Garen is a champion who can solo top very well. But I don't really play him a lot, because his early game is great but must be fed to be effective late game. But still I find him awesome as his damage output if great early game.

Garen only has one CC, but buy him a Frozen Mallet and he will get a slow that is really effective. Also, he is an awesome tank to play! How I usually play him is I run in with Decisive Strike silencing the AP Caster and using Judgment in the middle of the team. The damage by Judgment is absolutely amazing! You could easily get a Double Kill with that much damage. Now his Ultimate, Demacian Justice a great ability to use for finishing off kills.

Some of you maybe saying, why build him as a Tanky DPS? Well, the AD scaling on his Q is very good. And Courage make you a great tank that can withstand a bunch of punishment.

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Pros

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1. Awesome Early game.
2. Great AD scale on Decisive Strike
3. Can dish out ton of damage in teamfights.
4. Easily one of the best solo tops.

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Cons

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1. Garen becomes kinda weak late game.
2. Only one CC.

I love to get a Warmog's Armor + Atma's Impaler. With the HP you get from Warmog's Armor you can dish out tons of damage. You probably won't reach the Infinity Edge but the damage from Atma's Impaler might make you a large threat.

Some Items that kinda work for Garen

- Sheen Wondering why this item it kinda great for him? Well, his Q Decisive Strike will allow him to do extra damage.

- Frozen Mallet Well it's a great item for Garen since he does not have a slow.

- Mercury Threads Grab it when the team is AP Heavy

- Thornmail Great against an AD Heavy team.

- Guardian Angel Also a great item for him as it gives MR and Armor.

You can sell your 2 Doran's Blade so you could fit those end game items. I recommend keeping the The Brutalizer for the damage. Only sell it once you are able to get the Infinity Edge.

You probably could get a Guardian Angel instead of a Force of Nature.

I prefer these runes because you get, Greater Mark of Desolation for Armor Penetration, Greater Seal of Armor for armor, Greater Glyph of Magic Resist and Greater Quintessence of Health for Health that makes you an amazing tank that can withstand tons and tons of damage, while also dealing damage.

You probably could get some Armor Seals, maybe Dodge Quintessence. Also, you could get some Health Regeneration Seals. Cooldown Glyphs will work well.

I pick a 21/9/0 for my Garen. You can probably go for a 9/21/0. But I prefer 21 in offense as when you scale into late-game, you will get weaker. The damage you get from the 21 in offense make you scale much more better into late-game. While the 9 in defense can help you when soloing top lane.

Always grab Ghost and Ignite

Ignite For ensuring that you will get a kill. Effective if there is a Tryndamere as when his ultimate times out the extra few seconds might kill him.

Ghost A great ability for catching up to Champions.

----Optional----
Flash Getting into the Teamfight and using Judgment

Exhaust Gives a nice slow.

Cleanse Use to get out of Stuns, slows etc

Never get these
Heal The passive is good enough.
Clarity Seriously?
Promote Don't ever get this summoner ability.
Clairvoyance Let the support grab this.
Fortify Good for defending towers, but not worth it.
Revive Nobody even gets this ability anymore..

I recommend getting your Decisive Strike first and just silencing the people who are face-checking the bush. I max this skill by level 13.

Grab Courage at level 4 and leave it there.

I love this next ability it is Judgment. Some people call it Spin-to-Win! Yeah it's really good early game, but can be quite terrible late game. But that does not mean that you can't dish out loads of damage. I always max this ability first.

Finally his ultimate, Demacian Justice great ability for finishing off low HP targets. Mainly I use this to finish of the carries. So, if your afraid of people stealing your kills use this ability to your advantage. I level it up when ever it is available.

Yes, you might might be thinking. Why not max out Decisive Strike first? Well this ability has a very good AD stacking, so it already has so much damage. I max out Judgment first because it is an extremely good ability early game.

Highly recommend a Garen + Taric combo. The stun from Taric is long enough for Garen to dish out his abilities. But you could basically do like a Garen + Veigar combo. Both can do tons of damage.

What me and my friend do is, I usually let my friend farm. (But when it is a Taric ur fine to take that farm.) But I do get some farm of course. My friend Veigar will stun, and I will use Decisive Strike and Judgment on the foe who has been stunned.

I will always repeat this process until we get super fed.

When soloing top lane, It's also very easy for you. Use your passive to your advantage.
Build is also the same!

Your role in teamfight is to be the Tank. I've seen loads of people who are playing a Garen just stand back waiting for someone to initiate. It is always recommended for you to initiate other than your teammates doing the initiating. The good thing with you initiating, is that the enemy team will only focus you, while the rest of your team will just crowd around the enemy team and start killing them.

If your in a situation where your soloing a melee DPS like Master Yi it is always recommended that you silence him and then use your Judgment to start wearing your opponent down. By the time he blows all of his abilities his probably at half health. And by then you can just finish them off with Demacian Justice.

If your opponent is a Ranged DPS, remember that you could always catch up to them with Ghost and Decisive Strike. Unleash all of your abilities at your opponent and just do the finishing blow with Demacian Justice.

And finally if it's a AP Caster, just use your Decisive Strike to silence him. AP Casters are really squishy, so you can easily melt him down. And just finish him with your Ultimate.

If your enemies start running away, you should remember that you could grab a Frozen Mallet or just having the Red Buff to slow them down. If it's a Master Yi leave him alone as he can just blow his ultimate to run away.

Overall, the damage for Garen is very, very high. With his Infinity Edge you can dish loads of damage. Tanking with Garen is really easy as you can get in and out of teamfights very easily with his W, Courage.

I find Garen pretty easy to learn. It's really fun to play him when you get fed. The Ultimate is very nice for finishing of kills.

Own it up with Garen The Might of Demacia!

Goodluck Summoners!

--Note--
First guide ever, please give feedback after looking through this.