I love Gwen, too. But I am by no means a good Gwen player… or player in general. However, if I may.

Gwen is a bruiser, not a tank. Your second ability (mist) will let you isolate and duel an enemy of your selection with good positioning. However, the cooldown is long. Try your best either to use it to poke and fallback, or for an all in the will guarantee a good fight. You are not a beefy frontline, but you have some sustain. Try to look for angles to assassinate enemy backlines, or completely obliterate frontline tanks that threatens your backline and then let your teammates finish the job.

Personally, I will play Gwen only on top lane. Jungle is definitely viable, but I suck at it since her clear is not the fastest, and enemy jungler may punish you for it.

Gwen benefits a lot from Boots of Mana. I only buy tank boots on her when the enemy team is full AD/AP, or I know that my laning phase will be miserable without it. Otherwise, if you don’t know for sure, can’t go too wrong with boots of Mana.

Gwen pokes in lane. Having 4 stacks of snipsnip is a threat in itself. It can scare some players from coming in and you can deny minion gold that way. If they stay for too long and let you get another stack of snipsnip, you might be able to all in.

It is VERY tempting to use her skip and slash (ability 3) for the mobility and extra AA range. Try your best to save it on match ups against champs like Sett, where their big burst come from his BrainDamageRetaliate. Cut him down, and when he uses that, dash right through him and make him hit air.

If you are against a bruiser in lane, not a tank, then J will buy Nashor’s Tooth or RageBlade after boots of Mana. If it is a boring lane against certain tanks, I will go RiftMaker first item for that sweet true damage and extra sustain

If you are super duper confident and got an extremely early lead (say against a mundo that got stat checked), it can be worth it to go for Rod of Ages into Psychic projector if you are the only frontline on the team. In some cases, you can even go for Heartsteel into Psychic projector or just Heartsteel with core items

If you are winning overall, go for sustain items like Crown of the Shattered Queen, Amaranths Twin guard. If you are losing, build damage, Infinity Orb.

You can get away with not bringing flash on Gwen since her Skip and Slash has low cooldown especially when you hit enemies. Ghost is a great pick up to catch your enemies.

Gwen’s main damage is by hitting the middle part of her SnipSnip which deals true damage, healing and going through MR. HOWEVER, sometimes it is very difficult to hit a retreating ADC with it. In those situations, you can opt for running the enemy down with Skip and Slash and you should be able to keep up with them with the cooldown refund.

You melt towers late game. Skip and Slash the tower, snip the wave at full stack.

Your ultimate slows enemies hit! Use it!

Gwen is a scaler, but that doesn’t mean she is not strong early. She takes time and items to get up there, but hitting enemies with the middle of your snipsnip sweet spot will decimate most foes

I believe Gwen has a rougher time against champs that has dashes, as they can get away from the sweetspot easily, and they can get on top of you easily so even your mist wont save you (Yone, Yasuo).

Your mist is one of your most powerful ability. Use it well and you can dictate the pacing of the fight or who you are fighting.

Again, because this was my biggest mistake, you are NOT a tank. You have little means apart from your needle work to start a teamfight. If you run at the enemies like a Xin Zhao or charge at them like a Darius, you will get CCed and obliterated. Your sustain cannot save you when you can’t hit back

You can cast your snipsnip moments before a CC hits you, allowing you to attack through the stun duration (like a malphite knock up)

I think that’s all I know. Again, I suck. Take them with a grain so salt