Gwen
Build Guide by NegativePhoenix
[14.9] Gwens Sewing Services [Toplane Seamstress] [Full AP & Hybrid Tank]
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Recommended Items
Runes: Go-To Runes
1
2
3
4
Precision
Resolve
+10% Attack Speed
+9 Adaptive (5.4 AD or 9 AP)
+10-180 Bonus Health
Spells:
1
2
3
4
Confident In Yourself
Ignite
Teleport
Items
Ability Order Normal Start
Thousand Cuts (PASSIVE)
Gwen Passive Ability
Threats & Synergies
Extreme
Major
Even
Minor
Tiny
None
Low
Ok
Strong
Ideal
Gwen
EACH MATCHUP WILL BE MADE AS DESCRIBED DURING THE LANE PHASE
Ideal
Strong
Ok
Low
None
Champion Build Guide
Ever since her release, I've had a shakey relationship with Gwen. Over time however, I've come to love playing this champion. She is a hard scaling champ with alot more versatility than she is given credit for.
Over the course of some months I've been experimenting with her to figure out builds that can work with her. After testing, AP obviously is her best build, however, she actually works as heavy AP/Tank Hybrid that can dominate opponents while also tanking the enemy team at the same time.
I'll be going over exactly what Gwen can do and how exactly you can use her to effectively provide her with better overall usefulness in your games in the coming times you're struggling to use her, or possibly even like using her in different ways you normally wouldn't consider when using her in your games.
Over the course of some months I've been experimenting with her to figure out builds that can work with her. After testing, AP obviously is her best build, however, she actually works as heavy AP/Tank Hybrid that can dominate opponents while also tanking the enemy team at the same time.
I'll be going over exactly what Gwen can do and how exactly you can use her to effectively provide her with better overall usefulness in your games in the coming times you're struggling to use her, or possibly even like using her in different ways you normally wouldn't consider when using her in your games.
Gwen is a very versatile champ from what I've experimented in, rather her being a full AP Bruiser who melts your team down in the late game, or being a frontline tank who's tanking the entire team yet still somehow outdamaging the ADC.
She can have a presence that isn't fully capable of doing EVERYTHING, but can heavily influence the game if done right and choosing the right build path. She can easily be the AP bruiser doing full damage to the enemy, or frontlining the enemy team for her team doing damage and also somehow outliving everyone because she's too beefy.
Alot of this may make you say "Really? She's a decent tank?" but trust me it's not weird for a tank to have damage and even if she's meant to be full AP bruiser it doesn't mean she can't off-meta tank as needed and I've tested it to find it useful in situations
She can have a presence that isn't fully capable of doing EVERYTHING, but can heavily influence the game if done right and choosing the right build path. She can easily be the AP bruiser doing full damage to the enemy, or frontlining the enemy team for her team doing damage and also somehow outliving everyone because she's too beefy.
Alot of this may make you say "Really? She's a decent tank?" but trust me it's not weird for a tank to have damage and even if she's meant to be full AP bruiser it doesn't mean she can't off-meta tank as needed and I've tested it to find it useful in situations
-Anti-Tank Scaling: Gwen has amazing scale into the mid-late game, especially if you're building up alot of health. Once she has her first 1-2 items, her damage makes it hard to 1v1 her. Even fighting her with others can be difficult if she's given a chance to get far enough ahead.
-Overall Strong Scaling: Even against a team with little to no tanks, if you're capable of building up the damage Gwens a force. Great frontline and a W to make sure you choose the ranged fights or they come into your zone. Even if you get behind on her, given enough time you can easily start to overtake enemies.
-Adaptable To Situations: Gwen can work in multiple positions. She can be heavily team oriented due to her healing and true damage she gains from her Q and the burst her ult gives along with scaling well even if her last 2-3 items are altered. If you need a splitpusher, guess what? She's the one on your team to do it. Her buff to her E gives you decent cooldown back on your E from hitting something after dashing, so when her E hits level 2-3, you can easily just infinitely loop your E to shred towers and make the enemy realize it was a mistake to think you wouldn't be able to destroy it in time
-Impressively Easy Build Path: Gwens build path for her first 3-4 items is straightfoward, which actually makes her build easy to remember. Not only that, your only super expensive item is Riftmaker, and even then after you get that you get your full build insanely faster than some champs, hence why you scale so well
-Good Frontliner: Gwen overall, rather she's tank or full AP, is a really good frontline capable of making fights go in her favor of 1v1s due to her W making ADCs/Ranged have to get into her zone to fight her properly. Rather it's due to that or using the W for more buffs to her Armor/MR she's a force all around.
-Overall Strong Scaling: Even against a team with little to no tanks, if you're capable of building up the damage Gwens a force. Great frontline and a W to make sure you choose the ranged fights or they come into your zone. Even if you get behind on her, given enough time you can easily start to overtake enemies.
-Adaptable To Situations: Gwen can work in multiple positions. She can be heavily team oriented due to her healing and true damage she gains from her Q and the burst her ult gives along with scaling well even if her last 2-3 items are altered. If you need a splitpusher, guess what? She's the one on your team to do it. Her buff to her E gives you decent cooldown back on your E from hitting something after dashing, so when her E hits level 2-3, you can easily just infinitely loop your E to shred towers and make the enemy realize it was a mistake to think you wouldn't be able to destroy it in time
-Impressively Easy Build Path: Gwens build path for her first 3-4 items is straightfoward, which actually makes her build easy to remember. Not only that, your only super expensive item is Riftmaker, and even then after you get that you get your full build insanely faster than some champs, hence why you scale so well
-Good Frontliner: Gwen overall, rather she's tank or full AP, is a really good frontline capable of making fights go in her favor of 1v1s due to her W making ADCs/Ranged have to get into her zone to fight her properly. Rather it's due to that or using the W for more buffs to her Armor/MR she's a force all around.
-Weak Early Game: Level 1, Gwen can actually outrade some champions, but for the most part from level 2-5 she doesn't have the best lane phase. If you play super smart you're able to make it seem like your damage is impressive enough not to fully mess with, but don't fully rely on her E level 1 as due to previous nerfs it isn't its full potential anymore. Play safe, get some pokes in and when your jungler comes or you get them low enough at level 4, then you can try for a kill if you have a good matchup
-Squishy Champion: Honestly even around late game until you're full build, Gwen is super squishy. I have found a build with Sunfire that works well to make her more frontline powerful in terms of tank if NEEDED, but only if your team lacks any frontline period excluding you. Still, she's squishy all around but is a glass cannon to make up for it.
-Bad Blind Pick: With how many champs could counter Gwen if the enemy gets the chance to do it, picking Gwen blind is a heavy risk option. If the enemy doesn't know how Gwen works or her style and picks a tank, it's good for you depending on the tank. Still in the end, she's not the best to pick blind into so choose her first pick at your own risk
-Squishy Champion: Honestly even around late game until you're full build, Gwen is super squishy. I have found a build with Sunfire that works well to make her more frontline powerful in terms of tank if NEEDED, but only if your team lacks any frontline period excluding you. Still, she's squishy all around but is a glass cannon to make up for it.
-Bad Blind Pick: With how many champs could counter Gwen if the enemy gets the chance to do it, picking Gwen blind is a heavy risk option. If the enemy doesn't know how Gwen works or her style and picks a tank, it's good for you depending on the tank. Still in the end, she's not the best to pick blind into so choose her first pick at your own risk
Gwen can have several different jobs depending on:
-Your Teams Comp
-What is currently needed
-The Circumstances Of Win Cons
Along with several other options and events, but here's what you'll mainly run into as a Gwen:
Team Fighting Tank Killer
-Obviously because of Gwens kit, you'll always be the Tank Killer in the frontlines trying to help remove the tank from the picture so that it's harder to have them take everything from your team so that they die faster. You kep all the tanks in check as best as possible
Granted, there are times where you can get melted if you're not careful, but this is a situational scenario, however most games if they have any kind of frontline, tanks specifically, it'll be your job to handle them to the best of your ability
Splitpushing Distraction
-Mid-Late game you're not only hard to 1v1 but you're also a decent tower shredding champion that's capable of defending herself as needed. Gwen in the late game especially has little issue fighting on her own unless the enemy team has so much CC even your tenacity has zero effect on the outcome
However, when playing Gwen, you have the best chances of being the splitpusher [Emphasising IF IT DOESN'T SCREW YOUR TEAM in this sentence] in order to give your team a chance to get objectives, cause the enemy to split to choose between you and others, or even the best outcome: Getting a tower while doing the distraction.
The best time to splitpush is when Objectives are down or not possible without a risky team fight that cant be afforded and you know a team fight [though at this point should be unnecessary if no objectives are up or low] is about to break out. Even sometimes your team will tell you to keep pushing while they distract if they can peel for themselves. Overall you just have one of the better splitpushing potentials as you can easily do so AND take down an enemy if they are alone or aren't careful enough.
Frontline Tank
Now this part confuses people, obviously, but here's what I'm going to tell you now:
Tank Gwen is not a troll decision
Granted, it is if you're first timing it in a ranked game as it takes a while to adjust to and get down to an extent that you can make it useful in a team. However, when you take the time to learn it, learn when to use it and how effeciently it can be for your team, you'll realize how amazing it can actually end up being
Gwens damage scales heavily and it's meant to do that, actually to the point you can go with just Nashors and Cosmic as your two AP items and you'd still do the most damage.
Now do take note: The tank build should mostly be used if you have no frontlines to tank for your team, no other bruisers, or your only frontline is a support who can't do much once their abilities are down and out.
In the end though this is easily one of the underestimated off-meta choices that can greatly influence a fight if you do it well enough.
-Your Teams Comp
-What is currently needed
-The Circumstances Of Win Cons
Along with several other options and events, but here's what you'll mainly run into as a Gwen:
Team Fighting Tank Killer
-Obviously because of Gwens kit, you'll always be the Tank Killer in the frontlines trying to help remove the tank from the picture so that it's harder to have them take everything from your team so that they die faster. You kep all the tanks in check as best as possible
Granted, there are times where you can get melted if you're not careful, but this is a situational scenario, however most games if they have any kind of frontline, tanks specifically, it'll be your job to handle them to the best of your ability
Splitpushing Distraction
-Mid-Late game you're not only hard to 1v1 but you're also a decent tower shredding champion that's capable of defending herself as needed. Gwen in the late game especially has little issue fighting on her own unless the enemy team has so much CC even your tenacity has zero effect on the outcome
However, when playing Gwen, you have the best chances of being the splitpusher [Emphasising IF IT DOESN'T SCREW YOUR TEAM in this sentence] in order to give your team a chance to get objectives, cause the enemy to split to choose between you and others, or even the best outcome: Getting a tower while doing the distraction.
The best time to splitpush is when Objectives are down or not possible without a risky team fight that cant be afforded and you know a team fight [though at this point should be unnecessary if no objectives are up or low] is about to break out. Even sometimes your team will tell you to keep pushing while they distract if they can peel for themselves. Overall you just have one of the better splitpushing potentials as you can easily do so AND take down an enemy if they are alone or aren't careful enough.
Frontline Tank
Now this part confuses people, obviously, but here's what I'm going to tell you now:
Tank Gwen is not a troll decision
Granted, it is if you're first timing it in a ranked game as it takes a while to adjust to and get down to an extent that you can make it useful in a team. However, when you take the time to learn it, learn when to use it and how effeciently it can be for your team, you'll realize how amazing it can actually end up being
Gwens damage scales heavily and it's meant to do that, actually to the point you can go with just Nashors and Cosmic as your two AP items and you'd still do the most damage.
Now do take note: The tank build should mostly be used if you have no frontlines to tank for your team, no other bruisers, or your only frontline is a support who can't do much once their abilities are down and out.
In the end though this is easily one of the underestimated off-meta choices that can greatly influence a fight if you do it well enough.
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ALTERNATIVE CHOICES
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Combos
[WILL ADD GIFS EVENTUALLY OF COMBOS]
Gwen has a few good combos for in-lane and after leaving the lane as well, though sometimes tricky to pull off, but i'll list a few off-hand that you might be able to find online, discovered, or already have noticed but can't fully figure out
E->Q->Auto Animation Cancel
Pretty good standard poke combo for in-lane as Gwen. It gives a bit more DPS than just the normal E-Q and helps stack Conqueror.
To do it, simply E towards the enemy, Q and while the Q is going off, click the enemy champ. You wont notice the auto go off, but your E will still reset to the CD it's suppose to, because you weaved in an auto that had its animation cancelled out due to the Q animation finishing
Auto->E-Auto-Q-Auto
Pretty basic, not alot of chances to use this against certain champions but a good way to get off a bit of burst and stack Conq up fast. Probably the most simple combo to explain and pull off. Her E acts like an auto reset so you can get an easy auto in, and depending on when you used this, your Q can have 2-4 stacks already filled up for good damage
1st Ult+E->Q->2nd Ult->Auto->3rd Ult
This is a more "Show To Know" combo, but i'll explain it as best as I can till I add the GIF example.
This is probably her most fast paced burst combo. You'll use your first Ult and dash at the same time to get into Q range, Q the enemy [Preferably have 3-4 stacks up before going in for the best damage result], throw out your ults 2nd charge, auto and then finally your ults third charge. The damage is insane on this combo and you may need to practice it, but when you get the speed down, it is INSANE how hard she bursts enemies down
Gwen has a few good combos for in-lane and after leaving the lane as well, though sometimes tricky to pull off, but i'll list a few off-hand that you might be able to find online, discovered, or already have noticed but can't fully figure out
E->Q->Auto Animation Cancel
Pretty good standard poke combo for in-lane as Gwen. It gives a bit more DPS than just the normal E-Q and helps stack Conqueror.
To do it, simply E towards the enemy, Q and while the Q is going off, click the enemy champ. You wont notice the auto go off, but your E will still reset to the CD it's suppose to, because you weaved in an auto that had its animation cancelled out due to the Q animation finishing
Auto->E-Auto-Q-Auto
Pretty basic, not alot of chances to use this against certain champions but a good way to get off a bit of burst and stack Conq up fast. Probably the most simple combo to explain and pull off. Her E acts like an auto reset so you can get an easy auto in, and depending on when you used this, your Q can have 2-4 stacks already filled up for good damage
1st Ult+E->Q->2nd Ult->Auto->3rd Ult
This is a more "Show To Know" combo, but i'll explain it as best as I can till I add the GIF example.
This is probably her most fast paced burst combo. You'll use your first Ult and dash at the same time to get into Q range, Q the enemy [Preferably have 3-4 stacks up before going in for the best damage result], throw out your ults 2nd charge, auto and then finally your ults third charge. The damage is insane on this combo and you may need to practice it, but when you get the speed down, it is INSANE how hard she bursts enemies down
Gwen is a heavily versatile and underestimated champion in league. Everything I've described and shown I've tested myself and given my honest opinion over based off of usefulness of situation, power to her kit and overall how well it can help her scale in the entire game.
If you're looking for a champion that can melt tanks and squishies alike who will always be on the frontline, who also ends up being an AP champion when your team goes full AD while she also uses melee, then Gwen is definitely a good choice.
She is hard to learn properly and harder to master, but hopefully with this guide you can learn like I did on the best ways to use her and how to make sure you get the most out of her kit than before.
If you're looking for a champion that can melt tanks and squishies alike who will always be on the frontline, who also ends up being an AP champion when your team goes full AD while she also uses melee, then Gwen is definitely a good choice.
She is hard to learn properly and harder to master, but hopefully with this guide you can learn like I did on the best ways to use her and how to make sure you get the most out of her kit than before.
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