Is garen a viable tank?

[quote=yegaboo11]A while back when I was a lot more nooby than I am now I decided that garen was a good tank, and have been playing him as such for quite some time now, and am fairly proficient at him. However, knowing more about LoL and tanking now than I did then, I have come to question whether garen is really a viable tank. Here are a few reasons why and why not that I came up with: Pros: Courage grants 25 armor/magic resist when maxed. His silence is a decent cc, especially for those pesky nukers. His passive allows him to stay for multiple team fights without having to recall. Cons: Lacking in cc or engagement skills. Abilities such as Judgement (spin attack) and his ult can steal valuable kills from the carry.[/quote]

[quote=Lugignaf]Yes he's a viable tank. He's a lot stronger as an off-tank IMO.[/quote]

[quote=palzm]Yes, and agree with Lugignaf Better as offtank/tanky DPS[/quote]

[quote=Lugignaf]My friend did full tank Garen in a bot match. He got 3 kills. Maybe 1 or 2 more. He didn't die though so, I guess that's better than his usual negative scores. I did off-tank Garen, I got at least 2 times his kills and it was my first time as Garen. I died like, 4-5 times.[/quote]

[quote=Scrax]Tank Garen never dies, but his damage is low and he will generally just be ignored. Off-tank, anything beyond that is just bad, tbh.[/quote]

[quote=Freddy Shopan]GARENTARICOPBOT. Build all the stacks and u winz. ^ Stacks r only troll if you think you might actually die . ^ 2 much troll? Or noes? Garen/Taric bot is seriously fun.[/quote]

[quote=RamenL]It depends on your goal.. Your definitely not going to keep your carry alive though. However thats why you are an off tank. You will need to have another tank to keep carry alive.. As for build, if you want to play garen just remember, be more tanky then dps. I wont give you a build unless u add me in game, or ask me here I guess.. But I will tell you some RANDOM Info.. Garen has amazing health regen, not to mention his passive.. Along with a warmogs you wont need to back. For early game his W gives enough magic resist for you to rush Warmogs. But it might be smarter to get a Brutalizer/Phage.. Also it goes all good to get a force of nature ONLY if you have Warmogs/Frozen Mallet. Otherwise get a Spirit visage. If its late game and you get a force of nature. Then you should at least have 3k HP, otherwise your building bad. As for armor, Thorn mail wont work unless you have 3k HP or circumstances like vsing a team with 3-4 AD. Otherwise its better to get a sunfire or Randuims omen. If you need an easy set up you can try this. Basically lets say 2 HP items..Warmog/frozen mallet(dont get both), Sunfire(if they have little dps), Spirit Visage(if you want to rush some early game magic resist), Randuims Omen(If they have a lot of dps) 2 of these items.. Force of Nature(if you dont need anything this is good to get cuz it helps on everything cuz of its movement, and regen, and makes aoe ineffective pretty much..), Spirit Visage(really good choice if you dont need thornmail, also if u already got this and u dont need thornmail, get another thing from the top list), Thorn Mail.. 1 attack Item..IF YOU GET 2 HP ITEMS, 1 MR, AND 1 ARMOR.. and it comes to only 3 items and u know your tanky enough, like your not getting below half, you MAY get both these if u want to..) Ghost Blade(if you get this get Brutalizer earlier,also it better paired with Frozen Mallet), or Atmas(U can get brutalizer early and sell it l8r). U will need at least 2 Hp, 1 Armor, and 1 MR item, and 1 attack item NO SPECIFIC ORDER, just go by your instincts, thats what improves your skill the most! U should check out my 9th rune page, and use 9 21 0 masteries, also for boots Merc Treads are 90 pct of the times best choice.. Feel free for questions or + rep.[/quote]

[quote=Lugignaf]^^^If you're building like that, grab Atma's impaler. It will make your damage spike up and still make you tanky while also increasing the damage that spin2win does.[/quote]

[quote=RamenL]Like I said it depends, u got to think about it really well as the game goes. REMEMBER Atmas also gives u armor.. But dont classify it as an armor item unless u get Force and warmogs/frozen mallet before it.. So it gives a lil extra Effective HP from the regen.. And like I said, +rep would be nie, I write long helpful posts.. Sometimes I get flamed especially hate it when its by someone thats like in "elo hell" or is barely even lvl 30.. with like 200 wins only. Oh ya, so like I said Garen is offtank.. I do it like this..(This chart is not how good a char is, it is how much they do to help team survive a team battle and tankin ability takin into account..) Yes it is made by me.. Also if u notice, all the T1s are good at getting the team kills, doing damage, and really great at initiating,. The T2s are good at only like 2/3 things each.. Also all the T1s are good at gap closing. Its Ideal to me to have at least 1 tank from T1, and 1 from T2/T3. T2 is better.. T1 Amumu(Best tank of them all), Malphite, Rammus, Alistar, Galio, Singed T2 Gragas(Not good initiator, his ult is better for splitting enemy team in team battles.), Maokai(Has everything but.. Not as much as T1s.. and usually not as tank. Good passive though), Morde(he is only one here with out a CC of some sort, but with Rylias and his ult.. It is perfect, as it adds another carry to the team), Nasus(Only 1 cc, slow), Renekton(Only 1 cc, stun), Jarvan(kind debating for T1, or T2.. He does have some Huge +, but some Huge -..)Shen(Kinda useless Q, and W end game), Rumble(Really good early game, but starts to break down late game), Cho(Tends to get focused, just like Jarvan hes in between T1 and T2), Blitz(He could be T1 but I just dont see him there for some reason.. He has everything he needs. I guess his abilities need Ap/Dps/Lich to scale late game, which wont make him as tanky.) T3 Garen(Only thing to help the team is his silence..), Mundo(I dont like Mundo at all..), Leona(Does no damage..)[/quote]

[quote=Keenplatypus]Howdy, hope you don't mind if a new guy drops in and throws his 2 cents into he arena. I find that trying to compare tanks on a single level is always sorta biased. The way i see it each tanks has different specialties and strengths but falters in other areas. For example, I find singed is more effective in ganking/dealing with stragglers and runners but less effective at defending a carry. Each tank has its role much like different support champions. Garen, from what I've seen, has survivablity enabling him to hold more aggro without flopping over dead. His ability to deal damage allows him to contribute more damage to the team's output unlike other tanks such as Amumu who is mainly praised for his initiation and CC. To make up for his lack of initiation abilities a little bit of legwork and a few mind games can prove highly beneficial to his viability. Remember, it's the player who determines the tanking ability of a tank or off-tank.[/quote]