Gragas Build Guide by manco_capac

Introduction

The ultimate Bodyguard guide Introduction Do you like skillshots? Do you like giving a pass to your teammates with an enemy in your hands? Do you want to be feared on the map? Then this is your guide. After the 4.5 patch Gragas has become a CC machine! Barrel Roll slows, Body Slam stuns and Explosive Cask knocks backs multiple enemies! Gragas is my favourite champion because it has 3 skillshots (q,e,r), which make the game funnier and more challenging, and because he fights drunk, never mess with a drunk!

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Pros

+ Lots of CC + Natural sustain ( Happy Hour) + Excellent escape + Natural Defense ( Drunken Rage)

By lots of CC I mean he got a slow (q), a stun (e) and the multiple knockbacks ultimate (r). The passive is going to heal you through the entire game, health potions will not be required (only in early). You can go through walls with Body Slam, making you escape easily, or chasing too. Before initiating any fight, always use Drunken Rage which will make you absorb lots of damage.

Cons

- Hard to master ult - Rely on skillshots - Melee, poor Poke

Well, 3 out of 4 Gragas abilities are skillshots. The name already says, you need certain "skill" to properly use the ability. Once in a fight, if you fail the skillshots, you won't be useful at all. It takes some time to get used to them, but eventually you will mastery all of them. The most difficult skillshot is the Explosive Cask. The problem lays not in the "how", it lays in the "when". It actually may help the enemy if you knockback him backwards when being chased. Or if you knockback an assasin close to your adc, then you are in trouble too. Later I'll explain how to proper use of the R skill.

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Skill explanation after 4.5 rework

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happy hour: Now the passive has a cooldown of 8 seconds, that sounds bad, but now the healing is instantaneous (not over 4 seconds) and has been increased from 2% to 4%. Is it better now? I say yes and I will explain with numbers (correct me If you think otherwise).

With former passive, if you used Barrel Roll for example, and waited 4 seconds, you recovered 2%, then if you used another skill and you waited another 4 seconds, you gained in total 4% over 8 seconds.

But NOW, If you use any skill, you heal instantly 4% with a cooldown of 8 seconds. If you review this again, you will notice you used to heal the same amount of life, but over the time, and now it is instantly. And personally instant healing is much more preciated than healing over time (if talking about the same amount).

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barrel roll (Q):
The bad news: Poking isn’t the same. Base damage has been decreased also ability power ratio AND range! This must be the most nerfed skill in league of legends!

The good news: It slows enemy speed movement (not attack speed anymore). And also if you detonate the barrel after 2 seconds the damage and the slow are increased by 50%. This may not be useful to poke champions on lane game because 2 seconds is plenty of time for them to escape, but it is useful to push when needed.

Hey, this means they added some cc to Gragas Barrel Roll? Hmm… things are turning interesting.

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drunken rage (W):
Bad news: Doesn’t restore mana anymore and not every autoatack will be buffed. Also the duration of drunken rage has been reduced from 20 seconds to 3 seconds. You may be thinking, wow what may I do with just 3 seconds of being drunk? We’ll talk about it later.

Damage reduction keeps the same way.

Good news: They reduced cooldown much more, from 25 secs to 8 seconds!
Now Gragas next basic attack deals additional magic damage, which scales with ap AND, here’s the most interesting feature, additional 8/9/10/11/12% of the target’s maximum health as bonus magic damage.

Wait, this means a lot! Now Gragas has secured damage with Drunken Rage, even if not building ap, you at least may do 8% targets health (before applying armor of course) as damage every 8 seconds, and while you do it, the damage you take is reduced! . Not bad, Gragas is getting more interesting.

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body slam (E):
Bad news: doesn’t scale with ad anymore. Cooldown a little bit increased.

Good news: Mana cost decreased, base damage increased, ap ratio increased, cooldown decreased when collides. And the most interesting feature: now it stuns! Doesn’t slow anymore, instead it stuns. More CC to gragas skills!.

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explosive cask (R):
Only bad news: Base damage reduced and ap ratio reduced.

Still very useful for relocating enemies and initiate ganks or fights.

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Taking a review of all these changes, I look at Gragas and the damage output has been decreased considerably. Instead, he has gained some new CC and more sustentability due the passive healing.
CC + selfhealing = Support?? Could it be that Gragas…is viable as a support? Oh damm yes. And a frightening one. Let's check the combos!

UPDATE: 4.6 patch: Now while drinking with Drunken Rage gragas doesn't lose movement speed anymore.

UPDATE: 4.7 patch (07/May/2014): Explosive Cask range has been increased! Also Barrel Roll now offers vision :D!

Gameplay: The assisting formula

Laning, peeling and poking
Communicating with your adc partner is fundamental in this stage. Ask him if he's going to be offensive or defensive.

Playing offensive has pros and cons, the pro is that the enemy is going to get less farm because the turret is going to steal some minions, and also you have more chances to get an enemy kill. The cons is that your lane is going to be ganked frequently, so warding is important.

You have to weaken the enemy adc anytime there's a change. The standard combo ( Drunken Rage+ Body Slam+ bonus autoattack) does plenty of damage in a fast burst, you can do this and then come back laning anytime until the enemy has to return base or until you decide to take him off with your partner.

You can POKE with Barrel Roll after level 5 (3 point on Q) and the damage will worth, before it's not worth.


Abilities and Combos

Standard Combo: Drunken Rage---> Body Slam-->auto atack (with bonus dmg)

This combo is very useful in early to initiate fights or weakening the enemies, and it takes quite damage for being just a support. Remember, after Drunken Rage you just got 3 seconds for the autoatack bonus damage. It is best to hide in a brush before ejecuting it, if the enemies watches you drinking your movement may me guessed.

When to do this combo? Anytime in early game (lanes) you see an opening towards the enemy asp and your asp is well positioned.

Ultimate Combo: Drunken Rage---> Body Slam-->auto atack (with bonus dmg)---> Explosive Cask

This combo is very deadful in ganks and teamfights. It is supper effective against squishy champions. It is similar to the standard combo, but after the bonus autoatack you have to use Explosive Cask to move the target close to your team. Imagine you are in a basketball game, and you have the ball. The ball is the enemy squishy champ, which you have to knockback towards your team and they finally will finish him off. Using Explosive Cask is similar to giving a pass in basketball. For example, if your team is at your back, then you have to knockback your target backwards.

When to do this combo? When you see an opening to any enemy squishy champ (mid squishy or asp) and your team is well positioned.


Protection combo: Body Slam---> Barrel Roll

This one is intended to save your asp when being focused by an asassin or a jungle. It should give plenty of time to your asp to relocate again and attack.

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Tips and tricks

• Save Barrel Roll for chasing or when being chased. If you got enough mana and need to push, use it.
• When being ganked, Explosive Cask may save your asp (you save yourself with Body Slam)
• Explosive Cask is also useful for bringing enemies under your turret.
• Always heal yourself with Happy Hour when available. If you don't want to waste much mana spamming happy hour, use Drunken Rage to activate Happy Hour (no mana cost).
• You can also use Drunken Rage for bluffing when laning, in order to gain territory.

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Protecting your ASP

Sometimes you won't be the one initiating fights. In early, lets imagine your asp got stunned by Leona. What do you do? You got 2 options. Ejecute the protection combo, or do the standard combo to the opponent Draven or any asp. It depends in your asp's health and many other variables.

Lets imagine you are in a teamfight, and your ASP got ulted by Warwick.You can use the protection combo and your asp will be safe.

But the protection combo may be not enough if your asp is being attacked by 2 or more enemies. What to do then? Here comes in play Explosive Cask again. Ult your ASP in order to knockback all the enemies and save the protection combo for the closest enemy to your asp.

Which build and why?

I like this boots because of the tenacity. It allows you to counter CC more quickly and help your team in difficult ocations. Also they are useful because of the +25 mr.

A must have to any support (unless you are teemo). Giving vision of the map to your team avoids unwanted ganks and you get more control of the jungle. Always try to ward dragon and baron when alive or close to reappear.

As you can't farm this is a good way for earning money and also heals yourself considerably, which if you add to your passive is going to improve your sustain and make you forget about health potions, also you will gain cd reduction, which is very useful for a support. The active grants a shield to any ally which scales with your own maximum health and then explodes doing damage based on his ad and ap.

After stacking life with these two previous items and a bit of magic resistance, some armor is needed. This armor is the perfect one because of its CDR and offers mana which is usefull to spam our skills without getting ana hungry.

To get even tankier, this item offers armor and more life, and the lack of damage can be compensated with the sunfire pasive. Now the enemy is going to take a while before killing you, your presence is going to be more powerfull. Also the life is necesary to stack with the mountain active shield.

Summary

I didn't talk about runes, masteries nor summoner spells because I don't have much to talk about them.

I still don't know which champions may counter this tactics, I'm newbie at it.

This way of supporting is very fun I hope you enjoy assisting your team! If you feel complicated about managing the skillshots give it a time, it's just practice.

Thanks to jhoijhoi for doing the beginner's how to guide. It is very useful and easy to understand.