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"Fear not, I'm Coming!" My DPS/Tank guide on Garen!
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Spells:
Ignite
Exhaust
Ability Order
Perseverance (PASSIVE)
Garen Passive Ability
Introduction
Garen is a fun champion, who is considered the Ashe of Melee. He has been nerfed for no reason in the past by QQers who got owned by a Garen and said he was OP. If your looking for a Tanky Melee DPS that's pretty fun, Garen is the champ for you. And if you're just starting out in the game or are new to Melee champs, Garen is the champ for you. Let's Continue on to this guide !
***2/21/2010, I have unarchived my guide and brought back a new build since the big changes to LoL lately, I hope you guys enjoy, and I will TRY to make more guides soon :)***
Armor Pen Marks and Quints on Garen are flipping OP on him Early Game, combinded to about 32 Armor Penetration when you start the game ! Magic Resist Seals are always nice, as it helps defend from those double bombing Zileans and such. You can swap the seals to HP Regen Flats or "good ol' dodge", your preferences. Cooldown Reduction Glyphs are really helpful on Garen as he is entirely Cooldown Based and some of his cooldowns are a bit long.
Other suggested mastery setups are 21-9-0 or 9-21-0. Use whichever setup works for you !
Before you downvote and rage, the reason I get the Magic Penetration mastery is because it is very helpful to your ultimate and the Sunfire Cape you get in your build, as you're not going to be buying a Void Staff on Garen for Magic Penetration!
Item phase throughout the game: I start off with Boots 1 and 3 health potions, then get a Brutalizer. Soon after I upgrade my Boots 1 to Boots of Swiftness (most of the time). If the team your facing is heavy on magic and/or CC, get Mercury Treads instead. If the team your facing is heavy on Physical Attackers and/or Melee DPS (olaf I.E), get Ninja Tabi. I soon get Phage for some beef. Upgrade your Brutalizer to Youmuu's and get Last Whisper. Then upgrade your Phage into Frozen Mallet. Grab a sunfire or FoN next, then complete your build with Atmas, Infinity Edge , or a defensive item depending on what you got last. My games usually end when I finish Frozen Mallet, but that's what my build is if I continue on. :)
Then I usually top it off with consumables!
OTHER GOOD ITEMS:
+ Rush a Hexdrinker early game if Casters are eating you alive, then you can wreck them back! Sell it late game is it becomes really useless.
+ Bloodthirster - Get this for insane damage late game
+ Sword of the Occult - Get this if your getting kills left and right for more damage.
+ Randuins - A really great item on Garen, get it if no one on your team has it or you need more Armor. Spin into teamfights and activate this to devastate enemy DPS!
+ Haunting Guise - Get this if they have quite a bit of Magic Resist and flack your ult up!
If you guys have any item suggestions feel free to comment.
Judgement is the boss. Get your ultimate whenever you can obviously, at levels 6,11,and 16.
Max Decisive Strike second. This is your main CC when you don't have Frozen Mallet, BAM, a 2.5 second silence! It also helps you escape and chase enemys with it's great movement speed boost. It has great scaling too! I max Courage last, but I get 1 level of it early at level 4. Courage got the nerf bat hard, and I can't really pass up on what Decisive Strike delivers when you rank it up more.
+Fun Champ
+Easy to learn
+Great Early and Mid Game
+Awesome ultimate
+King of Badassery
+Unique
+Insane Damage
+Good Escape mechanisms.
+Pretty tanky.
+Makes people QQ(lulz)
+Cool champ to combo with.
And more!
Cons
-Damage isn't that great late game
-Focused alot
-Low attack speed
-Easy to learn(yes, that is also a con)
-Causes Rage by others and then they QQ on the forums
-If you don't have Last Whisper, Armor Stacking hurts you
-Can't 1v1 well, such as 1v1ing Jax.
-Skills are buggy at times.
Early game, ah, great delight. This is where you shine alot as Garen. Try to lane with an aggressive partner, such as Sion, Taric, Xin Zhao, Pantheon, etc. that can help you get kills. Hurry to your lane, and hide in a bush with your partner so you can try to ambush the other team's laner(s). Kill them when you can, and farm up too. You can last hit with Decisive Strike if you want also. Garen's combo is like this; Q<E<W< ignite and/or exhaust to get them lower and catch up with them, then if you have to, ult them for the kill. While in the lane, it's always great to Zone the enemy laners so they lose EXP and Gold, since you have alot of power to do so. Don't know what zoning is ? Watch this video made by a riot employer named Shurelia!:
Mid Game
Mid Game usually starts at around 20 mins. Start ganking lanes and grouping up with your team to push towers. Garen is a powerful force to reckon with. Teamfights start. Playing Garen, in teamfights I usually go in after the tank, because im the Tanky DPS, after going in, I hit Q, silence their main damage dealing caster, follow up to their carry and Spin2win (using judgement), using courage as you will be taking some damage during that. Demacian Justice anyone who is running away from the fight or to finish someone off quickly. During Mid Game, set up some wards in key areas in the map such as lizard buff, golem buff, dragon, baron, and their jungle. These can help you gank them, or to run away from ganks. Gank, or be ganked?!?!? Get Dragon when you can, the buff of gold and EXP is very helpful, as it's worth a few champion kills. And always. PUSH PUSH PUSH them turrets !
Late Game
This is where you start to fall, but you are still a powerful force in the game! Mistakes during this phase can cost games, so it's important to be really smart. You should be finishing up your item build, as the end of the game comes near. The Baron Buff can change the game, so grab it quickly with your team if you can ! With all the damage you have, you can tank and hurt turrets pretty nicely! The game should be ending now, with the enemy nexus exploding, and your screen popping up with victory!
Good luck with this build, as it really worked for me!
Oh and DEEEEEEEMMMMMMAAAAAAACCCCCCCCIIIIIIAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!
I thought this was a cute little picture of how Garen is early game :P
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