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Gnar Build Guide by

[13.5] 🦝 Detailed Gnar Guide For Every Lane! 🦴

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7 Comments League of Legends Build Guide Author Xpoxy

Gnar Build Guide By Updated on

Guide Discussion (7) More Gnar Guides

Choose Champion Build:

Top Build
Jungle Build
Mid Build
Bot Build
Support Build

Runes: Heal & Kite

1 2

Precision

Fleet Footwork

Triumph

Legend: Bloodline

Last Stand

Resolve

Overgrowth

Conditioning

Bonus:

+10% Attack Speed
+9 Adaptive (5.4 AD or 9 AP)
+6 Armor

Spells:

1 2 3

Agressive

Flash

Ignite

Items

Start (Easy Matchup)

Start (Hard Matchup)

First Component Options

First Component Options (Against Healers)

Build A Yordle

Best Mythic Options

Wounds

Boots

Damage Items

Health

Elixir

Armor Items

MR Items

Example Full Builds

General Buildpath

Againts AP

Sustain Build

Anything From Everything

Ability Order R - Q - W - E

Gnar Passive Ability

Threats & Synergies

Threats

Synergies

Extreme Major Even Minor Tiny

Show All

None Low Ok Strong Ideal

Extreme Threats

Ideal Synergies

Irelia

Extreme

THE counter for gnar. Just ban, don't even lane, godly sustain, godly damage, take 1 E and you die. Take: Exhaust instead of TP (If you ever plan on being agressive) Build: Divine Sunderer/Goredrinker (If you ever plan on being agressive)

Orianna

Ideal

Wombo-Combo, do R combo once and the game is yours.

Synergies

Ideal Strong Ok Low None

Orianna

Ideal

Wombo-Combo, do R combo once and the game is yours.

Champion Build Guide

New in Season 13

With Season 13 rolling in, Gnar without any changes is still extremely viable in team comps that know how to play around you, and still an okay choice in solo queue. Riot changed some items, let's see how that effected Gnar!

is now a bit better in comparison to . I recommend building Trinity with Lethal Tempo/Conqueror into 60% of matchups. Sunderer with Grasp into penetration required matchups.

has been buffed, making it kind of reusable again. Would still prefer Death's Dance in toplane though.

is back! I am siked to try this item with every single other item. Gnar pairs well with this item more on it in later updates.

got nerfed, you may want a Trinity build instead. Eclipse will probably only be viable against squishy matchups now. (Doesn't make sense with the lethality nerf that happened but the item was already good enough to deal with squishies, now it may be the only use!)

I need more time with and to include in-depth analysis to those items.

🦝 Fluffy Yordle Friend

🦴

● I am currently in the 250K pool with Gnar. Last season I was in top 3k global with Gnar. I started playing again after a while when Season 13 started. With this guide I want to show how Gnar builds and performs. In time, I will expand the matchup analysis section and add even more Gnar tricks. Feel free to comment and vote so other people can also benefit from this guide.

● To navigate easily you can use the Table of Contents section. (to your right) Now, Mobafire loads guide sections in when you scroll to them, so you might first want to load the sections in first by scrolling down to the bottom.

🦴

I would like to expand your love for our prehistoric friend with this guide.
I am a Gnar enthusiast that played him in every lane since I started.
And I would like to show you my experiences and builds I found along the way!

Gnar Pros & Cons

➕ Fit for most if not all team comps
➕ No mana or energy
➕ The most versatile champion
➕ Both ranged and melee
➕ Mega Gnar R + W Stunchain
➕ Low cooldown ultimate

➖ Most soloq teammates don't play around you
➖ Difficult to start and master
➖ Doesn't (can't) belong on a class, reducing playrates.
➖ Starts with lower range than most other ranged champs

Top: Prepare for a bruiser build for toplane, you will be both tanky and deal enough damage for your team. Top Gnar fits into any team composition, since he has enough power to be useful solo and with his team. I sometimes even go Eclipse to pierce those whimpy ADCs.

🦴

Jungle: I go either full lethality or full crit. Gnar suprisingly has an okay jungle clear, I would put him just below Pantheon in terms of off-meta junglers. Very fun to gank but I wouldn't try to climb with jungle Gnar. Your team will flame you for literally everything, ping your runes, ping your items and everything.

🦴

Mid: You have got to try Immortal Shieldbow crit gnar with conquerer. I sometimes even go full on lethality with Eclipse in mid too to pierce those whimpy ADCs and mages. Gnar definetely has the most play potential in mid, but can't really do much without ganks against some popular mid champions like Zed and Katarina.

🦴

ADC: Gnar dominates the lane, be it with Kraken Slayer, Immortal Shieldbow or even Eclipse. You can't go wrong with crit and lethality items in botlane, and nobody can even dare to go near you with a Runaan's Hurricane. You are a regular ranged ADC while in mini and gank your own lane in mega form. It's GG after level 6.

🦴

Support: Guard your adc with Guardian to guard your ADC. Tank tons of damage with Iceborn Gauntlet and Knight's Vow. Your ADC will be mad until they realise you are actually a very solid support. Oooor, stay mad because you steal every kill because you decided to go AD lol.

🦝

Normal text: Ability Descriptions ... Cyan text: Tricks ... Gold text: Important Points

P - Rage Gene

Gnar has a unique resource bar instead of mana or energy. It stores his rage. Both attacking and taking damage from any source generates rage. Higher the damage higher the rage. He transforms into Mega Gnar at 100 rage. Gnar gets his W speed bonus when he transforms into mini form, and he gets tired which makes him unable to gain rage for 15 seconds.

Gnar's passive also grants him seperate raw stats for both forms. This means Gnar actually grows in attack range (along with other stats) each level which is suprisingly something a lot of people don't know.

Rage management is a hard concept. You would have to plan ahead with fights, freeze lanes to preserve rage and inform your teammates as much as possible while doing so.

🦝

Q - Boomerang Throw / Boulder Toss

Mini Gnar: Gnar throws his boomerang deals physical damage, reducing with each enemy hit. Returns after it hits an enemy or when it reaches it's range. Gnar can pick it up to get a nice reduction on this cooldown, the boomerang continues until it reaches it's indicated spot on your screen.

Mega Gnar: Throws a boulder instead of a boomerang, the boulder does a splash damage and it can too be picked up. Gnar can pick boulders up even after transforming and vice versa.

This ability can be used to steal objectives or snipe low enemy targets. The boomerang will always return to your current position or if you are currently moving: where you are going to be once it returns to you after it hits an enemy or reaches it's max range, it's when the boomerang reveals a trail of where it's going to go.

You can use whilst winding up Mega Gnar's boulder toss animation.

🦝

W - Hyper / Wallop

Mini Gnar: Gnar's every ability or auto that damages a unit will leave a mark on it. At 3 marks the marks pop and deal magic damage based on the enemies max health and grant Gnar a burst of movement. Gnar will also recieve this boost when he's transforming into mini form.

Mega Gnar: Gnar smashes the ground deals physical damage and stuns all enemies hit, he actually smashes so hard that hard cc cannot stop it.

Mini gnar counters tanks with percentage damage with this ability. It also has a 100% AP percentage, making AP Gnar viable.

🦝

E - Hop / Crunch

Mini Gnar: Gnar hops on the ground or anything that he can hop to. You can even use flash after the second hop to make it longer. He also gains a burst of attack speed

Mega Gnar: Gnar hops and start his mega form early using E while transporting.

Gnar crunches in his mega form, dealing a big splash damage and slowing enemies on landing.

Mini gnar can hop from Ally units, Enemy units, Shaco boxes, Heimer turrets and Zyra plants

Mini Gnar's E can be used to damage towers faster, just make sure you know where the enemy is, so you don't lose your only escape tool.

🦝

R - GNAR!

Mini Gnar: Increases your W passive.

Mega Gnar: Gnar knocks all enemies a fixed amount, slowing them. Every enemy that contacts a wall also get stunned.

This ability gets very low cooldown especially with level 11 and 16.

Gnar is actually unindicatedly unstoppable for just a small, brief window of time while his arms are in the air.

🦝

Basic Gnar Combo

So with the Abilites section out of the way, how do you actually play Gnar?

Gnar may be hard to learn, he has a new rage concept, 6 active, 3 passive abilities, a wide variety of viable items and runes. Gnar excels at many things and is viable in every lane in existence, even river shen lane. (I stand by this no matter what.)

Turning Mega

ULT THE WAVE!

Your opponent left? You want to go base? Well there is one tiny thing before leaving your mega form. Use your ultimate on the minion wave. Why? Cooldowns!

So let's assume your ( ) first 5 levels against ( ) went like this in the lane:

1. You hit level 3 before him. Now, with your advantage you are able to poke him even more.
2. Aatrox hits level 3 and tries his full "combo" on you. Luckily you have saved for this and poke him even more for this. And let's say you used
3. Now he is low on health and needs to base.
4. The lane is yours and you base too after taking out the last minion wave.
5. You are both back. (he first but he got no plates because you pushed the wave) And fight until you hit level 6. Now remember this: He can press 'R' right now but you cannot. Furthermore you are out of , so there is no chance you will kill him without him making a huge mistake. That's why ulting the wave is better of a choice then attacking him here.
6. You go mega, he knows you are strong now and backs down. Just like how step 5 said it would be like, now you will turn mini in 15 seconds and go ultiless once again. So that's why you ult the wave here, your ability doesn't go to waste and your lane benefits from this.
7. Now that he is over extended trying to farm. You can now unleash the best attack on with back up, your lane where you want it to be, ult right back up and you are able to score a kill!

By ulting the wave, either forwards into your side or the opposing side (if you want even to a wall, more or less the same result.*) you ensure where you want the wave to be. Into the opponent's side, minions will die to the turret or clash with a wave in the range of a turret so your opponent misses an entire wave and isn't able to deal a single blow to your turret. Or just use it to get every gold from the wave quicker.

* More or less the same result because ulting either way will lower the minions' health, making your minions able to kill before they do each time, leaving your minions pushed outwards

»

Larger Items: Powerspikes (with descriptions)
Smaller Items: Items without descriptions.

Well-Tuned Bruiser Build ⬆ Buffed

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Feel free to start against healers like Fiora. This build is best suited for Toplane and Midlane. With Gnar's damage is greatly improved, Gnar benefits extremely well from more Attack Speed as procs even more with it. This also makes very strong too. You may think the opponents have no AP and this item is useless but I buy Wit's End for almost every game, the item is practically made for Gnar. Hover over it and see the passive for yourself and link which ability of Gnar it pairs well with again... Just remember this: Attack Speed = More Magic Damage

So you might think is a powerspike for Mega Gnar but no, well not as much as it actually benefits Mini Gnar. That passive is not useless, it's an instant powerspike once you unlock it. It helps with lane almost as much as it's active does. (and yes ULT the minion waves. More on that on how to play Gnar.) is versatile, but do take for burst opponents.

The Cosmos Build ⬆ Buffed

»

Xpoxy's Build ⬇ Nerfed

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This section is very long and packed with details. If you just want to grab a combo of runes for a specific matchup, check out section #6

Keystone

Grasp of the Undying

Take grasp for only toplane. It's good for poking and long term sustain. It will help with Gnar's never ending tank late-game.

Guardian

Free shielding for your ADC. Take this for support.

1st Slot

Demolish

You should always take demolish. Gnar can't benefit even slightly from other runes here.

2nd Slot

Conditioning

Conditioning is very well rounded. You'll be taking it for most of your matchups.

Second Wind

Second wind is most useful against poke champs. (all ranged toplaners)

Bone Plating

You can benefit most from bone plating against burst champions. Be careful though good players will remove it and than attack you.

3rd Slot

Overgrowth

You really can't go wrong with more health.

Revitalize

Gnar's passive doesn't get effected by this, meaning you should only get this with second wind and other healing effects.

Unflinching

You get both slow resist and tenacity, get this against cc heavy champions. I only take this if the enemy has 2+ cc champs.