1.Table of Contents 2.Intro 3.Abilities 4.Items 4.1 Starting Items 4.2 Attack Speed 4.3 Core Items 4.4 Defensive Items 4.5 Situational Items 5.CP Items 5.1 Starting Items 6.Tips and Strats 6.1 Ability Path 6.2 Tips 6.3 Combos 7.Roles 7.1 Lane 7.2 Jungle 7.3 Roam/Captain 8.Syn/Match 8.1 Synergies 8.2 Matchups 9.The Legend of Druid 9.1 The Myth 9.2 Druid's Gwen Build 9.3 Druid's Team Comps Build 10.Conclusion 11.Change Log

So you wanna play as Gwen? Well then... I'm just gonna hide in that bush... yeah... *gets shot by Buckshot Bonanza.
So do you like cowgirls? Do you like duel wielding? And final question... do you like blunderbusses? Well then I have the hero for you. May I present to you Gwen: the duel wielding, card throwing, blunderbuss toting hero who will poke you to death.

Hello I am a Gwen main, a really bad one at that. I currently have a 72% win rate with her this season (2.3) note: I've played over 60 games with her this season. So I'm looking forward to teaching you little plebs on how to play my girl Gwen ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°).

Boomstick Slot: Heroic Perk After not attacking for 1.4s, Gwen's next basic attack is a Boomstick shot that deals bonus damage. Bonus damage: 25-80 (+40% of bonus weapon power) Additional attack speed increase the frequency of Boomstick shots.

This passive is what makes me like Gwen so much. Boomstick makes last hitting in lane so much easier. It also is useful because it allows you to poke and deal a large amount of damage doing it. This ability allows Gwen to be a really mean bully in the lane.

Buckshot Bonanza Slot: A Gwen blasts enemies in the target direction, dealing weapon damage to all targets in a cone. Enemies hit by this ability are slowed and revealed for 2s. Deals reduced damage to minions. Maximum slow amount: 65%.

Buckshot Bonanza is basically a free flare that applies a slow to the enemy. Use it to slow down the enemy when kiting. Use it on the bush when you expect a gank. This ability doesn't deal too much damage, so don't spam it. It's main use is harassment and vision. You want to take the overdrive on buckshot because it's slow can really help late game when chasing an enemy,and picking up that ace.

Skedaddle Slot: B Gwen gains a burst of move speed while instantly removing from herself any negative movement-impairing effects. Blocks further effects for 0.5s. Passive: Gwen gains 0.6 bonus move speed for the entire match. This effect is temporarily disabled for 5s upon taking damage from an enemy hero.

Skedaddle is Gwen's only means of escape, it isn't much more than a speed boost and a way to kind of block aoe abilities that debuff (like Ardan's Gauntlet).

Aces High Slot: C Gwen flings a card in the target direction, stunning and dealing weapon damage the first hero it hits. The card damages everything it passes through. Deals reduced damage to minions.

Aces High is a very useful ability. It can be used when chasing an enemy, and it can also be used for escaping. This ability should be maxed out.

Starting Items

The items that you start with are really personal preference. If you want to last longer start with one of the options that has Book of Eulogies. If you want damage start with the two Weapon Blades. If you want to attack quickly start with a Swift Shooter.

Attack Speed

Get this if you just want to rush in and deal damage immediately, instead of scaling up atk from items like Breaking Point.

This is a good to build if you are good at kiting. Build this if you want your atk damage to scale upwards the longer you are in a battle.

Build this if your enemies are building lots of armor. It can also help to take down turrets faster.

Poisoned Shiv is something that you will not generally need to build, it does have it uses against enemies that have very high sustain. The heal on this isn't very useful, so it's mainly going to be used for applying mortal wound stacks.

Core Items

I prefer to build sorrow blade as my first rushed item. I don't buy Tension Bow, because it falls off late game. The point of Sorrowblade is to deal more damage at once. When Gwen gets a sorrow blade there is an immediate power spike, suddenly she deals enough damage to basically one shot minions. Which at the 8ish minute mark that is really good. It allows her to push turrets really fast. Tension Bow can also to the same thing, but as late game rolls around 6 secs is to long to wait just for Tension Bow's bonus damage to refresh. Especially during a team fight.

Gwen is already the fastest hero in the game, why would you need Journey Boots? You might be wondering. IDK do you want to be able to have insane kites with Gwen then get Journey Boots. If energy is a problem for you Halcyon Chargers is just as viable of an item as Journey Boots are. You could even build War Treads if you wanted to. It's your choice not mine.

Tyrant's Monocle is kind of a must have item. With out having any form of crit it makes it hard to do damage. Most of your enemies will have armor. Hitting someone with some atk speed and a Sorrowblade would be like slapping someone in the face with a tissue late game. Tyrant's Monocle allows you to almost burst them down.

Defensive Items

Build it if the enemy has a ton of CP. For most carries CP is their biggest issue, because they are so fragile.

Build this if you are facing a lot of WP heavy heroes.

Situational Items

Build Crucible if you are facing a very heavy CC oriented, that has lots of stuff you want to avoid. Luckily Crucible is so rarely needed because Gwen's Skedaddle allows her to escape a bunch of large CC attacks like Ardan's Gauntlet.

Get Halcyon Chargers if you need a larger energy pool. Get War Treads if you are facing a very slow team, and you don't need to worry about keeping up with them.

Only build it if you are winning early game (by a lot), and build it in place of any atk speed item. Also build it as your rush item.

Build it if Krul is after that booty.

Get it when you sense a major team fight about to come on, like when you are contesting Kraken.

CP Gwen is a niche build. She used to be terrible with her CP, and she still kind of is (sort of due to WP dominating the meta). CP Gwen has a kind of bad early farming phase, and here's why: Gwen has the third lowest energy pool, her CD is kind of long early game, and with out a few items she can't do ****. Despite all of this she is quite fun to play. I don't think CP Gwen belongs in the lane. She just doesn't have the DPS to be a carry. I feel that she would work better in the jungle. Slap a Frostburn on her and her Buckshot Bonanza's slow is just so stupid, is makes her really amusing when ganking with her.


Starting Items
With CP Gwen's somewhat terrible early farming she kind of needs a Stormcrown in order to keep up. Some of you might be like, "What a Stormcrown!?." Yes a Stormcrown. It gives Gwen a ton of CD, and it deals true damage. Pair a Stormcrown with a Aftershock, and you will have fun basically one shotting minions while your enemy is struggling to keep up. So it would be best to start off with either a Crystal Bit and an Oakheart or even an Hourglass in order to rush towards an Aftershock and a Stormcrown.

Ability Path

C > A > B
A gets overdrived
C gets fully upgraded
B just gets to lv 4

Tips

• Try to save your Skedaddle for when you get ganked. This can save you from what would otherwise be a dead you. Also use Skedaddle when you are heading from base to the lane early game. Be sure to use it in base so that the energy is restored while you are leaving. Doing this will prevent you from missing as much CS. It will probably be up again within 5 secs after passing your last turret.
• Only use Buckshot Bonanza for when you are finishing off an enemy.
• Aces High can be used as an initiator or as a finisher. Only use it as an initiator when you know that enemy that you are targeting will be dead almost immediately. Also it's useful when trying to distance your self from an enemy.
• Be sure to use Buckshot Bonanza on bushes when you are either alone or when you are about to enter a bush.
• Be sure to be playing VG with your volume on so that you know when your passive is up, because the only other indication that it is up is from the little icon on the side of the screen. You'll know when the passive is up because you will hear a clicking noise.

Combos

Gwen really doesn't have many combos, as her kit isn't really developed to be combo heavy like Blackfeather or Idris, so most of these "combos" are just different ways that you can weave kiting into Gwen's kit so that she is really effective.

Boomstick Kite Dif: 2
Really easy to do all you do is Boomstick them while chasing them. The main difficulty is being patient enough for Boomstick to refresh. This kind of combo is best when you have Tension Bow built.

The Trump Card Dif: 4 Risk: 9
This isn't that difficult so much as it is risky. When you are getting chased (and you have low health) but you have Aces High start kiting them. When they get too close for comfort use the Aces High. and continue kiting them. Hopefully they should be worn down to the point you can give one final push. If you have Reflex Block rush at them and attack them while using your Reflex Block. Congrats the prey just hunted the hunter.

Kraken Thief Dif: 6
If you see someone soloing kraken/gold miner wait until they have it almost completed, or when they run out of energy. If you get there right when kraken/gold miner is about to be finished off, Aces High the person attacking it and finish them off or Aces High the person but finish kraken off while they are stunned.

Lane/Carry

Lane is really where Gwen belongs. That's what her kit was developed for. Gwen is an absolute bully in lane, her pokes can be really nasty because a single auto does so much damage. She has a decent escape from heroes that rely on ganking using stuns or slows. Gwen has an aoe that allows her to kill several minions at once, which allows her to push faster.

Jungler

Gwen can decently jungle. She doesn't have a terrible clear speed, but she doesn't have the fastest one. Her ganks can be good because she can both slow and stun from a long range.

Roam/Captain

No, just no

Synergies







Matchups

The Myth

The legend goes like this:

"There is a player in the EA server named Druid who is so powerful with his Gwen that none could beat him. He soon became the most feared in the land of ranked, because he never lost a match when he played as Gwen." - The Book of MagikarpUsedHyperBeam

In all seriousness Druid is probably the best laner in the world. He has a 98% win rate... very few even come close to him. He has never lost a match on Gwen, and he has played over 78 ranked games with her this season. So if you truly want to learn Gwen you gotta look at how Druid has been so successful with her.

Druid's Gwen BuildA look at Druid's Gwen and you see one thing that is always consistent and that is his build. He almost always has the same build.
start: Weapon Blade and Light Armor x3 halcyon potions
first back: Weapon Blade
second: Piercing Spear and Six Sins
third: Tension Bow, Sprint Boots, 2x Weapon Blades. Druid then builds towards Sorrowblade. Then Druid builds a blazing slavo. He then either finishes the blazing slavo into a Breaking Point or a Poisoned Shiv, or he will build an Aegis. Then he builds Coat of Plates. Builds the Journey Boots, then he builds a Metal Jacket. Druid also build a Weapon Infusion from 8 mins onward.

Druid's Team CompsIn everyone of Druid's games his team composition has consistently had these combinations for team comps. These are team comps that work well with Gwen and they are the ones that should go after when playing her.
Roam:
Glaive
Adagio
Lyra
Lance

Jungle:
Koshka
Samuel
Petal

Common Team Comps That Druid runs

Well I hope you liked my guide on Gwen. There are/will be some stuff underneath this chapter, like videos and stuff. Now that you know how to play Gwen, don't ruin my solo queue.

"squishhhhh" - MagikarpUsedHyperBeam

- April 10, started guide
- April 27, published guide
- April 28, changed the rulings and ToC photos, and added ability gifs
- August 8, RIP Tension Bow expect Gwen to fall off