Graves Hero Build Guide

How to Build Graves in Deadlock (Step-by-Step)

This guide walks you through building Graves, the Morbid / Area Denial / Necromancer hero, using the community-reported build lists that are currently circulating. It answers the practical questions: what Graves does, which items to buy in which order, and how to find good builds you can trust. All stats and item orders below are community-reported (not officially confirmed), so treat them as a starting point rather than gospel.

Before You Build: What Graves Actually Does

Graves is rated 2 out of 3 on complexity, so it’s a middle-of-the-road hero to pilot, but it rewards players who understand its kit. Community-tracked numbers put Graves at a 56.7% win rate and a 3.3% pick rate across 514,809 matches, with an average K/D/A of 6.1 / 7.1 / 12.9 — a high-assist, teamfight-oriented profile.

Graves has four abilities you should keep in mind while shopping:

• Jar of Dead — Passive: collect “death” whenever anything dies nearby and store it in your jar. Active: throw a jar to summon Deadheads that repeatedly deal spirit damage. Deadheads follow you if no enemies are nearby, and they prioritize whatever your weapon is targeting.
• Grasping Hands — Unearths a line of hands that summons a Ghoul and leaves a rift behind; enemies passing through take spirit damage and get immobilized. Alt-Cast rotates the wall’s orientation.
• Essence Theft — Your weapon steals weapon damage and spirit resist over time, up to a maximum per target.
• Borrowed Decree — Ultimate (effect details not covered in the source build data).

Because Graves scales off spirit damage and area denial, the community builds below lean heavily into spirit items, cooldowns, and survivability rather than pure gun damage.

Step 1 — Pick a Proven Community Build

Don’t theorycraft your first games. Copy one of the two popular community builds below, then adjust from there. Both have large sample sizes attached, which makes them a safer baseline than an untested list:

• Build 1 — “FARMING BIP SPIRIT META!” — 61.6% win rate over 435 matches.
• Build 2 — “AndrewChicken’s Raging Swarm Build” — 55.9% win rate over 347 matches.

Five items appear in both recommended builds, making them the closest thing to a consensus core: Restorative Shot, Arcane Surge, Rapid Recharge, Spirit Shielding, and Heroic Aura. If you only remember five items from this guide, remember these.

Step 2 — Follow Build 1’s Item Order

Build 1’s early game runs left to right. Grab Restorative Shot, Rusted Barrel, Extra Stamina, Arcane Surge, Mystic Shot, Rapid Recharge, Spirit Shielding, Heroic Aura, Spirit Resilience, Improved Spirit, and Echo Shard — note that Restorative Shot and Mystic Shot are meant to be sold late.

The core of this build is built around fighting constantly: Toxic Bullets, Spiritual Overflow, Boundless Spirit, Transcendent Cooldown, and Refresher. The creator’s guideline is to fight with Echo and Toxic active.

Then layer in the defensive package — take one to two of these if spirit resist isn’t your problem: Metal Skin, Counterspell, Dispel Magic, Weapon Shielding, Reactive Barrier, Unstoppable.

For flex slots, the community build swaps out Mystic Shot / Restorative Shot in favor of Suppressor, Disarming Hex, or Decay (“random OP stuff”). In the late game at 50k+ souls, take what you need left to right by usefulness: Superior Duration, Lightning Scroll, Tankbuster, Siphon Bullets, Spirit Burn.

Other defensive options, ranked left to right by usefulness: Plated Armor, Spellbreaker, Fortitude, Healbane, Return Fire, Juggernaut, Indomitable. Situational pickups include Rebuttal, Slowing Hex, Recharging Rush, and Healing Rite. If you fall behind and can’t afford to commit to Echo Shard, the gun path is Quicksilver Reload, Tesla Bullets, Split Shot, Escalating Exposure, Leech, Ricochet, Inhibitor, Silencer.

Step 3 — Follow Build 2’s Item Order

Build 2 (“AndrewChicken’s Raging Swarm”) starts with Restorative Shot, Improved Spirit, Rapid Recharge, Recharging Rush, and Heroic Aura. Its greens at the 4.8k mark are Enduring Speed, Spirit Lifesteal, and Healbane, with Rebuttal and Disarming Hex as counterplay picks.

The mid game adds Arcane Surge, Compress Cooldown, Echo Shard, Boundless Spirit, Escalating Exposure, and Duration Extender. If you want green alternatives, consider Enchanter’s Emblem, Reactive Barrier, Spirit Shielding, and Guardian Ward.

Build 2 also lists a broad extras pool — Spirit Burn, Focus Lens, Infuser, Lightning Scroll, Superior Duration, Transcendent Cooldown, Refresher, Magic Carpet — plus situational items: Bullet Resilience, Spirit Resilience, Counterspell, Dispel Magic, Warp Stone, and Juggernaut.

Step 4 — Adapt, Don’t Autopilot

The biggest reason a copied build fails is that players never swap anything. Use these rules from the source:

• Spirit resist not an issue? Strip the spirit-defensive items from Build 1 and take one or two of the alternatives instead.
• Behind on souls? Drop the Echo Shard plan and pivot to the gun path so you can still contribute damage.
• Facing a specific threat? Reach into the situational pools (Suppressor for damage reduction, Decay against healing, Rebuttal / Disarming Hex as counterplay, Warp Stone for repositioning).
• Late game (50k+ souls)? Stop hoarding and spend — buy the strongest available item you don’t already have.

Step 5 — Where to Find Good Deadlock Builds

The builds in this guide come from community-reported fan-site data, and that’s the key caveat: there is no official confirmation of these item orders. When you’re hunting for more Deadlock builds, apply the same filter you’d use on any community source:

1. Check the sample size. “61.6% over 435 matches” is far more trustworthy than a build with a dozen games.
2. Cross-reference. Items that show up across multiple independent builds — like Restorative Shot, Arcane Surge, Rapid Recharge, Spirit Shielding, and Heroic Aura here — are the safest picks.
3. Look for the creator’s usage notes. Good lists explain when to swap (e.g. “fight always with Echo and Toxic”), not just what to buy.
4. Re-test after patches. Community Deadlock best builds go stale fast, so re-check your list whenever item balance changes.

Quick Tips for Playing Graves

• Keep something dying nearby — every nearby death feeds your Jar of Dead, which powers your Deadheads. Farming and teamfights both charge it.
• Deadheads prioritize your weapon target, so focus-fire the target you want them to chew on and they’ll follow.
• Grasping Hands is your engage and your escape. The immobilize line is great for trapping a fleeing enemy or blocking a choke, and Alt-Cast lets you rotate the wall to match the terrain.
• Essence Theft rewards sustained trades — the longer you stay on one target, the more weapon damage and spirit resist you strip away.
• With a 56.7% win rate and a low 3.3% pick rate, Graves is community-reported as a strong but under-picked hero, so expect opponents to underestimate your area denial.