The OTP Guide to Gnar

The Pros

Good pokes for champions that are ranged
Great addition to team fights while maintaining a damage
Perfect sustaining making it feel like you have two runes
Overall a joy to play
Onsies

The bad

Depending on the play style you will have to decide if "small" or "big" is going to be your engagement solo fighting, as some characters can beat you when your big or small.

The First steps

If you are serious about playing gnar you will need to learn how to manage rage with health. Gnar overall is a great character for mid lane because his Q and passive for W allows him to be mobile and dangerous. The Q slows enemies on impact making it hard for someone attempting kills on you, especially junglers, the issue is one misplay and you can lose your lane. So a few common mistakes you will want to avoid is as followed.

Avoid E'ing at every little thing, just because your mega or turning mega does not mean you should be jumping for the enemy, early game you will want to Q the enemy if your having trouble, if you are feeling a bit confident try E'ing while small when your rage is full and you hear a sound effect that sounds like weird wind noises or a broken teapot, this will transform you into "Mega Gnar." If your first engage goes horribly wrong against your opponent or you simply cant close the distance I would swap to plan B. You will be playing a tug of war with your mega form to close the gaps, try to ge them while they are moving forward towards you, so your going to be playing a back and forward, if you are ALREADY mega, simply E towards them, if this still fails you will have to figure out a way to catch them, sometimes you can potentially Q as "Small Gnar" and then when you transform you should have enough time to jump at them to stun them and punish them.

Gnar overall is a team fighter, but is great at sometimes chasing kills and running away, especially if you can hit them all with your boomerang.

In a situation where the enemy is under tower or you need to run, DO NOT CATCH THE BOOMERANGwhen you miss the boomerang catch, it goes further, I have killed low health laners under turret with it, but dont expect miracles, while MAJORITY of players do not know the boomerang goes further after watching you throw it towards them this may not always work.

The Runes

Why the runes?

Well Conquerer allows massive benefits such as health regen, you are a front line still unlike most MID laners, you want to be IN THERE with your team if not infront of them as mega. You can take a hit unlike alot of the counterparts in mid.

So the runes are picked specifically to aid you with that.

Now I have been asked alot on the league of legends dis. "Why not fleet its so much better for gnar" No its not. Its a waste of a rune page, gnar's W and Transformation happens so frequently, you do not need it. Why would you cripple your survivalibility with this. You will never need it enough to what your character can already do. I have such a strong opinion on this, that I did major testing with Gnar with fleet, Sure it helps with mobility I wont deny that, but its not needed, and its why I do not recommend "Fleet footwork"

other information

The reason there is only "foot notes" is because this guide isnt to tell you how to play your character the best way, its to get you a grasp on playing him Mid, I actually advise newer players to gnar, to try him mid a few times. You have to feel the play style and how to use it, I cant tell you WHEN to go in or if its a good idea. That is something you will have to learn.

Gnar has alot of better potential in mid lane then he has lately in top. I am not trying to make this character a "Meta for mid' but rather the example that so many people dont like of "Off meta picks in ranked" I feel gnar is one of the best example of "Off meta works' as ive played them alot, I won many ranked games with them. But the reason I can is because I have learned everything I need to through trial and error.

Now lets get to the fun facts.

"Why is AP in this build"
So alot of people arent aware but gnar can build AP to raise a decent % of his W and R (mega) by alot, it gives him an additional damage boost that is quite noticable, but the reason I'd only build one and even then BARELY do that, is because there are better items. I have built it in my ranked games as last item (rabadon) if I know I wont need anymore important items.

So as a player of Gnar since release, I thank you for your time, and I hope this guide gives you some insight to many things, or if you just wanna yell at me for making a off meta guide thats ok too.