Gragas Build Guide by Rowanid

Introduction

Hi everyone, I'm Rowanid and this is my jungle Gragas guide. This is the way I play him after the rework, because I don't like him in mid anymore. I like jungle Gragas because he brings a lot of CC to ganks with his Body Slam and his Barrel Roll. This is my first guide so I will appreciate any feedback you guys may have.

Updates

In this chapter I will cover any changes I do to the guide and any patches that may affect jungle Gragas

Updates

• 26/05/2014 Added Updates chapter

Pros and Cons

Pros Lots of CC Sustain with Happy Hour Safe initiation with Explosive Cask Escape/Gap closer with Body Slam Drinks scrubs under the table

Cons Needs items to be effective Deals little damage when built tanky Need to land the skillshots Duration of damage reduction has been severley nerfed

Runes

These help with early game damage, you can replace these with movespeed, attack damage, magic resist or armor quints.

greater mark of hybrid penetration These help deal bonus damage, however they are quite expensive so you can replace them with armor pen, attack damage or magic pen.

These are a must when jungling because otherwise you will take too much damage from the monsters.

These give a decent boost to your magic resist early and late so you don't die when ganking a AP laner, you can have all flat or all scaling, however I prefer to have a mix.

Masteries

I normally use 21/9/0 because it gives me higher damage early on allowing for more succesful ganks, however Gragas is very flexible (despite his weight) and can use many different mastery pages including 9/21/0 and 0/21/9

Skill Explanation

Happy Hour this heals 4% of your maximum health instantly whenever you use an ability, instead of 2% over 4 seconds. however this is on a 8 second cooldown, but is very useful to heal up when jungling and during fights.

Barrel Roll this causes you to roll a a barrel that damages and slows when its explodes, it will explode after a few seconds or when you reactivate the ability. The slow and damage increases the longer you leave it till it explodes.

Drunken Rage this causes you drink for 1 second gaining damage reduction and causing your next attack to deal bonus damage. This is based off the enemies maximum health so is very effective against large jungle monsters and tanks.

Body Slam this makes you leap forward knocking back and stunning the first enemy you hit. This is useful when ganking especially after slowing them with Barrel Roll.

Explosive Cask this is one of the safest iniates in the game, because even if you are low on health you can still use it unlike Malphite with his Unstoppable Force. this also has a relatively low cooldown allowing you to frequently use it when ganking.

Spells

Smite this is a must have when jungling, allowing for quicker clear times and securing buffs , baron and dragon. you must take this.

Flash good for playmaking and escaping, though Gragas does have Body Slam that is stopped by the first enemy.

Ghost as mentioned above Gragas does have an escape with his Body Slam so you can occasionally choose this over Flash.

Ignite again, replace flash with this if you want to counter jungle or secure kills.

Early Game

First Clear

You want to start at blue buff as that gives you increased mana regen and also means you have red for longer when ganking.

After blue either go to wraiths or wolves and clear that, so by the time you reach red buff your smite should be up.

After Second Buff Camp

Now you should look at the map and see if there are any enemies overextended or winning against your team, if there are then you should try to gank them.

If not then go back to farming your jungle until you reach around 900 gold or get low, then head back to get your first items. (normally Spirit Stone and Boots of Speed)

Notes
After the rework his first clear is pretty weak, however his clear gets much better after a few items and levels.

Mid Game

Continue looking for ganks and farming your jungle. Remember to gets wards around dragon when the enemy jungler hits 6 as some junglers such as Nasus and Shaco can solo with their ultimates or with the help of their bot lane. When your blue buff respawns your mid may ask for it, however if they are losing their lane then don't let them have it as they will probably just die to the enemy midlane and give them your blue. It will probably be better for you to take it and try to gank mid for them.

Late Game

Late game is normally when you have 4-5 items of your build and team fights are occurring. At this point vision around Dragon and Baron is important. when teamfights happen your job is mainly to setup a initiation with Explosive Cask and to peel for your carry with Body Slam and Barrel Roll.

Ganking

When ganking try to come behind the enemy laner so they have to go through you, then use Barrel Roll between them and their escape route. Try to wait as long as possible to explode it, increasing the damage and slow. Follow up with your Body Slam stunning them. if they are still alive then if you have it use Explosive Cask in front of them, knocking them towards you.

Remember if you have red buff or Iceborn Gauntlet try to hit them with autos between abilities to apply more slows.

When to pick Gragas

I would recommend picking Gragas when top and mid are squishy and deal AD damage. ( Yasuo and Tryndamere) This is also a good combo as Explosive Cask knocks the enemies airborne for Yasuo's Last Breath. And when the enemy has a lot of peels like Janna and Alistar where someone like Malphite might not find it that easy to engage. Gragas also isnt that vulnerable to counter jungling as he can duel pretty well and has a escape, compared to someone like Nautilus.

Camp Respawn Times

Camp Baron Dragon Blue buff Red buff Small camps

Spawn time 15:00 2:30 1:55 1:55 2:05

Respawn time 7:00 6:00 5:00 5:00 0:50

Summary

Thank you for reading through this guide, I hope you have enjoyed it and might see the merits of jungle Gragas. This is my first attempt at a guide so please instead of downvoting straight away instead leave a comment telling me what you don't like, and I will try to improve it. I will be adding chapters and updating the guide as I go, including ganking routes and an item guide.