Graves
Female
Graves is a **close-range rush-down summoner** who pressures enemies through relentless aggression, not passive zoning. Despite her summoner kit, she plays more like Victor than McGinnis or Seven — she pushes enemies out of positions with constant tick damage, stat theft, and summon pressure rather than fortifying and defending. Her kit revolves around collecting death to fuel Jar of Dead charges, stealing stats from opponents with Essence Theft, immobilizing fleeing enemies with Grasping Hands, and deploying gravestones in active combat to overwhelm targets. Her beam weapon auto-locks onto targets and provides innate 8% bullet lifesteal, compensating for her extremely short range. None of her abilities get meaningful value at range — she must get in enemies' faces to deal damage.
Base Stats
Vitality
- Health
- 730 (+35/boon)
- Health Regen
- 1/s
- Stamina
- 2
- Move Speed
- 7.0 m/s
- Sprint Speed
- 8.6 m/s
- Bullet Lifesteal
- 8% (innate)
Weapon
- DPS
- 35.3 (beam weapon, auto-lock)
- Bullet Damage
- 3.6 (+0.054/boon)
- Ammo
- 40
- Fire Rate
- 9.8/s
- Reload Time
- 2.8s
- Bullet Speed
- 635 m/s
- Falloff
- 7.62m-17.0m
Melee
- Light Melee
- 50 (+1.58/boon)
- Heavy Melee
- 116 (+3.67/boon)
Abilities
Jar of Dead
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. **Charge Generation:** Resource cost is 120 per jar. Each nearby death generates pickups worth 10 resource each: 1 pickup per trooper death, 3 per neutral trooper, 5 per hero or boss death. Collection radius is 40m. Skulls can be destroyed by weapon fire or melee but take no spirit damage. Light melee is the primary counter — one hit kills most skulls. Skull kill bounty: 7 (+0.5x) souls.
Grasping Hands
Unearth a line of grasping hands, dealing Spirit Damage and applying immobilize to enemies when they pass through. Alt-Cast rotates the orientation of the wall.
Essence Theft
Your weapon and melee hits steal weapon damage and spirit resist over time, up to a maximum amount per target. Stolen stats stack up while attacking and decay when not attacking. The stat theft is unique in Deadlock — the enemy loses what you gain. **Combo Potential:** With Split Shot, Graves can steal stats from up to 3 enemies simultaneously. Setup abilities like Black Hole or Vortex Web enable massive stat theft in team fights. **Lane Spike:** Rushing 2 points in Essence Theft for the 20% stolen resist is a viable lane build. Percentages scale better late game, but flat resist theft is still meaningful early.
Borrowed Decree
Create a gravestone at a target location that summons ghouls over time. Ghouls shamble toward the enemy base, dealing melee damage. They explode when they approach a hero or objective, dealing spirit damage in an area and applying a brief slow. Enemies can destroy the gravestone with two heavy melees. The gravestone is visible to enemies on the minimap at all times and its outline can be seen through walls. **Max Ult Spike:** T3 (5% current health damage per ghoul) is a significant power spike that top players build toward. Placing gravestones on high ground or under walker protection forces enemies into difficult positions — they can't easily heavy melee destroy them.
Strengths
- + Strong lane pressure with Jar of Dead skulls harassing enemies while you farm
- + Excellent rush-down pressure through Grasping Hands immobilize and Borrowed Decree ghouls in active combat
- + Essence Theft provides both offensive and defensive value — enemy loses weapon damage and spirit resist that you gain
- + Innate 8% bullet lifesteal (~800 soul value) sustains her in extended fights without item investment
- + Grasping Hands provides hard CC (1s immobilize, +0.75s with T3) for picks and team fight disruption
- + Ghouls push waves and threaten objectives automatically, creating constant map pressure
- + High fire rate (9.8/s) enables good proc item synergy
- + T3 Jar of Dead grants +2 Deadheads and +4s Duration for stronger sustained skull pressure
- + T3 Essence Theft makes summons (skulls and ghouls) apply Essence Theft, multiplying her stat-stealing value in team fights
Weaknesses
- − Shortest weapon falloff in game (7.62m-15.98m) — must fight closer than any other hero
- − Below-average durability (730 base, +35/boon, ~1,430 at 20 boons), only 2 stamina, and 1 HP regen (lowest in game)
- − Lowest max DPS scaling in game (+0.06/boon) — gun damage becomes irrelevant late
- − Beam weapon cannot headshot and Graves cannot buy headshot items, capping weapon damage ceiling
- − Grasping Hands has a long cooldown (34s) for her primary CC ability — vulnerable to dive when it's down
- − Gravestones are visible on minimap and can be destroyed by enemies with two heavy melees
- − Jar of Dead charge generation from regular troopers is slow early (~10–12 deaths per charge); neutral troopers provide 3 pickups each
- − Summons require time to generate value — weak against burst damage that kills Graves before skulls/ghouls deal damage
- − Must buy sustain items early to survive lane with only 1 HP regen