How to win the jungle race as Nidalee against Graves · Matchup data reviewed on patch 26.15
Read from Nidalee's seat: the race windows this plan plays for against Graves.
| Stage | Read | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Level 1 Clear | Respect Graves | End of the Line plus knockback autos shred melees holding a buff pit, and Nidalee has no clean answer to it at the first buff — True Grit armor plus point-blank double-shot autos win any close-range brawl. Fight him in the open where his pellets spread, never inside a tight buff pit, and give up your opening camps rather than the kill. |
| Level 2 Skirmish | Respect Graves | The window on the second camp belongs to Graves: Quickdraw (E) True Grit armor stacking lets them out-trade in tight jungle lanes. Your own line is real — Pounce-reset cat clears let you out-tempo and kite the slower kits — but it arrives second here. Fight him in the open where his pellets spread, never inside a tight buff pit, then refuse the level-2 skirmish. |
| Level 3 Route | Respect Graves | At level 3 this window belongs to Graves: Smoke Screen's blind caps a kit that wins almost every close-quarters exchange, and True Grit armor plus point-blank double-shot autos win any close-range brawl. Fight him in the open where his pellets spread, never inside a tight buff pit. Give up the level-3 river fight and bank tempo on the opposite side of the map. |
| Levels 4-5 Macro | Respect Graves — Path Opposite | You lose the 4-5 duel. He uses 4-5 to take your camps, because True Grit stacking makes him the better invader — so let them have that half of the map and cash the other half faster. |
| Level 6 Breakpoint | Respect Graves's R | Graves wins the breakpoint outright — Collateral Damage adds a dash-reset execute to their close-range shred, and the R execute plus True Grit armor closes out any trade he starts ahead. Respect the burst threshold and fight him in the open, never the pit, then trade objectives cross-map until your items land. |
| First Item Spike | Lich Bane / Shadowflame Spike | Completing your core item triggers a massive magical damage and burst multiplier that completely overpowers traditional brawlers or assassin targets. Graves' first item is a large step in raw damage — the double-shot at point blank starts removing squishies outright. |
| 2+ Items Scaling | Danger — Graves Outscales | The clock is your enemy. He shreds anything in a corridor and holds a side lane against most of the map, so close the game on the first two objectives you actually win. |
Start your clear at the Red Buff camp to maximize early clear speed and health retention via E heal loops before executing a fast 3-camp clear straight into an aggressive lane gank or invade path. Graves has one of the fastest clears in the game — End of the Line through two camps at once means he is level three early.
Ranked by the race windows in Nidalee's plans — the jungle race carries no win-rate sample.
The full Nidalee vs Graves 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 pressures 6 of the 7 windows in this race — survive the early game and scale into your windows.
Not exactly — Graves pressures 6 of the 7 windows, so Nidalee is playing catch-up and has to lean on the map.
Playing the other side? Graves vs Nidalee guide →
All Nidalee jungle matchups →
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