Welcome to the League of Legends Champion Spotlight,
featuring Gnar, the Missing Link.
Gnar is a prehistoric yordle with a soft, cuddly face and a terrifying temper.
After being trapped in true ice,
Gnar became frozen in time until his prison finally weakened enough for him to break free.
In game, Gnar is a volatile top lane champion
who cycles between speedy ranged Mini Gnar and tanky monstrous Mega Gnar.
Mini Gnar's a spritely little guy thanks to his passive,
which gives him bonus movement speed,
attack speed and range. However, he's also got a temper: Rage Gene.
With it, Mini Gnar generates rage whenever he's in combat,
gaining bonus rage whenever he deals damage.
Once Gnar fills his bar,
he becomes aggravated--transforming after a few seconds,
or on his next ability cast, into a terrifying monster: MEGA GNAR!
Mega Gnar gains bonus health, armor, magic resist and attack damage
but loses his mini form's bonus movement speed, attack speed, and range.
After transforming, the Rage bar slowly drains,
and he transforms back into Mini Gnar when it's empty.
Finally, once he's back in mini form, Gnar can't gain rage for a while. He's tired!
Mini Gnar's Q is Boomerang Throw,
which serves as his primary damage and harass ability.
Gnar throws out his boomerang in a straight-line skillshot,
dealing damage to the first enemy struck before slowing and returning toward Gnar.
Boomerang Throw deals reduced damage to all enemies struck after the first,
and it can't hit the same target twice.
Once the boomerang turns, it travels back towards wherever Gnar is heading.
If he catches it, Gnar significantly reduces the ability's cooldown,
which is absurdly long otherwise.
Boomerang Throw is a great tool for last hitting and harassing your lane opponent from range.
Up next is Mini Gnar's W: Hyper.
Gnar passively applies stacks of Hyper with his basic attacks and abilities.
Stacking Hyper three times on the same target deals bonus magic damage based on the target's max health
and grants Gnar a huge but temporary movement speed boost.
Gnar can apply stacks of Hyper to multiple targets simultaneously,
and trigger the stacks to refresh his speed boost.
Additionally, Hyper's speed boost automatically triggers when transforming back to Mini Gnar.
Trigger Hyper as often as you can during laning to win trades and keep away from your opponent.
Gnar's E is Hop.
When activated, Gnar skips a short distance to a target location,
gaining an attack speed boost for a few seconds.
If Gnar hops on a unit, he bounces, continuing in the same direction--
applying a slow and dealing damage based on his max health if he bounces on an enemy.
Note that when he hops into a cluster of enemies, Gnar only damages the target closest to his
landing spot, and that if he's stunned, snared or rooted during his initial hop,
he won't bounce at all.
Hop is really useful for juking enemies through the jungle by bouncing through neutral camps.
Here are a few examples of hoppable spots!
Save Hop to escape from jungle ganks. It's awesome.
Gnar's ultimate is GNAR!
As Mini Gnar, it only functions as a passive,
giving him even more movement speed whenever he triggers Hyper.
In Mega form, Gnar's Q swaps out his boomerang for a big phreakin' boulder... or in some cases a house.
Boulder Toss is a straight-line skillshot that stops at the first target struck,
slowing and damaging all nearby enemies. Once the boulder's landed,
Gnar can lumber over to it and pick it up to drastically lower its cooldown.
Use Boulder Toss when chasing an enemy. You'll pick it up as you make your pursuit,
giving you multiple opportunities to throw it again for extra slows and damage.
Unlike Mini Gnar, Mega Gnar has an active W: Wallop.
After a brief wind-up, Gnar smashes his massive paws into the ground,
damaging and stunning all enemies in front of him.
Mega Gnar Wallops so hard that he can't be interrupted by stuns during the windup.
Since Mini Gnar has no active W, Wallop is always available when Gnar needs to transform.
Use it for a surprise transformation when your other abilities are down!
Mega Gnar isn't quite as bouncy as Mini Gnar, so while the latter hops,
Mega Gnar just crunches.
Crunch is another short leap to a target location, only this time, Mega Gnar lands with a bang,
slowing and literally dealing tons of damage - to everybody near his landing site.
Note that if you fill your rage bar as Mini Gnar before Hopping onto a target,
you'll bounce off them, transform during the second leap,
then Crunch as you land.
Use Crunch to dive into teamfights.
Mega Gnar has limited mobility, making Crunch the most effective way to get into the thick of a fight.
Finally, Mega Gnar's ultimate is... GNAR!,
a huge ability that throws all nearby enemies in a targeted direction,
damaging and slowing them.
If Gnar throws an enemy into a wall including turrets and jungle walls
they'll take increased damage and be stunned.
Use GNAR! to disable as many enemies as you can during big teamfights.
It's especially effective in closed off areas like the jungle and baron pit.
Gnar's the only champion in League of Legends whose transform you can't directly control.
When facing a teamfight, you'll play differently depending on which form you're in, or about to be in.
Here are some quick combos to help you crunch into and hop out of fights.
If you're about to become Mega Gnar, here's your typical game plan for initiating on a teamfight.
As Mini Gnar, first keep your distance --
as you're about to transform, get in position to hop in.
Find a bouncy target and use E to catapult yourself into the enemy team.
Once there, use GNAR! to shove enemy champions towards the nearest wall or obstacle.
Follow up with Wallop on any stunned targets before throwing a house...party.
While Mega Gnar's got the health and resistances to take a pummeling,
Mini Gnar's just a fragile little Teemo in comparison and needs range to survive.
If you're already fighting as Mega Gnar, use Wallop just before turning mini,
taking advantage of Hyper's speed boost to gain some distance
as you throw out a boomerang towards your pursuing enemies.
Save hop for emergencies, focusing on attacking and Q'ing to whittle your opponents down from range.
When laning with Mini Gnar, use your range to your advantage.
Trade with your boomerang and basic attacks to trigger hyper and bully your opponent
so you can farm safely.
Mega Gnar lanes very differently.
His AoE abilities give him great wave clear for shoving the lane--just keep an eye out for ganks,
'cause he's way less mobile in this form.
Past level 6, Mega Gnar can also chain his abilities together to keep his enemies stunned and slowed.
Leading in with Wallop, he uses the stun to land his ultimate
and combos Boulder Toss with Ignite for surprising burst damage.
Gnar has the potential to turn around fights by using his transformations effectively.
Though he's outnumbered and low on health,
Gnar uses Skarner as a springboard to burst down Syndra with his MEGA combo.
Note that Gnar has great burst, but lacks the sustained damage to continue fighting Skarner.
He instead uses Boulder Toss and Wallop to stall for time,
knowing that once his rage bar depletes he'll get Hyper's speed boost as he transforms back into Mini Gnar,
at which point he's pretty much uncatchable.
Keep in mind that Gnar can hope over small walls to engage in fights.
Note that by catching his boomerang with every throw, Mini Gnar's able to deal better sustained damage and,
since his abilities share the same cooldown between forms,
have his boulder toss ready for when he goes Mega.
Gnar has excellent positioning here, able to shove Lucian into the turret with his ultimate,
locking him up with Wallop for the quadra kill.
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