Ignite Mastery gives more AD than two quintessences. If 5 AD seriously isnt better than 1% CDR you may aswell just take Greater Quintessence of Cooldown Reduction. The ignite mastery is designed to be very strong for only one mastery point, all of the summoner spell masteries are.

If 1% CDR is better than 5 AD, that means three Attack damage quints are worse than one CDR quint. Seriously, just take Ignite mastery since its better than two of the QUINTS you have choosen for only one mastery point.


BOots of speed arent really a must anymore because most champions will build either the Crystalline Flask or Cloth Armor against garen. Boots just got nerfed so that they werent must-have's anymore. Additionally, Garen is faster than most champions even if they have boots and he doesnt. Against ranged champions they are almost core though.

Why Ignite mastery? I don't think 5 AD would be better than 1% CDR.

Yeah, right about Defender , the reason for Ionian Boots of Lucidity is, that I want 40% CDR. This means I don't have to build AS like the top build.

Yeah, but I wouldn't say that on Garen. Garen has always relied onto catching his enemy, so Boots are a must.

For runes, well, Health is kinda unneccesary because you get Black Cleaver and (most of the time) Frozen Mallet anyway. And Movement Speed? Could be good, but last hitting in S3 was made harder and because of that all little bit of AD helps.

I waited for season 3 to check it out since everything changed. Wouldnt help much if i gave you season 2 advice. I wont read the entire guides but will give as much constructive critisism as possible.

Masteries:

No ignite mastery?

Defender is for the most part better than a 2nd or 3rd point in the magic resist or armor mastery. The armor/magic resist mastery gives 2 at first point, but 1.5 afterwards. I recommend switching one of the points in either of the two into Defender mastery, although its not that big of a deal.

Other than that i dont see any problems with the masteries you choose.


Items:
I really like the build although we dont have much experience on this new season 3 change. Except for the Ionian boots that i feel look very underwhelming on Garen. You already have 20% CDR from items alone. Not sure what it should be replaced with though. Perhaps ninja tabi, mercury's treads or Swiftness?

Dorans blade and Dorans shield are both descent starters now depending on matchups. You should probably add them to situational.

Runes:
I recommend adding Movement speed quints(they were buffed season 3) and health quints as situational.


Voted +1

I got more than 40% CDR? Black Cleaver=10%, Ionian Boots of Lucidity=15%, Youmuu's Ghostblade=10%, Sorcery=4% =39%. The calculator is bugged.

Multiple items with cc-reduction don't stack that well. I think Mercury's Treads would only give like 10 in the end, maybe even less.

I will change the masteries again anyway. I feel like all the masteries at the top of defense are rather a waste.

As I said in the skill section, you can get Courage at 3.

For what I get the mastery, Black Cleaver and Youmuu's Ghostblade?

40% CDR is nice, but to have 15% CDR on boots, contra MR Boots with Tenacity (as Garen is a kite-able Champion), feels abit silly and contra-productive. You will neither hit 40% CDR before you are in late-game, when you have almost a full build.

Having any forms of Armor/MR items at the end, ie very end-game, is suicidal IMHO, since the AD Carry, AP Carry and Jungler(s) will completely rip you to shreds before you can manage to get there. I'd swap the 2nd The Brutalizer's spot with the QSS and allow the Chain Mail and QSS to be fluid in time. Pick the one needed most first, obviously. Having Guardian Angel is nice, but if you aim to get it, you will need it abit earlier I fear.

Taking 4% in CDR from Masteries ( Sorcery) is totally useless, since the cap of CDR is 40%, you reach this with the Items alone. Better in this case to either drop CDR Items (Boots IMHO) and loose some overal CDR, or move those 4pts in Sorcery to something else. Butcher is godly early-game for those CS, for example.

Less time in Slows, Stuns or any CC is a good thing. So taking and using MR Boots with Tenacity boosts, coupled with Tenacious and Courage (if lucky to put on just as Jungle-Amu dives/Sone flanks, etc), will more or less make any CC moot on you. You'll just laugh and put the Judgment on them for extreme ArP for you and your Team.

Taking Good Hands ... feels redundant. You will not aim to get killed, and 10% is not much. Early wise if you die, your Timer will be 15-20 seconds. 10% on that, is 1.5-2 seconds. That's near nothing. End-game wise it'll probably be 40-60 seconds, and even here it is only 4-6 seconds. Better to go with Unyielding and seek for Block if possible, as it will help early-game in lane-duels. Couple this with Honor Guard and you will be nigh unstoppable in teamfights.

Safeguard feels useless. It's a small 5% Damage Reduction from the Towers. Garen is not a Tower Diver, he is a Bruiser/Off-tank, and is meant if anything to push past the friends who tower dive and keep the enemies at bay, initiate fights or clear minion-waves that comes to the Tower. Unyielding/Block instead.

Courage is needed to take early. Lvl 2 or 3 definantly, as that plain 20% Armor/MR Passive boost (ie free), combined with the 30% Armor/MR and 30% Tenacity will help you -loads-. Combine this with Unyielding and Block from Masteries and you'll surprise the enemy Jungler who comes to gank when he hits you in Tower Range.

ArP Marks, 9 of them, will net you a 11.5 of ArP at Level 1. Coupled with 8% from Weapon Expertise , yuor enemy with aprox 40 Armor will be down to 25-ish in Armor at Level 1. With Black Cleaver you will remove 15 + 30% at full stacks (easy obtained with a Judgement spin). It's a dead enemy in any case.
I do understand the interest of AD Marks though. Helps with CS early and gives a bigger "punt" early game vs squishies. You are often up against Heavy Armor in Top Lane though, and therefor I believe ArP Marks to be better to Duel more equally. With our Passive (even more since it was buffed!) we should have no bigger trouble to outlast most Top-Laners.

Good job, this is the build i follow when im playing garen. :D

The item choices are just terrible.

Well, the somewhat cool thing in S3 is, even with a build which is already near off-tank Garen, you can still assasinate enemies in 3 seconds. And this is what makes Garen unique. Of course, there are situations you want to build more damage (way to low dmg on your team, mostly tanky, etc.), but for every game and every playstyle, you should find one of my 4 builds attractive for the situation.

So, will Black Cleaver give health in SIII? Cause that would be awesome. I must have missed that change, though.

Then that is probably enough, yes.

I have never said you said Off-tank Garen was ****. I just said I agreed with the other (at THIS point, I agree with them) saying Off-tank Garen is better than this ''assassin'' Garen. I'm glad you are taking this pretty cool, though. I have seen other Garen build owners, and they are somewhat furious when someone says against them.

Thanks. Sincerely, Shaxys

As I have said in the guide, Frozen Mallet+ Black Cleaver should then give enough HP.

I get those items, like said, because 40% CDR are great on Garen. Youmuu's Ghostblade combines this also with crit and armorpen, which Garen needs to be effective. And as the new active is no longer dependent onto hitting an enemy, it is very usefull for the movement speed during spinning.
And the earlier you get 40% CDR, the earlier you can work against your long ult CD. Aswell, all other CD's of Garen are high aswell, which makes it even more effective. Finally, it puts your Courage, your biggest defense tool, on a 12 seconds cooldown with a 6 seconds duration. As you see, CDR increases utility, defense and offense, more than an other stat could. And that is why I get it with the highest priority.

The comments were about full tank Garen, not off-tank Garen. Off-tank Garen is viable, my 3. build from the 4 in the build varity section is basicall off-tank Garen.

Great guide, but I won't upvote until I've tried it (which will be in season III). I also totally agree with the past comments about Offtank Garen and your choice of items (Youmuu's, CDR boots, etc.) But as I haven't tried it, I can only SAY it SEEMS ******ed, or atleast less viable, but not prove anything. I agree with the GA part, though. GA is completely awesome for Garen, atleast when you're this squishy on your other items.

All in all GREAT Guide, not as good build (but then again, I don't know for sure yet, have to see it in pratics..).

Only one more thing. According to me Garen is absolutely not the first ''tanky assassin'' around. Lee Sin is not a weak champion, and neither is Diana, Poppy and all of those are capable of dealing INSANE damage burst. ( Lee Sin with Last Whisper and you'll see).

Thanks for the great guide, though. Keep the good work up!


P.S. What if they have true damage, btw?

+1