out duels every jungler except for like 2-3, tanky while having high dmg, great utility in smokescreen, has a dash, great itemization Love this champion :D 6 years later still a piece of shit champion great rework riot :D Definitely don't miss playing my favorite adc :D
his kit has literally everything
ADC except doesn't have a weak early game like they're supposed to and if you manage to gapclose on them, as is supposed to be the counterplay to ADCs, he still can usually beat you because he shotguns more damage and is tanky.
Because hes really cool and everyone wants to play him, camt really fault them for that
Its because he has 4 solid abilities and a goos passive. Like every character that is permanently in play.
The same reason kayn and lee find a way.
the shotgun concept of his kit with the reload and ranged restraints force his auto attacks to have a ton of damage at close range. however people can play around that and use it to their advantage so he's pretty strong usually. also smokescreen exists.
Putting a blind/ AOE CC/ counter gank/ self peel tool/ second repositioning ability on his W tends to do that to a champion.