Gragas: Underpowered, or not?

[quote=Trojan995]While watching the Go4LoL tournament, I was surprised to see 2 separate gragases - this was especially surprising because of the recent Gragas sustainability nerf. The first was played by Reginald - he managed to kill [[malzahar]] in lane quite a few times, and his team won in 19 minutes with nearly 20 kills and 0 deaths. Regi himself had 10 kills, accounting for more than half the amount of kills for his team. The second was in [url=http://solomid.net/videoplayer.php?v=235&r]this[/url] game: RS vs. HKEGG. Gragas, though doing poorly in lane, played a pivotal role in the game; much of the reason RS lost was because Gragas' heavy poke damage managed to force RS to give up baron. So, my question is this: is Gragas viable for competitive play? Is he a strong pick? Why or why not?[/quote]

[quote=Considereth]Gragas = High skill cap. He is one of those champion you are scared to death or do not give a shit about depending on how the game is going. I think he is in a good spot right now. o.o[/quote]

[quote=Booshido]if he gets fed his dmg is insane, chooses someone they die :/[/quote]

[quote=Dante Rebellion]Yep hes very viable. He does good damage, can harass like a beast, hardly faces mana problems, but shines with his CC... consider his ultimate a portable janna ulti, that does damage to enemies instead of heal allies... He has a great range harass tool which can be scary enough to force ur enemies away from a farm. His body slm is great for saving team mates or catching up to enemies... hes just all round good. High skill cap for the best performance, but still solid even when played by someone who is okay at LoL[/quote]

[quote=Jet]extremely high skill cap in skilled gragas players hands (nicosharp, for example), he is extremely deadly and can completely fuck up an entire team[/quote]

[quote=Trojan995]So is he like Anivia, or cassiopeia? Saying he has a high skill cap doesn't entail much about his viability.[/quote]

[quote=Jet]neither he's his own type of champion he's viable in the same way any other tank is, except gragas is a lot more zone based than engaging full fledged teamfights[/quote]

[quote=DEWO]I realy like playing Gragas, he is hard to kill and i find him a great fight innitiator. It could be gamechanging with his low CD ulti barrel. 1 person is tossed to your team while rest is pushed back and situation changes dramaticly. He is a great farmer too. If played as a tank he is a SUPERIOR "poker" of enemy team, fiew good placed barrels can dramaticly decrease the HP pool of whole enemy team even under their own tower. High AP ratios favors high AP builds. Played as a tank he is ridiculous hard to kill due to the regen, dilivering a fair amount of damage over some time. All in all quite mobile champ too... I love to have some fun from time to time. My pref would be AP gragas with some nice HP Pool Sorc Boots RoA Rylai Rabadon[/quote]

[quote=animorte]I have a friend that could play basically any champion and figure out a great play-style and build for them within 2-3 games. He would move on to others and continue to make me and the other people we played with look pitiful in comparison. I finally asked him, after he owned all the champions and had countless rune pages, who he considered his best or favourite. From the most pro person I have ever known at LoL, he prefers Gragas (AP/HP/Off-tank). He has lost at most 10 out of 80+ ranked games with Gragas. Does that tell you well enough how viable Gragas is?[/quote]

[quote=Atki]Gragas is pro, nobody messes with Gragas .. Though i'd just put it out there .. Anyways, AP Gragas is a pain, i've both played him, and played against him, he can harrass the crap out of anyone .. IMO one of the funnest champions to play due to his hilarious ulti, when you throw it everyone goes "omgawdwtfhappened!!?1" .. So yeah, i'd say definately viable ..[/quote]