Garen Build Guide by HaimamooH

When the game starts, I recommend you to take a Doran's Blade with you. The 3 bonuses it gives aren't so "useless" if you take this in consideration:

• 80 health: The little bonus health you need in case that you fall in extreme low health. Also scales well with your passive (your health regen will be higher).
• 10 attack damage: The bonus attack damage which scales very well with the ratios of your Decisive Strike and Judgment. This will definitly make you clear quickly the jungle. (Don't mind the 25% reduction, your masteries and runes compensate for that)
• 3% life steal: The most useless of the bonuses, but still a bit useful. From blue camp to the golems camp, the lifesteal should be able to refund around 60 hp in total. If your leash wasn't so good, this little thing can save you!

---

At your first recall, you should be able to buy Boots of Speed. Make sure they later become Ninja Tabi or Mercury's Treads. And don't forget to get maybe 1 or 2 health potions with your Boots of Speed if you have the gold. Use them when your health drops below 40%.

---

If the game goes well (you can jungle without loosing territory), you should be aiming for an Infinity Edge.

If your team is loosing, and that you're still squishy and can't make enough gold for the Infinity Edge, go for doran's spam. I recommend buying 3 Doran's Blades only tough.

Now for the Infinity Edge recipe order, you should start by the B. F. Sword, then the Pickaxe and finaly the Infinity Edge itself. IMO, you shouldn't recall to buy a Cloak of Agility, because if you do, there will only be 330 gold left until you buy the Infinity Edge itself. You sure don't want to wait 3 hours in the fountain waiting to buy it, so make sure that you have enough gold before recalling. Now its' utility:

• 80 attack damage that scales perfectly with your Q and E
• 25 critical chance, because your Q and E can crit too!
• +50% critical damage, applies again on your Q and E for bonus damage if you crit!

---

Next, you will buy either a Frozen Mallet or an Atma's Impaler. This is your choice, but for me, I always go with Atma's Impaler first. The bonuses it grants just can't be missed: armor, critical strike chance, and an epic unique passive: 1.5% of your max health converted into bonus attack damage. Utility:

• 45 armor for more survivability when you tower dive or go for and ADC, also scale's with Courage's passive.
• 18 critical strike chance to have even more chance to crit with your Q and E (but also your basic attacks, because you can't spin2win forever)
• 1.5% of Garen's max health converted into bonus attack damage. Since Garen naturally has alot of health and that he gains even more health from your items and masteries, this passive will just scale perfectly from the time you buy it until the game is over.

---

After the Atma's Impaler (or before, you decide), you will get a Frozen Mallet. This item gives both survivability and even more power. Utility:

• 20 attack damage, that again, scales very well with your Q and E ratios and your critical damage.
• 700 health for more survivability and as always, scales perfectly with Garen's passive.
• Basic attacks reduces the enemies' movement speed by 40%. This replaces your exhaust when it is on cooldown, easy kills!

---

Were almost done! Now, we need to go for a Sword of the Occult. I bet you're like "DAFUQ?" but change up your mind. Take a look at this:

• 10 attack damage. Low, okay, but its' passive will compensate.
• 5 bonus attack damage per stack. 1 assist = 1 stack, 1 kill = 2 stacks, caps at 20 stacks. So it takes 10 kills to get the max stacks or 20 assists. Since Garen has a finishing ability, you should be able to get the kills quickly. 20x5 + 10 = 110 ATTACK DAMAGE! This item gives the most attack damage possible. You can't miss it! Also, at 20 stacks you get a 15% bonus movement speed, very nice for escaping tight situations or chasing down! On death, you only loose the third of your stacks, but you're the Garen! YOU CAN'T DIE!

---

Finaly the last item of our build, the Last Whisper. I take this even if the enemy team has no armor. Why? because every champion has a base armor which reduces any incoming AD damage. It doesn't give much bonuses, but it is still to consider:

• 40 attack damage, like always, scales perfectly with your Q and E
• 40% armor penetration, which I just explained.

If you do not agree with me, you can swap this item with any other item you would like. It's the only "exception" you can make in your item build.

This is your passive. It will help you trough all the game. Make sure you remember: If a champion attack or monster attack hits you, the passive will stop. It takes 9 seconds until it reactivates. It takes 200 seconds (3mins and 20secs) to regen your total health (if you had 1 hp). As I said earlier, this scales well with your natural high amount of health, your items and your masteries.

---

This is your Q. I put a point in it at level 1 because it has the lowest cooldown and deals as much damage as your Judgment, and since you start at blue, only the big gollem will really damage you, so you need a 1-target spell to kill him quickly. If you decide to go for Judgment, it will take twice as much time and you will risk to die because of it's incredibly high cooldown. This is both an escape and chase mechanism. When it comes time to gank, activate this exactly when you exit the bush. Hit the enemy to silence them so that they can't use any escaping ability (e.g.: Ezreal won't be able to use his Flash/ Heal and Arcane Shift. If you use this ability to escape, make sure you use it exactly after an enemy slows you. What will happen then is that they won't be able to catch you up because you will go 2 times as fast as they go. I max Decisive Strike by level 13 (2nd ability maxed).

---

This is your W. I put a point in it at level 3 to increase my armor. The passive armor bonus is 20%, scaling as always very well with your base armor, items armor and masteries armor. When Courage is activated, you take 30% reduced damage. The 30% damage reduction also stacks with your armor damage reduction, making this spell very effective for tower diving and escaping enemies. With it activated, you literaly become unkillable. At early game (level 7-8), your armor gives you around 50% reduced physical damage. This + your 30% reduced damage from the abilitie's active gives you 80% reduced physical damage! This means you can dive 2 turret shots for almost no health cost! Then you get this health back from your passive, so that you can return jungle or gank another lane. Also, it gives 30 tenacity when it is active, and this can stack with Mercury's Treads. I max Courage by level 14 (3rd ability maxed).

---

This is your E. I put a point in it at level 2 to quickly clear the jungle. This ability deals alooot of damage, and it can even crit! I use this right after silencing an enemy to damage them the most. This can also be used as an escape ability. Let's say a Xin Zhao is chasing you...well nope, if he decides to chase you, he will take alot of damage too, at his own risk of dying. But if you decide to use Judgment while running, take note that you will go slower than your normal speed, because if Judgment hits anything, it will make Garen move a bit slower. To compensate this movement speed reduction, use your Decisive Strike. I max Judgment by level 9 (1st ability maxed).

---

This is your R. Your ultime finishing ability which will make sure the enemy will not escape alive. The cooldown on this ability is very high, so try not wasting it early on an enemy, because it will deal almost no damage and the enemy will think you're a bad Garen, and that's not what we want to happen. Landing your ultimate to make a killing blow is kinda hard, so you'll need a bit of practice. All I can tell is that your eyes will get used to it. I put a point in it at level 6, 11 and 16. (ASAP)

---

Sequence for kill: QE DWR

Exhaust: This will completly shut down the enemy ADC or even APC, and this will also help you ganking by reducing the enemy's armor and slowing their movement speed. This replaces a bit Frozen Mallet and Last Whisper early game. Also, if you have both Flash and Decisive Strike on cooldown, you can use this as an escape mechanism. Better safe than sorry!

Flash: Your Decisive Strike won't always be ready for an escape. You also need this to chase down enemies who jumps over walls like Ezreal, Kha'Zix, Corki, Shen[...]

---

Smite: People will obviously argument saying it is better to swap this with Exhaust. Well, I know Smite's benefits, it can help clear the jungle more quickly, secure or steal buffs, get 10 free gold every minute. Well, that's all it does. Also, late game or in any team fight, this won't help you at all. I think this is a wasted spell on Garen considering he clears the jungle exremely fast and that he has alot of sustain. I'd rather pick Exhaust over it because it has way more benefits. But this is your choice, if you think Smite can help your team more than Exhaust, go ahead and pick it.

Ignite: If exhaust was removed from the game, Ignite would be my official new spell. This clearly helps more than smite, but less than exhaust. I only take Ignite with me when I see an enemy Fiddlesticks, Sion, or any other heavy life steal or spell vamp. champ(s). I don't really use Ignite for finishing off enemies because we got Demacian Justice for that. If you feel this spell would help you more in-game, go ahead and take it.

Ghost: This spell is very useful with or without your Decisive Strike activated. You will chase enemies at an unbelivable speed. Ghost definitly beats Flash to cover more distance, but enemies will most likely use Flash over walls, or just use their ability to jump over walls, like I said earlier. If they do so, Ghost will not help you at all. This is the reason I take Flash over Ghost, but as always, this is your choice on how you want to play.

---

Clairvoyance: This is for your support

Clarity: Our precious Garen doesn't use mana and even if he did he wouldn't use Clarity

Cleanse: You already have your Decisive Strike for that

Heal: Your passive

Promote: Leave this to your APCing Soraka

Revive: Can Garen die? No. Total waste of spell, won't even use it once. Leave this to Karthus

Surge: Garen is fat enough, leave this to Teemo

Teleport: Are you Shen? No, don't touch it.

---

Summoner's Wrath : 1 point for upgraded Exhaust
Brute Force : 3 points for bonus AD that scales well with your Q and E
Alacrity : 4 points for a bit more attack speed for faster jungle clear time
Weapon Expertise : 1 point so that enemies will die more quickly
Resistance : 1 point for a little bit of magic resist.
Hardiness : 3 points for a total of 6 armor, scales with Courage's passive
Tough Skin : 2 points for more survivability in the jungle
Durability : 4 points for more survivability and nice scaling with Perseverance
Indomitable : 2 points for 2 less damage for every attack you receive, extremely usefull early game.
Veteran's Scars : 1 point, same as durability.
Siege Commander : 1 point for destroying turrets more quickly before the enemies come save their turret.
Enlightenment : 3 points in that so that you can use your Demacian Justice more often.
Honor Guard : 3 points for 1.5% total reduced damage. Stacks with armor, MR and Courage's passive
Juggernaut : Increases your max health by 3%, this reflects back on your Atma's Impaler and you gain 10 tenacity, which stacks with your possibly Mercury's Treads and Courage's active. This gives a total of 65% reduced duration of any kind of CC.


You can edit my recommended masteries, but for jungle Garen, this is the most effective IMO.

I use these because they scale nicely with your Decisive Strike and Judgment. Also helps with your auto-attacks


I use these for more protection against APCs. They are more to fear in late game, so it is a better idea to get as much as possible for late game.


I use these for more sustain while jungling and against ADCs. Also scales with Courage's passive.


Greater Mark of DesolationI use these to take out the enemy champion's base armor, so that we can deal almost true damage!

Now buy Boots of Speed with 1 or 2 Health Potions depending of how quickly you cleared the jungle. Now you go back to wolves, then wraiths, golems and then get red. Now go gank any lane you want! No gank occasion? Okay, steal enemy jungle or kill enemy jungler. As soon as you can't gank, jungle, without stoping.

Oh! Enemy bot pushed the lane! What to do for ganking? Simple. Go in the bush, and as soon as you exit the bush, activate your Decisive Strike, silence the enemy ADC, and...E DWR

Do the same for every other lane.

For the rest of the game, leave the laning farm to your partners. If your own teammates steal your jungle, tell them not to, and if they keep stealing it, just go and farm their lane. Also, if you see a lane with no partners in it, go hold it quickly. Only last hit, don't push (unless they ask to)

When you reach late game, follow your team everywhere. Don't be scared of tower diving for your allies. Anyway, I think you're the main tank of your team.