Gragas’ passive is “Free Beer” and ensures that he heals himself for 6.5% of his life every 8 seconds when using his next ability. This passive allows him to heal quickly after short trades and also provides a healthy jungle clear.

At level 1, you skill the W “Drunken Rage” as Gragas. Gragas drinks from his barrel and falls into a frenzy, taking less damage for 2.5 seconds and causing his next autoattack to deal additional magic area damage. With good timing of this ability, you can reduce the incoming burst of your opponents, which gives you additional stamina. You can also use the W in and out of combat to trigger your passives and heal yourself. As the damage of the ability is partly dependent on the percentage of your opponent’s life and additional ability points neither increase this percentage nor reduce the cooldown of the ability, maximize the W last.

At level 2, you then use the Q “Rolled Barrel”, in which Gragas rolls his barrel to the selected target location. The barrel automatically explodes there after 4 seconds or when the ability is reactivated. The area damage caused increases the longer the barrel remains there. Enemies caught in the explosion are also slowed for 2 seconds. The Q is therefore your main source of damage and your best tool for clearing the jungle. You should therefore maximize it first.

When you reach level 3, you’ll unlock your last basic ability, the E “Killer Paw”. When activated, Gragas charges to the target location, rams the first enemy that gets in his way with his belly, deals damage to all nearby enemies and stuns them. With this ability, Gragas can also dash over thin walls. You can also combine it with Flash so that your opponent has no chance to dodge. This gives you a very good Engage for catching careless opponents or engaging in team fights. As the damage is increased and the cooldown is reduced, you maximize the E second.

Gragas’ ultimate ability is “Explosive Barrel”. Gragas throws his barrel to the target location, where it deals area damage and hurls enemies hit away from the explosion point. You can use this ult in several ways, both to catch enemies at long range and to disengage dangerous situations. You can also use it in combination with your Flash-E to engage in a teamfight and throw an enemy carry towards your team or snipe an opponent with low health. Another combo is to push an opponent into a charged Q with the ult so that they take more damage.

Your standard combo without ult is Q->W->E->AA->Q. You place your barrel under the enemy and immediately activate your W, which cancels their animation. Then you dash at the enemy with your E and stun them inside the barrel, followed by the autoattack boosted by the W and the detonation of the Q for a good amount of burst damage.

Another combo is Q->W->R->AA->Q. Place the barrel near you, cancel the animation of your W again and then knock the opponent into the barrel lying on the ground before giving him the boosted autoattack and detonating the Q.