Gragas is a real brawler and a famous troublemaker, works as a brewer and creates powerful magic potions. Occupies the mid lane or jungle, can also stand on the top as a warrior. In the guide, we will look at the hero from all sides - skills, strengths and weaknesses. We will select the best assemblies of runes and items for different roles, and also tell you how to play it correctly.
You may be interested: Tier list of characters in League of Legends
Hero Skills
The Brewer deals exclusively magical damage and uses only skills in battle, basic attacks will be of little use. Strongly developed in defense and control, less good in damage and mobility, team support skills are completely absent.
Passive Skill - Discounted Drinks
Gragas takes a sip from his barrel every time he uses an ability, instantly restoring 8% of his maximum health.
This effect has a cooldown of 8 seconds.
First Skill - Barrel
The hero throws a barrel that explodes after 4 seconds, dealing 80-240 magic damage and slowing by 40-60% for 2 seconds. The damage and slow increase with the time the barrel spent on the ground before it exploded.
Gragas can remake the barrel in order to detonate it earlier, for this you need to use the skill again.
Second skill - Drunken frenzy
The character drinks their potion, reducing incoming damage by 10-18% for 2,5 seconds. After drinking, his next attack deals an additional +7% of the target's Max Health in the form of magic damage to surrounding enemies.
Third skill - Ramming
Gragas dashes forward, collides with the first enemy, knocks up nearby enemies for 1 second and deals 80 to 260 magic damage to them (increases with ability power).
This ability's cooldown is reduced by 3 seconds if Gragas collides with an enemy champion.
Ultimate - Explosive Keg
Gragas hurls a barrel, dealing 200-400 magic damage and knocking enemies out of the area.
The damage of the skill increases along with the increase in ability power.
Sequence of leveling skills
From the start, it is better to open the second skill right away, but during the initial stage of the game, pump the first one. By the middle of the match, spend time on the second skill, and in the late game - the third. Don't forget to upgrade your ult whenever you get the chance (6, 11 and 16).
Basic Ability Combinations
Gragas is a difficult character to play, so at first you will have to study his mechanics and limits. Use the combinations below correctly to deliver high burst damage and emerge victorious from battles.
- Third Skill - First Skill - Blink - Ultimate - First Skill. A complex combination of abilities that will help to significantly reduce the distance before the start of the battle. Prepare in advance and throw a barrel, and then fly in after with the help of a summoner spell. Suitable for an ambush or to reach a hard-to-reach carry in a team fight.
- Second skill - Ultimate - Third skill - First skill - Auto attack - First skill. One of the most difficult combinations, before using it, practice several times on bots. With it, you can deal the maximum area damage in a teamfight that is only available to a hero.
Pros and cons of the hero
Having studied the mechanics in detail, we will tell you the key pros and cons of the character that affect the further tactics of the game and assembly.
Pros of playing as Gragas:
- Equally good at all stages of the game.
- Can take a lot of damage.
- Good explosive area damage.
- There are control skills.
- Easily clears lanes with minions even at long distances.
- Overcomes small obstacles with the third skill.
Cons of playing for Gragas:
- It's hard to play in the mid lane with a melee attack.
- Dependent on items, requires a lot of farm.
- Difficult to learn, hard to play for beginners.
- Requires calculation and precise application of skills.
- Weak in solo battles, relies on the team.
Suitable runes
Gragas is quite strong and tier-listed for both laning and jungle. Therefore, we have compiled two actual rune assemblies for him at once. Choose based on your role in the team.
To play in the forest
In this position, he will need increased explosive damage, easy access to the target and some tricks that will make the game easier. What a combination of runes does well Domination and Inspiration.
Primary Rune - Domination:
- Dark Harvest - if you attack a champion whose HP is below half, then deal increased damage to him and take the soul. The effect refreshes every 45 seconds, and the cooldown can be reduced by getting more kills.
- sudden blow - after breaking stealth or using dash, jump, or teleport, dealing any damage to a champion grants you 9 lethality and 7 magic penetration for 5 seconds.
- Eye Collection - you can increase your attack or skill power by earning eyes. They are given for killing champions and increase the strength of the hero adaptively.
- Treasure hunter - get 50 gold for each unique kill (+20 gold per stack of Bounty Hunter), up to 450 gold for 5 unique kills. Earn a stack of Bounty Hunter each time you finish off an enemy champion, up to one stack per unique champion.
Secondary Rune - Inspiration:
- Magic shoes - 12 minutes after the start of the match, boots with magic are issued, which will increase the speed of movement by 10 points. Previously, you won’t be able to buy them in the store, but you can reduce the time to get them by making kills.
- Cosmic knowledge - The summoner's spell casting is increased by 18 and the haste of item effects by 10.
- +10 attack speed.
- +9 to adaptive damage.
- +6 Armor.
For line play
On the lane, he should increase the damage from skills and improve resource management in order to feel comfortable and not need constant replenishment of mana. To do this, we offer an assembly with runes Witchcraft and Inspiration.
Primary Rune - Sorcery:
- Magic Comet - Damaging an enemy champion with an ability knocks the comet back to its location or, if Arcane Comet is on cooldown, reduces its remaining cooldown.
- Mana flow - hitting enemy champions with a spell grants 25 mana, up to 250. After gaining 250 mana, restore 1% of this resource every 5 seconds.
- Excellence - Receive bonuses when you reach the following levels: levels 5 and 8 - ability acceleration by 5, level 11 - when you kill a champion, reduce the remaining cooldown of your basic abilities by 20%.
- Burn - your next damage-dealing skill ignites champions, dealing 20 to 40 additional magic damage, based on level, after 1 second. The effect has a 10 second cooldown.
Secondary Rune - Inspiration:
- Delivery of cookies - up to 6 minutes, you will be given three special "cookies" items that you can use instantly or sell in the store for coins. They restore the hero's mana, as well as increase its maximum value for the rest of the match. If the character has no mana, then lost HP is restored instead.
- Cosmic knowledge - Increases the summoner's ability to cast spells by 18 and the speed of item effects by 10.
- +9 to adaptive damage.
- +9 to adaptive damage.
- +8 Magic Resistance.
Required Spells
Jump - is a summoner spell that teleports a short distance forward or in a specified direction.- Teleport - after cast for 4 seconds, removes any buff Start or Militia and teleports your champion to an allied tower. Upgrades to Enhanced Teleport at 14 minutes.
- Kara - deal true damage to a large or medium monster, enemy minion, or target champion. A must for playing in the woods.
- Ignition - can set an enemy champion on fire, dealing pure damage over 5 seconds (1,2 seconds). It also inflicts Grievous Wounds and makes the target visible on the map. Vision will not show champions in disguise.
Best Builds
When choosing items, first decide on your role in the team - a mage in the middle lane, a warrior in the top lane, or a jungler. Gragas can also be played in roam, but this greatly affects his abilities, after all, the support role should be left to other champions.
To play in the forest
Starting Items will help you upgrade Kara, pick up forest monsters and replenish health points without leaving the forest.
- Firewolf baby.
- Health Potion.
- Hidden totem.
Early items aimed at increasing the power of skills and health. Also, totems will give him the opportunity to follow the map and feel safer in the forest.
- Hextech alternator.
- Control Totem.
Main subjects increase ability power, reduce cooldown and add health points. All other items will speed up the cooldown of skills. Don't forget the useful magic penetration and movement speed that the boots provide.
- Night Reaper.
- Boots of the sorcerer.
- Dark flame.
Complete assembly. In the end, supply the hero with items with the same indicators, only it is worth adding an armor boost to them.
- Night Reaper.
- Boots of the sorcerer.
- Dark flame.
- Zhonya's hourglass.
- Staff of the Abyss.
- Rabadon's Death Hat.
For line play
Starting Items will help you clear the lane with creeps and farm faster.
- Ring of Doran.
- Health Potion.
- Hidden totem.
Early items add health and mana to the hero, as well as increase the speed of movement. In general, he remains the same average in damage, only he can stay in the lane longer and use more skills.
- Aeon Catalyst.
- Boots.
Main subjects are already liberating his combat potential by adding ability power and reducing ability cooldown. All subsequent legendary items will also buff skill cooldowns.
- Wand of Ages.
- Ionian boots of enlightenment.
- Staff of the Archangel.
complete assembly, like the jungler, it is aimed at reducing the magical resistance of opponents, increasing the hero’s attack and defense.
- Wand of Ages.
- Ionian boots of enlightenment.
- Staff of the Archangel.
- Zhonya's hourglass.
- Rabadon's Death Hat.
- Staff of the Abyss.
Worst and best enemies
We have compiled a list of the best and worst enemies for Gragas based on match results. It's easy for a mage to bypass Lee Sina, Graves and Ekko. But if the opposing team has the following champions, then do not rush to take the brawler:
- lillia – Can be a very aggressive lane player. Spamming with his attacks, quickly dealing with the waves and pinning you to the tower. Her mobility will eventually give her dominance in the fight. Make sure you always keep an eye on her and adjust to her as the champion can move quickly.
- Fiddlesticks - A mage with high control. He has a good range of attacks, there is life drain, slowdown and other unpleasant features. Playing with him on the same lane is very difficult, try to keep your distance as much as possible and destroy the creeps without leaving your own tower.
- Jarvan IV is a well-rounded tank that will try to confuse you and interrupt your advance. Beware of counterattacks and only advance after he has used up his skills. Otherwise, even throwing it back to your team, you can make a colossal mistake.
Though Lee Sin and inferior Gragas in a direct encounter, but in the same team, these heroes become quite strong. With Blind Monk's buffs, you can play much more aggressively. Gragas also has good match results in a duet with mid players Singed и viego.
How to play Gragas
Beginning of the game. Gragas is one of the weakest champions at early levels due to low damage, high mana cost, and long cooldowns. You should farm with the second skill because it increases attack range and gives damage reduction. Avoid spending mana quickly: if you spam skills, you will quickly run out of mana.
It's only really worth it to press the first skill if you're landing the last hit on a minion. After you have gained a few levels and got more mana, you can farm and poke your opponent, gradually reducing his health.
Once you're strong enough and hit level 6, push as much as you can to increase the pressure on your side of the map. Even if you get ganked, you can easily run away or outplay opponents with a dash.
As soon as you get a few points on the first skill, you can start fighting and play as aggressively as possible in some situations. When you're about to kill someone and want to surprise them, you should combine skills with Blink so that the enemy can't react to it.
Average game. Gragas is a pretty good champion with great potential. He has a lot of damage by this time, and he defends the forest perfectly. His ganks are quite strong and he has a short mob clear time. You can quickly move around the map and counter ganks.
The first style of play is to go into open combat and try to push the enemy back to your team. In this case, you must start the fight yourself. There are 2 possibilities to do this. You can outflank the enemy team and get out of the fog of war. Or run straight in their direction and use the appropriate combo or speed buff from allied champions.
Don't try this with tanks unless you're sure your team can kill the enemy quickly. In most cases, the enemy carry will already be weak or dead because Gragas deals a lot of damage as soon as he flies into the middle.
The second play style is protecting your carries. If the enemy frontline is trying to attack the carries to knock them out as quickly as possible, then you have to control the enemies.
late game. After the first phases, Gragas excels at teamfights and grouping. Usually this happens somewhere around the 15th minute, but every game is different. Try to catch someone with a quick combo or split-push on the sideline.
If an epic spawns after 1 minute and you have a teleport, you should split-push from above to squeeze the opponents on that side of the map. When there is a team fight, then go to the aid of the allies.
When setting up a gank, you need to make sure that the enemy jungler cannot counterattack, because Gragas is very vulnerable in this case. It deals fast explosive damage and practically loses its strength, so it will not cope with a counterattack. To prevent this, you must establish a view around and know all about the movements of the enemy jungler.
Gragas is a versatile champion who can perfectly defend the lanes or go to the jungle, brings a lot of benefits to teammates and has impressive explosive damage in reserve. It is not easy to master it, but do not give up and practice more. Good luck!
