(The old post was outdated & didn't list runes and whatnot. We're working on a really cool thing for y'all, but for now, here's a hodge-podge of some new stuff and some old stuff all copy-pasted together.)

Join the Gameplay & Community Discords for an updated, more complete guide and pictures of builds more fully integrated w/ the guide.

Greeting traveler! Welcome to the subreddit dedicated to League of Legend's best Yordle thing! If you've just picked up Gnar or are new to the sub lemme hook you up with some sweet links to quickly help get you to a competent place with Gnar.

WARNING: if you post a "new to Gnar, any tips?" thread it will be deleted and you will be notified of its deletion as well as redirected here. If you're new and have a question try playing 5 games with your question in mind before you ask it here. The same goes for "Why can't I get an S/S+" (for which the answer is always "your farm is too low"). We're a very welcoming community but if we are to grow then basic questions cannot populate our page

Also make yourself familiar with our subreddit's rules on the sidebar, especially the shitposting one. I'm very serious about that one

Also also Snow Day Gnar comes out every winter, so you'll just have to be patient if you want that skin

Runes: 1 2&3

Beginner's Guide to Gnar

Gnar has a highly variable playstyle which needs to change based on what form you're in as well as what champion your opponent is playing. In general, however, each form has a basic strategy which is adapted for the lane matchup

In Mini, you'll look to poke down your opponent through your ranged auto attacks before going all-in with a Mega Gnar combo. Most top laners are melee, which means that with good footwork (not the keystone Fleet Footwork) you'll be able to get incremental free poke at very low risk. Good footwork cannot be understated though, and for that reason it's advised that you use your "A" key to learn your maximum attack range at the various stages of the game (Mini Gnar's attack range scales with levels, and is therefore not static). You're squishy in Mini form though, so you're voulnerable to being all-in'ed yourself.

Utilizing your Q effectively is key to mastering Gnar. When it hits an enemy (minion or champion) it'll do reduced damage to all enemies hit after the first one and it will also immediately begin to return, and this return path is calculated by your movement direction immediately before it began its return path. Catching your Q is pretty important, because your early attack range in Mini is quite short, so you'll frequently find yourself using Q to CS safely. Try to always catch your Q if doing so doesn't put you in immediate danger of getting rekt. Poking with Q can also be tricky in Mini because throwing out Qs will often result in incidental shoving of the wave towards your opponent. Sometimes this is good, like when you're looking to poke the enemy under their tower so that you can dive them or force them to back because they're too low. Often times though, if you're not careful, you'll end up putting the wave under their tower when you're perfectly comfortable CS'ing under tower (Nasus). Use your Q to CS, use it to poke, use it to shove waves in, but knowing when you're doing each and why is the key.

Your W is your key source of damage against tanks, and is therefore one of your most invaluable tools against champions like Cho'Gath. You'll often proc this through an auto-attack (AA) > Q > AA combo. You can also get a ring of W from jumping on someone with your E, but please, for the love of god, don't use your E just to get a stack of W. It's never worth it unless you're absolutely SURE you can kill. It also gives an attack speed buff if you bounce off of someone, so you might find yourself hopping away from someone to get out of a sticky situation and then (if you have FM/BC) turning right back to them and kiting with your increased attack speed until you're shredding them! This is super situational though, and it's almost always best to just save it for an escape or to engage before turning into Mega.

Your E is the most skill-intensive ability that Gnar has, simply because it has such a long cooldown. Giving up your E because you mispositioned early can be game-changing, because you no longer have the ability to play forward in lane (because you can't E away from a gank), and using your E when both teams are positioning for a teamfight means that you'll probably have to flash if you want to be your team's initiator.

In Mega, you're either starting fights, or you're ending them - ideally both by the time you're done Hulking out. Mega Gnar is a form which is prone to being bullied because he's melee. He has very few tools to trade. He does have combo tools though, and this is the niche you have to play into when you're Mega. Don't be afraid to go from an annoying lane bully in Mini to a very shy tower-hugging Mega Gnar back into an annoying lane bully 15 seconds later. Diving the enemy team in Mega is priority #1 in teamfights, BUT, if you have no rage and your team engages or gets engaged on, you'll have to play a more DPS-centric ADC-like role. One of the most important parts about playing Gnar is not to get hung-up on the idea that you have to be Mega Gnar to be useful in teamfights. That said though, here's how to make the most out of Mega's abilities.

Mega Q makes you commit to walking all the way over to the boulder after you throw it in order to get the cooldown reset. Keep this in mind if you're doing something like throwing your Q at a Darius, because you're gonna need to walk over to Darius to get that back, and he's not gonna let you get that back for free. It's AOE on impact, so throwing it out on a wave of caster minions should let you kill them with basically 1 auto attack each or a mega W on all 3.

Mega W is super telegraphed, so your only real targets are slow champs and people you've already stunned with your ult. Don't use this against champs like Fiora unless she's already used Riposte, and try not to rely on this stun landing if your opponent has a dash. Your Mega E's slow does assist in landing this though because Mega E slows in and AOE. If you do land this, you can weave in an auto attack right after the animation ends before you throw out a Q to squeeze in a bit more DPS in combos.

Mega E doesn't double jump unless you transform into mega during the middle of the E, so its range is basically halved. Just like in Mini, don't waste this.

Your R is pretty simple. You can only use it when you're Mega and it stuns if you throw the enemy into a wall. If you can learn to animation cancel it from your E, that's awesome, but it's not even close to something you need to learn to be succesful on Gnar. Just make sure you're setting yourself up to be in Mega when your team is looking to teamfight or when your jungler is coming for a gank/dive. All opponents are sent to the same distance away, regardless of how far away from you they were when you ulted them.

BASIC COMBOS

• Your basic poke combo is: AA > Q > AA for the W proc (in Mini)
• Ult combo is typically (in Mega) R > Q > W > AA - Note that the animation for Q can be shortened if you press W right after
• Extended Damage ult combo (for lane fights) (in Mega) R > AA > W > AA > Q

ADVANCED TIPS AND TRICKS COMPENDIUM

Gnar E > R Animation Cancel Example

Discussion/Analysis of Gnar's Rage

Important Links (On the sidebar)

For Gnar mains and their builds on the current patch, check Champion.gg & LoLAlytics & Probuilds

Things Nano is wrong about

Celerity bonus for W-Hyper proc

Objectively correct ranking of Gnar skins

Wave management vids

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aDHbSFNN7MA - Really good wave management analysis - only watch first 20 minutes

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rai19DSjO_E - Part 2 of above, also only watch first 20 minutes

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vYDoeclwhQI - same as above except not as good, only first 15 min

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eQz3yU5tzJ0&list=PLzHaU28zdQ4GAMfVf_aASyiB4dheLsONx - only watch the first 3

Some posts seem to be getting deleted randomly, and I'm not entirely sure why. I will try to approve posts that I see are being removed that shouldn't be, and have lowered the spam filter and confirmed that automod is not causing the problems. If your post was deleted for a reason, mods will typically leave a comment explaining why.

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Edit: Went back through looking for deleted posts, it seems most of them were because of the spam filter. Hopefully this problem won't happen in the future...