Hi everyone. My name is Feibzy, I'm introducing you to my Burst-kite mage Gwen build.

This build has been tested on diamond/platinum level players, so I can't currently say how well this build will work against higher elo players. But let me tell you why, in my opinion, this is the build you want to go for playing Gwen.

In order to answer the question "why this build exactly and not the Riftmaker + Nashor's tooth one", lets dive into analysis of the Gwen's abilities and weaknesses. Gwen is melee mage. Her survivability is decent, yet not fantastic. She has no Hard-CC what so ever. She got decent wave-clear with her Q. Ult is pretty interesting, yet it might look confusing/underwhelming at the first glance.

Since the release, Gwen had really low winrates across the board, at one point it was around 30%. The build people normally would go for would consist of: Riftmaker, Nashor's Tooth, Lichbane/Zhonya's and so on. And it makes sense, that this is the build people would go for once they saw what Gwen abilities look like. Passive provides her with % ap damage and health gain, E increases attack speed, W helps you survive while you furiously shred your enemies with auto-attacks.
Unfortunately, what ended up happening is, Gwen's winrate ended up being really underwhelming, lane phase extremely hard. Community started commenting on her weaknesses, such as: Lack of Hard-cc, Gwen getting easily kited if enemies are somewhat decent, etc.

And it makes sense. This Riftmaker Build ignores the weaknesses that Gwen has and doesn't try to fix them. It doesn't fix the problem with the lack of Hard-cc, and most-importantly, it makes you play like an auto-attacker. If you are low-elo player, this might actually work. But the higher you climb, the more mechanically advanced players become, and they kite/punish overstepped melee champions MUCH more.

And here we are. Let me explain in depth what were the main reasons for me to choose this build over the other one.

Main idea was to cover Gwen's weaknesses, which are:
1. The lack of Hard-cc.
2. Hard laning phase.

1. Lets start with the lack of Hard-cc. Everfrost is still extremely strong item. And not only it provides you with additional health and ability haste, but it also has OP active ability, which roots your target. This is the CC we were looking for. It might be hard to land sometimes, but it is better that nothing at all. Additionally, your E charge will help you get closer to land that active much easier.

2. It is not a surprise, that Gwen's laning phase is decent at best. She is melee, her resistances/health are not that impressive, the only heal she has is through auto-attacks. W works vs some match-ups, but in some cases it is completely useless, because your opponent is too close to you when trading. Because of all that, Gwen might get easily forced off the lane.
To fix this problem, we are opting for Teleport as the second summoner, we are choosing Biscuits for extra regeneration on lane and Cosmic Insight for faster Flash/TP cooldowns and less cooldown on Everfrost in the middle game.
Additionally, we are buying Kindlegem as our first early item, which will help us survive a little longer.

After playing this build for some time, I can easily say, that this item/summoner spell/rune choice works well, and it will help you survive if you play your laning phase mechanically well, and with the goal in mind.
And the next chapter, is about the goal of this build and about the way you should be playing.

Your first goal playing this build should be getting your Everfrost ASAP. Once you get that first item, you've become insanely strong, and, most of the times, enemies won't even realise how much damage you can actually deal in just a couple of seconds. Before we jump into combos, let discuss the way of playing the laning phase, because, to be honest, it is one of the toughest parts of the game.

Your goal is to buy Everfrost ASAP. Because of that, we must farm as good as possible, without risking our lives overextending while we are still weak. That means:
1. Use your Q to shove the wave
2. Use your E to reset you auto-attacks for faster clearing speed.
3. Use your W if you are playing are a mage and you are scared they might deal a lot of damage to you while you are trying to last hit minions.
4. Instead of using E to last hit faster, you might use it as a fast run-away option after getting that last hit.

We are playing with Teleport, thus the first time you use it might be actually to return back to lane when you got to critical health level. Ideally, at that point you should have enough money for Kindlegem.

Continue the process, play safe and farm. W + E should be enough for you to survive the laning phase, if you play and utilise her kit well.

You survived through the tough laning phase, got enough money to buy Everfrost. This is your moment to shine. At this point in time, your Q is almost maxed out, you got your low-cd ultimate, you got electrocute which you can easily proc, you got Everfrost active ability to set the combo up.

You should understand, that once you got your first Core items, your actual burst damage is a force to be reckoned with. And even if you don't one shot your target, you can easily catch up and finish them off with your E's and Q's, because you got so much ability haste that your Q and E cooldowns are insanely low ( Don't forget that you can cut the CD of your E in half if you auto-attack an enemy).
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Continue to farm, shove waves and look for ganks/tp ganks.

Compared to Riftmaker build, most of your damage will come from your Q and R. Additional damage of your runes and everfrost and, lastly auto-attacks, will help you seal the deal.
The way of initiating the fight looks like that:

Tip #1: If your goal is to burst enemy down, you might want to use first cast of your ultimate before the fight even begins. This way, once you jump onto your target, you won't have to wait for the 2nd and 3rd casts (which are the strongest in terms of damage).

Tip #2. If you have an option of setting your 4 attacks up (for the strongest Q), make sure to do it, because it will make your burst even faster/stronger.

1. Look for E into Everfrost active.
2. Make sure you hit the enemy, otherwise you have 2 options.
2.1. You can either fall back and wait for CD of Everfrost active ability.
2.2. Or you can continue the fight. BUT, you should know, that if you miss your Everfrost active, your abilities are MUCH harder to hit, and because of that you might get in trouble
3. Usage of W. If the fight is 1v1, it is your choice, whether you want to jump on the enemy with your W or not. In the case of 1v1, you might want to save it for a few seconds and not use it immediately, because it is useless if the enemy is alone and directly on top of you. After you jumped on top of the enemy, they got to low hp, and started backing-up while throwing their abilities at you, that is where your W might ocme in handy.

Tip #3. Don't forget that your W not only makes take no damage from abilities outside of the W range, but it also make you ignore those abilities at all. For example, Caitlyn's ultimate will fly through you if you are in your W... Mordekaiser's E won't pull you as well.

4. When you are on top of the enemy, make sure to use your Q and R the best way possible. And by that I mean, remember that Q becomes stronger with the more stacks you got. Speaking of R, don't forget to auto-attack in between casts.

5. Realistically speaking, if you are not full build, your burst won't completely one shot the target, but they will definetily be <40% if you used all of your kit correctly.
Once the initialy burst is over, your goal is to finish of the target by the remaining casts of your ultimate and dashing after them with your E, while slicing em up with your Q. But be careful with your Q, because when they are running away, it might be hard to hit all of it.

Once you've got yourself Everfrost, Lucidity boots and Cosmic drive, your ability haste is off the charts. This allows you to jump around the fight cast your E and W much more than normally you would be able to.

Tip #4. You can jump over the small walls using your E. It is extremely helpful to know, and can make the world of difference with how low your E's CD is (once again, remember to auto-attack once, if possible, in order to reduce E's CD).
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Lastly, Gwen has TONS of AOE damage. Always look for the fights where you can utilise that strength.

Here are a few examples of this build in the middle game teamfights:
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If you've read up until this points, props to you. Keep in mind, Gwen is high skill ceiling and the better you become, the more oppressive you'll be. Definetily give this build a try, you might be surprised by how strong it actually is.
See you on the Summoner's Rift!