Talk:Gragas/@comment-4105539-20121210065722

So, these are my observations on the state of Gragas season 3.

Mid Gragas has some clear advantages in season 3.

the base movement speed increase frees up his first buy, allowing him to get agressive or tanky items from level 1 with little repercussions.

Damage:

DFG is better for him than it has ever been: it gives considerable AP, it gives CDR, and the 20% damage bonus means that a full combo should kill most any enemy.

mana:

Stacking a tear proved difficult, but Athenes is still a functional path for mana guzzlers, and Dorans rings or Philosophers stone are not terrible options either. With mana regen eaiser to get at in the utility tree, this more or less balances out for early game.

Defense:

Not a whole lot has changed here for Gragas. Since penetration is on the rise right now, Gragas is technically in a better position than most mids, as his percent damage mitigation will work regardless. Haunting Guise is alos a decent early game health/AP item for Gragas now if he really needs it, since it can build into something useful late game.

I'll also briefly cover the other lanes

Top Gragas:

An Offtank top Gragas is actually quite strong now. The increase in MR cost makes it a little more difficult for a bruiser to completely shut out an AP, and Gragas has two powerful new items to make an off-tank mid game actually effective: Iceborn Gauntlet and Liandry's Torment. Iceborn Gauntlet is the armor/AP item offtanks have been desiring, and Liandry's Torment provides some health and a great amount of damage for a single item. Gragas' Body Slam will not only proc the double damage for being a slow, but also counts as a single target spell, even when multiple targets are hit (and counts as a single target for every target hit). Gauntlet, Liandry's, Abyssal will provide a tanky and still heavy damage Gragas.

Jungle Gragas:

It is still very susceptible to strong counter-junglers, but Jungle Gragas is much better in Season 3. The new itemization is greatly to his advantage. With the new jungle monster setup, it is easy to focus the large monster with drunken autos while the lesser monsters fall to his AoE. After the first clear my health didn't fall below 90% while clearing the jungle. It is very safe and relatively fast.

Support Gragas:

To be honest I haven't tried it. Logically it should be slightly better with more open itemization. I'd still keep this in the "just for fun" category, unless I see something to the contrary.

TL;DR

Gragas is stronger in any lane (and the jungle) in season 3