well here we go this is my second build this is my tanky garen build with a little damage capability anyway onwards to build writing :S

Strengths

Durable
Fast moving (with boots)
can silence
excellent health regeneration

Weaknesses

confined to close range
get boots later than usual (this build)
get raged at for playing him
easilly harrased
cooldown dependant

great for escaping since garen doesnt really have much in that catefory although he can hit to gain more durability it doesnt always do the trick and if theis isnt fast enough couple it with


Brilliant to just bridge the gap after an opponant attempts to escape after that silly face check of his if this doesnt cut it you could always use and

great starter item in my own opinion it increases the duration you can lane for without recalling this is also a great item as it is not wasted and used as part of the warmogs armor


great health item i use this to give myself stupid amounts of hp ever tried to kill a garen with shedloads of hp at about level 5?


best boots going for garen im my personal opinion there is no way in hell your going to miss out on the action when your running around on 410 movement speed


this will take you to about 2.7k hp at level 11 or so amazing item to increase your durability gives some nice health regeneration aswell this is also your reasoning for your first two items


great item this is where you start to gain durability this will put you to a hefty amount of armor making melee think twice about their attacks on you as you will have about 166AD at this point if all is going well


this hp Regenration is a force to be reckoned with you become really durable once you attain this item and casters are now in the same situation as the melee


this is my most recent addition to the build actually the magic resistance and hp is nice but the real reason i pick this up is the increased healing it actually works with your passive making you almost godlike


very rearely get to this point of the match but if you do the enemy melee will love you is all i have to say about this final item

early game you want to really use the bush as much as possible as with all melee champs the bush is your best friend.

generally when you have a few idiot casters on the enemy team that seem to think face checking is a brilliant idea you can get fed easilly by simply using (YAY!! first blood!) the enemy team will probably be getting annoyed by nooby garen at this point

if the enemy team actually has a brain you will have to work alot harder for your kills avtually using summoner spells such as charging out of the bush using and just to get first blood

if you just cant get kills play cautiously farming minions for gold rather than enemy champions.

By now you should at least be starting to build your if not dont worry continue to farm minions this is where you start to tank for your team a little take the damage of turrets for a team mate to get a kill or just tank the turret a little to get the damn thing down but es you should be traveling around trying to help your team get kills wherever possible