Hello, I'm XenoTek the current starting jungler on the new Phoenix Reign roster. Welcome to my Lane WP Gwen Guide, where I will explain how I play Gwen successfully in both ranked and competitive matches. Gwen is a mobile sniper that excels at moving quickly around the map and picking enemies off one-by-one.
I hope you enjoy!
-Xeno
One of Gwen’s major damage sources, Boomstick makes Gwen’s basic attacks deal bonus weapon damage after Gwen does not attack for 1.6 seconds. The time between the boosted auto attacks is decreased by attack speed. This makes farming very easy on Gwen, and Gwen is actually one of the easiest laners to last-hit with. In the late game, it is often more beneficial to wait for the boosted basic attack than to continuously auto attack. There is a sound effect when the boosted attack is available, and it shows up on the left side of the screen, but listening for the sound effect is much easier when team fighting.
When activated, Gwen blasts her gun in the target direction, slowing and damaging enemies in an AOE cone in front of her. All targets hit by this ability are revealed for 2 seconds.
Gwen’s Buckshot Bonanza is her primary ability, but is not her primary damage source when playing WP Gwen. Think of it like an AOE version of Ringo’s A ability. It can be used for poke and as a slow, but it won’t do much else than that. There is some damage, but it has a slight cast time that makes it less effective than auto attacking unless trying to slow or the enemies are out of range for auto attacks.
Gwen’s Skedaddle is the most important, and best part of her kit. It brings a new ability effect to the game in the form of a cleanse. The cleanse instantly removes negative effects from Gwen, and also blocks any other further effects from Gwen for 0.5 seconds after in addition to a burst of move speed. Think of Skedaddle like a Reflex Block that can remove all negative effects, and can be used at any time (including when silenced).
On top of the cleanse and burst of movement speed, Skedaddle also passively permanently increases her move speed by 0.8. This is removed when she takes damage from enemy heroes for 4 seconds, but is always active otherwise. This allows Gwen to move very quickly around the map and excel at chasing enemy heroes down.
Be careful of the long cooldown on Skedaddle, and only use it when absolutely necessary. Especially since Gwen is a WP hero and won’t have any CD reduction items or CP infusions, the 14 second cooldown at max will be pretty flat and will likely only be able to be used once or maybe twice a fight. Use it to get out of danger or remove negative effects if necessary.
When activated, Gwen throws a card that damages everything it passes through until it impacts an enemy hero, where it then stuns on impact. Aces High is a relatively simple ability, and is really quite similar to Krul’s ultimate except it does not boomerang back to her.
Use Aces High mostly to catch people out of position, or to create distance against a melee hero if absolutely necessary. It does a decent amount of damage, but is mostly useful for the stun.
Roam Heroes to Pair With Gwen:
Fortress- While Fortress isn’t top of the meta right now, he likely soon will be. Fortress is a great pairing with Gwen due to his strong early game, and his B pairs very nicely with Gwen’s auto attacks. Be careful about engaging head on with Fortress, though, as you might get out of position
Ardan- Ardan is one of those all-around supports that is good with anyone, but Ardan actually pairs quite nicely with Gwen. His Vanguard speed boost lets Gwen freely move around the fight, and Gauntlet allows Gwen to freely damage people from outside the Gauntlet walls when she otherwise might be out of position.
Phinn- Phinn gives Gwen the extra sustainability and defensive stats she needs, while also bringing enemies in closer so that she can freely deal some damage.
Jungle Heroes to Pair With Gwen:
With Gwen being mostly a early game hero, having a composition that will snowball the jungle is extremely helpful/mostly imperative. Heroes like Koshka, Kestrel, Taka, Lance, etc are all very helpful in this goal. Gwen will want to rotate to help push out the enemy jungle, so any aggressive jungle comp is very helpful.
Gwen’s early game is her strongest stage of the game. Basically Gwen starts to fall off once other heroes hit their major power spikes, so it is imperative that she takes advantage of her early strength to get a snowball lead. As such, she pairs extremely well with heroes that can help her snowball an early lead like Koshka, Kestrel, etc. Focus on getting some farm until you can get a Heavy Steel, Blazing Salvo and boots, then you should have enough damage and attack speed to begin to snowball. Rotate with your team into the enemy jungle to try and get some farm and snowball a lead.
The mid-game is probably Gwen’s weakest stage of the game, as Gwen doesn’t hit any major power spikes and many other heroes hit their power spikes in the mid-game that will begin to overwhelm Gwen. If you’re not extremely ahead at this stage, play the mid-game safely until you can get 3-4 items and begin dealing some decent damage. Otherwise, Gwen’s extremely short range will be detrimental as you are also extremely squishy, making it hard to do damage without getting deleted. Stay in the lane and farm, and only take team fights if extremely necessary or if you are decently far ahead. Be wary of enemy power spikes, as it can be easy to lose a game by mis-judging your strength in the mid game. Gwen is best at catching people out of position, not teamfighting, so if you can do this and turn fights into a numbers advantage, you might be able to succeed.
Gwen becomes decently strong once she gets a few items, but is still not extremely powerful in the late game. With some attack speed, boosted basic attacks should be up fairly often, allowing you to deal a lot of damage. Try and focus a single enemy by catching them out of position with Aces High or Buckshot Bonanza and delete them before fully engaging a teamfight. Gwen has very short range, and is very squishy, so you will need to extremely careful with your positioning in team fights. Stay on the farthest edge of the battle possible, dealing damage with your boosted basic attacks and maybe your A ability. If needed, use Skedaddle to reposition or remove negative effects and stay safe in the fight, but be wary of the long cooldown.
- Oftentimes, it is more beneficial to wait for Gwen’s passive (the boosted basic attack) to be available than continuously basic attacking. Especially in the late game when it is on very low CD, Gwen often won’t be in a position to continuously attack, so she should weave in and out of the fight with her boosted attacks.
- Play with sound! There is a sound effect when the boosted attack is available, and it shows up on the left side of the screen, but listening for the sound effect is much easier when team fighting.
- Similar to how you might use Celeste’s Heliogenesis to check a bush, you can use Buckshot Bonanza to check bushes since it reveals everyone hit by the ability. I wouldn’t recommend doing this in say the tri-bush since you will be out of position if there are enemies there, but you can check the opposing lane bush or shop bush. This is also good against heroes like Kestrel and Taka since it reveals them when they stealth/try to stealth.
Thank you for reading! I hope you found it useful. Send any questions you may have to
@XenoTek_VG on Twitter,
Team Phoenix or comment below.
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-XenoTek
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