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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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Garen is not a tank...or at least he wasn't until the mid-August 2012 patch. He used to be one of the naturally strongest early game champs, but he has become something else entirely - a massive force to be reckoned with (except that his gap closer/initiator/escape/poke move is now also his slow break).

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I liked Garen from the moment I played him in the tutorial, and upon reading Palthios's Spin to Crit, I was able to develop my own strategy and build - one that packs as much of a punch as it really should.
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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 Garen when I was first starting LoL, and inspired my own build so that I could continue being an awesome Garen post-level 30.

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.

Mid-August patch is bringing about some really significant changes. Here's what you can find in the patch notes:


Garen

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

Perseverance (Passive)

• 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

Decisive Strike

• 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

Courage

• 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

Judgment

• 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

Demacian Justice

• 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 Garen last night, I thought I was going to have to drop my main. Some things got switched around that shouldn't have, and Garen's move sequence and necessary play style has been fundamentally changed. Overall, his moves were buffed to scale better into late game, but by moving his slow break onto his gap closer, Garen's early game can become pure tower hugging when facing more than one champ. (Which might not be that bad for early game ganks, but you can't tower hug late game when you're charging into the enemy base!)

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.

Perseverance (Passive)

• 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.

Decisive Strike
[*]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 Judgment.
[*]Silence duration nerf = Less time to be safe while pounding with Judgment.
[*]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 Decisive Strike is different, not necessarily worse.
[*]Fix = Not really sure what this means...
[*]Fix = Helps people who aren't big on clicking a lot.
[/list]

Courage

• 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.

Judgment

• 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.

Demacian Justice

• 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.

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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

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Garen regenerates 0.5% of his maximum health per second after not receiving damage for 7 seconds. The regenerative state will stop if Garen received damage.

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Unlike many champions, Garen's passive does not actually dictate his viable play styles. Indeed, it is a large reason that Garen is able not only to tank, but this innate ability is a huge reason AD Garen is viable. It gives him a ton of lane sustain, even after big damage exchanges.

For example, Garen and his laning partner on bottom lane can take down their laning opponents, but while they are respawning and Garen's laning partner is going back for health, he stays behind in the bushes, last hitting minions and pulling no aggro. He has near-full health by the time everyone is back in lane, but he's a level higher and 20 minions worth of gold richer.
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Garen gains 15/20/25/30/35% movement speed for 4 seconds. His next melee attack within 6 seconds will deal 30/35/60/75/90 (+1.4 per attack damage) physical damage and silence his target for 2.5 seconds.

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This is Garen's most versatile ability. It is used more frequently than Judgment thanks to its low cooldown and move speed boost, not to mention the silence/nuke. A good strategy post-level 2 is to chill in the bushes (provided you are properly warded) on the enemy side. Wait for an enemy to face check or get too close, slam him with this move and then spin (discussed in a minute). The silence renders immediate retaliation impossible, and by the time the other enemy in lane comes to help, your own teammate is there and both enemies have to retreat because the first one is at half health or you've spun away (assuming you're duo laning).
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(Passive): Garen's armor and magic resistance are permanently increased by 0.5 every time he kills an enemy unit (maximum 25 additional armor and magic resist). (Active): Garen places a defensive shield on himself, decreasing all damage taken by 20/24/28/32/36% for 3 seconds.

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We take Courage for its passive, but the active isn't half bad either. Take a point in it early, kill 50 minions, and remember to use the active right before a bunch of burst damage.

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 Ignite, but if anyone knows, let me know in the comments please.) This isn't a major move for early Garen, but it's not something to snub your nose at either...

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 Bloodthirster into the jungle to get it all back.
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Garen rapidly spins his sword around his body for 3 seconds, removing all existing slows and reducing the duration of new slows by 50%, and dealing 25/45/65/85/105 (+0.7 per bonus attack damage) physical damage to nearby enemies every half second. Garen can deactivate Judgment early by activating the ability again after 0.5 seconds. Garen cannot use Decisive Strike or Demacian Justice while Judgment is in effect. Damage to minions and neutral monsters is reduced by 50%.

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That's a lot to read, so let's break it down:
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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 Judgment if you need to slam somebody with Demacian Justice before they get away (#5 and #6). You can activate Courage during Judgment if you hadn't already (#6). The ability deals reduced damage to minions (#6), but if you're tanking dragon, you can use Judgment to remove his slow temporarily (#2).
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What the move description does fail to tell you is that you can indeed activate the move speed boost from Decisive Strike within the duration of Judgment, and the damage from Decisive Strike will be dealt after Judgment has ended.
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As for damage, here's a quick calculation: (105 +(.7x342AD)-Armor)x(3seconds x 2 /second) = (105+239-Armor)x6 = 2066 - (6 x (Armor-Arpen)). This does not scale well against high armor, but Judgment can crit up to 6 times per enemy hit, and 2066 is no paltry amount of base damage. This is especially true against minion waves, which will eventually all fall to your power, even if it is cut in half. Because regular minions don't have armor or 1033 health.
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Garen brings down Demacian Justice on his opponent, dealing 175/350/525 magic damage plus 1 additional damage per 3.5/3/2.5 health his opponent is missing.

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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 Garen's ultimate: SPACE
**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.

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Alternate Items/Explanation:

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Kind of the AD version of Maw of Malmortius, use in games with heavy enemy AD.

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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 Black Cleaver - it's similar to having Master Yi's ultimate for chase, escape, killing, armpen...all around a good item, just not as good as I would like it to be.

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Your team is getting annihilated. You've already replaced your Black Cleaver, but it's just not enough. Focus the appropriate defenses for your enemies (i.e. mres for AP and armor for AD). Replace Infinity Edge.

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Both of these items stack completely, so duplicating them is not a bad thing at all. Stacking Bloodthirster will give you a ton more power and LS. Stacking Phantom Dancer will give you move speed, attack speed, and crit chance (which will help your current LS anyway). Either of them is a suitable replacement for Black Cleaver, but I like the cleaver so much because it kind of gives me the best of both worlds.

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Take these over Boots of Swiftness or Mercury's Treads if you're up against a lot of heavy AD. Your team will expect you to be tanky, so you need to meet the challenge.

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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 Infinity Edge for some mid-game dominance. Obviously take Mercury's Treads along with this if your team is up against a lot of AP.

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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 > > > > > , and it wasn't enough tank, I would probably go ahead and drop my Executioner's Calling or Infinity Edge. The Phantom Dancer is just vital to you if you're a tank, in order to maintain your DPS.

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This is a great substitute for Infinity Edge. At just a little more than half the price, you get a ton of utility out of this. Great for a tankier build that isn't so focused on damage, but still needs as much bang for the buck as possible.

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This item would look great in a build like this: > > > > > . It's great for balancing MR and Armor with a really cool passive.

Stack it! Replace: Executioner's Calling or Frozen Mallet (if you dare). Note: you lose the life steal, but get crit chance, attack speed, and move speed. Probably the best option for a last item to replace Executioner's Calling.

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Stack it! Replace: Executioner's Calling. Note: this seems at a glance to be your next best option for a last item if something is going to replace your Executioner's Calling, and if you have two fully stacked, healing up would be a breeze.

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Stack it! Replace: Executioner's Calling. Note: you don't stack the passive, all this would do is allow you to keep your crit chance while providing AD.

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Replace: Executioner's Calling. Note: again, you lose LS and crit chance, but gain attack speed, a little armor, some AD, and a really cool passive. You can grab it against big tanky teams, but it's really expensive and the above items might actually help more in terms of DPS.

So, in my Pure AD build above, I have Garen taking Black Cleaver instead of a Last Whisper, and while many people will object and say, "40% scales better against tanks," I can show mathematically that 40% is not enough.

For an AD carry wanting to take Arpen, Black Cleaver will ALWAYS be better. Why? because you have an Infinity Edge and a Phantom Dancer.
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Here's the math

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Build

- Berserker's Greaves (25%AS), Infinity Edge (80AD, 25%crit chance, +50%crit damage), Phantom Dancer (55%AS, 30%crit chance), Bloodthirster(half stacks, 80AD), Frozen Mallet (20AD).
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Character Stats

- Base AD = 100, Attack Speed 1.0/second, 5 second 1v1 battle against enemy tank, 300 Armor.
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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

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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

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Black Cleaver, 10 attacks with 6 crits

• (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.

Last Whisper, 9 attacks with 5 crits

• (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 Black Cleaver is holding its own against Last Whisper. Why is that? Simply because in order to proc critical hits, you need to be hitting. And if you're hitting more times per second, you have more chances to proc a critical hit, per second. And if you're in a team fight that lasts maybe 20 seconds, you only have a few seconds to devote to each enemy. You might say, "well you have to wait for Black Cleaver's armpen to max out before it evens out with Last Whisper derp derp derp!" But you would be wrong.

The only reason to take Last Whisper OVER Black Cleaver is if you ARE NOT carrying an Infinity Edge. Otherwise, 40% armpen is not that much. It seems like a lot, and if the enemy is all tanks with over 300 armor, go for it - but for all the champs on the enemy team that AREN'T tanks, everyone will agree that Black Cleaver is better, and you shouldn't be focusing the tank in a team fight anyway. For a DPS like Garen, attack speed is everything.

So in that same line of thought, I did some other calculations (that I can show if requested), and found that even the Phantom Dancer could have more damage output than Last Whisper. Again, due to attack speed you have more attacks per second. But that's not all - with the right combination of items, you can achieve a 100% crit chance. If you're carrying Infinity Edge and any other AD items, you're optimizing your output.

In defense of the Last Whisper, however, it is one of the cheapest items you can get if you are facing well-fed tanks. Due to this, it is a great item, but if you are fed and the enemy is not, Last Whisper just plain can't keep up.

The end.

30 July 2012 - Build posted.

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.