Gragas has an unconventional Support kit. He's strength lies in his ability to deal damage and also cc. Gragas also has a very strong power Spike @ %45 CDR which he can achieve fairly quickly, making his Body Slam cooldown very short.


Laning

• Gragas can poke out most lanes with 2 points in his Q Barrel Roll
• Don't miss Body Slam] when engaging or you will die.
• Stay in the Bot lane, roaming early isn't very valuable you can move to assist your jungler be try and stay bot and get level 6 as fast as possible.

Mid Game

• Be near the lane your ADC is farming in, get wards near that area to protect your ADC & Team.
• When you can move with your jungler to gank a lane or start a fight in the Jungle.
  Avoid moving alone or starting fights without allies nearby.
• Carry multiple Control Wards to deny vision from the enemy to easily catch them out.
• Gragas wants to hit the 45% CDR spike as early as possible with the build path Frostfang, Ionian Boots of Lucidity, Kindlegem, and Glacial Shroud.

Late Game

• Gragas has very strong engage. Look to catch enemies out and start great team fights.
• If you don't have be your team's main engage consider staying on your ADC and waiting for fights to start and peel for them. Body Slam is on a fairly short cooldown when you land it making it a great peel tool.
• Carry multiple Control Wards to deny the enemy vision on baron or around it

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Gragas is very strong in lane. When played properly Gragas can achieve much higher damage than any other Support champion because of his base damages and Cooldown reduction achievable in his standard build.

Pros + Great Engage for his Team + High Damage + Strong Lane + Sustain & Tankiness during fights.

Cons - Ruined by cc - Hard to play - Bad when behind - Strong Mid game spike but bad scaling

IGNITE Ignite is great for Gragas it adds a LOT of damage to Gragas already pretty high amount of burst damage, enables you to get kills early and snowball games.

FLASH Flash is standard on most champions, Gragas is no exception. Gragas can Body Slam then Flash to relocate immediately, creating impossible to react to engages, easily setting you up for ULT Explosive Cask.

Basically theses Runes provide Gragas with extra tankiness, and also empowers his engages because of Aftershock's affect giving Gragas bonus Armor & Magic Resist for CC'ing a target. These runes give Gragas a very consistent playstyle.
Resolve Inspiration

AFTERSHOCK

Aftershock gives Gragas more safety when engaging, when you CC a target you will temporarily gain bonus Armor & Magic Resist, the damage it can grant you is ok, but you mainly run this to assist with surviving engages and teamfights. If you get engaged on and don't proc Aftershock than you will be easily bursted, this is Gragas's crux as a Support.

Font of Life

Font of Life is the best option in this row for Supports that can make use of it, which Gragas can. Font of Life will proc every time you go in or cast Barrel Roll. You don't get tons of value from Font of Life until you start team fighting, because then 4 champions are getting value from the healing proc rather than 1-2.

BONE PLATING

Bone Plating simply blocks damage for free, it's one of the simplest and best runes in the game. Bone Plating helps at all stages of the game, negages poke during the laning phase, helps you survive in fights, and lets you soak more damage in a late game team fight, and it happens automatically super good rune.

Unflinching

Unflinching assist you during all ins, giving you slow resist and tenacity when you cast a summoner spell. Helping you stay on the target you are engaging on also assists you with maneuverability.

Magical Footwear

Gragas has a strong Mid Game a not having to purchase boots let you hit item spikes not only at a consistent pace, but you also don't have to spend 300 Gold, as Support this is quite the game changer. Only down side will be that you can't buy boots before 8-10 minutes, but Gragas isn't a roaming support and shouldn't be played as such.

Cosmic Insight

Gragas makes use of Cosmic Insight at all stages in the game. Helps Q Barrel Roll spam in lane, helps with ULT Explosive Cask cooldown, and also helps at 45% CDR for Body Slam spam during fights.

Gragas's kit is fairly simple to use in the laning phase. Spam Q Barrel Roll for effective poke in lane and to farm Spellthief's Edge stacks, even put 2 points in Barrel Roll for higher damage early. Body Slam is the all in ability for either a big trade or to initiate a fight.

Early game managing your Mana in lane is very important, if you suck it's very easy to mis use abilities and run out of mana. If you run out of mana without damaging the enemy with lots of Q's Barrel Roll or without an effective all in you are obviously playing badly.

Damage Combo

A basic damage combo is W > E >

Engage Combo

Can be W > E > R for more damage
or E > R for immediate engage

When going for a good ULT don't go for an auto attack, or Q after body slamming into the target you are about to ULT or else you give them more time to escape.

Gragas Support CAN use Spellthief's Edge or Relic Shield.
Spellthief's build path into Frostfang gives you earlier and cheaper 10% CDR, more damage, but makes you not as tanky.

Frostfang > Ionian Boots of Lucidity > Zeke's Convergence > Knight's Vow > Locket of the Iron Solari > Gargoyle Stoneplate

targon's brace > Ionian Boots of Lucidity > Remnant of the Aspect > Zeke's Convergence > Knight's Vow > Locket of the Iron Solari > Gargoyle Stoneplate

When building Targon's completing the Sightstone gives you 10% CDR

When going Frostfang you don't have to upgrade it into Remnant of the Watchers until 3rd item or even last. Depending on if you want more wards Mid game, but if you are snowballing you want to complete the active items, building into the sightstone delays the other items.

Relic Shield's build path gives you and your ADC more sustain throughout the laning phase, and gives you more control over the minion wave during the laning phase since you can execute minions.


Since Gragas can go either of these items both have their strengths in different matchups, I go Relic Shield most matches, it's the easiest to use and make use of.

Standard Build path for Gragas will be targon's brace > Ionian Boots of Lucidity > Remnant of the Aspect > Aegis of the Legion > Glacial Shroud > Zeke's Convergence


This is will be your build for most all games, especially in solo queue games most match will be over, or basically decided before or during Mid Game. So you should get a good feel of Gragas around level 9-13 with Frostfang / Targon's Sightstone + Lucidity Boots + Zeke's.

Making good use of the Zeke's Slow is easy enough, and also promotes good movement as a tank support, by moving into the enemy while your abilities are on cooldown.

Stick to the build path.



Frostfang is cheaper and gives you more damage than Relic Shield, with the build path you also don't have to spend a lot of gold to upgrade targon's brace into Remnant of the Aspect for 10% CDR, Frostfang already has 10% CDR, so it will let you purchase other items faster in the game, and if used aggressively can get you more gold faster in the game than Relic Shield.

Lucidity boots are going to be what you want to buy 99% of the time, very rarely will games be in the state in which Mobility Boots are a better option. Lucidity boots are everything Gragas wants early CDR, and you get to have Flash up more often.

Zeke's is always going to be your go to 1st completed item, you can switch up what component you build into it first being either Aegis of the Legion or Glacial Shroud depending on the game state, if you aren't sure which one go with Aegis of the Legion. Zeke's gives Gragas lots of Armor, some magic resist, and more impact from ULTing and engage, great item.

Knight's Vow is an easy 3rd item, since you will be sitting on a Kindlegem early, for Gragas you can complete it into either Knight's Vow, Shurelya's Battlesong, or Spirit Visage. You only want Shurelya's Battlesong if your team really needs the movement speed, and you only need Spirit Visage when against like 3 AP threats, so against most team comps, especially NA Solo queue team comps your going to be playing against say Riven top, kayne jungle, zed mid, a lot of AD lol, so Knight's Vow not only gives you more Armor & CDR, but also gives an ally +20 Armor, not hugely impactful, but of all the champions Gragas makes great use of everything Knight's Vow offers. It's also important to mention that Knight's Vow is very cheap, and at the stage in the game at which you will most likely be purchasing it by, will be a lol of time in which regardless of how the game is going you will be able to complete Knight's Vow in a reasonable time, compared to more expensive items. This is also the mindset behind why you don't see Alistar's building frozen heart, warmogs, thornmail, etc it's too expensive for a support (and also not as useful.

You will be completing Locket of the Iron Solari way late into the game, therefore you want a cheap item that gives Support Gragas and his team value, what does Locket offer? Mostly Magic Resist, some Armor, and a scaling HP shield, so competlying it late gives you a better shield, you will be completing it in the later stages of the game, in which you might start to need Magic Resist, and your carries benefit greatly from having a 200-300 HP shield. Did I mention Locket is cheap, it's really cheap.

Most people are stumped on what to build after all the basic support items. This is it, this gives a Tank Gragas Support everything he wants late game, it's very rare that you will get to this point in a solo queue match, but when you do make sure to build Gargoyle Stoneplate as a last item. First off it gives you an even amount of Armor & Magic Resist which is what a tank support wants late game, and when you are 3+ enemies the Armor & Magic resist it offers is doubled! Gargoyle Stoneplate's active is even more insane, it temporarily increases your champion' Size and Health, making your Locket of the Iron Solari shield bigger, making you tankier, really lets you participate and tank a lot, that Gragas otherwise wouldn't be able to.

Gargoyle Stoneplate is also only 2500g, not that expensive, and you potentially get a 1 time Stopwatch active while building into it.




Other items that may be situational that can be built on Gragas are

• Turbo Chemtank Engage
• Shurelya's Battlesong Engage / Disengage
• Hextech Rocketbelt Ignorant snowball item, but it works.
• Dark Seal Great early buy for lane to sit on for the majority of the game, can sell later

Items to avoid, that are noob traps, don't build these items:

Zz'Rot Portal, Abyssal Mask, Iceborn Gauntlet, Lich Bane, Thornmail, Frozen Heart, Randuin's Omen

What should I do as Gragas Support in the laning phase?

Gragas's neutral ability in lane is his Q Barrel Roll letting you poke the enemy ADC while they are frame locked attacking CS, you can put 2 points in Barrel Roll early level 3 or 4, to give you more poke damage throughout the laning phase.

Gragas's E Body Slam is Gragas' Engage, and all in. Once you go in with Body Slam you aren't going out, it is even more brutal if you miss it, you not only don't do damage but don't CC the enemy and don't proc Aftershock and you are further forward into the enemy and away from your team. So HIT the Body Slam.

Body Slam can be used as a FORCE or as a PUNISH

A punish is when you capitalize on the enemies mistake, say in lane when the enemy moves to far forward then you have an easier chance to hit them with Body Slam, or a less brutal punish when they stop moving to auto attack a CS, than you can cast Barrel Roll.

A Force is when you, force onto the enemy, forcing a mistake onto them, Gragas can do this by using Body Slam + Flash or by simply moving up the lane when the enemy hasn't misstepped and moving into them without the follow up of your ADC / Ally.

A Bad Support will not know the difference between a PUNISH and a FORCE, and will over force and not punish.

A Great Support will not over force, and instead look for great punishes, patience.

Level 1

Position on the map to spot an invade, and probably ward the pixel bush right side of Mid Lane around 1 Minute.

Give the Jungler a Leesh to about 250 HP

Depending on your lane matchup you should Start Q Barrel Roll or E Body Slam. Barrel Roll is safest, but often to safe and a detriment to mana over time, if you over spam it. You will always get more damage off if you Body Slam and auto attack once then kite away. Think about how your matchup would play out in the worse circumstances if you body slammed in level 1.

Level 2 if you started Body Slam getting W Drunken Rage is fine since it cost less mana, and enables you to deal more damage when going in with Body Slam. Throughout the laning phase when you take damage, you can use Gragas' passive with W Drunken Rage since it cost the least amount of mana to heal yourself.

If you started Q Barrel Roll level 1 than get E Body Slam level 2, if you are going to play for poke than get 2 points in Q Barrel Roll level 3, instead of putting a level point into W Drunken Rage, having that extra level in Q Barrel Roll that early will result in a lot more damage.



Keep it simple, don't over do it in the early laning phase levels 1-5, if you die a lot during these levels it's about the worst thing you can do in League of Legends, and the easiest way to do that is by over doing it yourself, very rarely will the enemy straight up beat you in the duration, like for real don't over do it.

It becomes a lot easier to kill enemies / create plays when you are level 6 and have Explosive Cask work on getting to that point in game without the match being broken open beforehand. Play to Punish, not to Force.

Gragas is great at Team Fighting around objectives, or forcing plays in other lanes. Gragas is slow to move from one lane to another especially if you didn't purchase Mobility Boots, so you need to move around the map wisely so not to be of detriment to your allies carries trying to farm where you are not.

Once in a designated lane say Top lane around 15 minutes after the Bot Tower was taken, Gragas can start fights very easily with Body Slam + Flash & Explosive Cask

Gragas also has phenomenal Neutral play, playing around the river for vision, he can check bushes safely with Q Barrel Roll, and if the positions are even Gragas most likely has the advantage of being able to engage on the target in front of him. If Gragas is caught out, his escape tools are good in Body Slam Flash Explosive Cask.


During the Mid game you should still be looking to punish the enemies mistakes, not just running into every enemy champion you see.

• Set up vision around objectives ( Baron / Dragon )
• Don't get caught
• Catch out the enemy
• Don't take fights when massively behind, let your carries farm

It's that simple.

The best thing you can do late game is wait for the enemy to make a mistake, if you are forcing things, you can become the one making the mistake, and will also be more likely to be caught out in a situation in which your team can't help, and will be left helpless in a 4v5.

Say if you are on Blue Side, and moving into towards the Baron for wards with no vision in the river, and you move past the river, into the enemy jungle, while your team is all the way in Mid lane pushing out the wave, if there are enemies in the enemy Red side waiting for you, you will most likely be dead before your team can even come to get damage off.

So a basic and easier play is sitting on your team, and waiting for the enemy to do something similar, sit on your team's Control Wards placed either on your side of the map or in the river, and wait for the enemy to walk near your stacked team alone, or separated from their team.