Graves Gameplay Update Feedback

Hey guys, Graves is getting some big changes this patch and we're eager to get your feedback on the current direction. Here's a summary of the major changes: Base Stats Attack range reduced to 425 Graves' base stats have been adjusted to be similar to a melee champion P -- New "Destiny" 1. Graves’ attack is a cone of 4 bullets whose AD ratio scales up by 33% over game time. The first bullet does 0.75-1.1 tAD (by level); extra bullets deal 33% of that. Each bullet can apply On Hit Effects, but only once per target. Graves’ crits fire more bullets (8 normally, 10 with Infinity Edge), empowering him at close range to burst a target and long range to deal AoE damage. 2. Graves stores two shells at any time. After using them, he will reload before he can autoattack again. Reload has a longer delay than the normal time between attacks and is reduced only slightly by attack speed. Graves’ time between attacks otherwise is reduced dramatically by attack speed. 4. Unlike other basic attacks, Graves’ bullets hit the first unit they collide with. Q - New "End of the Line" Graves' basic attack is extremely potent, but he needed a tool to keep ranged opponents from running straight away from him and melee from running straight at him. This is where Graves' new Q, End of the Line shines: Fires a powder round, dealing low damage in a line before landing on the ground After ~1 second, this will detonate, dealing high damage along the line from which it fired and in both directions perpendicular to that line. If the powder round strikes a wall, this detonation is immediate W Smoke Screen is an extremely powerful ability. It's hard to appreciate that power partially because you cannot know how much vision it's actually restricting. * Enemies inside Smoke Screen cannot see out, for any reason. * Cooldown increased (20/19/18/17/16 >> 26/24/22/20/18). * Now only slows briefly on impact. E Graves needs a lot more defenses to function at the 200-400 range window he now occupies. Quickdraw now gives True Grit's bonus on cast. If you can stretch a fight out, you can stack True Grit up to pretty monumental proportions, making Graves king in long, messy skirmishes. * No longer grants AS. Instead, resets Graves’ AA and gives him 1 shell. * Now grants True Grit (Armor/MR) for 4 seconds. This bonus is extended by striking a non-minion with a basic attack and can be stacked if sustained long enough to reactivate E. * Speaking of reactivating E -- E’s cooldown is reduced by less from autoattacks, but each bullet can trigger this effect. R With a closer range pattern, Graves was getting into a lot of sticky situations. To help him deal with that, Collateral Damage now knocks Graves back substantially, creating a potential escape spell for Graves in exigent circumstances. Offensively it incentivizes “execute” usage over Live's more fire-and-forget R. What's the point of all these changes? Graves wields an epic-size shotgun. He should feel like he is a classic shotgun figure, with particular emphasis on devastating close range damage. Graves has struggled for years with being either strictly better or strictly worse than his peer marksmen (Lucian and Corki, for example). Instead of trying to push Graves and Lucian apart, we decided to flesh out Graves' character fantasy to such an extent that he would never feel like a different version of another champion. Strategically, Graves is empowered against close range opponents, particularly beefy divers who want to get up close and personal with him. He's effective at neutralizing them at the cost of sometimes struggling to output sustained damage against flighty longer range opponents. This makes him the perfect marksman for your team when the enemy _will _engage on you due to having better initiation tools than you have disengage.