So umm...Gragas

FatedTitan·6/11/2015, 12:57:07 AM·3 votes·606 views

The dude is sitting at basically 100% Pick/Ban in every region of competitive, and yet there are still no nerfs on PBE for the Fat Man. I'm just wondering why he seems to be eluding the hammer so well for such a drunk.

3 Comments

EndlessSorcerer6/11/2015, 1:02:43 AM1 votes

He's a master of the Drunken Fist style of martial arts.

360D3GR3SS6/11/2015, 1:03:21 AM1 votes

The question is how to nerf him without making him unplayable. I would just suggest Longer CD on his W on all ranks. Decrease bodyslams base damage and scaling. Decrease slowing power of unfermented Q. A creative idea was drastically reduce the slowing time on his Q and give make his barrel have a knock back effect upon hitting a champion. Make his ultimate a massive AOE slow barrel.

Hard4Hamsters6/11/2015, 6:44:41 AM1 votes

There are multiple reasons he is picked over many champions in the jungle. He has a strong early game and in competitive, early game pressure is really important. He is a pretty good user of Cinderhulk (not the best but fairly strong) which is the premier jungle item right now as it scales really well with a lot of the items that junglers buy; item 2049 item 3800 item 3105 item 3143, meaning he will be pretty good in the lategame as well (again, he's not the strongest in this area either). But probably the most important reason he is picked, is he is INCREDIBLY safe. He doesn't have many counters (i really can't think of any off the top of my head), he can sustain in the jungle, and he has access to a dash/stun, slow, damage reduction, and knockback to keep him safe in situations where other junglers would probably die (sound like anyone? LeeSin). His damage falls off later in the game and his only real source of damage is his Ult (350 or 400 base damage) and his W AA which is %HP.

Here is why he probably won't be nerfed too hard. Do you remember what Gragas was before Cinderhulk was introduced? A tanky midgame teamfighting AP mage. If he wants to have some ability to still take on those roles, you can't nerf him without affecting his other viable roles. What you could do is decrease some of his base damages on his basic abilities but increase the AP scaling on the abilities. It would be a meaningful nerf to tank Gragas, but his more AP oriented build item 3027 item 3089 item 3135 would be more worthwhile for those who use it (it is kinda weak right now after they reduced his Q damage to minions).