Overview

A lot of players across all ranks had a hard time figuring out Gnar's optimal playstyle/build/runes in the opening days after his release. This is largely due to Gnar's unique kit, chalk full of cc, range, and a somewhat unpredictable form of transformation. The more variety/diversity you add to a champion, the longer it's going to take to figure out which abilities to prioritize.

The Russian Wildcat

One pro quickly started unlocking the secrets to Gnar while many others continued to struggle - that pro was Gambit Gaming's former toplaner, Darien. While many others tried to optimize mini-Gnar's form by building sticking items like Blade of the Ruined King, Darien opted to maximize mega-Gnar, and focused on stacking hp, while starting with a substantial amount of armor pen.

Less than a week after Gnar's release, this video hit the front page of /r/leagueoflegends, showcasing how Darien utilizes both of Gnar's forms to out-damage and outplay his opponents:

Understanding the Build

While Gnar's passive that lets him transform from mini-Gnar to mega-Gnar is hard to accurately manage at all times, Darien's approach ensures that you will be able to transform to mega-Gnar in nearly every fight. Since Gnar builds rage from both taking damage and from the number of attacks you dish out, grabbing an early Blade of the Ruined King is nowhere near as strong as rushing a Sunfire Cape. The Sunfire Cape will not only allow you to live longer (thus, all but guaranteeing that you'll be able to transform), but it will also help stack Gnar's rage, as it applies to ANY damage Gnar is inflicting or receiving.

The other advantage of stacking hp comes from Hop/Crunch. The most ideal way to transform from mini-Gnar to mega-Gnar comes from using hop - it allows you to still hop twice, like you normally would in mini-Gnar form, but it also allows you to deal damage on both landings. Granted, you can only damage enemies once per hop, but it still allows you to cover more ground. Both Hop and Crunch scale with Gnar's max hp, effectively giving him an additional 60 damage per every 1000hp.

The Build itself





Runes: Armor Pen Marks, Armor Seals, Armor Glyphs (MR against AP opponents), Armor Pen Quints

Masteries: 21/9/0, with emphasis on AD, Armor Pen, Blade/Spell Weaving, Dangerous Game and Feast.

Closing Thoughts

In my opinion, Gnar is suffering a similar fate as Yasuo as far as releases go - he's incredibly strong in the right hands, and many people are still experimenting with the champion to find its limitations and optimal paths. Unlike Yasuo, however, Gnar's potential strength has already been cracked open by Darien (Yasuo took a few weeks iirc).

The only downside many people list off when they talk about their Gnar experience is that controlling the transformations to mega-Gnar, and this build makes it so that managing the transformations is only an issue in the 13 second cooldown of his passive.