How to win lane as Gnar against Nasus · 50.2% win rate over 490 Emerald+ games · Updated 2026-07-27
| Stage | Favoured | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Level 1 | Gnar | Mini's ranged autos plus a single Boomerang win the first trade while Nasus has no stacks and no way to answer ranged harass. |
| Level 2 | Gnar | The Hyper third-hit proc plus Boomerang lands a free chunk at 2 — he can only walk up to last-hit a Q stack and eat it. |
| Level 3 | Gnar | You kite his step-ups with Boomerang slow and Hyper move speed, denying his Q stacks on the cannon waves before Wither is relevant. |
| Levels 4-5 | Even / skill | Levels 4 to 6 are pure Rage RNG: a full-Rage Mega Wallop wins it, but stuck in Mini with Rage down his Wither and stacked Q punish you. |
| Level 6 | Even / skill | At 6 you get no new spell, so the window is just whether Mega is up — with it you wall-combo for a kill, without it you only poke. |
| First item | Gnar | While you still hold a ranged Mini poke item, a Mega Wallop or GNAR! all-in beats him before Sheen and full stacks bring his power online. |
| Two+ items | Nasus | Nasus is the hard scaler: a fully stacked Q with Trinity and Spirit Visage plus a Wither all-in outscales your form-burst, so the late 1v1 is his. |
Level 1 to 3 is your half of the lane, so press it. Mini's ranged autos plus a Boomerang win the first trade clean while Nasus has no stacks and no tool to answer ranged harass, and at 2 the Hyper third-hit proc chunks him for free while he just wants to walk up and last-hit a Q stack. Throw the Boomerang as he steps to a creep, catch the return for the cooldown refund, then ride Hyper's move-speed burst back out of his auto range. Every CS you deny and every poke you land is a Q stack he never gets, and starving that infinite Q is the entire war here.
The full Gnar vs Nasus 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? Nasus vs Gnar guide →
All Gnar top lane matchups →