Predecessor Builds > Grux > A Guide to Gruxing the Game

Grux is a melee sustain fighter hero with low mobility, strong, but inconsistent cc options and a whole lotta damage. Grux strives in small skirmishes where he has enough durability to not get bursted and the damage to take down any target.
He is the undisputed king of 1v1s and one of the few characters who can truly 1v9 a game from the offlane.

NOTE: Item order is situational, I almost always start Bonesaw unless im fighting a tank then its sky splitter, but after that its a tossup and game by game basis. Sanctification is filler in the item modules cause i dont know how to do less items

Early game

Grux is capable of bullying most matchups in the early game due to his passive giving him a lot of bonus damage in early levels. Level 1 you can use rnb to chip the opponent while pushing minions without getting minion aggro due. In favorable matchups, I often prioritize hitting the ranged minions, as once you start auto attacking the opponent, all the minions target you and the melee ones do barely any damage. If you have 2 range minions and the have 2 melees, you win that trade for sure. Once you get level 2, dash into double chop is an oppressive trading pattern, add in a few auto attacks and you can do about a 3rd of their hp before they even hit the ground. Since you win drawn out fights, if the enemy now attempts to trade back ( you can't get away you just dashed on to them) you can now just use your auto attacks and stacking bleed to come out on top. Just make sure to watch out for early ganks, especially if you start on the side of blue buff, as most junglers start red and if you push up too far you will get level 2 ganked, blow your flash and maybe still die, you are not a 1v2 machine yet.

Mid Game

once you get your first item you will want to start picking fights. Lots of grux players over focus on split pushing, he is ok at split pushing if you do it smart, but really you aren't shinby and you can and will get collapsed on and die for stepping to far forward. The fights Grux wants are sequential 1v1s. You cannot fight multiple people at once easily unless they all step in your q somehow, which shouldnt be happening. Look to gank mid, take enemy jungle and rotate for fangtooths (except for the first one, where I think rotating puts you behind your lane oppponent too much). Grux can basically insta clear waves by grouping them with his q and rmb-ing through the whole wave so you should be able to shove in your opponent pretty quickly in order to rotate. There are matchups where you being in the lane is better than rotating. These are the ones where you can absolutely dominate the opponent out of most positions. In these matchups you will want to freeze wave and force the enemy jungler into 1v2 ing you or having the enemy team play down a character. If you are playing against something like a sev, you can absolutely 100 cs gap them into 1v2ing him and the jungler when they come.

Late Game

Grux never wants to take a frontal team fight. Any fight you walk up normaly to the enemy team you will die before doing anything. Look to shove out a side lane and search for flank angles. Ideally you come up behind a squishy and start running through their back line after the fight has started and their focus isnt on you yet. Being behind people is very strong in this game, as team fights in solo queue are hard to navigate. Grux uses this to his advantage extremely well. You are not a tank, you are not an initiator. You push lanes and find angles. If nobody comes to your push, you take towers, take inhibs, but only do this if you're team is matching pressure. (i.e. they have 4 people around fangtooth, you are up on an inhib - if only 1 person backs, kill them, you are Grux you take 1v1s anytime. If 2 people back, you're team is now in a numbers advantage and you can be there faster than the 2 that backed to stop your push. If you're team starts fighting without you there, that is on them trade inhib for fangtooth.) One good way to play for best of both worlds is to set your wave in a way where a side line starts stacking minions. A stacked wave can easily take an inhib left unchecked. Stack waves by having a wave slightly towards your side and just remove the ranged shooters. Then rotate and find angles. Only engage in frontal combat if there is no other choice.

Matchups

I will categorize matchups into rough categories - easy, skill based, hard (brief due to character limit)

Easy:
Aurora, Feng Mao, Riktor, Serath, Severog

Skill Based:
Crunch, Greystone, Kwang, Zarus

Hard:
Shinbi, Steel

If you know they are playing shinbi offlane, dont pick grux you will have a bad time. You cant get ahead of Steel but he cant completely stop you from playing the game like a shinbi can

Choose crest based on specific game Iceskorn and Brutalix are my most common picks, but sometimes you want Nyr Warboots or Pacifier for chasing down mobile enemies.