Hi everyone, I'm Qurolix from Singapore, I'm playing in the South-East Asia server.

There are many guides out there, however, mine is unique mainly due to my playstyle. As a result, I have different item build from other guides. I will give a thorough analysis on my item build, and hopefully I can convince you that it works.

If he build too tank, he cannot kill his opponents fast enough. If he build too much damage, he will die too fast. As a result, he cannot deal high damage.

A fine balance of tank and damage will be good. The aim is to be able to deal decent amount of damage, while at the same time survive in a teamfight. This is why you should get a semi tank build. This is where my playstyle differs from other guides.

I believe there are some core items for every champion. These are the items which I feel a player must get, because they are just awesome.

Ninja Tabi or Mercury's Treads is self explanatory. You need the mobility. If your top laner opponent is AD, get Ninja Tabi. If your top laner opponent is AP, get Mercury's Treads.

Black Cleaver is an item that many players consider to be core on Garen. It gives damage, hp, cdr, and movement speed. This is an all rounder item which increases 4 aspects of your stats. At 3000 gold, it's very worth buying.

What is unique in my guide, is that Sterak's Gage is a core item.

1. It gives an super high amount of hp
   It gives a base hp of 450. If you trigger the passive, it gives you a shield. The total bonus hp you get, including from black cleaver, is 400 + 450 = 850. Hence, the shield you get is 0.75 X 850 = 640! The shield decays after 0.75s, so if you don't get hit after your shield procs, you would get shielded for less than 640 hp. You can easily withstand any burst damage with that kind of hp and shield.
   
   
2. It gives a super high amount of damage
   Some players may underestimate the amount of damage it gives, because it's expressed as 50% of your base damage. Normally by the time you get this item, you should be around level 14. At level 14, you will have 120 base damage. The amount of damage you get from it is 0.5 X 120 = 60!

In total, Sterak's Gage gives 450 hp, up to 640 shield hp, and 60 damage at level 14. All for a cost of 3200 gold. Where can you find a better item than that?

It gets even better as the game progresses. At max level 18, you get 0.5 X 142 = 71 damage. As you get more items with hp, the amount of shield you get increases too.

You don't want to get it too early, because at lower levels, the shield and damage is lower. Hence I think getting it as the third item is the best.

• Max cdr build
  After getting your core items, you can get Ohmwrecker if your opponent is mostly doing AD damage, which they usually does. It gives a good amount of armour and hp. Most importantly, it has 10% cdr. With the cdr rune, you are able to get max cdr at lvl 18.
  
  At this stage, you should be able to survive long in a teamfight. With max cdr, your Decisive Strike's cd is 4.8s and Judgment's cd is 5.4s. When you use Decisive Strike followed by Judgment which lasts for 3s, you just have to wait about 1.8s to spam Decisive Strike again, followed by Judgment. The idea is to spam your skills since you know you can survive for long, instead of using basic atk while your skills are on cd.
  
  If your opponent is mostly doing AP damage, you can get Spirit Visage. It also has a 10% cdr, so you can max your cdr.

Edge of Night gives you a mixture of damage and hp. You have to remember to use the shield before a teamfight.

Frozen Mallet gives you a mixture of damage and hp.

You should get Resolve as the main rune because defense is important.

Since Garen doesn't have any immobilizing skills, his best option is to get Grasp of the Undying. Your q takes about 1s, and your e takes 3s. After spamming your skills, about 4s would have passes. The next aa you do will proc this rune.

Bone Plating, and Overgrowth are self explanatory, they give the highest amount of tank compared to the other options.

You have to get Demolish because you have neither immobilizing skills nor shield.

I recommend getting Precision as the secondary rune, because it gives a mixture of tank and damage.

Depending on your luck, Triumph can heal you a lot. It heals for 12% of your missing hp. Since you have build very high hp, if your hp is low, you would heal a lot if you takedown. The bonus gold on takedowns is also good.

Since you are semi tank, Last Stand can give you additional damage when you are low on hp.

You should get the cdr for your offensive rune to max cdr.

1. He is very tank, yet deal very high damage!
   There are champs who are tank but deal low damage, and there are champs who deal high damage but are squishy. Garen is both very tank and deal high damage.
   
   Courage reduces damage taken by 60% for the first 0.75s, and 30% after that for 5.25s at max level. Not only that, you gain up to 40 armour and MR as you kill minions. It's a very tank skill.
   
   You can hit 10 times with Judgment at level 16. For single target, the damage at 10 hits is (40 + 53% AD) X 10 = 400 + 530% AD! Not only that, after 4 hits, opponent's armour gets reduced by 25%. Very high damage for one skill.
   
   
2. He has very good cc
   Decisive Strike has 1.5s silence. Silence is almost as good as a stun, it's very annoying when you cannot use skills for 1.5s.
   
   
3. He heals a lot
   During laning phase, Perseverance heals him if he gets poked. He can farm more since he doesn't have to go back to base to heal that often.
   
   Once he gets to level 11, Perseverance heals him a lot. If he got damaged to a low hp in a teamfight, he can back away to heal, then join back the teamfight. I have a video on this, where I turn from losing to winning.
   
   Play Video

Compared to the popular guide, my guide has a few differences.

I emphasize strongly on getting the Sterak's Gage as a core item, reasons are stated above. I would recommend you to try it if you have haven't.

His guide focuses a lot on tank. Much of his items are tank items. However, I recommend you to be semi tank. Judgment deals 400 + 530% AD at level 16, so it would be a waste if you don't make use of his high scaling damage. If you don't kill your opponent fast enough, your teammates would die in a teamfight and your team loses the teamfight.

I think Decisive Strike should be maxed last because its damage scaling is low. Instead, Judgment's damage scaling is much better. He's known to be "spin to win" because of this skill, which has high damage.

I hope you have learnt a new playstyle with Garen. My item build is also suitable for many other top laners, including Renekton, who is also my favourite top laner. If you feel that it sounds good, feel free to try it. It works very well for me, so I hope it would be the same for you too. It's satisfying for me if I manage to help you with my guide. Thank you for reading.