Pantheon vs Gnar — Top Lane Matchup Guide

How to win lane as Pantheon against Gnar · 52.16% win rate over 903 Emerald+ games · Updated 2026-07-27

Verdict: Winnable despite the lane — Gnar owns 5 of the 7 game windows to Pantheon's 1, yet the win rate favours Pantheon: survive their windows and the game is yours. Pantheon wins 52.16% of games vs Gnar in top lane (903 Emerald+ games analysed).

Favour timeline — who owns each window

StageFavouredWhy
Level 1PantheonAt level 1 your point-and-click W stun plus a Q tap is one of the strongest openers in the game, and mini-Gnar has no boomerang spacing yet to kite it.
Level 2GnarBy level 2 mini-Gnar's Boomerang Throw (Q) out-ranges your Q and the returning hit double-dips, so he pokes you before your W can close.
Level 3GnarAt level 3 he kites with Hyper hops and boomerang while your W is your only gap-close — whiff it and you eat free harass with no kill threat.
Levels 4-5Even / skillLevels 4-5 are a wash: you control space when his boomerang is down, but he resets distance with hops the moment you commit, so neither side lands a clean kill.
Level 6GnarYour R is built for cross-map roams, not pinning Gnar — and his filling rage bar means your level-6 all-in risks walking into mega-Gnar's GNAR! (R) stun.
First itemGnarAt first item his boomerang poke and transform burst out-trade your plateauing damage, and your short W is too telegraphed to catch him.
Two+ itemsGnarGnar hard out-scales you: full-build boomerang poke plus mega-form AoE stun bursts your squishy frame before your shields can do anything.

Early game (levels 1–5)

Level 1 you are king — your point-and-click W stun plus a Q tap is the strongest opener here, so look for that trade before mini-Gnar finds boomerang spacing. But the moment he has range, he kites: do not chase his hops across the wave, and respect that a returning Boomerang Throw (Q) double-dips on you. Your E directional block can eat a boomerang if you channel into it, but you cannot pin him down for a kill the way you can an immobile melee.

Read the rest of this matchup

The full Pantheon 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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