Gragas Build Guide by Hi Its Frodo
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Starting Items
Core Items
Final Build (example)
Ability Sequence
Not Updated For Current Season
The masteries shown here are not yet updated for the current season, the guide author needs to set up the new masteries. As such, they will be different than the masteries you see in-game.
Masteries
Threats to Gragas with this build
| Threat | Champion | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|
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1
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Blitzcrank | Blitzcrank has terrible trouble against Gragas. His pull is easily dodged by Graga's E, and even if Blitcrank does land the pull, it only makes graga's job easier, since his ult will be much easier to land. |
Introduction
Hello, My name is Hi Its Frodo and I am a passionate League of Legends Theorist and Analyst. Today I'm bringing you a guide for 
Gragas support. After Graga's rework, He has gained a lot of cc, making him a very viable support. His kit includes a stun ( Body Slam) , a slow ( Barrel Roll), and a dispositional spell ( Explosive Cask.) You will be building him as a tank since he will be in the center of the fights, slamming into people and burning them alive with your 
Sunfire Cape. With this guide and a good adc, the fatman will be feeding his team kills all game! Please note that this guide will be expanded as time goes on. I also didn't add any information regarding masteries and runes because I feel it is pretty self explanatory.
Here is an example of a game I had earlier with Gragas Support.
| Blue Team | K | D | A | CS | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| S | Hi Its Frodo |
|
2 | 3 | 14 | 33 |
| AD | nem009 |
|
8 | 3 | 4 | 194 |
| AP | frosted gummy |
|
9 | 4 | 1 | 201 |
| J | Turle Daddy |
|
4 | 5 | 10 | 99 |
| T | Serdman45 |
|
2 | 5 | 12 | 178 |
Pros / Cons
Pros: Gragas is a good support because he has a lot of CC with his Body Slam, Explosive Cask, and Barrel Roll. He has an easy time peeling for his adc and also has good escape potential by using Body Slam over a wall if he gets in a tight situation.
Cons: Gragas has no Damage output, and doesn't have a lot of solo kill potential. He also has a relatively slow base movement speed. Also, if Gragas falls behind early, he will have an extremely hard time getting back up since he will be getting his 
Rod of Ages very late, in which point he will not have any stacks and be a very ineffective tank. He is also countered by some of the popular supports like Thresh and Morgana, which might not give you as many plays with Gragas support.
Items
I will give a brief explanation on each of the Items that would be good on Gragas support:
Sightstone - Pretty standard on supports. Since Gragas is also a tank, the extra health Sightstone gives you will help you survive in lane. This will eventually be built into a 
Ruby Sightstone.
Rod of Ages - This one is a little less standard on Supports. I think Rod of Ages is a good Item on Gragas because he gets a good amount of health, making him tankier, some mana so he can spam his Barrels a little bit more, and some AP so he does a little bit more damage. Overall this fits perfectly with his overall build and playstyle.
Sunfire Cape - Since you should be in the center of the fight due to you usually using your Body Slam then Explosive Cask as initation or peel, it only makes sense you mine as well do some damage while you're at it. Sunfire Cape will also give you some health and armor, making you even tankier.
Spirit Visage - The thing that makes me like this Item even more on Gragas besides just the fact it makes him very tanky, is that it's Unique Passive synergizes well with Gragas's passive Happy Hour. This can give him even more survivability in the middle of the action.
Warmog's Armor - Makes Gragas a complete beast. It should be one of your last items but the 1000 health will be huge late game. The unique passive is also good on Gragas because by this time he will have a lot of health from his Rod of Ages, Sunfire Cape, and Sightstone.
Talisman of Ascension - This item is good since it gives Gragas a quick speed buff which can get him in range to give off a good Explosive Cask. It also fits well with his disengage playstyle. The toughest part about building Gragas is to know when to buy 
Ancient Coin. This really just depends on how ahead you are and if you think you really need the extra gold.
Rylai's Crystal Scepter - The Unique Passive is what makes this item so good on Gragas. It further intensifies the slow on his Barrel Roll and also adds a slow affect on his Explosive Cask. It also gives you 500 health, which further helps getting Gragas tankier.
Ninja Tabi - Boots are the thing that varies most game to game. I mostly picked Ninja Tabi as the best boots to buy because you will be dealing with adc's most often, so the armor helps a lot. This can very game to game though if for example the enemy Ziggs or 
LeBlanc is very fed.
Thornmail - Insane amount of Armor, and also damage those auto attack based champions like 
Master Yi and 
Jax during fights. Overall good tank item.
The Rest of the items are pretty self explanatory, but if you have any questions on them message my LoL account Hi Its Frodo.
Summoner Spells
Here are the good and bad Summoner spells to get on Gragas.
Good:
Flash - Pretty core summoner on most champions. You can also make some nice plays with Flash and Body Slam which can get you a ridiculous amount of distance. Also needed for surprise engages with Explosive Cask.
Exhaust - Good Summoner on supports. Particularly good against strong all in champions like 
Fizz, LeBlanc, Vayne, and Jax. Highly recommended to take this.
Ignite - A very viable summoner to use as well. This goes particularly well with 
Caitlyn since Ignite gives vision, allowing her to cast 
Ace in the Hole. Also good with any champions with global ultimates like Ziggs and 
Ashe.
Bad:
Teleport - Not really gonna be used correctly as a support. You should be sticking around with your adc most if not all game. Teleport will most likely only get you killed.
Heal - Although not terrible, most adc's will be running Heal, and since Heal does not stack, it ultimately makes it a bit uneffective in most situations.
Clarity - You should not be spamming your Barrel Roll if playing Gragas correctly, so you really shouldn't be running out of mana, especially mid-late game when your Rod of Ages has high stacks.
Revive - Complete unviable unless in a troll game. this is pretty obvious.
Clairvoyance - You are the support, you should be Warding, not wasting a summoner to do that job for you. Also very unviable.
Skill Sequence
You should max your Barrel Roll first because it's slow percentage scales on its level, making it more effective for peeling. I would then max your Drunken Rage to help your survivability during fights. final, I would max your Body Slam last because only it's damage scales off of it's level, and you don't need to worry abut damage output. Obviously put a point into your Explosive Cask whenever you can.
Gameplay
Laning Phase:
Right when you get to lane, auto attack the melee minions with your adc. This is true with any support so you and your adc can get level 2 first and have a chance of having a good trade in your favor. Make sure you only help cs the melee minions so you get level 2, but not making the wave push too far. As you hit level 2 you should be in a position to Body Slam then Barrel Roll the enemy adc to leave them stunned, giving your adc some autos. Always make sure you have presence in the lane and stay in front of your adc at all times, since you are the tank. This is particularly true against adcs like 
Jinx and 
Ezreal so you can body block Jinx's 
Zap! and Ezreal's 
Mystic Shot.
Team Fighting Phase
Depending on your team composition, you will either be responsible for Initiating/Disengaging, or straight up peeling. As a support, you should always be peeling for your adc, but you have to communicate with your team whether or not you are the intiaton or not. For example, if you have 
Amumu as your jungler, he will most likely be the initation instead of you, meaning you are solely responsible for peeling for your adc. If you are the intitation, you should do the following:
1) Find whoever is carrying the hardest. This is the person you will want to zone out with your ult.
2) Try to get in a position to be able to Body Slam or even Flash Body Slam into that carry.
3) Throw your Explosive Cask directly behind the carry you just stunned with your Body Slam, separating them from the group.
4) after that carry is dead, move towards your ad carry and peel for him or her.
If your adc has bad positioning or is far behind, peel for the ap carry instead. This insures you are protecting the main damage dealer, there's no point in protecting a 1 and 5 Caitlyn with under 100 cs at 26 minutes.
ADC Synergy
I decided to put down how well each ADC synergizes with Gragas on a scale of 1 to 10:
Vayne - 6/10 - Gragas has a lot of peel potential which is perfect with Vayne. If she gets peel, she gets fed most of the time. Gragas shines late game as well, just like Vayne does. The only problem is if Gragas is the main initiation there will be a few seconds in which Vayne is not peeled for.
Caitlyn - 3/10 - Caitlyn has such a long range that she wont need Gragas' peel as much. Also, using Explosive Cask in lane as initiation only takes away Caitlyn's main advantage of distance. It could end up helping the enemy team.
Ezreal - 8/10 - Gragas goes very well with Ezreal. He is able to go all in with Gragas very well, and since Gragas lacks an escape for an adc like 
Thresh's 
Dark Passage, Ezreal can make up for this loss with an easy 
Arcane Shift out.
Ashe - 4/10 - Ashe's and Gragas' play styles just don't go well together. Since Ashe lacks a gap closer and has a very slow base movement speed, once Gragas' Body Slam is used, its basically a dead Ashe or even a dead Gragas since you've thrown yourself in to protect an adc going 2 miles per hour.
Lucian - 7/10 - Goes well with most supports. His incredible burst potential fits well with Gragas' all in potential, and Gragas' slow from his Barrel Roll makes landing 
The Culling a lot easier for Lucian. He also has good self peel and escape if Gragas is the main initiation and isn't peeling the whole time.
Twitch - 9/10 - One of the best adcs to go with Gragas. His 
Venom Cask has almost the same radius as Gragas' Barrel Roll, giving the lane a very intensive double slow. Explosive Cask can also get an enemy out of position which is where Twitch shines, since he has an easy and strong Rat-ta-tat-tat to land on the dispositioned player.
Corki - 5/10 - Corki's very poke oriented play style doesn't really fit how Gragas plays. It wouldn't be the worst lane but the synergy between the two isn't totally there.
Tristana - 4/10 - Tristana has a beast late game. The problem for her though, is getting there. Tristana needs a good early game support like 
Blitzcrank who can feed her easy kills early so she doesn't fall behind early like most people who play Tristana do, and Gragas doesn't fit this role.
Graves - 10/10 - The best adc with Gragas by far. Awesome all in potential and insane burst like Lucian. His 
Smoke Screen has similar radius as Barrel Roll which makes the blind last longer, making it a very ineffective adc. Graves also has the ability to kite and peel for himself if Gragas is the initiation.
If you have question regarding ADC synergy message me on my League of Legends account Hi Its Frodo
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