Gragas is one of the oldest League of Legends champions, being released 12 years ago by Riot Games. These are the best Gragas build, runes, spells, items League of Legends can offer him, as well as his greatest counters.
Best Gragas Build
Gragas is one of the few top lane magic damage fighters. And, while he can be played in the mid-lane, the meta heavily favors his top lane role. After all, he works far better into champions he can run down, than outright burst early.
Best Gragas Runes
Gragas is a top lane fighter, who deals burst magical damage. As such, his playstyle focuses on short trades, and maximizing his gold income with First Strike.
The rest of the Inspiration Rune Path is there to provide him with quality of life improvements, such as additional lane sustain and ability haste. Just beware ganks and use your body slam's cooldown effectively, as you can't buy Tier 1 boots early in the game with Magical Footwear.
Best Rune Path | Inspiration | Sorcery
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Best Keystone | First Strike
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Best Slot 1 (Rune) | Magical Footwear
| Manaflow Band
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Best Slot 2 (Rune) | Biscuit Delivery
| Transcendence
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Best Slot 2 (Rune) | Cosmic Insight
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And, as is the case with every mana and ability-reliant champion, Manaflow Band is a must. Who can say no to free mana? Transcendence is there to make him more than just a magic damage assassin, and into an actual fighter, who can do more than one spell rotation in a fight.
Best Gragas Rune Shards
As it is the case with all champions that rely on early-game short trades, Adaptive Damage Rune Shards are a must for the bonus magic damage, in the case of Gragas.
Best Rune Shards | Effect |
Flex
| +9 Adaptive Force |
Offense
| +9 Adaptive Force |
Defense
| +6 Armor |
Armor, on the other hand, is situational. However, seeing as most top lane champions deal physical damage, you'll be using this Rune Shard more often than not.
Best Gragas Spells
When it comes to Summoner Spells, there are only a few champions who are managing League of Legends trials, without using Flash. Those are Shaco or Tryndamere. Flash is a must-have when playing Gragas, as Flash is, without a doubt, the best Summoner Spell in the game, overall.
Best Spells | Icon |
Flash |
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Teleport |
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Teleport, on the other hand, is the usual pick for top lane champions like Gragas. You will either have kill pressure without Ignite or won't even with it. So Teleport is there to help in farming and scaling quickly.
Best Gragas Abilities Order
The first ability to level on Gragas, out of his skill order, is his Q - Barrel Roll. It serves as his most reliable waveclear and main poke ability, and is a barrel of ale thrown to a target location.
After that, the next ability in his skill order is his E - Body Slam, which makes Gragas charge to a target direction, and collide with the first enemy unit, while stunning nearby enemies hit.
Finally, besides Gragas’s ultimate, we have his W - Drunken Rage. Gragas's next auto attack becomes empowered when using it, dealing magic damage to splash nearby enemies. In conjunction with his E, Gragas top can delete enemy carries during the late game.
And, as always, Gragas' ultimate is his bread and butter for making plays and must be leveled at levels 6, 11, and 16. It's the combination of knocking enemies back, with a massive amount of damage, that can easily turn a team fight if used properly. After all, it takes just one enemy hit to thrust an important carry in the middle of your team.
Best Gragas Items
Gragas is an old top lane magic damage fighter. As such, his build needs to give him every edge he can get to be able to keep up with both the mid lane carries, as well as top-lane bruisers.
Best Starter Gragas Items
Gragas is a mana user, and as such, always starts with Doran’s Ring as his starting item. And health potions to round out the gold, of course.
First Item | Second Item |
Doran's Ring
| Health potions
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Best Mid Game Gragas Items
In the mid-game, if you’ve played the laning phase correctly, your core build should be ready. It consists of a non-negotiable Night Harvester as a Mythic Item, for bonus magic damage equal to a fully powered Level 5 Barrel Roll, Ionian Boots of Lucidity, and Archangel's Staff.
First Item | Second Item | Third Item |
Night Harvester
| Ionian Boots of Lucidity
| Archangel's Staff
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Gragas needs all the damage, ability haste, bonus mana, and tankiness he can get, to be able to compete with the rest of the League of Legends champions. So, every item in his core build, and full build is dedicated to that end.
Best Final Late Game Gragas Items
Gragas can be a menace to your back line, or a champion that is only good for throwing the enemy team into disarray. His build focuses on always making him the former.
First Item | Second Item | Third Item | Fourth Item | Fifth Item | Sixth item |
Night Harvester | Ionian Boots of Lucidity | Archangel's Staff | Zhonya's Hourglass | Morellonomicon | Cosmic Drive |
Aside from Gragas' core build, even the rest of his items are geared towards dealing with the broad threats found in the game. Morellonomicon lets him deal with top lane bruisers that rely on healing, while Cosmic Drive allows him to run down slippery mid-lane carries.
Strongest Champions Against Gragas
Gragas suffers at the hand of champions that can negate his engage and disengage, such as Singed, or those that can tank his damage while forcing him to a prolonged fight with their CC, such as Ornn and Udyr.
Champion | Win Rate% | Icon |
Singed | 42.8% | |
Udyr | 44.2% | |
Ornn | 44.8% |
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Weakest Champions Against Gragas
On the other hand, the champions whose abilities can be interrupted by Gragas himself, especially his Body Slam, are the ones Gragas has the best odds against.
Champion | Win Rate % | Icon |
Jayce | 54% |
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Jax | 54% |
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Tryndamere | 53.2% |
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It’s these enemies that those who play Gragas like the most and dealing a killing blow to them is easy enough to do, by following this highest win rate Gragas guide