Gnar/Development

Gnar Reveal
Time marches on for most, but not. 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 behind the boy.


 * Abilities

I= Gnar builds up in combat. Once he fills his rage bar, Gnar's next ability transforms him into, giving him , , , and at the expense of movement speed, , and attack range. If doesn't use an ability, he transforms into  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 and can't gain rage for a few seconds.
 * Rage Gene

Gnar chucks his boomerang in a target direction, dealing damage to the first enemy struck while applying a. 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.
 * -|Q=
 * Boomerang Throw

Gnar launches a huge boulder in a target direction, damaging and 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.
 * - Boulder Toss

Every attack or ability against a target deals  as. Whenever Hyper triggers, or when Mega Gnar transforms back into Mini Gnar, he gains a moderate movement speed boost that decays over time.
 * -|W=
 * Hyper

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

Gnar jumps in a target direction and gains a moderate. 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 them.
 * -|E=
 * Hop

Gnar launches himself in a target direction, damaging and all enemies he lands directly on.
 * - Crunch

Gnar throws a tantrum, tossing all enemies around him in a target direction. All enemies thrown are and damaged, while enemies thrown into walls, including turrets and base structures, suffer extra damage and are.
 * -|R=
 * - GNAR!


 * Gameplay



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


 * Top Lane



Gnar's fills slowest at the start of the game, so mastering his  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. deals decent damage to his lane opponent, and its slow helps Gnar maintain distance and avoid retaliation. Once unlocked, applies further damage, helping Gnar gain lane dominance with timely basic attacks and repeated. Mini Gnar is best off saving 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 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 in to face his enemy top laner, quick casts of  and  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 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 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 has three distinct phases during teamfights, each oriented around timing his forms. First, he needs to avoid engaging for a while as Gnar builds up, kiting with basic attacks,  and   to put a dent in the enemy frontline. Once Gnar's about to, he's best suited in towards the enemy team. Whenever Mini Gnar activates an ability with, he transforms into Gnar while using it, so while the gathered targets might see a small ball of fluff  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 and  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 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 meter starts to fade, Mini Gnar's strengths become an amazing asset in clean-up. He's fast, he can close gaps with and his basic attacks, which, when numerous enough, trigger  and give Mini Gnar a huge movement speed boost. Add in, and Gnar has all the tools he needs to catch and finish off his targets.




 * Synergy


 * Champion Insights


 * , designed by gypsylord



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 worked best in  form unless she needed to  or  away, and  happily sits in  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 : how's a melee champion supposed to fight him in a one-on-one scenario if Jayce can duel just as well and has the option to transform into an effective  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.



So how's he different? Well, 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, 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 from Gnar means that he has to anticipate when he's about to  (or er... ?) 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.



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 * Related Music

Gnar/Development