Throughout Valoran, the resolve of Demacia's military is alternately celebrated or despised, but always respected. Their ''zero tolerance'' moral code is strictly upheld by civilians and soldiers alike. In combat, this means Demacian troops may not make excuses, flee, or surrender under any circumstance. These principles are espoused to their forces by unrivaled demagogues who lead by example. Garen, the valiant warrior who bears the title ''the Might of Demacia'', is the paradigm to which these leaders are compared. Thousands of great heroes have risen and fallen on the bloody battlefields between Demacia and its preeminent rival, Noxus. It was beneath their mighty banners of war that Garen first met steel with Katarina, the Sinister Blade. The infantrymen who beheld this event (and survived) commented that it seemed as though the two were locked in a mortal waltz against a symphony of clashing blades.

Garen, the pride of the Demacian military and leader of the Dauntless Vanguard, returned from this battle breathless for the first time in his career, though some speculate that this was due to reasons other than exhaustion. The plausibility of these rumors was bolstered when, in every instance thereafter, Garen seized the opportunity to encounter the Sinister Blade again. A paragon of Demacian ethic, Garen never entertained such allegations, for he knew others couldn't understand. Even simply the pursuit of a worthy opponent on the battlefield is, to a true warrior, the reason to rise each morning. The promise of one, particularly so beautifully and diametrically opposed, is the validation of his existence.

"The most effective way to kill an opponent is to slice through the man next to him." - Garen, on front line strategy

Enough for the Lore. :D

Hello Summoner's of Valoran! Im Dequ from EU West server and this is my first guide ever so please be nice and give me a chance to share my ultimate guide. I ask nicely you to read the whole guide before voting and please read this thing, dont just use the build (Wich is pretty neat but still :D)

About my relationship to Garen

Tittle may sound bit gay but for me, Garen has always been that little spark that never goes away! Garen was my first champion ever, and for reason why i bought it is the spin :D I saw once Garen in enemy team (I was lvl6 i think) and I came to same lane as the Garen. HE BEATED **** OUT OF ME! And I was amazed and thought that this is the champion that Im going to buy. So I bought Garen and from that day, Garen has always been my main Champion in the League of Legends!

About this guide

I hate the fact that over 50% of all Garen's build him as tank. It's worst thing you can do and because of that, I want to show for everyone that building Garen as AD carry, it does INSANE damage! I have tried alot of different builds and playstyles and this guide is where the path end's. In my opinion this build has all the right stuff for Garen and makes him legendary! :D

So now I want to share my garen guide to you all members of League and hope that more people realise how to build Garen right! Of course there is different kind of peoples and different kind of playstyles but by following this build it makes you easily the Master of Demacia!

Hope you like this guide and dont forget to comment if you have something in your mind!
GL and HF! :) <3

PROS

+ Strong early game
+ Sielence
+ Insane burst
+ Good end game 1v1
+ Fast turret destroyer
+ Even without buildin Garen as tank he aint easy to kill

CONS

- Easy to kite
- Can be countered easily with stun's snare's etc.
- Item depedant
- Slow autoattack

Passive

Perseverance

Garen regenerates 0.5% of his maximum health per second after not receiving damage for 7 seconds. The regenerative state will stop if Garen receives damage.

- Some people say that Garen's passive is useless but I can tell that it's really good! Especially in early game, Perseverance is nice regenerate boost and does potion's useless. So more money to the items, less money to potions!

Skills

Decisive Strike

Garen gains 15 / 20 / 25 / 30 / 35 % movement speed for 4 seconds. His next melee attack within 6 seconds will deal 30 / 45 / 60 / 75 / 90 (+1.4 per attack damage) physical damage and silence his target for 2.5 seconds.

- Really strong skill. It has movement increase, amazing bonus damage to next autoattack and very long sielence. It's second skill that you are going to max. Almost in all cases it's best to start your combo with Decisive Strike leading to Judgment. If you can sielence enemy before he can do anything dangerous, your probably going to kill him.

Courage

(Passive): Garen's armor and magic resistance are permanently increased by 0.5 every time he kills an enemy unit (maximum 25 additional armor and magic resist)

(Active): Garen places a defensive shield on himself, decreasing all damage taken by 20 / 24 / 28 / 32 / 36 % for 3 seconds.

- This is tank skill. Only good if you are building Garen as tank, wich is useless. Passive is pretty neat but still not anything that you must have maxed. Active is only thing this skill is even worth of something. Damage decrease is really high but it doens't last really long, so use it in right moment. Example. Darius or Karthus ulti, you can avoid death by countering last hit with Courage.

Judgment

Garen rapidly spins his sword around his body for 3 seconds, removing all existing slows and reducing the duration of new slows by 50%, and dealing 25 / 45 / 65 / 85 / 105 (+0.7 per bonus Attack Damage) physical damage to nearby enemies every half second. Garen can deactivate Judgement early by activating the ability again after 0.5 seconds. Garen cannot use Decisive Strike or Demacian Justice while Judgement is in effect. Damage to minions and neutral monsters is reduced by 50%.

- This skill is Garen's main source of damage. It does insane burst in only 3second's and makes enemies run for their life's! In top of all, if enemies try to slow you it makes slow's last 50% less time. Belive or not, you can use Judgment as escaping tool because if you activate it, all slow's you had are removed and you can use Decisive Strike's movement speed increase when you are spinning with Judgment, yea you can use Decisive Strike in Judgment, you just cant use the attack itself! Don't always belive what skill description's says! ;)

Ultimate

Demacian Justice

Garen brings down Demacian Justice on his opponent, dealing 175 / 350 / 525 magic damage plus 1 additional damage per 3.5 / 3 / 2.5 health his opponent is missing.

- Skill that makes enemies cry in the corner. The damage that Demacian Justice makes is ridiculous. It makes last hitting really easy. Still I see lot of people using it wrong and way too early when enemy has too much hp to be executed by Demacian Justice.

-Skill lvl 1: Use it when enemy has aroun 10% health left for guaranteed kill
-Skill lvl 2: Use it when enemy has aroun 15% health left for guaranteed kill
-Skill lvl 3: Use it when enemy has aroun 20% health left for guaranteed kill

- Demacian Justice requires practising and to master it, you need to give it little bit time. But you can trust me, sooner or later you will know the right time to use Demacian Justice automaticly and makes you really strong and dangerous! I can claim that this skill is one of the best 1v1 ultimates in the whole League! :)

Skill rotation

Normally and almost all the time best skill rotate is:

Decisive Strike -> Courage (Optional) -> Judgment -> Demcian Justice

That rotate is best way to dominate enemies with Garen, it does most damage and makes enemies life hard. When you start with Decisive Strike it sielence enemy so that they can't do anything to escape, plus it does nice amount of damage instantly. If there is more enemies that you can't sielence you can activate courage for countering most of damage they make. And with judgment and Demacian Justice you can easily finish your target faster the anything!

If you know that your enemy is really talented and has skills to think further, he can wait for you to use Judgment and the escape so that they can start kiting you (if ranged champion)
That's when i prefer you to use this rotation:

Judgment -> Courage -> Decisive Strike -> (Judgment if it's ready) -> Demacian Justice

This rotate will make your enemy escape, but with Decisive Strike's movement speed increase and/or with Summoner Spells (Flash, Ghost, Exhaust) you can caught your enemy once again, then sielence and Jugment if it's is already off from cooldown and just burst enemy down fast as possible!

Mark of Desolation

- Best mark for almost every AD champion. I highly recommend these mark's for Garen.

Seal of Might

- Gives you nice amount of AD for late game where you need it most. Flat AD seal's are good too, but I prefer using AD per lvl seals.

Glyph of Focus

- Unusual choice but trust me, by decreasing your cooldowns you can use some of your skills almost all the time if timing is right.

Quint of Strenght

- Great boost to your AD, especially for early game. I bet that you are easily most dangerous champion in early game and you can do massive damage!

Recommended

Flash

- Good to almost every champion, can be used when chasing or when escaping

Exhaust

- Can counter enemies burst and can be use when chasing

Optional

Ghost

- Good when chasing or escaping, but not the best for Garen because Decivie Strike gives you movement speed increase

Heal

- Pretty good for almost every champion. Heal is best when having 1v1 fight because you can trick enemy as he thoughts that he can kill you but I dont like using heal when playing Garen

Cleanse

- Good for escaping but not the best for Garen because Judgment removes all slow's when activated

Ignite

- Good finisher but with Garen's ulti Demacian Justice you can finish everyone easily, I don't prefer using Ignite

25/4/1

I know it does sound wierd.
Anyways belive or not, this is the most effective way to put masteries. It doesn't really make different to the common AD build, just remenber to put 4/4 to Sorcery because you need lower cooldowns for some chanlleging situations. Also remember to put 1 point to Summoner's Insight for lower cooldown on Flash, it can save you, turst me. After the basic offensive tree put last point's to defensive just for more armor and magic resist to make sure that you are to going to get your *** kicked!

Item build's Pros & Cons

Pros

+ Very high Attack Damage
+ Great movement speed increase
+ Amazing crit chance
+ Doran's Blade's are awesome to Garen in early game

Cons

- Very expensive
- Doesn't make you invulnerable, since it's not for tanking
- Infinity Edge is really hard to get in early game and requires lot's of farming but it's must to have!

Explanations to the item order

First of all, you need to have one Doran's Blade when game begins. Dont worry about potions because you dont have mana and you passive Perseverance is replacing potions well. When you do Recall for first time, try to have money to buy Boots of Speed and another Doran's Blade. With two Doran's you get enough AD for easy dominating in your lane, but for movement speed you still need to get Berserker's Greaves for additional attack speed and faster movement speed. After that come's the hardest part. Your next goal is to buy Infinity Edge. However there is two ways to start gathering pieces to Infinity Edge. You can instantly start farming money of B.F. Sword to get the most expensive item straight away, OR if you are having problems in your lane, you can start with Pickaxe and easily get huge AD boost right away. I do still recommend to start with B.F. Sword if you are doing well. After Infinity Edge i prefer to get Frozen Mallet because of the slow it does. It makes chasing even easier to Garen. Frozen Mallet does give you health and can be classified as tank item, but it still does give you extra attack damage and well, if they offer you more health then why not? Rest of the build is basically 2 Phantom Dancer's because you need the high amount of crit chance those item's will give you. Plus with 2 Phantom Dancer's you will run like an animal! I do still prefer buying something between those Phantom Dancer's, to not forget AD. There is many thing you could buy like Bloothrister ( Wich I like because of the huge amount of AD it will give you), Atma's Impaler ( AD scales from your health pool, pretty good but vetter for offtank's), Black Cleaver (Great decision too, I will recommend it for you if enemy team has two or more tank's) and some other AD items.

This one is must video to watch if you want to know everything about Garen!

Play Video

Haha maybe not ;)
Anyways this is the end! I really appreciate that you have readed my Garen guide and I hope that you can get something new out from it!

Have good time with Garen and play well! :)
Sincerely Dequ <3