About Gragas's updated audio - personal opinions
Gragas got new tweaked sound effects for his autoattacks and all of his abilities in order to improve the clarity of those spells.
First I have to ask: Why? What was wrong with the previous sounds? Did anyone ask for this update? Secondly, I know it's too early to judge the new ones but I can't see myself liking them at any point in the future either.
I can live with the changed sounds, they're not horrible, but there is one thing that bothers me the most: When Gragas finishes his W channel, there plays this odd high pitched screech sound. I guess it's intentionally there to mark when the channel is done, but for me it just sounds annoying and out of place. In addition this sound doesn't even play on every W cast and this pretty much contradicts the thought of bringing clarity via audio.
Other minor points:
- Overall the sounds especially in basic abilities do seem too "massive" or "powerful" in their context if you understand what I mean, maybe too loud too
- Gragas's venting is harder to hear now, another reason why I think the fresh audio effects are too loud
- Q reaching max cooking kinda sounds like it already explodes
- In my opinion there's too much of unnecessary sounds effects now, e.g. casting E triggers some kind of a weird body swing sound (the old one had too, but it was smoother), and we can hear the liquid inside barrels swirl (cool but is it vital?)
- The hit effects sound so similar to each other, previously they didn't
Therefore I request Riot to take another look on the sounds and see if they're bugged or just poorly designed. Whatever the case, the old ones will definitely always remain better for me.