Make Gnar great again -

Hello everyone. I wanted to suggest something regarding one of my favourite champions, unfortunately not viable at the moment, Gnar. Gnar is a very fun and unique champion. I'm here to suggest something that would make him even more unique: make him viable mid. The idea is to make him more versatile, and giving him a tank, hard engage and AD niche. There is nothing like that currently besides like Jarvan but he lacks the wave clear. This idea came to me after look at Galio, which is probably the most reliable tank mid. Obviously he is broken right now, but for example if he is nerfed and his wave clear remains decent, he will still see play in mid. Gnar would open up new kind of teamcomps and give room to AP tops, such as Kennen/Rumble/Vlad/etc + Gnar + non tank jungler, or Ziggs/Corki bot lane with a Carry AD top such as Fiora/Camille. Just like Galio made carry top laners more prevalent. With the new system in which we can choose 2 roles, its very nice to have champions that can be played in both roles. I play mid > top and currently the only things that are played in both roles are mages like Swain and Vladimir, as well as Galio. Nothing AD besides maybe Talon and to an extend Jarvan.

Gnar looks a bit like it could be playable mid right now, because he can be ranged and have good roaming. Here is why Gnar mid is not good right now.

• No waveclear throughout mid and late game.
• Unable to use ultimate efficiently in the mid lane.
• Vulnerable to burst (already counterable with tank items)
• Needs long lane to proc W and slows.
• Maybe other reasons I don't think of, let me know if there is any.

Now, here is the actual point. How we could make Gnar viable mid without making him OP. Obviously its all about numbers, I am not saying Gnar should become the new current Galio but just a balanced engage tank with AD damage that can be played mid and top. Also I don't mean that we need to add all of those, but only one of those would make Gnar viable mid imo especially the first one. Most of those changes are for mini form unless specified.

• Make Q better as a waveclear ability. Q is already somewhat helpful for waveclear, but we could find a way to make it better vs minion waves. Maybe some bounce mechanics (working only on minions?) or simply a longer range after hitting minions, so that the boomerang wouldnt come back before hitting the front and back line. I'm not sure if it makes sense, but basically the boomerang would continue for a longer time after hitting a minion (could stay the same for champions). Maybe increase Q damage vs minions.

• Increase Gnar's AD bonus scaling in mini form (for Q and E) so that he is a bit more more of a AD caster. He already builds Black Cleaver, but I think frozen mallet isn't the most fun 2nd item, especially not in mid lane. That would open up some other paths like Hexdrinker, Death's dance, Youmuu's or other.

• Change W ? I don't know but it's not really a cool ability right now. I understand it has to be a weak ability thought.

• Make his ult displacement higher when not hitting a wall. Maybe make it scale backwards with the amount of people hit, so that if you hit a single target he is displaced by a long distance but not if you hit many champions in a teamfight. That way Gnar wouldn't need a wall and multiple opponent to pull off a great ultimate (still weaker if you don't hit a wall, of course).

Those changes would make mini form more reliable by giving it an clearer role (especially the first, regarding wave clear). Right now mini Gnar is pretty much a teemo that wants to poke and run. Thats cool but some utility and defensive/stalling at the cost of damage would be fun imo. What are your thoughts on Gnar? Does he only need a buff and not a rework ? Is Gnar versatile enough to be viable in his current state without a big change?

Kansu