If you have been following the DWG KIA team in this season, you can easily recognize that Canyon is the number one “team carry” player in this roster. Not only in terms of performance, Canyon frequently employs new strategies and high-variance champions to create significant advantages for DK.
In the latest match against DRX, Canyon brought out a rather unusual Graves by using Bloodthirsty and Fighter items. Meanwhile, in the minds of most players, this champion is typically built in two directions: Assassin with lethality items or “super lifesteal” with Guardian Angel. Remember that not only Canyon, but also many high-ranked players around the world are using Bloodthirsty Graves. Why is this playstyle so strong? Let’s find out.
Essentially, this playstyle first appeared about three weeks ago when a YouTuber named Arfreezy used it and successfully climbed to the Master rank. This player realized that in patch 12.3, Bloodthirsty was buffed to slightly reduce bonus health and significantly increase AD. Thus, this item has proven to be much more suitable for a character with good damage skills like Graves.
Moreover, if you play Graves often, you know that this champion, although a marksman in theory, usually needs to get close to the opponent to deal optimal damage. Clearly, this puts Graves in a lot of danger as he can easily be hit by enemy skills and taken down. Therefore, Bloodthirsty and Fighter items emerge as a perfect solution, allowing Graves to approach opponents while still having excellent survivability thanks to its powerful healing activation.
Not stopping there, Bloodthirsty also makes this champion less countered by items that reduce healing. The reason is that items like Bloodthirsty and Black Cleaver do not have inherent lifesteal stats. Therefore, when Graves is affected by healing reduction effects, he does not become significantly weaker like builds with Guardian Angel and Bloodthirster. As a result, with a Fighter item build, Graves becomes a champion that is both “tanky”, deals considerable damage, and is particularly hard to counter.
To build Bloodthirsty Graves effectively, you should choose the Keystone Rune Fleet Footwork and the secondary tree should take Nimbus Cloak and Cosmic Insight. With a high health pool, the recommendation is to pick Triumph instead of Last Stand as in traditional builds.
As for the “core” items, the duo of Bloodthirsty and Black Cleaver are the most important items for Graves. After that, depending on the situation, you can buy items like Death’s Dance and Maw of Malmortius to ensure Graves’ survivability. If you want to be even more aggressive, players can follow Canyon’s lead and buy Randuin’s Omen as the third item to counter the enemy’s marksman.