How to play against Gnar (HUGE explnation) and why he should not be nerfed
Gnar is a strong champion. I can understand that some people consider him borderline. Gnar has a unique feature not many champiosn have: Beating him does not solely depend on technical skill, but also on "timed aggression" - which is a sort of tactical thinking, thus a "mental skill" of being able to analyse a gameplay situation.
His evolved form does great damage, his W and Q can be avoided by mechnical skill and good reflexes (dodging, for example with a dash). However - also good players can't do this constantly, that makes timed aggression more important.
I believe that the PBE Gnar nerfs are rushed and unjustified. The main problem with Gnar is that a vast amount of the playerbase lacks the experience / knowledge how to fight him. he might have been released for a while, but he hasn't become popular until recently! Once the community gets used to fighting him, his winrate will significantly drop! I will list a BIG amount of tips how to play against him and what to avoid.
So, I've been talkign about timed aggression - what is this? It's simple: There are times for poking, times for going all in and times at which you should not do any of this. A general example would be your ward running out shortly after you saw the enemy jungler was close. You don't want to go aggressive. This basic concept does not only go for ganks, but also for laning. You won't run into a Syndra with 3/4th health. You won't go all in on a Heimer who has 4 turrets up.
This is were Gnar comes, many people fail to judge Gnar's AND their own champions power AND mechnics correctly.
Most kills I've gotten with Gnar in normal games (so, mixed and also lower elo) were because people completely failed this.
General information
Gnar's power: Gnar has a huge damage output and CC if he manages to hit his full combo. His transformation also grants him a solid amount of bonus health (currently the jungle item can be abused to increase it by 25%, it won't work next season though). Enemies who don't check his rage and get to aggressive at the wrong time and have bad positioning (walls...) can often result in a kill.
Gnar's weakness: Gnar lacks control about his transformation. This can be (ab)used to force him to transform at moments which times which he does not want to. E.g: When he is about to get ganked and wants to be mobile, before a teamfight so his transformation is not ready when you go all in. Or just because your pick actually wants to fight (kite) his evolved form (see Vayne / Quinn beneath).
Gnar is really weak early on. Going all-in at level 1 to 3 really puts Gnar into trouble. He wants to evolve at level 4. Level 3 is also ok. But forcing him to evolve at level 2 will ruin his early laning since he looses his kill threat.
Also: Mega Gnar's damage can be avoided easily with mobile characters.
The last weakness is that once he transforms back Gnar is a 3 ability champion. Having onyl access to your ultimate during a very limited amount of time WHILE having a warning indicator available allows many champions to overwhelm Gnar in unfortunate situations like:
Jungle fights. Stalling a fight near drake / baron will leave Gnar without much rage for an all in, denying him his ultimate until it is to late in a fight. Possibly even delaying his trasnformation enough for him to end up in a situation where he gets outkited by a carry.
Gnar also performs poorly during a laneswap: facing a carry and support he will not only have significant problems at his weak early levels - but also looses his whole killing potential.
Gnar usually will try to catch his Q, this allows other champions to either land easy skillshots on him, OR keep him from catching it which severely increases his cooldowns.
Other hints:
If Mega Gnar throws his Q and your champion has a dash - try to get onto the other side of Gnar so he has to choose to either pick up teh rock OR attack you. Not being able to pick up his rock will result in a HUGE cooldown increase on his Q.
Most Gnars play with Ignite instead of teleport, trying to gain a kill. If you're playing with teleport make sure to (ab)use it to make drake fights or gank bot. Using teleport just to get to your lane is a waste and will set Ganr into an advantage.
While exhaust is no common summoner at toplane it works insanly well against Gnar since he heavily relies on the burst of his abilties to win the encounter. Taking exhaust in the case that one does not manage to avoid his CC will allow you to still turn around the fight.
Gank him when his E is on cooldown, or right when he evolves. DPS Jungler (Lee... etc): He can't win 1v2 and has to back off - the low movementspeed from Mega Gnar makes him extremely vulnearable. CC / Burst Jungler (Malphite.. Rengar): Attack mini Gnar after his transformation ended / when he has less than 1/2 rage. Mini Gnar is squishy and dies easily.
When you gank Gnar, wait until his minionwave arried the middle of his lane. This way he can't use newly approaching minions as "bridge" which makes a great gapcloser an horrible one.
Suggested counterpicks: Pantheon, , Wukong, Lulu, Zed, Riven, Akali, Cho Gath, Olaf, Jax, Warwick, Vayne, Quin.
Reason: Panthon, Wu and Riven can deny Gnar early on and if played correctly make him loose a lot of waves before level 4, possibly even deny him a whole level. All of them can outrade mini-Gnar and zone him back while his E is on cooldown, they provide a huge treat earlygame.
Lulu has great poke and the ability to critter Mega Gnar when he wants to use W. Or kite Mega Gnar to death when he is transformed. She also wins auto attack vs. Mini Gnar early on.
Zed simply wins the poke battle vs. Gnar. Once Gnar transforms he can easily use his mobility to dodge dangerous attacks. The completely outtrades mini Gnar and has a huge killing potential at level 6 before Gnar has items. The best time to attack is right after mega Gnar transformed back.
Akali, not much to say - she can farm savely until 6 and afterwards she simply destroys mini Gnar. Mega Gnar can easily be kited with her R and her W.
Gnar's main damage comes through abilities - thus Cho's silence is awesome against him. Mega-Gnar is horribly immobile which makes landing his knockup easy - and Feast just destroys Mini Gnar.
Jax - this is a more difficult lineup since Gnar kate kite him realtively wenn earlygame: However - once Jax has BorK finished he crushes both Gnar forms. His ultimate and E allow him to significantly reduce the burst which Gnar relies on.
Warwick... Well he's Warwick - Mega Gnar can't burst him, his % health damage is gold vs. Mega Gnar, his ultimate makes gank against mini Gnar sure kills. His sutain early on is higher than Gnars damage.
Vayne / Quin: Those 2 are a little tricky - they actually WANT Gnar to evolve. Once the dodge Mega Gnar's W the can chase / kite him over the whole toplane and take 3/4th of his health. Both have stronger auto attack damage then Mini Gnar and easily win trades. While Vayne can easily dodge his boomerangs, Quin can easily use her blind to get ahead. Both however MUST NOT, under no circumstances, stand near a wall when Gnar is about to evolve.
Example 1
Example. Ryze has no ultimate, no flash I may have half health but my range gauge needs one more tick to be full. Ryze decides to poke me - and as inspected: I transform and cam jump on him. He also stood close to a wall, he died.
The correct way to respond would have been to back off and wait for my transformation to finish and go all in afterwards.
** Example 2** Vayne is a good example for a great Gnar counter which also can go wrong. Her ranged attacks are stronger than those from mini Gnar, thus she wins all trades from him. But that's not the time to go all in since he likely to kite you without ultimate. Instead you want to use Gnar's passive against him. Yes, Vayne is one of the champions who actually DOES want Gnar to evolve. Once his W is tumbled Mega Gnar is completely helples. Even if he lands a Q he lacks the movement speed to catch up to Vayne. He can't reach her if W didn't land. She can chase him over the whole toplane taking 3/4th of his health or even getting a kill without a chance for him to fight back. HOWEVER, if Vayne hugs a wall she's basically dead meat due to being squishy. For Vayne more than for other champions it's important when to trade with Gnar and when to go all in. It's all about the timing and the ability to judge your opponents items.
I chose Vayne as an example because she's possibly the easiest champion to list what to do and what not to do.
Conclusion:
- Always watch Gnar's rage
- Be aware that there are 2 categories of champions when facing Gnar: --Those who want him to evolve and those who want to avoid him while evoled.
- Remember that he insanely suffers from a laneswap and facing carry + support
- Choose your summoner spell wisely, don't just pick out of habit
- Go aggressive early on
- Remember that you can control his rage gain via poke
- DON'T HUG WALLS
