Graves vs Lillia — Top Lane Matchup Guide

How to win lane as Graves against Lillia · 37.5% win rate over 16 Emerald+ games · Updated 2026-07-27

Verdict: Lillia is favoured — Lillia owns 5 of the 7 game windows to Graves's 1. Play it patient and win your windows. Graves wins 37.5% of games vs Lillia in top lane (16 Emerald+ games analysed).

Favour timeline — who owns each window

StageFavouredWhy
Level 1Even / skillLevel 1 you both have one ability and short effective range — she can Dream Dust-poke but has no W move speed yet, so the first trade is a genuine wash before her kite comes online.
Level 2LilliaShe picks up W (Blooming Blast) move speed and her Dream Dust DOT starts compounding faster than a single shell volley can answer — she kites your first step-up.
Level 3LilliaWith Q-E-W she bounces away on every approach and re-pokes with Swirlseed and DOT; your two-shell magazine reloads while she resets the trade on her terms.
Levels 4-5LilliaTrue Grit armor is wasted against her magic Dream Dust DOT, and her W speed lets her slip your Quickdraw-and-shell windows through Levels 4-5.
Level 6GravesCollateral Damage is your one nuke that out-damages her kite — catch her after a Swirlseed or mid-W-bounce and the R cone can delete her before she speeds away.
First itemLilliaEven at your Eclipse/Youmuu's peak she just W-kites between your reload windows and re-applies Dream Dust — your item spike cannot close the gap on her.
Two+ itemsLilliaHer R sleep into max Dream Dust one-shots you, and the Lvl 11/16 W upgrades make her uncatchable — she fully out-scales your point-blank range.

Early game (levels 1–5)

Lillia is an off-meta top pick, but she still out-ranges your point-blank shells and pokes with passive Dream Dust DOT, so the lane is annoying from minute one. Your one good window is Level 2-3: with Q and E up, drop End of the Line on the wave so the detonation slows her, then Quickdraw in for the 4-shell spread burst before her W (Blooming Blast) has any move-speed stacked. Do NOT chase past one Quickdraw charge — Blooming Blast hands her speed on every bounce and she'll kite you under tower while Dream Dust ticks. Your Smoke Screen blind is wasted on her ability-based DOT, so use the smoke to zone her off the wave instead of to fight.

Read the rest of this matchup

The full Graves vs Lillia report continues with the mid-game plan, the late-game and teamfight plan, every power spike to play around, and the win conditions for both sides — plus cooldown tracking and the live enemy-jungle tracker inside the app.

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Playing the other side? Lillia vs Graves guide →
All Graves top lane matchups →