The new champion Gwen is the next name to join the Summoner’s Rift after the Ruined King Viego. Bringing with her a soul that many speculate belongs to Isolde – Viego’s wife, Gwen is introduced as an AP Fighter for the top lane with mobility and good damage output.
Runes
As a champion that deals good damage through skill exchanges, Conqueror is quite suitable for Gwen. In particular, this rune synergizes well with her passive Thousand Cuts, giving Gwen a strong healing ability to sustain her lane more easily.
Other effective runes in the Conqueror tree include Triumph for additional healing and improving Gwen’s farming ability, and Tenacity to enhance her resilience. Cut Down helps reduce the cooldown of her ultimate Needlework while dealing extra damage to enemy champions alongside a slow effect.
In the secondary tree, since Gwen is an AP champion, using Sorcery is quite reasonable. Nimbus Cloak enhances Gwen’s mobility while Absolute Focus will help her reduce cooldowns and boost her AP.
Items and Playstyle
As an AP Fighter with good ability power and built-in healing skills, the current core items are Everfrost and Cosmic Drive, which are perfect for Gwen. Other items can vary depending on the situation but should primarily focus on providing her with damage output and cooldown reduction: Nashor’s Tooth, Riftmaker, and Liandry’s Anguish. A few items that help Gwen survive longer in team fights like Zeke’s Convergence and Stopwatch will also be effective, especially in the mid and late game.
In the early game, Gwen tends to feel weaker compared to top champions with high damage and crowd control like Renekton and Darius… Therefore, avoiding skill exchanges and ganks is critical during this phase. Even though her W – Hallowed Mist provides her with a shield, increasing armor and magic resistance, it’s important to remember that Gwen’s health compared to those “monsters” is still relatively low, and without enough items, she can easily be poked down or burst down.
Gwen’s strength lies in her Q – Snip Snip! if this champion lands 4 hits on an opponent or minions. However, E – Trim and Q will only reach their maximum potential if she accumulates 4 stacks.
Another advantage of Gwen is that her E skill continuously refreshes thanks to basic attacks, allowing her to deal more damage in team fights. Additionally, this skill is effective for chasing or ganking opponents when combined with R – Needlework.
Conclusion
Gwen is an AP Fighter champion with a skill set that deals good burst damage and is quite mobile, along with skills that help her avoid ganks or quick burst damage from opponents. However, Gwen does not seem to outperform some popular picks like Renekton, Darius, or Camille… Not to mention, aside from her ultimate’s slow effect, Gwen lacks any hard crowd control to coordinate with the jungle.