I've been having trouble with gnar, mostly during his leaning phase. Can someone explain what his goal is during the landing phase, what good items to build, and what are his hardest mashups? It seems like I even do bad against "medium" match ups which I'm not understanding. My kiting is pretty good because I usually play adc but I feel as though gnar is a very squishy top lamer compared to most.
Gnar is very different from a lot of top laners.
His goal during laning phase is to outfarm, luckily its very easy to zone the enemy with boomerang. Look to get the 3hit combo, fall back, and repeat. When playing AGAINST gnar you will find that it will always come to a battle of attrition, gnar is resourceless so him spamming boomerangs is the most effective way for him to zone out and weaken his opponent.
Good ways to build him pretty much stick to bruiser/tanky side. Black Cleaver, Frozen Mallet, and tank items are very strong on him. I find personally everygame finding Black Cleaver + Mallet is overall the best branch build but every build for gnar depends on the matchups. Against a heavy ap team buying Hexdrinker or Spirit Visage early is what you need.
Like I said previously Gnars laning is all about consistency in farming and zoning while keeping your HP high. Against a melee enemy gnar will always have an advantage because A) Mega Gnar is fucking dope and B) He has a jump that will let you easily get a free 3hit combo on an enemy.
Overall it sounds like you just need more practice or are not properly adjusting your playstyle to gnars kit.
Gnar is a very item dependent character. Early game I just kinda play it safe. Doesn't mean no pressure; but usually no ballsy trades. Just poking. Abuse his range and mobility and kiting. Early game mini gnar lacks burst to punish super hard. Mega Gnar lacks dps to kill tanky targets without help of some mini form poke.
You want to focus on CS'ing as well as possible using the wave to your advantage. You get a lot more active once you have some tanky equipment to work with.
IMO his hardest matchups are the bursty AD gap closing fighters that are kinda popular in solo queue. The Wukongs, the Irelias, the Pantheons. Yasuo. Riven is a skill matchup. Armor items generally don't lend themselves to damage or a mid lane powerspike which Gnar kinda needs to be dangerous. I generally just go his health options (frozen mallet or black cleaver (personally prefer mallet), only going for armor if I'm in trouble) If you're in a pickle you could still go Sunfire though. Sunfire is pretty nice for farming side lanes faster.
His easier matchups are AP champions maybe even AP tanks, but AP squishies get crushed by Gnar who waits til he has items in my experience. MR is powerful & MR itemization is very good for him IMO. Banshees Veil can be rushed on him and he still does enough dmg on squishies. I think wits end might be secretly viable for Gnar.
Movement speed is very important on Gnar in general especially on the matchup so don't forget your shoes. I usually go Ninja Tabi if I need to respect an AD champion.
I think it's important to mention that I think overall Battle of Fervor mastery is best for Gnar. Grasp is ok but doesn't offer a ton. Fervor allows you to build even tankier yet have relevant dueling dmg. Getting 2 or 3 BF swords for your autos later game is just OP, and is the difference between being dangerous or a cc bot.
At that I rarely go both Cleaver and Mallet as you lack resistances. Unless I'm buying one for my last slot. I have to choose which one I go (and I choose mallet 85% of the time because peel/pick + more hp). I think if you take fervor you can afford to go tankier items and overall be a stronger Gnar.
