Hey! I'm looca, a multi-season challenger top laner who, along with other champions, specialises in Gragas. I've played league since S3 and played on the amature-pro scene from 2020-2024.

I love coaching and sharing the knowledge I collected through my 10's of thousands of hours invested in this game. I stream on twitch and you can add me on discord for coaching. Links at the end

Gragas Is a champ that heavily relies on mana to play the laning phase. The dillema you often face is: if the enemy top laner has push, which will often happen, and you focus on trading too much rather than farming, then they can just recall and come back. In this case you most likely have to do the same but if you focused more on trading than cs'ing, you are now in a bad spot because you don't have good items.

In losing matchups I just focus every recource I have on farming and ONLY trade when I have manaflow up. If you started Sapphire crystal, you only need 900 gold for lost chapter . If you can get it you're in a really good spot.

In matchups where you start E, Go and find the enemy top laner and just look for manaflow procs as soon as possible. Of course you can't do this against some champs, for example if you don't have phase rush vs a Darius. You can always recall if you take some damage.

After your first recall, you can look for much more trades.

In winning matchups it's really important to spam W everytime you either want to trade or when your passive is up. Your Passive healing is based on your max HP so tank gragas has a better use of it.

The most important skill you need to have on gragas is timing your Q when an opponent goes on to last hit a minion. If you master this concept, you will get either a massive cs lead or poke the opponent out of lane really quickly.
Example

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Your Q slow is what makes hitting your E or ult much easier. In some matchups, for example ones where the enemy doesn't have much mobility, try to not instantly detonate the cask. Some people will asume you will just detonate it once they're in it, and they won't try to walk out of it.

You want to use your W constantly in good matchups to both heal from your passive and be a constant threat. You also have to keep in mind that 90% of the time, you want to use W first in a combo.

Something you can do is Walk into the bush, use W, and walk up with E auto. Often they don't realise you just used it so they wont respect it.

When you use W the opponent will walk away, but you can often just W the minion next to them to get the slpash damage onto them for manaflow stacks.

Example:

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Your W gives you Damage reduction. This is why you always want to use it at the start of a commit trade. Also dont forget to use W when you're getting karthus ulted or stuff like that.

Don't forget that your W works on towers!

With bodyslam, using it max range is extremely risky when you're not in fog. If the enemy just dodges it, you are pretty cooked. I always like Using W and walking close to them and then using E so its hard to react to.

You can also slow with Q first and then gap close to hit E easier.

Your ult is your main disengage and setup tool. It's rather hard to hit, so try to use it after your Q slow or E stun.

In lane I like using ult to get them low in a trade, and then diving them or doing a combo to finish the job.

Example

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In this example, even though I didn't kill her, I put her in a position where she has to recall and I get plates and deny her a wave. If she stays I will kill her.

These are the combos for Gragas. There are some really crazy combos you can do, but these are the ones you will realistically be using every game. There are a couple rules for Gragas combos:

1.(Beginner) Try to use W at the start of every combo.

2.(Beginner) After using spells, keep distance. You always want to be in a certain distance where you aren't in their range but u can still gap close. 9/10 times it's completely useless to auto attack the enemy after using a combo.

3.(Intermediate) Don't try to perfectly time your Q detonation in fast combos. What I do is just spam my Q button once I used it.

4.(Advanced) Use your ult during your E in the ult combos if you use only 3 fingers on your QWER keys like me. It's much easier, trust me.(Alternative would be to ult after your E)

5.(Expert) If enemy has <20% tenacity, in EVERY combo; you can use your Q or R AFTER you land E. This ENSURES you don't waste important cooldowns in the case where they dodge your E or predict your E Flash.

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Combo: + + Auto Attack
Difficulty: 1/10
When to use: If your W is down or if you don't have time to use W before the combo because the enemy has their dashes up soon

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Combo: + Auto attack + +
Difficulty: 2/10
When to use: If the enemy champ has dashes or other things to counter your body slam like Fiora's W, then this is your go-to trade pattern. Walk up into melee range and sometimes you might have to play the mindgame and hold your E.

Keep in mind that it doesn't matter wether you auto attack before or after your Bodyslam, because your auto attack will go through either way since it's uncancelable

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Combo: + + (You can use W Before or After landing Q this combo)
Difficult: 3/10
When to use: If you can't gap close with E first to guarantee your ult hit, if enemy can't dodge/counter the ult.

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In game example:

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Combo: + + Auto attack
Difficult: 4/10
When to use: When the opponent is out of range. This combo is good for setting up your team and surprising the opponent.

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Combo: + + + Auto attack
Difficulty: 5/10
When to use: When the opponent is not standing in a minion wave so you can't e first. When you feel like the opponent knows you want to E flash on him so he can predict it with his flash. This combo is much faster and harder to react to. If enemy has no tenacity, your Q will always hit.


In game Example:

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Combo: + + + Auto attack
Difficult: 5/10
When to use: This is the 'better' version of the E + Flash combo. The only difference is using Q during your E. Use this combo to finish people off who are too far.

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Combo: + + + AA + Detonate Q
Difficulty: 7/10
When to use: This combo is used for when the opponent has no movement spells and you want to either finish them off or ult them towards you.

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Combo: + + + + AA + Detonate Q
Difficulty: 8/10
When to use: Uusually this combo is used in teamfights/skirmishes. If you see an angle to ult >2 people like this, go for it.

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Combo: + + + Detonate Q
Difficulty: 9/10
When to use: When the opponent is farming under tower, this combo is really strong. Put a Q on the tower and just E + R them into the Q. This forces them to recall or if they stay, they just get dived or you kill them. You can also just do this in lane by putting a Q on the minion wave which will mind control them into trading with you so you just E + R them into the barrel and you win the trade.

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These are the main Gragas combos you need to worry about. Any other combo could work but are usually very niche and won't matter in your average game. In the Youtube video embedded on the site you will find a compilation of me using gragas combos in games that varied from emerald to challenger lobbies.
Play Video

Body slam them into the Q

In game example:

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Body slam opponents towards your tower after ulting them.

In game example:

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When enemy uses zhonyas , you can time your body slam in a way where you are inside of them as they come out of the zhonyas . They will instantly stunned with no counterplay. This also works vs things like Zed ult , Master yi Q , Reksai ult , Etc.

In game example:

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If the enemy team has a lot of dashes like Corki W , or skillshot cc like Blitzcrank Q and Naut Q , you can concider buying Rocketbelt .

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The best way to clear minion waves is By putting a Q down and Body slamming the melee minions backwards so that all creeps fit inside of the q.

In game example:

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If you ever find yourself using E to gap close, but without hitting the enemy wit hit, try to be smart with using your Q. In higher elo, the ememy will try to sidestep your Q and now you're in melee range with no abilities. Same with your ult; Often in higer elo the opponent will sidestep your ult by walking towards you. This is why getting the Q slow is so important before ulting.

If you're winning lane, there's a couple ways to play it.

1. Poke opponent under tower with Q's and combos.

2. Proxy farm, getting vision of enemy topside in the process, and look for tp's to bot or roams to mid lane AFTER killing the wave. The reason this is so strong is if the enemy top laner also tps, he will miss a wave. If he doesn't tp, you already kill his wave so you miss a minimal amount of recources.

3. Freezing the wave, looking for q's everytime they walk up for last hits and eventually killing them.

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Which one you do depends on the game. I would freeze or dive if my bot lane was already stomping.

I would freeze vs a jax but not vs an Ornn

I wouldn't look for a proxy if the enemy jgler was missing and playing a snowball champion like nidalee.

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In game example of diving:
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In game example of Proxy + Tp:

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You can have different roles as Gragas when it comes to teamfighting

1. Flanking

This is the option that opens up when you're fed and there's an enemy back line carry who needs to die. You need sweeper and control wards to have a good flank or a good tp ward.


2. Peeling

This is when you aren't the main character in the game and your 15/0 Draven needs your help to create space and ult enemys off of him.


3. Marking

This is your best option when there's a 12/0 Darius on the enemy team. You literally just hold your abilities unless you use the enemy's Thanos. You can slow them with q's, E them away, Ult them away.


4. Front to back

This is the general ''stand in front of your teammates'' playstyle. If the enemy engages, you ult their backline away to stop their follow up. Do this if none of the above apply to your game.

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Extra note:

If you have full control over an objective and the enemies are trying to walk through, just place a Q on an entrance and force them to walk through it. This is also why you don't use your Q on objectives to dmg them.

In the mid game its really important to be at every objective possible. Try to be there before it spawns. You are spiking on cosmic + t2 boots.

In the late game you want to do the same. If you went the full ap build, you can look for cheeses in bushes where you just Q the bush and oneshot someone who doesn't expect it.


For both mid and lategame: PLEASE think about your flash. If an important objective is spawning in 3 minutes, concider saving your flash for that. Unless maybe an enemy has a shutdown or something.

Also as a rule of thumb: the more behind you are, the higher risk plays you need to make.
The further ahead you are, the less risky plays you need to make.

Thanks everyone who made it this far

I stream on twitch at https://www.twitch.tv/loocalol

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