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Paul Chung's Diamond Garen Guide
Build Guide By jpaul2077
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980
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Garen Build Guide By jpaul2077
1,888,225
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48
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Garen Build Guide By jpaul2077
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Runes: Standard
1
2
3
4
5
6
Precision
Resolve
+9 Adaptive (5.4 AD or 9 AP)
+9 Adaptive (5.4 AD or 9 AP)
+6 Armor
Spells:
1
2
99% of my games
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![LoL Summoner Spell: Flash]()
![LoL Summoner Spell: Ignite]()
Flash
Ignite
Recommended Items
Items
Items during laning phase
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Legendary items after core
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Example full builds
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Threats & Synergies
Threats
Synergies
Extreme
Major
Even
Minor
Tiny
Show All
None
Low
Ok
Strong
Ideal
Extreme Threats
Ideal Synergies
Akshan
Synergies
Ideal
Strong
Ok
Low
None
Champion Build Guide
Introduction & Who I Am
Greetings, my name is Paul Chung. I'm a Season 10 and 11 Garen main, and both seasons Garen was my most played champion by a very large margin.
I peaked as the rank 10 Garen in NA season 10 and I am here to teach you how you can also climb playing
Garen The Might of Demacia!
If you would like to see me play some Garen LIVE come check out my stream at twitch.tv/PaulWChung
If you are still not convinced you can feel free to check out my stats on my Main and here are my stats on Garen in general.
I peaked as the rank 10 Garen in NA season 10 and I am here to teach you how you can also climb playing
Garen The Might of Demacia!If you would like to see me play some Garen LIVE come check out my stream at twitch.tv/PaulWChung
If you are still not convinced you can feel free to check out my stats on my Main and here are my stats on Garen in general.
WHY GAREN
So Paul Chung, why should I play Garen you may ask? Well, let us go over Garen's strengths and weaknesses.
GAREN'S STRENGTHS:
1. INCREDIBLY easy to execute kit.
2. His passive Perseverance allows for a lot of leniency in lane when you make mistakes.
3. His ultimate ability Demacian Justice is one of the most powerful execute tools in the game.
GAREN'S WEAKNESSES:
1. EXTREMELY KITEABLE - Garen relies heavily on his Q Decisive Strike or Flash to gap close.
2. NO UTILITY - If you can't out tank or kill your opponents then you might feel pretty useless (which is why it's important to get a lead in laning phase.)
3. EASILY COUNTERED - A lot of Garen's current counters such as Kayle, Camille, and Darius are all popular meta picks that can leave Garen vulnerable if you first pick him in a game.
Many people consider Garen to only be good at noob stomping, and this is fairly accurate because Garen thrives against lower the skill levels. A lot of times you can laugh as players on a flashy "high skill cap" champion try to "outplay" you but in reality they only outplay themselves!
However even players in the highest ELO brackets are susceptible to Garen and his simple kit. This is shown by many players consistently achieving high elo across multiple regions with Garen as their primarily played champion. I will teach you how I personally hit the rank of Diamond with Garen as my most played champ in this guide.
So, what are you waiting for? Queue for top, read the guide, and try out Garen today!
GAREN'S STRENGTHS:
1. INCREDIBLY easy to execute kit.
2. His passive
Perseverance allows for a lot of leniency in lane when you make mistakes.3. His ultimate ability
Demacian Justice is one of the most powerful execute tools in the game. GAREN'S WEAKNESSES:
1. EXTREMELY KITEABLE - Garen relies heavily on his Q
Decisive Strike or Flash to gap close.2. NO UTILITY - If you can't out tank or kill your opponents then you might feel pretty useless (which is why it's important to get a lead in laning phase.)
3. EASILY COUNTERED - A lot of Garen's current counters such as
Kayle, Camille, and Darius are all popular meta picks that can leave Garen vulnerable if you first pick him in a game. Many people consider Garen to only be good at noob stomping, and this is fairly accurate because Garen thrives against lower the skill levels. A lot of times you can laugh as players on a flashy "high skill cap" champion try to "outplay" you but in reality they only outplay themselves!
However even players in the highest ELO brackets are susceptible to Garen and his simple kit. This is shown by many players consistently achieving high elo across multiple regions with
Garen as their primarily played champion. I will teach you how I personally hit the rank of Diamond with Garen as my most played champ in this guide.So, what are you waiting for? Queue for top, read the guide, and try out Garen today!
RUNES
THE USUAL RUNE SETUP
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★ I usually end up going Conqueror around 90 % of my games. Right now, conqueror is one of the most powerful keystones in the game and Garen is one of the best champions at stacking it (Using E Judgment on a champion will instantly charge up your Conqueror stacks. .
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TRIUMPH TriumphI like running Triumph as Garen has no other ways to use the other 2 runes in the tree being a Manaless champion that doesn't really build lifesteal. |
LEGEND TENACITY Legend: Tenacity Legend: Tenacity is the best stat for Garen to have. Tenacity means slows and stuns have less effect which helps you reach your target easier. Since Garen's E doesn't benefit from Legend: Alacrity nor does he auto attack frequently enough to make good use of Legend: Bloodline Tenacity is your go-to rune every time you are running the Precision Tree. |
LAST STAND Last StandAs for the last rune, I usually end up going Last Stand as it is better than Coup de Grace in most scenarios. However, if you are up against 4-5 VERY squishy champions you can definitely consider running coup. I never run Cut Down as Garen almost always has more hp than his key targets during a game (usually enemy mid laner or ADC). |
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★ For my secondary runes I like to go run the Sorcery tree and take Nimbus Cloak and Celerity. These runes go very well together because I tend to run Ignite for more kill pressure in lane. When you use Ignite, your Nimbus Cloak will give you more movement speed and you can use this to both kill or run away from your opponent! On top of that Celeritywill boost the movement speed you get from Nimbus Cloak. Celerity also boosts the movement speed bonus from Decisive Strike which is also very nice. Movement speed on Garen is very important as Garen is a champion with 0 dashes. I run this set up pretty much 100% of my games when I am smurfing because this is the most powerful set up in getting solo kills.
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OR
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★ If I am against a rough match up, or want to run Teleport instead of Ignite (usually better for a competitive 5v5 team environment a.k.a. Tournaments and Clash) I take Resolve secondary with either Bone Plating or Second Wind. Take bone plating against melee champions with short burst trades such as Camille, Shen and Renekton, and take second wind vs champions that can poke you with abilities such as Gangplank, Fiora, and Volibear.
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Always go double adaptive damage + Armor or Magic Resist depending on your enemy laner for maximum DPS.
OTHER OPTIONAL SETUPS
Here I will be listing rune pages that have their niche against some opponents and are completely viable choices. However, I do find myself taking conqueror regardless in some matchups where grasp can be better for lane just because Conqueror is the better rune outside of laning phase. You can experiment with these pages if you wish to see how it goes in your games, but overall I would say conqueror is the most consistent Keystone just because of how it functions with Garen's kit and if you don't have an idea on what to take in a match up you can't go wrong with it.
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Quinn, Vayne, Lucian, and Tristana or a squishy ranged mage such as Kennen, Neeko, Syndra, and Teemo. It is extremely difficult for Garen to trade at all with these champions. Fleet Footwork gives you some health back from minions and you can farm without dying. This will get you to level 6 without dying when you want to all in with Flash and Ignite utilizing the movement speed you get from Nimbus Cloak and Celerity. You can choose to go this rune if it looks like the enemy laner is playing a supportive champion such as Lulu, Janna, and Soraka in the top lane as well.|
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Akali and Jayce when Garen has a very hard time using Judgment after hitting your target with Decisive Strike because Jayce can knock you away and Akali can just hide in shroud. Therefore, against these 2 champions it is better to go Grasp of the Undying as you will only look for trades with Q Decisive Strike whenever your Grasp is active. You can apply this to many other off meta top champions you may come across that have a similar playstyle. Champions such as Qiyana, Fizz pretty much melee champions that have a tool to disengage and deny your Judgment from getting full value. You can also use this set up if you are having difficulty playing against tanks as it is easier to trade using Grasp with them. Take Demolish to get those extra tower plates, Bone Plating or Second Wind depending on match up, and then Overgrowth for extra HP since Garen doesn't benefit from Revitalize and I personally think currently the extra HP is better than conditional tenacity from Unflinching. Take Nimbus Cloak and Celerity in the secondary tree for the all in pressure.|
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Kayle because it is extremely effective at just popping predator and looking for the 1 shot, chunk her to half health for a bad back, or baiting her to use her ult and then looking for the re-engage after. As for the other runes I prefer cheap shot as Garen's Q proc's the effect allowing your next instance of damage to doing some true damage! I find the Taste of blood is pretty much meaningless on Garen, and with the loss of Stridebreaker dash we don't have an actual way of making Sudden Impact Viable. I like Ghost poro a lot as it provides a bit of prolonged vision on your wards so you can stay safer from ganks. Take ingenious hunter as it reduces your predator cooldown by a whopping 20 seconds at full stacks, and the 20 seconds of cooldown reduction is better than running slightly faster with relentless hunter (which is only out of combat so if someone hits you with an ability its just gone). Take Second Wind and Overgrowth to survive laning phase as most match ups you want to run this rune into are AP mages.
ITEMS
Mythic Items
The most optimal Mythic items for
Garen currently are Trinity Force and Stridebreaker. I personally think Trinity Force is the best mythic item Garen can build when you are very ahead in lane because the item offers the best 1v1 potential currently for Garen and allows you to split push side lanes for pressure. However, if you want the most consistency I would recommend Stridebreaker instead as the item gives you more durability than Trinity Force while giving you more movement speed overall to catch up to targets and provides an active that can apply an AoE slow effect. In general when you are constantly 1v1ing and splitpushing + you won lane by a large margin (around 1000gold Difference) I recommend Triforce to push your lead further, otherwise you should probably go Stridebreaker. There are also match ups where one item is not optimal in the 1v1 scenario and I will explain that for each items below.|
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Stridebreaker is my go-to mythic currently because of it's consistency in the game. It gives you all the stats Garen wants (AD,HP and AS), and then adds movement speed to all the rest of your legendary items. Stridebreaker really shines against bruisers such as Riven, Irelia, and Jax who have a lot of mobility in their kit. I suggest rushing Berserker's Greaves and a Hearthbound Axe or a Ironspike Whip if you do not have enough gold to buy the item fully for powerspikes. I love going Stormrazor second item as my core. These two items give you the most DPS with the least amount of gold in the early game. The active from Stridebreaker combined with the energized attack of Stormrazor will usually allow you to catch up to and then 1 shot combo most high priority targets. Another item I really enjoy going is Sterak's Gage. Sterak's gage is gerat if you need to withstand more damage during teamfights because it will give you some HP, and a passive that gives you a shield when your HP goes below 30%. This item combined with Gargoyle's stoneplate as your 3rd item gives Garen a LOT of durability in a teamfight.
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Trinity Force statistically the item gives Garen the best stats for 1v1'ing the enemy top laner and split pushing. When I want to constantly pressure the enemy through splitting sides Trinity force really enables that playstyle. The downside to triforce is that you are left a bit squishier than if you would build Stridebreaker, but the item makes up for it with the additional damage to both champions and towers. I would say unless you are against Jax you will find that building Trinity Force while you have a lead will really allow you to snowball by being able to constantly 1v1 the enemy top laner. The burst through the spellblade passive is really nice as well as it allows for some surprise kills as some people will not expect the amount of damage you can do.
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Legendary Items To Consider
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ABILITIES
Everything you need to know about Garen's abilities
Garen does not use mana, health or energy in order to cast spells which means you're only gated by your cooldowns. The only thing about Garen you have to worry about during the game is the whether or not an ability is on cooldown. This makes Garen incredibly beginner friendly. Even though he seems easy there can be lot of depth to how and why you use your skills.
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Passive - Garen restores 1.5−10.1% of his maximum health every 5 seconds (depending on level). Perseverance is interrupted for 8 seconds if Garen takes damage from epic monsters, turrets, champions, or if he is hit by an enemy ability. This is one of Garen's biggest strengths as it makes his lane phase very forgiving. You should use your health as a resource by forcing the enemy laner to back while you regen health freely. It is extremely important to not take damage from the enemy when laning if you are not trying to trade so that you keep your passive active. Be wary of the AoE (area of effect) and DoT (Damage over time) champions as they will constantly turn off your passive. Main examples are Teemo/ Singed poison, Darius bleed, and Heimerdinger turrets.
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Q- Garen removes all slows on him and gains 30% bonus movement speed for 1 / 1.65 / 2.3 / 2.95 / 3.6 seconds. His next melee attack within 4.5 seconds will deal 30 / 60 / 90 / 120 / 150 (+0.5 per attack damage) bonus physical damage and silence his target for 1.5 seconds. This attack can critically strike. This is Garen's only cc but more importantly it grants a movement speed steroid. Always try to think about why you are using Q during lane or while split pushing as wasting it leaves you defenseless. It's almost always better to save Q rather than using it for farming.You should always try to use Decisive Strikebefore using Demacian Justice so that enemies cannot save themselves from the incoming execute damage.
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W-Passive: Garen permanently gains 0.25 bonus armor and bonus magic resistance every time he kills an enemy unit, up to a maximum of 30 bonus resistances at 120 unit kills. At max resistances from enemy kills, Garen increases his bonus armor and magic resist by 10%. Active: Garen reduces incoming damage by 30% for 2 / 2.75 / 3.5 / 4.25 / 5 seconds. Additionally, for the first 0.75 seconds, Garen also gains a 70 / 95 / 120 / 145 / 170 (+0.2 bonus health) shield and 60% Tenacity. How you use your W is your only form of skill expression. Misusing your W can result in taking unfavorable trades, getting cc'd for too long. Ideally you want to use this spell when you are trading in lane, see a incoming CC ability, or to tank a turret shot. The timing for turret shots can be a little tricky so I suggest practicing it in practice tool until you get the timing down. |
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E- Garen rapidly spins his sword around his body 7 (+1 per 25% attack speed) times over 3 seconds, ignoring unit collision and dealing 4 / 8 / 12 / 16 / 20 (+0-8.2 depending on level) (+0.32 / 0.34 / 0.36 / 0.38 / 0.4 per attack damage) physical damage per spin to nearby enemies. This damage is increased by 25% on Garen's nearest enemy. Judgment can critically strike for 33% bonus damage. The total damage is increased by 50% against non-epic monsters. Enemy champions hit 6 times have their armor reduced by 25% for 6 seconds (hits after the 6th refresh the duration). Garen can deactivate Judgement early by activating the ability again after 1 second, which reduces the cooldown by the remaining duration of the spin. This is Garen's signature ability and where the phrase "spin to win" comes from. Garen's E is his main DPS and pushing tool (3 points in E lets you instant clear a wave.) A neat feature of Garen's E is that he will remain spinning even while cc'd. This is why it's so important to predict your enemy and use E while trading when you see incoming cc abilities. Some of the important spells to remember are Shen's Shadow Dash, Sion's Decimating Smash, Darius's Apprehend, and Mordekaiser's Death's Grasp. Whenever you use your E to trade in lane, you're also probably going to damage the minion wave as a result. So just be careful whenever you are using E to make sure your lane is in a good spot. Also, remember that you can cancel early your E to put it into a lower CD. Some reasons you cancel early are: you were trading but the enemy dashed out of range, you cleared all minions. As you get more experience with Garen you will begin to see more situations where you should be cancelling E early.
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R- Garen gains vision of his target for 1 second and brings down Demacian Justice on them after a 0.5 second delay, dealing true damage to them equal to 150 / 300 / 450 plus 20 / 25 / 30% of the target's missing health. This is Garen's most powerful tool, and the reason why he has so much kill pressure once he hits level 6. This ability means any champion around 30% hp within melee range is at risk of execution. The range of Demacian Justice is just about the range of Flash so even if the enemy tries to flash away as long as you've pressed R and the animation is going through it will execute. Don't just use your R because someone is in the kill range, be sure you are targeting the most important enemies. Also keep in mind to not use R when the enemy is under a revive effect such as Chronoshift and Guardian Angel and always keep track of shield passive items/ skills. There's currently no execution indicator for Garen so you have to play games until you can predict the execute range.
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Champions to ban as Garen
1. Camille
Camille is frustrating to go against because of her ability to always win short trades through utilization of Grasp of the Undying + Adaptive Defenses . Her kit also outscale's Garen later it gets into the game after 2 - 3 items making it even harder for Garen to deal with. Combined with this, and the fact that she is a very frequently picked meta champion, I have currently chosen Camille as my number 1 ban champion in solo queue as it's the champion I see most often and have the most problem with.
2. Teemo
Teemo has seen a rise in play rate with recent buffs to his Q and quality of life changes to his kit that made him a lot stronger than before. His kit is every hard for Garen to deal with at all levels due to his inherent nature as a champion countering most juggernauts. If someone else already banned Camille, I ususally end up banning Teemo
3. Vayne
If all the champions above are banned I suggest banning Vayne as she is by far the hardest champion in the game for Garen to deal with. Access to true damage, insane mobility with Tumble, and access to invisibility makes a good positioning Vayne impossible to 1v1. The reason I do not ban her over other champions usually is due to her playrate but if you don't have an idea what to ban and the champions listed above are banned you can feel free to do so.
A general guideline for bans is at the end of the day what YOU as the player don't want to play against. That could mean a polarizing lane match up, an OP pick that is strong in the meta, or an annoying champion that you don't want to deal with. It's important that you as the player figure out what ban you want to proceed with and make plans accordingly depending on what the enemy team chooses. Bans are recommendations only and should never be an "absolute" as the game is dynamic and always changing.
Camille Camille is frustrating to go against because of her ability to always win short trades through utilization of
Grasp of the Undying + Adaptive Defenses . Her kit also outscale's Garen later it gets into the game after 2 - 3 items making it even harder for Garen to deal with. Combined with this, and the fact that she is a very frequently picked meta champion, I have currently chosen Camille as my number 1 ban champion in solo queue as it's the champion I see most often and have the most problem with.2.
Teemo Teemo has seen a rise in play rate with recent buffs to his Q and quality of life changes to his kit that made him a lot stronger than before. His kit is every hard for Garen to deal with at all levels due to his inherent nature as a champion countering most juggernauts. If someone else already banned Camille, I ususally end up banning Teemo3.
Vayne If all the champions above are banned I suggest banning
Vayne as she is by far the hardest champion in the game for Garen to deal with. Access to true damage, insane mobility with Tumble, and access to invisibility makes a good positioning Vayne impossible to 1v1. The reason I do not ban her over other champions usually is due to her playrate but if you don't have an idea what to ban and the champions listed above are banned you can feel free to do so.A general guideline for bans is at the end of the day what YOU as the player don't want to play against. That could mean a polarizing lane match up, an OP pick that is strong in the meta, or an annoying champion that you don't want to deal with. It's important that you as the player figure out what ban you want to proceed with and make plans accordingly depending on what the enemy team chooses. Bans are recommendations only and should never be an "absolute" as the game is dynamic and always changing.
Ending remarks
Thank you so much for reading my guide! If you liked it please consider upvoting the guide, every upvotes help me become a better content creator! Also if you have any questions feel free to comment below or ask my during my stream and I will do my best to answer them!
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Paul Chung's Diamond Garen Guide
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