Gwen is the latest champion to enter the League of Legends roster, having been introduced in patch 11.8.
Following on from Gwen's overview, in this article we'll dive into specifics of Gwen's build including, which runes to use, which items to buy, the best ability paths, and more!
Best Gwen Build
In this guide we'll focus on Gwen as a top lane champion as this is her most prominent and more commonly used role. We'll provide an overview on how to get a good base build and we'll branch out more to talk about situational items for specific scenarios.
Runes
There are multiple rune paths you can choose depending on your preferred playstyle with Gwen. Precision and domination paths, as shown in the screenshot above, are going to be the most commonly used.
Ultimately, when choosing runes you want to consider what synergises well with Gwen's abilities.
Here for example, 'Triumph' allows Gwen players to take advantage of her strong laning phase and early game as well as combine it her passive to provide greater sustain.
On the domination side, 'Sudden Impact' combines perfectly with Gwen's E, while 'Ravenous Hunter' combines well with Gwen's overall mobility and map control.
Summoner Spells & Starting items
As Gwen is a top laner, her most commonly used spells are going to be 'Flash' & 'Teleport'. This really is down to individual preference, team composition, and other champions' choice summoner spells.
For example, you may want to take ignite instead of teleport if multiple teams members are using teleport, or heal for difficult lane matchups.
For starting items, there are again multiple choices. For easier matchups, choose either 'Dark Seal' and a 'Refillable Potion' or 'Doran's Ring' and two regular 'Health Potions'.
When faced with more difficult match-ups in lane, take either 'Doran's Shield' or 'Corrupting Potion' for greater sustain.
Core Item Build
Gwen needs to build high attack speed and mobility as her primary playstyle and also high damage and burst items. Below are choices of Mythic and Legendary items to use for Gwen.
Many of the choice item builds will be situational. Choice of mythic item will structure your main build as mythic items will influence each legendary item with bonus stats.
My preference when playing Gwen is to use the 'Riftmaker' mythic item and then utilise a combination of high attack speed, movement speed, and ability power. Below is an example build.
Upgrade Path
When it comes to ordering Gwen's ability upgrades. Most players will start with Q, followed by E, and then W. Then, continuing to max them out in that order throughout the game, remembering to upgrade R at levels 6, 11 & 16.
Threats & Synergies
Threats
Darius
- Darius is your greatest threat in lane match-ups. Do not trade with him as he will come out on top. Attempt to create short trades using your combo and diving back out, slowly wearing him down.
Jayce
- Jayce is another extreme threat. Jayce will poke you and keep his distance slowly wearing you down. Attempt to close the gap and he will escape with ease. Using your W to evade and looking for ganks will be your best bet.
Synergies
Yuumi
- Yuumi is an ideal synergy. She can give Gwen bonus speed, heal, and ability power which all scale very well with Gwen's playstyle. Yuumi's ultimate can also be combined with Gwen's.
Nami
- Nami provides extra attack speed, movement speed, and ability power. She also has excellent crowd-control, which Gwen lacks, so together you can combine and take easy kills.