Let's talk about Gragas
Right now he is easily one of the weakest solo queue champions in the game . And I want to touch on this.
Currently by statistics if Gragas has THE LOWEST ranked solo queue winrate in the game, even worse than nidalee in performance, according to lolking. If we go on champions.gg he is also rated as the worst performing jungler in the game.
He has been nerfed into the ground constantly ever since his rework as it made him from a mid lane terror into a top and jungle terror, but now he is just a fat sack. His performance at worlds was terrible, before his actual banning entirely he lost over half of his games with bad performances from many different playstyle teams.
He isn't even considered that powerful of a competitive pick anymore let alone one for solo queue. In order for him to be more than just a more disengage version of tahm kench you practically have to build him into a strange full ap jungle assassin. In general gragas can't do much in terms of performance unless he gets a snowbally early game.
Certain shifts in the game have also helped in his decline. 1: The fast meta, 2: And the factor that most champions just do whta he does nowadays only better (Tahm Kench) (Lee sin tanky) which has sprung from the increase in power creep lately.
Gragas's kit also synergies klunkly (if that is even a word) with current items in the meta. Other than dead mans plate many other tanks synergize from items like cinderhulk, banshees, and Omen better. there isnt a single damage tank item that works on him unless you consider rod of ages a tank item.
As a gragas player myself I ask the community what can help gragas?
Gragas's problems have always sprung from one of 2 things. He is either to tanky when he is a damage dealer, or to damage dealing when he is a tank. So in order to balance this out we need to find a middle ground that would allow him to be build damage but not soak a million damage or build tanky and be more usefull in fights than a wet noodle.
I would rather leave this stuff to the reds but my recommendations would either be the following (with explanation)
Increase the range of his q or e, this would give him some more uniqueness, it could improve his hybrid ap lane style or give him the uniqueness of a ranged tank
increase the damage reduction timer on his W, this would help him be a better tank than he already is. If not the previous solution, i would give him a bonus ad ratio on one of his abilities. IK this was on him previously but it would not only solve his damage problem but also allow him to build OTHER tank items like steraks without making it useless.
Rework his Q, right now it is an incredibly weak ability unless the opponent is stupid and stands in An easy to see circle for 2 seconds. His old Q would solve his damage problem but also help with the AD meta with the attack slow.
My overall concern for gragas is the lingering fact that the league community hates him. He is easily one of the most disliked champions in league. And i have a feeling this would hinder his actual growth problems.
