This guide is my Garen offtank/Tank build. I love playing as Garen, although i am not going to pretend i know the most or am the best at Garen. I play Garen in a very simple manner and i enjoy playing as him. If you dont like this build or playstyle take your comments elsewhere. Garen is a strong champ that has good regen, has a percentage increase to his Magic resist and his Armor. He has quite a bit of health and AD starting off.

Pros
-Can be exceptionally Tanky
-Can survive and escape situations that some other champs cannot
-Monster regen once you have full build
-Really great movespeed
-Still able to do damage even though he is Tanky

Cons
-Doesnt do as much burst damage as an AD build would
-Can be denied by either starving or very early harasment
-Can cause overconfidience
-People seem to hate Garen

The reason I chose to use the Q first is because usually you are going to be solo top. So your either against two people or you are against some high damage champs. Q is an escape tool just as much as it is an attacking tool and it can allow you to survive a level 1 encounter that you might not. If you want to go with you E first for a chance at first blood that is also fine.

For marks I chose flat damage for early game increase. I am not a big fan of armor pen because it gives you a small advantage against champs, but it will be harder to farm. For seals I chose Flat Armor for an early increase. For Glyphs i have chosen Magic Resist per level. that was because most casters are not a big threat until they hit the higher levels. For quints i have chosen Movespeed Quints, which allows him to close the gap and escape quicker.

For my masteries i chose a 9-21-0 because the way i play Garen he is going to be in the front initiating so he needs to eb durable. He needs the juggernaught's lowered disables and the extra health really helps.

My items are for tanking. There isnt really much else about it. Sunfire cape really shines on Garen when it stacks with his spin to win. I usually gte it as my fith item though if you want more early damage i would suggest building it sooner

I chose flash and ignite for summoner's spells. Flash is a good way to escape and close the gap between an ecaping enemy(though you shouldnt really need it) Heal or teleport are also viable as are most other Summoner spells.

This guide is for a tanking Garen, meaning your job is to take damage for your team and to hold enemies in place until your team can get there. It is easy to get kills with Garen, even though he can be Tanky.