Garen is a champ that i haven't played since i first started playing LoL in the tutorial levels but then i finally got a hang of him. I've seen many players play Garen as either Tank, Attack speed champion or just Full AD with him. Sure i guess all those builds work but i find this as the best.

The cons of this builds (according to me) is..
Tank Garen: You can't farm. The best way for him to earn money is to deal the final blow with Demacian Justice.
Attack Speed Garen: You won't get enough damage with your Decisive Strike or Judgment.
Attack Damage Garen: Yes you will have enough Damage with your Decisive Strike and your Judgment but if the enemy team decides to gank you you will get killed without your hp and armor.

Many people might think that Building Garen tank is one of the best options but no sir it is not. There are many other champions that fits more as a tank than him. Annie , Jax , Master Yi.

I've asked myself this question and many of my friends has asked me the same. " Why mix it?" Well the thing is that with many other builds your only way to earn huge amounts of money is often to KS with Demacian Justice. And to survive you'll use Courage , Judgment to get rid of the slows and finally Decisive Strike to get your movement speed for a short duration.

The good part to mix tank and AD with Garen is that You can easily withstand tons of damage and still deal tons of damage. You will easily Exterminate the whole team while still having some Hp left


Pros:
- Strong early game
-Good health reg to easily lane for a while
-Can secure kills with Ultimate
-Great farmer in both mid and late game
-Easily withstands huge amount of damage while still dealing tons of damage

Cons:
-Extremely Item independent mid and late game
-Slow attack speed
-Easily kited

Fortitude Quintessence is a MUST for Garen because you want to survive the damage that you'll recieve. And it will give you more AD thanks to your Atma's Impaler.

Mark of Strength Of Course you wan't your damage in both basic attacks and Decisive Strike + Judgment.

Seal of Resilience. MUST!! How are you otherwise to withstand the enemy attacks?

Glyph of Alacrity. Since he ain't got any good Attack speed you Definitly want this since you will deal bursts of damage.

Of course you maybe want other masteries that match your playstyle but this works for me and i've never had problems with it.
I play 21/6/3.
Because in offense i want my Executioner to deal extra damage with my Demacian Justice. Attack Damage and Speed for burst damage.
Crit. for extra damage of course.
Armor pen. for your Judgment
Life steal with your huge burst damage while u still loosing hp you will regenerate it as fast thanks to your huge damage output.
Armor and Magic resistance. How will you otherwise survive a team fight?
Good hands. Hmm others might would have choosen other but i find this good since if he dies you want to get back to life to help your team. A team with a feeded Garen will ALWAYS (well maybe not always) win. And if Garen dies you want him back to life as soon as possible.

Why do i choose to give him theese item's in This order?

Because with your Doran's you'll deal significant damage in the beginning.

After you'll always want boots to easily run after other champs and your Decisive Strike will give you a boost of Movement speed.

I choose to buy another 2 doran's after this just cuz i want my little extra ad.

Boots of Swiftness buy this after you got your 3 doran's NOT before!! Because you want your AD first..

B.F Sword For a start for your Infinity. This will give you extra damage.

Infinity Edge for your damage, crit chance and crit damage. This is good the buy after Swiftness and before Warmog's because with your Boots of Swiftness you'll easily catch up and deal the remaining 300 hp on a running champion. And with this you'll get kills faster, earn money faster which will easily give you a warmog's and atma's pretty quick.

Warmog's Armor: I want it here because now we are almost in late game. And Garen will need his items more than ever for that extra survival. I buy Warmog's here because now my enemy's will deal significant damage to me but i still can keep up a bit thanks to my extra Hp and Hp reg.

Atma's Impaler : Always after Warmog's because now you will gain huge extra AD.

Frozen Mallet Now you'll gain extra life (which means more ad) and some champs might be able to outrun you. Now you can prevent this thanks to this item's Passive.



You might wanna replace your Warmog's Armor against a Phantom Dancer so you'll get your running speed, attack speed and crit. chance. The choice is up to you

For summoner spells i choose.

This is very useful on Garen so you easily can chase after running champions

Works very good with your and your Decisive Strike

I start with Judgment and max it first in 5v5 because you'll want your farm.

I max Courage secondly because if you are facing someone more superior than you you'll always want this to reduce that damage and kill him instead.

And at last my Decisive Strike. Sure many might say " Why you max this last? This is what give u most of your damage". Yes maybe it is but it is only against a single target and it doesn't remove CC's. I choose to max this last in Summoner's Rift because there is more escape routes and more targets to aim at so you want your Spin to easily remove CC's and farm easy.

I hope i gave you guys some good tips of playing Garen. Yes maybe you want to change it. Please write to me if there's something that i really wan't to change in my build Because if i got to be honest i've only been playing LoL since October.

In this guide i've Explained.

Why you should build him as a AD Tank.

Why you wan't these runes.

Why you wan't this item's in this order

Why you wan't your masteries like that.


This is my first guide so far and i'll guess it will be many more. Please rate and give some positive comments! :D