How to win lane as Gnar against Locke · 49.12% win rate (678 Emerald+ games, lolalytics, sampled July 2026) · Matchup data reviewed on patch 26.15
He's a 125-range mana champ walking into your poke — win the lane at range and never gift the one blink window that flips it.
Track: Locke's Q — Ritual Nails (10–6s cooldown). The nail marks are his whole engine — without 2-3 stacks on you his blink-in barely dents; sidestep the recasts and punish the ten seconds of nothing.
Read from Gnar's seat: which stage windows this plan plays for against Locke.
| Stage | Favoured | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Level 1 | Even / skill | Level 1 is even — both of you poke with basics and neither has an engage tool online. |
| Level 2 | Even / skill | Level 2 stays skill — Mini Gnar's Q boomerang return damage offsets his passive chip cleanly. |
| Level 3 | Even / skill | Level 3 is even: Hyper (E) kiting matches his E gap-close, so good spacing means no clean trade for either side. |
| Levels 4-5 | Even / skill | Levels 4-5 remain a poke war where neither of you can afford to commit — keep the rage bar working in your favor. |
| Level 6 | Even / skill | Level 6 stays even — his ult threat arrives, but without item damage he cannot reliably chunk you to threshold, so it is still a spacing war. |
| First item | Locke | First item is Locke's window — Purgatory grounds you inside the zone, so Hop cannot carry Mini Gnar clear of the execute; play this stretch in Mega or behind minions. |
| Two+ items | Even / skill | 2+ items returns to skill — Mega Gnar's stun and bulk let you survive his full burst, so it comes down to who hits their window first. |
Through level 5 it is an honest poke war: Boomerang return damage answers his chip, Hyper kiting matches his gap-close, and neither side has a commit button. His passive scales with your missing health, so the last third of your bar costs double — reset above it. Poke in Mini, and when Mega comes up force a Wallop trade or bank the form as insurance.
Pooled Emerald+ win rates from Gnar's side, sampled July 2026.
The full Gnar vs Locke report continues with the mid-game plan, the late-game and teamfight plan, every power spike to play around, and the win conditions for both sides — plus cooldown tracking and the live enemy-jungle tracker inside the app.
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Locke, slightly — Gnar wins 49.12% of 678 games; winnable with the right plan.
Mostly — Locke has a small statistical edge (50.88% win rate), but execution decides this lane far more than the pick does.
No — if anything Locke has the slight edge (Gnar wins 49.12%), though it stays close.
Playing the other side? Locke vs Gnar guide →
All Gnar top lane matchups →
More Gnar top lane matchups: vs Kennen · vs Kled · vs Lillia · vs Lucian · vs Malphite · vs Maokai