Hi Mobafire and welcome to my Gragas build!

This character is so super strong but not many people play him though, I don't know why. He's also very fun to play with!
This guide is for AP Gragas, my current favorite champ in the game. He just provides SO MUCH, and is GREAT for solo queue, where you need to hold your own - because that is what Gragas is best at doing.

Gragas just provides so much for himself and the team! He has AoE damage, extreme lane sustenance, a free flash every few seconds, reduced damage taken, a slow, AoE displace, and more!



Pros:
- Great farmer the whole game
- Big range with his barrels
- Good ulti to do massive damage and bring an enemy to you
- Good chaser with body slam
- Can pass through thin walls with body slam
- Can stay long early game while laning
- Short ultimate cooldown

Cons:
- People can avoid your barrels
- Ulti doesn't always help you


How to play with Gragas:

Early game:
Gragas is good early game. His barrels do much damage and enemies are afraid of your barrels so farming can be hard for them, especially melee heroes. Don't use your Barrel Roll too many times because you don't have much mana early game. When you have Drunken Rage, always use it if you need mana or if you go into battle.
Try to stay as long as possible and farm as much as you can because you need your Rod of Ages. If you have your Rod of Ages in 15 minutes, you are doing good.

Mid game:
You should have your Rod of Ages now already. Now first go buy some boots because your movement speed is way too low. Then go for the Mejai's Soulstealer or void staff depends on if its going good. You should have these items fairly fast. Then it's time to buy that Relai's Crystal Scepter to make him harder to kill and to make him stronger.

Late game:
There are only 2 empty spots left, now it's time for pure ownage. You can choose now, first buy a Deathcap and then a Lich Bane or first the Lich Bane and then a Deathcap. I prefer the Deathcap first because I want much more AP. After the Deathcap you have only 1 empty spot left so I would buy a Sheen for your Lich Bane. You can also buy the Blasting Wand first but a Sheen is overal expensiver but it takes only 1 spot and it's made from 3 items (2 items and recipe).
When you are finished you should have around 3300 HP and about 780 AP. Gragas IS very strong!

Tips:
- (Farming) Try to use your barrels in a way you can hit all the creeps.
- (Harrassing) Throw barrels behind the enemies. Most of the time enemies walk back when you throw a barrel, so then they walk right into your barrel, BOOM.
- Use your ulti for picking 1 enemy out, finish an enemy if there's a chance he can flee, defending your allies or yourself.

Summoner skills:
fkash and Ghost are in my opinion the 2 best summoner skills for gragas.


Have fun, tips and comments are welcome.





Gragas is by far one of the easiest champions to farm and push with. All you have to do is toss a barrel in the middle of the enemy wave (in between the melee and caster creeps so it hits them all), and once you get your three Doran's Rings and onwards, that is all you will need. However, before you have your three Rings, you will need some extra oomph, and that is your AoE Body Slam. Simply Barrel Roll the creep wave as explained before, and then Body Slam into the middle of them to finish them all off.

That's all there is to it!

Ideally, you should be aiming to hit 150-200 or so CS before 25 minutes. With Gragas, that is a piece of cake to do.

Just remember, during the laning phase, you should try to just use Barrel Roll and Body Slam to harass and last hit, and make sure not to push too hard, ESPECIALLY if the enemy team has a jungler and/or one or more of them are MIA (missing in action), until you know it is safe to do so (you have warded the brush and your enemy/enemies have recalled). Not pushing your lane too hard when it is not completely safe to do so will reduce your chances of getting ganked and dying to said gank.







You are a key member to your team.

With this build, you will be one of the, if not the only AP carry on the team, so you want to make sure you stay alive as long as you can to dish out the most damage possible. ABUSE your ability range and Body Slam: stay back in teamfights, be safe, and keep chucking your barrels. That will be more than enough of a contribution to your team. And if you get caught in a sticky situation or you are going to chase someone to the death, use your Body Slam as much as possible.

And of course, Explosive Cask. You can use it to initiate a fight and screw up the enemy's positioning, use it to screw up their positioning DURING the fight, save it to stop a channeled ultimate such as Nunu's Absolute Zero, Galio's Idol of Durand, Katarina's Death Lotus, or Fiddlesticks's Crowstorm, or save it to stop an enemy from chasing an ally.

Out of teamfights, make sure you farm, farm, farm, and gank when you can. If you see any enemy overextending, make sure to punish them for it. And, if they try to run from you, just Explosive Cask them right back to you. :)



As an AP carry, you scale extremely well with levels. You also need a lot of farm to have an extreme edge on your enemies. And, with the current meta, bot is dedicated to support/tank and AD range, jungle for the jungler (usually offtank), and mid and top for the two solos. Usually, mid is an AP carry, and in the US meta, top is someone very survivable, usually an offtank/melee DPS, or a survivable carry, such as Gragas. In the EU meta, usually there is an AP carry both mid and top, so Gragas works in both lanes there, too.

Gragas is great top since he is very survivable, and as stated earlier needs to farm well. And, if the enemy does not have a jungler, you are still GREAT in top lane, since you have AoE safe harass. Meaning, you can still safely farm and harass the enemies, and prevent them from farming, even in a 2v1 lane; and then you will be a higher level than both of them, and since you don't have to worry about any ganks from an enemy jungle, you can easily pick up some lower level kills and overextend a bit. Gragas is one of the, if not THE best 1v2 champions to date.





If you take mid, you should try to gank whenever your enemy recalls. Harass them from a safe distance, make them recall, and when they DO, make sure to completely push the next wave, and then go top or bot, whoever needs more help, to gank.

What to do in a gank:

1. Make sure you are in range to land your ultimate. If you need to Body Slam to get into a good position to ult, make sure you premeditate where you are going to Body Slam, so you don't mess your positioning up.
2. Position your ultimate correctly. Make sure the dot in your ultimate's AoE circle is behind the enemies, so that when you ulti, you will be pushing them towards your allies and away from their turret. See the section titled "How to NOT fail with Explosive Cask." for more information on how to position your ultimate correctly.
3. DO IT. If you execute your premeditated Explosive Cask and possible Body Slam correctly, you should net your allies some kills. JOB WELL DONE!