This is my first guide and I'm happy to introduce it now when riven patch is up. Garen is champion that has great early dmg that the patch somehow tried to nerf for better lategame. I've seen many successful Garen with boots of swiftness etc. But they depend on good early game and don't have the strength my build have.

This guide is mostly for people already familiar with Garen. I want go deep on his combos like when to ult before spin or when to spin then ult. I hope you you get inspired to try out my way of playing Garen <3.

I play Garen as a sustained tanky pusher that is hard too gank. My build is quite unique but i play nearly 100 games with different builds of it. Now I found out that my new favorite item on Garen, with his buffed bonus-dmg ratio on Judgement, is hexdrinker.

Pros
+ Great survivability due to high life, armor/mr and skills.
+ Great sustain due to wriggles.
+ Lots of dmg early/mid game.
+ Great pusher due to wriggles.
+ Easy buff-/dragon-/baronslaying due to wriggles.

Cons
- Need to close up on target and flash has long cool down.
- Vulnerable too heavy cc keeping him away from his targets.
- Caitlyn is his nemesis <3 (long range harass, traps and slowing escape make it nearly impossible to be effective in her lane).
- Tend to get worse late game.

I've tried many different rune builds on Garen. But i think my new one has what it takes too complete build and be effective with his items.

Mark
15 armor penetration

Seal
13 armor

Glyph

24 magic resist/lvl 18

Quintessence

13,5 magic resist

I will argue later on at my items choice why this rune page is great. Starting with 50+ MR is good in many aspects, esp. to not force early merc treads.

I go 21/9/0 on Garen. Nimbleness is great whit ninja tablets making u great chaser/escaper in minion waves. Go with offensive mastery to make easier cs early on instead of alacrity. U need 21 offense because Garen needs to hurt else they just ignore u and u are tanky enough to don't go for defensive tree.

Yeah one more time: nimbleness is your primary speed booster after Q. Learn to abuse it.

This is what makes this build unique and maybe play style too. This is my build order:

1. Start with boots and 3 pots. Garen needs early speed to farm and dodge.

2. Depending of your enemy and how it goes early on you cant by next items in a different order but i recommend to get items in this order: wriggles, ninja tablets, hexdrinker.

3. Get a belt then atmas then atmogs.

4. Get another hexdrinker or guardian angle and switch your wriggles to madreds if real late game. U will not be so good at this point so madreds will be good for chopping towers and push.

SO BACK TO START ITEMS
Now why these 3 items? This is strange on Garen u say. I say this:

WRIGGLES LANTERN
Key item for real hard sustain. When Q on creeps you get a lot of life and you need to farm well making normal last hits preferable to judgement. Wriggles also give you that ward for split push. Don't be afraid of getting more wards they are your best friends as a pusher.

Wriggles stats is super for Garen. Armor/dmg/lifesteal and heavy needed proc vs minion making red or dragon very easy for you. And its so cheap.

NINJA TABLETS
Why not merc treads? Sometime you must buy merc treads instead but this only when they are super heavy on magic dmg and cc. Ninja tablets give you so much more. Armor/Dodge very good for Garen to get in this cheap way.

Wriggles+ Ninja = only 2450 gold (+48 armor/+12dogde/+23dmg/minion proc/+17% lifesteal)

compare to standard

2 dorans swords+ merc = 2200 gold (+25 magic resist/+20 dmg/+200health/+6%life steal/35% tenacity)

I think you get so much more from this and when taking your runes, masteries and W skill you have a lot of magic resist already. And next item is hexdrinker...Armor doge is great for diving minions and towers and u want it in midgame and u want it cheap.

HEXDRINKER

Great item on Garen. U need bonus AD on Garen to hurt with judgment. Hexdrinker gives u cheap AD and magic resist plus a very good skill that scales well with your already high defenses making baits and dives better. And esp. compensates for your lack of health items this far.

Look at this:

Lvl 11 Garen With all three items:

Bonus dmg 61 (3 from mast./23wriggels/35hexdrinker)
Armor 137 (25 from W if u maxed it/2 from mastery/48 from items/49 from lvls/13 from runes)
Dodge 14%
Magic resist 133 (25 from W if u maxed it/6 from mastery/30 from item/44 from lvls/28 from runes)

Then add good timing on W and u are very hard to kill and does about 300dmg/sec with judgment (210+(61*1,4).

And what u don't realize yet is the prize for this: 4250 including starting money. For that u could have boots of swiftness, sunfire cape and 1 dorans blade making u deal less dmg and be a lot less tanky vs magic at least (remember hexdrink passive vs health items).

At 10k gold spent u then have a atmogs, another null magic mantle and lvl 18: making u 3500 hp near 200armor/200magic resist) and 131 bonus AD. Still a threat and still tanky.

I always start with Q because its Garens only cc and closer (after flash) to another champ. If i solo lane i take W at lvl 2 to start getting stacks and to prevent early gank/bad trade in lane. If duo lane i go with 2x E then W for FB or at least a real zoning threat. We all know Bush-Garen <3. Starting with boots make u real strong to close up.

I then max in normal order REQW.

Flash/Ignite

End of discussion

(flash/silence/ignite/spin/ultimate combo can easy kill full hp squishy)

With this build you become a really good pusher. Garens Q hurt towers hard and reset his auto attack. Time it and you punch towers quick. With wriggles hexdrinker you can start clear waves with E and if you get early atmas its just to continue farm with E. If you have low health just life steal with Q and auto to get full in like 10 seconds combined with Garens passive.

Don't be afraid to back away a bit and lurk in bush to go back split push after 15-20 seconds. They nearly always need 2+ champions to kill you. Q and slow reduction on E make you escape well with nimbleness. W protects u from nuke dmg.

Buy wards. You have wriggles but often effective split push needs 2 wards. One say at dragon/baron and one at their blue if in that lane. And one at the redbuff-crossway and one at first tower-crossway if in other lane.

If you are farmed and well leveled u can often beat two of their champs if no cool downs. This make Garen a very strong pusher in that situation forcing the defenders a tower instead of harassing or chasing Garen.

Try to get red as often as possible if not more needed on other team mate. Garen with red is almost certain kill if not double kill+ when you fight smaller fights. That is of red why you never build frozen mallet on Garen. You can get red and the 700 hp + regen from wargmogs and be a real **** to the other team.

I really hope you will my Garen. And u love this build when farming in jungle. Never forget to buy wards because they give you so much: more kills, less deaths, more gold, easier team fights (+ you always have your wriggle ward).

You can easy solo dragon from like lvl 9-11+ with wriggles. Just auto attack, Q and if needed W when fighting him.

Always get atmas before completing warmogs if not super fed.

And dontt forget to rape 'em. You are still Garen. And you still does tons of dmg!