Garen Build Guide by Shadhorll

Updates & Reports...

Here you will find the latest updates for this guide.


29/6/12 - Added pictures to the Masteries section for easier viewing..

29/6/12 - Added a section for Garens second Build Defensive Option (Not yet complete)

29/6/12 - Added pictures to the Advantages section and updated the text content.

29/6/12 - Made a start on Garens Third Build - Next job is to write a section for it.

29/6/12 - Removed Last Whisper from Build One and replaced it with The Black Cleaver

Written Update Reports

29/6/12 - I have removed Last Whisper from Build One and replaced it with The Black Cleaver. The reason i have done so is because i feel Build One has enough Armor Penetration 59.93 Flat Arp is high enough.

- I have focused on more Attack Damage with some extra Attack Speed, but still having a bonus of Armor Reduction Physical attacks reduce your target's Armor by 15 for 5 seconds, (maximum 3 stacks).

Introduction...

Welcome to the Aggressive Executioner Garen guide.

This Guide is still being WRITTEN & UPDATED. Please do not VOTE me negative whilst information is still being provided.

There are 3 Builds here please make sure you look at all of them as my other builds have different items involved. Some stats are gained and some reduced, so pick which one you want to use.


Hello fellow summoner's my name is Shadhor and i have written this guide for players that use Garen in League of Legends. I will cover everything in this guide to help you perform effectively with Garen in every game. Here's a list of what we will be going through below.

. Masteries Explanation...
. Summoner Spells...
. Rune Slots...
. Skills Review...
. Item Purchases...
. Advantages...
. Disadvantages...
. Team Partners...
. Facing Your Opponents...
. Garen's Second Build (Defensive Option)...
. Garen's Third Build (Increasing Damage)...
.MORE TO BE ADDED SOON

Here is an example below of what you can do when you follow my build guide. I was using Atma's Impaler here along with Frozen Mallet or though i didn't get time to buy Frozen Mallet as i was to busy ganking. You can follow my 2nd Build which involves the item setup in the picture below.

This was one of my best games scoring 40 kills and also scoring a Penta kill at the enemies base. And the funny part about it was, i was only summoner level 20. Now of course using a build is just basics, anyone can use it.

But remember executing and dominating a game takes skill which you may already have, but if not, with practice you will get to the top with Garen and this guide.

Please read the next chapters on how to Dominate with Garen.

I will work on doing a video Tutorial for this guide at a later date and will add it below here once i have done so. Please rate and comment, if you have any questions regarding Garen's build feel free to ask them and i will answer them to the best of my knowledge.

Masteries Explanation...

Mouse-over any items or abilities to see their tooltip.

Offensive Tree_______________________________________________________________________

- Summoner's Wrath

- Summoner's Wrath is very useful as it reduces targets magic resistance and armor by 10. This helps more when using Exhaust which this guide uses. I cant stress enough how important Exhaust is for Garen. He is a Melee fighter and therefore sometimes needs to slow his targets for him to stay close and Execute


- Brute Force

- 3 points in - Brute Force will give you extra attack damage, so for example if you used Doran's Blade you will have 13 Attack Damage as Doran's Blade gives 10 Attack Damage


- Alacrity

- Next we move to - Alacrity using 4 points here will give you 4% Attack Speed this helps for Garens auto sword swings. This also helps for Item purchases such as Phantom Dancer which give 55 Attack Speed and The Black Cleaver which gives a further 30 Attack Speed, giving us a total of 85.933 in game at level 18.


- Weapon Expertise

- Garen is built to execute if played right but not without the help of Armor Penetration this is probably the 2nd most important stat for Garen as it bypasses some if not all of your enemies armor thus making Garen to be feared. So now to gain the maximum Armor Penetration we put 1 point into Weapon Expertise on the Masteries Tree.


- Lethality

- Next we move onto the Critical Strike bonus, my guide is built around maximum DPS/CRIT/ARP and this is where Lethality comes into play.Using a point here it gives us an extra 10% Critical strike and the items you purchase later in the game such as Infinity Edge Phantom Dancer and Youmuu's Ghostblade will increase the Critical Strike rating further.


- Vampirism

- Since we use Doran's Blade at the start of the game its advisable to put 3 points into Vampirism on the Masteries Tree. This gives us 6% lifesteal at the beginning of the game rather than just 3%. Doran's Blade will be purchased 3 times during the early game giving us a total of 12% lifesteal. With this you can dominate early game if played right.


- Sunder

- Time for more Armor Penetration using 3 points in Sunder will of course increase your Armor Penetration even further by 6. So now with Sunder and Weapon Expertise along with Youmuu's Ghostblade The Brutalizer Greater Mark of Desolationx9 and Greater Quint of Desolationx3 you will be pushing your stat to 59 Armor Penetration at Summoner level 30.


- Executioner

- And finally Executioner this is a great talent that increases damage dealt by 6% to targets below 40% health, im sure i dont need to say to much on this one, you get the idea.

Defensive Tree_______________________________________________________________________

- Resistance

- 3 points in Resistance is very effective for Garen as it increases Magic resistance by 6. Also this talent helps along with Courage furthering your magic resistance, along with the Greater Glyph of Scaling Magic Resistx9 runes. Make sure to kill as many minions as possible to increase the effectiveness of Courage.


- Hardiness

- Finally we move onto Hardiness 3 points here will give you 6 armor. Since were not using Garen as a Tank being a DPS'er instead, he has little Armor to balance it out we use Hardiness along with and Greater Seal of Armorx9 all this makes him withstand damage taken along with Courage if used will give him a defensive shield decreasing all damage taken by 20,24,28,32/36% for 3 seconds.

Utility Tree_________________________________________________________________________

- Summoner's Insight

- We use a point in Summoner's Insight because it decreases the cool down time on Flash reducing it by 15 seconds, Flash is also used in this build and is very much as important as Exhaust.

- Flash is used for 2 things. One being to get away quickly. Using Flash can jump you over walls, great if your being chased down by a team of 3 or more, just Flash into another lane and they wont get you.

- And two Flash can be used to quickly reach an enemy, if you have almost killed your target and they stun you and run off just Flash to their location and Execute but please make sure they are not running to their team members to ambush you! that just gets you dead and them fed which is a no no.


- Good Hands

- And finally the last 2 points we will be using in Utility are Good Hands reducing time spent dead by 4/7/10% we all hate waiting 40 odd seconds reviving and those long seconds could cost you the game.

- Getting back into battle quickly is the utmost of importance, but also getting back quickly means you can dominate more. Harr...Harr..

Summoner Spells...

This Guide will be using the following Summoner Spells i will list the main ones to use and the alternatives which you may also use.

Spell One____________________________________________________________________________

- Flash

- Flash - Teleports your Champion to your cursors location - 265 second cooldown. Use this as Priority

Spell Two____________________________________________________________________________

- Exhaust

- Exhaust - Exhausts target Champion reducing their movement speed by 40%, attack damage dealt by 70%, and ability and item damage dealt by 35% for 2.5 seconds. 210 second cooldown. Use this as Priority

Spell Three__________________________________________________________________________

- Heal

- Heal - Restores 100-570 Health (depending on champion level) to your champion and 50% of that to nearby allies. 270 second cooldown. Use as an Alternative

Spell Four___________________________________________________________________________

- Teleport

- Teleport - After casting for 4 seconds, teleports your champion to target allied minion , turret , or ward . 300 second cooldown. Use as an Alternative


- Using Exhaust and Flash is the best to use.

- But if your not comfortable with it try replacing it for Exhaust and Heal

- Do not use Teleport and Heal together its a bad combo in my opinion.

Rune Slots...

Below are the following Runes that we will be using for this guide. This guide was made for level 30 Champion having the maximum runes, and masteries. You may still use this guide below level 30 but you will just have to use the required runes for your level and add the points in your talent tree up to what you can do.

- You will need 3 - Greater Quintessence of Desolation

- You will need 9 - Greater Glyph of Scaling Magic Resist

- You will need 9 - Greater Seal of Armor

- You will need 9 - Greater Mark of Desolation

Skills Review...

Here i will be explaining Garen's Abilities and when the right time to use them.

- Perseverance

- Perseverance is Garens basic ability restoring health upon not receiving any damage for several seconds, this is basically like an infinite Health Potion that most champions have to buy to restore their health.

- If you need health go to a safe zone such as your Turret to restore, this way your keeping your Turret safe but also being healed in the process.

- If you don't wish to do that, then make sure you stay behind your Minions you wont receive damage and will heal in the process as well, but you will be vulnerable to enemy attackers. The risk is of your own.


- Decisive Strike - Sequence 2,8,10,12,13

- Decisive Strike This spell is very effective, it increases your movement speed along with silencing your target and gains attack damage. Silencing is great for (example) when Fiddlesticks is draining life from you hit Decisive Strike and it will stop him. Works on most Champions Always use this when engaging enemies. Spell will become more powerful when you level up.


- Judgment - Sequence 1,3,5,7,9,

- Judgment Garen Spins his sword around hitting anything in his path this is very damaging, but not only is it good for damage it is useful from removing any slow effects that may have been put on you. Using Judgment will remove those effects.

- Use this spell to slice down Minions but if there are enemies around save your Judgment for them if they see you use it and you don't hit them that will be their chance to strike and you will be on Cooldown. This spell will become more powerful as you level up.


- Courage - Sequence 4,14,15,17,18

- Courage is very useful it not only puts a defensive shield on your champion but also it increases your armor and magic Resistance . Always use this when killing Minions and always use it when you engage an enemy. This spell will also become more stronger as you level up.


- Demacian Justice - Sequence 6,11,16

- Demacian Justice This is your Ultimate Ability and will be available at level 6 and is known as Garen's Execution spell. Whilst dealing damage to your target with Judgment and Decisive Strike once your target is at quarter health finish them off with Damacian Justice. This spell becomes more powerful as you level up in game. You can make this more powerful at level 11 and then finally level 16.

Item Purchases...

This is my list of first to last items you should be buying with your Gold in game.

1. Doran's Blade - 475g

2. Doran's Blade - 475g

3. Boots of Speed - 350g

4. Doran's Blade - 475g

5. B. F. Sword - 1650g

6. Boots of Swiftness - 650g

7. Infinity Edge - 2180g

8. Phantom Dancer - 2845g

9. The Black Cleaver - 2865g

10. Youmuu's Ghostblade - 2687g

11. The Brutalizer - 1337g

Advantages...

In this Section i will go over the Advantages of using this Build.

(1)- This Build is set for pure AD,AP,& CRIT, This is a big advantage as it makes quick work of your Targets. I class this Build as a Steroid Build

(2)- Using Flash and Exhaust is another Advantage purely because your enemies are less likely to escape Execution this is a big part in getting you Fed.

(3)- Garens Ability Perseverance is another Advantage although this comes standard playing as Garen it helps the build a bit seeing as we are not using Heal just make sure if you need health, don't take any damage and you will quickly recover.

- Running back to the base to get health is a waste of time if your not going there to purchase or defend, doing this could also cause your towers to be lost.

(4)- Because we stack Armor Penetration to the max, this is guaranteed to bypass all of your Targets Armor plus with the high amount of Critical Strike used Targets are doomed for death.

(5)- More than likely your Team will have a Jungler but if not it is an Advantage for you to gain the Lizard Elder buff known as the Red Buff not only does this give you extra damage it also applies the slow affect much like Frozen Mallet does.

- Since we are not using Frozen Mallet in this build, using the Lizard Elder buff this will help Garen in keeping his Targets close.

(6)- The other Advantage is using an ideal Team Partner I recommend Alistar since Garen doesn't have any CC Ability he relies on his partner which Alistar is perfect for. Check his spells below.

- Pulverize <----Mouse Over

- Headbutt <----Mouse over

Disadvantages...

In this section i will go over the Disadvantages of using this Build.


(1)- Because this build uses only max AD/AP & CRIT defense is an issue.

You may be powerful and take down your Targets quickly, but if your going against 2 Targets on your own, they to could make quick work of you if you become Stunned , Snared or Taunted.

Because of the Durability issue being your Armor value being low 80.29 at champion level 30 i strongly recommend having your partner with you at Top Lane, I do not recommend you solo Top with this build.

Team Partners...

This Section is still being written. Check back soon.

Facing Your Opponents...

This section is still being written. Check back soon.

Garen's Second Build (Defensive Option)...

A more defensive option for Garen

This Build has the option of more defense but still giving Garen good damage.


All of the Masteries are the same along with the Runes Summoner Spells and Skill Sequences like Build one has. The only thing that changes in this Build are stats and some item purchases.

Defense Items Added Below

- Frozen Mallet is added to the build giving us an extra 700 Health.

- Atma's Impaler is added to the build giving us an extra 45 Armor making Garens defense better. At champion level 30 this build gives 125.29 Armor

Build Information Below

- Since Build One has 301 Attack Damage, this Build only has 241 Attack Damage so using this build our Attack damage is reduced by 60.

- To maintain good damage Atma's Impaler is brought into play. Physical attacks will deal an additional 1.5% of your max Health in damage. This is also why we use Frozen Mallet for the health as this boosts the damage from Atma's Impaler.

- This build also has lower Armor Penetration this stat is shifted because you are using a better defense setup. Although Build One has 59.93 Flat Arp and this Build has 44.93 Flat Arp it is still a good amount to have. You will still find yourself Dominating with it.

- Using this Build gives you an advantage of Solo Top or even Solo'ing any lane

Garen's Third Build (Increasing Damage)...

This section is still being written. Check back soon.

Ranked Matches..

Hello Reader,

- I am currently looking for Garen players to Test my Builds for "Ranked Matches" only!

- I am not currently in a Ranked team so i am calling out for help to assist me with information for my Guide. I will include your names in the Ranked section on my guide so people know you have tested it.

- PM me your response. Don't forget to "Quote" Build 1 2 or 3 so i know which one you have Tested.

I will appreciate the help you guys give and will look forward to hearing from your responses.