Welcome to my guide for Garen, the Might of Demacia. I have been playing Garen since it was released in 2010. Imo he is one of the most fun to play champions out there. This guide is gonna be about tanky version of him.

So, this is the guide for Garen. Best played solo top bruiser with rugged skin. :P

Release date: April 27, 2010
Attributes: Fighter, melee, recommended
Cost: 1350 IP or 585 RP

Pros and Cons of playing Garen:

Pros:
- Good damage early game
- Passive helps you stay on lane longer
- Hard to take down
- Relatively easy to play
- Abilities don't cost anything

Cons:
- No CC
- Lategame damage is low

9x Greater Mark of Desolation
9x Greater Seal of Armor
9x Greater Glyph of Scaling Magic Resist or for better start Greater Glyph of Magic Resist
3x Greater Quintessence of Health

So you have
+12 Magic resist
+13 Armor
+15 Armor penetration
+78 Health

Hard to take down but thanks to armor penetration still hurt.

Buying order:

Start with the Doran's Shield for extra HP and health regen. It will help you to stay on lane longer.
First trip back Boots and atleast 1 Long Sword.
Second trip finish The Brutalizer. It will give you even more armor penetration and damage.

Now Giant's Belt and right after Boots of Swiftness. Turn Giant's Belt into a Sunfire Aegis. Then buy another Giant's Belt and Atma's Impaler. If HP is not an issue you can get swap the order. And next turn your Giant's Belt into a Warmog's Armor. This is the point where the game should be over. If its not then:

Items also to consider:

Ninja Tabi against heavy AD teams or Mercury's Treads against too much CC instead Boots of Swiftness.
Force of Nature - Good magic resistance, health regen and movement speed.
Thornmail - Best item against heavy AD
Youmuu's Ghostblade - Speedbuff + AD + armor penetration + CD. All good things for Garen
Last Whsiper- Some damage and armor penetration. Good item if you feel like you are ot hurting the other team enough and they can just ignore you.

Basicly it is R>E>Q>W

But start with the Decisive Strike. Its good for last hitting and harrasing.
Also Judgment damage at level 1 is too low to do anything.

After level 2 you can start harrasing with your Q+E combo.

What to remember:

Its a good idea to start with Decisive Strike before you activate Judgment. If you silence them first they cant do much back while youre spinning.

Decisive Strike also gives you speed buff. Even if you are already spinning you can activate it to get speed buff from it. You can use it on towers aswell.

Courage can also be activated while spinning.

Judgment can be used to get away or chase aswell. It removes slows and makes new slows last less. Also it can be cancelled early to cast Demacian Justice and finish off your enemy. Even if Garen gets stunned he will keep spinning. So if you know you are getting stunned sure activate your spin before to make some damage back. (A la Udyr chasing you with bear stance etc.)


Demacian Justice can be a bit tricky sometimes. You never know exact amount of damage it does. It does more damage the more HP target is missing so always use it to finish off enemy not at the start.

Ghost and Ignite

Easily the best spells for garen.

Ghost - Q + Ghost and you can catch up with anybody even if they flash. Works great with Judgment

Ignite - This is mostly because ulti is a bit unpredictable. If 10 hp is left its good to have an ignite. Also, when youre are against someone with heal (either summoner spell or ability) and going for a kill, start with the ignite to neutralise it or you might not be able to use ulti finish them off.

Spells also to consider:

Flash instead ghost.
Exhaust instead ignite.
But i dont find these as good as ghost and ignite combo.

As said in the introduction, Garen is best in solo top. He is really tough and can stay on lane for a long time. And because you get good farm and stay bit ahead wih levels you can take the maximum out of your early and mid game dominance.

Keep last hitting the creeps and if enemy comes closer to do the same, harras them with Q+E combo. After that go back and to regen a bit and repeat all over again. Garen's early game is where he truly shines! Just keep on harrassing. In perfect scenario wont let enemy farm and keep them low hp enabling you to get a kill at level 6 the latest even if your jungler wont help you.

Hard to counter on lane

While Garen really dominates the top lane there are some champions you don't want to go against top
1. Renekton - If he is a good one you will have some some trouble. Dash ,stun,pew pew and dash again. If he is not agressive tho and you manage to silence him first he is screwed.
2. Wukong - again, if he is a good one and really agressive you are gonna have a hard time first. A good wukong is pretty even counter for Garen, so don't give him first blood or you are screwed.
3. Olaf - seriously, you need to harrass that guy until he cries first because couple levels and items later he will rip you apart.

Also, you will have hard time against anyone ranged with good reflexes and a lot of patience. Just try to use brush for your advantage. Later with better boots + Q it gets easier.

Well, this is my Garen guide.

Comment/rate and I'll try to update it and go into more detail if i needed.