I feel like riot mistook "Drunken Brawler" to mean "Drunken Immovable Wall"

The Oasis·7/23/2014, 2:42:49 AM·11 votes·516 views

Nearly impossible to push out of lane because of sustain for wave clearing, and ridiculous amounts of free resistance.

The Gragas from my last game built pretty much purely offense (Deathcap, Zhonya, Sorc Shoes, RoA) but it felt like I was trying to burn through a Shyvana with Randuin, Thornmail, Sunfire and Ninja Tabi. Auto Attack as ADC for 3-7% of his HP (if I manage to crit) with IE, PD and LW and if he catches me, a single body slam chunks 40% of my life. Is there something I'm missing about Gragas? Or am I required to rush BoRK every time I see one?

3 Comments

Sir ArmaMalum7/23/2014, 3:15:27 AM3 votes

In my experience he will win extended laning engages because of his regen and wave clear, so being overly aggressive and pushing him low enough is usually the best course of action for a fighter. Otherwise he will simply stay in lane forever. Failing that, harassing him and pushing lane hard can also be an indirect way of getting to him because while his Q waveclear is good, it can't happen quick enough to truly stop a dedicated push.

Other than that I think he's essentially a Vlad with some power redirected to having cc. He's a wall for sure, and he can hurt for sure, but he's not going to really wreck your face unless you let him get all your abilities on him, so play around him. Gank other lanes, push the lane so he loses cs and maybe even take golems/wight if your jungler's ok with it.

But of course that's just in my experience.

Songson7/23/2014, 1:33:27 PM2 votes

I have played gragas a lot and I know it's really hard to bully me out of lane, very few champions can outsustain me in lane, and I can build a lot of damage without being as squishy as an oriana would be. But when I do, I tend to be very affraid to bodyslam in because Gragas still has big enough cooldowns to not be able to bodyslam back out before he dies.

I'd say that in the laning phase against gragas you must not try to trade with him, even if you can win the trade (unless the gragas used his abilities to clear the wave, then you have 8 secs to make him pay). That is because of the incredible sustain he has. The champions I've seen do best against my gragas are the ones that outscale me through itemization, like Shyvana Tryndamere and sometimes a Ryze or Rumble can attemp to 1v1 me, depending on what he built. Also, tanks do good against gragas if they dont feed through the laning phase.

Now if you're an adc, you have to avoid the bodyslam/ult combo, if you do that, you win the fight. You might want to add a item 3102 to your build as a 3rd or 4th item because it's really hard for a gragas (unless he cuts you in the jungle) to break your banshee before ulting. I also suggest you to play high mobility adcs since everything gragas has are skillshots or close-combat abilities. As lucian you can easily dash away from his bodyslam/barel. Ezreal Vayne and especially Tristana are champions that do really well against the fatty. The trick is not to burn your gap-closer ability before he bodyslams/ults.

Good luck on the rift!

Shrikesnest7/24/2014, 7:03:46 PM2 votes

When most of the advice for beating someone is "go gank other lanes," "get help from your jungler so that you can fight them 2v1" or "avoid all of their skill shots and then hit with all of yours" you know the kit is problematic.