Gnar Reveal[]
Time marches on for most, but not 
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 behind the boy.[2]
- Abilities
- Rage Gene
rage in combat. Once he fills his rage bar, Gnar's next ability transforms him into 
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 doesn't use an ability, he transforms into 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 and can't gain rage for a few seconds.
- Boomerang Throw
Gnar chucks his boomerang in a target direction, dealing damage to the first enemy struck while applying a 
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 - Boulder Toss
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
Every 
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 - Wallop
stunning all enemies in front of him.
- 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 slows them.
- Mega Gnar - Crunch
slowing all enemies he lands directly on.
- Gameplay
Gnar's a prehistoric yordle best suited to the Rift's top lane. A transform champion with clear strengths and weaknesses in both Mini and Mega forms, Gnar fights best when he anticipates his fits of 
rage, and come late game, brawls most effectively as a tank or fighter.
- Top Lane
Gnar's rage meter fills slowest at the start of the game, so mastering his 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 deals decent damage to his lane opponent, and its slow helps Gnar maintain distance and avoid retaliation. Once unlocked, 
Hyper applies further damage, helping Gnar gain lane dominance with timely basic attacks and repeated Boomerang Throws. Mini Gnar is best off saving 
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 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 in to face his enemy top laner, quick casts of 
Boulder Toss and 
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! 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! 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 Mini Gnar builds up rage, kiting with basic attacks, Boomerang Throw and Hyper's passive to put a dent in the enemy frontline. Once Gnar's about to pop, he's best suited 
Bouncing in towards the enemy team. Whenever Mini Gnar activates an ability with full Rage, he transforms into Mega Gnar while using it, so while the gathered targets might see a small ball of fluff 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 and 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! 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 meter starts to fade, Mini Gnar's strengths become an amazing asset in clean-up. He's fast, he can close gaps with Hop and his basic attacks, which, when numerous enough, trigger Hyper and give Mini Gnar a huge movement speed boost. Add in Boomerang Throw, and Gnar has all the tools he needs to catch and finish off his targets.
- Synergy
| Works well with: | Struggles against: |
|---|---|
 Lulu's kit handily fills in Gnar's weaknesses and supplements his strengths in both forms. She can shield |
 Teemo outranges Gnar and deals enough damage over time with his |
 Come late game, Gnar thrives when he has a primary tank initiator to follow up on. Amumu's perfect: his |
 Though Gnar can trade well with Irelia over the opening few levels, by level 5, she has all the |
|
 Fizz is a problem for both of Gnar's forms. He's nimble and powerful enough to burst down |
- Champion Insights
- Gnar, 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 
Nidalee worked best in 
human form unless she needed to 
execute or 
run away, and 
Jayce happily sits in 
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: how's a melee champion supposed to fight him in a one-on-one scenario if Jayce can duel just as well 
up close and has the option to transform into an effective 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.
So how's he different? Well, 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 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 from Gnar means that he has to anticipate when he's about to pop (or er... 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.
Media[]
| Gnar's Theme |
- Related Music
- Related Videos
- Main article: Summoner icon
Trivia[]
- Mini Gnar is voiced by Dorothy Fahn.
- Mega Gnar is voiced by Lucien Dodge.
- During development, he was called Yordle Hulk.[3]
- Gnar was leaked by Redditor 'WhyRenektonWhy' (who also leaked Ultra Rapid Fire, Yasuo, and Kalista, and whose account has since been terminated).
- Gnar may have more than one source:
- Proto-Germanic onomatopoeic verb *gnarrojanan "to snarl, growl";[4]
- The last four letters, spelt backwards, of Boomerang, from an extinct dialect of the Dharug language.
- Mega Gnar might be referencing the Gnaar from Serious Sam.
- Gnar may have more than one source:
- Gnar's skull headdress might be referencing Tabu the Voodoo Shaman, a canceled champion whose staff was crowned by the same skull.
- Mini Gnar's placeholder model during production was a ranged, tiny, golden Nautilus whose animations were drastically sped up.[5]
- His basic attacks used the same particles as Syndra's.
- Boomerang Throw used Huntress Sivir's boomerang.
- Hyper's was an active called "Hyperactivity / Fury". Its movement speed buff was represented by Blitzcrank's Overdrive's 'speed lines', while the stack particles were represented by Vi's Denting Blows passive stacks.
- Hop made him let out the excited yell Ziggs makes when using Satchel Charge.
- Gaining maximum Rage displayed a 'Warning' message.
- These effects can be viewed here.
- His basic attacks used the
- Mega Gnar's placeholder model during production was a slightly redder pre-rework Hyena Warwick.
- Boulder Toss used the first half of Hyena Warwick's death animation.
- Wallop was both a stun and an auto-attack chaining effect, while using Tiamat's visual effects.
- Crunch had a knockup while using Tristana's Rocket Jump's impact visual effects and audio. He also made the roar Udyr makes when activating Bear Stance.
- Instead of GNAR!, his ultimate was an ability similar to Devour that left a puddle of Void Ooze at the Regurgitate location while making the noises Cho'Gath makes when he uses Feast.
- These effects can be viewed here.
References[]
- ↑ Gnar's Designers
- ↑ Gnar Reveal
- ↑ Ask Riot
- ↑ Orel, V. A Handbook of Germanic Etymology, p. 138
- ↑ /DEV: ON CHAMPION PROTOTYPES