Boots


I will 95% of the time be taking Boots of swiftness because they work so well on Garen. The only times i wont be taking Swifties is when the enemy teams are heavily one sided on a certain damage type, in that case i will take Merc Treads or Plated Steelcaps


Stridebreaker: Always take this item basically, even if Trinity Force can help you better in the sidelane with dueling Stridebreaker is just too useful.

Youmuu's Ghostblade: I've been building this MORE than Phantom Dancer as of recent and it feels really good, if the enemy team has alot of squishy champs or champs that are difficult to get on top of without burning your Q this item just feels great to build

Phantom Dancer: If im not going Ghostblade im going this and thats because the enemy team is either fairly tanky or just doesnt have insane movement abilities and i know im gonna put the AS to use on towers and spins.

Spear of Shojin: Its pretty safe to take this item every game because it gives you two stats that you like and most importantly it boosts your True damage on your ult, when combined with Axiom Arcanist (that you should be taking every game) you can execute enemies at much higher health.

Sterak's Gage: this item is pretty much always useful since it gives so much that garen likes. if im not taking build spots on any specific items and i would like to live longer im building this.

Mortal Reminder: You can build this item if anyone on their team heals enough for you to care about, usually you will build Exe's earlier and finish this later. I like to build it more when i have Phantom Dancer because it adds more crit. Typically this item will do you more than Black Cleaver will unless they are stacking armor and your team is heavy on AD

Serpent's Fang: I love to build this item when my laner has shields and atleast 1 other enemy utilizes shielding, it just helps way too much. One thing that may be an unpopular take but if i can kill Mordekaiser pre lvl.3 i will rush this item no matter what.

Black Cleaver: If your team has alot of AD Damage and the enemies spec into any armor this is a great item, the item also gives great stats and the bonus movement speed it gives is nice. The only downside is if they also have healing you will need to build Chempunk Chainswordinstead of Mortal Reminder which isnt really bad but it's just something to take note of.

Chempunk Chainsword: Like previously mentioned this item is really only built when you've already built an armor pen item. Nothing else worth mentioning here other than to build it last.

Hullbreaker: I don't build this item too much, the only time I build this is when there are issues with my team and all i can reliably do is splitpush. The item strengthens your waves with the buff and allows you to do a surprising amount of damage to towers.

Trinity Force: This is our most situational item yet, you should only build this item if either you are going to be dueling a champ in sidelanes very often who you wont have trouble catching warranting a Stridebreaker build, or if there is a hyperfed champ that you need to Flash>Q>E>R to instant death. This item works well for splitpushing for Sheen reasons.

Hubris: This item i have been trying recently after seeing it in another's guide; it is a great snowball item that personally ill go 2nd if i have 4+ kills by that time, been seeing good success.

Edge of Night: I like to build this against champs who have 1 really annoying cc ability that stops me from running them down, will typically only build this if im already going Youmuu's just cause they both are lethality and work well together within the context.

Opportunity:I would only take this item if i am going full lethality because as a standalone item it doesnt provide anything special for Garen but when you are already building lethality it works really well with Garen's get in, burst, and get out playstyle.

Bastionbreaker: i love to splitpush so this item definitely helps, if you can kill a sidelaner and manage to get to a tower the tower is just insta-killed. makes you a real threat late if they cant match you in time.

Kaenikc Rookern: This is a great item for AP teams whether they are heavy AP or just enough to warrant a defensive item. Its good in all scenarios; it has a great Magic Resist stat and the shield is nice against most champs and synergizes with his passive trade pattern.

Force of Nature: FoN gives useful stats across the board and the MS is lovely, its passive gives you all the MR you could ever need. The only downside to this item is if you arent taking long fights the passive isnt as useful as Kaenic Rookern since it does nothing against burst/for you playing burst playstyle. Building this as the second MR item against a full AP team makes you invincible.

Spirit Visage: This item is a rare buy, a game where you think building MR is worth AND you have a support that heals you enough to warrant buying Spirit Visage, it boosts your W but not enough to care. Helps your passive heal but honestly i dont think that matters much.

Maw of Malmortius: Maw is another rare build for me which is why i have it at the end of the "Magic Resist Items" list, I dont think inherently it syngergizes with Garen too well but if im getting ahead and want to snowball against a heavy AP team but still need survivability I may go Maw so i can continue doing damage while being able to survive burst, i rarely find use in the omnivamp part of Maw since when Garen gets low he likes to attempt escape/is out of CDs

Dead Man's Plate: This is Garen's armor item, should i say more? Armor, MS, Tenacity, Health, and extra burst damage. If you're building armor this should be in the build.

Jak'Sho The Protean: Garen's W gives him 30 of each resist, Jak gives 45 each, combined with its passive Jak is a great one stop shop for all resists. Build this if you dont want to itemize to a certain resist but you think youll need resistance.

Randuin's Omen: Going against 3 ADCs? just do yourself a favor and build this, makes their autos do less damage, its active allows you to stay on an enemy longer if Stride Breaker is on cooldown or wore off before they died, also the slow is stronger.

Death's Dance: DD is good for a couple situations; going against a heavy AD team and you still want some extra damage or flashing in and diving the carry in a large teamfight and having its passive cleanse and keep you alive are my main two uses for this item. Its good for the dive technique because you can "scrafice yourself" but actually have a chance at life after trading for someone worth more possibly.

Guardian Angel: Similar idea to Death's Dance where you can dive in the middle of a teamfight, trade, and come out alive although this one is a little more consistent. thats where GA's main power comes in though, DD is more versatail overall but GA wins in purely the dive utility.

Knight's Vow: Buy this item when you Int and you ADC didn't. Basically if you have a hyper-fed ADC and you aren't very useful you can build this item to do something for your carry.