If you gyus are planning to use brutalizer is allways better selling it later rather than upgrade it, can't really tell big difference in damage between BF sword and brutalizer but in my opinion is the best mid item, both are great! one is cheaper.. the other one upgrades way better.. u choice.. (yommus is an ok item but not exceptional in garen)(saddly)movement speed early game.. totally agreed.. rushing FM to compensate exaust.. totally agreed great gude congrats!

Hey . I appreciate for taking the time to write this comment! I look forward to adding more stuff to this guide as well

Hey, I didn't have time to comment on everything I wanted to. First of all, excellent guide. I look forward to seeing this guide continue to develop.

In regards to my last comment. There is some room to use brutalizer/Youmuu's. I tend to find more benefit and synergy for Garen with other items, but it does decrease your ultimate by anywere from 10 to 16 seconds, which can be nice. The armor penetration from the item is also nice, however, due to your runes and masteries you are already starting the game with 41 armor penetration which is going to hit through most peoples armor until around level 6 to 12 depending on the champion and the items they build. So at this point, you are getting more bang for your buck by buying the higher damage items (anything with a BF sword in it)

In terms of the way you start the build, I completely agree with your choice to use doran's blade rather than doran's sheild. Garen has plenty of armor early game. With this build, from runes, masteries and his flat armor, he is going to be sitting at 38 armor. That is enough armor to survive getting first blood in most cases. Garen is one of the strongest early game champions in terms of both offensive and defensive stats. This means you can often get first blood if you build with Doran's Blade and you have the right masteries/runes/summoner spells.

In terms of your runes: they match mine completely. I will almost never recommend any other runes to start the game than these, because you are capitolizing on his early game strength by using flat runes, and you are using the runes in the primary slots rather than secondary slots. Armor Penetration works with Garen's "Q" and "E" abilities too, so you know you are getting a huge benefit from the armor penetration.

In terms of masteries: I like the offensive masteries, especially the use of demolitionist. I have not tried that with Garen and I think I will just to help me pulverize those turrets when the opportunity is there. On the defensive tree, I prefer 3 points in health regeneration rather than the health per level. Garen's passive helps him heal. I say boost that even more to give him early game sustinence like no buddies business without even buying a health regeneration item. It allows you to lane forever as long as you don't dive stupidly at the wrong times. Which is excellent, because then you level up quicker and you get ahead of the enemy champions.

In terms of Summoner Spells: I use Ghost and Exhaust. I used to be like everyone else and think that Garen doesn't need ghost because of his "Q" ability. I have now gotten first blood so many times and sometimes I even get two kills during first blood because of ghost. Now, I consider it a must. Think about it. If you choose to upgrade your "E (jugdement spin)" ability at the beginning of the game, you don't have "Q" to help you keep up with the enemy. That is where ghost comes in. In late game, it is still super useful. I used to use flash on Garen (and I still use it on almost all other champions), but I have found that I tend to get away better with ghost/"Q"/and my boots of swiftness better than with flash. I just tend to get more space between me and my opponents with Ghost. Sure you can flash through a wall, but I've been followed through a wall enough times by enemy champions to know that I survive better with ghost. In terms of Exhaust, I just like the use of the slow until I get frozen mallet. Plus dropping the enemies armor and magic resistance is always nice :) I think ignite can replace exhaust if you prefer it. I'm not very good at utilizing teleport to justify it (that's just my personal play style). I would say if I didn't have exhaust and ghost, the next best spells for Garen would be ignite and flash. That's just from my experiences playing as Garen :)

I love Garen. I have found that I can lane with him and between champion kills early game which usually come often, and the lack of me dying early game gets me a huge boost toward being ahead of most enemy champions (in other words, I'm fed very well). I then usually dominate unless the rest of my team completely fed. Then sometimes it can go either way, but even in those instances, I come out with a hugely positive score. Usually 10-20 kills with less than 5 deaths and around 5-10 assists.

Great guide so far. I can tell you have successfully run Garen in quite a few games :) Good luck with this guide. I hope you find my comments beneficial

I see your point

I like the use of frozen mallet and atma's impaler. However, I used to always rush brutalizer/Youmuu's and I have found that it does much less for Garen than I thought. I main with Garen and I always have a positive score on all my games with Garen. The reduced cooldown from Youmuu's is nice when you think about it on paper, but the difference of a 1 second cooldown reduction on his judgement/decisive strike doesn't do enough to justify me getting the item. I like to rush the infinity edge (which hugely increases his damage for decisive strike and judgement as well as all his auto attacks) then I build frozen mallet. After that I have found that Garen does well with a variety of items. But I honestly do not like Youmuu's Ghostblade on Garen anymore.