Talk:Graves/@comment-5077844-20150129203117/@comment-26001789-20150130013253

It's a metashift. Graves wasn't picked because traditional Caster Carries and Hypercarries were good enough back when BT and BOTRK were pretty cost effective items. BT gave AD and LifeSteal, good enough stats for Casters like Ezreal and Draven along side Varus. BOTRK made Vayne and Varus pretty good duelists and along side sustain supports such as Nami, Sona and Kill Lanes such as Leona and Thresh, it made Graves laning much more difficult to compensate. Then, by Worlds S3, TriForce was buffed and suddendly, Corki and Kog'Maw came back, alongside newcomer Lucian who did everything every ADC wanted. That alone made Graves a pretty bad pick overall since he didn't even use those items(he casts spells, sure, but his AA Range is poor and he doesn't use LifeSteal all that well because his sustained damage is pretty poor for an ADC, he would rather kill you in a swift combo than fight you to the death).

Season 4 came along and a lot of things happened. Caster Carries where shifted and Lucian was "reworked". Crit and safety became much more prevalent and a lot of HyperCarries form olde Season 1 came back. Caitlyn, Tristana, Twitch and Kog'Maw, still just as strong with TriForce due to an overloaded kit, dominated. Graves did fine against them for the early game, but didn't really hold up too well in the lategame, where ADCs mattered the most. He was definetly buffed but directly and indirectly due to IE being overall buffed and his synergy with it, along side BT and BOTRK being nerfed alongside Lifesteal. He didn't catch up because a lot of HyperCarries were still pretty dominant and Lucian, as nerfed as he was, would still beat him in the phase of the game where he matter the most: Laning Phase.

Then, it happened. Tristana was nerfed. Kog'Maw was made a Glass Cannon instead of a Ruby Cannon. Vayne became a "Skill based Champion" instead of a "Time champion". Lucian was finally nerfed in the phase where his strenghts mattered the most. Twitch was severly nerfed in laning phase while still promising him a superb lategame and a lot of his old counters from the support lane basically faded intro mediocrity. Janna arised once again and Thresh was made from a KillLane, to a support one. His time was to shine.

TBH, if you didn't expect him to arise after Crit Chance was made much more valuable of an Stat along side LifeSteal being nerfed, then, probably you didn't play BotLane the entire Season 4.