@Riot Please reconsider the PBE Gragas buffs.

Hello Boards, I'm K2, a full tank Jungle Gragas main as of patch 4.20. I have played Jungle Gragas since around late season III when I began using this account, though I never played him competitively because of his slow clears in a very weak season III/IV jungle that was mainly dominated by heavy early game aggression junglers. Currently I find Gragas to be one of the most unique and balanced champions in League of Legends. In the 2/27 PBE updated he received a number of buffs currently affecting his jungling capabilities in a large max damage to monsters buff on his w, and a base mana pool increase. Ill go ahead as say before I get into his strength's/weaknesses, I think Gragas is already a very strong jungler in comparison to the existent "meta" jungler pool of Vi, Lee Sin, Reksai, Pantheon, and a slowly dyeing Jarvan, and does not need to be buffed for it will only result in his appearance in more competitive play,and eventual nerfs. He's a difficult to master, high skill floor champion that is rewarding in his strengths, but has some key weaknesses.

Let's look at Gragas's strengths:

• Sustain: Gragas has some of the most potent self sustain in the game, with a 4% max health hp restore every 8 seconds. In the early game jungle, equipped with this, his damage reducing w, and the long knock aside & stun duration on his e, he takes little to no damage in a 3-4 camp clear. Unless his abilities are spammed without being near jungle monsters, he has almost infinite sustain, especially late game after he acquires a spirit visage. A 3000-3500 hp Gragas can heal for **150-200 ** health.

• Base Damage: Gragas as a tank has some of the highest base damages in the game, early through late. Because of this, he is able to clear the tanky jungle monsters very quickly. His w is also extremely valuable in this aspect as it deals bonus % target hp damage that scales from 8-12%. This gives him burst potential, as he can easily lock down a target with his e, and deal a significant % of their hp, healing back whatever he takes afterwards.

• Crowd Control: Most tanky junglers with high cc are punished in the form of bad clears, or a poor late game, neither of which Gragas suffers from. Gragas has one of the strongest increasing slows in the game, a mobility knock back & stun, and a massive 600 range knock back. This, on top of his already ridiculous base damage on all of his skills makes him one of the strongest disengage/engage champions in the game.

• Area of Effect Damage: 3/4 of Gragas's abilities can hit more than one target, with no reduced damage. Considering the fact that these are all Gragas's cc abilities that are accompanied by very high bases, his teamfighting potential against other bruiser/fighters is far superior. This gives him the option to either peel his back line as a sticky fighter, or bring the fight to his team, using his ultimate to engage a fight, split a team, and create picks.

• Waveclear: Using the standard Gragas combo where you take a minion wave, push all of the minions onto a charged q, then detonate still works very well with tank Gragas, as it can still be used to early reset a lane very easily. Not only this, but it also makes up for some of his weaknesses in a siege scenario.

• Tank Qualities: Gragas has some of the best tank stats of any jungler. He has very high base Armor, MR, and Health, helping his passive in the early levels. Gragas gains 3.6 Armor and 1.25 MR per level, higher again than almost any other champion in his role as a jungler.

• Mobility & Itemization: Gragas is a tank with great mobility. Because of the current tank itemization, Gragas is capable of picking up items that include great CDR that also follow his build path, such as Juggernaut, Spirit Visage, Fozen Heart, and Iceborn Gautlet. He can quickly grab CDR, and eventually hit the CDR cap mid game, turning his 12 second cd wall jump/knockback/gap closer into an eventual 5 second cd wall jump/knockback/gap closer.

• Dualing Potential: With Gragas's percent hp single target damage, high bases, cc, aoe, and potent heal, he is an incredibly strong duelist in a 1v1/2v2 scenario. Not only this, but he faces little to no problems sustaining the jungle, giving him the opportunity to use his mobility to go offensive on the enemy jungler, who more than likely faces problems clearing, as 3/4 of all junglers do at the moment.

Let's take a look at Gragas's weaknesses:

• Damage over time: Though Gragas suffers little from mana starvation when clearing the jungle, he struggles in a siege/ lane scenario as he has no reliable way to gain back mana.

• Skillshots: All of Gragas's abilities (minus w) are skill shots, and have counter play. His q is very dodge able, his e is dodge able, though more difficult in melee range, and his ult as somewhat of a long animation, giving the enemy team the opportunity to save flash for specifically him in the situation of him being the only engage threat.

• High base cooldowns: Without any CDR, Gragas's capabilities are very limited as intended. With these cooldowns, Gragas has to be very carefull as to when he uses them, as an early game screw up can prove disastrous, considering some junglers can capitalize on him falling behind in levels and being unable to hit six.

Overall I would say his strengths do a good job of balancing out his weaknesses and vice versa. More buff's to his jungling capabilities would only call more attention to him as a jungler, but not in a healthy way. There are no need to buff his strength to call attention to him. If the balance team wants to create strategic diversity by pushing for more junglers, why not continue the past trend of "Dark Horse" spotlights, highlighting an underplayed champion in a role that may not be considered meta.

TL;DR Gragas is fine and doesn't need buffs. He isnt supposed to be an AP burst monster like some people play him to be. Any buffs will lead to future nerfs.