Hey, my name is acPWN30 and this is my build for AP Gragas. AP Gragas is one of the best pokers in the game and can stay in the lane for a long time while farming and harassing the enemy champions. With the nerfs to heal, Gragas has become even more powerful as his poke can't be healed off as easily. Gragas can be played in almost any lane and do well, but I personally prefer to put him in a 1v1 situation as his poke can make his opponents b and miss a lot of CS. Although his barrels are hard to hit at first, once you master them Gragas can be one of the most fun and rewarding champions to play.

As I said before, this build is focusing on AP Gragas and his amazing burst/poke. Tanky Gragas is an option, but AP Gragas is very bulky on his own and helps your team out more as his AoE damage is off the charts. You might want to announce that you are playing AP Gragas when you select him as I have been in numerous situations when people then pick all squishies and think that I can tank everyone on the opposing team. Hope you enjoy the build and then go on to master the art that is Gragas.

PROS:

-Scuba Gragas
-INSANE burst damage throughout the game
-Great at poking down enemy champions
-Can use Body Slam to scoot around the map
-Excellent Farmer
-Great Initiation
- Happy Hour and Drunken Rage allow him to stay in the lane forever
-Decently Tanky late game even when building AP
-Can use Barrel Roll to hit enemies under turret.

CONS:

-Dependent on being able to hit your Barrel Roll
-Slow auto-attacks
-People realize you hurt and start to focus you
-Can run out of mana easily if you spam Barrel Roll too much.

There are two ways that I feel are viable to build Gragas. The first build, the one that I use most frequently, focus more on rushing Deathcap for a lot of early AP and then continuing to focus on building ap. The second build is more of a focus on build him bulky early with less ap. In my opinion, the first build is better, but if you feel you keep dying early game and need more health in general, then go for the second one. You also dont need to follow this build exactly, as I will explain in the Items section, if you are getting stomped. If one doesn't work for you, you can always try the other.

Build 1:

This rune setup maximizes Gragas's damage output by using AP and Magic Pen to make him hit like a truck.

I snag the magic pen reds on Gragas because it makes it a lot easier to kill tankier champs early game and late game.

For the yellows I grab the AP at level 18. This scales really well and helps him become an insane late game burster.

As with the yellows, I get the AP at level 18 blues, again this helps with his burst.

For my quints, I take the flat AP to help with early game Barrel Roll and poke.

Build 2:

Similar to build 1, but instead of going for flat AP quints, I recommend going for the health quints to make you a bulkier champ and harder to kill.


I snag the magic pen reds on Gragas because it makes it a lot easier to kill tankier champs early game and late game.

For the yellows I grab the AP at level 18. This scales really well and helps him become an insane late game burster.

As with the yellows, I get the AP at level 18 blues, again this helps with his burst.

For my quints in this build, the health helps with being tankier early game and a little late game.

For both builds, the masteries are the same. This is also very similar to the standard build for AP casters. In the offensive tree, I take 3 points in Archmage's Savvy to maximize his damage output. The one point in Cripple helps with Exhaust, so if your are not using it then you can put that point into Deadliness . Putting 4 points in Sorcery reduces the cooldowns of all of his abilities so he can be putting out more damage more often. After that, I would recommend taking the 1 point in Archaic Knowledge as the 15% magic pen is VERY helpful against tanky champs. Moving into the Utility tree, I take 3 points in Good Hands because 10% death time reduced is a lot of time late game and really adds up over the game. After that i take 1 point in Perseverence because it works really well with his passive Happy Hour and his ability Drunken Rage to make him stay in lane longer. I take 1 point in Haste because it lengthens your Ghost. If you aren't using Ghost then you can put the point elsewhere. In the next tier, I take 4 points in Awareness because more xp means faster leveling which leads to better abilities. Generally a good call. After that, I take 1 point in Greed because that gold starts to add up over time, and you need gold to buy items so it really helps. I take 3 points in Meditation to help regen mana so you can use your abilities more often without worrying about having blue constantly or using your abilities almost never. I take 1 point in Utility Mastery so that when you do get blue buff or baron, it lasts that much longer. Three points in Quickness helps so you can move faster, whether its catching up to an enemy champ or dodging skill shots, movement speed is always helpful in surviving and getting kills. I take 3 points in Intelligence to further reduce Gragas's cooldowns so that he can again, put out more damage. After that the 1 point in Presence of the Master reduces summoner abilities, which are one of the most helpful things in the game.

The summoner spells that I usually go with are Ghost and Exhaust, but I am providing a full list of summoner spells so you can choose what works for you. The list is divided in to three sections: Good, Bad, and Decent. In each of the sections, the top summoner spell is the most useful in my opinion and the bottom is the least useful.

Good

Ghost is very useful on Gragas. You can use ghost to both catch up to enemies for the kill or to get away from sticky situations. This will help you get kills and die less often, isn't that what everyone wants?

Exhaust can be used to slow down champions and to reduce the damage of people who are hurting you. I find exhaust useful because it keeps enemies slowed along with your Body Slam. This also helps with champions who deal a lot of damage. It keeps them down for long enough for you to burst them down or push them away with your ult.

Flash is a useful skill on any champion, providing an escape mechanism and a way to catch up to enemy champions. Flash is good on Gragas, but his Body Slam allows him to pass through walls so in my opinion Ghost is a better choice. Personal preference.

Gragas is a bursty champion, so I can usually use that to my advantage to finish off champions, but if you feel like your enemies are constantly getting away with no health, then you can use Ignite. This also helps with champions with a lot of lifesteal like Warwick.

I have never been fond of Teleport, but it is quite useful in getting to your lane quickly to prevent turret damage or to pick up turret kills on pushed lanes. Personally I find other spells more useful, but it can work well on Gragas especially if you are put in a solo top lane.

Decent:

Clarity can work for people who find that they are spamming their abilities too much and are constantly out of mana, but I find that Drunken Rage Provides enough mana to hold me over.

Fortify can be useful for saving a tower, but I again feel like its just not really needed on Gragas specifically.

Cleanse can be useful if you are in the midst of things being focused, but i like to stay on the outside of fights and throw in my barrels to deal lots of damage without taking that much myself so I don't really need it.

Bad:

This skill should be picked up by supports, not you. If you feel you are getting ganked, buy more wards!!!

Heal can be useful early game to prevent dying and maybe trick your enemies and pick up a kill, but its just nowhere close to as good as the other spells in the grand scheme of things.

Yeah revive just isn't that good of a summoner spell.

Rally on Gragas does almost nothing. His AS is very slow and he scaled off AP.

Jungle Gragas is possible, but were not building him here.

Overall Build

This build provides a large amount of AP with lots of added benefits to make Gragas the amazing champ that he can be.

To start off, i buy a and head off to my lane. After that, you have some options.

Aim for first trip back:


What you should have after second trip back:


if you cant afford that, then try for


After that, I try and get my Rabadon's Deathcap. Your Build at this point should look like this:

At this point, your barrels will HURT.

From here, its up to you, but i usually go with either


or


After that you should try not to go back until you can afford your Rylai's, which helps by slowing down the enemy champions and also provides you with a large amount of health. Your build should now look like this


After that, I try and stay out until I can afford another or just buy my Your build should now be:


I then sell one of my and replace it with either a or a . If they are dealing a lot of Damage in the form of AD, get the . Otherwise, get .
Your build:


I then make it a Zhonya's Hourglass


If you ever get this far, sell your other and replace it with

You should end with:

Overall Build

This build is focused on becoming tankier early and then maximizing your AP and Survivability

To start off, i buy a and head off to my lane.

Aim for first trip back:
Catalyst the Protector
This provides a tanky start so you dont die as often.

By the second trip back, you should have

or
Catalyst the Protector

From there, I rush Deathcap for a lot of AP.


Like build 1, you then want to go for Rylai's:


or


into


After that, I try and stay out until I can afford another or just buy my Your build should now be:


From here, i sell my and either get or a . If they are dealing a lot of Damage in the form of AD, get the . Otherwise, get .

or


Your final build should be:

Passive: Happy Hour

Gragas takes a drink from his cask every time he uses an ability, restoring 2% of his maximum health over 4 seconds.

This passive makes it so that Gragas can lane for a much longer time. Whenever he casts an ability, he regains health. This encourages you to use your abilities as you can regain health when you do.

Barrel Roll

Gragas rolls his cask to a target location, which can be activated again to explode after arriving or will explode on its own after 5 seconds, dealing 85 / 135 / 185 / 235 / 285 (+90% of ability power) damage and slowing the attack speed of enemies struck by 20 / 25 / 30 / 35 / 40% for 3 seconds.

This is the ability you will be using to deal the most damage. Gragas rolls out his barrel and explodes it when you want to. I usually find that exploding it right away is the best because it hits people without giving them a chance to get out of range. You can also use it to zone out enemy champions by rolling it and leaving it to block their paths. You will be leveling this skill first.

Drunken Rage

Gragas guzzles down brew from his cask, channeling for 1 second. He gains 30 / 45 / 60 / 75 / 90 mana while channeling, and becomes empowered after finishing, increasing his attack damage by 30 / 40 / 50 / 60 / 70, and reducing damage taken by 10 / 12 / 14 / 16 / 18% for 20 seconds.

Drunken Rage is used to regen massive amounts of mana and to add bulk to yourself. As it is free to cast, you should be casting it whenever you can to regen mana and keep your buffs up. Very useful and allows Gragas to stay in lane for longer. Level this second after your Barrel Roll

Body Slam

Gragas charges forward, colliding with the first enemy unit he hits and dealing 80 / 120 / 160 / 200 / 240 (+50% of ability power) (plus 0.66 per attack damage) to enemies in the area. Damage is split amongst targets hit, minimum 50 / 75 / 100 / 125 / 150 damage. Units hit by Body Slam are slowed by 35% for 2.5 seconds.

This is a one point wonder early game that actually deals a good amount of damage late game. It is useful for getting over walls, catching up to enemies, and also slowing them and dealing damage if you can hit them. Take one point at level 4 and then level it up last.

Ulti: Explosive Cask

Gragas throws his cask to a location, which explodes on impact, dealing 200 / 325 / 450 (+100% of ability power) magic damage to all units struck, knocking them back.

This is the game changer. Deals insane amounts of burst damage and knocks enemies away from the barrel's location. You can use this for multiple reasons. You can use it to pick up a kill, split enemy teams, push a champ to you so you can burst/catch them, or save yourself/a teammate by pushing away enemy champions, and my personal favorite-laying down a barrel so they think they are save and then using this move to push them into the barrel for the kill. Amazing move overall.

Gragas can lane in almost any place. He makes a great mid as he can poke down the enemy champion very easily from a distance. Solo top is also a great choice for similar reasons. As a lane partner, Gragas is good because his barrels deal AoE damage and can hit two people at once. You can almost never go wrong with Gragas, however I enjoy playing him 1v1 the most as his poke denies enemy champions very easily.

When in the lane, you want to mainly focus on farming to get insane amounts of ability power as early as possible. Use your Barrel Roll and your hard-hitting auto-attacks to bring the minions down. You always want to get the last hit on them as it gives you gold. As the game progresses, Barrel Roll will start to take out entire minion waves without difficulty. If the enemy champion is harassing you, or you find it easy to hit them with your barrels, throw a couple at them to try and zone them out/possibly pick up the kill if you can. Gragas is very good at poking enemy champions from a distance and so he makes a great laner. If your jungler or teammate is going to gank your lane, you should always try to poke down the enemy champion before hand to make the job easier. Try and pick up the kill as fed Gragas is very very powerful.

You should always try and get blue buff whenever possible as it allows you to lane even longer with mana regen and decreases cooldowns so that you can use your abilities more often. Ask someone to help kill it if you cant do it on your own, but Gragas is pretty tanky so he should be able to get it by himself.

Gragas is amazing in team fights. Before the team fight starts, you should try and get in a Barrel Roll or two to try and bring down the enemy team. Gragas's Explosive Cask is a great skill to use for initiation. You can send a couple of the enemies flying towards your team and make the team fight easy for you. If someone else initiates, you want to use Explosive Cask to either split up the enemy team or to pick up several kills all at once. After you have used Explosive Cask you want to stay out of the middle of the fight and throw your barrels down until the enemies are dead. If you can single out a target Body Slam them to slow them and then use Barrel Roll and Body Slam to secure the kill. You generally want to focus the squishy champions as they usually deal the most damage and are easily countered by your burst.

Overall, AP Gragas is one of the best nukers in the game with great poke and lane sustainability. He can stay in lane forever and poke down enemy champs while farming all along the way. Late game, he hits like a truck, but his barrels are also very dangerous early game. Scuba Gragas is the best skin of all time, so that makes Gragas one of the best champions of all time. Even if you aren't doing too well, its fun to play AP Gragas and watch the squishy champs fall to your barrels of doom. He is a great pick for both ranked games and pub games and now that heal is nerfed, he could be one of the better champion selections at this time. PLAY GRAGAS. GET SCUBA GRAGAS. Enough Said. Hope you enjoyed my guide for an ultra fun and hopefully successful experience as Gragas, The Rabble Rouser.