Champ of the Week: Gragas Wrapup
I spent most of my League of Legends time this week with Gragas, everyone’s favorite gigantically fat drunkard (to be fair to other fat drunkards, though, Gragas is our only option). It was a good week; as I mentioned in other posts, Gragas has great flavor, and some very unique tools for disrupting a fight.
It wasn’t all sunshine and flowing rivers of mead, though. Gragas has a very punishing kit compared to other casters in the game, and with so many skillshots, it’s easy to waste a few spells over the course of a game. This is actually where I think my proposed change comes in. I have to cheat a little, too. It’s not one thing, but I’ll call it one thing because, well, that’s what I’m supposed to do for this feature.
Gragas needs a responsiveness tuneup, across two mechanics in particular.
First, his auto attack animation needs to be cleaner and a little bit faster. I missed more than a few champion kills this week because I would Body Slam up to a target and get stunned, killed, or just start walking away before my auto attack animation had finished. That loping overhand swing just takes way too long to complete, and it costs Gragas a lot of damage, thanks to Drunken Rage.
His second tuneup skill is Body Slam. That skill seems to have the strangest hit conditions of any dash in the game. It also seems to suffer from variable speed depending on the distance of the cast, which can be extremely punishing if you miss your target. The animation also needs a cleanup, as it seems to lock you out depending on where the character stops along the animation path. It just feels a little too sloppy. Somewhat sloppy is okay for a drunk champ, but he feels painfully unresponsive at times.
There are some other things that I think could help Gragas out, like faster travel time on his ult, but the responsiveness changes would indirectly address some of his other issues. That feels like a fine fix to me.
If you haven’t played Gragas, I would highly recommend checking him out during a free week. He’s not for everyone, but he can be a lot of fun if you’re willing to spend your game time with an obese Scotsman with a drinking problem.
I’ll always remember Gragas as the preferred champ of budding alcoholics during college.
Any tips on landing his ult? I’ve seen it screw and save enemies and allies alike..
I think the basic rule for his ult is don’t cast it at max range unless the target is stunned. If they move at all you’ll probably miss the ult. His Body Slam comes in handy for setting up positioning, but basically don’t throw the thing until you’re sure you can land it. Luckily it’s on a pretty short CD, so early game you can afford to waste a few. In a teamfight though, you want to make sure you get it right.
In honor of gragas’ champ of the week spotlight, I took some time to rekindle my appreciation of him as well.
Gragas is still very fun to play as an ap champ. However, I think he was a lot better back in the days of the uber locket.
I guess I don’t feel he has the burst to be extremely scary, and like you said, his abilities are skillshots…
For my money, I would rather play a bursty caster like annie, brand, or leblanc. I know they are different but still, they feel a lot stronger, and leblanc has an even better dash than gragas and potentially even more aoe damage too.
Yeah, locket Gragas was hilarious, but so busted. I know what you mean about the pure casters though, holden. If I’m trying to be competitive I’ll pick Brand or Annie over Gragas just about any day. Still, he has good flavor, which is very cool.
Leaving my account in the hands of my friend till I get my life back (sooo much to do..I’m not sure if he was kidding bout seeing if he can combine all my runes to see if he can get the “One Rune To Rule Them All” and if he does, screw him)
…but Brand is a ton of fun to play; he’s one of the more complex characters, similar to Lee Sin you have secondary effects that can be combo’ed for some beautiful effects and sensitive resource management