Pro:
- Nobody can play against it in low elo.
- High damage even if tank.
- Execution with ultimate (You can see low elo player try to flash your ultimate).
- Easy to learn, the most tank build can help the first few times.
- Courage skill if use rigth, can half the damage taken, can help you for all in at level 3.
- Strong against CCs if you use well Courage.
- With God-king Garen skin, you have a big cat.

Cons:
- In high elo you need to learn how to use all you kit perfectly to avoid losing the game.
- Only one single-target CC.
- Easy to be kited.
- Weak against CCs if you dont use well Courage.
- You need to pay 1820 RP to buy God-King Garen.

"...You spin me right round, baby Right round like a record, baby Right round round round You spin me right round, baby Right round like a record, baby Right round round round..."

Ok, let's look at the abilities one by one and how to be an helicopter.

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"Garen regenerates 2 / 8% of his maximum health per 5 seconds after not receiving damage for 9 / 4 seconds (at levels 1/11). The regeneration increases to 4 / 16% maximum health per 5 seconds when Garen is below 25 / 50% health (at levels 1/11). Until level 11, the regenerative state will stop if Garen receives damage from any source other than lane minions. After that, Perseverance is also no longer removed by non-epic monsters." This ability grant an incredible sustain in lane, you can restore a lot of HPs simply by avoiding enemy damage(minions doesnt count).

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"Garen removes all slows on him and gains 30% movement speed for 1.5 / 2 / 2.5 / 3 / 3.5 seconds. His next melee attack within 4.5 seconds will deal 30 / 60 / 90 / 120 / 150 (+0.4 per attack damage) physical damage and silence his target for 1.5 seconds. This attack can critically strike." COOLDOWN: 8 Decisive Strike is Garen's main ability to do damage. In Lane, use it on the enemy whenever Grasp of the Undying is ready. bonus speed and silence, will make harder for the enemy to respond to the trade. Do not forget the removal of the slow, against champions like Darius Camille etc ... Is very useful to escape from a trade that you are losing.

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"Passive: Garen permanently gains 0.25 bonus armor and bonus magic resistance every time he kills an enemy unit, up to a maximum of 40 bonus resistances. Active: Garen reduces incoming damage by 60% and has 60% Tenacity for the first 0.75 seconds. For the rest of the 2 / 3 / 4 / 5 / 6 second duration, Garen reduces incoming damage by 30%." COOLDOWN: 24 / 23 / 22 / 21 / 20 As we said earlier, this ability is very difficult to use well. The bonus that gives is incredibly strong, reducing CCs and damage allows you to engage without being stopped or survive a fed assassin. Reducing ALL of the incoming damage by 60% then 30%, also protects from tower shots in a tower-dive at low levels.

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"Garen rapidly spins his sword around his body 5 / 6 / 7 / 8 / 9 / 10 times over 3 seconds (permanently increases every 3 levels), ignoring unit collision and dealing 14 / 18 / 22 / 26 / 30 (+0.36 / 0.37 / 0.38 / 0.39 / 0.4 per attack damage) physical damage per spin to nearby enemies. This damage is increased by 33% when striking a single target. Enemy champions hit 4 times have their armor reduced by 25% for 6 seconds (hits after the 4th refresh the duration) Garen can deactivate Judgement early by activating the ability again after 1 second, which reduces the cooldown by the remaining duration of the spin. Garen cannot use Decisive Strike or Demacian Justice while Judgement is in effect." COOLDOWN: 9 Mmmmhh... Spin to win rigth? When you spin, break armor, deal damage, avoid collisions from the Minions and if you stop it first, it reduce part of the cooldown ... Need more? However, this ability is to be used between two Decisive Strike, the second one, will do much more damage (thanks to the armor reduction done by Judgment) and can set you up for Demacian Justice. So ... SPIN TO WIN GUYS!!!!

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"Passive: Garen marks the enemy champion with the highest killing spree as the Villain, causing his basic attacks and each spin of Judgment against them to deal 1% of the target's maximum health as bonus true damage. The mark cannot be assigned to another champion while Garen is in combat with the Villain. If more than one enemy has the same bounty, the enemy who received it first is marked as the Villain. Active: Garen brings down Demacian Justice on his opponent, dealing 175 / 350 / 525 magic damage plus 28 / 33 / 40% of the target's missing health. If his target is the Villain, Garen deals true damage instead of magic damage." COOLDOWN: 120 / 100 / 80 Well ... Finally we talk about Demacian Justice, the most aesthetic ability of all League of Legends ... I do not think we need too many words to describe it ... See someone just a little bit of life? Press "R" and ... BOOM The passive of Demacian Justice marks the enemy champion with the highest killing spree as the Villain, against him, your ability deals true damage, so you can more easily stop enemies who are snowballing. The Villain marks become bigger and brighter when the enemy can be killed by Demacian Justice, so ... press R on him and read the chat.

Now let's talk about the primary runes. Resolve, is for me, are the best on Garen.

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Grasp of the UndyingIn my opinion is the best choice for Garen. Every 4 seconds deal damage based on your life, heal yourself and earn permanent HPs, all things that garen needs. All of this allows Garen to win Lane trades and greater sustain during the early game. In late game deal 4% of your maximum life with an AA, increase the initial damage that garen already deal. (Garen with 3000 HP's deal about 120 bonus damage, and heals about 60HPs every 4 seconds). So why not?

Garen has no way to immobilize the enemies then .... Useless

Useless, at least until Garen plays in a solo-lane. Leave it to support.

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Demolish helps Garen to take objectives and in splitpushing. Deals 30% of maximun life on tower can guarantee the first tower, or take bonus gold from the tower's plating.

Useless on Garen if you do not build Frozen Mallet or similar (i do not like it).

Useless on Garen, Courage IS NOT a shield.

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Defenses increased after 10 minutes, not bad but I don't like it, i prefer Second Wind or Bone Plating.

Is a must against a poking-lane, Second Wind + Doran's Shield, heals you a lot every time you get damaged by enemys. Giving you the chance to stay in Lane longer and eventually win trade against the enemy.

One of the best runes of Resolve. Mitigate damage during the laning-phase, it gives you advantage over your opponent in early trades.

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Free Hp's? Why not? Seriously ... do you need an explanation?

Leave this to support, ok?

It might be useful, but I prefer the Overgrowth HP's bonus. For the Tenacity we have Courage and Mercury's Treads.

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Now let's see the secondary runes.

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Precision is for me the best choice in most cases.

Help Demacian Justice to execute and the AD bonus is always nice.

Heal and gold when you justice an enemy, allows you to fight longer, and press R again... I love this.

Useful if there are many CCs in the enemy team. Combined with Courage, it can make the difference.

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Sorcery contains other runes that can be useful in some cases.

Mini Hexdrinker at a 60s cooldown is it's a great choice against a strong APC.

After the change, Celerity no longer gives AD bonus, but increase the speed of Decisive Strike, not essential, but can help in some match-ups.

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Inspiration it's great in some cases, mainly when you need to buy items as fast as possible.

Being able to buy items earlier than normal can make the difference between winning or losing Lane, especially in hards match-ups.

Save 300 gold? Yes thanks. Receving the Slightly Magical Boots at 10 minutes (or less if you get kill / assist), allows you to concentrate on buying other useful items for laning-phase.

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Alternative Keystones

"Ranged champions counter Garen", take Predator and, using Courage well, run to him and watch them cry. Very useful to help teammate, you can roam more easily and, with the damage of Predator, you can become a little Hecarim. "How Garen? Do you want to be the Jungler? ... Mmmh ok..."

Assassin Garen with this Keystone, can become extremely oppressive for opponents. After the change, Assassin Garen also finds utility in the unlimited increase of the damage vs champion with few HP's. Press R and watch them cry!

Bonus AD and true damage, not bad but, i prefer Grasp of the Undying sustain. Garen do not need more damage , but with some Match-up can be useful.

Now let's look at the core items of my favourite build. Obviusly this list can changed in base at the situation, expecially the "first-back", when you're behind or it's a difficult lane, the first item will be difensive like Spectre's Cowl or Bramble Vest.

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This is one of the best 1st back in almost all situations. HP's, AD, and movement speed bonus, excellent stats in all bruisers. Phage can become Black Cleaver or Trinity Force, depending on the build you want.

The best 1st back if you are against a heavy AP like Teemo, Swain etc etc..., later can become Spirit Visage or Adaptive Helm.

The best 1st back if you are against a heavy AD with sustain like Tryndamere or Aatrox, inflict Grievous Wounds reduces all healing received by 40%.

Rush this item against a champions that relies heavily on AAs like Vayne, Quinn etc etc ... It will allow you to resist the poke and stay longer in the lane.

Rush this item against a champions with heavy CCs and magical damage. With proper use of Courage you can reach 90% of Tenacity.

One of the core of the "Trigage Garen" build, together with Sterak's Gage, allows you to eliminate an enemy carry with only Decisive Strike + Demacian Justice.

One of the core of the "Trigage Garen" build, together with Trinity Force, allows you to eliminate an enemy carry with only Decisive Strike + Demacian Justice. Give you HP's, AD and a great shild against burst, useful on garen who tends to throw himself into the fight without fear.

Too many tanks in the enemy team? We have here the solution for you! Take Black Cleaver and spin on your enemys, you will see their armor crumble under your blows. Order it now, it will be yours at just 3000g! The package includes movement speed bonus every time you inflict physical damage.

One of my favourite defensive item, armor HPs and one very useful passive. On Garen this plate is essential.

Healings increased? Ok give me this item! On Garen, in addition to giving CDR, MR and HPs, empowers a lot Perseverance. So ... Core item!

800 HPs, CDR, 200% Healt regen and a passive that allows you to get back full-HP's in a few seconds with Perseverance and Spirit Visage ... Anything else?

For me, the best way for Garen, is the tanky way... You can become an unstoppable monster!

During the laning fase, try to farm with auto's and use Decisive Strike on your enemy's head whenever Grasp of the Undying is ready.
Decisive Strike silence your enemy for 1,5 seconds, this makes it easier to win the trade.
With Phage the bonus speed can help for escape or engage ur enemy, and Sheen give you a tons of damage when you use Decisive Strike.
Always keep the other lines under control, a good teleport can give you advantage with kills or assists and help your teammates to win the lane.
If you are forced under tower you can easy farm with Decisive Strike and wait the jungler or one error to punish your opponent.
Against the majority of opponents, at level 6, you can kill anyone alone or even win a 2v1.
I know that the wards do not do damage but... BUY THEM!!! Having a vision of the map and be able to locate your and the enemy jungler, makes you win games.
A jungler with few HP, unaware of your ward, do not you find it tasty?
When possible take the Rift Scuttler, if your jungler can not take it.

The role of Garen in fights depends on your build.

Tanky Garen:
If you do not have any champions that can engage in your team, you'll have to do it yourself, so i'd prefer a more tankier build.
Unlike other champions, the way to engage in a team fight for Garen is slightly different.

Since you dont have any CC's or gap closers, try to flank enemy team in order to get the enemy carry.
Garen, with 2 items like Trinity Force and Sterak's Gage, can delete the enemy carry using only Decisive Strike + Demacian Justice, turning a 5v5 fight into a 5v4 for your team... It's like an assassin who can survive in the middle of the fight!!
To do this, you need to learn how to use Courage at the right time, because maximum damage reduction and tenacity last only 0.75 seconds.

Assassin Garen:
If you have chosen the assassin build, play like Zed or Kassadin, try to get good picks, and go on enemies out of position.
If you are fed, you can defeat almost everyone in 1v1.
Assassin Garen does not have the mobility and the escape ability of the other assassins, but compensates with his resistancea and HPs.
Thanks to Courage, Trinity Force and Sterak's Gage you will have many HPs compared to other assassins, this will allow you to survive longer, so you can face extended trades and resist an AD burst damage ( Talon Zed Rengar etc...).
Thanks to Maw of Malmortius you will face champion like LeBlanc, Fizz Kassadin etc... without fear of being killed!

This is a simple example of Garen's "combo".
Riven is a champion who could mitigate the damage of our Demacian Justice with his Valor, but thanks to Decisive Strike, she remains silenced ...and can not be saved from our Demacian Justice.

Here we see how Tanky Garen can, between tower shots and opponents, kill the opponent carry without difficulty.

An hidden Garen skill is "Demacian Bully", this ability consists in psychological bullying your opponent, either low or high Elo, if you use Demacian Justice on the same enemy for 3 or 4 times, this will serve to make your opponent tilt a lot.
This will give you more satisfaction the next time you'll press Decisive Strike + Demacian Justice on him once again.

Like here

Also here

Here too

AGAIN AND AGAIN AND AGAIN!!! When you have finished...

Ok, we have reached the end of this short guide, I hope it will help you to discover this fun champion and maybe climb in ranked. I will try to keep my guide always updated. Thanks to everyone and see you soon!