Greetings, fellow summoners!

Because of too many bad Gragas' out there on the fields, I decided to write a guide of how to do it the GOOD way. This is my first guide, feel free to comment, rate and criticize it/me as much as you like after eading the whole thing. ;-)

Red: Greater Mark of Magic Penetration
I like my MPen runes. Explaines itself, I think.

Yellow: Greater Seal of Scaling Mana Regeneration
More Mreg/lvl can't be bad, provides you with a tiny little bit more mana to bomb the sh*t outta your enemies. You could go get some AP aswell, but imo they're wasted on Gragas.

Blue: Greater Glyph of Scaling Cooldown Reduction
CDR/lvl will let you throw your barrel in an annoyingly fast rhythm. Perfect harassing-runes.

Quints: Greater Quintessence of Health
Flat health is a good choice here. Others could make early game a little harder, haven't tried it yet.

Offense for the MPen, Defense for more survivability. That's it.
Don't like to get dodge in defense, 2% are just a joke and you won't get more.

Start with a Sapphire Crystal . It gives you a nice amount of mana and will let you stay in lane forever. Really. Next up, get Sheen + Boots when you can. Ask someone to hold your mid or wait until you killed your opponent.
From there on your build will be mainly influenced by the enemies. Many casters, go for an Abyssal Mask . Many nasty ADs, get Zhonya's Hourglass first.
If you are not focused by those stupid enemies, you could even get Rabadon's Deathcap ( NOT RECOMMENDED!) right after your Sheen . Yes, I changed it to Sheen. I noticed that getting Lich Bane without any AP is pretty much wasted... so after Sheen you'll get def which works awesome.
Get more def mid/late, you are still melee and will be right in the fight, so you need def! I've seen many Ap-Gragas' without def and cried everytime, because it's the worst thing to do with him. ;-(
Force of Nature is quite nice against casters and boosts your movement speed even more, which is awesome. But I usually don't get one of these anyway, only if my team has no pure tank.
Randuin's Omen and Thornmail are my preferred items against champions like Tristana, Yi and all the others. Bomb 'em to death while they beat the sh*t out of themselves.


Against casters and AD:
1. Sheen
2. Sorcerer's Shoes
3. Abyssal Mask
4. Zhonya's Hourglass
5. Rabadon's Deathcap
6. Thornmail / Randuin's Omen
7. Lich Bane

Mainly AP:
1. Sheen
2. Sorcerer's Shoes
3. Abyssal Mask
4. Force of Nature
5. Rabadon's Deathcap
6. Zhonya's Hourglass
7. Lich Bane

Mainly AD:
1. Sheen
2. Sorcerer's Shoes
3. Zhonya's Hourglass
4. Thornmail
5. Rabadon's Deathcap
6. Randuin's Omen / Frozen Heart
7. Lich Bane

Banshee's Veil

You can add a BV to the builds whenever you feel like you need it. Works good against Kassadin and Cho'gath.

Rylai's Crystal Scepter

I did not need nor use it yet, but I think it's quiet a good choice. Nice slow for better chasing and some health for more survivability are always nice to have. I would replace it with the Hourglass or the Abyssal Scepter. Nice to have against champs that deal pure damage, such as Cho'gath, Olaf and Corki.

Randuin's Omen

It's just so good on Gragas. In combination with your Q every melee champ is useless. 40%+35% attack speed debuff on near enemies. Wow.

Ghost and Ignite , I won't use any other spell.
Flash is not necessary, you've got your E-skill. If you feel like it, get it.
Any other skills are useless for Gragas imo.

Always go mid! Gragas needs mid, more than every other champ.
At level 1 just throw your barrel in to get some minions down and last hit them every time you can. But don't spam the barrel yet, wait until you reach lvl 2 and can get drunk. ;-)
Harassing the enemie is the key to pure ownage with Gragas. Your barrel will deal massive amounts of damage when skilled to level 3. Your health will be high all the time, thanks to the passive. Keep on drinking, it doesn't only provide you with some mana, it also gives you up to 70 AD and an awesome 10-18% damage reduction, which is huuuuuuuge. So drink it everytime it's up!
Hit your opponent as often as possible and try to get him low. Play aggressive. And get your first kill not later than at level 6. Smash in, throw your Q in and use Ignite and your ult, if necessary. Your ult will give you some easy kills all over the game, just look for someone with low health who's trying to flee and use it. It'll deal around 900 damage to squishies without def, that'll make them cry.
Most players in normal games will underestimate the strength of Gragas, use this! Your damage is insanely high and that annoying Karthus will be down before he's able to say "Can I have a drink?". ;-)

Use your Q-skill to harass the opponents before teamfights.
Initiate by throwing your ult in and pulling the squishies to your team/tower. Initiating is not always a good idea though. Only through it in if you can really push an enemie out of his team!
Help fleeing mates by slowing the chaser with your E-skill, but don't suicide. That's not worth it.

There are good and there are bad opponents for Gragas.
Harassing is your main objective, so everyone who restores his health very fast early game is bad for you.
I'll list a few of them:

Good:
+Karthus
+Ashe
+Lux
+Teemo
+Caitlyn
Those are the champs I experienced the easiest laning against. Killing them is just so easy!

Bad:
-Kassadin
-Mordekaiser
-LeBlanc
-Cho'gath
-Fiddlesticks
I hate Fiddle. I really do. He's the worst thing that could happen to you. BUT not impossible to get down with Ignite+Ult.

PRO
+ high damage
+ good survivability
+ nice harassment
+ can stay on lane all the time
+ good chaser


CONTRA
- He's too skinny.
-low health
-needs some time to get used to

Here's a picture of my latest games with this build. My teams sucked, sadly. But you get the idea. :-)

http://www.bilder-space.de/show_img_test.php?img=0154c2-1297285368.png&size=view

Thank you for reading my guide, kind sir. I hope you'll be able to improve your skills with Gragas through this guide and get some nice games. ;-)

Hybrid-Gragas works. Tried it in a few games and might add a build in the future.

Just as I said, feedback is very welcomed. Or something like that. :-)