Boards›Gameplay

Gnar is one of the most poorly designed champions in lane

JIDF Operative·11/17/2017, 5:28:06 AM·14 votes·3,252 views

Gnar is incredibly annoying in lane. He slows you while throwing boomerangs, does % max hp damage that gives him a speed buff, and has a jump that lets him escape or chase you without much worries. He buys items like item 3022 item 3071 that make it impossible for you to run away from him if you had the audacity to pick a melee top laner.

Those reasons alone are not why he has poor design. Gnar is terribly designed because of his passive. As he fights he gets fury (maybe it was rage), then he transforms which gives him a big heal. He becomes tankier, he hits harder, he gets hard CC. This lasts for about 30 seconds to 1 minute. This is when he is most enjoyable to lane against. His abilities become telegraphed, his mobility is reduced, he has to take more risks when picking up his boulder for the cooldown reduction and he can no longer auto attack his melee lane opponent for free. Gnar is the only champion that has a transformation that makes him weaker in lane. There is no other champion that becomes weaker when they have a temporary transformation (for reference Nasus Renekton Swain Aatrox Kayn Shyvana ).

Even though it seems like a cool idea on paper to have a champion that hinders themselves due to fighting too much (Rumble does this better tbh). It was not intentional for gnar to be weaker when transforming, since he wants to be mega for teamfights in order to ult. Gnar's passive is poorly designed because it happens to take out all of the annoying parts of his kit in laning phase. I doubt riot ever intended for me to think: "wow gnar just transformed into his** MEGA** form, now is my chance to farm!"

Gnar needs a rework. His mega form should be intimidating in lane phase and his mini form should not make me want to rip my hair out because he permaslows me from 300+ range away because of item 3022 or glacial augment.

Edit: accidentally used item 3025 instead of item 3022

28 Comments

Durzaka11/17/2017, 6:01:16 AM4 votes

Gnar is the only champion that has a transformation that makes him weaker in lane.

There is a reason for this.

Mega Gnar is the team fight form. Its meant to be weaker 1v1 because in a team fight he is godly, with the high damage and Slow on his Q, the aoe stun on his W, max hp damage on his E, and the monstrous ult that he only has access to in Mega.

His mini has to be powerful for him to lane at all. But the difficult part in playing Gnar is actually getting to use Mega and your ult effectively in team fights.

In short, he should be weaker in Mega form in lane.

Hochelaga11/17/2017, 8:08:27 PM3 votes

I'd rather play against an annoying champ instead of ones that can basically kill dive you because they are fed. Tryndamere Riven Fiora Renekton Yasuo

Wráthful11/17/2017, 6:26:52 AM2 votes

you sound like u never witnessed maokai's healing lul and fiora's true damage for whatever reason

Kloqdq11/17/2017, 8:55:25 PM1 votes

Honestly I would love to see some power shifted from Mini to Mega. Mini at the moment has too much general power, but sucks in fights, while Mega has lackluster 1v1 and general power but is a good in teamfighting. I do think the power gap can be lowered a little bit because fighting Gnar in lane is terrible unless he is Mega but in Mega for teamfighting, his ultimate alone is just so damn massive.

Just want to see a bit of a power shift to fix his main issues frankly.

Barley11/17/2017, 1:06:37 PM1 votes

Why are you complaining about Gnar? I’m a Gnar main and lemme tell you something: He has a great Lanning phase. He also has a great team fight stage. I didn’t read your whole post, but he is pretty darn balanced.

SuperCosmicHobo11/17/2017, 5:38:12 AM1 votes

Lol you wait for Gnar to turn into Mega Gnar and he is screwed. He can't do much in 1v1 top in that form xD all his skills are dodgeable.

Funkin Dunkin11/17/2017, 1:41:40 PM1 votes

Your joking right? So you're saying because he's hard to read that makes him a poor design? Does that mean WW has the same poor design because early game he is near unkillable in a 1v1 because when his health is low he has nearly 100% life leech?