First, we need to understand Garen's kit. If you don't understand his kit, you are probably braindead. This is just a quick overview of Garen's abilities. Garen is, in my opinion, one of the most simplevery obviously one of the most mechanically advanced champions in the game. Garen's q cleanses all slows, gives extra MS, bonus flat AD and 140% AD scaling on next autoattack, and a 1.5s silence. Garen's w has a passive and an active. Garen's w passive gives him armor and magic resist every time he kills an enemy, up to 40 on each. Garen's w active gives him 60% damage reduction and tenacity for 0.75s after activated, then 30% damage reduction for a couple of seconds afterwards.
Garen's e is what gives him his name of "spin2win." He spins, and when he hits enemies with 4 spins he reduces their armor by 25% for 6 seconds. Garen's r is one of his most trademark moves. It has a passive and active. The passive marks the person with the most recent kills as the Villian. If Garen casts his ulti onto the Villian, it does true damage and allows Garen's e and basic attacks to deal 1% maximum health true damage as bonus damage.

Flash and ignite are 2 good spells to take on Garen. Of course, people might say, "Ignite isn't necessary because Garen has an execute," or something like that. But if you have played Garen at least some games, there's no indicator for being executable, so you have to eyeball it. If you're like me and have them get away with a sliver of health a lot (since I'm boosted), ignite is something that can secure the kill.
Additionally, it's also useful for pre-6, if you ever get in enough trades or out-trade them enough so that you're sure you can get a kill from an all in. If you get hard counter picked, Teleport might be a more useful option to take, but mostly Ignite is the better of the 2. Of course, flash is a standard. If you're ever up against a caster or ranged person, such as Zyra, flash q is a good way to initiate an all in. Of course, you have to make sure that they burn their primary CC move before you go all in, since after the silence wears off, they can CC you and get away. So, for example, when Zyra uses her E, then you can all in if she's low enough to kill with one combo.

Of course, my trashspectacular Garen build is for all lanes. Doesn't matter which lane you're in,(except for support, then you're just trollingboosting your adc) this is the standard build I play. I've decided to make Garen an assassin. So, you should get Youmuu's Ghostblade first item. You have that lethality, AD, and that extra movement speed. While building Youmuu's Ghostblade, you should be able to have Magical Footwear's boots. Upgrade those to either Boots of Mobility or Boots of Swiftness.
Third comes Duskblade of Draktharr. You need that lethality for deleting squishies, AD, and the passive. The passive is basically an oracle lens + Scryer's Bloom with a shorter reveal time, so whenever it's up feel free to go into a bush of your choice to disable the ward. Of course, they already know that you're there, so wait a while. Check a nearby bush to see if it's disabled, then once you kill both wards or place a control ward, do something else or wait in the other bush until they don't have vision. After that, you can move into your bush and delete some squishies. After you get those 3 items, now is the time to start building crit items. Phantom Dancer, I decided, was a good crit item to choose. You get the crit chance, and the extra 5% MS towards your target. Next is a crit item of your choice, but Statikk Shiv is what I usually run. After is Infinity Edge. Pretty self-explanatory. Once you reach full build, you should have 100% crit chance.
For Stormrazor people, building Stormrazor third item would be a good option. Second is also viable, but I prefer third. After that, you don't necessarily need other crit items, but you can build them if you want. If you don't want to have another crit item, then you can buy either MS items such as Righteous Glory or Shureliya's Revelrie, but alternatively you could buy some other good AD items. This is completely up to you and situational. For tanks, buy Black Cleaver, or if you think you're too squishy, buy a tank item or a Sterak's. The third option, which I don't really use, is to buy Edge of Night. I didn't put any other AD items into the item guide under Stormrazor Garen, simply because there are too many to list that you could build.

Of course, as we all know, Grasp of the UndyingPredator is the best rune to take on Garen. It gives you the extra burst damage on your q to achieve maximum deleting power. Cheap Shot is the rune to go for me, since it means extra damage when I spin on them, or you could take Taste of Blood if you want more healing. For the other 2 runes, since this is a memeproper Garen guide, I take Eyeball Collection for more AD. Ingenious Hunter or Ultimate Hunter are both good options, but I prefer Ingenious Hunter because Predator has a really long cooldown, and that's a good part of your damage. Ultimate Hunter is good if you don't really need Predator as often, but you have some issues with your ult being on cooldown and you let someone get away.
For my secondary, I personally like Inspiration with Magical Footwear because it gives me the boots that are a big part of early kills without having to back, as well as an extra 10 bonus MS. Your second choice is completely up to you and partly situational, but I prefer Biscuit Delivery or Cosmic Insight because a ton of matches I'm up against a ranged champion, if I memeplay Garen properly in another lane besides top. Cosmic Insight is a good rune because 5% extra CDR is always good.
Sorcery is also a valid choice for your secondary rune. Nimbus Cloak is good for securing kills if you didn't bring Ignite, and Celerity is good when building Stormrazor Garen because more MS = more AD = more big damage. You could go Nullifying Orb if you feel you need a bit more survivability and your laning partner is AP or the majority of the team is AP, at least 3 or more.
Precision is an okay choice for your secondary rune as well. Triumph and Coup De Grace are good runes, since Coup De Grace helps with your ultimate damage, and Triumph is just a good overall rune. Alternatively, you could go Presence of Mind for more ulti uptime, and this paired with Ingenious Hunter is good if you're struggling with both killing people without Predator and missing your ulti.

Pros:

• Very high damage when done correctly
• Lots of burst
• Memes are good for the average person
• Bush strats are good in low elo
• Garen is very strong as of now, in Patch 8.16

Cons:

• Very squishy
• People might flame you because they expect more tankiness
• No consistent damage after burst
• Horrible against tanks except if you build Stormrazor, see Items for more.

Of course, I'm going to keep this section short and to the point. The tankier they are, the harder lane it is for you. The more poke they have, the harder lane it is for you. Those are the 2 main factors for deciding when to use this build.

Of course, you might be thinking, "What build to I choose?" It's completely up to you, but here is some compare and contrast to help you decide. This is going to be nice and short. 100% crit chance has more damage, since Garen's e can crit for more damage. Stormrazor, on the other hand, gets you a faster guaranteed crit q but less damage on the e, along with more versatility. 100% crit is more memey, but Stormrazor is an actually viable option. 100% crit gives more MS towards your target, courtesy of Phantom Dancer, but can be easily replaced as one of the alternate item slots that Stormrazor saves. 100% crit gives more consistent damage, after your burst combo is more consistent damage, but with Stormrazor you don't have much damage after your burst. Choose wisely.

Now, of course, bush strats are a vital part of playing Garen. You must bush strat at least once per game, at the very least. For bush strats, have your predator ready. When they approach, channel your predator a bit beforehand, taking into consideration the 1.5s channel that can't be interrupted unless you want to lose it. If you took Celerity as one of your runes, then you shouldpreferably activate any other speed items that can enhance your AD. Then, you jump out. Hopefully you kill some people, and don't get killed yourself.
If you don't have people facechecking bushes like complete idiotsthe average League player, then just simply run at them. If you know they have a CC move and you have a bit of distance to cover, simply Flash. If you don't want to waste your flash, then wait until they turned. If they place a ward, then time's up. It's your turn to act. When people turn around, they don't expect anything. So, you get a bit more time to run at them. Activating MS items helps as well.
A tip for people who really like bush strats is using them for early poke. Start q, and rush to lane if you don't have to leash your jungler. Hide in a bush, in top lane preferably the middle one, since you can poke them when they're going to CS and think you're leashing. But if you're someone who's obvious, such as Shaco or Kayn, then they might be a little more cautious. In the event you do get to hit them, start with a q, but if they get close you can do an auto then q, then get in any autos you can without chasing them. Once your silence wears off, it's not good for you. For mid lane, this strategy doesn't really work, since the bushes are far away from the zone people usually stay in, and bot lane works well if you have a support with a grab, such as Pyke, Blitzcrank, or Thresh. Have them land their hooks then go in for the poke. If you're the support, then it probably won't work as people will be suspicious since your ADC is there, but not you.

Garen is a very good champion, but this very badquality Garen build will take you approximately to Bronze I, tops. This is not meant to be played in ranked, but feel free to play it all you want in normals. I haven't been banned yet, and will probably never be for playing Garen this way. Unless you play it in ranked, of course. Hopefully you've learned something from this, and try more memeoff-meta builds in the future. If you were offended by this, comment below. I want to see how many I get, even though this probably won't be a popular guide. Thanks, and bye.


Btw, thanks to Froakinator for spoon-feeding me suggestions. :)