Hi I'm pretend (EUW). I've been playing Gragas now for around 2 years and he is my one trick mid lane, and although not a lot compared to other players, I have over 300k mastery points. What I may lack in terms of credibility with mastery points, hopefully I make up in terms of knowledge. For myself I believe I have a deep knowledge of Gragas, having been a somewhat active member within the subreddit and discord alike. So I decided to create this guide, so people have a better understanding of this off-meta pick mid.

STRENGTHS + High Burst damage + Flashy combos + Great cc + Built in healing / sustain + Great for engaging teamfights + Easy to play For me I find Gragas' main selling point for wanting to play him is his ridiculously high burst. With the items I mentioned above you can become an ap assassin, Gragas can utilise this immense burst to his advantage being able to pick off isolated enemy champions and completely 180 team fights. With him being able to 100 to 0 champions in teamfights this is where I believe his strength lies as he is able to completely wipe a team with a well placed bomba.

WEAKNESSES - Predictable - Immobile - Missed combos lead to death - Loses to merc treads - Relies heavily on his cc - Hard to master On the other side of things, Gragas can also be very useless during the game as he can be very reliant on team members. Gragas is mostly about setting up plays for your team mates, so if they aren't compitent enough to work with you its very hard to perform. As well as this, having to lone wolf with Gragas is also troubling since if you miss your combo, or land it on a tank, the enemy team can punish you extremely hard and look to take advantages as 5v4.

I want to showcase all the Gragas combo guides that have helped me so much. These are everything you need to master Gragas.

Youtube - Hoompty. Gragas guide that shows hidden Gragas Mechanics Play Video
Youtube - PanunuLoL. Showcases all possible combos. Play Video
Youtube - SloppyWalrus. In depth combo analysis and vandal bug mechanics. Play Video

Laning phase
During laning phase the best way to conserve mana and stay healthy is to only use W to farm minions. If the lane matchup is easy I might go for q poke trades, however do not try to trade as much as you will only put yourself at a disadvantage due to mana issues.

If I see an opening I like to force a trade, as with electrocute I know 100% of the time I will be successful in the trade.

If your jungler doesn't gank pre 6, play safe till then, constantly utilising passive to stay healthy. Play aggressive if they get into combo range and you know its safe, you will win the trade unless they have hard cc.

After 6 you can look for kills once you have . Try to get your hands on so you can add stacks with your kills. My go to is to:
> > > +
This should guarantee you a kill everytime, so far as the enemy hasn't built MR.

After 6 - Mid game
Once I have my unlocked, and with the addition of I can pretty much control the game for the most part. Its hard to directly run up to someone and just kill them as Gragas' abilities are quite predictable, for me reading the map and understanding the movements of the enemy is vital to getting sneaky kills.

I like to shove minion waves with + then roam into river, making sure to place wards in river brush or into ones above.

Here I either look to gank bot lane or secure scuttle crab, if neither are doable I hover river for 5-10 seconds keeping tabs on my midlaner so see their movements. If they decide to try and rotate bot lane in threat of a possible gank from you, you can wait in one of the bushes for them.

Using > > > + Will give you a free kill everytime.


Late game
This is where you will have your core build completed, you can pretty much one shot any squishy champ, just make sure you have up so you don't miscalculate damage.

Always play for objectives.

In teamfights if you have flash up you should always be able to get a pick onto someone, whether it be 1,2 or 3 people. Anything over 2+ people is perfect, remember you can use invisible barrel trick by hiding it in the middle of terrain, use this then ult enemies into it without them knowing so you can initiate a fight.

Similarly you can flash combo to detonate a nuclear reactor ontop of their team.

> > > >

For me its about being very sneaky, trying to access their backline without them knowing and nuking their carries. A cheaky way to do this if fighting around say dragon for example, is to use over a wall to get behind their team whilst your team have a standoff with them. Then either wait for cd so you can all in their team or simply just throw into them so they bounce into your team.