How to win lane as Graves against Locke · 49.36% win rate (2,255 Emerald+ games, lolalytics, sampled July 2026) · Matchup data reviewed on patch 26.15
He's a 125-range mana champ walking into your poke — win the lane at range and never gift the one blink window that flips it.
Track: Locke's Q — Ritual Nails (10–6s cooldown). The nail marks are his whole engine — without 2-3 stacks on you his blink-in barely dents; sidestep the recasts and punish the ten seconds of nothing.
Read from Graves's seat: which stage windows this plan plays for against Locke.
| Stage | Favoured | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Level 1 | Graves | Level 1 is Graves — four pellets at point-blank out-trade his nail chip openers. |
| Level 2 | Graves | Level 2 stays yours: Smoke Screen's impact slow pins him, and his only exit is a flat 10 seconds. |
| Level 3 | Graves | Level 3 is Graves — dash AT him for two True Grit stacks and win it. |
| Levels 4-5 | Graves | Levels 4-5 stay yours on raw early trading power — keep forcing the exchanges. |
| Level 6 | Even / skill | Level 6 evens things out — his ult threat now hangs over trades you used to win for free, and your raw-damage lead thins. |
| First item | Locke | First item is Locke's window — Purgatory plus his burst spike executes a squishy Graves caught below threshold; this is the danger stretch. |
| Two+ items | Even / skill | 2+ items returns to skill: your item damage trades evenly against his reliable execute — whoever finds the pick wins. |
Levels 1-5 you are simply the bigger bully: double-shell autos and Buckshot out-trade his chip, Smoke Screen blinds his answer mid-pattern, and Quickdraw armor wins the level-3 duel outright. Force a trade every wave and convert into plates — this lead is the whole matchup, because his level 6 rewrites the rules on you.
Pooled Emerald+ win rates from Graves's side, sampled July 2026.
The full Graves vs Locke 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.
Read the full guide — plans from $1.99/month →🔒 Secure checkout · 💰 7-day money-back guarantee on your first payment · ✋ Cancel anytime
Lane Pass $1.99/mo · All Lanes $3.99/mo · Annual $24.99/yr. Renews automatically — cancel anytime.
Nobody on paper — a 49.36% win rate over 2,255 games makes this a coin flip decided by play, not champion select.
Yes — Graves vs Locke is a genuine skill matchup: 49.36% win rate, and the favour swings window to window rather than being set at champion select.
No hard counter either way — the Graves vs Locke win rate is 49.36%, an even lane decided by execution.
Playing the other side? Locke vs Graves guide →
All Graves top lane matchups →
More Graves top lane matchups: vs Kennen · vs Kled · vs Lillia · vs Lucian · vs Malphite · vs Maokai