In this article I'll tell you how to play Graves in the new Season 11 patch. The changes in this patch were made to buff up the Jungle, reduce the downtime of your creeps, and buff up your Courier. Now that the jungle is buffed up a little more you can pick up a nice Tracer or a Winston and really start to dominate the map. Here's what you need to do:
First of all, it's now much easier to get a decent amount of XP on Graves because you no longer have to go and backtrack to do the respawning. You can do your creeps' respawn then simply run back to the lane where you killed the creeps and do your XP there. That's great for support players that like to build up their creeps quickly and want to be able to get their creeps close to the enemy base as soon as possible. Just make sure you always have at least one place available to get a quick respawn when you're in a rough situation.
Speaking of quick respawns, you no longer have to walk all over the map to get a good respawn. All you have to do is just walk up to the mini-altar, press the keys A and D, and you'll be back where you started. That means you'll be able to play Graves much more confidently. The new Season 11 s11 trundle jungle patch also buffed up the health of your creeps. They now take 50% less time to die and are actually a little stronger too.
So now that you're much more confident with playing Graves, you should think about how you can level up. Unlike most heroes who level up really slowly, Graves levels really fast. So your first priority should be to find a good Trim Build that deals area of effect damage and helps with mobility so that you can keep moving around the map instead of staying stuck to one spot.
Once you've done that, you should immediately try and buy a few cheap wards and aegis. The idea here is to zone everyone in so that you have free reign of the jungle. If you already have an aegis, you should start building up the mana potion asap, as it will come in handy later on. You also want to start mapping out your ultimate strategy for playing Graves Runy correctly, as it's going to be crucial to winning a few games.
When you're playing Graves, you're going to need to keep in mind that mana is really essential. So try to always stay near your creeps at all times and try and get them killed as quickly as possible. The last thing you want to do is to stay near your creeps, as if you do, you're going to take a lot of unnecessary damage from enemy heroes. Focus on creeps, then go for the kills when you're able to.
Finally, I want to talk about positioning. You'll find that positioning is very important, and that you should learn to master it if you want to learn how to play Graves correctly. The biggest mistake that new players make is that they stand still at one side of the map, hoping to hit something. They'll basically end up wasting and, being unable to move, and basically wasting their entire team's time.
That's why you'll need to learn to roam around. Get as much experience as you can, and try and learn where the good locations are. Then go and dominate the center of the map with aegis or relics. If you find yourself in trouble, always pull out a relic and heal yourself. Try doing that to learn how to play Graves, and you'll be very successful.