The Dreadful Graves In Deadlock Is Here To Raise Hell With The Dead

It’s been two days, and another round of votes is in, and this time, the winner is Graves in Deadlock. This dreary little high schooler is here to show what she’s learned from her mentor, a severed hand of a lich long forgotten. Although history has never once mentioned her tutor, the abilities it taught her will surely make a new mark in history.

It’s probably obvious, but Graves and her lich teacher are both necromancers, practitioners of the art of the deceased. And it may seem like Graves is an easy target, being a disciple and all, but you’re far from correct. So, let’s delve into the kit of Graves in Deadlock and see how wrong you exactly are.

The Abilities Of Graves In Deadlock

Graves in Deadlock is a necromancer that excels in area control and denial with the help of her undead friends. And if you build her just right, you can even hold down an entire lane by yourself, but you have to understand her kit first. So, let’s start with the first thing you’ll be using when playing Graves, her primary weapon.

The Teacher

The Teacher is a medium-range beam weapon that locks onto enemies within range to damage them. It deals 4.2 damage and shoots 9.8 “bullets” per second out of its 40-round “magazine”, which totals to 41 damage per second. The gangly hand known as The Teacher also gets the neat feature of having 8% bullet lifesteal.

Jar of Dead

Grave’s first ability, Jar of Dead, throws a jar where you aim that summons 4 Deadheads to damage your enemies with 20 spirit damage. If there are no enemies, Deadheads will follow you and will seek enemies damaged by The Teacher. Before getting a charge of Jar of Dead, you must first collect Death, which drops when anything dies nearby.

Jar of Dead comes with three upgrades, like any other ability, and the enhancements are as follows:

1. The first upgrade for Jar of Dead heals five health for Graves for every Death pick up.
2. The next upgrade applies a 30% slow effect on enemies for one second.
3. The last upgrade adds two Deadheads to the jar, and Deadheads now also trigger Essence Theft. We’ll come back to Essence Theft later on, as it’s one of Graves’ abilities.

Grasping Hands

Unleash a wall of undead hands that lasts for 7 seconds to deal 90 spirit damage and immobilize your enemies for 1.5 seconds. The immobilizing effect applies to any enemy that passes through the wall of undead hands for as long as it’s up. Graves can change the orientation of the wall with the simple click of the middle mouse button by default.

The upgrades for Grasping Hands are as follows:

1. The first upgrade increases the duration of Grasping Hands by two seconds, allowing it to stick around for nine seconds.
2. The second upgrade allows Grasping Hands to immobilize their victims for 0.75 seconds longer. This upgrade lets Grasping Hands immobilize enemies for 2.25 seconds instead of 1.5 seconds.
3. The third upgrade lengthens the wall by 15 meters and decreases the cooldown by 10 seconds. Thus, leaving Grasping Hands with a 35-meter length and a 28-second cooldown.

Essence Theft

Essence Theft is a passive ability that allows your weapon to steal weapon damage and spirit resist from your enemies over time. Essence Theft steals a maximum of 25% weapon damage and 10% spirit resist per target. Unfortunately, Essence Theft only works on a maximum of three targets.

The upgrades and their effects on Essence Theft are as follows:

1. The first upgrade on the list increases the maximum spirit resist stolen by 5%, resulting in a 15% spirit resist maximum.
2. The following upgrade enhances the max weapon damage stolen by 20%, increasing it to 45%.
3. The last upgrade grants your weapon, The Teacher, the ability to lock onto an additional target.

Borrowed Decree

Graves’ ultimate ability, Borrowed Decree, places a gravestone that summons ghouls over time. Ghouls shuffle towards the enemy base and attack anything via melee damage. When approaching a hero or objective, ghouls explode, dealing 150 spirit damage and applying a -80% slow effect for 1.25 seconds.

Enemies can destroy the gravestone with two heavy melee hits, so place it in a safe and preferably hidden location.

The enhancements for Borrowed Decree are as follows:

1. The first upgrade for Borrowed Decree decreases its cooldown by 20 seconds, leaving it with a 90-second cooldown.
2. The following upgrade increases the speed of ghouls and duration of the gravestone by 25% and 10 seconds, respectively. These increases result in the gravestone having a 30-second duration.
3. The final upgrade for Borrowed Decree allows ghoul explosions to deal 5% max health damage. This upgrade also enables the gravestone to summon three ghouls when placed.

How Should I Play Graves In Deadlock?

Graves in Deadlock specializes in area control, so play her as if you’re a wall that prevents the enemy from pushing. She also excels in team fights with her AOE and auto attack abilities, so she’s flexible when it comes to solo and team fights. Ultimately, the method of how you play Graves in Deadlock falls to you, so find out how you wanna play her yourself.

Now get out there and add your enemies to your growing army of the dead. They’re dying to serve you after all.

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