How to Play Against Gwen (6 Tips)
Gwen is the second champion to hit Summoners Rift. Whether you feel like she is underrated or incredibly overpowered, learning how to play against her will be very beneficial. While she has only been on the PBE for a short period, our Challenger coaches have learned a few tips and tricks to help you play against Gwen.
This guide is aimed at beginners and will not be an in-depth guide. We will also be focusing on Top and Mid lane Gwen rather than Jungle Gwen.
If you want to learn how to play as Gwen, check out our how to play Gwen guide. Alternatively, you can check out our Gwen champion page, which has more tips to play as Gwen. It also has more information to play against her too.
How to play against Gwen (6 tips)
- Pick ranged champions
- Fight her at levels 2 and 3
- Play around her W
- Manage your minion waves
- Trade around her Passive
- Back when low
1. Pick ranged champions
Ranged champions do really into Gwen as she is a melee champion. Ranged champions can bully her down frequently whenever she walks up to farm, and if you’re able to keep her low, it will be impossible for her to engage.
When playing against a melee champion, Gwen has more opportunities to trade with you, so it can often be better to pick someone who has the range advantage. However, depending on which melee champion you’re playing, you can do well into her too.
Ranged champions that could be good into Gwen:
- Lissandra
- Syndra
- Malzhar
To find what ranged or melee champions do good and struggle against Gwen, check out Gwen’s champion page. It will break down who she is strong and weak against. Pick one of those champions if the enemy picks Gwen.
2. Fight her at levels 2 and 3
Gwen isn’t powerful at levels one, two and three. Get the level up before her, which is the first minion wave, followed by one melee champion on the second wave and then look to play aggressive. Early game dominant champions such as Renekton or Talon will want to use this level spike to play aggressive and get her low.
Talon power spikes from Talon’s champion page.
At level 3, Gwen will gain access to her W. This ability offers her extra protection but doesn’t exactly enhance her trades. If you’re strong at level 3, you should look for an extended trade with her. It wouldn’t be a bad idea to bait this ability out and then look for an all-in as she will not get any additional magic resistance or armor from this ability.
Knowing when you’re strong is very important in League of Legends. Understanding your champions power spikes offers you a ton of leverage in the lane. For instance, if you know that the enemy is weak in the early game and you’re strong- you can abuse your strengths to set them behind.
One way of learning when each champion is strong is by checking out their Mobalytics champion page. Check to see when every champion is strong and weak, and then use that information to help you in the lane. Not sure what power spikes to be on the lookout for? Here’s a separate guide on understanding champion power spikes.
3. Play around her W
We touched on it briefly in our previous tip, but if you’re able to bait out her W before committing to a trade, you will increase your chances of killing her as her W can block outside damage from hurting her. This includes long-ranged skill shots from your allies too, but it doesn’t include tower shots.
If you’re playing a melee champion, playing around her W isn’t much of a problem, but if you’re a ranged champion who wants to land long-ranged CC like Syndra, you must bait this ability out or get inside of it so she cannot block some potential damage.
Never the less, if you’re able to bait out her W, you have a rather large period of time you can look to play aggressive. Her W gives additional defensive stats, so when this ability is on cooldown, she cannot activate it to buff up her defences. If you’re a melee champion, she will be easier to kill as she will not have additional armor to protect herself with.
This image and ones similar are taken from the LOL Wiki page.
Her W has a 22-second cooldown at rank 1, which gives you plenty of time to play aggressive and try to kill her.
In team fights, try to poke her down before initiating a fight. If she pops her W to protect herself, look to fight soon afterwards so she cannot use it to protect her in the fight. Do not commit to long-ranged or global abilities like Ashe R, Jinx R or Urgot R when her W is up in late-game fights.
4. Manage your minion waves
Gwen’s all-in potential is incredibly potent. This is because of her E and her Passive, which allow her to close the gap between her and her enemies. To make laning against her easier and to reduce her kill pressure on you, it’s wise to manage your minion waves and avoid constantly pushing her into her tower.
If you can keep the minion wave closer to your side of the map, she will have less room to manoeuvre and find it difficult to kill you. I would suggest for melee champions to keep the wave close to your tower but outside the towers range. You’ll still be able to chase her down and kill her if the minion wave is here. Your Jungler will also find it easier to gank you.
This image is taken from our in-depth wave management guide.
To achieve this, you will need to make sure she has more minions than you do. If you want the minion wave really close to your tower, you may have to have up to 3 additional enemy minions. If you want to learn how to manage the waves effectively, check out our in-depth wave management guide. It breaks down everything you need to know about wave management.
5. Trade around her Passive
Avoid looking to fight with Gwen when she has lots of stacks on her Passive. Preferably, look to trade when she has little to no stacks or trade when her Q is down. This will reduce her ability to trade back with you.
If you fight her while her Q is up and she has 4 stacks, she can deal a lot of damage to you and win practically any skirmish- especially if she is ahead. Ideally, try to fight her as soon as her Q has been used and when she has few stacks. This way she will not deal additional damage to you in the trade.
Note that she gain stacks by auto-attacking minions, monsters, towers and champions.
6. Back when low
Gwen can deal a surprising amount of burst damage, and she can even tower dive you if you try to stay in the lane when you’re low. While her W will not protect her directly against the tower, the additional armor and magic resistance will make it easier for her to dive you. The tower will deal slightly less damage to her either.
Furthermore, she can gain stacks on the tower by auto-attacking it and then using her Q aggressively to take you down. All in all, she is deadly at all parts of the game, and even though her W doesn’t seem effective against towers- it is.
Back when you’re low so she doesn’t kill you. If she gets an early lead over you, it might be the start she needs to snowball a lead and run you down over and over again.
Conclusion
Gwen benefits from extended trades and lots of room. You can counter her directly by picking your fights around her abilities and not giving her an inch to run you down the lane. We hope this guide will help you play against Riot’s latest champion Gwen.
If you have any questions or want to learn more, check out PicklePants’s stream.
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