Hi guys, this is my very first guide and it will be a gnar guide. Gnar is currently my personal favorite champion. This cute animal can be a great killing machine or a tanky frontline or even both ^^. I think he is in a decent position right now and already thought he was strong. During this patch he even got some more damage on his q so I can't complain. Thanks for reading and hopefully you find this guide useful :)

Pro's:
- Good cc as Mega Gnar. Twisted Treeline has plenty of walls to use with your ult.
- Good poke
- Decent escape
- Can kite well
- Multiple viable build options. Tank or damage.

Con's:
- Easy to kill early as mini gnar.
- Not always easy to control the rage bar.

Runes update:
I have tried a couple of different rune pages since the release of runes reforged. My conclusion is that the playstyle will feel most like the old gnar when you use press the attack and resolve as second tree.

Other options are aery if you want to poke a lot in lane or glacial augment. Personally I find both these options lack attack speed. So I recommend the precision tree with PTA.

For masteries there are currently 2 options I use. The first one is with Grasp of the Undying and is my most used mastery on gnar.
This gives you some sustain which helps you get through the early laning and is fine later in the game aswell. It makes mini gnar slightly harder to kill.
The other option I use is fervor with the remaining points in the Resolve tree for some sustain. I pick this when I feel safe pretty safe in the laning phase and they have no good engage on their team.
In the ferocity tree i always prefer to pick Battle trance, because this already gives you the 3% bonus at the start of the game and is not a drawback when you have to play from behind. Gnar's fights often tend to take longer than 3 seconds so it's not a big deal.

One of the things I like about gnar is being able to poke from distance. And it gets even better: you can poke without mana. That's why I like to max q first and i think it's the really the best thing to do. After your q is maxed and you have some cooldown reduction you can throw out a boomerang every 2 seconds if you are able to catch it.
After q it is best to max w. It increases your damage and thus your dueling potential. You will use your e mainly as escape and eventhough it has a high cd it is not worth maxing earlier because the q and w just offer more. Of course you level the r in between.

The spells you want to pick depend a little on the match up and your playing style. Flash is an obvious choice. It can save your life and especially in Twisted Treeline where there are no wards it is not uncommon to find yourself suddenly in a bad position. So flash to the rescue.
For the other summoner spell i like to choose between exhaust or ignite depending on the matchup. Personally I am a player who likes to play rather safe. Combine that with the fact that you will probably play with vs bruisers who do want to kill you on the Twisted Treeline map, so my main choice is exhaust.
I would pick exhaust in matchups vs for example riven, Yasuo, Xin, Jayce.However if you play vs champions who rely heavely on sustain or who are not a real treat in damage you can pick ignite.
I would this for example in a matchup vs vladimir, maokai or swain.

The starting items on gnar will be boots together with a doran's shield or doran's blade and a potion. The choice between doran's blade and shield depends on match up. If you think you will be poked during the laning phase pick doran's shield for some more sustain. If you don't feel the need for this sustain feel free to pick doran's blade.

After that a Black Cleaverwill be most times the item to go. Sometimes I rush a frozen mallet instead if I don't feel safe enough, but it takes away some damage.
If you are playing vs tanks a Blade of the Ruined King can be nice too, but this will give up some defense.

Another item which is really nice in Twisted Treeline is Warmogs Armor. Especially because gnar has no mana either he can always keep pressure on the map. Even when you nearly died in a fight you can stick around and be back at full hp in no time.

What you want to do as Gnar is poke as much as you possibly can with your q. That's why cooldown reduction works well on him.
There are pretty much 2 types of teamfights when playing gnar.
The first is the kind of fight where you jump in as mega gnar, ult as many enemies as you can to the wall and continue to chain the cc with your w. You can try to q inbetween your r and w but it gives your oponent a small window to escape so I prefer to q after the w for a safe hit.
The second kind of fight are the prolongued fights. Especially later in the game dieing is risky and people often play safer. In these situations you try to poke as much as you can again with your q. It does not matter if you take too much dmg from your oponents if you did build warmogs. Just be careful for cc when doing so.

The chain cc gnar can do can already be abused early in the game aswell. If you ever fall behind and are playing underneath your turret you can still turn around when they try to dive you. Just try to get turet aggro on the enemy champion before you use your chain cc.
Sometimes this also works when they try to taunt you without minions. Use your r to shove them under your turret and stun them there with w. However this play can be risky and depends on the situation.

That's it for now.
There's probably more I could say and if I can I will update the guide in the future.
I hope it was somewhat useful and thanks again for reading.

In short: Gnar is just a great champion. You can play him tanky or with a bit more focus on damage. He was great cc and kite potential (especially with some attack speed). Besides that he can be strong throughout whole game with nice scaling and good duelling potential.