Hello summoners my name is Freeway, I play on NA and I was GOLD in S6. I created this guide because I wanted to showcase a powerful low-elo pick that helped me carry from the support role last season.

If you are looking for something fun and powerful to play as support look no further because is your men.

Before you take this pick to ranked I recommend you practice in normals if you are inexperienced with Gragas otherwise you can jump right in and hopefully make it out of silver/bronze in a matter of days.

[*] Note that could also take Ignite if you want to go HAM and get kills.

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Pros

[*] Tanky
[*] Sustain in lane with passive and Relic Shield
[*] Alot of damage early with combos
[*] Can stop or escape gank with Body Slam
[*] Great at roaming or assisting ganks
[*] Gragas kit offers good disengage and peel for your ADC
[*] Can carry pretty bad ADC with your early damage

Neutral

[*] Ultimate can win/lose the game

Cons

[*] Damage falls off late game
[*] Ultimate takes alot timing/practice
[*] Hard to be consistent with at first
[*] Slow movement speed
[*] Can be kited easily if you miss Body Slam

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Offense
Sorcery Increased damage on your combo
Expose Weakness Really helps with early trades
Natural Talent Free AP and AD also Vampirism is kinda useless
Battle Trance Could also be replaced by Double Edged Sword but it's risky

Defense
Recovery The obvious choice I think this will keep you healthy
Tough Skin You are going to get poked might aswell take less damage
Perseverance Love staying healthy in lane
Swiftness Great for escaping ganks and bad situations
Courage of the Colossus Allows you to engage every 45 seconds and deal a massive amount of damage with your E+Q+W combo without taking any in return.

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STARTING ITEMS


Relic shield will make you tanky and give you sustain, refilable potion is very cost efficient.
After your first back you want to upgrade Relic Shield and buy a Control Ward and Ruby Crystal

CORE
Face Of The Mountain

Face Of The Mountain With it's recent buff now gives you and an ally target a shield it also gives you the chance to scavenge alot of CS.
Sightstone Is a must have if you are playing support, vision is key
Mercury's Treads Ninja Tabi agaisnt full AD or even Boots of Swiftness if they have lots of crowd control.
Control Ward Try to have one or two of these baby on you at all time, really helps your team with the vision especially early.

FULL BUILD



In this section I will explain why and when you should buy these items on Gragas

Redemption Pretty OP item at the moment, Redemption is a must unless you are super ahead then you could maybe delay it

Frozen Heart Great buy if they have a fed ADC or a fed Yasuo or Quinn or any big AD threat and your team lacks tankiness

Locket of the Iron Solari Even after the nerf this item is still great. Buy if they have alot of AOE burst and your team loves to teamfight randomly. This could save lives mixed with Redemption and Face Of The Mountain

Sunfire Aegis I'd love to get this if i'm ahead and i'm facing an all AD team comp. Sunfire Aegis provides a little damage and alot of tankiness althought it can feel a bit underwhelming

Iceborn Gauntlet If I get a double kill in lane I'd definitly buy this and abuse the Sheen damage on my engage. The armor it provides paired with Courage of the Colossus will make sure you hurt and are unkillable.

Liandry's Torment I love this item it's cheap plus it gives decent stats consider it if you are super ahead and your team needs AP and less tankiness.

Abyssal Mask Good choice if you are ahead and facing a Brand or if they have a fed AP mid that you want to engage on without taking too much damage and your team lacks some.

Spirit Visage If you can afford this item and you are going agaisnt double AP like a Rumble top or an Annie this will allow you to soak alot of damage in teamfight and act as a tank.

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Abilities[


Happy Hour Really great passive to sustain in lane on top of Relic Shield and your Defense masteries, don't forget to throw out a barrel every 8 second to activate it.

Barrel Roll I would not put more than one point in my Q early use it to poke, activate your passive, get your relic stacks and slow down ennemies.

Drunken Rage If you see an opening to engage activate your W before going in because it reduces the damage you take and deals most of your own. This is what you want to max first.

Body Slam Is a dash but also a skillshot meaning that you can miss it but it also guarantees a stun if you land Body Slam. Don't forget that it procs Courage of the Colossus giving you a massive shield and it's also a great tool to stop a jungler from ganking or an ennemie who's trying to escape.

Explosive Cask It's harder to use since the nerf a couple patches ago but nonetheless one of my favorite ultimate in the game, it can be used to engage, disengage, peel get a kill on a low hp target after you used Ignite the possibilites are endless with this one, you can also mess up really bad and lose the teamfight because of it so think before you throw it out.


COMBOS

If you are getting ganked you want to stay close to your adc and throw out your Barell Roll to slow them down, if they use their gapcloser to get on your adc immediately use your Body Slam to stun them. This season you can expect alot of 4-5 men dive when that happens use your Explosive Cask to buy yourself some time.

If your jungler is ganking your lane don't hesitate to Flash Body Slam Exhaust][[Drunken Rage and throw the Explosive Cask a little bit ahead of them to make sure they don't escape this will guarantee a kill or at least a Heal or Flash


Drunken Rage Body Slam(W+E) : This is your cookie cutter combo use it to trade you'll be surprised by the amount of damage it does early, don't be afraid to go in since that Courage of the Colossus shield is massive early-mid game.


When you are chasing someone always throw your Barell Roll first this will assure that you land your Body Slam

In the current meta Gragas as a support is average, you do a lot of damage early and you become tanky in the mid/late game. I don't think this pick will have much success after you've gone past silver, but I could be wrong.