Garen Build Guide by lefze

Introduction

so, you want to play garen. theres a few things you must know before you start spinning around with 4k hp and lots of damage. you have to pay attention to your surroundings, where the bushes are, where your enemies are, where your teammates are. well, enough ********. With this build you are guaranteed to kill ppl without paying attention to a **** of the mentioned things above. you will even survive the most challenging enemies, if u have the will to sacrifice some damage for survivability.

please comment, vote, tell me what to change and improve.

i love playing garen for one reason: he can play dps, and still take a lot of damage without really caring. if you get low, just go tower hug for a min, and u have full hp again. but, of course, you have heard all this before, as every guide tells u the same thing, so i wont say much a bout his passive. the other thing that has made me love garen, is that he looks ****ing AWESOM! specially with hes "sanguine" skin, or whatever its called. i decided to make this guide because im bored, so dont expect very much of it. and as u probably have noticed by now, im not very good at english, so excuse my not perfect english. My first guide btw.

Thx to Lakapooty for a lot of needed and appreciated feedback and tips.

I have to say, tank garen is the way to go in my opinion. check out the old top- rated garen guide for the best way to tank as garen. http://www.mobafire.com/league-of-legends/build/your-extensive-guide-to-tanking-as-garen-dps-build-included-63144

Pros / Cons

pros

- LOTS of damage
- Lots of health and a bit armor and mr.
- can lane forever
- often mistaken for a tank (no one cares to try to kill you before they are dead)
- just an amazing champ

cons

- a slight feeling of uneffectivnes mid-game. (this is because your main damage source is judgement, which does damage over time)
- some ppl would miss cdr, but in my opinion, its not needed before youmumus
- nothing else, really.

Runes

My runes are designed to give u a very easy early game. you will have all the stats you need to get a first- blood without dying.

greater mark of desolation : These in combination with your masteries are OP.

Greater Seal of Armor : makes u able to whitstand those squishy ranged ad carries trying to harass you. and makes you able to partly tank minions from level 1.

Greater Glyph of Magic Resist : so, what if the ranged carry isnt ad but ap? no problem, u have plenty of MR to whitstand them too, and make them use 10 spells instead of 2 to bring you down to half hp.

greater quintessence of desolation : Gives you 10 ArP. With your marks and the brutalizer, True damage is almost guaranteed till mid game.

Masteries

Going 15-15-0 for the extra ad and arp in offence aswell as hp, armor and mr in defence.

Items

core items

Boots of Swiftness: These are the best boots for garen. Makes you faster than most, and eliminates the need of Frozen Mallet. IMO. and as you get more damage and survivablity without it, its a good thing. Coststs a lot too, imo.

The Brutalizer: This gives you an INCREDIBLE amount of damage! depending on enemy armor, it might increase your damage by over 10%

Infinity Edge: this item makes it worth auto-attacking. you will notice that your judgement will make you able to kill every squishy champ in the game.

Warmog's Armor: the most important item for every garen, imo. gives you a lot of health, and gives you around 60 ad with atmas. this also eliminates the need of FoN because of the health regen.

Atma's Impaler: This item is very important, as it is half the reason to building warmogs armor. gives you a nice armorboost and a lot of crit hance. most important, it gives you up to 60 ad with warmogs at full stacks. also, you should sell your dorans blade when starting on this item, if needed.

The Black Cleaver: You will probably never get this far, but this is a great item lategame. you will deal TONS of damage and eventually deal true damage again if the enemy has built atmogs/zhonyas. You can get this earlier if you are having a hard time killing people.



Optional items

Thornmail: if you play against a physical team get this.

Force of Nature: if you play against a magical team, get this.

B00TS: If you play against a physical team, dont buy boots of swiftness. you might want to change them to Ninja Tabi or mercury treads if yoy play against a magical team.

Skills

Perseverance: The best passive in the game, imo. lost some hp, eyh? well, go hide for 10 sec, and you have enough hp to last one more fight. When you have completed your build,this will heal you for 20hp/sec.

Decisive Strike: This is the ability you willbe initiating with because of the speedboost+silence. With a complete build, this will hit for about 540 dmg. But its mainly because of the silence+spedboost you will be using this.

Courage:This is one of he best skills in garens arsenal. Not for killing, but for survival. With this you can just spin right in to 5 ppl 1 sec before your team, pull back after 3 sec, and your eam will handle the rest.

Judgment: AMAZING abiity. Some guides says this ability fades later on in the game, but the fact is, that you can deal up to 3k dmg in 3 sec with it. It can crit, and if you crit on every hit, you will hit for 3k. you are guaranteed at least 2.5k dmg 90% of the times youactivate this. and the cd is really short too.

Demacian Justice: This is what makes people fear you the most. if your team tries to kill a tank with 5-6k hp, and he is going to survive with at least 1.5k hp, you can just ult him, and hes dead. Does bonus damage calculated on the missing hp of the target. Amazing finishing skill.

Skill Rotaion

i usually just activate Q,W, then spin right into their team and R the lowest person. of course u nees to have ur warmogs before doing that, but i usually have about 5-6 kills by level 10, so you will have the warmogs by level 10-11, hopefully. And to not piss off ur team, please dont ks with ur ult.

tip: when you activate Decisive Strike make sure you are right in front of your enemy, and quikly activate judgement to take full advantage of your speed boost.

Summoner Spells

use the summoner spells you feel comfortable with. But if u choose other spells than i have, u might wanna change the masteries a little.

Flash: Imo this is superior to ghost, so i allways pick it. Good for initiating and cathing runners, if you pick exhaust aswell, which i allways do.

Exhaust: This is a must without mallet. Great with flash.

Best lanemates. Ever.

Team Work

I prefer to allways have 1 or 2 mates in my team that i am on skype with for co ordination with the support and warding etc.. But if you arent as lucky as me, and dont have friends, ur kinda screwed, But theres still some kind of hope for ur lame life. Just stay in your lane and last hit minions and say ss ehn needed. Dont push farther than your lanemate wants to, and share the kills with him as long as its not an tank/support.

Farming

With garen, farming isnt that important, as he isnt item dependant, exept for when it comes to Warmog's Armor. But still, that doesnt mean you shouldnt farm whenever yu can. When you get sunfre cape, you should be able to judgement a whole minion wave in 3 sec. Also, your Decisive Strike is great for last hiting minions.

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