Gwen: The Path of Champions Champion Guide

After the Lux guide, we'll continue our progression throughout The Path of Champions (TPoC). Today, we'll talk about Gwen. With her, we'll complete one of Kai'Sa's quests, and one of Galio's, and a region quest as well.

The greatest advantage to levelling Gwen now is that we won't need to do any external investment until level 30, besides levelling her powers, because the two relics we'll use were acquired throughout the previous guides.

Gwen is a Combo character, of the highest level. She has a huge advantage over other champions: besides creating free blockers every turn, she also heals the Nexus, which makes things a lot easier - both to enhance your levels, and complete the campaigns with good grades.

But first let's check out her deck and her powers.

Gwen's playability seems scary at first, because it involves a bit of math, but after we understand how she works we'll realize it is actually quite simple.

Our Gwen is a champion of units and attack, but she needs units with Hallowed dead to get the bonus to her attack during our combo. She also needs some units to get her 2-star bonus power, Needlework, with maximum efficiency. Let's see how the math around this champion works.

Gwen's Math

Gwen is a 4-mana champion, which means that in The Path of Champions she is summoned on board on turn 3. She has 3 attack and puts on stack a skill that deals 2 damage, and she needs 10 damage dealt by her to level up.

She gets the Hallowed buff of another unit to herself, and, if she is the second attacker, she hoards our 2-star power, which causes, if she is played correctly, her to get double the Hallowed buff.

Considering we have the 3-star power, on turn 4, we'd have 2 Hallowed power and deal 9 damage (3 from the attack +4 from the Hallowed power + 2 from her skill), and that means, we only need 1 more damage, which will come from the relics, to complete the 10 damage necessary and level up Gwen with a single blow.

This champion's combo and playability will rely on this idea: play her on an attack turn, level up and win at the next attack, draining the enemy Nexus. Let's check out the relics we can use to enhance this approach:

First Relic: Luden's Tempest

On our first attack, Luden's Torment won't do much: it'll add just 1 more damage, throughout the skill, which will go from 2 to 3. That is already enough to complete the damage we're missing, as we've seen in the previous section; but, after Gwen's leveled, she'll double the damage of ability Snip Snip Snip!, making it drain 2 for each 2 attack, instead of 1 for each 2.

That will make us, essentially, not even need to have the attack go through, because the collateral damage itself will usually finish our opponent. Until level 19, we'll need to keep our Gwen alive until the next attack turn, but at level 19...

Second Relic: Crownguard Inheritance

At level 19, we free our second relic, Crownguard Inheritance. This way, we close out our combo and with certain items enhanced, we can already deal lethal damage on the turn we attack with Gwen for the first time, as we've seen in the video above. You need to have 2 units to do 2 attacks, which will cause our champion to benefit from the Hallowed buff twice in the same turn, and will increase the strength of our scissors.

Depending on the opponent's powers and health points, it is possible we won't be able to kill them in one swipe of our scissors, and then we'll have to wait 2 more turns to do another attack. But, in general, if we look for powers which increase Gwen's power, that second attack is already enough.

Third Relic: Hymn of Valor

Hymn of Valor is the icing on the cake. Naturally, if you feel you can finish without doubling the attack, as the video shows, "Banshee's Veil" is always a great option for combos, but as the finish depends exclusively on Gwen's attack, this relic guarantees the finish in one turn in harder campaigns, such as Galio's and Aurelion Sol's.

It is necessary to wait until turn 3 to have the mana for it, but as health isn't an issue, this is a practically cost-free option.

The mechanics that most benefit our champions are:

1) creating ephemeral copies of Gwen, as it puts another Luden's Tempest in play (increasing the damage of ability Snip Snip Snip!);

2) increasing Gwen's attack usually through items;

3) creating units to guarantee you have enough units to have two triggers from the 2-star power.

The best power, not only for Gwen but for many other champions as well, is Stabilize and Shadow Totem which creates one ephemeral copy when a champion is played. As mentioned, it puts in play a new instance of Luden's Tempest which stacks with the others.

Check the video below to see how it works:

- As there aren't that many powers which increase Gwen's attack, particularly, no other options are better. There are some powers which will increase the strength of the Ghastly Bands created by your own powers, but that isn't as necessary.

- Lowering the cost of created cards and spells is always useful, even more so if you have Hymn of Valor equipped. The power "Welcome Gifts", which shares keywords, like a leveled Zoe, is also excellent - one Hallowed is a keyword.

- Regarding items, it's always a good idea to focus on items that increase Gwen's power or which draw cards to guarantee us the Gwen draw.

- Regarding auxiliary champions, there aren't any champions which really enhance her gameplay, as she is very independent. Try choosing what comes with the best items, cheap cards that draw, etc, but, in general, it is always nice to take out cards which won't give you Hallowed. Always look for the healing nodes to exclude cards whenever you can.

With our Gwen winning against Galio and Kai'Sa, we are 1 champion away from finishing Galio's quests and unlocking the infamous Aurelion Sol. As we're focusing on winning 1 3-star adventure to complete our quests, our next champion will be Jhin, which will fulfill the requirement to complete Galio and unlock a very important relic: Archangel's Staff.

I'll see you in the next guide!