The skill list for Graves was officially announced in a post that also included some in-game screenshots. I’m really excited for Graves. His in-game model looks absolutely awesome, his skills remind me of Dwarven Sniper from DotA, and I think his skillset looks to be somewhat interesting. I think my big concern is that he’ll have to be too close to deal real damage and he won’t have the survivability to keep up.
Let’s take a look at the skillset:
Buckshot: Graves fires three bullets in a cone damaging all enemies in the projectiles path. Enemies at close range can be hit by multiple projectiles, but each one beyond the first will deal reduced damage.
Smokescreen: Graves fires a smoke canister at the target area that deals damage and creates a cloud of smoke. Enemies inside the smoke cloud have reduced sight range and movement speed.
Quickdraw: Graves dashes forward gaining an attack speed boost for several seconds. Attacking enemies lowers the cooldown of this skill.
Collateral Damage (Ultimate): Graves fires an explosive shell dealing heavy damage to the first target it hits. After hitting a champion or reaching the end of its range the shell explodes dealing damage in a cone behind the target.
True Grit (Passive): Graves gains increasing armor and magic resistance the longer he remains in combat.
I can’t say that Graves has the most original skillset in the game, but it does seem to synergize well. He can dash to get in close, use Smokescreen and Buckshot for some AoE damage, get in a few attacks, and probably dash back out depending on the cooldown for Quickdraw. His ultimate seems to be focused around an AoE metagame. I’m not thrilled about the way the skill works – there are a nearly infinite number of reasons the AoE splash will miss, even if you’ve taken the time to line up your target, but hopefully it will at least be enough bonus damage to bring down the occasional secondary target.
I’m curious to see how Smokescreen works. My guess is it will be a slightly limited version of Nocturne’s ult, which is kind of interesting. I’m not in love with the mechanic when it’s a global cast, but as a limited range skill that can affect just one or two targets it actually sounds nice.
