In season 11 of League of Legends, Gragas has emerged as a formidable force in the Top Lane. With a diverse build and a skill set full of surprises, Gragas is a fitting choice for most matchups. Let’s explore some incredibly unique tips to shine in the Top Lane with this Drunken Brawler.
Start with the Q ability – Barrel Roll, which has the characteristic of dealing more damage the longer it remains on the field. However, you will have to wait a full 2 seconds for this ability to deal maximum damage. Of course, opponents will try to dodge, resulting in relatively low actual damage dealt.
To maximize damage, players should aim to cast this ability towards the enemy minion about to be last-hit. Every champion will take a relatively long time to complete an attack. Players should take advantage of that time to increase the explosion damage of Q.
Another tip to apply is to cast Q behind the enemy champion. As a natural reflex, the opponent will move backward when they see you cast this ability. You can exploit that delay to allow the barrel to deal more damage.
With the W ability – Drunken Rage, it is an effective tool for Gragas to hold lane and poke down opponents. This skill only costs 30 mana to use and has a 5-second cooldown, allowing it to continuously activate the healing effect from the passive, Happy Hour. Moreover, the empowered attack after using W will have an extra 50 attack range. This allows you to attack melee opponents safely from a distance.
Moving on to the E ability – Body Slam, it is an excellent tool for traversing terrain, allowing you to roll over many thick walls. Furthermore, you can use Q or the ultimate during the dash of the E skill to surprise with each attack.
Before using Body Slam, you should activate W – Drunken Rage to optimize damage output. Gragas’s E skill has a knock-up and stun effect, so it will control the opponent long enough for you to follow up with an empowered attack from W.
This ability also interrupts most dash and jump skills of opponents. You should hold E to “outplay” opponents if they use champions like Camille, Fiora, Jax…
Gragas’s ultimate typically serves to push the enemy carry towards your teammates to initiate fights. However, in some cases, this ability can also prevent enemy champions from reaching your team’s carry.
Another interesting point about Top Lane Gragas is that the new Mythic items in League of Legends season 11 address many of this champion’s weaknesses. The two items, Night Harvester and Hextech Rocketbelt, both have effects that increase movement speed for champions after dealing damage. With a nature of having engage skills but lacking a way to disengage, this movement speed is extremely valuable.
Even when using Sunfire Aegis, Gragas can still deal a significant amount of damage. Gragas’s skill set possesses annoying slow and control effects. Thus, Gragas can stack damage from Sunfire Aegis over a long duration. In summary, Gragas can unleash substantial damage from the passive of Sunfire Aegis.
Hopefully, with the tips mentioned above, players will rank up effectively with Top Lane Gragas in League of Legends season 11.