Gnar is overwhelming in late game teamfights, something should be adjusted

ComBrandon··4 votes·4,416 views

TL;DR "Gnar is outstanding in team fights, and his versatility makes him viable in almost all circumstances within those teamfights."

Time and time again I roll into a ranked game against/with a Gnar, and the same thing happens. Gnar does below average in the laning phase, and starts roaming a bit early. Nothing too unusual for some solo top champions, but after the 25 minute mark you can forget about an easy victory, even if you slaughtered the rest of Gnars team, and kept him from getting too much farm/kills. Gnar hits a point in the game around the 25 minute mark, and it seems regardless of how held back he was early on, its all straight uphill (This uphill would be a cliff for Gnar) from there. His teamfight potential is so massive, even when people know to spread out, and try to avoid him when his ult is about ready. On paper there are a lot of counters to Gnar, but when you factor in the summoner spells, and his gap closing there is not a lot of room for error, and Gnar (Particularly mega Gnar) can turn the tide of a team fight by an incredible margin.

Suggestion: Add an extra 0.2 second cast time to Wallop. OR Reduce the range of Crunch from 475 to 450, and reduce the damage dealt to your maximum health from 6% to 5%.

8 Comments

CounterSnipe3 votes

I disagree. Many champions only seem overwhelming because the team doesn't know how to deal with them.

IE: Master Yi. Even when strong, Master Yi is still an insta kill to a single stun followed by a burst of damage. I had a game the other day against a Master Yi who was very strong and killing people in my game. When it came time to team fight I just waited for him to Q, then I stunned him, and then we killed him. I'm pretty sure most of his deaths overlapped with my assists.

Now then, this same logic can be applied to Gnar. Yes, he is strong late game. Yes, he can snowball. But you must take that into consideration if you're either going to lane against him or if you're going to be team fighting against him.

ComBrandon1 votes

It isn't about him snowballing, its his teamfight potential. For example Large hitbox +Teamfight potential Large AoE +Teamfight potential Long, reliable stuns +Teamfight potential Moderate soft target damage +Teamfight potential Extreme initiation ability + Teamfight potential Large amounts of natural health +Teamfight potential

Everything he has is geared toward winning 5 on 5 teamfights. You will rarely win against a good Gnar if you cannot initiate fights away from him, and then pick him off later without his team.

Kowe The Ewok1 votes

Gnar can use his ultimate in a 12 second time frame every 2 minutes. If you decide that's a good to fight him AND STAND NEXT TO A WALL, sorry but then you are to blame.

ComBrandon1 votes

I think you misunderstood, Gnar's initial burst upon entering mega Gnar form is too strong in teamfights. Rengar's ultimate got nerfed for the same reason, it was instant, and could wreck important targets. Gnar's ultimate is also instant, the difference is that Gnar is much more capable of ruining a teamfight than Rengar.

I don't know what kind of Gnar players you are up against, but generally Gnar players will hang back, then flash, and use their gap closer into Mega Gnar, followed up by a wallop, and a rock. If even 2 people get caught in that during an approaching teamfight, the fight definitely will not be in their favor.

EndlessSorcerer1 votes

Rengar could perform his ultimate within about a second of leaving stealth, so that's not exactly an accurate comparison. Gnar has to transform into his Mega-Form, which is easily predicted if you watch his rage bar, during which he has a 15 second window to engage using his ultimate. If you keep vision of Gnar through ward coverage and position appropriately, he shouldn't be able to engage on you easily without flash (which has a 5 minute cooldown).

Think of it similarly to laning against Gnar: you stay away from him when his rage bar is almost full, since you know he wants to jump on your with CC and damage after he transforms. You play safe for a bit, stay somewhat separate (like you would against anyone with AoE initiation), and take advantage of him and his team when his fury is low.

Serenity Now1 votes

Between Boomerang and Hop, he is pretty near ungankable.

That's fine, but then the 60% CD reduction on a caught Boomerang just makes him incredibly annoying. If you dodge and try to trade, he uses Hop to escape. If you don't dodge, he gets a free auto or two and can do it all again in just a few seconds.

If Riot set out to make a more annoying top laner than Teemo, they succeeded with Gnar.

ComBrandon1 votes

Well I'm not so sure, I think high mobility champions can be annoying, yes. However, my post was geared more towards his potential in teamfights, everything he does in a 5 on 5 brawl is universally effective. this makes for a VERY hard late game against Gnar if you cannot get him separated from his team.

Sohleks1 votes

Gnar needs to be weak in lane to account for his late game. But he's not. He has mostly favorable/safe matchups.

I can even beat Irelia as Gnar if I make no mistake assuming I don't get a nasty gank. Just don't stand on top of low hp minions and every time she jumps me I can hop away. I stand 300 or so range away from her low hp CS and punish her if she jump on it.

His only lane counters are actually champs that ideally go mid lane. Stuff with low counterplay burst like LeBlanc or champs with good waveclear and poke which Gnar lacks. The poor typical top lane champ is just shafted by Gnar's existence. What is new?

The biggest insult is that after Gnar beat's up other top laners like a range he out performs most of them as a tank later in the game. And can still do damage with 5 tank items in little Gnar while kiting most champs.

He's my favorite champion but he is disgusting balance wise.

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