Is Gnar in a good place?

sobi999·Jan 27, 2017·5 votes·637 views

He has had below average winrate for quite a few patches and his playrate is not that high as well. Not sure if riot plans on buffing him or not? I want to main him but i am not comfortable with having to constantly look at my rage bar as mega gnar is very immobile.

Maybe if Gnar's rage bar went to 100 and we were given an option to evolve into mega gnar by pressing R and if we don't want to then after some time the rage bar starts to decline and hence we no longer can turn into mega gnar. That way he won't be so reliant on the team to play around his mega form. I am certain this will make him much more playable and have a decent winrate as well. Maybe make this change on PBE. Any thoughts?

6 Comments

DarkRitualJan 27, 20172 votes

I think meta will shift soon to be more favorable to him. I don't think any touchups are needed at the moment.

Darius BøtJan 27, 20172 votes

I think he's in an ok place right now. It's my belief that the sub par win rate is inherent of anyone with a transformation and multiple abilities, even though Gnar's remain largely the same. I don't think Rito has any buffs planned since he can be a very oppressive laner who with his regular build gets tanky stats, armor shred (Black Cleaver) , and on-hit slows (Frozen Mallet). He excels against immobile tanks and juggernauts in his small Gnar form which is why we don't see him in the pro scene much. The current popular top laners can either punish him harder than he can (Kennen/Jayce) or are more mobile tanks who can engage on him (Maokai/Poppy)

I'd still recommend giving Gnar a chance. I played quite a bit of him in Season 5 and he is fun. As for the rage bar it's a bit like Rumble's overheat in the sense that it gives the player something to manage and work around rather than just the cooldowns. The transformation also makes him more interactive with melee laners rather than a pure ranged experience.

I'd disagree with being able to change form at will as managing his rage is inherent to who he is. It's an added variable that goes towards his skill ceiling since you transform after a set amount of time at max rage or after using an ability which makes you decide whether to back off or hard engage. By requiring this management I think we see more of the old Rito where skill and decision making were more important.

sobi999Jan 27, 20171 votes

I agree. He does have a rather oppressive lane against immobile tanks and can be frustrating to lane against. I think his winrate is largely due to the team playing around his mega form so that was probably the only reason why i mentioned this suggestion. Low elo is hell for team oriented champs.

kile147Jan 27, 20172 votes

Pick him into Darius or other juggernauts/immobile tanks and try to avoid using him against mobile tanks and divers. I've noticed Teemo becoming more popular as well, and Gnar has a survivable laning phase against Teemo if you need a tank.

The meta doesn't exactly favor him right now, but he may also be slightly on the weak side. A small increase to his durability is probably all he needs to be perfect, I think right now he's punished just a little too hard for trying to trade.

SteamedSuperiorJan 27, 20171 votes

Gnar is one of the best champs if picked against the right champs. He is very viable right now, but I haven't seen many to be honest with you.

AmazoXJan 28, 20171 votes

His neither overpowered or bad, That's good. Just because Win rate is terrible doesn't mean the champion is bad except Kalista, Azir has low win rate yet his one trick pony's have over 57% / 55% win rate 125+ games.