How to win lane as Gnar against Sylas · 48.65% win rate over 1,441 Emerald+ games · Updated 2026-07-27
| Stage | Favoured | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Level 1 | Gnar | Mini Gnar's ranged autos plus a Boomerang win the first trade outright — his melee Q (Chain Lash) can't reach you and his Kingslayer heal is too weak early to undo it. |
| Level 2 | Gnar | Your level-2 Boomerang plus an auto lands a free chunk and shove before his sustain ramps or his E dash-stun exists. |
| Level 3 | Even / skill | You stay favored kiting with Q slow and Hyper move speed, but his E1 dash into E2 Abduct stun lets him close and trade back — even window. |
| Levels 4-5 | Even / skill | It's Rage RNG: a Mega Wallop stuns him as he commits his E grab, but a Mini body with Rage down gets bursted by his E-into-Q-W combo. |
| Level 6 | Even / skill | He gets no new spell at 6 but neither do you — a sloppy transform feeds his R the GNAR! steal, so the window is purely whether Mega is safely up. |
| First item | Sylas | His first AP item lets Kingslayer (W) start out-healing the chip you land, so the poke that carried you early stops mattering — his window now. |
| Two+ items | Sylas | Full-AP Sylas out-sustains and out-scales — his W heal eats your poke and Mini Gnar melts to his Q-E-W combo, so this window is his. |
Mini Gnar owns the first levels here — your ranged autos plus Boomerang out-range his melee Q (Chain Lash), and at level 2 you can land a free chunk and shove before his Kingslayer (W) heal is strong enough to matter. Don't dive in to extend a trade once he has E: he dashes with E1 (Abscond) and the second cast, E2 (Abduct), pulls and stuns you, letting him chain into Q-W and heal everything back. Poke, catch the Boomerang on its return for the cooldown refund, and keep your distance — he has almost no answer to ranged harass at level 1-3.
The full Gnar vs Sylas 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? Sylas vs Gnar guide →
All Gnar top lane matchups →