Hello!

Today I am going to show you my Garen build, made after the NERFHAMMER struck Garen right across he's face.

Lets start:

This build is made for solo/duo laning.

Spells used for solo lane are heal/ignite coz its a free imense heal and against 2 it can bring you adventage.

Ignite is just to finish ppl off, or take that tiny little bit of hp so ulti can bring em to Justice!

Teleport is good too for those who dont like to be on the edge of hp, or think they might die in solo lane.

In duo lane you can consider bringing exhaust, so you can remove 1pt in masteries from menders faith and go for 3/3 on perseverance.

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Runes I'm using are:
9x Greater Mark of Desolation;
9x Greater Seal of Resilience;
9x Greater Glyph of Warding;
3x Greater Quintessence of Swiftness

With above mentioned runes and masteries, on lvl1 you start with 41 armor and 54MR.
Combined with first item, Ruby Crystal, you have around 800hp, which is great start for a melee champ.
It should give you plenty room for harrasing and taking good dmg.

Also with set masteries in perseverance combined with Garens passive, it can provide you 100hp health in just few seconds away from fight.

I like to play agressive that is why there are Swiftness runes in. With 329 movement speed without boots and only one point in D.Strike it makes alot easier to close the gap between Garen and foes for deadly Judgement.

Rest of masteries are set to full offense since Garen is only good at killing ppl.

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Items should be bought in above mentioned sequence.

For last items depending on opponents team, you should either get banshees veil, guardian angel, or force of nature if they tend to hit you hard.

If your team tend to dominate and seek out fast kills and victory, you might consider taking AD/AS item like phantom dancer or infinity edge.

There are potions and wards mentioned in item sequence. BUY THEM! Dont be cheap on items that makes you live.

Make sure you always have atleast 2 health potions and one ward in your inventory.
Health potions are great if you need quick regen before foes make a push, and wards are there to prevent their jungler (or some other freak) to gank you.
If you solo lane, and they have a jungler, wards can save you atleast 5 times during the laning phase!
3 creep kills can get you a ward, so dont be cheap bastard, get them!!!

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Playing style:

For solo lane make sure you leech as much exp in the first wave as you can, maybe even last hit few, especially if there are 2 of em against you. After that dont push minions at all, just last hit and kite them from hitting turret. If foes try to hit turret Judgement them as fast as you can. Once or twice and they should be at half hp.

As soon as you reach lvl 4 you should be able to execute one of them.
Since you are 1 ( sometimes even 2) lvls above, and if you manage to hold them on half HP wait on your turret for their push.
As soon as they attack turret ( if they are dumb) or loose all minions from wave, ATTACK!!!
Make sure you silence one with greater skill potential to kill you (if there are 2 melee, silence one with less hp XD ) then use Courage and Judgement and try to hold all 6 hits on your target. Often they will fight you and youll end up having 2 foes with 100hp left! after Judgement if target isnt dead, ignite him.
Heal should help you if they hit you too hard, or you mistimed Courage.
Often this would give you first blood, and sometimes even doublekill.

Since in ranked games start is crucial for rest of the game, make sure you dont die, and you stay atleast 2lvls above foes.

If you manage to get first blood in solo lane, foes are doomed. Just get items in sequence and its gg.

Since you are in solo lane, you can last hit about 70-90% of minions. This will give you enough cash to buy dozens of wards in early phase of game, and when you have free space, ward your and their jungle. Sometimes opponent jungler can be 3 or more lvls behind, thus a good easy kill for you (and/or your jungler).

For mid/late game its advised that you dont initiate fights, and that you try to come from behind in team fights. If done properly you can execute carry and do big dmg to rest of the team.
On the other hand if your team doesnt initiate when you start running from behind, it can result in (your) instant death, so make sure your team is well coordianted.

Duo lane:

If you duo lane, make sure you dominate the bush, and that you constantly harras foes from them. Try to keep foes on half of hp, so once you duo focus one of them, it results in kill.
Since you are in duo lane, you should let all minions to your lane mate, and he should let you have all the kills. This way you will get equal amount of cash and exp.

If you see foes are hard to kill, then split the minions and dont die.
Wards are also important for duo lane too, so make sure you and your mate get atleast 2 each in early phase of game. In duo lane you probably wont be able to afford lots of wards, so make sure you only ward nearest bush to prevent ganks.

General:

Just make sure you dont die for no reason. If you have to die, take someone with you!
When you see a kill, go for it. You can execute a squishy or non tankish carry champ in 4 seconds, which leaves you plenty room to get away.

Just remember, Garen is no longer "tank", you have to play agressive and swift!
Try not to steal kills with ulti, unless its obvious mate cant finish it.

In team fights focus carry, and for your ulti, make sure you eradicate either carry (first) or tank.

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Pros/cons:

Pros:
* fast moving
* hard hitting
* Demacian Justice ( turns 5vs5 into 5vs4 in blink of an eye)
* can take alot of dmg
* fast regen (tnx to the new update, now his passive is finally usefull)

Cons:
** LACK OF LVLS ( if you cant keep up with foes lvlwise, you are doomed, there is no item build that can save you. No matter what, dont fall back with lvls! )

* being focused ( well thats everyone con, but due to nerf, Garen as focus is now normal)
* long range and constant harrasment can prevent you from regen (Urgot, Ezrael, Lux, Caitlyn)
* Exhaust (now it reduces your judgement dmg to almost 0)
* CC ( you just cant stand a chance, well no one can)
* Armor and magic pen


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Overall, its not what it used to be, but it's still live and kicking.
It's good for pushing lanes and hitting foes from behind.
You just have to play agressive from start, otherwise go play teemo...

Sorry for my bad english.
I hope you ppl like this build.

Sincerely DoubleYouTeaF.