Hello! My name is Zorroh/Daniel and I'm a Plat Gnar & Xayah main. I've been playing League since Season 10 and I've been playing Gnar since the very start of Season 11. I've aquired over 1.3 million mastery points on Gnar. I stream all of my gameplay over on Twitch (links at bottom of guide) and love helping out new players interested in learning Gnar.

Rage Gene is Gnar's passive. It replaces the resource bar since Gnar does not use mana. It stacks every single time that Gnar damages an enemy with an attack or ability. Managing the resource bar is crucial for Gnar's gameplay. In most cases, you don't have any control over the rage bar and have to play around each form depending on how much rage you have. There are a few ways in which you are able to manipulate the rage bar however. You can delay a transformation into mega by slow pushing a wave/not attacking. This can be useful into matches such as Tahm Kench, where it is more favorable to trade in mini form. Gnar's rage bar starts to drop slowly if he doesn't attack or use an ability within 13 seconds of the previous one. Another way you can manipulate Rage Gene is buy attacking jungle camps. If you are rotating to an objective such as a dragon where you know there will be a teamfight ahead, attack jungle camps along the way to have Rage Gene already stacked partially before the fight. Anywhere in the yellow area around 70% is ideal for the start of a fight. Another thing that a lot of people suprisingly don't know about Rage Gene is that it gives bonus stats based on level. Mini Gnar gains bonus movement speeed, attack speed, and range per level, and Mega Gnar gains bonus attack damage, armor, and magic resist per level. Whenever Gnar transforms into Mega form, he also gains bonus HP that he doesn't lose once transforming back to Mini, making Rage Gene great for sustain.




Boomerang Throw is Mini Gnar's Q and Boulder Toss is Mega Gnar's Q. The ability is very similar in both forms wih a few differences. Boomerang Throw returns back to Gnar and can be caught to refund 40% of the ability's cooldown. The direction in which Boomerang Throw returns back to Gnar is dependent entirely on Gnar's position at the boomerang's apex. It travels in a straight line outwards and inwards. Boomerang Throw can go through units, however it loses a large chunk of its range and damage to subsequent units hit. Boomerang Throw can also be thown backwards for an extended max range. The boomerang will not lose distance when traveling backwards through units. Boomerang Throw can also be used to face check bushes. Listen closely for a "whack" sound effect when throwing Q into bushes to locate enemy champions hiding off vision. Boulder Toss is similar in the sense that it also travels in a straight line and slows, with a slight difference. Instead of returning back to Gnar, Boulder Toss can be picked up to refund a portion of the ability's cooldown. This ability is great for poke in Mega form as well and does a ton of damage.




Mini Gnar's W ability is Hyper and Mega Gnar's W ability iw Wallop. Unlike Gnar's Q, his W is very different between the 2 forms. In Mini, Hyper is a 3 stack auto passive similar to Vayne's Silver Bolts. For each auto attack Gnar hits, a ring is placed around an enemy. When the 3rd auto hits, the passive is triggered granting Gnar bonus move speed and dealing magic and max hp damage on-hit. Unlike Silver Bolts, Hyper can be stacked partially on multiple enemies at a time. This ability is the bane of tanks because it gives Mini Gnar great damage upon triggering it as well as a free escape out of the trade from the movement speed. This ability can be used with minions to help with trades in lane. Try triggering Hyper on minions to gain enough move speed to quickly go in and out for short trades on enemy champions. Wallop is a lot different and is an active ability. When pressed, Gnar will stun an area in front of him after a short delay. This ability is great for starting or ending trades in Mega form. Stun enemies with Wallop to walk up for your combo or to stop them in their tracks from chasing you after a trade. Wallop is also great for clearing out waves, something that Mini form struggles with.




Mini Gnar's E is Hop and Mega Gnar's E is Crunch. Gnar's E is a bit similar to his Q in the sense that the ability is nearly exact between forms. Hop is Gnar's "escape ticket" and should be used very conservatively in trades. It has a super long cooldown, so it's crucial to not waste it. Hop is used a lot more as a passive/defensive ability than as an agressive one. Use Hop to jump away from champions after walking up to them for a trade. It also can be used to bounce off of friendly minions to safety when being ganked by the enemy jungle. Hop can be used agressively on low hp enemies to get in range to finish them off. Hop slows enemies for a very short time, and can be used to bounce off of enemies trying to flee from you or your team. Crunch is very similar to Hop but instead of bouncing off of enemies, Crunch will cause Mega Gnar to slow them for a longer peroid of time. Crunch also travels a greater distance than Hop, and is great for positioning in fights. Both Hop and Crunch can be used to quickly jump over walls in the jungle when rotating around the map. Hop can be used to bounce off of an ally Orianna's ball, Zyra's plants, Syndra's Dark Sphere, Jayce's Acceleration Gate, Shaco's Jack In The Box, Jarvan IV's Demacian Standard, and Diana's Crescent Strike.




GNAR! is Gnar's signature ability and is what the champion is known for. GNAR! throws all enemies within the area of effect in a directed distance, stunning any who hit a wall. This ability can only be cast in Mega form. In Mini it just serves as bonus movement speed for Gnar's W passive that he gains access to after level 6. GNAR! is great for teamfights and should be used to lock down enemy carries for your team to focus. It can be chained with Wallop for a total of 3 seconds CC at level 16. This ability can also be used for waveclear at higher levels. Since it has a fairly low cooldown and can only be cast in Mega, there is nothing wrong with using GNAR! to clear a wave or go for a short trade on an enemy champion. GNAR! can be used to stun enemies on Jarvan IV's Cataclysm, Ornn's Volcanic Rupture, Taliyah's Weaver's Wall, Anivia's Crystallize, and Trundle's Pillar of Ice.

Teleport is standard for most toplane champs and is good for Gnar to match champs that spend a lot of time in the sidelane like Kayle and Tryndamere. It is also great against champs like Shen who have a global ult, as it allows you to follow them to fights around the map. Teleport allows you to splitpush when objectives are coming up and teleport to the fight without sacrificing waves. The main downside is that it makes it hard to get an advantage or gold lead early if your lane is an island.





Ignite is great for getting an advantage in lanes where you will be able to snowball the game. Winning lane against champs like Teemo and Gangplank allows you to have a lot more agency with a damage build and roam around the map to pickup kills. The major downside to Ignite is that it makes split pushing when objectives are up or about to be up rough. This forces you to have to walk to almost every dragon or baron, or to just hope your team wins the fight without you.





Exhaust is a really op summoner spell that I rarely see utilized. Its reduced movespeed and reduced damage % active makes it really good against champs like Irelia and Riven who will want to all in and one shot you. It is also great against some marksman champs that get played top like Vayne and Quinn. Exhaust works best as a lifeline spell that is used defensively or to turn fights in your favor, as opposed to Ignite which is used aggressively. The main downside of Exhaust is the same as Ignite, which is that it makes sidelaning really hard around the mid and late game stages.

Trinity Force is in my opinion, the best well-rounded mythic for Gnar. It gives AD, Attck Speed, HP, and Ability Haste, meaning that the stats go very well with both Mini and Mega form. The movement speed passive is very nice for kiting away from enemies and the item is just very well rounded simply put. When against enemy comps that are slightly tankier try and pair Trinity Force with Black Cleaver or Wit's End. Trinity Force also works well in conjunction with Sterak's Gage since it increases base AD to work well with the passive on Sterak's.





Divine Sunderer is a good option into teams that are a bit tankier. The passive does %hp damage, so it is also really good into enemy comps with a lot of AP since most AP items also build HP. Sunderer also gives a lot of sustain from the passive, making it great for dueling tanks like Sion or Dr. Mundo in the sidelane. The only major downside to Sunderer is that it doesn't give any attack speed, so it pairs really well with Wit's End as seocnd item.





Black Cleaver is one of the best legendary items for Gnar. It gives HP and Haste which are extremely useful for Mega Gnar. The passive gives additional movespeed for kiting power, and armor reduction, which is great into tanks. This is another very well rounded item that should be prioritized being built. There is rarely ever a scenario where Black Cleaver is a bad item.





Wit's End is another fantastic, well rounded item for Gnar. This item is a lot better for Mini form than it is for Mega, but it makes Mini REALLY strong. It does magic damage on hit which is great if your team drafted all AD champs, something that is fairly common in soloque. It does a ton of hybrid damage when paired with Mini Gnar's Hyper since the attack speed allows you to proc it more often. The Magic Resist that the item gives is also great for still staying tanky with such an agressive item.





Thornmail is another fantastic item for Gnar that is just very well rounded. It gives a decent bit of tankiness and just has really solid base stats. The Grevious Wounds passive is really nice for cutting the healing down from champs like Yone or Samira. Bramble Vest can be rushed as a component in laning phase and sat on for a long time. Really great well rounded item.





Randuin's Omen is another great Armor option that gives a ton of bang for it's buck. The active slow is also great for peeling a fed carry off your carries in teamfights. I would reccomend building it every single game when the enemy team has atleast 4 AD champs. Great item.





Maw of Malmortius is a bit more of a situational item than Wit's End but is still really solid. The shield it gives is great into teams with bursty magic damage dealers such as LeBlanc and Ahri. The stats the item gives are also very gold efficent making it a solid buy. The major downside to Maw is that the shield only blocks Magic damage, so it's not worth building into teams with only 1 or 2 Magic damage dealers usually.





Death's Dance is another solid Armor option. The passive stals the damage you take over time so it pairs really well with tank items. The best time to build Death's Dance is into AD heavy teams when your own team comp dosn't have many carrys and is more tanky. This way you stack armor while still dealing damage. I wouldn't reccomend it over Thornmail or Randuin's Omen usually, it serves better as a late game item on Gnar.





Force of Nature is a really solid Magic Resist option into AP heavy teams. The passive is extremely broken and not balanced and makes you neraly unkillable. The only reason I don't reccomend it over an AD MR item like Wit's End is because since it doesn't give any damage it makes it tougher to pickup snowball kils in the mid game, and will usually result in you getting outscaled by enemy mages. It serves best as 3rd/4th/5th item into AP teams.





Sterak's Gage is a decent HP option on Gnar. I wouldn't reccomend prioritizing it over Black Cleaver, unless you are into a high damage enemy comp with no tanks or juggernauts. The passive on Sterak's Gage will only give you more AD in Mini form upon completing the componets past level 16. Keep in mind that you also can't build Sterak's Gage and Maw of Malmortius in the same game. It can definately be a solid item late game into teams with a lot of assassins and marksmen.





Ravenous Hydra is a very situational item on Gnar but can be great for snowballing. It has the highest base AD from a singular item in the game (excluding Infinity Edge) and does insane damage. The best time to buy Ravenous is during the mid game into enemy comps that lack damage or are underleveled. It's crucial to make sure to not give shutdown bounties when playing agressive with this item.





Warmog's Armor is a very situational HP item but can be a great counter into Hullbreaker builders. The passive HP regen allows you to catch a wave and tank all of the damage from the minions and then heal to full before the next wave gets there. It also has use in games that are "fiestas" where you're constantly running around the map fighting. The passive allows you to sustain between constant fights without having to recall.





Gargoyle Stoneplate is a decent situational item that makes you very tanky. The main downside to Gargoyle is that it doesn't give any flat HP. The best time to build Gargoyle is when the enemy team has both an overly fed AD carry and AP carry. It is also fantastic into hybrid damage dealers like Kayle.





Blade of the Ruined King is another situational anti-tank item. The item itself is very solid, however it gets outshined by Black Cleaver and Wit's End most of the time since they just offer more versatility. The lifesteal is really nice and it can be built as an additional anti-tank item if needed.





Spirit Visage is a solid MR item that gives a ton of HP with a really nice passive. I personally don't think it's better than Force of Nature typically and I would only ever reccomend building it if you have an enchanter on your team. It pairs really nicely with Sterak's Gage.





Runaan's Hurricane is a situational attack speed item that is a lot of fun to build. It gets outshined by Wit's End most of the time. I would only reccomend building it over Wit's late game into enemy comps that lack a lot of AP. It's a great cheap item to pick up when you're missing inhibitors to quickly clear out minion waves. The AOE passive is also really nice for quickly stacking your passive in teamfights, not to mention that the passive can proc Hyper as well.





Hullbreaker is a solid situational item for splitpushing and is definately a lot better in soloque than competitive or clash. The only time I would ever reccomend building it on Gnar is if you're against an enemy laner that is also building the item. As Gnar you want to group with your team around the mid game and use GNAR! to get picks or win fights for objectives. Contrary, Hullbreaker forces you to sit in sidelane and spectate your team, which is why I'm personally not the biggest fan of the item.





Titanic Hydra can be a decent item if you prefer a tanker build with something like Iceborn Gauntlet as your mythic. It is a great way to gain some damage with a ton of HP in tank builds. However, it is a bit useless compared to something like Black Cleaver or Sterak's Gage if you're pairing it with a bruiser mythic.





Anathema's Chains is a solid item for negating damage from a super fed carry on the enemy team. A great way to use the item is into 4-1 damage comps. If the enemy team has only 1 AP damage dealer, put the chains on them and stack Armor to become super tanky. The item gives a ton of HP and Haste for such a low cost.

I wanna give a special thanks to my stream community for all the love and support they've given me and for being the reason to make this guide. I hope that it inspires new Gnar players to push to new limits or just have fun playing the champ! Also big thanks to my friend Thing because I took some inspiration from his Gnar guide, so definately check it out for additional information: Thing's Guide.




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