How to win lane as Gnar against Mel · 56.62% win rate over 491 Emerald+ games · Updated 2026-07-27
| Stage | Favoured | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Level 1 | Gnar | Your ranged Mini autos plus a single Boomerang win the first trade against an immobile mage who only has Q to poke back and no reflect up yet. |
| Level 2 | Gnar | Hyper's third-hit proc plus Boomerang lands a free chunk while her reflect ultimate is unavailable — your strongest early window. |
| Level 3 | Gnar | You out-trade her dashless body with the Boomerang slow and Hyper move speed, and she has no escape when you step up in Mini. |
| Levels 4-5 | Even / skill | It's a coinflip on Rage: with Mega up you Wallop and wall-combo her, but stuck in Mini with Rage down her longer-range Q out-pokes you. |
| Level 6 | Gnar | She has no level-6 kill spike — her R is a defensive reflect — so with Mega up you wall-combo a squishy mage for the kill. |
| First item | Gnar | Your Mini poke and Mega wall-combo keep snowballing a lane she can't body-block — force the all-in on every Mega window with her R down. |
| Two+ items | Mel | Mel out-scales: her execute (E) and reflect (R) grow stronger in teamfights while your form-dependent burst plateaus at two-plus items. |
Mel is a squishy, immobile poke mage with no dash, so your Mini form bullies her once you hit level 2. Land the third Hyper hit for the move-speed proc and tag her with Boomerang — her only reflect is her ultimate (R), which she doesn't have early, so these trades are clean. Her Q out-ranges your Boomerang, so when your Rage is on cooldown and you're stuck in fragile Mini form, back off and farm rather than eating free poke. Don't dump a fat Boulder Toss or a Mega all-in into her once R is up — her reflect bounces it back — but with it down, step up and out-DPS her with sustained autos.
The full Gnar vs Mel 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? Mel vs Gnar guide →
All Gnar top lane matchups →