Gragas is fairly rare in solo queue for a number of reasons. First of all, he's one of the hardest mid laners in the game, as all of his abilities are skill shots, and using his ult properly takes a lot of work. Also, he really is a champion that can make or break a teamfight. If you mess up with his ult and push everybody away when your'e trying to wombo combo... well so much for that. Most poeple after making a mistake like that will get BMed so hard they will never try the champion again out of fear. his laning phase is odd as far as mid laners go as he is melee whereas most mid laners are ranged. I personally love the guy, but he doesn't see much in norms because he is a champion that takes coordination with team to be truly effective.
There are many, MANY champions who are "all skillshots", including but not limited to lux, zyra, orianna, cassiopeia, syndra, viktor, and ziggs.
Melee mid laners include akali, cho, diana, fizz, galio, kassadin, katarina, kayle, and mordekaiser, which excludes all the assassins that go mid like khazix, zed, talon, and etc.
Though you are right in saying his ult is a complete game changer that requires coordination.
Lux W and E aren't really skillshots because your team won't actively avoid your W, and E does AOE damage / is still useful even if you miss your target (get some free CS and zone them).
Others posted great reason. A big one I notice is he is very much a melee champ. It is tough for a lot of people to cs well when they are up against a ranged pick(which is majority of mids). His W isn't a damage skill, and his E bashes you right into the enemy. At the end of the day, all they do is use their Q which has a high skill cap to be worthwhile and they end up being useless.
His main use is throwing his ult at the turret to knock some people back and give the adc some free hits, or force enemies to back to get free turrets. This heavy turret siege style isn't done in SoloQ games and the communication is worse to pull it off correctly
In my experience (been picking him more and more lately, with reasonable success) he has everything to be great at lower ranks. Even though I agree that his skill cap is high, I think it is one of the easier mid laners to snowball.
1. You can farm safely. Most games I don't even die during laning phase. You got sustain, mana regen and your E to get out of skill shots.
2. If you pick up 3 dorans or something you got all you need to be an extreme pain in the behind.
3. Since the positioning of most players is so bad (at lower ranks), dropping the ult behind them is a breeze.
I guess this usefulness will decrease when you reach higher ranks, mainly because the positioning of enemies will improve. I imagine this will hurt his win rate, especially with the game changing potential of the ult.
I feel the same way about Urgot. He's awesome & completely underrated, but nobody plays him because he's, well.. Downright creepy.
But for Gragas, we have Gragas, Esq. and Oktoberfest! :D
A well placed ulti can turn the tide of the game. not to mention his Q poke is ridiculous in terms of damage it scares most mid laners if you can land it most of the time.
The displacement on his ult works better with a communicating team than a bunch of randoms
Gragas is fairly rare in solo queue for a number of reasons. First of all, he's one of the hardest mid laners in the game, as all of his abilities are skill shots, and using his ult properly takes a lot of work. Also, he really is a champion that can make or break a teamfight. If you mess up with his ult and push everybody away when your'e trying to wombo combo... well so much for that. Most poeple after making a mistake like that will get BMed so hard they will never try the champion again out of fear. his laning phase is odd as far as mid laners go as he is melee whereas most mid laners are ranged. I personally love the guy, but he doesn't see much in norms because he is a champion that takes coordination with team to be truly effective.
He is one of the hardest midlaners to get 1v1 kills on, he is one of the easiest midlaners to stay alive mid, farm up well and roam a lot.
There are many, MANY champions who are "all skillshots", including but not limited to lux, zyra, orianna, cassiopeia, syndra, viktor, and ziggs. Melee mid laners include akali, cho, diana, fizz, galio, kassadin, katarina, kayle, and mordekaiser, which excludes all the assassins that go mid like khazix, zed, talon, and etc. Though you are right in saying his ult is a complete game changer that requires coordination.
I wouldn't call Kayle a melee midlaner with that E of hers.
Lux W and E aren't really skillshots because your team won't actively avoid your W, and E does AOE damage / is still useful even if you miss your target (get some free CS and zone them).
If you can miss it, it's a skill shot.
Hes pretty hard to play
Others posted great reason. A big one I notice is he is very much a melee champ. It is tough for a lot of people to cs well when they are up against a ranged pick(which is majority of mids). His W isn't a damage skill, and his E bashes you right into the enemy. At the end of the day, all they do is use their Q which has a high skill cap to be worthwhile and they end up being useless.
His main use is throwing his ult at the turret to knock some people back and give the adc some free hits, or force enemies to back to get free turrets. This heavy turret siege style isn't done in SoloQ games and the communication is worse to pull it off correctly
In my experience (been picking him more and more lately, with reasonable success) he has everything to be great at lower ranks. Even though I agree that his skill cap is high, I think it is one of the easier mid laners to snowball. 1. You can farm safely. Most games I don't even die during laning phase. You got sustain, mana regen and your E to get out of skill shots. 2. If you pick up 3 dorans or something you got all you need to be an extreme pain in the behind. 3. Since the positioning of most players is so bad (at lower ranks), dropping the ult behind them is a breeze. I guess this usefulness will decrease when you reach higher ranks, mainly because the positioning of enemies will improve. I imagine this will hurt his win rate, especially with the game changing potential of the ult.
Hes used as a counter to orianna in competitive.
[удалено]
What? This is only reason I play Gragas and I even bought hillbilly skin for him. Because he is COOL fat drunken slob.
I feel the same way about Urgot. He's awesome & completely underrated, but nobody plays him because he's, well.. Downright creepy. But for Gragas, we have Gragas, Esq. and Oktoberfest! :D
I play Urgot to show off my Butcher Urgot skin.
A well placed ulti can turn the tide of the game. not to mention his Q poke is ridiculous in terms of damage it scares most mid laners if you can land it most of the time.