Gragas is a powerful and versatile champion who was originally rooted in the jungle role. However, after some meta changes, he found himself in the top lane. He is currently one of the strongest and most adaptable laners in the game.
In this article, we are gonna lay out a Gragas top guide to help you excel at this champion!
Gragas Top Guide
Laning Phase With Gragas Top
Playing Gragas in the early stages of top lane is relatively simple. When playing against ranged champions, we want to push out the lane to disable them from poking us out of the lane. You also want to push out the lane before scuttle spawns, in case you want to help your laner. Finally, you also have to push before taking a major objective such as void grubs.
In other situations, keeping the minion waves close to your tower is better. This is specifically important, because Gragas is a champion that relies heavily on short trades. By drawing minions to our side of the map, we open up more space for trading with the enemies.
When it comes to the trading patterns, our most common combos are E > Q > W and Q > E > W. These might seem a little complicated in text, however, they are pretty easy to get used to in game. Utilize these combos to get your enemy low on HP, and then hit them with a final combo that will make use of our ultimate for damage.
How to Play Mid-Game With Gragas Top
Once we are done with the laning phase, we start playing around our team. Gragas is a really great utility pick since he has tons of CC. This kind of kit works best when paired with ally champion strengths. Therefore, our goal is to let one of our allies cover top, while we roam around the map scouting for good fighting and objective opportunities.
The key to playing Gragas like this will be taking Teleport summoner. This will enable us to engage in plays across the map, or teleport back to the lane if push comes to shove. Overall, we recommend teleport over any other spell for Gragas top.
How to Play the Late Game With Gragas Top
The late game will be mostly marked by team fights and objective contests. In these situations, you play similar to how a frontline champion would play. This means leading the team with engages, while also being slightly more cautious than your average tank. The most common pattern would be to engage on a carry target, then dip out of the fight to safety. Once our cooldowns reset, we can go in for another engage, and so on.
Gragas Top Lane Runes and Items
The items:
- Cosmic Drive
- Winter’s Approach
- Zhonya’s Hourglass
- Lich Bane
- Rabadon’s Deathcap
- Ionian Boots of Lucidity
The runes:
- Grasp of the Undying
- Demolish
- Second Wind
- Overgrowth
- Manaflow Band
- Scorch
Final Thoughts
Gragas is a versatile and powerful top-lane pick. He can mesh with almost any ally draft and create significant leads for his team. The greatest way to play him is full AP with Grasp of the Undying keystone. This setup enables him to make the most out of his poke playstyle, while also giving him sufficient front-line survivability.