# Gnar Counters, Matchups & Tips | Baron Buff
See Gnar counters, hardest matchups, and tips to play against or draft around Gnar in League of Legends.
Canonical HTML: https://baronbuff.com/champions/gnar/
Markdown URL: https://baronbuff.com/champions/gnar.md
Language: en
## Breadcrumbs

- [Baron Buff](https://baronbuff.com/)
- [Champion Tier List](https://baronbuff.com/champions/)
- Gnar

## Page Content

Specialist · Specialist · Top

Prepare for battle with Gnar — master their strengths and exploit their weaknesses before the game starts.

## Playstyle Profile

Gnar is an initiator — excels at engaging grouped enemies with impactful openings

Teamfight Role Vanguard Initiator

Power Spike Mid game

Split Threat None

Backline Access Low

## Gnar's Strengths

- Starts fights on your terms — Gnar's engage forces enemies to react, giving your team the initiative

## How to Play Gnar

Champion-specific pre-match tips

### Lane Phase

Trigger your W passive by weaving an auto-attack before and after your Q to maximize short trades while maintaining your attack range.

### Lane Phase

Fast push the wave when your rage bar hits 80% to force the enemy to interact with your Mega form while they last hit under their tower.

### Lane Phase

Hold your E until the enemy commits an engage tool, or bounce off a minion at 100 rage to instantly close the gap and transform.

### Mid Game

Keep your rage hovering around 70% by attacking jungle camps or minions 30 seconds before an objective spawns to ensure you transform exactly as the teamfight breaks out.

### Mid Game

Chain your Mega form crowd control by casting your R to knock targets into a wall, then immediately casting your W before the first stun expires.

### Mid Game

Shove side waves in Mini form using Q to clear safely, then rotate through the river to flank mid lane right as your rage bar caps.

### Late Game

Flank from the fog of war when your rage is completely full to cast E over a wall and surprise the enemy backline with your R.

### Late Game

Kite backward immediately after reverting to Mini form, using your Q slow and W movement speed to peel enemy frontline threats away from your carries.

### Late Game

Delay 5v5 engagements when you have the tired debuff after leaving Mega form, as your teamfight impact is drastically lower without access to your R.

For matchup-tailored tips, download Baron Buff's AI Coach & Companion App.

## Core Build

Ranked from real ranked-match itemization

We look at ranked games after each item was bought. If the player or team gained ground in gold, we rate that item higher.

- Black Cleaver — 3,000

- Plated Steelcaps (Boots) — 1,200

- Trinity Force — 3,333

- Bloodthirster — 3,400

- Stridebreaker — 3,300

- Death's Dance — 3,300

total: 17,533

## How to Counter Gnar

Counter strategies and draft context

understand their unique win condition and draft to directly deny it

- Weak to disengage and spread comps — Gnar's engage loses value when enemies aren't grouped

- Champions that match their unconventional playstyle

- Hard-engage picks that force standard team fights

- Waveclear to prevent map manipulation

### Gnar's Weaknesses

- Heavy disengage compositions — Gnar's engages get peeled off before the team can follow up

## Best Synergies with Gnar

Team synergies and draft context

- Follow-up damage dealers who capitalize on Gnar's engage — burst mages and ADCs with range

- Allies that lean into your unconventional win condition

- Champions that create pressure elsewhere while you execute your strategy

- Frontlines that buy time for your unique gameplan to develop

### Draft Context

- Pairs another engage champion with no follow-up damage to capitalize on Gnar's initiation

## Learning Curve

[Based on 1.2M+ matches](https://baronbuff.com/blog/mastery_by_tier/) across all ranked elos, showing how Gnar's win rate changes with mastery level

Gnar has exceptional depth — there is always something new to learn, and the learning curve is among the steepest in the game. Expect a long stretch of low win rates before meaningful improvement — mastering this champion demands serious commitment.

Skill Cap Very High

Cost of Learning Extremely High

Win Rate Delta by Mastery

Mastery Level | Win Rate |

1-2 | 38.7% |

3-4 | 46.7% |

5-6 | 48.7% |

7-8 | 51.8% |

9-12 * | 55.6% |

13-16 | 55.6% |

17+ | 55.6% |

[← Champions](https://baronbuff.com/champions/)
## Machine-Readable References
- [LLM index](https://baronbuff.com/llms.txt)
- [Full LLM reference](https://baronbuff.com/llms-full.txt)
- [Sitemap](https://baronbuff.com/sitemap.xml)