User blog comment:Willbachbakal/(Champion Rework) Graves, the Outlaw/@comment-1920550-20150215080204/@comment-1330314-20150215174831

isn't considered a fully functional ADC because she cannot perform optimally with a full marksman build. Graves on the other hand, can build full damage and work fine, and I intend to keep that. I also think the comparison with Fishbones is valid, because unlike Fishbones, which gives Jinx a total of 700 range and therefore allows her to land AoE from large distances, my Graves is constrained to 450 range (so is the passive), and would have to get even closer than that to spray bullets behind the main target. I made specifically sure that Graves's passive wouldn't just work as a boost in lane, as it activates on combat with champions only, and ramps up twice as fast as it currently does. All of what I'm enhancing is basically what Graves does already, minus his current DPS and poke, which I'm removing, so I don't see why he wouldn't still be successful. Granted, he'd be more niche than he is now (he wouldn't be as versatile), but he'd be the best at what he does (all-in AoE burst).

I also disagree that Graves would be a fighter. Sure, he's a fighter-ish marksman, but that's something he is already with his current passive, except it's not implemented in a manner that encourages scrappy brawls. He also doesn't run along the same lines as fighters: fighters mostly just get stronger and stronger as fights go on. Graves needs his passive because, after his initial burst, he's going to have the weakest single-target DPS out of any marksman, and so would need to skirt along the front lines with a bit of tankiness before his burst comes back up. He would have clearer downtimes than he has now, and genuine weaknesses. I'd also be careful when saying that something "can't be done" in League, because that usually gets proven wrong very, very fast. is a successful marksman-fighter, for example, and champions like and  have proven that we can have functioning and healthy implementations of things like complex minion-mancing and global mobility. I see nothing wrong with the idea of a close-range marksman, particularly since Graves would be the champion best-suited for that.