How to win lane as Gnar against Maokai · 48.91% win rate over 276 Emerald+ games · Updated 2026-07-27
| Stage | Favoured | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Level 1 | Gnar | Mini's ranged autos and a single Boomerang win the first trade — immobile Maokai can't punish back without walking forward into Hyper range. |
| Level 2 | Gnar | The level-2 Hyper third-hit move-speed proc plus Boomerang is a free chunk, and his only answer is a slow Sapling he can't aim at a kiting Mini. |
| Level 3 | Gnar | I stay favored kiting with the Q slow and Hyper move speed; his Bramble knockback only lands if I leave my Mini body standing still. |
| Levels 4-5 | Even / skill | It's a coinflip on Rage — Mega up means a Wallop-stun wall-combo, but stuck in Mini, getting caught mid-transition can get me killed. |
| Level 6 | Even / skill | I gain no level-6 spell, so it is pure form RNG: Mega threatens a wall-ult kill, Mini just pokes and concedes the all-in. |
| First item | Maokai | His Saplings and passive sustain start healing my Mini poke back as the lane equalizes around first items. |
| Two+ items | Maokai | Maokai out-sustains my poke and outscales into a frontline tank — my form-dependent burst can't 1v1 a fully-itemized Maokai late. |
Maokai is exactly the immobile, melee-range body my Mini form was built to abuse — stand at Boomerang range, land the third Hyper hit for the move-speed proc, and chip him while his only ranged answer is a Sapling he can't reliably land on a kiting Mini. The trap is his Bramble knockback: if I let my squishy Mini body sit still he steps up, knocks me back, and walks a free trade. Throw Q to slow him before he closes, catch it on the return for the cooldown refund, and never give him a stationary Mini target to engage onto.
The full Gnar vs Maokai 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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Playing the other side? Maokai vs Gnar guide →
All Gnar top lane matchups →