Hello Friends, I first met Gragas fairly early in my LoL career and since then we have had a lot of good times together. He is tanky, has poke and is very mobile. These are all things I like. This is my first guide so please give me some advice on what I can do to make my guide better. This guide will be a work in progress. As I will learn about how to write guides and more about Gragas, I will increase the size and quality of the guide. I hope you like it and please leave some feedback.

Pros Great Sustain with Happy Hour and Drunken Rage Solid Poke with Barrel Roll Tanky Very Mobile Fight changing Ulti Good mid game roam and wave clear

Cons Tough Early Game (can be zoned/harassed really hard) Melee Range Mana Hungry Early Ulti that is hard to use properly Fairly high cooldowns Skillshot based

The Runes here are fairly standard for an AP mid. Magic Pen, MR and AP all are pretty standard. The Scaling Health I take to give Gragas more health throughout the game. All of the rest of the runes are pretty standard.

Scaling Health Yellows: Have more health throughout the game, therefore it takes more damage to kill you and mixed with Drunken Rage you will be a good fatman.

Magic Pen Reds: Do more damage

MR Blues: Take less damage throughout the game, I don't really build in much MR so these are useful

AP Quints:My Gragas build doesn't have much AP at the beginning of the game. These runes help make up for that.

Possible Other Runes

Seal Of Mana Regen: Good on most mids that use mana

Armor Yellows: Standard on most champs, I prefer scaling health but usally used on all champs

Scaling AP Glyphs: Very good on all mids, if feel you need to do more damage use these.

MS Quints: Just help Gragas with his mobility, the safe option for him

Leveling Sequence

> > >

Barrel Roll is your main farming and poking ability. You will use it the most and it will do a lot of damage because of its 0.9 AP ratio. Once you hit level 9, you should be able to 1 hit the caster minions. It has a very long range so it is very good for poking. I have halved the enemy ADC and APC with Barrel Roll. Level it up first.

Drunken Rage is what makes Gragas special for me. It gives him free: AD, Damage Reduction, and Mana. It lets him be tanky even when building all AP. This mixed with this mobility makes him very hard to chase. It gives him good sustain. I love this ability. Level it up second.

Body Slam is a gap closer/ gap opener. You can go through walls and ledges with it. It is a very good escape tool because it is on a short-ish cooldown. It also does a good amount damage because it levels with AD and Drunken Rage gives you more AD. It is also a slow. All around great running and chasing tool. Note: Body Slam can go through every wall that Flash can Level it up last.

Explosive Cask is his ULTIMATE. It is a very good ulti. It has a low cooldown and a 1.0 AP ratio. It displaces the enemies that it hits. Very good at changing the enemy team is grouped or bring someone back to you. Also good for escaping. Being able to land it is very hard to master but after a while you should get used to it. Level it whenever you can.

I feel that Drunken Rage is a lot better skill in lane then Body Slam. A lot of people feel that Body Slam is better. I believe in max the skills that you are using, and you should be using Drunken Rage once every 25 seconds. I only really use Body Slam as a gap-closer/gap-opener and a slow. I feel I can probably do more damage with the bonus attack damage. Since Gragas is melee range, he takes a lot of harass, 18% less of this harass mixed with Happy Hour can keep you at high amounts of health for longer. The 90 mana you get from channeling may not seem like a lot but it adds up and can help you when you are OOM (out of mana). In conclusion, I personally feel that Drunken Rage is a better skill, which you use more. This means I would level it second. If you want to level Body Slam second feel free, I'm not stopping you.

Flash and Ignite are both the most used summoners. They are both still the best on Gragas. Ghost and Exhaust are both not that bad of choices but the first two are still better. It is pretty self explanatory why and how to use them. If you are a god or really like Teleport feel free to use it, I myself am not a god, so I don't recommend it.

Standard Start

Doran's Ring is standard for most AP mids. All the stats it gives are very good on Gragas. It gives a little bit of sustain and allows you to trade very well.

Sustain Start

Still a strong start. If you feel that the lane match-up will be hard or you just need more pots then this is the start for you. Crystalline Flask gives an amazing amount of sustain throughout the game. A mix of pots, Drunken Rage and Happy Hour will allow you to stay in lane through a lot of poke and againsit tough lane matchups.

Early Game

On your first back you should aim to have enough gold for Chalice of Harmony. Chalice of Harmony allows you to pretty much spam abilities. From there you are just looking to build into a Athene's Unholy Grail so you should pick up Fiendish Codex. Pick up Boots when you can. Do the same with their upgrade Sorcerer's Shoes.

Mid Game

Your mid game goal is to finish your Athene's Unholy Grail and start working on your Rabadon's Deathcap. This will increase you damage a lot. You haven't really been building AP and now you really get a boost. Athene's Unholy Grail allows you to pretty much stay in lane forever. The CDR, Mana Regen and Magic Resist all are very good on Gragas. Then start saving your gold for a Rabadon's Deathcap which will give a massive boost to AP.

Late Game Options

Here I will go over some options that will work on Gragas. You will have 3 core items at this point and you will now need to build other things.

Void Staff is a good item on Gragas because it helps him do more damage which is always a good thing. It makes Explosive Cask do even more damage as well as Barrel Roll. This is always a good choice on an AP champion.

Zhonya's Hourglass gives you a large amount of armor, AP, and stasis. This helps Gragas become even more tanky and let's him run into fights head first and then use the active and get out alive. Best used against a team with more physical damage.

Liandry's Torment is a solid item. More magic pen, health and a sick passive. However he doesn't proc the passive that much so it doesn't really get a very good use. If you like it you can use it. I don't really like it as much on Gragas but still good.

Abyssal Mask very good item on Gragas. MR and AP as well as the awesome aura. Since he does a lot of damage in a close amount of range the aura is very useful. The MR is nice because it is one of the only useful MR items. Best used against mostly Magic Damage Champions.

Warmog's Armor is good because it make him, again, more tanky. It also benefits a lot from Happy Hour. This is kind of a survivability slot, items such as Randuin's Omen and Guardian Angel would both go in this slot.

Items such as Deathfire Grasp, Morellonomicon, and Lich Bane all aren't bad on Gragas but I prefer to use others. You, of course, can do what you please. This is what I have found.
Note: Buy A Ward. Ward are always good things to buy. If you can buy a ward you should buy a ward. Remember, buy a ward, save a life.

During the laning phase, Gragas has some troubles. He is a melee ranged champ, so expect to be taking a lot of harass. Always make sure Drunken Rage is up and you can always use Barrel Roll to help. I'm not 100% certain but Barrel Roll should two shot caster minions fairly early on in the game. Try your best not to use Body Slam as a farming tool unless you know you can get away safely. It will screw you over if you do. The first few levels of Barrel Roll are pretty weak so try not to use it as much in the first 3 levels. You can definitely do a lot of harass damage with Gragas because your Barrel Roll has a very long range. Keep in mind that it takes along time for the barrel to actually get there. This allows the enemies to dodge quiet easily. Your best opportunities to get some very good harass off is when the enemy come in range of your Body Slam.

If you push your lane out you always want to be doing something. You have a couple of options have a couple of options. First, you can take wraiths. At level 6 or 7 you should be strong enough to take wraiths without much damage being done to you. Both sides can do wraiths and it will give you a little extra gold and EXP. You want to Body Slam over the wall and use autos and Barrel Roll then go back to lane. You could also roam to another lane. If you see another lane getting pushed hard then you probably want to go help them. Make sure to notify them that you are coming (either pings or chat). I can't really explain when to go in, it is kind of a feeling but when your team lands CC it is probably a good time. You want to use Body Slam and Barrel Roll like always and then if you have Explosive Cask you should use it. Just keep using Body Slam and Barrel Roll and try to get a kill. Head back to lane after if you still have good amount of health.

You can all-in very well at level 6. If the enemy comes in range of your Body Slam, use it then, use Barrel Roll. Make sure you have Drunken Rage up this entire time and hit them with autos (They hit harder than you would expect.) Then throw Explosive Cask to bring them back to you. Body Slam and Barrel Roll again and use ignite. You should get a kill.

At level 9 or when you have 5 points in Barrel Roll you will be able to one shot the caster minions (back-line minions)

Note: Always have enough mana to use Body Slam because you never know when a gank will come.

I may not be the best at explaining this but I will try.

Before the Teamfight
If you can see that a teamfight is coming (such as Dragon or Baron) your main goal is to poke. Assume that it is mid-late game you should have a fully stacked Rod of Ages and a Rabadon's Deathcap. This means your damage to squishys should be very high. Try to target with Barrel Roll: 1. The ADC 2. The APC 3. The Jungler (if they are squishy) 4. The Support. Try to avoid the tank because you don't do that much damage to him. Remember to note which members of the enemy team have high MR and try to avoid them because, again, you will not do much damage to them. ALWAYS HAVE Drunken Rage UP. YOU NEVER KNOW WHEN A TEAM FIGHT IS GOING TO HAPPEN.

During the Teamfight
This is wear Explosive Cask comes in handy. If they are running at you use Explosive Cask to give you some space (try to drop it pretty close to you). If you are running at them, try to bring them towards you (you will probably need to use the max range of Explosive Cask). Keep using Barrel Roll. Try to use Drunken Rage but don't use it if it's too risky.

If you won the Teamfight
If you have more people alive then the enemy team or the enemy team is retreating, congrats you won! If there are any stragglers on the enemy team left, use Body Slam to help your team catch up to them. Keep using Barrel Roll. If you forgot to use Explosive Cask now is the time to use it. Decide what are your team goals are now (push lanes, dragon, baron) and help you team do these things.

If you lost the Teamfight
If your team is retreating or the enemy team has more people alive after the fight than you lost. If you can pick up a clean up kill and still escape, do it, but don't do anything too risky. Use Body Slam and Flash to get away. Remember, you can Body Slam wherever you can flash. Good getaway places are, dragon pit, baron pit, and both blue buffs. Any wall can really create a gap between you and your enemies which is good. Try your best to defend now, use Barrel Roll to clean waves. Don't get caught.

Explosive Cask is Gragas's ultimate. It knocks back enemies in its radius. The direction and force will depend on how far and what position you are from the middle. I know the image is blurry, it was the best I could do. It shows how the displacement works.

Explosive Cask has a little bit of a delay before it reaches its target so you need to aim a little farther in the direction the person is going. If a person is running away you want to aim it so they are almost at the bottom edge and then cast because they will continue running into the middle and then once it hits (hopefully) get brought back into your range.

Another helpful way of using Explosive Cask is dropping right behind you when you are running away. This will open a gap between you and your attacker. Make sure you keep in mind that it takes a tiny bit of time to cast.

I have messed up the aiming a lot because it is easy to mess up. It takes a little bit of time to get used to aiming Explosive Cask properly but once you do it will be very helpful, muti-use tool.

Note: A lot of the times it is too hard to get a perfect ult off in teams fights, then just try to hit a many people as possible.

Didn't ask, but thanks http://rtsguru.com/

Here I'm going to put some ideas that I think will work and are testing at the moment. Ideas with runes, masteries, and builds all will go here. If you have any ideas that you will like me to add feel free to leave a comment and I will check it out!

15-15-0 Masteries:Results:Did really work as well as thought it would and with the incoming Perseverance nerfs, it isn't going to work anytime soon.

Doran's Shield Start:
Doran's Shield is a good item that gives a lot of good stats for surviving the early game. Health, Health Regen and Block are all pretty strong on Gragas. I run Doran's Shield a lot on Kassadin and find it really helps me in some tough match-ups against ranged auto-harassers.

DFG Rush:
I saw that scarra and a couple of other pros had rushed Deathfire Grasp first on Gragas. It seems like a good idea, it allows Gragas to really push a lead and snowball really hard. Gragas' burst is really strong before Deathfire Grasp so adding it would just help. The problem I see with it is that Gragas does a lot of his damage from a range that is outside Deathfire Grasp range and it would be useless. I saw they mostly ran it against melee AD casters like Riven and Zed so I will try it out and report back.

2013-05-06: Decided to add a change log, looking to revamp the guide. Added new possible runes. Re-Did early game build. Changes to item section reflect this change.

2013-11-11: Re-did the item build completely. Added a couple of extra things around. Will see how Gragas does in S4 and change the build accordingly.

2013-11-27: Updated mastries for Season 4, including mastries section. Added Testing page.

2014-02-11: Came back to look at the guide, update some small stuff and add ideas. Fixed some grammar/spelling.

Gragas is a great champ. He has, tankiness, good poke, high mobility and a great ulti. He does take a little bit of practice to get used to, but when you do I'm sure you will have a lot of fun with him. I hope you liked my guide and I will be adding to it. If you have any advice be sure to leave a comment and a rating. Thanks and good luck.