Garen is a very easy champion to play. Its all about spin to win. But contuary to popular belief, Garen is not a tank. If you play him that way, you will never tap into his real potential to lead your team. Once you understand how Garen is supposed to be played, there are very few champions that can handle solo laning with you. When i solo, I generally start with a Doran's shield, for the extra health, regen, and armor. But when i duo lane i usually go dorans blade, for some extra attack damage. After that, I get level one boots, and because you dont need anything faster in laning phase, I either go straight for giants belt or chain armor, depending on how laning is going, but giants belt is prefered because it accents your passive healing. From there I get Mercury treads for the extra magic resist and tenacity. Then Sunfire cape. After that, it varies only a little in the order. I generally get the same items, but some rounds at this point i need more speed because they get away barely, some i need more armor because they have a fed AD, sometimes i need damage because they are all tanky but not doing much to me. So the next three items can change order as needed. but usually, i next build force of nature, followed by atmas impailer, followed by infinity edge, because by end game you find that spin to win isnt quite doing enough anymore. Now some people get a little fussy when they see atmas impailer with no warmogs, bt dont worry, you dont even build it for the attack damage anyway, and this build has been nothing but gold. Infinity edge will fix that. If the game goes long enough, i finish my build with frozen mallet. Now although he isnt a tank, Ive been able to spin through entire teams solo and get away with minor health loss.

It is pretty simple and straight forward with Garen. Spin to win. get Judgement first, and max it as soon as possible. On level 2, get your q. lvl 3 will be judgement again, and then lvl 4 its important to get your w, because the passive from killing minions and its active will make you tanky enough to live through those key early fights. then after spin is maxed, max your q, and w last. The passive on your w doesnt get stronger, and its active isnt quite worth lvling up till late game. Just remember, spin to win.

Garen needs speed, so when i decided to go mercury treads over boots of swiftness for the tenacity, i traded in my armor pen quints for movement speed quints to compensate some. It also keeps people in spin low lvls. But if you rather boots of swiftness, you can do armor pen quintsfor that little extra damage. I get all armor pen marks. All armor seals. and all magic resist glyphs. In other guides ive seen people take health seals, i havent tried this on Garen but it doesnt sound like a bad idea if thats what you have. Just remember, spin to win.

As some of you have noticed, there are no points in defense. That is because I do not believe Garen is a tank, and he has to be able to do damage. I focussed on critical strike being the damage output for Garen because Judgement crits for so much. for the utility tree i got the movement speed masteries, because Garen needs to be fast from level one. Just remember, spin to win

When solo, last hit minions is your focus. but right when you see your aponent use their strongest ability on the minions, hit him with your silence and spin him for harrass, then go back to last hitting. do this repeatedly, and cautiously. Make sure to pop your w whenever he's able to return some damage to you. do that, and dont push your lane, and you will make very easy ganks for your jungler. When harrassing in a duo lane, make sure to silence their harder hitter or the one with cc, then pop you w and spin them both, and then back off. Make sure you have enough support from your laning partner before you get too wreckless. DO NOT TRY THIS BEFORE LVL 5 OR 6 BECAUSE YOU WONT BE TANKY ENOUGH TO HANDLE IT YET IN DUO LANE In late game, wait until the initiation, and then get in there as soon as you can so your team isnt taking too much damage. whenever possible, take out their ranged AD, it will save your team from taking a lot of damage. Just remember, spin to win!

If you are in elo hell, it is very easy to go 10-0 with Garen by mid game. But remember that the reason a lot of people get stuck in elo hell is because of ****py teams. So this might sound odd, but make sure you're getting ksed a lot. Garen can be very formitable with very few kills. If you are allowing your team to get kills, they are getting stronger and it will increase your chance of winning. Just because you can go 20-3, doesnt mean you will win. Garen has his limits. also, if you can help it, dont take Garen first or second pick, or they will get a bunch of stuns to counter you. If you can, grab whatever champ one of the bottom guys wants and have him grab Garen for you. but of course this is an ideal sittuation where you have someone competant on bot who isnt a jerk face and has garen available. If you are not in elo hell, be careful not to push too far early game, you wont be able to survive hard ganks until level 5 or 6 if you are passed the middle of the lane even a little. It also helps to have a jungler you trust, so being a duo would be a good idea. Just remember, spin to win.