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Graves

~51.3% WR ~14.6% pick

Moderate New-player friendly Pistol MorbidArea DenialNecromancer

Signature abilities4

Jar of Dead →

Grasping Hands →

Essence Theft →

Borrowed Decree ult at lvl 6

Ability 1

Jar of Dead

Press

Passive: Collect death when anything dies nearby and store it in your Jar of Dead. Active: Throw a jar to summon Deadheads that repeatedly deal Spirit Damage to enemies. Deadheads follow you instead if there's no nearby enemies, and prioritize the target of your weapon.

Charges

13s

Charge cooldown

0.15s

Cast delay

Skull Count

1AP Collecting death heals 0 health per pickup — Heal Per Pickup +5, Heal Per Pickup +0.1

2AP On Hit: Apply 0% Slow for 0%s — Slow +30%, Slow duration +1%

5AP +4 Deadheads +10s Deadhead Lifetime — Skull Count +2, Skull Lifetime +4

Ability 2

Grasping Hands

34s

Press

Unearth a line of grasping hands, summoning a Ghoul and leaving behind a rift. Enemies who pass through take Spirit Damage and receive Immobilize. Alt-Cast Alt Cast rotates the orientation of the wall.

24m

Cast range

Duration

Summon Count

Damage

1AP Duration +2s

2AP +90 Damage and +14m Wall Length — Damage +90, Zombie Wall Length +10m

5AP +Ghoul Count Ghouls Raised 34s Cooldown +1.25s Immobilize Duration — Immobilize Duration +1s, Summon Count +1, Cooldown -10s

Passive

Essence Theft

Your weapon steals Weapon Damage and Spirit Resist over time, up to a maximum amount per target.

Duration

25↑0.25

Max Stolen Attack Damage

10%

Max Stolen Spirit Resist

1AP Max Stolen Spirit Resist +5%

2AP Max Stolen Attack Damage +20

5AP All Summons now apply Essence Theft — Skull Build Up +0.15, Zombie Melee Build Up +0.15, Zombie Explosion Build Up +1

Ability 4

Borrowed Decree

120s

Press

0.66s

Channel time

20m

Cast range

16s↑0.04

Duration

115

Damage

1AP Cooldown -20s

2AP +0% Ghoul Speed and +16s Duration — Move Speed Percent +25%, Duration +10s

5AP On Death: Deal +0% Current Health as Damage — Current Health Damage Percentage +5%

Guidehow to play

Graves is a spirit-damage area-denial summoner — think Victor with a graveyard. She drops Deadhead skulls, an immobilize rift and a stream of exploding ghouls so the enemy can never settle on an objective. She's a beginner-friendly (complexity 2) backline anchor who wins slow, controlled teamfights and sieges by out-grinding the other team, not by flashy picks. Pick her if you like zoning, summons and punishing whoever stands still.

Early game

Respect a weak lane: low base stats and move speed 7 make Graves a poor brawler, so never melee-trade. Farm and harass from range with the pistol, then drop Jar of Dead onto the wave or the enemy — the Deadheads chip them and force a gun carry to peel off the skulls instead of trading with you. Use Grasping Hands defensively to immobilize a diver rather than as an early poke. Your job in lane is to survive, push souls and reach your mid-game spike. First buys are sustain and escape: Restorative Shot (buffed this patch), Extra Stamina for a low-mobility hero, plus Extra Spirit and Extra Charge so your skulls actually hurt and you can spam them.

Mid game

This is her power window. With a second Jar charge and a longer wall, rotate to fights and objectives and zone: wall the choke, dump skulls on the priority target, and peel divers with the immobilize. Improved Spirit and cooldown items turn her into constant AoE pressure. She's excellent at the reworked Urn king-of-the-hill — drop the gravestone, wall and skulls inside the capture ring and nobody can stand in it safely. Layer Mystic Vulnerability on the focus target so every skull and ghoul tick multiplies, and keep Spirit Resilience up to live through the spirit-heavy June meta and dives.

Late game

Full teamfight engine and backline siege anchor — not a flanker. Pre-drop Borrowed Decree before the fight starts so ghouls are already streaming in (at max rank it spawns 3 instantly), then Refresher resets the ult and your wall for a second ghoul wave and a fresh re-zone. Amp one target and the whole spirit swarm — skulls, wall, ghoul explosions — multiplies at once. Protect your gravestone: enemies kill it with 2 heavy melees, so place it where ghouls path through the enemy but the stone itself is hard to reach. Boundless Spirit and Escalating Exposure carry the long fights she's built to win.

Combos & tricks

Root-point-swarm: Grasping Hands to immobilize, then Jar of Dead on that target — Deadheads lock onto whoever your gun is firing at, so the skulls pile onto an enemy who can't walk out of the rift. Echo Shard a fresh Grasping Hands for two overlapping immobilize rifts in a choke, or a second Deadhead swarm mid-fight. Refresher mid-fight turns one Borrowed Decree into two ghoul waves. Pop Arcane Surge on the ult or jar throw for a spirit and fire-rate window so the pistol and Essence Theft tick hard while skulls are out. Keep tagging the same enemy to ramp Essence Theft's weapon-damage and spirit-resist steal — lowering their resist makes your own skulls hit harder, and Mystic Shot makes every bullet count.

Buildsbuy order matters

Laning1600

Survive the weak phase and push souls. Cheap spirit so skulls and wall sting, a second charge to spam harass, burst on ability hits, and sustain plus an extra dash because her base stats and mobility are bad.

Mid game3200

The spirit spike with cooldowns and survivability. Improved Spirit scales everything, Rapid Recharge keeps jars and walls flowing, Mystic Vulnerability amps the whole swarm on one target, and Spirit Resilience lets you eat the dive.

Late game6400

Transcendent Cooldown

The AoE teamfight engine. Boundless Spirit is the slab; Echo Shard doubles your wall or swarm; Refresher gives two ghoul waves per fight; Escalating Exposure ramps your sustained spirit into shred; Transcendent Cooldown keeps it all on tap.

Situational4000

Pick per lobby. Ethereal Shift dodges burst ults and dives (Seven, Abrams) and refills ammo; Majestic Leap fixes her mobility and dunks the gravestone from above; Knockdown locks a carry so the full swarm lands; Tankbuster and Healbane answer Abrams and lifesteal comps; Slowing Hex drags a target into your wall and skulls.

Tips & tricks

→Deadheads prioritize whatever your gun is shooting — aim the pistol at the target you want the skulls to chase.

→Don't melee-trade in lane. Her base stats are low; harass with skulls and wall from range and farm to your mid-game spike.

→Pre-place Borrowed Decree before the fight opens so ghouls are already arriving — at max rank 3 spawn instantly on cast.

→Your gravestone dies to 2 heavy melees, so hide it from reach while its ghouls still path through the enemy team.

→One amp does it all: Mystic Vulnerability or Escalating Exposure on the focus target multiplies skulls, wall and ghoul explosions at once.

→Alt-cast Grasping Hands to rotate the wall and seal a choke sideways instead of pointing it straight ahead.

Common questions

Is Graves good for beginners?

Yes. She's complexity 2 and flagged for new players — the summons do work even when your aim is off. The catch is a weak, low-mobility lane, so play safe, farm and lean on her mid-to-late teamfight power.

Is Graves a weapon or spirit hero?

Spirit, almost always. Three of her four abilities plus ghoul explosions are spirit. Weapon buys like Mystic Shot and Restorative Shot are enablers, and Essence Theft turns the pistol into a stat-steal tool, not a carry weapon.

How do you use Borrowed Decree well?

Place the gravestone so ghouls path through the enemy team or objective, protect it (2 heavy melees kill it), and stack it with Refresher and Arcane Surge. Save it for fight start, a contested objective, or the Urn capture ring where it spawns 3 ghouls instantly.

Why do I keep losing lane with Graves?

Low base stats and low mobility. Don't melee-trade — harass with skulls and wall from range, buy Restorative Shot plus Extra Stamina, and accept that her real power lives in mid and late teamfights.

Profilevs roster

Health 730

Regen 1/s

Move speed 7 m/s

Stamina 2

Burst DPS 35.3

Sustained 20.9

Range 17 m

Ammo 40

Primary weapon

The Teacher

Pistol

35.3

DPS

3.6

Bullet damage

9.8rps

Fire rate

Ammo

2.8s

Reload

20.9

Sustained DPS

217

Shots to down

36.04s

Time to kill

133

Weak-spot shots

144

Clip damage

vs 780 HP · body · no resist

Damage falloff100% → 10%

0m7.6m17m177.8m

Melee 50Light 116Heavy

Matchups

Plays well into

Struggles into

LoreSkins →

The daughter of high-power defense attorneys, Darcy Graves grew up in a home where every conversation was a debate, argument, or negotiation. It was exhausting. But while her parents were often too busy meeting with clients or working on cases to bond with her, the dead were always there to listen.

Graves enjoyed her time in the cemetery. It was a quiet place to calm her thoughts and talk through her problems...but one day her one-sided conversations started to change.

Win rate, skill order, builds and matchups are sample until the match API lands. Abilities, weapon math and the stat profile are real client data.

Update history7

Minor Update - 05-31-2026May 31, 2026

Jar of Dead damage reduced from 20 + 0.31/spirit to 17 + 0.27/spirit
Ghouls damage reduced by 15%
Ghouls bounty increased from 25+1/min to 35+2/min

Gameplay Update - 05-22-2026May 22, 2026

Sprint speed increased from 1.6 to 2.2
Grasping Hands now spawns a ghoul in the base ability (T3 still increases it by 1)
Updated dash ranges for Deadheads to be calculated from the center of Graves when they are following her
Fixed Fire Rate buffs for Deadheads not being applied to their next attack, but only on subsequent attacks
Fixed Deadheads being unable to dash through veils

03-25-2026 UpdateMar 26, 2026

Grasping Hands spirit damage scaling reduced from 1.9 to 1.6
Grasping Hands T3 reduced from 2 Ghouls Summoned to 1
Grasping Hands T3 now also reduces cooldown by 10s
Borrowed Decree Ghoul HP reduced from 200 + 12/boon to 180 + 8/boon
Borrowed Decree Ghouls damage reduced from 150 to 135

03-21-2026 UpdateMar 21, 2026

Jar of Dead spirit scaling increased from 0.25 to 0.35
Jar of Dead health per boon increased from 1 to 1.3
Jar of Dead fixed colliding with the world sometimes
Jar of Dead T2 now increases duration by +4s
Grasping Hands deploy time reduced from 0.7s to 0.6s

Gameplay Update - 03-06-2026Mar 06, 2026

Grasping Hands is now set up to work through proper alternate cast methods and be more responsive
Grasping Hands Immobilize duration reduced from 1.5s to 1.25s
Grasping Hands cooldown reduced from 38s to 34s
Grasping Hands T2 changed from "+0.75s Immobilize Duration" to "+90 Damage and +10m Wall Length"
Grasping Hands T3 changed from "+15m Wall Length and -10s Cooldown" to "+1s Immobilize Duration and -12s Cooldown"

01-30-2026 UpdateJan 30, 2026

Borrowed Decree duration reduced by 30%
Borrowed Decree ghoul damage reduced by 30%

Graves Prefers The DeadJan 29, 2026

Graves
The dead have been making a whole lot of demands lately, and only Graves has the courage to oblige. That severed lich hand she found in the cemetery has proven itself a valuable ally, allowing her to latch onto her enemies and steal their power for herself. Her curiosities about the passage of life are further put to use with Jar of Dead, collecting the remains of the fallen, shaking them up, and throwing them back at her enemies to grant those remorseful spirits a final shot at revenge. With Grasping Hands she strikes a deep crack in the earth, allowing those down below to grab onto enemies' ankles and stop them from escaping her reach. And when all else fails, a Borrowed Decree will summon the dead to fight alongside her.
Graves is available in-game now! Keep your votes coming over the weekend, as the third hero from our Old Gods, New Blood update will be released on Monday February 2nd at 2pm PST.

Raw data & APIopen JSON from the client

gravesslug76heroIdnecrocodeName2complexitytruenewPlayer2026-06-06T16:23:38.392ZupdatedAt

GET/api/v1/heroes/graves.jsonthis hero GET/api/v1/heroes.jsonHeroes