I've been playing Garen for about a year now, and he is by far my favorite Attack Damage champion. I know he's got some flaws for higher ELO play, but I still think he can be a game changer due how ****ing prominent his early and mid game is.

We're going to be taking a look on how to build him during laning phase, and what generally follows after.

I set my runes up in such a manner that whether I go solo top, or bottom, and whether I face a Cho'gath, or an Akali, they can never get away from my damage.

So I take what you see there at the top.

Armor pen. marks and quints. Then flat AD Seals, and Glyphs. You could do AD per level if you want. I try to rune so I am the most powerful at level 1, because I almost always get First Blood with Garen.

8 games out of 10, you will want your Boots of Speed, over a Doran's Blade. However, on some occasions, if you get an early CV and see that your top lane is Akali with Amplifying Tome and a pot you should go with the blade since she won't be able to run from you when you go to Q her.

The reason Hexdrinker is next on the list is because alot of the time you'll be soloing top, and when you do solo top, you'll be soloing against Singed, Akali, Cho'Gath, or Mordekaiser. Hexdrinker is the perfect counter with a good boost in AD and the damage shield you get when they think you're low health. If you are going up against an Irelia, Jax, Jarvan IV, or another Garen even, I would go Brutalizer instead, and leave it that way until Youmuu's is your last option.

As you all know, everyone builds atmog's anymore and that goes the same for Garen. With your Courage you make the most out of having alot of health and getting attack damage from it, rather than building some queer tank build for Garen. You know, then ones that build Sunfire Cape for their damage, then get a warmog's, FoN, BV, and then atma's last. You know how many kills you could've gotten when you weren't building stupid tank ****?

Lastly, because they'll be super tired of all of your damage output, you should build a Last Whisper to counter all the armor they're going to have. HOWEVER, if they are stupid, and are not building armor(by this I mean the carries are not building armor)then build a Sunfire Cape, as the extra tankiness, damage, and health to your AD pool, will be alot more beneficial than trying to cut down armor they don't have.

There are lots of Viable spells to use on Garen. The one that lets me farm champions the most is Flash, and Ignite.

Ghost is really awesome combined with your Q, for getting away, or getting into a fight, chasing bastards down with a drive by judgement.

Exhaust is almost the exact same use as Ghost. 'cept it helps your team more than Ghost does.

Teleport is good for catching Back Door's, or for getting back to your lane if you're having a hard time in lane.

So that's 5 spells that are pretty phenomenal on him. That's good enough.

Skilling Garen, I prioritize as follows: R>E>Q>W, with the exception being at level 4 when you get rank 1 courage to start stacking it. I find the extra speed boost with your Q is alot more beneficial than getting some more percent damage reduction on your already tanky ***.

Other than this, I'm sure you all skill your Judgement first, because it is such a sexy damage dealer. If you don't, then you better start or you're just so dumb.