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.

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’s 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.

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-4.10 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.

We’re excited to see what you make of Runeterra’s next champion. Let us know in the comments below!

 

 

 

출처 : http://na.leagueoflegends.com/en/champion-reveal/gnar-the-missing-link

 

 

p.s : 영어 까막눈이라 해설불가.. 뭔소리여 시펑..