First guide ever so yes it may suck a bit but this is how i play garen and truth is he normally owns everything First of i play him as more of an off tank he becomes very powerful and very good and escaping on low health i get called a lucker all the time

so to start with runes i always make sure i have cooldown per level and health quints because with his abilitys able to be used free of cost you want the cool down reduction to help its usefulnes and i take health quints so even at early on you have the health to be aggressive and if you get low just stay out the way at let your passive heal you back to full now i take armour pen marks as i got told there better than attack damage personally i dont care either attack damage or armour pen are good with me but still and as for seals i take health but this could easily be swapped for magic resist or armour

i take 8/21/1 the reason i dont take 9/21/0 is because i prefere to get improved ghost than get 15% magic penetraion it is very useful for his ultimate but when used correctly you dont need magic pen because it will insta-kill them anyway

items i see so many garens build dps and every time i dominate them he does work well ad because his judgement rips them apart but as a tank he survives so much better in lane and also can run in against a team of 5 to kill one of them on low health and run back out without dying where as an ad garen would die instantly in a 5 vs 1

i always take a dorans shield first and the health regen helps you stay in lane when low as with your passive you can be full healthed again in under a minute everytime and you have quite high starting health normally around the 800 mark so you know

second thing you need is boots now unless your team is feeding all there ap characters i would suggest boots of swiftness but mercury treads are good if they have alot of aps that are doin well and on your first return if you can buy something to go towards your frozen mallet however before now i have managed to by my entire frozen mallet and boots due to such great lane stability

after you have your frozen mallet you have two choices do you want to do more damage or get more speed this depends on your team if the enemy is getting away on low health alot i get a phantom dancer to help tower dive quickly but if your team is doing really well get an infinity edge the extra damage and crit chance means your judgement eats up squishy character then depending on which you bought by the opposite one then if your team is still dying alot you need to start taking items depending on the situation if your getting stun locked and dealt massive ap damage then i would say get warmahogs and force of nature then tarde dorans shield for an atmas imapaler for more damage if there very ad heavy id advise getting a thornmail a warmahogs and a sword of the occult normally by the time your looking at these items the team will have already surrendered thought so you should be okay but try to take more defencive items

for my summoner spells i always take ghost and exhaust if you want to swap them fine but i always take ghost it helps so much as with your q ability and if you buy a phantom dancer your already on around 530 movement speed but with ghost u can reach 600 charge in get the kill and get out before the other team can say hey look its garen and exhaust is good as in a team fight you want to run and exhaust there carry and then hammer them to death with your judgement and decicive strike followed by your ulti and watch them drop to the floor

overall i feel garen is one of the best tank characters to play as i feel he is the best for getting kills however this does not mean you will always win i have had games where i have finished on scores like 6/0/12 but we have lost so dont always excpect to do great another thing garen needs to do well is a good damage dealing champion to lane with try not to lane with a tank or support as it wont help you at all