Hi I'm a EUW Garen player who wants to share this build with others as I have found it to be very effective (all be it silver/gold elo) and might help you climb in the rankings.

Grasp is essential for this build as it helps you survive in lane, poke and makes you scale very well. Use the proc as much as you can.


Another essential rune for surviving in lane, with bone plating being so good against almost any matchup and compared with the other same-tier runes there isn't really a reason to not pick this one.


And yes, another key rune for surviving in lane. This one gives you the edge after trading as you'll regain a bit of your missing health everytime someone decides to hit you. This is especially strong against ranged or poke champions.


You take this for late game scaling, if you combine with you'll gain a lot of free health and be more tanky/annoying for the enemy to deal with.


Taking this gives you the ability to push even faster once all have been used. It can also be used to take siege minions from range if you cannot get into melee range. I advise to use them evenly, meaning use 2 on melee minions, 2 on siege minions and 2 on caster minions. Doing this gives you good clear with your ability=judgement and push potential.


This can be situational, it is very good coupled with , and Garen as it gives reduced item cooldown, summoner spell cooldown and 5% max cdr. You can change this into if you feel that you'll be having a hard time laning.

Laning with Garen is mostly favorable to you. As Garen has good poke potential and sustain, he can win/even with almost all champions in the game.

Poking

Versus melee champions

When playing against melee champions, you can do a lot of free damage using your and . IMPORTANT: Always wait for your to be ready, then go in with a for a lot of free damage. This is the most effective way to poke your opponent as the combo deals TONS of damage early game. When you have used your you can follow up with your . When there are a lot of enemy minions you'll have a harder time. Try to clear the minions first as your is point and click and will cause minions to focus you, wich means a loss in trade almost always if there are a lot of caster minions or a siege minion.

Versus ranged champions

When playing against ranged champions I advise to keep safe and just farm up. You can try and trade if they get to close or make a mistake (such as Gnar using his hop to get close to you). You can absord their poke with your passive and keep alive during the laning fase, when you have farmed up good and survived, you normally outscale them in mid/late game.

Using your ultimate

This is a very important section as I see a lot of Garen players using their ultimate too early causing the miss of an otherwise free kill. You want to use your ultimate when they get around 200-300 hp (at ultimate level 1) as it deals around 350 damage when they get that low. When you hit level 11 and up your ultimate the second time, you'll be able to execute most champions when they are around 300-400 hp. For level 16 and level 3 ultimate around 500-600 hp.
KEEP IN MIND: The above is generally applyable against top laners. Meaning bruisers/tankier champions. Against squishy such as an adc or mid laner, you'll have to bring them a little bit lower on health. (Most of the time the above health levels are applyable but to be safe with squishy champions you have to think around 100 hp less).
DON'T FORGET: Items such as counter your ultimate very hard as it deals magic damage and the shield will block it almost completely. Also when fighting against a champion with high mr, try to ult as late as possible as the mr will negate a lot of damage from your ultimate. (Meaning an Illaoi with 2000 hp and 50 mr will die to your ultimate but an Illaoi with 2000 hp and 150+ mr won't die when ulted at the same hp).

I'll be working on this as the build changes and will be adding more information when I have the time for it. In the meantime, thanks for visiting and good luck on the Fields of Justice!

DEMACIAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA