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Graves portrait

How to play Graves

Best build by measured win rate · patch 09-29-2026 · updated Oct 14 · Graves wins 56.3% overall

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The Graves build

Each tier lists the items Graves players win with most often, out of 439,237 Graves games. Win % is how often Graves wins when the item is bought; the green or red number is how far that is above or below the rest of the same tier. Popularity is the share of Graves games the item was bought in; Bought at is the average time. Only items bought in at least 1,500 games and by at least 5% of Graves players count, so a lucky streak can’t make the list.

Lane · Tier 1 · 800 souls

Early mid game · Tier 2 · 1,600 souls

Mid game · Tier 3 · 3,200 souls

Late game · Tier 4 · 6,400 souls

Situational / optional

Fewer Graves players buy these, usually against particular enemies, but those who do win clearly more than the rest of the same tier. Each still has at least 1,500 games behind it.

Popular, but behind the rest of their tier

Not wrong to buy, and sometimes the right answer to a specific enemy. On average, Graves players who buy these win less than those who buy something else at that point.

How this build is chosen

Source: deadlock-api.com item results for Graves, City Never Sleeps matches since 2026-09-30, refreshed daily. Items are compared with the rest of their own tier, because late items always show higher raw win rates (only players who are ahead can afford them). Ranking uses the low end of each item’s 95% confidence range, so more games beat a lucky few. It shows what winning Graves players buy; it can’t prove the item caused the win. For what to change against a specific enemy team, use the matchup tool.

How Graves plays

Strengths

  • Best-in-class unattended map pressure via Borrowed Decree Borrowed Decree 20m Range16s Duration140s Cooldown Plants a gravestone that spawns Ghouls over time. Crowd Control area slow on Ghoul detonation Damage roughly 115 spirit on Ghoul detonation and about 40 melee per upgrade tier; Defensive a gravestone placed on your own walker or guardian turns a defensive hold… 1 +25% Ghoul move speed and about -15s cooldown 2 +10s duration and faster spawn cadence (about -0.3s spawn time) 5 Ghouls deal roughly +5% of the target's current health as damage when they die Ghouls marching at objectives
  • Grasping Hands Grasping Hands 24m Range5s Duration34s Cooldown Raises a line of undead hands out of the ground that damages and immobilizes anyone passing through, spawns a Ghoul, and leaves a lingering rift behind. Crowd Control immobilize (root) on enemies who pass through; Damage roughly 90 spirit at base, +90 more at tier 2 (metabot.gg, deadlock.one) Mobility none for Graves 1 +90 damage and +10m wall length 2 +1 Ghoul, about -14s cooldown and +0.75s immobilize is a long, reusable Root wall that shapes every chokepoint fight
  • Essence Theft Essence Theft 4s Duration Graves's bullets siphon weapon damage and spirit resist from whoever they hit, transferring it to Graves up to a per-target cap. Damage no direct damage of its own; Defensive indirectly defensive — a carry with stolen weapon damage kills Graves more… 1 +1 maximum steal target, and all Graves's summons apply Essence Theft simultaneously buffs her and debuffs the enemy carry in sustained fights
  • Jar of Dead Jar of Dead Passively banks a charge whenever something dies near Graves. Crowd Control none at base; the tier-2 upgrade adds roughly a 30% movement slow for about… Damage roughly 16 spirit per Deadhead hit at base spirit power (deadlock.one, patch… Defensive tier-1 upgrade returns a small heal (about 5 health) when a death is… 1 heals Graves a small amount for each death collected 2 Deadhead hits apply roughly a 30% slow for about 1 second 5 +2 additional Deadheads and +4 seconds of lifetime recharges off deaths rather than a pure timer, so uptime scales with how well her team is doing

In lane

  • Jar of Dead Jar of Dead Passively banks a charge whenever something dies near Graves. Crowd Control none at base; the tier-2 upgrade adds roughly a 30% movement slow for about… Damage roughly 16 spirit per Deadhead hit at base spirit power (deadlock.one, patch… Defensive tier-1 upgrade returns a small heal (about 5 health) when a death is… 1 heals Graves a small amount for each death collected 2 Deadhead hits apply roughly a 30% slow for about 1 second 5 +2 additional Deadheads and +4 seconds of lifetime charges off every creep death, so a lane Graves is winning snowballs the ability's uptime
  • Grasping Hands Grasping Hands 24m Range5s Duration34s Cooldown Raises a line of undead hands out of the ground that damages and immobilizes anyone passing through, spawns a Ghoul, and leaves a lingering rift behind. Crowd Control immobilize (root) on enemies who pass through; Damage roughly 90 spirit at base, +90 more at tier 2 (metabot.gg, deadlock.one) Mobility none for Graves 1 +90 damage and +10m wall length 2 +1 Ghoul, about -14s cooldown and +0.75s immobilize across the lane chokepoint denies a safe approach to the soul orbs and punishes anyone who steps up to secure
  • Essence Theft Essence Theft 4s Duration Graves's bullets siphon weapon damage and spirit resist from whoever they hit, transferring it to Graves up to a per-target cap. Damage no direct damage of its own; Defensive indirectly defensive — a carry with stolen weapon damage kills Graves more… 1 +1 maximum steal target, and all Graves's summons apply Essence Theft makes extended gun trades favorable if the opponent lets her hold the trigger inside 17m

Power spikes

  • Borrowed Decree Borrowed Decree 20m Range16s Duration140s Cooldown Plants a gravestone that spawns Ghouls over time. Crowd Control area slow on Ghoul detonation Damage roughly 115 spirit on Ghoul detonation and about 40 melee per upgrade tier; Defensive a gravestone placed on your own walker or guardian turns a defensive hold… 1 +25% Ghoul move speed and about -15s cooldown 2 +10s duration and faster spawn cadence (about -0.3s spawn time) 5 Ghouls deal roughly +5% of the target's current health as damage when they die unlock — Converts her into permanent lane and objective pressure even while she is elsewhere on the map
  • Grasping Hands Grasping Hands 24m Range5s Duration34s Cooldown Raises a line of undead hands out of the ground that damages and immobilizes anyone passing through, spawns a Ghoul, and leaves a lingering rift behind. Crowd Control immobilize (root) on enemies who pass through; Damage roughly 90 spirit at base, +90 more at tier 2 (metabot.gg, deadlock.one) Mobility none for Graves 1 +90 damage and +10m wall length 2 +1 Ghoul, about -14s cooldown and +0.75s immobilize tier 2 — +10m wall length turns it from a spot-block into a lane-wide cut, which is when her zoning starts controlling teamfights
  • Essence Theft Essence Theft 4s Duration Graves's bullets siphon weapon damage and spirit resist from whoever they hit, transferring it to Graves up to a per-target cap. Damage no direct damage of its own; Defensive indirectly defensive — a carry with stolen weapon damage kills Graves more… 1 +1 maximum steal target, and all Graves's summons apply Essence Theft tier 3 — Summons begin applying the steal, so Ghouls and Deadheads debuff targets Graves never shoots
  • Mid 20-35min — Objective phase — gravestones on walkers plus wall zoning is where her win rate lives; her scaling is space, not raw damage

Weak points to cover

  • Effectively zero personal mobility — no dash, no blink, no vertical tool
  • Extremely short weapon falloff forces her into the range band where divers want her
  • Both her summons and her gravestone are destructible and can be cleared by any AoE

Next

Graves’s hardest matchups

Best teammates

  • Rat King Rat King BruiserSupportClose rangeBullet damage Makes his whole team's guns better: stacking bullet-resist shred from Rat Swarm Durability high (2/3) Burst high (2/3) Mobility low (1/3) Healing low (1/3) 64.4% duo win
  • Paige Paige SupportControllerMid rangeSpirit damage Currently among the strongest heroes in the game: deadlocklabs.gg records 54.1% win rate at 2.8% pick, S tier, after a recent buff package worth about +2.2 points. Durability low (1/3) Burst low (1/3) Mobility none (0/3) Healing high (2/3) 63.2% duo win
  • Seven Seven MageControllerMid rangeSpirit damage Best-in-class wave and jungle clear, so he reaches item breakpoints ahead of most mid-laners Durability low (1/3) Burst high (2/3) Mobility none (0/3) Healing none (0/3) 62.1% duo win

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