She's definitely a late-game hypercarry on par with Mundo, Kayle, and Jax, but her teamfight positioning is just so awkward. For a late-game champ, if your team is losing, there's literally nothing she can do.
Trying to frontline and tank -> Sure, she can ignore the ADC with her W, but she gets shredded by bursty melee champions like Zed or Akali.
Playing like an assassin to take out the ADC or a key carry -> She has to burn QER to do it, but her only gap closer summoner spell is Ghost, so her assassination is worse than Garen's.
Her teamfight positioning is just way too vague. She's also way too vulnerable to CC, and the only tanky or bruiser items she builds are Riftmaker and Nashor's Tooth, so it feels like splitting on the side lane late game is the only real option.
Probably because she can dish out ridiculous AoE damage in teamfights and melt tanks easily
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u gotta wait and see if ur team engages first or if the enemy comes in, then once the fight starts, u go in late, focus whoever looks killable, and just pop em. her ult dmg is legit strong and it has true dmg, so even tanks frontlining melt easy
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Whether your team has a tank or not, it's generally better for Gwen to initiate. Like you said in the post, she has Hallowed Mist. If she uses it to go in, Akali and Zed can't really focus her unless they're literally right in front of her and inside the mist. Even if they do try to focus her through the mist, just one Zhonya's Hourglass solves everything. Also, think of her role less as blowing up one person and more as locking down the front line. Or, you can shift the enemy's focus onto yourself. If you're worried about the enemy AP assassin like Akali getting too fed because your team has no tank, going Force of Nature is a good call. If an AD assassin like Zed is the problem, just grab Zhonya's. Don't worry about Gwen's value dropping if you build tank—she lives off the flat damage from her Q and Conqueror healing. Honestly, unless you go full glass cannon from start to finish, she's not *that* broken. So if your team has no frontline, throwing in 1-2 tank items is fine. Her item spike is basically at 3 items anyway, so going tank and acting as frontline actually works pretty well. The downside is, if your team is either slightly ahead or behind, going tank feels absolutely terrible—nothing is as useless. In teamfights, don't just pop W and run in. Walk up a bit first, then use E-W-Q to play around the edge of the mist's range. If it looks safe, go in; when the mist is about to expire, pull back a little and help your backline deal with any divers or assassins that jump on them. No matter how many tank items you stack, she's still squishier than you'd think, so don't go in thinking
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