13.4 Challanger Gwen Guide (Best Gwen World, Rank 1)



Hello!

My name is jarobomba, and as you can see I am Gwen OTP. Many times Rank 1 world on west or east server, currently stable rank 3. At this time i am in Masters (71% Gwen winrate, 65% overall) climbing for GM. Over 97% Gwen Winrate (30 games) on D4 smurf account. Less about me. Today we're going to make You guys a greater Gwen players.

Introduction



Gwen

What champion is it?

Gwen is an AP damage bruiser. A late game hypercarry with high snowball potential (similar to Kassadin or Vlad). She outscales EVERY toplane champion. No matter if this is a counterpick or Nasus/Kayle lategame. She stomps every single toplane pick in late.



Why do you want to play Gwen?



Let's talk about pros and cons of her.

PROS

+ Counters current meta. Nowadays if you don't have 2 tanks and fed ADC in your team you instant lose. Gwen's job in almost every game is to assasinate backline, then melt any frontline tanks or bruisers cuz you're just made to do it. Also some Ryze or any other 4k HP Mage DPS dealer cant duel you. You smash any of those. AD Bruisers are completely dead so its automatical Gwen buff. + Extremely high scaling + 1v9 Potential + 1v2 Toplane on ganks easily while fed and ult up + Low amount of counterpicks + Amazing splitpush + Strong laning phase after early (1-3 levels) + Snowball, rundown potential + Good into full AD or full AP comps. + Can't fell behind. You always have a solo kill potential even as 0/6 vs 10/0 enemy ADC. Random shutdown and you're back into the game. In any game there is ALWAYS someone with you can duel and win. Remember, you're one of most scaling champions in the game. Absolutely never ff. No one plays perfectly, there is always some throws or ints. Especially in lower elo like platinum.

CONS

- Weak into melee CC oneshots. Examples: - Yasuo+Malphite - Evelynn - Garen/Urgot Those only works if you're not that fed as them, when you can't react to their combo and outheal their bursts. Being behind into champions like those its really frustrating. - People really underestimate this champion and it's really often when im 5/0 absolutely smashing enemy team but my teammates wanna open and go next cuz they don't see any carry potential.

- Very easy to camp early game (before lvl 6). You don't play flash on the champion and it has absolutely no counterplay to 2v1 on early levels. Weak 2v2 with junglers.

- No roam potential early game. Junglers get mad if your 0/2 Renekton goes randomly in their jungle and kills them and you have to stay in lane.

Gwens Abilities

Passive: A Thousand Cuts

Gwen deals damage whenever striking an enemy. Based on enemy % max hp. Scales with AP. Heals for 50% of damage if enemy is a champion. Main source of Gwen's damage.





Q: Snip Snip!



Gwen strikes enemy few times based on stacks amount. Ability damages from 2 up to 6 times. In the center of ability, half of damage is converted into true and passive is being applied for EACH STRIKE. No cc can interrupt it.







W: Hallowed Mist



Gwen is immune haha. Gwen creates a mist which stands up to 4 seconds. Mist can be moved by exiting it or RECASTING IT (its very important when you kite an enemy, no one does that, actually its super op). Exiting 2nd time or first time after recasting it makes mist dissapear. No enemy can aim you out of it. Enemy champions acts like you were in zhonya. Examples: When Vi ult is being used on high range, you can use it and she stops right before the mist, also 2nd R of Vex cannot be cast while being out of it. Much more examples, you need to learn it alone how it works. Warning, it doesnt block already casted DoT (ignite, Malzaher E and etc)

E: Skip 'n Slash



Gwen dashes into medium range. After it gains increased auto attacks damage and range. First autoattack after using recovers cooldown. Cooldown reduction is being increased based by ability level.







R: Needlework



Ability has 2 recasts. Each has one second of cooldown (No longer needs to autoattack enemy to let you recast) 1st cast: Gwen fires 1 needle. 2nd cast: Gwen fires 3 needles. 3nd cast: Gwen fires 5 needles.

Each needle slows and applies passive up to 9 times. Chamions being hit by more than 1 cast have slow strengh reduced.



• Skill Path

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Q E W Max. Pick mist on level 3 if you need to (Range matchups or potential to parry an enemy spell).

Summoner Spells



Let's talk about summoner spells. You propably play one of those 3 sets. Lets talk which one is best. So basically i would just say pick TP Ghost every game without any other choice. I never touch others two and i recommend to dont also.

FAQ

Q: But, why Ghost+TP? A: Gwen doesn't require a flash. All you want to do is scale and splitpush. Ghost is necessary to 1v9 late game. TP for splitpush while team can force baron which you can tp. Or you can tp enemy base in good situation and pick up 2 free turrets. Also protects you from stomp at the lane.

Q: You said Gwen has snowball potential, why no ignite then? A: Yes! I did. I also said that you can be fed every game by assasinating 1v1 their range champions, so don't be afraid to not pick ignite and sometimes play on lane with not that much kills as you would have. Toplane (sidelane) is very long, so once you're enemy makes a mistake you launch ghost and ult up and they're dead. Also in game, you want to splipush as muchest you can. Tier 2 sidelane turrets give a lot of gold (550G) so you will be fine.

Q: But i play vs Aatrox/Olaf/Warwick and i need antiheal! A: You really don't. You can assasinate them before they could heal up. Ignite is not necessary at all. Once we will take up the matchups i will also say that u dont even have to buy antiheal on lane. Not having ghost in your game is yourself wishing you to lose game. Once your mist dissapears and you wouldn't have enough movement speed to kill backline like Lux/Cait or any other frustrating champions, you're dead and ignite doesn't change a fact. Q: What if i go Ghost+Ignite to have both of them? A: Gwen doesn't really need ignite on lane or late game. If you don't pick up TP you propably lose the lane, cuz you're really vulnerable to any ganks. Also you're useless in late cuz you can't force any splitpush or barons without it. You just randomly walk around allies watching them. You do absolutely nothing. Zero pressure on map.

Runes

Now it's time for runes!

• PLAY EVERY GAME

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Main path: Conqueror is our main keystone, no other fits perfectly to Gwen as this one. Im saying since Lehtal Tempo is reworked, its not worth it. Conqueror stacks immediately. Lethal tempo gives you nothing, you don't want this attack speed when counqeror is in game. No worth at all to pick Tempo. I didn't play it even after rework of Tempo while it was broken.

I think i will shock no one saying that Presence of Mind is necessary to play the game. Poking on lane gives you extra mana. If you're not being oneshot in one teamfight you don't really lose HP on Gwen. Triumph is useless compared to each mana reset after kill. You don't buy mana on Gwen and once you get cooldown spike, its just spamming 2 abilities so mana is necessary.

Ehh, time for hard topic. A legend runes. First of all you never want to pick up Bloodline, cuz just why. You heal more with Attack Speed shard, cuz more often you hit, more often you heal, no? And really hard one. YOU NEVER WANT TO PICK UP A LEGEND TENACITY. Okay so lets talk why. "But, Gwen needs tenacity no?". Well, yes and no. We're having a overall tenacity nerf in game. First of all they nerfed that rune, now they have nerfed stacking tenacity (having more than 1 source of tenacity will reduce their power). I never picked this rune even before nerfs, and especially we never absolutely never want to pick it up now. Legend Alacrity (Attack speed shard) gives you so much power and DPS, its great to fill up ur damage. In some games you need to have tenacity, as i said you never want to pick it up from runes, we will talk about it later in your build.

Last Stand. Of course you want to pick this rune. You're a healing champion, sustain fighter etc. It creates crazy damage in late, when ur heal power is huge. Coup de grace feels absolutely useless and i recommend to never pick it up. Secondary Path: "Wait, isn't it supposted to be green???" Well, no. And never. So, in green tree u have Bone Plating and Second Wind. Those runes are pretty much big before 10th minute and they absolutely fell off after it. We will talk about why you don't want them later, in playstyle. Transcendence. Pretty huge rune. Gwen loves any ability haste in her kit. It gives you free 10 AH and resets after kill. While ur mist has around 15 seconds of cooldown, you kill 3 people in teamfight, get reset and run for pentakill with another rune. Huge rune for teamfighting or just natural 1v9.

My favourite, Gathering storm. So basically as a Gwen (i already said that), you want to extend game as muchest you can, create pressure on splitpush, dragons, barons etc. Once you get the 20 or 30 minute game this rune is amazing. It's really easy to extend game as a Gwen, so if she's late game hypercarry, this rune is great!

Builds

Okay so this one will be very hard topic. Let's see how proplayers, and high elo plays Gwen.



As you can see they don't really like to buy nashors tooth every game. They prefere to snowball with shadowflame or void staff. Let's divide Gwen builds and talk about them. So we have 2 builds.

A snowball oneshot one (just magic pen):

And the original one, lategame bruiser:



I never go the first build. Let's talk why and compare the pros and cons of builds.

PROS AND CONS OF MAGIC PEN

+ Faster snowball + A little bit more of sustain early game + Squishes oneshot potential - No cooldowns - Makes yourself squishy - Low mobility - When you're playing vs high mobility champions, or someone is faker at dodging ur every spell, build becomes completely useless

PROS AND CONS OF LATEGAME BRUISER

+ Autoattacks becomes deadly, You're no longer useless after not hitting Q. Once your Q is up with stacks, enemy will try to predict ur Q and dodge it (Same for your ult). With this build you just save ur cooldowns and hit your enemies with autos when they try to dodge. Once they understand they never dodge a spell and have to run away, you can pull off your cooldowns and hit them easily. You can't have that on magic pen build. That really big one pro for bruiser and con for magic pen + As i said Gwen loves cooldowns this build just has it + A lot of movement speed with Cosmic Drive, no ADC or range champion is able to kite you. Never. + Scales better than Magic Pen build + Every item is huge spike + Splitpush with nashors - Harder to pop off (Gwen just needs more time, but as i said Gwen loves to extend game and its not that big con)

So tldr. Classic bruiser build is just better and outscales Magic Pen build.

But hey! That's not all, you still have 3 more slots to fill!

Start item:

Only dorans ring. Sometimes u can go for dorans shield when you play vs range or poke. Never buy Dorans Blade after E CD nerf. If you dont need shield, buy ring everytime cuz you lack of mana early levels.

Boots:





So in almost every game we need one of these two. We must ask ourselfs a question. Do we need tenacity? If you see in enemy a Xerath, Lux, Brand etc of course not. We want to parry them. But if you see champions like Amumu, Leona, or Nasus (a CC you can't dodge by a mist) buy mercury threads even if enemy is full AD. Don't worry Gwen is fine vs full AD comps. But once you don't need tenacity, Plated Steelcaps are great option, cuz as i said before, you will fight a lot with enemy melee champions or 1v1 with enemy ADC. Their damage reduction is just OP. Don't feel afraid to buy it before riftmaker vs champions like Yone, Sett or Trynda. You don't really need ionians while those two are in game.

Classic final build:





This is a build u want to run almost every game. You don't need much resistances on Gwen. Most mages can't touch you and you can assasinate them so MR is rarely in build. You want to build Full AP Gwen almost everytime. Buy resistances ONLY if you have to.

Build vs Full AP comps (or AP Hypercarries like Cassio and AD champions doesn't deal you any damage):



Buy if necessary. If you oneshot enemies AP Champion, decide for full AP Build.

Build vs AP Hypercarries and fed AD champion which oneshot you:



Buy ONLY if you play vs fed AP Hypercarry with AD assasin (Like Cassio mid, Zed jungle)

FULL AP Build when enemy has only early game champions and you outscaled them very hard:





Lich bane is fun item to oneshot enemies backline. Mejai is much cheaper. Once you get that much gold, swap for lichbane. Buy only in stomp games when you outscaled enemies very hard. If enemy has a lot of tanks/MR Feel free to pick void staff instead.

Tips and Tricks

Gwen has some tricks or tips you need to know: - Q Cannot be interrupted by any CC, so you use it wisely. Examples. When Garen comes to Q yourself, he will have a jump animation and silence you. So what you want to do is Q+E (E if you're that fast enought) and slice him during his Q animation because he cant move during it. Also if u put e behind you can run out of his Q+E Combo. It's amazing vs Sett E, Morde E etc. Congrats! You just won a trade! - Already said that but much people don't know, W can be casted second time. - After using E+Q spam autoattacks on enemy. I don't know if this is a bug or it is supposted to be like this, but you can cast autoattack during Q. (Only autos empowered with E) - Don't spam your Q or all of your ults, enemy will try to predict it and dodge. During that just autoattack them, and if they dont run in straight line (they just bounce on sides to dodge ur spells) they're just shortening the distance between you and them, so they have to continue fight with much less hp, or run in straight line cuz they have shortened a much too much distance. This is the time when you want to use your spells. - Try not only to E+Q forwards or behind. Learn it also to the sides. - If youre fighting 2 people, try to kite them with ghost and put them in straight line, thats a free time to ult or Q, if you cant do that remember to hit Q every time with middle of it. Its better to hit one person with middle than 2 people with side of it - W is very hard to learn spell, NEVER USE IT FOR JUST ARMOR AND MR, absolutely never do that, look everytime to parry a cc with that (while u run down their backlane with ghost) if enemy has no cc's try to parry as muchest damage as you can - Don't instaclick W a spell you can dodge with E (Examples, you E on side to dodge Lux Q, Xerath E) Try to save your W as muchest you can and pop it off to parry as muchest you can. Lethal spell if someone know how to use it well - Q on lane doesn't pick up minion aggro on you (if you hit minions and champion both)

Playstyle

We're coming right to before last chapter. How do i play the champion?

Laning Phase/Early game:

- When enemies come to creep a cs cast your Q so they can't move and they get damaged - Try to push (just a little not that much) first waves so 3rd or 4th wave enters enemy turret. Don't do that vs ranges or hard matchups (we will talk about hard matchups later). Then recall or walk up into enemy jungle, see if they're here or deep ward their jungle. - While pushing you dont wan't to brainlessly hit minions autos. Just wait untill enemy tries to farm, then execute creeps with Q and damage him. Try to hold Q stacks as muchest you can, but if it makes you push too hard, dont do that. - If you lost your matchup, dont buy defensive items like bramble vest, play for scale around split. - Don't E into enemy and fist fight on his full hp. E has now crazy high early game cooldown, so if u dont kill enemy during 5 seconds of empowered autos, you're propably dead cuz you don't want long trades as Gwen in early game. Just poke them with Q and E on side/backwards if they want to dodge it. - We dont wanna pick Bone Plating or Second Wind just because it, we never long trade before lvl 6-8, and this runes fell off just after those levels. - Pick Q on lvl 3 instead of mist, if you're safe/stomping trades/or you just created huge wave and youre safe - Don't roam, you're not that strong in roams. It's better if you put your wave in safe spot or push during enemy roam. Your jungler will spam ping you, but you're way weaker in long fights so just mute him if he is an animal and doesnt know what ur champion can do.

Midgame:

- When u're fed after killing first turret (like 5/0) go and fight for drake, dont lose objectives if you can defend them alone. Don't go if you're out of ult and ghost. Don't follow stupid fights when nothing is on map, just go sidelanes - Splitpush tier 2's (on sides of course, they give a lot of gold and you're oneshotting them) - You should win every 1v1 after hitting every Q and every R stack. Don't be afraid to launch ghost on 10/0 enemy adc. Just don't do that if you're not 1v1. Play 1v2 only if u feel that or enemies are inting (like 3/1 jungler ganks 1/3 toplaner). Gwen is Queen of 1v2 in lane.

Lategame:

You propably took every tier 2 turrets, around 2 drakes, having 3 or 4 items. Congratulations, your fun begins! - Instant ult alone ADC or any other carries of they are alone, They have no counterplay to you. Try to hit them with just one first stack of R. Just run up to them when they're slowed, and auto them do death or Q, if this is necessary ult 2nd time. If you eliminated main source of damage, and no one is able to carry on enemy team, run into 4 people alone, you win that. Gwen has only area damage and she's a 1v9 champion with very high pentakill potential. - Fight frontline and don't use W, stack Q try not to use it and if you see enemy ADC going to hit you with auto, or he just inted, immediately launch ghost W if you need to parry anything and R, E+Q at him. He is dead in less than second, after it you're propably killing everyone around.

BANS

I like to ban Jax nowadays cuz he is very popular and counters Gwen well. If your team already banned it you can look for some others bans like Fiora, Darius (they're not that hard to play against, but not mastered matchup might be hard)

MATCHUPS

Here we go! Last chapter of mine. The matchups. Let's say a little for every champion.





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Threats:

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Thats it!

After reading this lotta of paperwork, you should climb a lot with Gwen. Thank You for reading and goodluck on SoloQ!