Why is Gragas getting all these skins when he's in dire need of a VU/TU?(+Phantom Karthus' Splash)

DrShroob·Sep 11, 2014·3 votes·1,008 views

I'm sorta shocked how Ironstylus said that Gragas was a huge offender in needing some love for his model, and yet he has gotten TWO skins this year in close proximity. I know that both were for special occasions and thus necessary, but shouldn't Gragas finally get looked at for a VU if you're going to give him more skins than Teemo at this rate? You gave him a Gameplay update that gave him new animations and such, so wouldn't a TU do until you finally decide to change his model?

Also, Riot, since you remodeled Phantom Karthus to look his his Chinese art... why didn't you ship the Chinese Phantom Karthus splash when you brought over all those other Chinese splash arts? I mean, you remade the skin to look exactly like the Chinese splash.... but you didn't actually bring over the Chinese splash...

4 Comments

KinjishiSep 13, 20141 votes

When I started playing and looked through characters, this is a question that came to mind quickly. Why does Gragas have so many skins? In the dozens of games I've played, I've seen him played once or twice. Maybe it's just the randomness of who I've been matched with, but he doesn't seem often selected/purchased.

The NeverworldSep 13, 20141 votes

Because he doesn't work right now in the current meta. Everyone wants Champions like Kha, Zed, Lucian, Kassadin - because they deal straight-forward damage and can be tanky or avoid damage. Right now, after Gragas kit rework, his kit is based of close-to-mid range and melee range to deal most effective damage. To sum it up, Gragas is a mage tank that has no free stats for being a tank, only his passive gives him a bonus when he gets tanky, but for the sake of the new meta, where you are either damage dealer tanky or tanky damage dealer, he's not working.

12talesSep 13, 20141 votes

Competitively speaking, Gragas has actually seen a bit of play as a jungler. Both Diamondprox and Airwaks (sp?) used him to great success in the EU Promotion Tournament - his level six gank of flash-bodyslamming from the fog of war and then ulting the stunned target is ridiculously powerful and nearly impossible to avoid, and he scales very well with CDR and flat HP, which the new Ancient Golem provides.

He's also seen play as a top laner in the LPL, again to reasonable success.

He isn't very popular, sure, but I wouldn't say that he doesn't work.

Re: OP - I agree, it does seem pretty strange, particularly because other champions (Evelynn) have been skinless for years pending their visual update. I guess the scope is a bit different, but it still seems like condemning yourself to even more work in the future.

The NeverworldSep 13, 20141 votes

Unfortunately, Yasu Yoru is level 18, thus I was speaking about Gragas overall strength. Nevertheless to say, Gragas Jungler only works if you are very knowledged and is particularly a safe and strong pick against more aggressive junglers who are dependable on counter jungling to have their full potential unlocked.