Welcome summoners to my personal favorite Garen build of all time!!!

Before we kick things off let me say that these are my PERSONAL thoughts on a great Garen build. I do not recognize this as the best guide ever, or even the worst. If you have any negative thoughts about this guide, please refrain from posting negative things in the comments. If you have any questions on why I chose what I chose, just ask! (If I did not clarify it in the guide)

In this guide I will just cover what I use, and why. This is not a "HOW TO PLAY" guide, but a "HOW TO BUILD" guide. If you are looking for a guide to help you 'PLAY' Garen, I bet there are some good ones floating around.

PS: There is some adult language in this guide, if you have a problem with that, please refrain from reading.

Summoner Spells! Oh summoner spells! These spells are my personal preference, there are other viable spells such as exhaust/ignite/ghost/cleanse/fortify(in certain situations)

[*] Flash! Oh flash I yearn for you, you give me so many kills on those Tristana's that think they got away with their jump... Oh yes, I'll Q speed boost, flash, and ult your sorry ***...

[*] Teleport... I do not like to lose towers, I also do not like to miss out on kills or assists... Teleport is just all around great for getting around, either for offense or defense.

I do believe the runes are pretty straight forward.

[*] Greater Mark of Desolation reds to help with that early game damage for your Spin to Win, since we won't be leveling it up until last.

[*] Greater Seal of Resilience for the obvious armor, because you are a tank. (or a dps?)

[*] Greater Glyph of Warding for the obvious magic resist... See Above.

[*] Greater Quintessence of Fortitude for the obvious health... Again, See Above.

My Mastery build would be a simple 0/21/9... But it's 0/22/8 (yes, I know, evil right?)
I take my final point to finish out Ardor because there were already 2 points in it, and I don't feel you should need Utility Mastery seeing as you are a tank and your carries should be getting the buffs. I'm also not a great fan of Greed because I tend to have plenty of gold when I play. So the attack speed helps.

Allow me to rephrase that thing I said about you being a tank. YOU ARE A VERY DAMAGING TANK! Though you are still TANK... Therefore, I max my W before anything, at level 9 that is an additional 25 armor and magic resistance. I take Spin to Win as my first skill for the awesome harass. (if you have a good lane buddy) I get my Q second for a lot easier minion kills and some decent harass with a dash of silence. I max it second for the amazing speed boost and the oh so helpful silence against those Cho'Gath's!

Oh items... Yes items, the part of this build that makes it so kickass. This item build is also intended to counter a team that is quite even in the aspect of Physical Damage and Magic Damage. I have no specific order of building these items, considering I change it up, building according to the situation. Although what I do suggest is Doran Shield > Boots of Speed > First Full Item > Mercury Treads... Finishing your first full item before using money to finish your boots is so helpful.

[*] Doran's Shield... Health, Armor, Health Regeneration... Yes, great for the lane considering many people like auto attacks as poking... The health regen is also great along with your passive... The last game I played with Garen I didn't have to go back to base until level 12...

[*] Mercury Treads... Magic Resistance is always great, but the Tenacity on these boots plus the active from your Spin to Win gives you a 85% reduction on Crowd Control... Oh yeah, pure amazing!

[*] Wit's End... 40% attack speed, 42 magioc damage per hit, 30 + 20(over time) magic resist... Yes, the ultimate anti-mage weapon...

[*] Sunfire Cape... Health, Armor, 35 aoe dps... I think that's enough said, all of you should know the legacy of Sunfire Cape (if you've been playing long enough)... And the history of it with a Garen :)

[*] Hexdrinker... The SECOND ultimate anti-mage weapon... Damage, magic resistance, and when you get low enough you basically get a banshee's veil!

[*] Frozen Mallet... Damage, Health, Slow on Hit... What more for a tank (that's also a dps...?)

[*] Wriggles or Atma's?... Take wriggles if you don't have a jungle, or people putting down wards... The ward from the use should always be up on Baron, or Dragon, along with the ward it gives armor, damage, life steal, + a nice proc... yeah it's pretty damn nice... ALTHOUGH take Atma's if you have people warding, it gives you a bigger armor boots, some crit that may or may not come in handy depending on your luck, and a nice ad boots that is greater than that of wriggles... (you have over 3k hp... 1% of 3k is 30... Atma's gives is 2% conversion... You are getting over 60 ad from Atma's...

So basically... This Garen will end up doing A LOT of damage, all your items but your Mercury Treads adds to your damage and survivability... You will be very hard to kill...
You will have 189-204 armor (wriggles or atmas), and 175 magic resistance (those include your W passive...) That's a lot considering how much damage you'll be doing... If you play in a viable way (no way is 'correct' I think... many ways to play a champ) you will kick the other teams ***, and carry if your team isn't too great.

Have fun with my guide that isn't too shabby or anything. See ya on the trolling side!