This is my firts Guide and it is made for the most misunderstood champion in the league: GRAGAS. I do not understand the whole Guide creating system on this page, so please be kind when this guide is not perfect in its appearance. When Gragas was published he was first constructed as a mid lane tanky mage. Due to my game expirience I found out that it is worst you can do to play him as a kind of off tank mage. Many play him as a full mage and that is not stupid because his skills scale very good with AP. But in my opinion I can say: Play him as a full tank. So why ???

Off Tank Gragas:
This is the worst you can do. In end game you will see that he is not tanky enough to stand in the first line of gangs and punchfests. On the other hand you will have not enough AP to do proper late game damage. Since we have horror late game champions i.e. like Vayne, Jarvan and Katarina, you can be killed in the late game in seconds. But in this time you simply output not enough damage to serve your team in any way. In my opinion Gragas is maked for gangs and punchfests that least longer time. Your aim as Gragas is to disturb the enemy team, creating chaos and flurry while your mates try to output damage.

Full Mage Gragas:
This is possible, but you will see that you dominate as Full Mage Gragas early and mid game. In the late game you are too squishy and a simple target for AD champions. Anyway serious killing damage will be made by other Full Mages, like Heimerdinger, Veigar or Lux.

Full Tank Gragas:
Here you will do not much damage but you can act like a Tank and archieve Gragas main idea: Disturbing the enemy team and supporting as a Full Tank. As Full Tank you can combine all skills very well. While as a Full Mage you only count on your barrels, as Full Tank you do not have to be afraid to do go into close combat with your "e" skill and the normal Auto Attack under "w" skill. "q" skill is nice for early game laning but will be totally neglecting in late game.

I take EVADE runes for essences and seals. This evading possibility combined with [*] Ninja Tabi is great for any kinf of AD and ranged AD enemy champions.

For MARKS I take attack damage flat due to the reason that I like to work more with "w" and "e" skill in early game than with barrels.

For Glyphs I take MAGIC RESIST FLAT to be more tanky against AP damage.

I take a 9/21/0 setting with focus on evading and live reg.

The best what can happen is that your enemy Team is full of ranger and Melee AD champions.

In this case you buy Ninja Tabi for evading, Warmogs for HP and live reg, Randuins Omen for Hp, Armor and live reg, Thornmail for Armor, maybee a second Warmogs or a Guardian Angel and Atmas Impaler to do recognizable melee damage in the end game.

Mostly you will encounter mixed AD-AP enemy teams. You will have to think about exchanging Ninja Tabi to Mercurys and ad a Force of Nature to your Items. If there are many AP damaging champions in the enemy team buy two force of natures.

WHY NOT ROD OF AGES AND RYLAIS CEPTER ??
Because this items are made for Off tanks. Yes, you will get HP and AP, but NO armor and no magic resistance.

WHY NOT BANSHEES ?
This is too expencieve and takes a whole Item slot :-). In my opinion Banshees is made for squishy AD or AP chars that wish to have some Magical defense. Buy a second Force of Nature as Gragas Full Tank and you will have more fun, believe me.

This is up to you. I take Clarity to solve Mana Problems and Teleport for fast shopping and regging and return or backdooring or to defend towers fast. I take teleport just for everything. It gives you great flexibility for many purposes.

I know this Guide is kinda poor and short. It is only like a comment for people that play often with Gragas and know the different ways to play him.

Thank you very much for reading.