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Choose Champion Build:
Spells:
Heal
Ghost
Ability Order
Perseverance (PASSIVE)
Garen Passive Ability
Introduction
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A few words of introduction: Please excuse any errors, as I will catch them with comments and the like. I am very open to suggestions, with my first few comments I have completely re-vamped this guide with bbc coding and better explanations, so please leave comments and watch the guide evolve!
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With that said,
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I liked

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Try it if you like it, but the most important thing to do is whatever works best for you.
And without further adieu, let us begin the Tale of Two Garens, a story about choosing one of two paths!
First to Xenotechie, whose comment led me to JhoiJhoi's build guide build guide. Find it here.
Next goes to Palthios, whose guide helped me be a great


Finally, a great many thanks to Jungleking, who has been a giant thorn in my side as I wrote, edited, and tweaked my build over and over again - it would be a terrible guide without you dude.

General
- Base Health Regen reduced to 8.25 from 9.85
- Health Regen per level reduced to 0.75 from 0.85
- Base Attack Damage reduced to 56 from 60.1
- Attack Damage per level increased to 3.5 from 3

- Delay increased to 9 seconds from 7 seconds
- No longer deactivates when damaged by lane minions
- Now displays the Health Regen gained in the tooltip

- Cooldown reduced to 8 seconds at all ranks from 12/11/10/9/8
- Movement Speed increased to 35% at all ranks from 15/20/25/30/35%
- Movement Speed duration adjusted to 1.5/2.25/3/3.75/4.5 seconds from 4 at all ranks
- Base damage increased to 30/55/80/105/130 from 30/45/60/75/90
- Silence duration reduced to 1.5/1.75/2/2.25/2.5 seconds from 2.5 at all ranks
- Now removes slows on activation
- Can now critically strike again
- Buff duration reduced to 4.5 seconds from 6
- Fixed: Garen's next basic attack after Decisive Strike no longer occurs unusually quickly
- Fixed: Decisive Strike is no longer consumed if Garen fails to finish attacking
- While performing Decisive Strike, Garen now continues to follow his target if they are moving

- Changed to passively increase Armor and Magic Resist by 20% rather than 0 to 25 based on kills
- Damage reduction adjusted to 30% from 20/24/28/32/36%
- Active now additionally grants 30% Crowd Control Reduction
- Duration adjusted to 2/3/4/5/6 seconds from 3/3/3/3/3
- Cooldown adjusted to 24/23/22/21/20 seconds from 30/27/24/21/18

- Damage adjusted to 20/45/70/95/120 (+0.7/0.8/0.9/1.0/1.1 total Attack Damage) from 50/90/130/170/210 (+1.4 bonus Attack Damage)
- Damage dealt to minions increased to 75% from 50%
- No longer removes slows on activation or reduces the duration of incoming slows while active
- Ignores unit collision during Judgment but takes a 20% Movement Speed penalty when spinning through minions
- Fixed: Judgment no longer locks out Garen from taking other actions longer than intended

- Cooldown adjusted to 160/120/80 seconds from 140/120/100
What does this mean for our beloved Garen?
After I read the patch notes initially and played



So, here's a play-by-play on the patch:
General
- Base health regen nerf = Now it's even more vital that
Doran's Shield is Garen's first item.
- Health regen per level nerf = Ditto.
- Base attack damage nerf = Part of the "two paths of playing Garen."
- AD per level buff = Garen scales way better into late game.

- Re-activation timer nerf = Much longer time in the bushes allowing enemies to farm while he recovers from a big exchange, poke, or gank.
- Buff against minions = Garen can recover lots of health even with some minion aggro.
- Does not actually display health gained by regen, it displays the HP5 of
Perseverance as it scales with his health per level.

[*]Cooldown Buff = Even more spammable than before.
[*]Move speed buff = Massive. No longer scales, just put a point and watch Garen run!
[*]Move speed duration now scales = Garen now needs almost max points in this for the speed buff to be worth anything ever at all. This move is now purely escape, but needs all 5 points to be very good.
[*]Base damage buff = Even more incentive to max this first instead of the real early game damage in

[*]Silence duration nerf = Less time to be safe while pounding with

[*]Now removes slows on activation buff = MASSIVE NERF. This move is now fantastic in every single way, but Garen only gets one move like it. It has all of Garen's damage, utility, chase, escape, poke, CC.
[*]Can critical strike again buff = Ditto.
[*]Buff duration nerf = Enemies escape the damage much easier because by the time Garen is near enough to them, the speed buff is long gone and the attack is no longer up.
[*]Fix = Last hitting/farming with

[*]Fix = Not really sure what this means...
[*]Fix = Helps people who aren't big on clicking a lot.
[/list]

- Change from flat passive to percent-based = MASSIVE BUFF. Garen can be WAY tankier and also have a truckload of AD. No scaling with level, only items.
- Damage reduction change = It's a one point and done ability. No scaling with level.
- CCR added to the active = Ditto. This is the other half of the utility taken from
Judgment.
- Active duration now scales = This ability needs points to be powerful now too.
- Cooldown adjusted = This is a buff IMO, allows courage to remain a one and done ability.

- Damage adjusted nerf = Scales way better with AD items now, is no longer a high-damage move in early game.
- Damage to minions buff = Clearing minion waves with a single spin at level 11 feels really early, but nobody can claim to hate the speed and gold of that, especially at that stage of the game.
- No longer removes slows nerf = This is why Garen may no longer be playable. This move is now purely attack, but has a built-in self-slow to prevent gap closing. Needs all 5 points to be decent. No longer any utility in the move whatsoever.
- Fix = I don't really understand what this meant either.
- The sound goes slightly longer than the animation.

- Cooldown adjusted = Use it more late game and a little less early game. Not a big change.
Quoted from The Haunting on leagueoflegends.com:
"The most upsetting for me are the altering of his slow-removal and the nerf to his, as Kantilope put it, pseudo-ghostwalk. You took a guy with an interesting way of closing a gap - and worsened it... With movement speed and slow-removal on two different abilities you had more decisions to make. Based on distance to the target, creeps/champions in the way, (brush/vision), whether or not you can/will be slowed... Q Up to Close Gap, save it to chase or keep E in range? Spin first or save it to break slow? Cancel the spin early to land the Q/Silence (which now has a shorter buff duration so you'll lose it if you use Q to stay in range with E or any number of other scenarios)?"
All in all, I'm not going to change my guide more than I already have until I know that Riot won't change Garen anymore. There seem to be a lot of angry Garen players on the patch notes comment board complaining about the nerf, so I wouldn't be surprised to see another quick patch to return him back to pre-patch until they get their stuff in order.
Pros
- HUGE power early, mid, and late game
- Now scales REALLY well with AD, armor, and MR items (
Judgment and
Courage)
- Great finisher for low-health enemies, especially tanks (
Demacian Justice)
- Built-in slow-breaker/speed boost for escaping (
Decisive Strike)
- Super low cooldowns
- No mana!
- Effective solo top
- Farms like a tractor. Always.
Cons
- His only natural CC is also his escape
- No gap closer because it's his escape
- No initiating move because it's his escape
- Completely item dependent to be worth anything
Now, runes are a really touchy subject and people are really very passionate about this or that, and I think that you should really just go with whatever makes you feel the strongest.
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My opinion: I like flat AD marks and quints for 16AD out of spawn,


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If you prefer armpen over flat strength runes, be my guest, it's all personal preference.


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Going into great detail on masteries feels like a waste of time...they're pretty straightforward and well-explained in other Mobafire builds.
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I almost always take ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
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Good alternatives:



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If you're not worried about baiting or the extra sustain, go with






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If you're really new to the game:


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You could do a lot worse than picking up these spells.




Your mid-game priority will be


Your last priority will be



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Unlike many champions,



For example,


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This is


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(Passive): ![]() ![]() |
We take

As for the active, for three seconds, you get a pretty significant reduction in all damage, which is a great utility for harassing, retreating, and initiating. (I am not sure if this damage reduction includes true damage from things like


20% damage reduction means that if you were bursted for damage that would otherwise take 100% of your health, you could escape with 20% instead. At level 18, 36% of 2883 is over 1000 health, so you could easily stay in a fight where you otherwise would have died, or take your 36% health and a

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That's a lot to read, so let's break it down:
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2) removes all existing slows
3) reduces duration of new slows by 50%
4) deals AD scaling physical damage per 0.5 seconds
5) can be deactivated early
6) cannot use


7) damage to minions and neutral monsters is reduced by 50%
If it lasts 3 seconds, and damage is dealt every 0.5 seconds, that means you're hitting each enemy 6 times max (#1 and #4). If it removes all slows and reduces new slows, it is a potential escape mechanism, but not great against heavy CC like stuns or snares (#2 and #3). You can/need to deactivate





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What the move description does fail to tell you is that you can indeed activate the move speed boost from




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As for damage, here's a quick calculation: (105



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This is a super nuke. However, it only works against really low-health enemies, so it is often used as a KS device. If you build tanky, you will be KS-ing in order to get enough gold to support your build. If, instead, you build like an AD carry, you will not only be doing all the damage, but you will also be able to: 1) finish off escaping enemies, 2) KS in a team fight to ensure more kills and hopefully an ace, 3) deal tons of damage to low-health tanks, et cetera.
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A few notable things about

2) If you target somebody with


3) Before level eleven, this move is actually pretty weak, so be careful in your early-mid game to get your enemies to REALLY low health before popping this bad boy.
4) NEVER EVER EVER EVER use this move on an enemy with full health, because 525 magic damage is just plain worthless. You will be critical hitting for WAY more than that late game, so if they have more than 30% health, don't bother with this move.
5) On that same note, apparently there are occurrences wherein this can be baited with

**Pro tip** - remember to always poke/harass the squishy. S/he is more than likely the carry or a healer; either way, your spin will be damaging the tank, and the 1)carry will be going back to base/using lots of pots or 2)healer will be healing himself, using up his mana, and eventually the tank wont have much health and they'll both have to go back to base.
Pure AD:![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() Finish |
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Solo Top (Bruiser):![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() Finish |
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Alternate Items/Explanation:
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Kind of the AD version of ![]() |
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You don't really need the CDR, but if you want the active really bad it's a good replacement for ![]() ![]() |
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Your team is getting annihilated. You've already replaced your ![]() ![]() |
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Both of these items stack completely, so duplicating them is not a bad thing at all. Stacking ![]() ![]() ![]() |
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Take these over ![]() ![]() |
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If you need more MR and the really cool passives on this to play the team tank, I recommend getting this item instead of ![]() ![]() |
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Fratma's not enough health and armor? Grab this bad boy and become a real tank. I wouldn't personally take this item, but if I had
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This is a great substitute for ![]() |
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This item would look great in a build like this:
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Start with



Ideally you'll be able to go back and get




Yeah, this is pricey, and yes, it's kind of early in the game still, but you are an AD carry, and you should have a couple kills by now, as well as a bunch of farm that your support is giving you.

CORE ITEM: This is an awesome item. It gives you the same LS as a



Which means it's time to get a move on and bulk up. If you can't afford both on your next back, prioritize what you need more.






CORE ITEM: Time to really turn up the heat. Your natural damage will start to be ineffective right around now, so grab




CORE ITEM: This is for making sure that everyone who tries to run away gets killed. The downside to this item is that with your health and power, enemies might not even come near you for a while out of fear, which means it's a good thing you're teamfighting and not laning anymore.

Time to finish off your


This is to replace your


Take this AFTER your









Cost: ~16K
Okay, the game really should be over by now, but if not, you're probably in a gigantic standoff, waiting for the other team to screw up and get aced. Finish whatever you don't have, and have fun. Remember, you're an AD melee carry, and you've got tons of move speed, truckloads of AD, an on-hit slow, and a bunch of DPS with crit damage and attack speed. All you have to do now is not suck.
This is the cover build, my primary/ideal

Alternate Items
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Stack it! Replace: ![]() ![]() ![]() |
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Stack it! Replace: ![]() ![]() |
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Stack it! Replace: ![]() |
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Replace: ![]() |


The current meta says that boots and pots are the way to go if you're playing solo top, and for most champs this is probably true. But for chars like







Next up grab some AD and move speed. If you're able to get an early kill, or your jungler comes in and helps you push the turret, you'll have a chance and probably have the money for these. If not, don't stress too much, just get what you need first, and get around to the other stuff when you can afford it.













Time to get your Tier 2 boots. Which ones you pick up really depends on the enemy team composition, and on how well you are doing up to this point. If you have been getting fed and are doing extremely well, start working into the late game build (which is very similar to Pure AD


CORE ITEM: For the same reasons as listed in the Pure AD section, this is a great item. It increases your damage output via critical strikes, which allows you not only to heal yourself, but also hurt enemies without having expensive items like the BF.

CORE ITEM: I take the






CORE ITEM: At this point in the game, I'm almost never doing very poorly. I prefer to turn up my damage output before I take on any extra bulk, but now is when an















Getting a











Cost: ~13.0K
Here is your completed build. The game will probably end before you can finish it, but as you can see, it's not terribly expensive, so it's more than viable. In my own personal elo, games go a bit longer than this, so I usually have time to sell that



So, in my Pure AD build above, I have



For an AD carry wanting to take Arpen,



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Here's the math
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Build
-




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Character Stats
- Base AD = 100, Attack Speed 1.0/second, 5 second 1v1 battle against enemy tank, 300 Armor.SPACE
Black Cleaver
- Total AS boost = 25
+ 55
+ 30
= +105%.
- So... 1.0attacks/second x 2.05 x 5seconds = 10.25 attacks = ~10 attacks
- Total AD = 100base + 80
+ 80
+
+ 55
= 335AD
- Total Critical Chance = 25
+ 30
= 55%crit chance
- So... .55crit chance x 10.25 attacks = 5.6 = ~6 critical hits
Last Whisper
- Total AS boost = 25 + 55 = +80%.
- So... (1.0attacks/second x 1.8 x 5seconds) = 9 attacks
- Total AD = 100base + 80
+ 80
+
+ 40
= 320AD
- Total Crit Chance = 25
+ 30
= 55%crit chance
- So... .55crit chance x 10.25 attacks = 4.95 = ~5 critical hits

- (335AD x 2.5crit damage
) - (300Arm - 15Armpen
) = 837.5-285 = 552.5
- (335AD x 2.5crit damage
) - (300Arm - 30Armpen
) = 837.5-270 = 567.5
- (335AD x 2.5crit damage
) - (300Arm - 45Armpen
) = 837.5-255 = 582.5
- (335AD x 2.5crit damage
) - (300Arm - 45Armpen
) = 837.5-255 = 582.5
- (335AD x 2.5crit damage
) - (300Arm - 45Armpen
) = 837.5-255 = 582.5
- (335AD x 2.5crit damage
) - (300Arm - 45Armpen
) = 837.5-255 = 582.5
- 335AD - 255Arm = 80
- 335AD - 255Arm = 80
- 335AD - 255Arm = 80
- 335AD - 255Arm = 80
- So... 552.5+567.5+(582.5x4)+(80x4)= 3770 damage dealt.

- (320AD x 2.5crit damage
) - (300Arm x 0.6(40%Armpen)
) = (800-180) = 620
- (320AD x 2.5crit damage
) - (300Arm x 0.6(40%Armpen)
) = (800-180) = 620
- (320AD x 2.5crit damage
) - (300Arm x 0.6(40%Armpen)
) = (800-180) = 620
- (320AD x 2.5crit damage
) - (300Arm x 0.6(40%Armpen)
) = (800-180) = 620
- (320AD x 2.5crit damage
) - (300Arm x 0.6(40%Armpen)
) = (800-180) = 620
- 320AD - 180Arm = 140
- 320AD - 180Arm = 140
- 320AD - 180Arm = 140
- 320AD - 180Arm = 140
- So... (620 x 5) + (140 x 4) = 3660 damage dealt.
Here we are, fighting a 300 Armor tank, and




The only reason to take





So in that same line of thought, I did some other calculations (that I can show if requested), and found that even the



In defense of the


The end.
31 July 2012 - Fixed skill sequence error thanks to comments. I need help with BB coding. Item sequence adjusted slightly.
6 August 2012 - Major revamp. bbc coding, item sequence, ability and item explanations.
7 August 2012 - Tweaks complete. A character match-ups section can be created if requested, but will otherwise not be coming.
13 August 2012 - Another major re-haul on bbc coding. Transitional separators inserted. Bruiser build has been tested - it works, but can definitely use more testing. Main build needs more testing now to find which 6th item is best, and whether or not changing Executioner's is ever worth it.
14 August 2012 - Major re-haul completed. More to come so that the word limit can be reached. I'm thinking a map of where Garen should be standing at any given moment. Maybe some character match-ups.
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