Blogs
InSec inspired Jungle Gragas: Platinum 1 Guide
Chubs
Sun 29th Sep 2013 - 2:54pm
I’m a platinum I jungle main on Eu-West and this is a look into my InSec inspired jungle Gragas guide.
Introduction
The first time jungle Gragas came into sight was in the All-Star tournament. Korea and KT Rolster Bullets' InSec brought out this unconventional pick at a point where the best out of three series was 1-0 to the Koreans. It really shocked everyone. Though it didn't have a huge influence on the game, I loved the idea and highly regard both InSec for this innovation in the jungle. If you haven't seen it, you can check it out here. (The reaction from the casters makes this video worth watching alone pre-game)
Though Gragas is a very unconventional pick, he can still be used to great effectiveness. His ganks can be so powerful and it's so rewarding to hit a perfect ultimate. It's important to realise that Gragas doesn't fit every team composition and he won't provide your team any frontline. Bear this in mind when picking him to avoid any frustrating outcomes.
It's very important to note that Gragas is a champion that I would advise learning mechanically in normal/custom games before taking to ranked. He has great potential but is very difficult to master. With enough practice and understanding of how he works, you'll reap the rewards of how powerful Gragas can be as a jungler.
So here is how I build Gragas for the jungle.
Runes
Marks - I run hyrbrid penetration marks, I find it useful for clear time and you don't sacrifice the effectiveness when ganking with barrel damage. You can also use magic penetration, or if you'd prefer quicker clear times: attack speed or attack damage marks can work.
Seals - As with every jungler, it's standard to run armour seals. It's pretty self explanatory.
Glyphs - I like to run flat magic resistance for Gragas. I enjoy playing with a pretty aggressive, in-your-face-style-with-gragas.
Quintessences - I like to use three ability power quintessences. It makes me feel more comfortable with the first camp clear and actually makes early trading with the other jungler quite potent. You could also go for flat attack damage quintessences, these would also work and give Gragas very strong auto attacks. I've tried both out and feel happier with the early ability power. That's just my opinion, see what works for your playstyle.
You can surprise people with your early damage with this setup.
Masteries
You could opt for a 9/21/0 build if you preferred, but I favour 21/9/0 due to Gragas being pretty mobile and having safe poke distance. Take Bladed Armour in defence to aid your clear time.
Starting Items
I would suggest starting with a standard Hunter's Machete and 5 health potions at level 1. Though I love the efficiency of Doran's Blade starts on junglers, the first clear for Gragas isn't as powerful as many of the bruiser junglers who utilise the Doran's Blade.
Core Build
This is my core build, occasionally depending on the gold that I have to recall with I would buy a Doran's Ring early game after buying my Spirit Stone. This core build gives you everything you need in terms of ability power and mana regeneration to poke and deal damage when using your ultimate. Gragas can be very mana hungry.
From here on you want to just build more ability power, consider Rabadon's Deathcap and Void Staff (These are my favoured options), but you could consider more defensive items such as an Abyssal Sceptre or Zhonya's Hourglass.
Generally you want to itemise for more damage, you'll benefit the most from this. Your poke will be a good contribution to the team and your ultimate can be used to great potential. But more of that later!
Skill Order
Passive - Happy Hour
Gragas takes a drink restoring 2% of his max health over 4 seconds every time he uses an ability. This is really helpful for his jungle clear and efficiency. Especially paired with the spell vamp given from Spirit of the Spectral Wraith later on.
Barrel Roll (Q)
His long range poke and primary tool for clearing the jungle. You can also wave clear later on very well to defend, as well as poking the enemy when your team sieges. What people often overlook is that barrel roll also debuffs the attack speed of enemies for three seconds.
Take this at level one and max it first.
Drunken Rage (W)
After a one second channel, Gragas regenerates mana. After channeling, Gragas gains attack damage and reduced damage taken for the duration. This is a reason why Gragas utilises hybrid penetration marks well for his jungle clearing and makes him a surprisingly potent duelist in the early game.
Take this at level 2 and max it second
(This is to help with mana regeneration, you can max Body Slam second if you'd prefer)
Gragas charges forwards and collides with the first enemy unit he hits, slowing enemy targets hit by body slam. You can use this to surprise the enemy by charging forwards to get more range for explosive cask. You can dive over thin terrain with this, practice it to great use.
Take this at level 3 or 4, depending on when you want to gank.
Explosive Cask (R)
This is your best tool, use this with caution though. Try to isolate easy to kill targets by landing the barrel behind an enemy, knocking them towards your team-mates. Utilise Body Slam (E) to gain some distance on retreating enemies and catch them off guard then throw your Explosive Cask behind the enemy.
Remember that this ability can backfire if you miss, but be confident in using it. It has a short cooldown, paired with your core build for good cooldown reduction.
Max his ultimate ability first for obvious maximum effectiveness!
Summoner Spells
There are fairly limited options here, in terms of jungling I would suggest the standard Smite and Flash. This is completely up to preference of course, but I would never suggest anything but these two summoners when jungling with Gragas.
Playstyle
It's very important to learn when and how to utilise your ultimate ability. It's very easy to misjudge and save an enemy from death by knocking them an undesired direction, or to miss it altogether (It happens to the best of us).
In the early game don't be too afraid to duel and seek early ganks, but when ganking try to be aware that you can be outmatched by early game power houses such as Vi, Jarvan, and Aatrox to name a few. Try to pick your fights well as your ganks are quite weak before level 6.
Try to farm your way to level 6 at a quick pace, from there you should look to create action with your ultimate. The bottom lane is very easy to gank for Gragas, lane ganking in particular is very effective. Don't be afraid to auto attack, with Drunken Rage active and hybrid penetration marks, you might be as surprised as your enemy by the damage your auto attacks can do.
When securing Baron Nashor in the later game, or even looking to steal it, Gragas is probably even better than Lee Sin. Your Q, R and Smite abilities all do huge damage, you can combo them to catch any jungler off guard and secure or steal the Baron with ease.
So there you go, that was my InSec inspired take on the unconventional jungle Gragas. Try it out and master it, hopefully you'll have as much fun playing this guy as I do!