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So, I finally found my *first* main.

Arcaed·10/14/2014, 8:32:55 AM·2 votes·4,128 views

Gnar.

Yes, I know he's new. Yes, I know a lot of people are "calling" nerfs sometime next season. I'm still new to the game, and have spent my journey to 30 so far trying out lots of champs, in every role. Gnar just works for me.

He's my most played champ, with a 62% win rate. I'm happy playing him.

Now, on to how to play him - everyone else seems to roll him full tank, or run AS runes and try to play him half bruiser half ADC with a bunch of attack speed. I build TForce > BotRK > Frozen Mallet > situational tank stuff (assuming I've done well in lane). Am I doing it wrong, and would have more success if I build pure tank? It's just that Gnar is more of a swiss army knife than a tank, so that seems counter productive. I'm honestly looking for feedback. I know doing so on the forums will invite trolls, "low elo" players who "don't know what they're talking about"* and* the players that say that <. But I digress.

Right now I'm running 19/9/0 for masteries. And my rune setup is Flat AD Quints, Flat AD Marks + 1 Crit Rune, Flat HP Seals (Working on replacing scaling health) and MR Per Level Glyphs (might replace with flat MR).

I run flat for the early advantage - and AD instead of AS because early most players won't take harass from Mini Gnar's AA's (they'll either engage and out trade you, or run) - and you rely on your 'rang which will hit harder with more AD. Plus, when you all in, most of your damage will come from your 4 abilities, not your AA's, which are painfully slow that early with or without AS runes.

It's my opinion that, especially with Gnar, if you don't do well in lane, you'll just be an easy target for the rest of the game. So those early bonuses seem to be worth. Please let me know what you think, or what I should work on/tweak/improve.

11 Comments

RiotCall me KT10/15/2014, 12:49:07 AM5 votes

I think that being happy with a champion's looks or playstyle goes a long way towards them being an excellent first main!

I've also been experimenting with Gnar and I'm not 100% sure what the best route is to take on him still.

I've been keeping an eye on http://www.probuilds.net/champions/Gnar to see what various high level players have been building on him. Triforce is a strong constant theme as well as Omen.

I also like toe Brutalizer pick early on for even more Boomerag tossing and easy rage building when needed. I think that Brutalizer is so useful that it's not even necessary to upgrade it until much later in the game where both Youmuu's and Black Cleaver could be appealing.

Eapenator10/15/2014, 5:12:48 AM2 votes

As someone who now considers Gnar to be one of my Main Top Lane picks,

I like to rush Cool down and armor pen on Gnar, because he is so dependent on spamming his abilities for damage. I like to rush Black Cleaver particularly because it offers everything that Gnar needs, health, amour pen, and cool down reduction.

While trinity force and botrk are also very viable choices, I feel like compared to black cleaver, they do not offer the most to gnar at all points in the game in both forms. While trinity force's proccs pair nicely with Gnar's spammable q's in both forms, as well as providing him with ms and movement speed on hit, trinity Gnarr never really gets the opportunity to apply those procs outside of a stun combo. The same thing with Blade of the ruined king. Both these items tend to patch up gnar's weaknesses in both forms, but fail to really push his strengths.

I personally find that Gnar should not focus on auto attacking items because in reality, when you are in mega gnar form, you will never be in range, and gnar does not have the sticking tools to get a meaningful amount of auto's in when trading. Gnar, to me, is all about spamming your q for the maximum damage, and cdr and armor pen helps you to do this with out investing in more than 1 damage item, since you will need to be tanky.

With Black cleaver, spamming his q in both forms, while having the armor pen to remain a threat to both tanks and squishes, allows gnar to constantly disrupt and spam spam spam. A lower cool down on your e allows you to make it more forgiving to use it to re-position as it has a shorter cool down, as well as it always being up when you need it to be. The armor shred is great with Gnar's many aoe physical damage spells, and allows you to provide some more utility for your team, though this is really the icing on the cake. The health attached to this item also allows gnar to be a little tankier early on when paired with dorans blade, and health is especially important on Gnar late game as he usually transitions into a burst tank, where after your ultimate, you need to be as disruptive as you can.

After black cleaver as my first item, I usually just build full tank from that point on, building whatever resistances that I need. For a final item, If we are really ahead, I will get a second damage item, usually consisting of high ad, or cdr, like Ghostblade, blood thirstier, or last whisper etc. If the game is even, and we need more tankiness, I will build another tank item depending on their team composition.

As for runes, I take full armor penetration, in order to maximize my damage late game through spells with a minimal amount of ad. I tend to gravitate towards cdr items like spirit visage over banshees.

In conclusion, while there are many ways to play gnar, I believe that instead of patching up his weaknesses by building as items and doing damage through autos, Gnar should be played as a tank that does alot of consistent damage with minimal ad. I have found alot of success in this build and I feel like it provides benefits for each form, as well as it allowing Gnar to win virtually any match up, except maybe fiora.

Thank you, Eapenator

10110011100010/14/2014, 8:36:27 AM1 votes

Good on you for liking Gnar. He's a fun furball.

Building him Bruiser isn't a bad idea. I like him with Trinity/Botrk along with tank items, and maybe a 3rd damage item when I get the chance. Full tank, I would assume, is when your team needs you to be THE tank.

Dont Smite Me10/15/2014, 6:21:02 PM1 votes

First congrats on finding your first main { mine was master yi } i like playing gnar everynow and again and like your build as i played my champ more i evolved my build i learned more and learned what i could do to make it better and upvote for Eapenator for his amazing esssay like responsse