Gnar vs Volibear — Top Lane Matchup Guide

How to win lane as Gnar against Volibear · 50.51% win rate over 394 Emerald+ games · Updated 2026-07-27

Verdict: Gnar is favoured — Gnar owns 2 of the 7 game windows to Volibear's 1. Gnar wins 50.51% of games vs Volibear in top lane (394 Emerald+ games analysed).

Favour timeline — who owns each window

StageFavouredWhy
Level 1GnarMini's ranged autos and a Boomerang win the first trade — Voli can't poke back until he closes the gap with W in range.
Level 2GnarThird-hit Hyper plus Boomerang lands a free chunk before he has W stacked to heal it, and I just walk away in ranged Mini.
Level 3Even / skillI stay favored kiting with the Q slow and Hyper move speed, but his ramping Q stun threatens my Mini body if I overstep.
Levels 4-5Even / skillPure Rage RNG — strong if Mega is up for a Wallop stun, a liability if I'm stuck in Mini when his Q stun and R leap land.
Level 6Even / skillUltimate timing flips it both ways: Mega up means a wall-ult kill, but his Stormbringer leap and shield can turn the all-in instead.
First itemEven / skillAnti-heal and my bruiser bridge keep me even into his W self-heal — force fights while his Thundering Smash speed is on cooldown.
Two+ itemsVolibearHe out-scales me: W self-heal, tank items and R dive outgrow my form-dependent burst, so let my team handle a fed Voli.

Early game (levels 1–5)

Mini form owns the first levels here — Voli has no ranged answer to my autos and Boomerang, and his W bite only heals if he can actually stick to me. Level 2 is my window: third-hit Hyper plus a Boomerang chunks him before he stacks W to trade back. The thing I'm scared of is his Q, Thundering Smash — once it ramps he gains move speed, runs me down and the hit stuns; if I'm in my squishy Mini body when that lands he gets a free Sky Splitter on top, so never let him build up Q speed in auto range.

Read the rest of this matchup

The full Gnar vs Volibear 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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