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Garen Build Guide by

Garen Sheen - He is Bi-Spinning - Pro in Depth guide

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2 Comments League of Legends Build Guide Author Wafflejaw

Garen Build Guide By Updated on

Guide Discussion (2) More Garen Guides

Spells:

Flash

Ignite

Ability Order

Garen Passive Ability

Introduction

First guide but don't turn away from it because i have played (correction) 800+ games as Garen and know him in and out. FIRST OF ALL, HE IS NOT A FLIPPING TANK. GAREN HAS ONE CC ABILITY, SILENCE. KATARINA IS NOT A TANK EVEN THOUGH SHE CAN REDUCE DAMAGE FOR A FEW SECS, GAREN CAN DO THAT TOO, BUT THAT DOES NOT MAKE HIM A TANK. Now that that is out of the way, Garen is God mode early game, Epic midgame, and good late game. Depending on how far you get into this build will determine how well you perform. The final item being the icing on the cake. Will explain further. Garen has amazing scaling and most people get used to being useless late game, but this changes now. A few tips

Quoted:

Interviewer: Hello Garen Sheen, are you Bi-Polar, you just quit Spin and a half flip.
Garen Sheen: IM BI-SPINNING
Interviewer: What is your thoughts after quitting your job and becoming a news center?
Garen Sheen: DUH, SPINNING!!!

-writing, stay tuned last edited: 6-24-11 1:53 pm
will add videos on gameplay showing how to play garen.
message me in LoL as W a f f i e j a w (no spaces) for questions/improvements

Runes

ARMOR PEN RED- INSANE EARLY DAMAGE, Can substitute for Attack Damage. See below why
ARMOR YELLOW- For Survival. Remember, you have to live long enough to get your ult down for a kill or damage along with a full silence/spin
MAGIC RESIST BLUE- For Survival
ARMOR PEN QUINTS- More damage, Movement not viable as he can move quickly with Q and get away with it. Attack damage runes are viable.

As an added note: Garen can bring people down from 100% to 0 or very low at level 2 with a long sword and these runes.

Masteries

(1.)21/9/0 or (1.)21/0/9 are the two most viable options on Garen
1. Crit damage because Judgement can crit( see runes section for more info)
2. Either attack speed or minion damage, your choice. i prefer minion damage as Garen's judgement is 50% damage on minions and helps with last hitting.
3. Rest is self explained. Nothing is wasted in offense besides exhaust for filler.
(1.) Defense if you want that chance to get extra speed from 1000 minions hitting you to catch up to people. Also, a bit more armor to help Garen survive.
(2.) Preferred as the 5% experience boost can kill the opposing enemies in lane once you reach level two before them due to Garen's extreme burst of damage. Also, the regen stacks on Garen's passive. Remember, its not 3% more health, its 3% more regeneration.

Items

TO THE FIELDS OF JUSTICE!
Garen may be bi-spinning, but he is not over the law, therefore he cannot get whatever he wants from the store, so we buy one item at a time.

Remember, you have to survive getting hit below 30% to get it's passive working.

infinity edge: "STUPID NOOB, WHY TAKE INFINITY EDGE!? BLOODTHIRSTER GIVES MORE ATTACK DAMAGE WHEN FARMED. YOU ARE DUMB A.F.(ANIMAL FARM)" well why is a good question. Your spins crit for 210% with mastery and now it crits for 260% of attack damage bonus(not base damage) Why did I wait this long to get it? WELL, BECAUSE IT IS EXPENSIVE, AND CRIT IS USELESS ON GAREN UNLESS HE HAS A GOOD AMOUNT OF AD ON HIM. By this time, you should be hitting 1k autoattacks on minions, which turns out to be a lot on champions, but not 1k obviously (maybe squishies with no armor) now your spins do double damage, just think of it like that.
**********WHY DID YOU PUT WARDS AFTER INFINITY EDGE?! I GOT NO SPACE?!: it is a reminder to be constantly buying wards until you have no space.
-Get some elixirs as this will help you in combat. more specifically the red elixir. I reccomend oracles if noone has it as this can help you get a safe baron kill, plus you are relatively tanky.
-Ghostblade: "why after elixirs/oracles?" well, because garen does not autoattack that much, but he should now hit like a jedi, slicing people in half. This is mostly use if the enemies survive your combo, and you need to quickly kill them. This gives you slightly more armor pen, crit, and cooldowns. The active makes you faster and gives you attackspeed. Remember, even though your autos may hurt more, you want to throw out a strong multitarget spell that can hurt more than one person, plus reduces slows and cc on you. Also, your decisive strike may not hurt as much as an autoattack by end game, but it silences which helps a lot.
--GUNBLADE!!: ITS OVER NOW, I MEAN IT!! "wtf Garen why u got a gunblade, thats flipping AP, and you are just ad" WHOA WHOA WHOA. now for this item you have to sell an item.(looks at hexdrinker) sorry, but you have to sell hexdrinker for this, only buy if you can afford the cutlass part entirely, preferably the entire thing. Hexdrinker loses its touch endgame, but is replaced very effectively by this. NOW WHY?!! SPELLVAMP, AD, ACTIVE!! WOW. Spellvamp will slightly heal you on judgement and you will see a big heal when you ult a low hp target. never forget your ult hurts as much as a fed ap ultimate. Also, lifesteal will go crazy on your Q. You may hit as hard as/harder than a farmed nasus now with your Q. More importantly, your Q gives you health back(dont forget your autos now heal you for a ton, but dont forget you can die easily in this part of the game). With its active you can catch up to those pesky runners like teemo or something, or escape with its active. After this a teamfight should end the game so buy all the elixirs you can afford.
--

Skill Sequence

SPIN,SPIN,SPIN,SPIN,SPIN
OK, i have seen other Garen guides and they start with judgement but mock decisive strike. Of course that does a ton of damage BUT you will get hit back or stunned or slowed when doing it, minimizing it's effectiveness. ALWAYS Get decisive strike first as it does about two ticks of judgement for just a quick poke(not counting autoattacks)
--"BUT WHAT ABOUT IF I FIGHT AT LVL 1?!" well, this is very possible. If they initiate try to hit and run away, but this is not always the case. If they go up to you autoattack(look for the damage) then immediately use Q then do another auto attack. This will do more than half their hp and most likely scare them away, or if they dont you will most likely kill them or be killed, so back off because your cool downs are down and you shouldn't waste hp fighting without an advantage.
--if you don't fight, try to run up and poke them with Q using bushes or going up to them. they cannot retaliate if they are silenced. The only way they can is beforehand.
--Level two+ level up judgement to the max, then decisive strike the rest( getting ultimate whenever available) Courage is optional, but only ONE rank in it at 4. You should not be taking a lot of damage so this should not be needed. If you level up judgement then decisive your burst will be extremely strong and most likely kill them.
*****remember that judgement takes three seconds to complete, so a partner who can snare or stun enemies is extremely useful. a slow is not as useful, but can help you get up to your enemy.
---Your ultimate should be used if you know for sure that you are going to die. Remember that you are extremely durable 1v1 as they can only auto attack while you destroy them with a silence spin ult combo. against 2v1, you may die so try to cancel your spin before you die to ult, forcing them to back or die.

Summoner Spells

ONLY TWO WORDS, I WILL EXPLAIN WHY: FLASH, IGNITE.
Why?!?
Flash: MY FAVORITE SPELL IN THE ENTIRE GAME FOR GAREN. This is your free first blood unless someone kills before you can. At level two when you get your spin, harass using your q until about 50-70% hp. Then go in for the kill trying the bushes first, but dont flash if you fail. Instead if you hurt them to very low -ignite them. If you just missed everything, dont fear. walk back and regen a bit(like a min or 30secs). Then walk up to them without q. make it look like you are last hitting creeps. (make sure you click on the enemy champion when walking) walk up to them then push Q, and right when you have enough space, flash in for an instant silence and spin your way to a free kill(or a recall as the only way they can survive is if they make it long enough for the silence to wear off and flash away or have a partner stun you). after doing that, only chase if they are one hit away and close by (i.e. close for an autoattack) then hit them once and if they dont die, ignite and walk back.
Ignite: besides adding to Flash's usefulness, i find this better than exhaust. Exhaust makes you hurt more with reduced armor and a slow/shutdown, but it will not finish off enemies, but it is a defensive spell for other champions. I always ignite ultimate champions because a champion that lives usually gets away with a little bit of hp, this fixes that and basically secures the kill. Also, this counters soraka and other healers from saving their friends as they got ignited(prob heal) Then a fat ult that destroys. Also, this is really good for diving towers as a low hp enemy will die from a ignite ult right immediately basically.This way you dont take much turret aggro and dont leave yourself vulnerable.