The Future of Gnar
> “We have some really promising exploration for Gnar potentially coming in a future patch that we wanted to put in 8.4 but didn't have time to properly validate. It's intended to be a set of win-win changes to make Gnar's gameplay feel more fluid and rewarding but also give him more windows of opportunity to use against him and in general make playing against him a more interesting/fun experience - can't say more than that but personally I really like the direction. It's currently looking unlikely we'll get to it soon but I'm hoping we'll manage to get it in a future patch at some point.”
-Riot Endstep https://boards.na.leagueoflegends.com/en/c/developer-corner/Js0ngspm-patch-chat-with-the-playtest-team-84?comment=00430000
> “Gnar - Needs clearer weaknesses enemies can play around, particularly in lane. Details also TBD.”
-Riot Meddler https://boards.na.leagueoflegends.com/en/c/developer-corner/Zuwx8vlW-quick-gameplay-thoughts-february-2
> “Gnar - hitting the Q to reduce his safe contributions, both later in laning phase and beyond. E buff to reward more aggressive uses of it over disengage. Frozen Mallet - was a topic of a lot of debate internally, hence it getting pulled from the PBE earlier this week when we were considering doing larger work on it instead of just a ranged nerf. We will be nerfing it in 8.4 still (ranged slow dropping to 20%) and might or might not revisit it in general.”
-Riot Meddler https://boards.na.leagueoflegends.com/en/c/developer-corner/ypmoIfEc-quick-gameplay-thoughts-february-14?comment=003c0000
> “Not sure yet, though Q and mini Gnar AA power are the things that have come up in discussion the most so far.”
> “Early AA range is one we'll look at at least, given at present he's often able to farm/harass just slightly out of threat range of a number of abilities which makes him pretty safe. Not currently looking at Aery.”
-Riot Meddler https://boards.na.leagueoflegends.com/en/c/developer-corner/Zuwx8vlW-quick-gameplay-thoughts-february-2?comment=00180001
Gnar’s been a hot discussion topic as of late, as he is a particularly frustrating lane bully and has been very strong in pro play for a long time. Every time Gnar comes up, there have been hints of making changes to Gnar’s kit to make him more sustainable, less binary, and less frustrating to play against. I personally care a lot about Gnar, as I am a Gnar one trick pony with over 550k mastery and am actively involved in the GnarMains community. I would like to take the time now to give some input on Gnar, since I know by the time changes will be announced or put on PBE, it will probably be too late to have changes made based on community feedback.
Core Elements of Gnar's Kit Gnar’s transformation mechanic is core to his identity, and I do not think it should be changed except for slight tweaks to numbers (i.e. standardize the bonus rage between AA and Q vs champions). Similar spells between Mini and Mega Gnar, like Q being a line skillshot with a cooldown refund and E being a ground targeted dash, and shared cooldowns across forms are also core to the way the transform mechanic works. A low cooldown Q and the CD refund mechanic are also incredibly important to Gnar’s identity, and only slight number tweaks should be made. Hop having a double jump is important, although limiting the double jump to working only on enemy champions would not be dissonant with Gnar’s identity. The single most important part of Mega Gnar’s kit is his ult, which should not receive any major changes.
Ideas For Small Rework I would personally like to see Mini Gnar nerfed and Mega Gnar buffed, so that his transformations become a window of power for both teams to play around. A lot of stat tweaks should be made in my opinion, including nerfing Mini Gnar’s range. Currently, Mini Gnar has two passive abilities, one of which merely upgrades the other. Instead, Hyper’s passive could be moved entirely to Gnar’s ult, which would both make Mini Gnar weaker early game and give him a more meaningful power spike at level 6. Hyper / Wallop could be entirely reworked, giving Mini Gnar more expression and helping Mega Gnar teamfight better. Hop currently has an attack speed steroid, which could be moved to Gnar’s W instead. Letting the new W reset Gnar’s attack timer would give him more skill expression, and the inherent cooldown of the active would give enemies more time to play around Mini Gnar. Currently, Wallop functions well as an ability for Mega Gnar. It gives him waveclear, damage, and CC. However, it is not very thematically resonant, and Mega Gnar lacks proper tank steroids. In Gnar’s lore, he was frozen in true ice for millenia. True ice never melts, so breaking out of the ice is an incredible feat. Thematically, it would make sense for Mega Gnar to get a tenacity buff. Reworking Wallop into a armor/MR/tenacity steroid would help Gnar scale better as a tank, but would reduce his damage and CC significantly. However, it could still give damage/CC by empowering Mega Gnar’s next basic attack to deal extra AOE damage and stun the next enemy he hits. This would also mirror Mini Gnar W since there would be a basic attack reset.
Closing Gnar is a champion that means a lot to me. I know he is very controversial, and widely hated by many top laners. However, I want to see him in a better, more sustainable state than the one he is in currently. If anybody on the balance team or the playtest team can share anything about future work on Gnar, or can at least say whether or not Riot has a similar vision of Gnar as I do, it would be greatly appreciated.
