How to win the jungle race as Graves against Karthus · Matchup data reviewed on patch 26.15
Read from Graves's seat: the race windows this plan plays for against Karthus.
| Stage | Read | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Level 1 Clear | Graves Dominant | End of the Line plus knockback autos shred melees holding a buff pit. Lay Waste melts camps at record pace, and before either of you has a second camp down that is not an answer. Take the level-1 crossing and make Karthus path away from the camps you want. |
| Level 2 Skirmish | Graves Dominant | Quickdraw (E) True Grit armor stacking lets you out-trade in tight jungle lanes. There is no version of this Karthus wins right now — Wall of Pain slows cover their disengage, and that folds on the second camp. Show on their side of the river and take 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. Later in the game this bites, because isolated Lay Waste double-damage adds up fast if you stand in his Defile zone. But as the first scuttle timer lands none of it is online, so take the level-3 river fight and tax every camp Karthus concedes. |
| Levels 4-5 Macro | Graves Dominant — Keep Fighting | Nothing about 4-5 helps Karthus here: he out-farms the map through 4-5 — Defile clears at a rate nobody matches and Requiem is coming, while you can take any duel you can reach. Invade on the clear-timer, not on a whim. |
| Level 6 Breakpoint | Collateral Damage Favoured | Collateral Damage adds a dash-reset execute to your close-range shred, while Requiem cashes their farm lead into cross-map kills. You win the breakpoint against Karthus, not the whole game — cash it on the first objective after both sides hit six. |
| 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. Karthus' first item is where Lay Waste stops chipping and starts taking a third of a health bar per cast. |
| 2+ Items Scaling | Respect Karthus Late — End Early | You do not want the late 1v1 here. He deals damage from anywhere and keeps dealing it dead — Death Defied buys the fight — so trade the map instead, and keep every fight a numbers fight. |
Start your clear at the Red Buff camp to maximize early health optimization via E shell resets, before executing a full 6-camp clear path straight down into the scuttle crab. Karthus has the fastest clear in the game with Lay Waste and Defile, and he will always be a level ahead if left alone.
Ranked by the race windows in Graves's plans — the jungle race carries no win-rate sample.
The full Graves vs Karthus 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 Karthus 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 Karthus.
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? Karthus vs Graves guide →
All Graves jungle matchups →
More Graves jungle matchups: vs Ivern · vs Jarvan IV · vs Jax · vs Kayn · vs Kha'Zix · vs Kindred