Gnar is a champion that can switch roles of being a beefy tank that can dish out a lot of CC and AOE damage to a tank shredder that has a lot of kiting ability.

Gnar is a difficult champion to play as you need to know how to utilize your mini and mega Gnar forms and able to time these forms during certain situations. You also have to know which form is better against your laning opponent or you could die and lose your lane match up. He is definitely a unique champion as you have to use two opposite sides of play style.

I will be comparing both Mega Gnar, Mini Gnar then Gnar in General to compare both forms of Gnar then comparing him to the rest of the champions

Mini Gnar:

Pros:
- Really easy to kite out champions even without Frozen Mallet
- Very mobile and hard to gank
- Consistent 2 second poke and slow with Boomerang Throw
- Percentage damage with Hyper
- Really good chase with boomerang and Frozen Mallet

Cons:

- One of the lowest base stats in the game
- Can be very easy to kill if you have mobility
- Without Gnar's Hop he becomes extremely vulnerable to ganks and become a free kill if pushed up
- Really hard to do anything in teamfights
- Cannot initiate into the enemy team

Mega Gnar:

Pros:

- Extremely high base stats
- Really good hard CC combo
- Really good initiative
- Needs respect if Gnar has Flash
- Good at chasing with Boulder Toss
- Alternative insec with GNAR!
- Unexpected bonus health

Cons:

- Really immobile exposing yourself to ganks
- Early game when your Wallop is down, you have no CC which gives the possibility to get killed
- Difficult to get into Mega Gnar with ganks and TP plays
- Hard to get into the backline without flash

General Pros and Cons:

Pros:

- Can have two forms to switch and fight versus your laner
- Gives a lot of all around poke, CC, damage, and kiting
- Outranges a lot of opponents and kites them out
- A lot of easy lane match ups such as the Juggernauts ( Darius , Skarner, Garen, Mordekaiser )

Cons:

- Can be really hard to manage your rage bar
- Difficult to TP flank
- Should rarely be used as the Primary engage
- Really difficult to be tanky early to mid game
- Mini Gnar can still be squishy compared to other tanks.

There are quite a lot of tips for Gnar as I'll switch between two forms to explain which ones do which

Gnar Passive: Rage Gene

In mini form Gnar will gain rage , 4/7/11 when dealing or receiving damage to any monster or enemy units which will decay if he hasn't been in combat in the last 13 seconds. When Gnar reaches 100 rage, he will start to transform into a different form with different abilities either in 5 seconds or activating the any of the new set of abilities. Upon transformation, he will gain increased base health, armor, magic resistance, health regeneration and damage at the cost of lowered base movements speed, attack speed and range. When the rage bar reaches 0, Gnar will turn into his mini form keeping the same health percentage and will receive a tired debuff where he cannot regain rage for 15 seconds.

Tips:

- Going aggressive early can be a possible win going in level 2 or 3 because you will gain extra health and damage plus a instant CC when at 100 rage.

- E can be casted during the Mega Gnar transformation, HOWEVER, using E early before reaching 100 rage on a enemy unit starts the transformation during your hop animation able to use abilities during your hop animation instead of after which gives a unexpected advantage.
UPDATE: A bugfix is introduced where your Hop transformation can finally queue up a spell, ex. GNAR!

- Learn the ins and outs of both forms and know which is good to pressure and go against.

- Sunfire Aegis will generate rage

Mini Gnar Q: Boomerang Throw

Range: 1100 Cooldown: 20/17.5/15/12.5/10 Width: 55 - 75 on return
Slow%: 15/20/25/30/35 Damage: 5/35/65/95/125 (+115% AD)

Gnar throws a straight line projectile damaging all enemy and neutral units, upon reaching the longest point the boomerang will comeback hitting all targets that haven't been hit. If it hits a target, it will comeback shorter than the max range skillshot. Gnar afterwards can catch his boomerang reducing the cooldown by 45/50/55/60%.

Tips:

- Targets hit after the first target hit takes 50% reduced damage. So hit the enemy champion first or out of the minion wave to deal the initial damage

- Catching Gnar's Boomerang Throw is a required skill to reduce cooldown and increase poke consistency.

- Can throw the boomerang backwards for a longer range but longer time.

- Versus Yasuo, bait out his Wind Wall before you throw the boomerang, otherwise he'll block your boomerang causing the cooldown to be severely high and out trade you.

- The hitbox on Boomerang Throw is a little bit bigger on return by 20 units.

- If you miss your target slightly, reposition yourself to where they are in the catching line of your boomerang to deal although reduced but still damage

Mega Gnar Q: Boulder Toss

Range: 1100 Cooldown: 20/17.5/15/12.5/10 Width: 90
Slow%: 15/20/25/30/35. Damage: 5/45/85/125/165 (+120%)

Gnar throws a boulder damaging in a AOE effect slowing all targets. Gnar can pick up the boulder reducing the cooldown by 60%

Tips:

- Gnar can make chases much easier by picking up the boulder and throwing at the target as you go, slowing them and damaging them while catching up.

- The hitbox is a really large, getting a max range Boulder Toss looks a lot bigger than expected for other people.

- Used as a good wave clear tool

- Has extremely high base damage and scaling able to possibly out trade your opponent

Mini Gnar W: Hyper

Damage: 10/20/30/40/50 (+6/8/10/12/14% of target's maximum health) (+100% AP)
Movement Speed%: 30/45/60/75

Mini Gnar's basic attacks and abilities will mark the target stacking 3 times. Upon the third proc, all the marks will consume dealing damage while giving a speed up for Gnar. When Mega Gnar transforms back into Mini Gnar Hyper's speed buff will proc.

Tips:

- This is one of your main kiting ability which is a passive, so you don't need to completely worry about this ability.

- Even if your enemy is in melee form of you, keep kiting, it will proc the Hyper stacks giving movement speed to regain distance.

- When a target has two marks of Hyper, you can proc it with your Boomerang Throw dealing much more damage adding onto the Hyper proc while slowing them.

- To proc Hyper in the fastest possible manner, firstly, auto attack and Boomerang Throw during Hop this is a really fast combo that will proc and gain or maintain distance when in auto attack range.

Mega Gnar W: Wallop

Damage: 25/45/65/85/105 (+100% AD) Cooldown: 15/13/11/9/7
Stun Duration: 1.25 seconds

Gnar cast an ability in an large rectangular area damaging all units and stunning them. Gnar's Wallop cannot be interrupted with CC.

- Early game you can always use this to get into Mega Gnar fast. Wallop will always be up because Mini Gnar's Hyper is a passive.

- If you want to engage Wallop will be a long range style of engage in comparison to [Gnar!]. With its longer range, you can CC opponents from a longer range then afterwards CC him backwards or into a wall.

Mini Gnar E: Hop

Damage: 20/60/100/140/180 (+6% of Gnar's max health) Cooldown: 22/19.5/17/14.5/12
Range: 475. Attack Speed%: 20/30/40/50/60

Gnar leaps in a given direction damaging a singular target closest to the given place giving bonus attack speed and adding a Hyper mark. If Gnar lands on any unit, Gnar will double hop, replicating a full range hop.

Tips:

- This is a major repositioning and kiting tool. If you are getting ganked, hop onto your minion wave and will cause a 950 unit distance at maximum which barely any gap closers have a longer range.

- You can use Hop on towers to increase attack speed but can only be used if there is nobody around you as it is your main repositioning tool which has a long cooldown.

- Only go in when you have Hop as an escape, if you get caught out, you'll for sure blow your flash or die if your up against a lane bully.

Mega Gnar E: Crunch

Damage: 20/60/100/140/180 (+6% of Gnar's max health) Cooldown: 22/19.5/17/14.5/12

Like Mini Gnar's Hop, Gnar can hop at a given distance but this time will deal AOE damage and slow on impact. During Mega Gnar transformation, Gnar's E will highlight blue which then you can double Crunch to double the distance and AOE spots.

Tips:

- This is a decent gap closer because of the AOE slow and damage adding in with Randuin's Omen, slowing them for even a greater amount while auto attacking them.

- As earlier said, doing a double crunch will prevent you from using any spells, therefore, use Hop before transforming into Mega Gnar afterwards using GNAR! or Wallop, or even an unexpected Boulder Toss to activate Mega Gnar unexpectedly and quicker.

- This is one of your main entrance into the backline and cause disruption wait until this ability is up before going in otherwise it's almost impossible to get in.

Gnar Ult: Gnar!

Mini Gnar Ult Passive:

Gnar will gain extra movement speed from his Hyper and lowered cooldown on his Boomerang Throw

Mega Gnar Ult Active:

Damage: 200/300/400 (+20% AD) (+50% AP) Cooldown: 120/100/80
Range: 590 Slow%: 45% Stun Duration: 1.25/1.5/1.75

Gnar is a circular like area will knock all targets in a direction throwing them back for a fixed distance, slowing them for 45%. If Gnar throws the target(s) into a wall, the targets will take 50% increased damage and instead stunned for the same duration.

- This ability has a really large base damage able to deal an all in.

- More than often hit your opponent into a wall, stunning them, but in teamfights pulling an insec is recommended instead.

- Feel free to use this when you need to as it doesn't have an extremely punishing cooldown as you are in Mini Gnar form 65% of the time. Use it if you're getting ganked or all ins and trades.

- This is a big power spike for Gnar and will usually out trade and out scale other champions.

Masteries

Alright let's first off start with standard masteries for Gnar.

I go 18/0/12. We will be discussing Vampirism over Natural Talent , Battle Trance over Double Edged Sword , Unyielding over Recovery and lastly Insight .

First mastery that we will be discussing is Vampirism . I have seen other guides that use Natural Talent over Vampirism , Natural Talent is not recommended as it gives up the option of sustain. It is advised that Gnar will need some sort of sustain and this is my most recommended way as having higher than average attack speed will help with this.

Second mastery is Battle Trance . Battle Trance can subjectively be better but more than often it is better. The reason why it is better is because it synergizes extremely well with Gnar, with Fervor of Battle , Frozen Mallet and Black Cleaver even if it's an optional item. Taking Double Edged Sword over Battle Trance can be very subjective as it can make trades harder to win with mini gnar's low tank stats. In mega gnar, it can be better than Battle Trance but all ins and trades with mega gnar will happen less than mini gnar.

Second to last, Unyielding . People will take Recovery over Unyielding because of mini gnar's low HP regeneration. Currently in 7.6 that has been patched to where mini gnar's HP regeneration has been changed to where mega gnar and mini gnar's HP regeneration is the same. So getting Unyielding is now more preferred and has a better late game.

Finally is Insight . Flash on Mega Gnar is extremely difficult and very punishing during teamfights as he can easily Crunch, Flash and [Gnar!]] the enemy team into a wall or your team. Taking Insight over Fearless can be opinionated, but Insight overall is just better, having Flash and Teleport on lower summoner cooldowns can have the chance of swinging teamfights and ganks in a major direction.

Runes

So I would take full attack speed quints, armor pen marks, scaling health seals and finally scaling magic resist glyphs. Attack speed quints takes advantage of Gnar's Hyper, I take armor pen marks is because it does have higher stats then the flat AD's and because you're up against tanks which are going to stack armor against you ALSO, it synergises well with black cleaver but can be switched if flat AD is wanted. I take scaling health over armor seals because of low health stats when going any of the aggressive builds. For glyphs I go scaling magic resist instead of flat magic resist because in order to do damage as an AP user you'll need to build items therefore magic resist early is not recommended. Only exception would probably be Kennen as he is a direct counter to Gnar and does a fair amount of damage early.

All the items is very situational dependent on the lane match up. Going the wrong starting item can result in a poor laning phase which means you'll stay farther behind versus your laner. I will be giving four examples of which starting items you should go aggressive with or defensive with.

First example, going Doran's Blade versus and Pantheon with Ignite top. Taking this item is a really poor choice as it is extremely difficult as you are meant to exploit the life steal of Doran's Blade to regenerate health but Pantheon though is able to zone you out with his passive thus not being able to life steal and only have one Health Potion to regenerate. Long Sword or Cloth Armor is way better as Long Sword gives three Health Potions with a little bit of damage as you are a lane bully, or Cloth Armor for more of a defensive approach depending on how well you are with Gnar, getting Long Sword or Cloth Armor is completely dependent on your skill with Gnar.

Second example is versus Garen. Garen is a extremely easy to kite, melee champion getting Cloth Armor or Long Sword is not taking full advantage of the starting item selection. Doran's Blade the best option as you have full control of the lane due to being able to kite and out range Garen therefore able to life steal off of Doran's Blade

Third example is Irelia, Paying attention to the stats of Doran's Shield, Doran's Shield blocks 8 damage from single target spells and auto attacks. This is very useful because of how Irelia's W ( Hiten Style )is her main source of damage. (Because of this match up I recommend getting Frozen Mallet with Ninja Tabi and Randuin's Omen.) Pay a lot of attention and care with this match up as it is one of the hardest to go against

Fourth and final example is a Kennen match up, Kennen is one of the direct counters to Gnar, Kennen out ranges and out trades him while giving him more reliable CC in team fights. Starting Long Sword though is a really good option instead of going Doran's Shield due to a lot of options with Long Sword. Because you need to build Hexdrinker you'll fall behind 1300 gold but buying Long Sword reduces that by 950 gold because of how it builds into Hexdrinker. Buying Null-Magic Mantle is somewhat not recommended because Long Sword gives more damage to trade back while giving more Health Potions and sustain in lane.

Most people would see in the standard build, Frozen Mallet is the only damage item. The reason why is to save another item slot for another tank item, people would rather get Frozen Mallet into Black Cleaver as a split pushing build but is not recommended as your main source of damage in a team fight is your carries. Black Cleaver is not always the best second item as you are sacrificing tank stats for the front line while Mega Gnar already has enough base damage to damage your laner and Mini Gnar does percentage damage to do a lot of damage to squishes and tanks. Although Black Cleaver is a good damage item and gives 30% armor pen, there are better options such as a more tankier item for frontlines.


Updated Black Cleaver 7.4:
There has been a recent update on Black Cleaver, the items stats are now switched to where it has 400 health instead of 300 and 40 instead of 50. This is more beneficial for Gnar as tank stats are much more recommended and the armor shred is more important then the stat damage on Black Cleaver. At this point, I recommend getting Black Cleaver when you win lane, want to be aggressive, or have a surplus of gold. Do not get this item if you are behind as damage is less useful than being a stronger frontline tank.

A lot of my builds prioritize Frozen Mallet because of how good and underrated it really is on Gnar. Frozen Mallet is really huge on Gnar because of how is slows to give easy Hyper procs in lane. It gives a huge amount of kiting ability and stickiness by giving consistent slows. Frozen Mallet also gives really good health and damage stats giving 700 health and 30 AD, Frozen Mallet's health stats are really huge for being a tank and is really beneficial for Gnar. Getting Frozen Mallet also gives more CC in team fights. One getting this item, it's a huge power spike for Gnar and gives him a huge advantage versus someone like Darius which makes Gnar completely untouchable. With Gnar's really low health stats it really helps Gnar in the mid game making him a lot more easier to go aggressive.

Damage items should rarely be purchased besides Frozen Mallet which is the exception. Usually you would only buy tank items because of how you'll let your carries do all the damage and you follow up with your high base damage or percentage damage but sometime ever so rarely you can get damage items depending on what is currently happening in the game, if all your carries are doing bad however, you can build at least Black Cleaver and rarely if so ever Sterak's Gage, Sterak's is somewhat useful but only 50% of the time because of how the base damage is really high on Mega Gnar. Probably the other exception would be Hexdrinker but only versus AP top laners

So attack speed is in starting peoples eyes is good on Gnar, however it can be quite overrated. Attack speed can be a good statistic but all of the items that are for attack speed are extremely extensive and has barely any defensive stats. There are way better options for Gnar like Frozen Mallet and Black Cleaver. Probably the only decent attack speed items would be Blade of the Ruined King and Trinity Force which are both extremely expensive items wasting way more than 3000 gold on each for damage focused stats.

Probably a big mistake for people when they play Gnar or any bruiser who goes Hexdrinker, they will right after go straight for the upgrade into Maw of Malmortius. This is a big mistake for players as getting Hexdrinker is all you need. If you rush Maw of Malmortius early, you will lose a lot of possible gold that you could have used on tank items, going straight into Maw of Malmortius will cost 1950 more gold than Hexdrinker in which you can buy a Jaurim's Fist and a Chain Vest 50 gold after. Rushing Maw would only bring armor penetration but it would not be much compared to other tank stats and you would be extremely squishy during early to mid game.

In the laning phase, you are a mobile squishy ranged champ who can win lane by out ranging a lot of the top laners, wining lane can be dependable on your match up and how you play the lane. Starting off at level 1, you are at your most weakest. A lot of the lane match ups such as Riven and even Garen will out damage you level 1 because of your extremely low base damage and defensive stats. Level two is your immediate power spike which a lot of the top laners do not respect. In low level elo, people will not pay attention to the wave that is dying or giving EXP. Level 2 will be given when the first wave and a melee minion will die or 4 melee minions and 2 caster minions. Since level 2 is a big power spike position yourself forward closer to the enemy when you are about to reach level 2 but if they are about to get level 2 quicker than you, then I recommend not pushing forward past the minion wave as the minion wave will aggro. If you get level 2 first, start attacking your laner to win the trade. There are still a lot to take into consideration such as a level 2 gank and who your laner is, if your enemy laner is a Riven, Pantheon, Kennen etc... I recommend to play passive instead and wait for your mid game power spike. Level 3 would make trading a lot easier versus the lane bullies, simply proc your Hyper stacks then Hop back onto the minions to stop any chasing. Usually it can be risky to go in for these trades, so I recommend only doing it sometimes.

Your first Mega Gnar transformation will probably be level 2 if you go aggressive level 2 and level 3 if you play passive. If you go aggressive try to time Mega Gnar so you'll get the bonus health at the last second. When you are about to transform spam W ( Wallop ) as it will always be up stunning them forcing yourself into Mega Gnar, You should at least get 1 auto attack then your boulder toss after using all auto attacks, forcing a death or Flash.

Mid Game is your second major power spike, getting your ult will reduce cooldown for Boomerang Throw to 2 seconds on catch and speed you up with Hyper in Mini Gnar and gives an all in ability for Mega Gnar

A lot of times I will mention Primary and Secondary Engage, this is a term that breaks down initiation in teamfights. Primary engage is a description that starts the teamfight whether it would be CC , a mispositioned target or burst onto a target. This makes the receiving team react in two ways, either respond to the action or let the target deal with it on their own. This is what starts teamfights. On the other hand we have secondary engage. Secondary engage is the follow up to the primary engage as said, burst damage or more CC. Afterwards it all comes down to how the teamfight resolves, it will have to end in either the backline bursted down and killed or the frontline is killed then the backline. Afterwards it ends in disengage, re-engage, chase or an ace.

Gnar has many exceptions to being these two roles. Gnar can be a very dangerous primary or secondary engage with Flash and Crunch if not having both of these abilities, then it can be very difficult to be the primary engage. Having Teleport is also difficult to be the primary engage as you have to be behind the enemy team most of the time to be the primary engage. Even so, in solo queue it can be difficult to have proper warding. If you want primary engage if you do not have Flash or Crunch or if you're teleporting, I recommend having your team be the engage. I will list the better engages.


Flash, Crunch:
Primary engage

Teleport flanking behind with Flash or Crunch:
Primary engage

Missing Flash or Crunch :
Secondary engage

Teleport flanking behind with no gap closers:
Secondary engage

Teleport in front with or without gap closers:
Secondary engage

In teamfighting, you are supposed to be an extremely beefy engage. To have a teamfight at the best moment is to have coordination of engage with you and your team. Mega Gnar has 15 SECONDS of time to make a teamfight work. Usually you will wait with 90 rage by poking the minions. You will be on the side of the enemy team in the fog of war or in the back of your team before a teamfight. When transforming into mega gnar, you want to make the most of your time in the teamfight. To start there will be the primary and secondary engage, your job here is to get a desirable engage onto the enemy team. Mis-positioning the backline with GNAR!, Mass CC the enemy team and Teleport flank are the ways to make yourself the most useful you can in a teamfight. Your ultimate can be very game changing, so make sure you are aware and ready to use GNAR! at the right time in the teamfight. If you win the teamfight usually you will come out of Mega Gnar and the enemy team has ran away. You can then chase them down as mini gnar with Boomerang Throw and Frozen Mallet.

When you are in a teamfight there will come two decisions. With your GNAR! do you ult the enemy team into your team or do you CC the enemy team into the wall? You will have to make proper decisions based on these questions.

- Will I ult the enemy frontline into my team?
- Does the enemy team have very high engage skills? i.e Malphite, Nautilus, Cassiopeia
- How healthy is my team?
- How much AOE and follow up CC does my team have?
- If I CC the enemy team into a wall, will my team be able to follow up?


I will also make a table on which to do from judging these questions.

Insec:

- You will ult just the backline
- Your team cannot capitalize if you don't insec
- Your team can provide a lot of CC and/or AOE to the enemy team
- Your team is in a very healthy condition

CC:

- Your team can follow up either way
- Your team has a lot of burst AOE and follow up CC
- Your team can make it to the backline in time to burst and follow up on your ult.
- Your team is in risk of dying, note: only use as desperation to save your team

You will have certain power spikes that will be listed here

- level 2 Hyper and [boomerang throw]: Able to out trade a majority of the enemy laner.
- level 3 Hop: gives you an easy escape from early ganks.
- level 6 GNAR!: Can all in the enemy laner and more than likely win. Lower CD on Q
- level 9 Boomerang Throw: Fully maxed Q and can now spam every two seconds
- level 12/13 Wallop: Can use twice or more during teamfights.
- Frozen Mallet purchase: Gives so much utility and spacing against your enemy laner
- Black Cleaver purchase: Gives the potential to shred tanks
- Guardian Angel purchase: Better teamfight and engage potential

Making Teleport plays can be difficult in solo queue, as it can be dis-coordinated with your team. Tournaments can be more easier to make Teleport plays. Anyways, Gnar can have awkward Teleport plays because of his Rage Gene. Timing on your Rage Gene as you split push a side lane can be difficult, you have to get the timing of your passive and when the teamfight breaks out. Teleport flank when you are at 90+ rage then Teleport behind the enemy team and start attacking. When you are about to transform into mega gnar, position your ult to CC or insec the enemy team into your team. Another variation would be to back at 95+ rage then Teleport with homeguard.

NOTE: Communicate heavily with your team what you want to do with pings and chat.

The new patch for tanks has opened which also affects Gnar in certain ways to his build order and prioritization. The new Gargoyle Stoneplate is a nice addition which is good on Gnar as he is an engage with a lot of AOE. Using the item after he stuns the enemy team will give him a really good boost to his stats but reduce his damage, so do not use this during your combo as you want to maximize your damage output with the rest of your team. However, this is not a 100% buy every time as if you are the only one snowballing then don't get the item as this reduces a really large portion of AOE teamfight damage.


Next up is the Banshee's Veil update. Banshee's Veil gave Gnar a big nerf as this was one of the very reliable core items. It was really good with Gnar because of the really good magic resist stats and a really good spell shield to negate a teamfight engage. Now it has unwanted and low magic resist stats that makes it undesirable. I recommend now getting Spirit Visage as a core item, however, if there is a lot of damage through consistent magic damage or DOT, it is better to get the Adaptive Helm.


Lastly should be Guardian Angel. Guardian Angel is now a very situational pick but is very clear when to get it. The armor has been reduced and the magic resist has been removed completely. The attack damage will be good on Gnar is some current situations but should only be built when you are snowballing extremely hard. Otherwise, don't get this item, the defensive stats are too low for your team and needs to be replaced with a more tankier item such as Sunfire Aegis or Spirit Visage.

In conclusion, Gnar is a very complicated champion with a difficult learning curve. Timing with Rage Gene can be difficult for new learners but Gnar can be very good and fun to learn in the process. When mastered the basics, Gnar can be very difficult to go against and can be a very big threat to the enemy team. I recommend picking him up if you so want to. If I missed anything or want me to discuss something I will apply it into the guide.

Sayonara :^)

-TheSixthDeus