How to win the jungle race as Graves against Brand · Matchup data reviewed on patch 26.15
Read from Graves's seat: the race windows this plan plays for against Brand.
| Stage | Read | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Level 1 Clear | Graves Favoured | End of the Line plus knockback autos shred melees holding a buff pit, but the Sear into Conflagration point-click burst wins the level-1 stat check. You still win the straight exchange at the first buff; keep it short, keep it decisive, and keep the scuttle line yours. |
| Level 2 Skirmish | Graves Favoured | Quickdraw (E) True Grit armor stacking lets you out-trade in tight jungle lanes. Brand can make it awkward — the E-Q ablaze stun rotation removes half your HP in a single combo — but not with one camp still up on both sides. Trade, then walk away with the second buff and the tempo that comes with it. |
| Level 3 Route | Graves Dominant | Smoke Screen's blind caps a kit that wins almost every close-quarters exchange, while the full E-Q stun rotation is their burst window before sustain kits stabilize. Only one of those wins at the opening scuttle, so press it: take the level-3 river fight, then leave with the first scuttle and the gank window behind it. |
| Levels 4-5 Macro | Graves Dominant — Keep Fighting | You are the stronger side all through 4-5. Brand knows it — he converts 4-5 into cross-map 2v2s where a Conflagration bounce off a laner does most of the damage — so shadow that side of the map and make them fight you anyway. |
| Level 6 Breakpoint | Collateral Damage Favoured | Collateral Damage adds a dash-reset execute to your close-range shred. Pyroclasm bounces win every 2v2, so the margin is real but narrow: fight when your ultimate is up and Pyroclasm is the one on cooldown. |
| First Item Spike | Youmuu's / Umbral Glaive Spike | Completing your core lethality component grants a devastating physical damage and armor penetration spike that completely destabilizes their defensive stat builds. Your camp clearing mechanics become completely automated, letting you wipe whole sides in seconds before invading deep into their jungle tracks. Brand's first item makes the Sear-into-Conflagration rotation a full health bar on a squishy, with no auto-attacks needed. |
| 2+ Items Scaling | Even Scaling — Prep Decides | Neither of you out-scales the other. He deletes a clumped fight with a Pyroclasm bounce and needs no auto-attacks to do it, so the late game is decided by who starts the fight, not who wins the stat sheet. |
Start your clear at the Red Buff camp — Quickdraw (E) refreshes its own cooldown and resistance boost on a hit, which keeps your armor/MR up through the first two camps — then continue down toward the scuttle crab. Brand clears with Pillar of Flame and Conflagration and is healthy at three, but the clear costs him most of his mana.
Ranked by the race windows in Graves's plans — the jungle race carries no win-rate sample.
The full Graves vs Brand report continues with scuttle & dragon rules, invade windows and safety boundaries, the top-side objective fight, macro rotations and the win condition — plus the live enemy-jungle tracker that shows their start, clear and gank timers in game.
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Graves's race plan controls 6 of the 7 windows — Graves holds the tempo advantage in this jungle matchup.
Not exactly — Graves's race plan controls 6 of the 7 windows, so Brand is playing catch-up and has to lean on the map.
Graves takes Fleet Footwork on the Precision tree with Triumph, Legend: Alacrity and Coup de Grace, and Domination secondary (Sudden Impact and Treasure Hunter) vs Brand.
Start Mosstomper Seedling + Health Potion and back for Serrated Dirk / Cloak of Agility — keep full-clearing into invades. Build Youmuu's / Umbral Glaive first, then Infinity Edge, with Plated Steelcaps / Berserker's Greaves.
Playing the other side? Brand vs Graves guide →
All Graves jungle matchups →
More Graves jungle matchups: vs Zyra · vs Amumu · vs Bel'Veth · vs Briar · vs Diana · vs Ekko