Howdy y'all, I'm El Leon Gnar and I've been playing since season 2, and been a Gnar main since his release in season 4. Across my accounts I have around 1.5 million mastery points on him, most being on my main which is currently sitting at Diamond 1. I already covered the build guide up above, so I will be going into some more detail with Gnar's kit, how to play certain matchups, and some special animations you'll want to know to play him.

Standard Fleet Runes

Choices Explained

Fleet Footwork is my favorite Keystone on Gnar right now. The versatile it supplies with both lane sustain and movement speed just outclasses any other keystones you could want in my opinion. Conqueror is also an option if you are going to be constantly fighting, but with its ranged nerfs Fleet Footwork just seems to be stronger all around.

Triumph is the only viable secondary if you are running Precision as your main runes. Presence of Mind is completely useless on Gnar, and you should never be healing enough for Overheal to help.

Legend: Alacrity is generally the best option in this row as the bonus attack speed allows way better lane trading and kiting. Legend: Tenacity is also a viable option if you're going to be playing against heavy cc.

Most of the time Last Stand is the best option for the final row. Any of the three options can be good in certain situations, but Last Stand is the most consistent with being useful as Gnar should never be allowed to engage without being damaged mid jump.

Demolish is always a good choice at it allows strong push threat both in lane and after teamfights. Gnar also has a tendency to push enemy champions out of lane, so you should be able to use it to get a couple of early turret plates.

Bone Plating is a very strong rune to ensure that you can sustain longer in lane. It should give you the small boost in health that will help you win initial trades. Other options for secondary Resolve runes include Conditioning and Unflinching if you are more worried about late-game fights.

Small Runes

Attack Speed should always be your first small rune as the bonus attack speed is one of the strongest stats for Gnar.

Adaptive Force is the best secondary small rune as it grants you higher burst with Mega and more damage with Boomerang Throw.

Your final small rune should be entirely based on who you're against in lane. Take Shield against AD champs and Tenacity and Slow Resist against AP champs.

Alternative Grasp Runes

Choices Explained

Grasp of the Undying is a good secondary option in lanes where you will be constantly poking with no strong kill pressure on either side. It is a purely scaling rune and will allow you to leave lane with a bunch of extra health.

Same reasoning as before, Demolish is good for getting early plate gold and for faster pushing after winning teamfights.

Also with the same description as before, Bone Plating is really strong for winning early trades in lane. If you're more scared of late game fights you can take Conditioning instead.

I prefer taking Overgrowth here as the bonus health stacks well with Grasp of the Undying for making you very tanky by late game. Unflinching is another viable option if you're against heavy cc.

Triumph is really strong for running Precision secondary, it gives good survivability for dives and for escaping teamfights after securing a kill.

Last Stand is also just another strong Precision secondary as it gives you bonus damage in lane, and no other tree has anything useful enough for taking.

Small Runes

Attack Speed should always be your first small rune as the bonus attack speed is one of the strongest stats for Gnar.

Adaptive Force is the best secondary small rune as it grants you higher burst with Mega and more damage with Boomerang Throw.

Your final small rune should be entirely based on who you're against in lane. Take Shield against AD champs and Tenacity and Slow Resist against AP champs.

Passive: Rage Gene Managing Gnar's Rage is one of the most important skills to learn while playing Gnar. It's a double edged blade: you have an insane threat while near transformation as you basically have 2 kits to use, but right after transformation you're weak for around 20 seconds where you are waiting for your debuff to end and rage to regain.

There's two different stages to controlling your rage during a game. To start off in lane, you kind of want to build rage up as fast as you can to consistently go Mega. Your Mega form will be a majority of your burst damage in lane, and the healing from transforming is very strong for lane sustain. The only time you want to hold off on transforming in lane is when you are at threat of being ganked; you should try to stay around 80-90 rage so you can transform quickly when they go in but aren't at risk of accidentally transforming early. Once you get out of laning phase, managing rage becomes a lot trickier. If it looks like a fight is about to start, such as Dragon/Baron spawning soon, start building up rage either on lane minions, on a jungle camp, or by poking the enemy team with Boomerang Throw. Once again you want to sit at around 80 rage so you can transform and initiate a fight whenever is needed. If you hit 100 rage before a fight has started and you can't look for any picks, burn through Mega quickly and wait the 13 seconds for the passive debuff to end so you can start building rage up again. This is when your team will be at the most vulnerable so be careful and warn your team to back off.

Q: Boomerang Throw/Boulder Toss Gnar's Boomerang Throw is his biggest form of trading at long range. It is very useful to get used to how much its damage gets reduced after hitting its first target, and you should also become accustomed to adjusting where it will return to.

Boomerang Throw is a very strong tool for trading and farming in lane. When against a champion with kill pressure, you can just sit far behind your caster minions and farm with Boomerang Throw while saving Hop to escape. The biggest downside to it is how fast its damage falls off when hitting a target in front of who you're attacking. Therefore it is most useful in trading while either behind your minion wave or between their wave and them. There are also ways to curve the boomerang return that are shown down below to maximize damage in lane. Boulder Toss is also insanely strong, doing more damage than Boomerang Throw, a hugely buffed slow, and AOE damage. It also has a lower cooldown than Boomerang Throw so when Mega in lane try to trade as much with it as you can, and don't be afraid to walk forward to pick back up the boulder. Once you end laning phase, both forms of your Q are gonna be how you trade before engaging. You outrange many champions and should have high movement speed by that point in the game so it should be free poke. You also can abuse the new slow on Boulder Toss to make catches on the enemy team, as you can pick up the boulders as running them down to slow them again.

W: Hyper/Wallop Gnar's Hyper is both a secondary form of trading, and a strong burst of movement speed for kiting or chasing down kills. It deals percent health magic damage, so when facing heavy tanks it will be a majority of your damage. Wallop is Mega Gnar's primary cc before 6 and provides secondary lockdown after his [GNAR!].

The most important thing to note about Hyper that often gets overlooked is how it gets buffed by GNAR!'s passive. This means that once he hits 6, Gnar will gain even more movement speed from Hyper procs and can dominate lane even harder. Another important thing to note about Hyper is that unlike Vayne's Silver Bolts, it can be stacked on multiple targets at once. This means that it is sometimes useful to use Boomerang Throw on a few minions at once and then attack them in turns to build up stacks on all three at the same time to maximize minion damage. Wallop is a fairly straightforward ability, all you need to know about it is that the hitbox is shown during cast time similar to Sion's Decimating Smash. This means that you should be careful when playing against champs like Fiora that can either dodge or parry it easily. When you're 6, chain Wallop after stunning the enemy with GNAR! and you can keep them stunned for 2.5 seconds.

E: Hop/Crunch Gnar's Hop is very useful in lane for escaping ganks and bouncing over minion waves to secure kills. The extra Attack Speed given is also very useful for punishing an enemy laner who tries to run you down in lane. Crunch used to be just a weaker form of Hop without a bounce, but with its range buff this year it has a lot more range than most people expect.

Hop has a really long cooldown at rank 1 so be careful if you are committing to going in with it. The safest thing to do while laning is to trade with your other abilities and just save Hop until the enemy top engages on you or you're getting ganked. If you are getting ganked from behind, for example if you are red side and they come from tri-bush, you can often bounce off of them with E to escape. Just be careful against champions like Udyr, Elise, or any others with short-ranged stuns as they can cancel you out of the air and you will be left with no escape. In other cases save Hop to bounce off of your minion wave to get bonus range. Hop can also bounce off of non-targettable allied units, such as Jarvan IV's Spear, Syndra's Orbs, and Jayce's Gate. Crunch can also be saved for escape, but its most common use will be going in to get your Mega burst with Wallop, Boulder Toss, and a couple of autos before backing off again. After laning phase, save both forms of your E for engaging a team fight. The best-case scenario would be Hopping while transforming so you still get the bounce off for bonus range, but Crunch has good enough range on its own now where either way you can engage onto the backline.

R: GNAR! GNAR! has two parts to it: a scaling movement speed buff to Hyper based on its rank and the massive cc and damage burst in Mega form. The main thing to learn is positioning around walls for landing GNAR! on multiple targets to start a teamfight.

GNAR! is very much a game-changing ultimate. While in laning phase you can combo it with a Wallop and Boulder Toss to take most top laners from half HP to none without them being able to move, and since it's all AOE damage you can engage in the middle of a minion wave without much worry. Just be careful because once you've committed with an ult you will most likely turn back Mini before getting another Wallop available. When Gnar reaches late-game, he should be able to have GNAR! up for every single Mega transformation. Without building much CDR, GNAR! has a 30-second cooldown at level 16, so no matter when you use it you will have it up again. It is also possible to build around CDR and Cloud Dragons to be able to cast GNAR! twice during one Mega transformation, but these builds are often weaker until you hit really late game. As a Gnar player you should be actively looking for engages and picks with GNAR!. Luckily Gnar's kit allows this to happen both in the jungle and in lane. If in lane you can simply Hop and transform off a minion to engage from far away, and when in jungle you should transform before Crunching in to have the extra range over a wall and get onto the backline. You can also just bounce off of the enemy's frontline if they have no quick stun for you.

Curving Boomerang Throw

Boomerang Toss returns to Gnar on a projected path based on which direction he is currently moving in and how fast. This means that you can curve the Boomerang by throwing it out at an angle and then running to the side to put yourself between it and your target. To move fast enough you may need to use Hop or proc Hyper's movement speed. The reason this trick is so helpful is that Bomerang Toss's damage is reduced against subsequent targets, so use this to either farm caster/cannon minions from a distance, or to poke out the enemy laner even more when they are trying to hide behind the wave. Play Video

Backwards Boomerang Throw

Another well-known trick with Boomerang Throw is casting it backward and moving out of the way on its return so that its range is extended. The most stylish version of this is where it results in a kill when the enemy champion backs under turret on low HP, but it can also be very helpful for CSing when Gnar is low, or for canceling the enemy's Recall. Use it sparingly in lane though, when you don't catch Boomerang Throw, the cooldown is twice as long and leaves you slightly weaker. Play Video

E + Recall Animation Cancel

A less useful, but still useable, trick is starting your Recall while in the middle of your Hop or Crunch animation. This saves seconds at best, but if you press Recall right after starting your Hop or Crunch, it'll start at the same time and you will still be moving away from the enemies while Recalling. It also makes for a very interesting animation on Crunch. Play Video Play Video

Transforming and Animation Cancelling

Since you can cast abilities while midair using Hop if you use Hop while below 100 Rage and then hit 100 Rage midair, you can use Mega Gnar's abilities while in the jump animation. This has 2 benefits: Most enemies won't be expecting to be stunned until you land, and the hitbox on Wallop won't show correctly as you are moving while it is stunning. I prefer using Wallop as the animation cancel and following up with GNAR! after as Wallop has slightly longer range and is easy to hit, but either works well. Play Video Play Video

Extending Mega Gnar duration

Gnar won't revert to Mini while in the middle of an animation. This means you can use any of your abilities to stall out reverting to Mini and losing your bonus tank stats from Mega. This isn't an overpowered trick to know but it can catch opponents off-guard and allow you to get just a small extra burst of damage off. Play Video

Reverting to Mini and Animation Cancelling

This is slightly less useful than the animation canceling while turning Mega, but if you cast an ability while still Mega and at 0 Rage the animation will get canceled by Gnar reverting back to Mini form. This can be done with any of Mega Gnar's abilities. Play Video Play Video Play Video

Other Tips and Tricks

One important thing to note about Gnar's attacks while transforming between Mega and Mini is that the damage and effects on your basic attacks are based on what form you are in when the attack lands. That means if you are in Mini form, start an auto-attack against an enemy, and then transform to Mega, it will deal damage as if it was a Mega Gnar auto attack instead. The same goes for starting an attack animation while in Mega and then reverting to Mini.

Another thing you will want to know is what order of abilities to use while engaging as Mega Gnar. If you are in the middle of the team fight, you will most likely just want to engage with Crunch, GNAR! the enemy team into a wall, take half a second to line up a Wallop on the newly stunned targets, and then throw a Boulder Toss in the middle of the group. If you are in a solo lane, however, it could prove useful to auto-attack between each CC ability, so the new order would be E>R>Auto>W>Auto>Q. If you are against only a couple targets and can line up a Wallop without having to GNAR! first, that can also be a viable order.

After this, you should have everything you need to know to master our favorite little yordle! If you have any questions or anything you'd like to be seen added to the guide, leave a comment and I'll get to it whenever I see it!