This is a Garen tank build that I created for my ease of use and for my friends to view it too, so that perhaps our overall team cohesion would be much better. If people actually look at this, any critiques would be nice, but this build seems to work nicely for me. Also, please critique the format or any spelling issues as this is my first guide I've ever actually tried working on. PLEASE DO COMMENT, I ENJOY PEOPLE FINDING PROBLEMS WITH THE BUILD AND WITH OVER 7,000 VIEWS SOMEONE HAS TO SAY SOMETHING!

12/14/10- EPIC Sunfire nerf, no longer viable to stack capes so Garen can actually main tank with this build, offtank or go with just slightly beefy DPS.

NOTE: DISREGARD ANYTHING THAT IS ITALICIZED, IT IS OBSOLETE AND THUS CANNOT BE INCLUDED FOR A PROPER GUIDE. It was left to give ideas as to what Garen was before and how he has changed to now.

Change Log
12/14/10 - Added Change Log :P and To Do List
12/14/10 - Complete revamp of runes, added and changed introduction, added patch notes with appropriate changes to Garen, changed Summoner spells but not in guide
1/26/11 - Updated Item build, still need to write explanations.

To Do List
-Finish writing Items part of Guide
-Add list of other appropriate summoner spells
-Change images and descriptions for new summoner spells
-Completely revamp items

Patch Notes
12/14/10
-Decisive Strike attack damage ratio increased to 120% from 100%
-Decisive Strike base damage reduced to 30/45/60/75/90 from 40/60/80/100/120
Judgment
-Base damage per second changed to 60/90/120/150/180 from 30/70/110/150/190
-Scaling increased to 100% per second from 70%
-Now scales off of only bonus attack damage rather than all attack damage
Sunfire Cape
-Upgrade cost increased to 800 from 700
-Passive is now unique

Table of Contents
(Use Ctrl+F and enter the code before the certain heading to find what you want)
Pkt. Masteries
Msd. Skills
Zjd. Choosing Skills and Your Combo
Uwd. Runes
Rau. Summoner Skills
Wos. Items!!!

Pkt. Masteries

9/21/0
Rationale: Garen really shines when he can take a lot of damage, while being able to dish out a lot himself. With 21 in the defense tree, he's pretty tanky and hisbecomes much better, while 9 into Offense and gettingadds an extra amount of damage to. With the 9 points in Offense, he also gets an additional +2% chance to crit, which adds a little bit more damage to this build.

Msd. Skills

Perseverance (Innate): Garen will regenerate 0.5% of his maximum health per second after not taking damage for 7 seconds.
Notes: 2.5% HP/5sec = Major lane staying power in the beginning, especially when it is coupled with the threeI told you to get. :)

Decisive Strike (Active): Garen's speed is increased (15/20/25/30/35%) for the next 2 seconds, and his next attack deals 120% (100%) base damage plus bonus damage (30/45/60/75/90)(40/60/80/100/120) and silences the enemy target for 2.5 seconds.

Notes: Primarily used to initiate or get away, you generally want to use this on the closest person to get the other team's attention, then follow it with ato wreak havoc while also causing them to focus fire on you.

Courage (Passive): Garen's armor and magic resistance are permanently increased by 0.5 (5/10/15/20/25) every time he kills an enemy unit.
(Active): Garen places a defensive shield on himself, decreasing all damage taken by 10/15/20/25/30%.

Notes: Makes Garen very beefy, the added magic resist and armor can help you hold off on some items until later, while the damage reduction screams "I'm a fiery tank!"

Judgment (Active): Garen rapidly spins his sword around his body for 3 seconds, preventing any kind of stun, removing all existing slows and reducing the duration of new slows by 50% plus dealing physical damage (15/35/55/75/95)60/90/120/150/180(+35% of Attack Damage)) (40/60/80/100/120) to nearby enemies every 0.5 seconds. The bonus damage is further increased by Garen's attack damage. Damage to minions is reduced by 50%. This doesn't damage invisible minions or wards.

Notes: Still your main damage attack, not as effective anymore due to the loss of sunfire capes and other changes to him... But it does more damage now!
Notes: Main damage attack, stacked with your 1-3to create chaos in the ranks of the enemy. Big attention grabber too, it's really shiny.
Demacian Justice (Active): Garen brings down Demacian Justice on his opponent, dealing magic damage, plus 1 additional physical damage per amount of health (3.5/3/2.5) his opponent has already lost.

Notes: For you WoW players, this is your, finishing off any player who is low on health. If you didn't get it, it's your execute ability and should generally be used on players with <25% health as that normally finishes them off.

Zjd. Choosing Skills and Your Combo

Always, always, always getandwhen you can, as these will help you murder people in the beginning and give you your role of big, bad Garen. When you first engage the enemy you should always start with ato initiate, follow it with aon as many targets as possible and finish someone withbefore anyone realizes what happens and it's already a 4v5. If necessary, useto keep yourself up during the engagement or save it if you feel like you may need to run back to base because the other team ate yours alive.

Uwd. Runes

Armor penetration remains, but yellow is replaced with dodge and blue with flat magic resist! Why? I've grown as a player and don't use Garen with crit anymore... Besides dodging things is always nice and magic resistance helps you with pesky casters.

Italicized is old stuff
Right now, you may be thinking the following:
You: Hey this guy has armor penetration and critical strike! He's not a tank... He's secretly a melee dps!
Me: Oh you, you are quite the saucy fellow. Garen is tanky enough throughout the entire game that these just help with murdering other people who try to defy me.
You: But I'm defying you
-End Anecdote-
Remember, you are a pseudo-tank, you are big, buff and fiery, but you can also do damage since Garen's skills do enough damage by themselves with your. Armor penetration helps to get early game kills and the extra crit also helps too, giving you a headstart on money to become the big beefy tank you aspire to become.

Rau. Summoner Skills

Use this to either escape or finish people off, really a nice spell for any situation.
Honestly, you can't live without it, it helps you in any situation when you're being focused.

Other spells: Nope, these two are just so awesome

Wos. Items!!!

Quick Note: I give you the starting items and after that it is whatever you can afford, meaning that for the next item I only show a Warmog's but you should purchase whatever you can afford on your trip back, whether it be a Giant's belt or the health crystal.
Regrowth pendant! I love this item for beginning game as it allows you to lane forever, especially with your passive.

Health Potion: Just let's you lane longer and I like it's glow.
Warmog's Armor: This give you the necessary beginning health and regeneration for you to be a threat once you pick up your Atma's, also it allows you a few more tower hits for you to flash in and ult them.

CHOICE POINT:
oror
Usually I would go with the Mercury Treads (~60-70% of the time) while all the other times I go with the Ionian boots. My thought process on this is that I hate getting CC'd, even if I am a tank and supposed to be soaking up the damage. As for the CDR boots, it makes your ult's cooldown faster and allows you to execute people more. If you really need the speed, Swiftness will do very well for you, but personally I stick between Merc and Ionian CDR.
Atma's Impaler: This is what makes you a Psedo-tank in that you really aren't as beefy and strong as people would initially think from your HP bar. Yet, what it does for you is provide you with 60+ AD while also providing crit and armor, giving you a large damage boost to yourself. Before an Atma's Garen is very strong and he can easily dominate, this just simply adds to your fear factor.
Frozen Mallet: This adds MORE AD from the HP in addition to the 20 it already provides, giving you more of a damage boost plus the ability to slow people when you need to judgement them. Basically gives everything you could want: Damage, HP, Slow!

After this point, you can go willy nilly on the items you want, the ones above provide all the damage and health you could want. I really didn't know what to put beyond this point because it depends upon your game and the people you are playing against, so use below items with discretion.
Sunfire Cape: Just for old times sake, plus you get some more damage and health with armor and a cool fire effect.
Bloodthirster: This just adds damage and lifesteal, but I honestly didn't know what to put for a sixth item because this build is so expensive. You could go with an infinity edge to help yourself crit more but it's all up for grabs on the sixth item.