How to win lane as Gwen against Gnar · 48.47% win rate over 326 Emerald+ games · Updated 2026-07-27
| Stage | Favoured | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Level 1 | Gnar | Mini-Gnar's boomerang poke and Hop out-range and out-kite your slow Snip Snip! cone, and you have neither W mist nor E dash yet to answer. |
| Level 2 | Gnar | He keeps kiting with boomerang and Hops while your early kit can't pin down a champion who repositions on cooldown, and catching his boomerang only refunds it for more poke. |
| Level 3 | Gnar | Even as your Q and E come online, mini-Gnar's range and lowered-cooldown boomerang own the trade before you can reach mist. |
| Levels 4-5 | Even / skill | Your Skip 'n Slash dash-and-reset finally lets you contest, but you're a melee with no W up yet against a ranged kiter, so the window is a coinflip. |
| Level 6 | Gnar | Mega-Gnar's Wallop line-stun pins you the instant you step out of mist and chains into his burst or a gank, and GNAR! into a wall is even longer. |
| First item | Gnar | His transform burst still beats your first item if he catches you outside W, so respect the Rage bar over your Riftmaker timing. |
| Two+ items | Gwen | Two items in, your max-HP Snip Snip and untargetable mist shred his stacked mega HP faster than his shrinking transform window can burst you, and you heal off every snip. |
Gnar owns the first three levels and you cannot fight it honestly. Mini-Gnar's boomerang (Q) and Hop (E) let him poke and reposition while your only tool is a slow six-snip cone you can barely land on a target that keeps hopping away, and you have no W mist for safety or E dash to close yet. Do not walk up to throw a Q he just kites out of. Soak XP at max range, eat the chip, and watch his Rage bar climb rather than his health bar — catching his boomerang lowers its cooldown for him, so chasing trades into it only feeds his poke. Track the Rage, not the HP.
The full Gwen vs Gnar 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? Gnar vs Gwen guide →
All Gwen top lane matchups →