@ Riot: please fix Gragas. His W is...
one of the most awkward abilities in the game.
The bruiser rework loaded a huge portion of Gragas's power into his W. It's his main source of sustained damage and tankiness.
After channeling for 1 second, Gragas gets 2.5 second of damage reduction. The channel time means it cannot be used reactively. The incredibly short duration means any smart player can simply hold onto their big cooldowns for 2 seconds before dumping them on Grag.
The channel time forces you to use it before going in on a target. If you use it once a fight/duel has already broken out, you are punished (it can be interrupted, and you are taking damage while unable to fight back). If you use it before you go in, you're broadcasting to your opponent: "hey I'm about to body slam you, it might be time to back up behind your minions." Drinking his beer can literally only mean one thing--that he is about to go in.
No matter what you do, it feels like the ability is punishing you. At max level, the ability has a 4 second cooldown. With 0% cdr, you have to spend 25% of a fight channeling in order to use it whenever its up. With 40% cdr, you have to spend 33% of a fight channeling. If you don't use it whenever it's up, you are sacrificing a huge portion of your sustained damage and your main source of innate tankiness.
Suggestions:
- Remove the channel time from his W completely. Increase its cooldown.
The simplest solution. Having a channel time on an auto attack reset is incredibly awkward. This would theoretically reduce Gragas's sustained damage, but would allow him to access it without punishing himself
- Remove the damage reduction from Gragas's W. Make it so that he gains the same damage reduction if he hits an enemy champion with body slam. Increase the damage and cooldown proportionally on his W.
Gragas now has access to his damage reduction when he actually needs it--when he is going in. With smart play, he can use it reactively. The damage and cooldown increase on his W means he can access his damage without constantly channeling.
- Rework the "channel." Still lock him out of his Q, R, and auto attacks, but allow Gragas to body slam while channeling.
This would solve the "broadcasting" problem I mention above. It would help give Gragas the damage reduction when he actually needs it. And, most importantly, it would give him something to do while channeling, so all that time doesn't feel so punishing to the player.
Before the rework, I had been maining Gragas since S1. He was always a strong but fair champion, with a sub 50% win rate in ranked, and a consistent but never overwhelming pick/ban rate in competitive play.
Riot completely broke him when they removed the damage splitting from his body slam. The subsequent rework was rushed, and Riot didn't consult Gragas players at all. The result is not necessarily weak, but it's incredibly awkward to play due to his W. Spending 1/4 of the game locked out of your own auto attacks and abilities is not fun.
The whole point of the rework was to turn him from a long range poke/burst mage into a front line bruiser. Forcing a melee bruiser to spend so much time channeling makes no sense.
Riot: You owe it to long-time Gragas fans to fix his W. It single handedly makes what is otherwise a fun and high skill cap bruiser kit a frustrating chore to play.