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Gnar Concept 01
Gnar
Gnar (Universe)Gnar (Universe)
Gnar (League of Legends)Gnar (League of Legends)
Gnar (Esports)Gnar (Esports)
Gnar (Teamfight Tactics)Gnar (Teamfight Tactics)
Gnar (Legends of Runeterra)Gnar (Legends of Runeterra)
Gnar (Development)Gnar (Development)
Gnar (Trivia)Gnar (Trivia)

Gnar Reveal[]

Time marches on for most, but not Gnar Gnar. A yordle born millennia ago, Gnar was captured and trapped in true ice, frozen - quite literally - in time. Civilizations formed and fell as the prehistoric yordle vacantly stared on, but nothing - not even true ice - could confine Gnar forever. After breaking free, he wandered Runeterra until he found himself taken in by his yordle descendants. But, as they would soon discover, there's a beast beast behind the boy.[2]

Abilities

Rage Gene
Rage Gene
Gnar builds up rage rage in combat. Once he fills his rage bar, Gnar's next ability transforms him into Mega Gnar Mega Gnar, giving him bonus armor, bonus magic resistance, bonus health, and bonus attack damage at the expense of movement speed, attack speed, and attack range. If Mini Gnar Mini Gnar doesn't use an ability, he transforms into Mega Gnar Mega Gnar after a few seconds anyway. While in Mega Gnar form, his rage slowly runs down, and once it's exhausted, he turns back into Mini Gnar. After transforming back, Mini Gnar briefly becomes tired tired and can't gain rage for a few seconds.

Boomerang Throw
Boomerang Throw

Gnar chucks his boomerang in a target direction, dealing damage to the first enemy struck while applying a Slow icon slow. After striking an enemy, the boomerang slows before returning to Gnar, dealing reduced damage to all enemies in its path. If Gnar catches it, he reduces Boomerang Throw's cooldown significantly.

Mega Gnar Mega Gnar - Boulder Toss
Boulder Toss
Gnar launches a huge boulder in a target direction, damaging and Slow icon slowing the first target in the boulder's path along with all nearby enemies. Once it's landed, Gnar can pick the boulder up to reduce Boulder Toss' cooldown.

Hyper
Hyper

Every third third attack or ability against a target deals percent max health as magic damage. Whenever Hyper triggers, or when Mega Gnar transforms back into Mini Gnar, he gains a moderate movement speed boost that decays over time.

Mega Gnar Mega Gnar - Wallop
Wallop
Gnar stands on his back legs before slamming his fists into the ground, damaging and briefly Stun icon stunning all enemies in front of him.

Hop
Hop

Gnar jumps in a target direction and gains a moderate attack speed boost. If Gnar lands on a unit, he bounces, hopping again in the same direction. If Gnar hops onto an enemy unit, he also damages and Slow icon slows them.

Mega Gnar Mega Gnar - Crunch
Crunch
Gnar launches himself in a target direction, damaging and Slow icon slowing all enemies he lands directly on.

Mega Gnar Mega Gnar - GNAR!
GNAR!
Gnar throws a tantrum, tossing all enemies around him in a target direction. All enemies thrown are Slow icon slowed and damaged, while enemies thrown into walls, including turrets and base structures, suffer extra damage and are Stun icon stunned.

Gameplay
Gnar Screenshots

Gnar's a prehistoric yordle best suited to the Rift's top lane. A transform champion with clear strengths and weaknesses in both Mini Mini and Mega Mega forms, Gnar fights best when he anticipates his fits of rage rage, and come late game, brawls most effectively as a tank or fighter.

Top Lane
Gnar Concept 06

Gnar's rage meter rage meter fills slowest at the start of the game, so mastering his Mini Mini form is key to a successful early game. Fortunately, Mini Gnar has plenty of tricks up his furry sleeves to keep his more fragile form safe from enemy aggression. Boomerang Throw Boomerang Throw deals decent damage to his lane opponent, and its slow helps Gnar maintain distance and avoid retaliation. Once unlocked, Hyper Hyper applies further damage, helping Gnar gain lane dominance with timely basic attacks and repeated Boomerang Throws Boomerang Throws. Mini Gnar is best off saving Hop Hop as an escape: it's a solid disengage ability that he can use on lane opponents or junglers as they come in to take him out.

And then there's Mega Mega Gnar. A brutal beast with significant crowd control and surprising burst, Mega Gnar brings a completely different playstyle to bear complete with inherent strengths and weaknesses. He's a juggernaut: slow, strong and resilient, and while he delivers a punishing burst of damage, he has little to follow up with. While Mini Gnar is nimble enough to dart around the edges of combat, Mega Gnar thrives in the heart of the fight. After Crunching Crunching in to face his enemy top laner, quick casts of Boulder Toss Boulder Toss and Wallop Wallop should see all but the most defensive of enemies pummeled effectively. He has considerable vulnerabilities, though, particular when being ganked. Mega Gnar has no effective means of escape, and has to rely on raw health and resistances to keep him alive as he lumbers back to the safety of his tower. Things change meaningfully once Gnar hits six and gains access to GNAR! GNAR! While it hits hard enough, the utility is strong enough to save Gnar's life - and end his enemy's - particularly when they've strayed close to walls. Bait your opponent into the brush as Mini Gnar, then transform and use GNAR! GNAR! to smash them into the wall, stunning them as you burst them down with the rest of your abilities. If your enemy's particularly confident and tower dives, use the ability to stun them against your turret. When trying to survive a gank, simply throwing them away should give you the time you need to escape.

Teamfights
Gnar Concept 07

Gnar has three distinct phases during teamfights, each oriented around timing his forms. First, he needs to avoid engaging for a while as Mini Mini Gnar builds up rage rage, kiting with basic attacks, Boomerang Throw Boomerang Throw and Hyper's Hyper's passive passive to put a dent in the enemy frontline. Once Gnar's about to pop pop, he's best suited Bouncing Bouncing in towards the enemy team. Whenever Mini Gnar activates an ability with full Rage full Rage, he transforms into Mega Mega Gnar while using it, so while the gathered targets might see a small ball of fluff leaping leaping towards them, something very different will land in their midst.

Once Mega Gnar's landed, his role is to disrupt as much as possible, using Boulder Toss Boulder Toss and Wallop Wallop to damage and crowd control all nearby enemies. Gnar works best as his team's tank here, blocking skillshots with his considerable frame and forcing the enemy damage dealers to focus on him. Knowing when to use GNAR! GNAR! is critical: smart timing can interrupt several enemy abilities simultaneously, while smart positioning can send the entire enemy team crashing into a structure, stunning them all and giving his allies the chance to secure kills.

As Mega Gnar's Rage Rage meter starts to fade, Mini Gnar's strengths become an amazing asset in clean-up. He's fast, he can close gaps with Hop Hop and his basic attacks, which, when numerous enough, trigger Hyper Hyper and give Mini Gnar a huge movement speed boost. Add in Boomerang Throw Boomerang Throw, and Gnar has all the tools he needs to catch and finish off his targets.

Gnar Concept 08
Synergy
Works well with: Struggles against:
Lulu OriginalSquare
Lulu - the Fae Sorceress

Lulu's kit handily fills in Gnar's weaknesses and supplements his strengths in both forms. She can shield Mini Mini Gnar with Help, Pix! Help, Pix! whenever he's under attack, while Whimsy Whimsy gives Mega Mega Gnar all the movement he needs to help him stick to the enemy team and dish out his AoE damage.

Teemo OriginalSquare
Teemo - the Swift Scout

Teemo outranges Gnar and deals enough damage over time with his Toxic Shots Toxic Shots to beat him in a war of attrition. The Swift Scout can also blind blind Gnar in basic attack battles, or turn to Move Quick Move Quick to dodge everything from boomerangs boomerangs and boulders boulders to Mega Mega Gnars.

Amumu OriginalSquare
Amumu - the Sad Mummy

Come late game, Gnar thrives when he has a primary tank initiator to follow up on. Amumu's perfect: his Q Q to R R combo locks down enemy teams, meaning Mega Mega Gnar can Crunch Crunch in and complement Amumu's AoE damage with his own.

Irelia OriginalSquare
Irelia - the Will of the Blades

Though Gnar can trade well with Irelia over the opening few levels, by level 5, she has all the true damage true damage, sustain sustain, speed speed, and resilience resilience needed to beat Gnar in a fight, meaning the Missing Link has little choice but to farm under tower and rely on jungler support.

Orianna OriginalSquare
Orianna - the Lady of Clockwork

The Ball The Ball delivery system lives on whenever Mega Mega Gnar leaps into the enemy team! Combining Crunch Crunch and Command Shockwave Command Shockwave (Crunchwave?) deals devastating damage, and Orianna can follow up with Command Dissonance Command Dissonance, which slows the enemies and speeds Mega Mega Gnar's otherwise lumbering gait.

Fizz OriginalSquare
Fizz - the Tidal Trickster

Fizz is a problem for both of Gnar's forms. He's nimble and powerful enough to burst down Mini Mini Gnar before he has the chance to transform, and Playful Playful / Trickster Trickster can dodge Mega Mega Gnar's considerable power and crowd control, including GNAR! GNAR!

Champion Insights
Gnar Gnar, designed by gypsylord
Gnar Concept 09

Let's talk transform!

Transform champions have historically been some of the hardest to balance in League of Legends because they frequently end up with a dominant form: pre-V4.10 Nidalee Nidalee worked best in human human form unless she needed to execute execute or run run away, and Jayce Jayce happily sits in cannon cannon form for the bulk of his games. Giving both forms unique strengths and weaknesses is meaningless when they can just transform at will to lose the weaknesses they had. Let's look again at Jayce Jayce: how's a melee champion supposed to fight him in a one-on-one scenario if Jayce can duel just as well up close up close and has the option to transform into an effective ranged ranged champion?

Here's the central question we posed ourselves: how can we create a new transform champion that feels fundamentally good to play as and against? Our answer was to make a champion with identifiable strengths and weaknesses in both forms, then limit the player's ability to control which form they play in. After months of testing, we ended up with the (sometimes) adorable ball of fluff known as Gnar.

Gnar Concept 10

So how's he different? Well, Mini Mini Gnar's one of the most mobile champions in the game. He boasts good sustained damage and kites incredibly well, but when he does get caught, he dies fast. On the other hand, Mega Mega Gnar is a colossus. He's tanky and surprisingly bursty, with strong area of effect and crowd control to boot. But he's slow, meaning his enemies can pretty much get away simply by walking in the opposite direction. Removing control of the transform transform from Gnar means that he has to anticipate when he's about to pop pop (or er... unpop unpop?) and position and prepare to play in a completely different way, adding extra complexity and depth to his gameplay. This also means that - for the first time - learning how to play during the transitions between Gnar's forms is just as important as mastering the play styles of his two forms.

Gnar Concept 11

Media[]

Gnar's Theme
Related Music

Related Videos

Trivia[]


References[]

  1. Gnar's Designers
  2. Gnar Reveal
  3. Ask Riot
  4. Orel, V. A Handbook of Germanic Etymology, p. 138
  5. /DEV: ON CHAMPION PROTOTYPES
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