Graves vs Zilean
How to Beat Zilean as Graves
based on 1,979 Graves vs Zilean matchupsHow We Analyze LoL Champion Counters
Graves vs Zilean Matchup Summary
Best Graves vs Zilean Counter Build
Items
Starter Items
Early Items
Core Graves Items
Optional Items
Summoner Spells
Skill Order
Runes
Guide to Countering Zilean as Graves
Tips for Playing as Graves against Zilean
Smoke Screen can be used both to escape and to set up a kill.
Using Quickdraw to get into range and delivering a point blank Buckshot can do lots of damage.
Advice to Win Against Zilean
Zilean is fragile if a team focuses on him, but otherwise he's very difficult to kill. Commit to killing him as a team.
If you're able to match Zilean's speed, it can sometimes be beneficial to wait until his ultimate has faded before landing the killing blow.
Graves vs Zilean Counter Stats
How to Counter Zilean with Graves in LoL
The stats shown on this page emphasize several important Graves vs. Zilean matchup stats that can help us figure out the differences and similarities between this pair of champs. As an example, Graves’s KDA ratio ([kills + assists] / deaths) of NaN is more than Zilean’s ratio of NaN, indicating that Graves may be more central to his team's team fighting potential than Zilean. This observation is largely a result of the difference in kills.
Graves often has a much larger longest killing spree than his counter does. On average, he takes more damage than Zilean. This often reflects differing health capacities; however, it can also illustrate that the champion with higher HP has less agility and thus is not able to escape additional harm when poked or engaged.
Differences between Graves and Zilean
Damage Types Compared
Champion Playstyles Compared
Who is Better, Graves or Zilean?
Both League of Legends champions are great champions. Both champs have their pros and cons. In the game's current meta, Graves usually wins when trying to fight Zilean, with a 51.8% win rate. As a result, Graves makes a good counter for Zilean.
While Graves does have a higher win rate than Zilean, when facing one another, Graves also has a lower difficulty level that makes him a less difficult champ to develop with. You still need to be cautious when picking Graves into Zilean.
Additionally, Graves has only a small amount of CC and other utility, a similar amount to Zilean. This makes her just as valuable during teamfights, especially when fighting champions with a ton of burst damage.
While there isn't a single best champion in League of Legends, in Graves vs Zilean matchups, Graves is the better champ with a higher win rate, less champion complexity, and a similar amount of utility to help out your teammates during team fights.
Graves is a decent counter for Zilean. You will do well by focussing your gameplay on keeping up your CS and clearing objectives. If you can do that, you should do very well as Graves against Zilean.
Other Champion Matchups Against Graves
Additional Information for Graves Players
How We Calculated Our Graves vs Zilean Build and Stats
Other Useful Resources
Further Insights to Win this Matchup
If you would like to truly master Graves to counter Zilean during both the laning and mid / late game phases of League of Legends, you should continue reading to pick up a few extra tips and tricks for this matchup. If you listen to the build and tips shown above, you will increase your win rate by a lot and be that much closer to League of Legends pro players.
Graves on average accumulates a similar amount of CS as Zilean. Champions who on average don't get much CS typically don't require much CS to be effective, such as support champions. These kinds of champions are capable of scaling well off of their abilities and first items alone. Yet, champions with a lot of CS, such as hyper-carries, typically need a lot of items to be effective. In either situation, try to surpass the numbers displayed on this page to do well.
The top items to use in your Graves versus Zilean build include Black Cleaver, Bloodthirster, and The Collector. When Graves incorporated at least these three pieces in his build, he performed a lot better vs Zilean than with most other common item sets. In fact, Graves boasted an average winrate of 51.8% when countering Zilean with this build.
To have the highest likelihood of crushing Zilean as Graves, Graves players should take the Fleet Footwork, Triumph, Legend: Alacrity, Coup de Grace, Cosmic Insight, and Magical Footwear runes from the Precision and Inspiration rune sets. Of all the rune combinations players used for Graves vs Zilean fights, this combo of runes resulted in the best win rate. Notably, these runes averaged a 51.8% win rate overall.
By default, tips, statistics, and builds on how to beat Zilean as Graves are displayed for every ranked division. If you would like to scope the statistics and builds to an individual division, you can use the selection menu earlier in the counter matchup guide.