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Gragas Build Guide by

Roll out some barrels! in-depth Gragas guide

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Gragas Build Guide By Updated on

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Spells:

Ignite

Flash

Items

start

first goals

mid - defensive item

damage item

last defensive item

example full build

boot's choice

Ability Order

Gragas Passive Ability

I have alcohol. Wanna some? I will give you a cask nevetheless.

"Sorry I forgot to tell you the barrel is full of gunpowder... d"

Introduction

Hello folks! My name is Vít Matějíček, summoners witekmat and nick on mobafire jungle everywhere (yes I am from Czech Republic, your browser or web may change some letters of my name...). I am a player (mainly jungler)not reached lvl. 30 yet :-(. I play Gragas for some time and I begin to love him quite fast. He is the kind of underrated, funny but strong type of champion but when you finally came to play with him you will love him. He absorbs most damage while still dealing enough to get kills. Look, he has gap closer, enemy-mover, AoE, protection and built-in heal. What else do you need?!

Pros / Cons

+ good tankiness
+ heal
+ some mobility
+ tool to get the enemy out of their turret / under your turret
+ "soft" CC
+ still enough damage

- early game mana issues
- Q does so little damage early game as it is the only harassment Gragas has
- the heal needs ability cast - you can run off your mana early and early/mid game
- people steal your kills
- sometimes you need to retreat fast with less kills as they target you in teamfights

Items

I usually pick a balanced build between AP and HP to be enough tanky to fulfill your role but damage rather than support items. You can have when your mate is AP or when the enemy stacks MR. Though, I suggest and because they give both AP and HP and a freebie atop. Your and will slow your enemies and you have pen. You don't need that big HP due to your as it protects for percent damage making it sometimes better than resists and HP. Most items are optional and depend on exact situation. Also a bit of extra damage can save your life.

Item Explanation

face of the mountain Essential item for most supportive tanks. Allows you to get all the minion kills and your ally gets the farm too. The active is nice in teamfights (it is AoE) and the self-cast is strong as you dive deep into the enemy team to absorb the damage. Use on your team's assasin is also very good.

It is cheaper than and you pick it mostly for the AoE and slow in it. You can change for or instead, however.

Pick when the enemy is AA or AD caster. Good for countering some AD or hybrid Carries.

For increased healing and some MR.

Very underrated item for AP tanks. Look, this gives you common AP (most items give you 70 AP. I know there are some higher-AP items), good HP and slow. You are going to pick this most time because it makes you tanky while still providing damage.

Pick this when your laning mate or most of the team is AP and the team lacks support. Or when your opponent's team is mostly MR tanks like . Not an item you will pick all the time.

Pick this when you are extremely fed and your team lacks powerful AP carry and the enemy spotted this weak point.

Pick this when you are fed enough you don't need much more tanky items but still you need to fulfill your role of tank. This may let the enemy waste their SS or AoE ultimates on your invulnerability.

Pick this when you are fed and the enemy is stacking MR way too much or has too much tanks as this is a kind of AP BotRK with a HP boon.

For heavy CC enemies and you really not doing it. Not pick when you already have .

Pick for way too much enemy bruisers or fighters and you not doing it. It is a close-combat tool useful for sustain melee fighters or tanks as they do mostly AD.

For the last item this is viable when you don't have this already. Pick this for casual games when you went more tanky before.

Pick this most time as the last item. It has some HP and Mpen and good sustained damage to counter tanks. Good for damage as late game most people have some MR. Kind of AP BotRK.

Runes

The best tanky rune quint around.

Some damage never hurt anyone. The best AP damage rune of marks, seals and glyphs.

The best out of AP damage marks. Though it gives less damage early game but considerably increases damage output mid to late game when base stats increase along with "lesser" stats on items.

This is for the early game boon. These flat HP runes fall of late game but early this can determine who will live.

Unique Skills

Gragas takes a drink from his cask every time he uses an ability, restoring 4% of his maximum health instantly. This effect has a 8 seconds cooldown.

A little heal after ability use. It has 8 secs CD, so when you come to spamming skills on minions for heal, do not waste your skills when it's on CD. Spamming skills on minions may run you short on mana so do it when you have full mana or late game.

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 80 / 120 / 160 / 200 / 240 (+60% of ability power) damage and slowing the movement speed of enemies struck by (30/35/40/45/50%) for 2 seconds. The damage and slow increase up to 50% based on the time the barrel sits out before exploding. The damage is reduced to 70 % against minions.

Your only harassment. Use this to safely poke champs under turret. Sometimes you have to wait for the right moment, sometimes activate it immediately. In a duel you have to seek the right moment when the enemy is going to flee to roll it before as it rolls very slow. THIS is the only bad thing. Also it does so little damage early game but you can easily deal with that. Goes on CD after detonation.

Gragas takes a long swig from his barrel, disabling his ability to cast or attack for 1 second and gaining (10/12/14/16/18%) damage reduction for 2.5 seconds. Upon finishing his drink, Gragas' next attack within 3 seconds will deal 20/50/80/110/140 (+30% AP) (+8/9/10/11/12% of target's maximum health) bonus magic damage.

This ability has pretty high cast time and during that second the enemy is doing full damage so cast that before the critical moment. Letting it for too little HP may result in death. Sometimes when you are on little health and laning with minions you can cast that for protection and heal.

Gragas charges forward, colliding with the first enemy unit. He deals 80/130/180/230/280 (+60% AP) magic damage to enemies in the area and bumps them back, stunning them for 1 second.

Body Slam's cooldown is reduced by 3 seconds if Gragas collides with a unit.

Great pre-ult initiation tool or duel initiation. Second flash, can pass through some walls, does even more damage than Q. Try to not waste this on minions as it has high mana cost and then it may happen that you cannot use this in teamfight and quick death is the result. You use this to pick the nearest target after bombing the entire team with as it does good damage and you will have it available enough fast for retreat.

Gragas throws his cask to a location, which explodes on impact, dealing 200 / 300 / 400 (+70% of ability power) magic damage to all units struck, knocking them back.

Most useful in those "draw" situation when both teams walk around with no one willing to get killed. This is your time. Just shoota cask in, spread the team, pick the nearest target and destroy it with . The farer ones are your assasin's task, the middle ones your fighter's and mage's. Also useful for pulling someone from under turrets and retreating before a mass of enemies.

Laning - Early game

Your Q as your only harass has high mana cost. Your E has high mana cost. W has low mana cost. Do not waste your E or Q on minions - Q will not kill them (usually) and E is too good to not have the mana to cast that in fight. Harass enemy champions by Q for some damage and slow. Pre - ult initiate fights with . It has short CD so you will have it up for retreat. Do not be afraid to use often.

Team Work

is a very straightforward champion with direct ability cast and gameplay. Your role is to initiate the fight, dive into the fray and absorb as much damage as you can before death, perhaps get some kills. Protect your carries by your body. Make them hit you instead. This is your role. Now how to fulfill it. You are viable both in duelling and big teamfights. You are vulnerable to hard CC when you haven't triggered before, so do it when you see someone with hard CC assaulting. You are going to initiate by your ultimate anyway, to pull the enemy out of turret, to scatter the enemy team, to enclose or knockback your opponent. Then into him, AA him for a while and then it's time to . Either when the enemy is retreating or was not hit much and is chasing you (not usual situation). And to anyway.

Farming

Early game this is your main problem. Early your does not enough damage to effectively farm and your is too rare to waste. Mid to late game this changes as you gain levels and AP.