What makes gragas strong mid and how can you counter him?

Question

What items does he typically build?

What champions and items counter him best?

Answer 1

Gragas is strong cause he has good poke (Q/R), insane burst (if you're good enough to hit everything) and good mobility. Especially in soloq, you can roam all day (after lvl 4 already) and gank sidelanes, cause you have good burst dmg and a pretty strong slow.

Also, his Q has an AS debuff, which is very good late game if you hit the enemy AD/Bruiser, his W gives him dmg reduction and can be up 100% of the time (at rank 5) and it gives him AD, which is very good cause his E scales of AD and AP.

You usually want to skill Q > W >E, cause your E slow/cd doesnt increase/go down, only your dmg increases by a slight amount, so its better to max W second (since W gives you AD, your E dmg increases anyways)

Usually, you get either an Rabadons or an DFG as first item, depending on if the enemy team is tanky and you want to burst one (DFG) or if the enemy team is rather squishy/you want to poke (Rabadons). You usually get 2 Dorans Rings before starting your first core item, and I personally prefer a Chalice of Harmony as well. After you finished Rabadons AND DFG you go for either Void Staff -> Zhonyas -> any AP Item(unholy grail, rylais, abysall etc) or you can build an Abysall after finishing DFG and then go for Rabadons -> Void Staff. Abysall as first/second item is good in a double ap comp and if the enemy has low to 0 MR.

The Problem with Gragas is, that there are very very few real counters to him. In terms of Items, a Banshees Veil does best against him, or on AD champs (even AD carrys!!) consider MoM. You can obviously counter him in lane a bit by picking a ranged champ (Ahri does well, zyra, Morgana) but all these champs can usually only delay his first item a bit, and after lvl4, if he is good, he will start roaming and destroying your sidelanes (Bot!!). Really strong counters mid to him are assassins. Fizz can beat the crap out of Gragas (DODGE AAAALL THE BARRELS!) and so do Talon and even Akali, if played correctly.

Generally speaking, high mobility/MS counters Gragas, cause you can regroup fast enough after his ult or even dodge it. For ADC(which have to be scared to most since Gragas will probably try to burst the AD) you can take Corki/Eze (mobility) or Graves (dash and tankyness). I guess a well played Kog Maw/Caitlyn will also do their job, but its harder.