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@Riot Gnar and competitive play

Dan Dragonsword·7/29/2014, 10:45:46 PM·3 votes·1,617 views

So I was thinking about the whole Vel'koz thing you guys are trying to work out on pbe, balancing acts and such. Since Vel'koz is a recent champion or at least to my understanding (Vel was made before Braum). And i'm just simply asking if you guys plan on making Gnar, viable in competitive play toplanes, or are you guys simply making this champion for that "Fun" aspect? Also, the fact that only few champions are viable toplane and there just seems to be a frozen selection of toplaners and no other that can actually "Toplane".

  • Edit 7/30/14 12:40 PM EST: I appreciate all of you coming here to discuss Gnar and his state in ranked games, I will be continuing to answer questions, and the comments you guys have! :D (Changed Some Things Around So it looks like I don't just want Riot to come and comment) I would love Red to come here and explain Gnar's current state and what their goals are with the new champion

here's a link to Gnar's kit: http://na.leagueoflegends.com/en/champion-reveal/gnar-the-missing-link

29 Comments

12tales7/30/2014, 12:18:46 AM1 votes

Gnar is too adorable to not want to see, in competitive or otherwise.

ChaosThief7/30/2014, 1:25:57 AM1 votes

If he gets picked in competitive, people will spam him to all hell. He'll become too overused to even be played by people who like gnar for gnar. So please, don't force him to become a competitive focused champion, let him be played by those who enjoy him.

EDIT: tl;dr let him go to competitive, but don't force it on him.

Deuterium7/30/2014, 1:35:22 AM1 votes

"his kit is what every top laner craves" cries Gangplank

MrBuffington7/30/2014, 2:06:20 AM1 votes

I think Riot has stated that they create whatever champion they want (ie. champions that fill an unfilled niche, ones that seem cool and fun, etc.), regardless of what the current meta is (probably because these champions are going to outlive whatever is the meta of the moment). They brought this up when Vel'Koz was released, since people were concerned he wouldn't get any play time since he's an immobile mage (a class of champion that's generally having trouble right now, with a few exceptions). They don't really try to mold champions to fit competitive play.

That being said, since hybrid sorts of champions are becoming sort of popular in top lane (at least, Nidalee and Gragas both are seeing a lot more play time, and they function pretty well at range and melee), I think Gnar is in a fairly good spot as far as competitive play goes. He seems to have a pretty high skill floor, and his rage mechanic feels somewhat similar to Rumble's heat, so I want to see Balls take Gnar onto the rift.

MrSc0tty7/30/2014, 11:45:35 AM1 votes

Are you kidding? A Manaless ball of free stats with plenty of "high skillcap" semi glitchy skill use cases like catching his boomerang as he transforms to toss a boulder and apply his perma slow.... This guy is going to BE competitive play until he gets Zac/Zed level nerfs to his mobility and insane tankiness+damage.

This is a bruiser who gets easily double the effectiveness out of Trinity Force, and who can just sit and proc it and proc it over and over again. He's got the combined laning phases of a Teemo who transforms into Renekton, he's impossible to tower dive or gank because he either throws you into or away from his turret then stomps the ever loving crap out of you, and he's got more mobility than Lee Sin.

I played three games with him on PBE. I haven't died once, and I haven't gotten less than fifteen kills in any of them. This is easily the single most broken champion ever created and if he were ever to get past ban phase in competitive, I promise he'd have a 100% winrate. I'm a silver level player who doesn't even play top ordinarily, I can't even imagine what someone like Faker would do with him.