Theorycrafted Gnar Vanguard Update

Just a bit of intro about who I am. I use the tag nanobyte427 on Reddit and most platforms, and am a moderator at r/GnarMains. I have over 400k mastery points and Level 7 on Gnar, and had a 67% winrate on him last season, ending in Gold V.

I felt like Theorycrafting what a Gnar update could look like since the Vanguard update is coming up.

Anyways, the main goals would be to give Gnar a clearer niche, make Gnar less frustrating to play against, make Gnar less able to shut down aggression, and reduce the gap between pro play and solo Q.

So, there are a few things that will likely happen in the class update, including pushing more power into base stats rather than tank items. Banshee's Veil will probably be more viable a pick over Spirit Visage. I am also assuming Frozen Mallet will be removed.

The first issue shows up when they mention that power will be shifted into base stats from tank items. Gnar will be much more likely to opt into damage if the items are relatively stronger than tank items. This is very much a bad thing, since it undermines Gnar's role as a Vanguard. The goal will be to push Gnar into building tanky, while still making The Black Cleaver appealing. The path I'm taking is to increase base damage while reducing AD scaling for Mini Gnar. Any concern that this will lead to Gnar being oppresssive since he is incredibly tanky while dealing significant damage and being mobile will be balanced out by the reduction of power in tank items, thus offsetting most of the differences in damage and tankiness.

Gnar is often dominant in pro play because he is such a strong generalist. The easiest way to address this is giving him a clearer niche as an anti-tank. Shifting more damage into %health damage will do this pretty effectively, as well as making him less effective against carry top laners. Mega Gnar has the most difficulty dealing with tanks, so adding %health damage to Wallop makes the most sense. Adding more base attack speed to Mega Gnar will also give him more DPS to deal with tanks.

A lot of Gnar's frustration comes from his ability to permaslow enemies. Removing this ability entirely in exchange for more movement speed will make him significantly less frustrating to play, as well as open up more opportunities for enemies to play against him in teamfights when he doesn't have Mega Gnar available. All physical damage that Mini Gnar deals should give him a movement speed buff, like The Black Cleaver, in addition to the movement speed buff given by Hyper. However, Mega Gnar should keep his Q slow and not get additional movement speed since he needs to be disruptive but also able to be kited.

Most of Mini Gnar's ability to shut down aggression is in his E. Having a double jump to disengage is incredibly powerful. He also doesn't need to use it to trade, so he always has it handy as an escape. More power should be shifted into the trading power of his E and away from the escape power. Lowering the range on the second bounce, removing the ability to escape off of ally minions, increasing the attack speed buff, lowering Mini Gnar's attack speed, and lowering the cooldown on his E should all help to make him use his E more frequently as an offensive trading tool. I also propose replacing the slow on his E with a stun to make Mini Gnar able to activate Courage of the Collosus, and act as compensation for Mega Gnar's loss of engage range. Before thinking this would be overpowered, keep in mind that Frozen Mallet would be removed and Mini Gnar would lose his Q slow.

Part of Gnar's dominance in pro play has to do with the ability to coordinate around his passive. Communicating the passive more clearly to teammates in Solo Q as well as limiting his ability to delay transformations will help to close the gap between Solo Q and pro play. If Mini Gnar hits a certain rage threshold, he will no longer be able to stop generating rage by avoiding combat. Controlling when Gnar transforms will still be possible, but not whether or not he transforms at all.

There are also a few QoL changes that I think should be added, but those are to improve the playing as experience rather than fix gameplay issues.

Changelist:

Stats:

Some changes to other stats depending on changes made to items

Mini Gnar:

• Health regen: 2.5-11 -> 5.42-14.8
• Bonus attack speed: 5.5-99% -> 4.5-81%

Mega Gnar:

• Health regen: 6.5-57.5 -> 6.5-32
• Bonus attack speed: 0-8.5% -> 0-17%

Passive:

• If Gnar has at least 97 rage and takes damage that would kill him, he instantly transforms into Mega Gnar and takes the remainder of the damage.
• If Gnar is above 70 rage, he will passively generate rage as if he were dealing or receiving damage.

Boomerang Throw:

• Base damage: 5/35/65/95/125 -> 15/50/85/120/155
• Total AD ratio: 1.15 -> 1.0
• Slow: 15/20/25/30/35% -> 0%
• Damage to targets after the first: 50% -> 100%
• New: All physical damage grants Gnar 10% movement speed

Wallop:

• Base damage: 25/45/65/85/105 -> 10/20/30/40/50
• % health physical damage: 0% -> 6/8/10/12/14%
• Total AD ratio: 1.0 -> 0.8

Hop:

• Cooldown: 22/19.5/17/14.5/12 -> 16/15/14/13/12
• Attack speed: 20/30/40/50/60% -> 35/45/55/65/75%
• Attack speed length: 3 s -> 5 s
• Bounce range: 525 -> 475
• 80% slow for 0.5 s -> stun for 0.5 s

Crunch:

• Cooldown: 22/19.5/17/14.5/12 -> 16/15/14/13/12
• 80% slow for 0.5 s -> stun for 0.5 s (note: only applies to inner hitbox)

GNAR!:

• Throw distance: 500 -> 250-750 depending on position

Bugfixes:

• Boomerang occassionally returns at right angles
• Boomerang is thrown from position before Hop/Flash rather than current position
• Boomerang Throw locks Gnar out of using emotes until he catches the boomerang or moves
• Gnar can dance during Crunch

Visual improvements:

• On Gentleman Gnar, fix monocle position and make it transparent in-game
• Add turn tech to Gnar's tail
• Better clarity for teammates about Gnar's passive

Other visual changes I would like:

• Better Mega Gnar for Dino Gnar
• Remove Gentleman Gnar's snaggletooth and have tusks on bottom for consistency (and Gentleman Mega Gnar also has tusks on bottom)

Lore update:

• Explain how Gnar survived when his family didn't
• Explain more about Rage Gene
• Show Gnar's struggle fitting into the modern world
• Show Gnar's struggle to deal with the loss of his family
• Show Gnar's interactions with others to show more of his personality
• Keep a mysterious feel about Gnar