Hey, I'm Wyvern, aspiring resident Gnar otp for NA.

I first hit diamond playing Irelia in 2023. I later picked up Gnar, who I first hit masters with in 2025 then grandmaster in 2026. Peak: GM ~650 LP, rank 908. At the time of writing, I'm just hanging around in high masters.

This guide is a work in progress. For the time being, the majority of the information is in the threats section, where I've done my best to give quality information on matchups.

### Runes

1. When in doubt, run **Fleet Footwork** for your keystone. It's never bad, it just might not be the best.
2. I haven't done much experimenting with **Conqueror** since the ranged **Grasp** changes. If you have instances where you like taking **Conqueror**, lmk!
3. Alterations to the rune page will be listed per matchup in the "threats" section.

### Items

1. Always use your best judgment as to what might be the best items in your specific game. League is a dynamic game and what is the best item to build one game might be essentially useless in another game.
1. I don't say this to scare you. If you want a quick-and-dirty, one-size-fits-all recommendation, stick with building a **Tri Force** and **Streaks** first, every game.
2. Experiment and take notes. If you discover something that works really well, I wanna hear about it!
2. **Item** recommendations for early/mid game can be found per matchup in the "threats" section.
1. **Items** there are listed in order of game progression.
- Past **Tri Force** and/or **Steraks** items typically wont be listed, so use your best judgment for the later slots.
- I've provided some recommendations if you're truly lost.
2. Where slashes "/" are present, build what makes most sense **or multiple** of the **items.**
3. **Refillable Potions** typically aren't listed, but are often useful to pick up on the first few backs
4. Items in (parentheses) are optional

# Ability Info and Combo Basics

WILL ADD

# Team Fighting

You play Gnar for this. You're a jack-of-all-trades; your team fighting is good and flexible. The trade off is such: you have to learn how to play multiple styles of fighting, and you're not going to be better than most other champs when it comes to specific strengths. If you need to think of Gnar having a specific strength in team fighting, your crowd control in mega is phenomenal for following up on engages and peeling the enemy off your backline. Really consider how you would expect a team fight to play out in your given game and play accordingly. Of course, you'll often be mini, and that's ok. <u>Don't int an engage because your mega is running out</u>, often times the threat of mega and the subsequent space you'll gain is enough of a contribution. Plus, if you jump in on zero mega, you'll just be mini Gnar in the middle of three to five people. That's death.

In mini, you'll generally focus on poke, hitting the front line, and holding space (ideally, with the threat of mega).

### Mega Management

Ideally for objective fights you want to hit a mega about a minute to 40 seconds before the objective is up. Maybe add a bit of time if your mega is going to be critical for taking space with your team. Keep this in mind when situating your wave and thinking about lane assignments. Example: 30 seconds before dragon, there's a huge top wave about to crash on your turret. It may be best to encourage your mid or adc to grab that wave as opposed to getting it yourself, hitting mega and then being tired immediately before or during the team fight.

# Game Plan

### Early Levels

95% of the time, looking for kills pre-6 is bait. Getting chunked out is bad as your mega timings cannot be relied on for big sustain and outplay potential. That doesn't mean you should play for low interaction early. Small trades on your opponent while staying healthy and maintaining good cs will protect you from enemy ganks/dives and help accelerate you relative to your opponent top laner. A winning early game might involve zero kills, but a little cs advantage (maybe exp too) will go a huge distance in the latter laning phase.

### Post-level 6

Now is when Gnar is unlocked in many of his matchups. Now, mega will come up faster, your auto attack range in mini has scaled a bit, and you probably have boots. You can start to punish plenty of melee matchups in a more similar manner to your ranged counter parts, but you have the added benefit of a more reliable mega. Your ult gives you huge outplay potential and allows for consistent high damage combos. Still, in some matchups you may not have kill threat until your first item.

Situationally, it is important to note you may see spike on levels 4 or 5 in plenty of lanes. Often, this is really apparent vs juggernauts (Morde, Garen, etc...).

### Mid-game

Split pushing is always game/matchup dependent. Either way, you'll most likely want to stay on side until you hit your second item spike, in particular **Steraks**. Item spikes in league are always a big deal but I would consider Gnar on the more extreme end of item reliance. Your target in every game is to hit the two items plus boots spike by the third dragon fight (hopefully) or Atakhan (always). This is your biggest time to shine on Gnar. You could be completely even or slightly losing to your opponent, if you play the 20 to 30 minute range well, you'll have a huge impact on the game outcome.

### Late Game


### Overview

- Early Levels
- **GOOD CS
- Stay healthy
- Small chunks on opponent
- Post-6
- **GOOD CS
- Maybe look for plays
- Mid-game
- **GOOD CS
- Side line
- Consider actual split pushing if it makes sense
- Team fight
- Especially on item spikes, but you have to be able to fight Atakhan either way
- Late Game
- **Don't die please
- Prioritize team fighting over split pushing almost always