Garen Build Guide by Murod

Introduction

Hello everyone. I hope you like this build, I have gotten some very nice results with it and hoping you will as well. AND ALWAYS REMEMBER KIDS SPIN TO WIN :D

Why build tank garen

Well lets see where to begin

Garen naturally leans toward being a big burly tank. if you dont believe me then ive got one word for you. Perserverence. now people say that offtank and pure AD are more viable builds. Now ill give those builds that they make the early game much easier and do pretty well if your plan is to make them surrender at 20

now what they lack is the lastability that tank Garen has. a game where both teams had a Garen one tank and one AD. now the AD one come late game dropped like a fly several times. However the tank one single handedly went in took out an inhibitor, then got dropped everyone pentakill and all, and then proceeded to beat in both nexus turrets before casually winning the game. How? because he had the health the armor and the resistance to do it.

Pros / Cons

Pros:
Nice bursting through out the game
Near untouchable late game
Amazing canidate to initiate teamfights as well as Baron
Often times will hear Q.Q from enemies making the match that much more fun (had a Fizz complain about me killing a Graves who tower dove my Warwick when all i did was Ignite him)

Cons:
Relativly rocky start (my only deaths tend to happen in the first few minutes before you start packing on the HP)
if you dont adapt you will be a giant meal for the enemies
lacks the CC that other tanks have like Amumu Rammus and Alistar

Items for the game going well

Mercury's Treads- my favorite boots hands down. i often grab them despite my enemies lacking cc i just love that early magic resist makes that alister go crazy ya know.
Warmog's Armor- Standard tank i want health item etc etc you know the drill.
Atma's Impaler- an easy way for a tank to slip in some easy attack damage while still stacking armor
Force of Nature- bonus regen and magic resist? its every tank Garen's dream. Stacks oh so nicely with his passive dont ya think although by this point your passive probably wont be kicking in to much.
Banshee's Veil- hey Karthus thats a nice Requiem you casted there, to bad i just blocked it
Frozen Mallet- Health+AD+ on hit slow = very good

POSSIBLE REPLACEMENTS

Boots of Swiftness if the enemy team isnt very cc heavy or they aren't smart enough to use them properly or if the enemies have say a Teemo and you want nothing more then to give him a greatsword facial? Then grab these you'll love them.

Thornmail- swap this instead of your Force of Nature when there Malzahar is sleeping and Vayne and Master Yi are the only hope their team has of winning

Sunfire Cape- ever wonder what would happen if Garen decided to be like Summon: Tibbers? Well wear this and you basically have your answer. Extra health and a passive that burns your enemies each second, TOASTY :)

Randuin's Omen- since Garen doesnt use mana or any form of it (i.e. stamina , rage) CDR thats built in with tanky items are very good for you. In jumps Randuin's Omen. CDR, Health , Armor, And a couple effects to stomp out those pesky right click to win champions. MI GUSTA

Aegis of legion- magic resistance with extra health and a bit more attack damage. If your team doesnt have one get it.

items for the bad game

Mercury's Treads- Same reasons as above.
Warmog's Armor- Same reasons as above, this is the only item that guarenteed must be in any of your matches. all others can be changed at preference.

And now is when your inventry gets situational. Are you fighting Ryze, Brand, Gragas, Karthus, and Annie? First off good luck with that second off kindly grab a Force of Nature. Is the enemy team Master Yi Teemo Twitch Pantheon and Tryndamere? get the Thornmail and again good luck.

Summoner Spells

My Choice

Ignite-Great for getting that last junk of damage on them before they get you into range of their towers

Flash- In my opinion the most useful summoner spell out there. need to escape over a wall flash has your back, gotta bypass a tower to smash a barly breathing enemy flash in and smash away, or maybe you wanna get behind them and throw off any plans they had what do ya do? you flash

Possible Substitutes

Teleport- good for getting into the bush fast for the start of a game and nice if your gonna have to solo a lane. A good choice depending on how your team is composed.
Cleanse- stop all the CC
Exhaust- nice way to stop that Teemo that always zooms by
Ghost- used to run this with ignite. a good Flash substitute. it cant go through any walls but its not gonna make you run clean into one if you use it to soon. it comes down to preference

IF YOU USE THESE GET OUT NOW
Garrison- sorry this is summoners rift gtfo HAXORZ
Clarity- wrong champion buddy garen has no mana
Heal- No..Just no...not with garens passive its not needed
Revive-....Seriously...stop feeding already so you dont have to use this waste of a summoner spell
Smite- Get out of the jungle
Promote- You dont need to make a minion tank you are the tank
Clairvoyance- your not a support. if no one on your team has it and your paranoid then go for it i guess.

Skill Sequence

Start off with a point in Decisive Strike. if you get the first hit off in the beginning of the match then you opponent can only retaliate with basic attacks and odds are your basic attacks will have a bit more of a punch to them. after that point you wanna start putting points into Judgment. put a point in Courage at level 4 and leave it there. upgrade Demacian Justice at levels 6 11 and 16. after Judgment is maxed go to Decisive Strike and then to Courage

how you should fight come mid and late game

theres 2 combos that i use. when 1v1 or 1v2, relativly small fights initiate with Q Decisive Strike then use W courage and then chase them down with Judgment and Ignite or Demacian Justice depending on if you can still chase them or how much health and armor they have. why use Courage second? because what commonly happens is that they will not be able to react fast enough to a giant screaming man with a sword darting at them at top speed with the intent to murder. by the time they react they can only basic attack and then you kick Courage on and then all hope of scratching you is lowered. and then the spin and the murder and then kills for Garen :D

in a larger scale fight initiate with Courage because they will see you and will be able to react to your presence. then you dash in with Decisive Strike being sure to target either the squishiest target on the enemy team or the one who is very spell reliant to deal damage. since the silence is garens main cc be sure to use it to shut down any assistance from say a Sona or Brand causing their damage output to be cut down for a second or two or making sure the damage your team does stays there. now with your ult you wanna target low health champs that are sneaking away or tanks who are a little under half health. the reasons are for a secured ace and to make their Amumu or Rammus that much more killable

Runes

Any suggestions on rune edits would be greatly appreciated. Im pretty clueless when it comes to them so please feel free to help me edit this section

For seals i grab health per level. this helps Garen by giving him more hp in the long run as well as having enough of a presence to give him a bit of early game survivability(at level 6 one of these seals will give you more health then 1 of the flat health seals). also these seals cost less IP then flat health seals.
Marks i went with AD per level. This is so his damage doesnt slow down as the match goes on which is a problem some people have as Garen when being a tank.

quintessence i use armor for because as tank Garen theres no such thing as to much armor

And for glyphs be sure to make them magic resist to help protect against the anoying early game mages

Edition Log

12/18/11- Release date =D
12/19/11- edited rune section. added explanation as why be a full tank garen.
12/25/11- changed seals from fortitude to vitality. made appropriate text changes as well
12/26/11- added a brief team fighting or a small fight guide
12/27/11- Added a couple more items that can be considered. Randuin's Omen aegis of legion and Sunfire Cape. Fixed typos i noticed.
7/7/12- Added a full tank and an ad brawler focused build.