Hi! my name is monidi im a top-lane player i have 1m point on Garen, i just want to make a simple guide for the beginners who want to play Garen i have learnt how to play in each match up since Garen is a simple champ it all depends on how you deal in every match up, I hope my guide will be useful to you.

Garen The Might of Demacia Garen is a simple champion that doesnt require practise to master his skills, one of the most recommended champions for top lane beginners and lol beginners in general.

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PROS + has a lot of sustain + can acquire kills easily + has true damage + manaless + can split push and teamfight + tanky + strong against cc

CONS - no noticable cc - kitable - suffers against ranged champs - no healing during fights - Struggles against hard tanks

+ passive: Perseverance Garen restores 1.5−10.1% of his maximum health every 5 seconds (depending on level). Perseverance is interrupted for 8 seconds if Garen takes damage from epic monsters, turrets, champions, or if he is hit by an enemy ability. note: minions dont affect its cooldown note: play around your passive so you could always win trades.

+ Q: Decisive Strike Garen removes all slows on him and gains 35% bonus movement speed for 1 / 1.65 / 2.3 / 2.95 / 3.6 seconds. His next melee attack within 4.5 seconds will deal 30 / 60 / 90 / 120 / 150 (+0.5 per attack damage) bonus physical damage and silence his target for 1.5 seconds. This attack can critically strike. note: this is the only ability that helps garen catch his enemies so dont waste it in fights. note: this skill applies silence on enemies which is very important, you could use it on the most feed champ in the enemy team in fights or use it before your ult on champs who are able to block your ult like Sett, Kayle, etc. note: "removes all slows on him" which is very important if you want to escape in critical situations.

+ W: CouragePassive: Garen permanently gains 0.2 bonus armor and bonus magic resistance every time he kills an enemy unit, up to a maximum of 30 bonus resistances at 150 unit kills. At max resistances from enemy kills, Garen increases his bonus armor and magic resist by 10%. Active: Garen reduces incoming damage by 30% for 2 / 2.75 / 3.5 / 4.25 / 5 seconds. Additionally, for the first 0.75 seconds, Garen also gains a 70 / 95 / 120 / 145 / 170 (+0.2 bonus health) shield and 60% Tenacity. note: its passive is the reason why Garen is tanky and its active is the reason why he is strong against cc because it provides him with tenacity.

+ E: Judgment Garen rapidly spins his sword around his body 7 (+1 per 25% attack speed) times over 3 seconds, ignoring unit collision and dealing 4 / 8 / 12 / 16 / 20 (+0-8.2 depending on level) (+0.32 / 0.34 / 0.36 / 0.38 / 0.4 per attack damage) physical damage per spin to nearby enemies. This damage is increased by 25% on Garen's nearest enemy. Judgment can critically strike for 33% bonus damage. The total damage is increased by 50% against non-epic monsters. Enemy champions hit 6 times have their armor reduced by 25% for 6 seconds (hits after the 6th refresh the duration). Garen can deactivate Judgement early by activating the ability again after 1 second, which reduces the cooldown by the remaining duration of the spin. note: use your E first against tanks to benefit from its armor penetration which will make your Q Decisive Strike stronger.

+ R: Demacian Justice Garen gains vision of his target for 1 second and brings down Demacian Justice on them after a 0.5 second delay, dealing true damage to them equal to 150 / 300 / 450 plus 25 / 30 / 35%% of the target's missing health. note: the more the enemy missing hp the more true damage your ult will deal so USE IT ONLY WHEN THEY ARE LOW ON HP.

+ flashBasic skill for most champions, use it either to escape a critical situation or to secure a kill.

+ igniteBasic skill for playing aggressive, Ignites target enemy champion, dealing 70-410 true damage (depending on champion level) over 5 seconds and applying Grievous Wounds to them for the duration (Grievous Wounds reduces all healing received and regeneration rates by 40%).

+ teleportBasic skill for a top laner. It allows you to quickly get back on line in early game. You can quickly move to a fights for objects or a bot because top laners is very fond of team play. When you split push in late game you can quickly teleport to baron or team fight.

+ stridebreakerthe perfect item for Garen i use it 90% of my games, it allows garen to catch his enemies with her active slow, it also helps in clearing the wave faster in split, its mythic passive provids Garen with the movement speed he needs for catching his enemies.

+ Trinity Forceit gives Garen the best states for 1v1 i use it against tanks because it provides me with the damage i need throught its passives, it gives you attack speed which you will need when your skills are on cooldown against tanks in long trades, and will make you benefit the most from the armor penetration of your Judgment and Black Cleaver passive.

+ mortal reminder Mortal Reminder is the best anti heal item for garen, I chose it over Thornmail because you can apply 60% greivous wounds easily with it which increases your anti heal mean while Thornmail requires immobilizing to apply 60% greivous wounds which Garen cant do because he dosent have immobilizing abilities, Mortal Reminder also provides Garen with the movement and attack speed he needs to oneshot enemies.

+ dead man's plate Dead Man's Plate is an essential item on Garen because it provides him with the movement speed he needs to catch his enemies duo to its unique passive, its also slows the enemy on first hit along side with Stridebreaker slow it makes it nearly impossible for enemies to escape from Garen, its passive's movement speed is also useful in escaping in critical situations, it also provides Garen with the tankness he needs during teamfights.

+ sterak's gage Sterak's Gage is an essential item for teamfights, it provides you with a lot of durability throughts its passive, so its very useful to survive teamfights, dont build it at early you must at least have one tank item like Dead Man's Plate.

+ black cleaver Black Cleaver is a very compatible item on Garen; because you can apply its passive armor penetration stacks easily with your Judgment along side with your Judgment passive armor penteration, it makes it easy to deal more damage on tanks and solid fighters.

+ spirit visage Spirit Visage is one of the only two MS items that works will on Garen along side with Force of Nature, it puffs his healing abilities through his passive Perseverance and Conqueror and any healing and shielding you receive form allies, it works will with Yuumi, you can go Force of Nature instead of Spirit Visage if there are 2 mages or more, you can use both items if there are 3 mages or more.

+ thornmail Thornmail is a very useful item on Garen if you are up against 4 AD champs or more, it will provide you with the tankness and damage you need in team fight throught its passive, it also applies gerivous wounds on enemies without the need to attack them, just by getting attacked you apply them, the only downside is that you cant apply 60% gerivous wounds because it requires immobilizing and Garen has no immobilizing skills

Doran's Shield is the only start up item you need; because it works well with your passive Perseverance with both of them you will be able to restore most of the damgade taken during short trades, so you will always win short trades, Garen play style in laning phase is very similar to the war of attrition style, you do short trades with enemies with all your skills, then go back restore the damage taken, then fight again and repeat, the most important thing in laning phase that you need to have a lead otherwise you will struggle in mid game; because its hard for Garen to come back if he is behind, the only way to get a lead at the early game is to dominate your opponent by learning how to play in each match up as i said early Garen is a simple champ so it all depends on how to deal in each match up.

Your top priority vs ranged is to survive and farm as much as you can, with Fleet Footwork and Second Wind you will have the sustain you need to survive the heavy poke and farm safely, try to farm under your turrent, of course the enemy top laner will try to poke you under your turrent to make you lose as much farm as possible, which will lead for some of turrent shots to hit them wait for them to do a mistake until the turrent deals enough damage to them then go all in using your Flash and Ignite with your ultimate Demacian Justice and Q Decisive Strike, again dont try to do trades with them because you probably wont be able to catch them which will make them kite you to death, buying armor boots Plated Steelcaps is essential to survive excapt Kayle of course; because she is an AP champ, leveling up Q first is better because you wont be able to use your E on them and you need movement speed to catch them, except Teemo dont level up your Q first against Teemo because you will waste it since he applies blind on, so leveling up your E first against Teemo would be the best strategy.

If you managed to have a lead in early game like 2/0 or 3/1 trust me you will be the strongest in game, you will even able to oneshot the enemy's fed carry, so helping your team in teamfights is essential, alright if you managed to get a lead on the early game what should you do? First snowballing your lead by always giving a good care to your top lane farm dont let your minions wave crush under your turrent in favour of geting more kills no you should push the minions wave under the enemy's second turrent then go to other lanes to help your teammates (this is what is called macro search it on google to understand it more), by the time you help your teammate in mid or jung the enemy top laner would have pushed the minions wave under your turrent, you could easly kill them before they recall if you managed to catch them or simply push the minions wave again under the enemy's second turrent then repeat, what if you cant help your teammates on mid or bot? you can go to the enemy's top lane jung and farm it, dont forget to give a good care to vision you dont wanna die 1v2 against the enemy's jungeler and top laner or just split push, what if you are behind in mid game? try to focus on your farm and play super safe under your turrent until the enemy's top laner feels boared and leaves the lane for you then take the chance to push the minions wave under their turrent if you have a vision on him on bot or far away form you then its your chance to take the enemy's turrent, try to avoid teamfight as much as you can; because you are now too weak to fight unless your team is fed then it will be easy for to get kills through your ultimate Demacian Justice and get back in game.

in late game Garen begins to struggle; because as I said earlier Garen depends on his lead which will fade in late game, so try to avoid the late game as much as you can, your only priority in late game is to focus your ult Demacian Justice and your Q Decisive Strike silence on the enemy's most fed champ and stick to your teammates; because you dont have Teleport so it will be hard for you to join teamfights in late game even tho you have high mobility you wont be able to reach the fight at the right time, because at the late game the teamfights ends pretty fast.

thank you for reading until now, sorry for my poor english, i hope my guide was useful to you as a Garen beginner.
if you want any tips against specific champs feel free to ask in the comments.
if you found any mistake please tell me in comments.