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I just played against Tank Gnar for the first time

Eve The Ripper·12/15/2014, 12:54:41 AM·2 votes·766 views

I feel entitled to a lawsuit, almost, but I'll settle for a mere forum thread. The player was average, probably. I was able to wallslam him (as Poppy) fairly often and used that and my superior minion mechanics to go up 2-0 in lane. Then, with his 0.5s CD boomerang, superior mobility, tankiness and questionable length stun, he turns everything around.

I leave lane 2-1 and slightly down in minions and go about my business elsewhere with reasonable success, but still scarred from the mind-boggling laning experience. Had that Gnar been a better player, I might as well have surrendered at champ select. I should note, I'm coming off of a year of MMR decay since I quit ranked for a while, so I was probably above par as far as that match goes.

Anyway, I could use some tips on how to play against him because I'm sure he's going to be a huge part of my life moving forward. I know that I should avoid fighting his mega-Gnar form, which is hard because he gets it 100% of the time I engage if I'm trying to take him down from full health. Lord knows it's hard enough pinning him once, but twice? I digress...Anyway, what is his window of opportunity, so to speak? His boomerang is constantly up and offering him a slow, he seems to get a speed boost if he attacks me a few times and he has a very large hop. If I attempt to go in and don't pin him, he gets tons of free harass and possibly his mega form, which I already know there is no counterplay too as I can't do anything while stunned.

I never thought I'd say this, but I'd rather be laning against Jayce. At least I know when I can fight, then.

2 Comments

Cale01712/15/2014, 1:02:46 AM2 votes

Don't stand anywhere near where he could feasibly throw you into a wall with his ult. Not only will it stun you, but it deals a lot more damage when he does.

Watch for when he's using Mega form without meaning to. There's a 13 second window where he can't gain any rage afterwards, so that's your time to go in.

Stay well behind minions to reduce the boomerang's chances of getting to you. It slows down after the first enemy struck, so it might not reach you if you're far enough back.

Try and zone him away from being able to catch his boomerang. It'll increase the cooldown significantly, or rather prevent it from decreasing.

Gnar is squishy early on, and the cooldown on his escape is pretty long. Go in on him early to apply pressure and force him to trade with you. If you let him free farm you're just asking for it.

Try and pay attention to the rings forming around you from his W's passive effect. Once he's nearing being able to hit you with a third attack, back away and wait for them to wear off. Otherwise he'll just whittle you down until he can hop on top of you and finish you off even as Mini Gnar.

Eve The Ripper12/15/2014, 1:32:22 AM1 votes

How far can he throw me in his ult, exactly? It seemed like I could be entirely on the other side of him and still wind up on the wall.

Thanks for the tips, besides that. I don't think I can capitalize on some of them due to playing Poppy, but that's my fault. It sounds like the 13 second no-rage window is best, though I suspect he's going to save his escape for that and that it will always be off-CD since he just came out of mega form. Ah well, it's somewhere to start, at least.

EDIT: I just looked at his kit again, since I hadn't done so since his teaser. It strikes me that there are passives upon passives upon additional effects. Seems I had forgotten some of them.