How to play against Gnar?

DropFill·Dec 18, 2014·3 votes·1,950 views

If you are melee, it is hard to farm because of his stupid Q plus health damage from W. It is hard to gapcloser because of his E. It is hard to buy items against him because of hybrid damage. He also has free stats from his passive that make him insanely tank on mega gnar form, while having two stuns and nearly perma slow. There is nothing I can do against Gnar.

16 Comments

FyshinaTuxDec 18, 20143 votes

If you only list the positives, then there's nothing you can do against any champion.

His Q is relatively blockable by minions, so stay behind them, his health regen is garbage, so without pots, any damage you do WILL stick, and after he drops out of mega Gnar he's SUPER vulnerable (since most Gnars will arrogantly blow their jump while in mega Gnar.)

There are things that you can do against Gnar, you just can't do the exact same thing over and over, and expect anything to change.

DropFillDec 18, 20141 votes

{quoted}

If you only list the positives, then there's nothing you can do against any champion.

His Q is relatively blockable by minions, so stay behind them, his health regen is garbage, so without pots, any damage you do WILL stick, and after he drops out of mega Gnar he's SUPER vulnerable (since most Gnars will arrogantly blow their jump while in mega Gnar.)

There are things that you can do against Gnar, you just can't do the exact same thing over and over, and expect anything to change.

So the only bad thing on him is his Q blockable by minions? It is spammable, has close to no CD if he catches it.f Also, his health regen on mega gnar is good

FyshinaTuxDec 18, 20142 votes

I didn't list EVERY single weakness to Gnar. I was just givin examples of weaknesses so that OP could start looking at the matchup against Gnar more analytically and figure out how to beat Gnar for himself.

It's far more satisfying to find what works for you, and making that work, than it is to be told what to do, and make that work.

Just my thoughts but hey.

TeemoJenkinsDec 18, 20141 votes

What Melee are you playing?

DropFillDec 18, 20141 votes

{quoted}

What Melee are you playing?

Mundo.

Registeel1234Dec 18, 20141 votes

Farm with Q, wait for late game

Also, no wonder you're getting destroyed by Gnar! You're playing a champion that need to stack health.

Kowe The EwokDec 18, 20141 votes

Force him to all in, or abuse the fact that he'll try to catch his boomerang.

Jax can all-in him at level 2 (get tougher once he gets a brutalizer, yet once you finished Bligewater is GG and you destroy him).
Lissandra can outpoke him and kite his evolution into oblivion
Pantheon just destroys Gnar by default
Vayne destroys mini-Gnar in auto attack trades and she can kite Mega Gnar into oblivion (YOU MUST NOT EVER STAND NEXT TO A WALL)
Quinn is similiar to Vayne

General hints:

Gnar can only use his ultimate when he is evolved. Realize that you have more killpressure then him post level 6 when he's low rage. Even if he's a Brutalizer Gnar who wins trades without ultimate.
Gnar's attempt to catch a Boomerang is an easy setup for your skillshots.
Don't be to greedy when he's a bout to evolve.

AccountaBilabudyDec 18, 20141 votes

Irelia, Vlad, Fiora, Liss

DropFillDec 18, 20141 votes

{quoted}

Irelia, Vlad, Fiora, Liss

He can build full tank against fiora and still shit on her because of his stupid base stats on mega gnar. Vlad is a good option. I don't think Irelia wins this matchup if the Gnar is decent.

AnidanDec 18, 20141 votes

I don't think your Fiora is doing much good if she's getting wrecked by Gnar. Fiora is one of the hardest Gnar counters at the moment, to my memory. All she has to do is be cautious during Mega-Gnar (which everyone should be anyway), and she utterly tears him a new one. Mini-Gnar absolutely cannot fight her.

DropFillDec 18, 20141 votes

{quoted}

I don't think your Fiora is doing much good if she's getting wrecked by Gnar. Fiora is one of the hardest Gnar counters at the moment, to my memory. All she has to do is be cautious during Mega-Gnar (which everyone should be anyway), and she utterly tears him a new one. Mini-Gnar absolutely cannot fight her.

Gnar can poke her down with his boomerang, and disengage with his E. I don't see any reason for him to lose to Fiora except if he plays bad early

AnidanDec 18, 20141 votes

"Oh look, he E'd away.. better use my TWO lunges" You can Lunge to him, beat the crap out of him, and lunge again when he jumps away. Mini-Gnar can't fight Fiora, he straight-up lacks the tools to do so in any meaningful way outside of poking, which is rendered near-useless unless she continually stands in boomerang throws after she gets Hydra.

He disengages? You go right back in because you have far higher damage than him when you're in his face. He wants to actually try and commit? Negate some auto-attacks, and worst comes to worst: Your ult isn't gated by a rage mechanic as Fiora.

EndlessSorcererDec 18, 20141 votes

Irelia does quite well in this matchup, honestly. Irelia's base damages really hurt Gnar considering how squishy his mini form is and her BladeSurge allows her to easily stick onto him when fighting. In addition, Irelia excels are farming against ranged champions due to her Q and innate sustain.

Basically, when you fight Gnar you Q to a low health minion for the reset, started attacking him and Q him when he jumps away, E him, and auto him more. When Gnar is approaching his transformation, you back off and wait for him to switch back.

I find that Maokai and Dr. Mundo are other good options. Maokai has some innate sustain, gets pretty tanky, and sets up easy ganks for his jungler when Maokai is squishy. Mundo has a lot of innate sustain from his passive and ultimate and his Cleavers easily allow him to farm from range without issue. Both champions can outscale Gnar if they go even, so they work well.

Teridax68Dec 19, 20141 votes

Not a top lane expert, but here goes:

Mini Gnar is eminently squishy. If you have burst and/or a gapcloser, you can kill him extremely quickly. This weakness only gets worse in the late game, where catching Mini Gnar will often result in his death.
His Boomerang has two weaknesses: its damage is severely reduced by minions, and it has a massively long cooldown if Gnar misses it. Standing behind even just one minion will halve its damage, and once Gnar launches his boomerang, try to scare him out of its return path. If he misses it, you can effectively farm for free for the next 20 seconds. He also loses his main kiting tool, so rushing him while his boomerang's on cooldown will allow you to punish him harshly.
Don't engage Mega Gnar early on. Gnar's main kill potential early game comes from tricking you into engaging him at full Fury before bursting/stunlocking the crap out of you. If you see Gnar about to transform, back off. If he tries to keep his Fury under control in order to not transform, he'll either have to back off and lose CS, or leave himself open to a forced transformation via poke (or both).
If you do happen to be up against Mega Gnar, keep in mind he's super-kitable. He's extremely slow, most of his CC is either heavily telegraphed or dependent on his target being in melee range, and his large hitbox makes him a big target. If he blows his cooldowns in Mega Form, there's also not much he can do, so that should be your ticket to whale on him. Above all, make sure you dodge his abilities, and then you should be fine. Mega Gnar can actually be even easier to kill than Mini Gnar if he fails his combo, since he has difficulty escaping, so make sure to punish him at every chance you get.
While Gnar does have hybrid damage with his W, that's his only magic damage source. Building armor shuts down his Mega Gnar burst especially hard, so if you do find yourself behind, just build armor ( is particularly good against Mega Gnar, and / is especially effective against Mini Gnar's autoattack-based damage).

Basically, the main point here is that you need to wait for Gnar to make a move against you, and the moment he does, punish him hard (he's always vulnerable after making plays). Good reactions are his worst counter, and failing that, building armor will mitigate his kill potential. You also need to adapt your approach to Gnar's form: as Mini Gnar, he will die very quickly if he gets bursted, dived and/or CCed. As Mega Gnar, he is extremely vulnerable to poke, kiting and repositioning.

BresnDec 19, 20141 votes

I think tons of people will hate me but....

Nasus

People says he loses lane. That's in EARLY GAME, at 6 you can solo or called for gank at get a free kill. Even if you're denied a kill with your ult and instead gets something like 0/5 with 30 stacks, Nasus is extremely flexible with recovering. His W, E and Ult are amazing area nerfs and his Ult is strong even as 0/20/5.

You can lose lane as Nasus and recover. Enemies will keep farming off you and roaming but in late game there's no way to keep farming a Nasus and you could counter-farm kills if any squishy enemies trying to get a kill off the "Feeding Nasus "

For Gnar, you will almost 100% die prior to 6 and also your ult won't be strong enough to kill Gnar unless his health isn't that high. He is not a danger after you gotten a item like item 3110 .