Pro:
-Melee Unit with good DMG
-Good directly Support
-Enemy cannot ignore you
-Counter Champion
-Hard on Midgame

Neutral:
-Medium early
-Medium late

Contra:
-No high HP
-Problems with ranged champions on early
-Problems with tanks on late

First - My english is not very well, so i will try my best!
Second - Im new to lol, only lvl 12, but i like this kind of playstyle with Garen. So i want to share my experience to new players.

Third - Everytime someone say to me "you must play Garen on Tank!" - but... i dont really want him to played only as tank.... So, lets try it without tankybuild!

A little bit about the lore... okay lets read. what is there:

GAREN IS A ****ING KILLING MACHINGE - BREACHING ENEMY ****ING LINES!!!!!

thats the feeling i want to give with this small guide. only for normal players, for ranked i had no experience and dont know if its work.

These are really important.
We had here Flash and Exhaust.

Flash is nice to get into a fight, the good thing about Garen is, that you can do a lot of burst dmg. Especially in early game. So you can stay on 5-10% health when your enemy is on the same, flash into the enemy, silence him and than you can spin or execute and normally the enemy would be dead... If not -> bad choice to attack!

Exhaust is more important. As you know, you can kite Garen very well. Especially in early and midgame. In Lategame you should be speedful enough that you can reach an enemy.

Normally you will dominate the early game on toplane with Garen, so you want to kill someone. Hunt him down and on low health when he trys to get away -> Exhaust and kill. Normally it will be first blood with an offensive playstyle

The main attribute of Garen is his ****ing POWA!

AD and Crit is the most important thing for you.
Garen got a high health, so you dont need tank items. He got good armour, so you dont need to buy him something like that.

If you play against a Champion like VI, who does AD damage and penetrate your armor, dont waste your money on buying armor items to negate their attacks. It makes no sense. Vi is one of the Toplaner who can become bad for you. So, stay on AD.

Movement -> movement is really important for Garen, you need the boots to stay near the enemy. Without this, you dont need to push it

Attack Speed -> i want to try it, but at the end i think its not really important. With your Silence and Spin you would make enough dmg. Your normal attacks dont get bonus by your abilitys, so stay on Crit and AD.


CRIT AND AD!

Garen, a "Counter-Champion" in my Opinion. I play him some kind of Semi-Carry. Normally i go to the enemy flank and breach into them.

You can make your silence -> spin -> shield -> silence -> execute and the enemy should be dead.

So you need to hide sometimes when the enemy is pushing with 3-5 champs on midlane, your teammates must push them into the right position. So you can Charge the ADC from behind, silence him, spin. than normally he trys to get away. Slow him with your summoner spell, execute and its done! - If you have luck, Garen still lives. But normally i die with this suicide commandos.

If you play him more safely, you need more gamefeeling about him.

Spell Rotaion for me:

Silence -> Spin -> Shield (silence is over, enemy starts to make dmg and stun you) -> enemy trys to run away -> silence, slow and the next spin would kill him instantly. Normally i dont need my execute to cut him down. Only if i think, the enemy can come around the next corner, so i execute him and fall back. But normally it would be done

He can easily dominate the early game, if played right. There are some enemys who will make you some problems. But Garen, for me, is more like a "counter Champion" - If the Enemy makes a failure, you need to grab this failure and kick him in his butt. But you need a feeling for the enemy and what he wants to do against you.

If you have an aggressive enemy, stay a little back and do tower diving, if the enemy dont get near your tower ,because he is a ranged hero, you need a little bit help of your jungler. But with the Tank-Garen you would have the same problem. Something what i mostly do... let him in tower range, knowing that he falls back. And shortly burst him, but for this you need level 6 because you need to execute him. Your health will go down on 10-15% but for an good play, risk must be planned in your attack.

If you have an defensive enemy. Push him back, stay near the tower - fall back again and push him, when his minions are out. In this playstyle you will get only in the first minutes kills ,because the enemy wants you to his tower. But dont let you trick, normally you will dominate the enemy and you need to hit him on the mid of the toplane. Down to 20-30%. Than you can kill him on tower - but its very risky. My favorite playstyle



Items:
In the early game i try with Dorans Blade and Dorans Shield.

Dorans Shield is my favoured. Dorans Blade got +7 Dmg, +70 Health and +3% livesteal.
So normally you would pick the Blade. But the Shield gives your more mobility, you can stay back and your health will regain, if you have Dorans Blade - you must attack minions or champions to get some health back, and the health rate from the shield is better.


Movement Item:
Boots of Speed
Boots of Speed is nice, but only if your enemy is faster than you. With your Decivise Strike you can catch him normally. But if they bought boots, you need to buy them too. So that they dont get out of your Range. If they dont buy boots, dont buy them!

DMG Items:
This depends on the Situation. If you have an AD Hero as opponent, you go to Bloothirster. the Bloodthirster will give you a Shield who will save your live really often, in early mid and lategame.
If your enemy is an AP hero, you go on Maw of Malmortius or on Mercurial Scimitar.
I prefer the first on early Game. Because the enemy had to deal with that shield, you stay longer on your line and can go back. Its easier to use for newer players. Mercurial Scimitar is nice too, but more for experienced players who know when to use it.


Stats at the end of early game:

1300-1500 HP
130-160 AD DMG


Items:
Bloodthirster or Maw of Malmortius/Mercurial Scimitar
Dorans Shield
Boots of Speed / or going to next Weapon!


Midgame Starts

The Midgame is for Garen some kind of DMG-Support.
You dont want to get into the frontline, but you want to make some Damage, so you need your teammates to get the enemy near and use the failures of the enemy in their movement.
In an 1on1 you should be able to kill every enemy in this time. Especially some single heroes not, but normally you shouldnt have a problem in a direct 1on1. You Spin should be do now 300 critical dmg with 150 normal dmg.

In this Game, you need the Boots of speed, Infinity Edge or normally some Items like Mercurial Scimitar, i prefer Infinity Edge over the Mercurial in this time. So your DMG will be upgraded to 210-230. So your crits will do 500DMG.

but you must focus on dmg Items. Slowly when it goes to lategame, you will have some problems with ADC's, because they can kill you really easy. But for them, you have FLASH and your silence. Combinate them and you will instantly kill one of these freaks. So ADC should be no problem.

At the End of Midgame, you should have 2,2-2,5k HP and do more than 250 DMG with 30% critical.

So lets go into lategame!

As Tank-Garen, you normally stand there and the enemy can ignore you... i mean... you do 150 DMG, can make a 1,5 second silence and... uh wow an execute! AWESOME!....

Its some kind of ******** to play Garen like a Tank. He is no Tank, he is a massive plate armour wearing, wielding a two handing ****ing big sword!!!!

In Lategame you need to show, what you prefer to do, its open because it depends on the situation. If you see, that every enemy dominates you because they overdo dmg to you, you need to buy 1 Tank Items, like Randuins or something like that. But if you dominate the early and midgame, you normally dont need to buy something like that.
So get the idea of tank items out of your head.
Buy Items with +60-80 DMG, or go to Frozen Mallet, because of +700 and the slow effect on enemys. Should be really nice.


At last, my Garen will do - without runes or something:

2,7-3,0k HP
400 DMG - 850/900 Critical
50-60 Armour ( maybe 40% dmg reduce)
90-115 Magic resistence (should be 50-60% reduce)

I wish you good luck with this kind of build!