October 5, 2023
Before Freljord was even called Freljord, a young yordle with endless energy called Gnar lived among others like him in the northlands. While other tribes foraged food and resources around the tundra, Gnar collected more important items like rocks and pebbles, but his greatest treasure was the jawbone of a drüvask. His famous boomerang.
One day the sky got darker and the wind colder. Then the ground split apart, and the world roared, but when the monster arrived, everything went silent. The monster rose from the newly created abyss with huge horns and slimy tentacles. Once Gnar saw what was coming for the world, he felt an odd pain in his chest. Rage.
He grew as large as the white beasts he once admired, and was determined to send the monster back where it came from. The fight didn’t last long, he felt a chill colder than any winter, and everything became quiet. He slowly fell asleep in the silence.
Gnar ‘napped’ in the ice for a long time. When he finally awoke, everything and everyone was gone. No monsters to fight, no friends to protect. He felt alone and small all over again. The land that surrounded was different too. There was snow everywhere. He felt happy when he saw his beloved boomerang lying beside him, and that was the most important thing. Gnar has no grasp of what took place that fateful day, nor what happened to him. But he’s in a new world, with new things to collect and places to explore.
CHAMPION OVERVIEW
Gnar is a highly versatile champion that can fit into almost any team composition. His ability to deal damage from a distance makes Gnar one of the safest picks in the top lane. He is suited with damage, poke, sustain, CC, and mobility if that wasn’t enough. He’s only held back by his rage mechanic and the inability to control it.
ABILITIES
Rage Gene (Passive): While in combat, Gnar generates Rage. At maximum Rage his next ability will transform him into Mega Gnar, granting increased survivability and access to new spells.
Gnar’s Rage mechanic is essential. You need to learn how to time your transformations based on the situation. Over time, without dealing or receiving damage, Rage will decay. This is key, as it means you have the power to control your Rage. When you max your Rage, using an ability will transform you into Mega Gnar. You will transform automatically after a short delay if no abilities are used.
In the lane, you want to deal as much damage as possible as Mini Gnar.
In team fights, you want to be Mega Gnar to take advantage of your AoE CC (R).
Boomerang Throw (Mini Gnar) / Boulder Toss (Mega Gnar) [Q]: Gnar throws a boomerang that damages and slows enemies it hits before returning to him. If he catches the boomerang, its cooldown is reduced. Mega Gnar instead throws a boulder that stops on the first unit hit, damaging and slowing everything nearby. It can then be picked up to reduce the cooldown.
Boomerang Throw is Gnar’s poke ability. Most of your harassment will come from this ability. However, in harder matchups, it allows you to safely last kill minions and maintain wave clear. Keep in mind that the boomerang return direction is determined by which direction Gnar is heading. Boulder Toss is a harder-hitting version of Boomerang Throw that doesn’t come back to you.
Hyper (Mini Gnar) / Wallop (Mega Gnar) [W]: Gnar’s attacks and spells hype him up, dealing bonus damage and granting him Move Speed. Mega Gnar is too enraged to be hyper and instead can rear up on his hind legs and smash down on the area in front of him, stunning enemies in an area.
Hyper is where the majority of Gnar’s damage comes from. Thanks to this ability, Gnar can easily become a nightmare. Wallop allows Gnar to lock down his enemies frequently. Combined with GNAR!, Gnar can keep a painful CC on an enemy for a long time. However, keep in mind that Wallop also locks Gnar in place.
Hop (Mini Gnar) / Crunch (Mega Gnar) [E]: Gnar leaps to a location and bounces off the head of any unit he lands on, traveling further. Mega Gnar is too large to bounce and instead lands with earth-shattering force, dealing damage in an area around him.
Hop is your engage tool. However, it has a very high cooldown on early levels, so be careful. Crunch is mainly used for wave clear and closing gaps. In lane phase, look to use Crunch on an enemy minion wave before going in for a trade or all-in.
GNAR! [R]: Mega Gnar throws everything around him in a chosen direction, dealing damage and slowing them. Any enemy that hits a wall is stunned and takes bonus damage.
GNAR! can potentially win you an entire team fight alone, and it’s one of the greatest engage abilities of the game. Usually, you’ll want to max Q first, as it’s the main source of poking early in the game. Then W and, in the end, E.
RUNES
Runes are enhancements that add new abilities or buffs to champions, allowing us to slightly modify our playstyle for one of them depending on the game, our lane, the enemy composition, and our team composition. There are five different paths of runes:Precision (Improved attacks and sustained damage), Domination (Burst damage and target access), Sorcery (Empowered abilities and resource manipulation), Resolve (Durability and crowd control), and Inspiration (Creative tools and rule-bending).
As always, I will show you some popular rune combinations out there. Remember to experiment and see which setup is better for your playstyle.
PRECISION + RESOLVE
This is one of the most popular rune builds for Gnar. Having a lot of mobility is good with this champion and, most importantly, a pain in the ass for the enemy. Moreover, healing is always welcome, and more so in lower levels, to add to our sustain capabilities.
RESOLVE + PRECISION
This is a good rune choice against heavy melee champions. However, mobility is always preferred with Gnar.
ITEMS
Like runes, item build paths are flexible and depend a lot on the game and the situation. Let’s review some possible main items for Gnar.
Trinity Force– As mobility is key with Gnar this item is godlike. Moreover, your main damage income is your basic attack, so an increase in base attack damage is welcome.
Divine Sunderer – A good choice when you’re against a tanky team, and there’s enough damage in your team. It deals damage based on the target life.
Hullbraker -This is your go-to whenever you want to push hard. If the enemy team doesn’t have a lot of engage, they can’t get close to you. Feel free to split push.
TIPS
1 VS 1, you’ll want to be mini-gnar as much as possible. You want to have mega-Gnar prepared to engage whenever you’re with your team. Poke with Q (Boomerang Throw) every time you can. IfBoomerang Throw is thrown backward and is missed, it will travel a greater distance. You can use this to safely steal camps, kill low-health enemies, and stop enemies from recalling.
Don’t be afraid to kite, that means if someone is chasing you, don’t be afraid to hit them back. Thanks to Hyper (W) passive, you’ll outrun them, and if they don’t burst you fast enough you’ll either run away or kill them.
Mega-Gnar is your primary way of all-inning. If you use your jump (E) on a minion when you’re about to transform into mega-Gnar, you’ll make a long jump and transform mid-jump. Use this to surprise and engage the enemy.
CONCLUSION
Gnar is not only cute and a highly energized Yordle, but he’s also a challenging and exciting champion to learn. Even though he’s hard to master, his toolbelt is broad and helpful in most situations, so he’s not a bad addition to your champion pool.
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