Hey everyone, I am taking a look back at my guide and completely revamping it. I will try to have it back to tip top shape in the next couple weeks. I have also started to play support Garen, so that will be the primary focus of my guide for now. Thanks!

Welcome to my guide. I am Heptastrike, a diamond 5 garen main. If you would like to check out some more of my content I do have a youtube channel that I try to post on every few days. My youtube channel. Just a disclaimer before we get started, I have limited coding or formatting knowledge at this time so for now this guide won't be the most pretty thing ever. However I promise that the content will be worth the read.

So onto the actual guide. I will assume you are here cuz you like your favorite champion, good old Garen. Well then you are in luck, over the course of season 7 I picked up garen and climbed from low plat to diamond 5. Clocking in over 300 ranked games of Garen that season. Now I feel confident and ready to share what I learned from a year of onetricking Garen, I hope you enjoy!

All of the numbers in this guide were pulled from www.mobafire.com and leagueoflegends.wikia.com

Pros
-Simple
-Versatile
-Good mid game
-High bulk
-High damage
-Silence
-Large Health regen
-DEMACIA

Cons
-Low skill cap, less room for outplay potential
-Bullied by a lot of lanes
-Immobile (no dash or jump)
-Low cc
-Jack of all trades master of none


Garen has some good pros, but also some very harsh cons. Overall Garen right now is a pretty balanced champion, roughly a 50% winrate. This means a lot of doing well comes down to your mastery of the champion. Another thing to note is most of garens cons are less noticeable in lower elos (bronze-gold) makes this champion very convenient for climbing from lower tiers and then having better mastery of the champion can help you outta once you get to Platinum or higher.

Under Construction

These are the standard Summoner Spells I take on Garen. Flash is mandatory, but its a toss up between Ignite and -Teleport depending on what you want.


-Ignite
Ignites an enemy champion, dealing 70 - 410 (based on level) true damage over 5 seconds, applying Grievous Wounds icon Grievous Wounds and revealing them for the duration. The Sight icon sight will not reveal stealth champions.

Adds more dueling power to your early lane phase, as well as being an easy way to proc unflinching from your runes. Ignite is pretty simple to use, but don't be afraid to ignite early for the added tenacity.


--Teleport
After channeling for 4.5 seconds, your champion teleports to target turret, minion or ward. You may reactivate Teleport to cancel it, placing it on a 200 second cooldown.

Ah good ole teleport, the standard top lane summoner spell. Its useful for splitpushing, roaming, getting back to lane faster, all around a good fit for a set up designed for splitpushing or hard matchups. Look for unique ways of using teleport.


-Flash
Teleports your champion a short distance toward your cursor's location.

An invaluable summoner spell on Garen, it gives you that jump that Garen so desperately needs. A well timed flash can let you get in and one shot the enemy adc.


These are your standard summoner spells taken 99 times outta 100. I will add other options for that 1 out of 100 game later once I have the entire guide set up and worth going through the trouble of adding minor details.

It feels wrong to start a chapter without any information but I couldn't think of anything to introduce this chapter, so yeah Demacia has some cool skills I guess. Enjoy!

Passive

-Perseverance

INNATE: Garen passively regenerates 「 0.2 / 0.8% maximum health every half-second 」. This regeneration is interrupted for 9 / 4 seconds if he takes non-minion damage or if he is hit by an enemy ability.
Regeneration increased to 「 0.4 / 1.6% maximum health every half-second 」 while below 25 / 50% of his maximum health.
At level 11, damage from non-epic monsters will no longer stop Perseverance.

Ah yes Garens passive, a rather straight forward passive. Don't take damage and you heal fast. Not much to explain about this but a few tips for it. Level 11 it gets significantly upgraded and lets you trade very often and back off to heal really quickly. You can outsustain enemies by fighting then backing off to heal a little bit from your passive. Try to keep your passive up as often as possible in lane.

- Q Decisive Strike

COOLDOWN: 8
ACTIVE: Garen cleanses himself of all slows affecting him and gains 30% bonus movement speed for a few seconds.
DURATION:
1.5 / 2 / 2.5 / 3 / 3.5
Additionally, his next basic attack within 4.5 seconds deals additional physical damage, and Silence icon silences his target for 1.5 seconds.
BONUS PHYSICAL DAMAGE:
30 / 55 / 80 / 105 / 130 (+ 40% AD)
Decisive Strike resets Garen's autoattack timer.

Garens Bread and Butter move. Move speed, a silence, damage, a slow cleanse, this one skill is incredibly overloading and therefore incredibly versatile (you will hear that word a lot through this guide). It has so many potential uses its hard to cover all of them. So for now I'll list 3 basic ways to use it then yall can come up with your own for now, I will add more to this guide over time of course.

1. Fast Trades
So it has a silence and a movespeed buff, well good news, if you are close to enemies you can active Decisive strike and quickly silence them and disengage before they even have the chance to retaliate. Garen is all about the little trades.

2.Escape from ganks
You see that jungler coming to gank you? Well hold onto your Decisive strike until the last second, most jungles or lanes will have some form of slow that you can use your spell to cleanse and run away to safety to heal from your passive.

3.Peel
Garen may not seem like the sorta champion that would be peeling, but you would be surprised by how stronger a silence is at peeling. That kha or lee goes jumping for your adc for the 20th time? Well give them a good bop with your silence and suddenly they can just run around stupidly in circles trying to cast there spells on your adc then whine in all chat about silence being op.


-W Courage (Pink is a very manly color)

COOLDOWN: 24 / 23 / 22 / 21 / 20
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.
ACTIVE: Garen reduces incoming damage by 60% and has 60% Tenacity for the first 0.75 seconds. For the rest of the duration Garen reduces incoming damage by 30%.

Just another get outta jail free card. This is Garens hardest mechanic. Gotta time its activation so that you get the enhanced tenacity. Overall gives Garen more to his lvl 11 power spike off the stacks. Use it right before you take a hard cc or burst of damage. Its all about timing, think of it like a parry. Also don't be afraid to face tank hard cc like Ashe ult (Enchanted Arrow) with your Courage turned on. Well timed uses lets you practically ignore cc.

-E Judgment

EFFECT RADIUS: 325 COOLDOWN: 9
ACTIVE: Garen rapidly spins his sword around his body for 3 seconds.
For the duration, Garen cannot basic attack, is Ghost ghosted and deals physical damage 「 in 5 / 6 / 7 / 8 / 9 / 10 spins 」 to enemies within range, increased by 33% when damaging a single enemy.
PHYSICAL DAMAGE PER SPIN:»
14 / 18 / 22 / 26 / 30 (+ 36 / 37 / 38 / 39 / 40% AD)
Judgment can critically strike, dealing 50% (Infinity Edge item +50%) bonus damage.
Enemy champions hit 4 times have their armor reduced by 25% for 6 seconds. Hits after the 4th refresh the duration of the debuff.
After 1 second, Garen can reactivate Judgment to cancel it immediately, reducing its cooldown by its remaining duration.

Perhaps Garens most famous skill, the good ole spin2win. This monster of a skill is incredibly overstatted. It gives you an insane 4-1 ad ratio at max level, a armor shred effect similar to black cleaver and can crit. What more could you want? Oh it also lets you walk through minions and champions with no collision. Use this skill to simple tear apart enemies. Can wave clear very well at level 3, shred tanks, melt squishies, and run away through the middle of minions. Basically use this whenever you need to get stuff done.

-R Demacian Justice

TARGET RANGE: 400 COOLDOWN: 120 / 100 / 80
PASSIVE: The enemy with the most kills in the last 5 minutes is marked as the Villain. The mark cannot be assigned to another champion while Garen is in combat with the Villain. If more than one enemy has the same bounty, the enemy who received it first is marked as the Villain.
Garen's basic attacks and each spin of Judgment against the Villain deal 1% of their maximum health as bonus true damage.
ACTIVE: Garen calls upon the might of Demacia to attempt to execute the target enemy champion, dealing them magic damage, converted to true damage when targeting the Villain.
MAGIC DAMAGE:
175 / 350 / 525 (+ 28.6 / 33.3 / 40% of target's missing health)

DEMACIAAAAAA! Garens mighty ultimate, makes all mere mortals fear the power of Demacia. This bad boy is the definition of an execute. So use it as such. Really just last hit with it and make your enemies fear you. The more interesting effect is Villain. When this manly skill does true damage you can actually start oneshotting nearly everyone. Versus tanks you shred them due to the 1% hp on every auto and tick of Judgment. Villain also goes to whoever had the most kills so its almost always on a carry, a well timed flash Decisive strike Demacian Justice can oneshot an adc even if you are nearly full tank. Make sure you take out those carries and bring justice to the rift!

For a bit of quick math. Rank 1 does 28% of missing hp which will consistently execute at 20% hp. Rank 2 does 33.3% and will be consistent at 25%. Finally rank 3 does 40% and is consistent at roughly 28%. Numbers may be screwed up slightly on tanks due to high magic resist but on squishies the damage will be negated by the base damage. Follow these percents for consistent JUSTICE.

TLDR

Rank 1-20% Current HP
Rank 2-25% Current HP
Rank 3-28% Current HP
For consistent executes

Skill order


General order R-Q-E-W

Lvl 1-5 Q-E-W-Q-Q

I prefer to max Decisive Strike first for the overall faster and better trades. Max it out and you can win trades just by landing a Q and backing out before the enemy can retaliate due to silence. Its pretty straightforward honestly.

FOR SOLO LANES

The only times I do not max Decisive Strike first is when the opposing laner has a hard counter to Decisive Strike. In those situations I do tend to max Judgment so that they cannot completely shut down my damage. It also works versus low wave clear opponents that you want to shove under tower all game so you might roam and just buy time in general.

On Garen most of the items that are viable on one build are basically the same on the other, so for this section I will not be splitting it between the 2 builds. Just read through to understand why each item is used.

Starter Items


Dorans Shield(Stats +80 health Passive +6 flat health regeneration per 5 seconds.
Basic attacks deal an additional 5 physical damage to minions on hit.
UNIQUE: Restores 20 health over 10 seconds after taking damage from an enemy champion.)

Potion(Regenerates 5 health every half-second for 15 seconds, restoring a total of 150 health.)

Warding Trinket(Consume a charge to place an invisible Stealth Ward icon Stealth Ward at the target location (600 range), which reveals the surrounding area for 60 - 120 (based on level) seconds. Stores one charge every 180 - 90 (based on level) seconds, up to 2 maximum charges.)

This is your go to start in 99.99% of games. Doran shield simply provides you so much sustain and safety that it takes away a large amount of kill pressure on you. There are other options that other Garen mains like to take but I will not include those for now as I personally do not use them.


Core first item/s

Youmuus Ghostblade(Stats +55 attack damage
+10% cooldown reduction
Passive
UNIQUE: +20 Lethality (12.44 - 20 (based on level) armor penetration)
UNIQUE: +40 movement speed out-of-combat.
Active
UNIQUE: Gain +20% movement speed for 6 seconds (45 second cooldown).

Always Build Serrated Dirk first.

Black Cleaver(Stats +400 health
+40 attack damage
+20% cooldown reduction
Passive
UNIQUE: Dealing physical damage to an enemy champion Cleaves them, reducing their armor by 4% for 6 seconds, stacking up to 6 times for a maximum of 24%.
UNIQUE – RAGE: Dealing physical damage grants 20 movement speed for 2 seconds. Assists on Cleaved enemy champions or kills on any unit grant 60 movement speed for 2 seconds instead. This movement speed bonus is halved for Ranged role ranged champions.)

Always Build Phage first.

So Black Cleaver and Youmuus Ghostblade are our two possible first items. Run Youmuus Ghostblade versus any squishy lanes that you think you will be able to kill in one or two full combos. Black cleaver is run in almost every other matchup, it gives you better dueling potential than Youmuus ghostblade, however less burst. In some situations if you get fed enough you can buy the second option as your second item. These two items combo into an insane amount of burst and move speed buffs however leaves you a lot squishier than you would normally like to be. Only get both if you have a significant lane lead, such as 3/0 at the 5-10 minute mark.

Boots

Ninja Tabi (Stats +30 armor
Passive
UNIQUE – ENHANCED MOVEMENT: +45 flat movement speed
UNIQUE: Reduces incoming damage from all basic attacks by 10% (excluding turret shots). Does not reduce damage of on-hit effects, it does however reduce damage of basic attack modifiers.)

Mercury Treads (Stats +25 magic resistance
Passive
UNIQUE – ENHANCED MOVEMENT: +45 flat movement speed
UNIQUE – TENACITY: Reduces the duration of all crowd control effects by 30% (except for Suppression icon Suppression, Stasis icon Stasis, and Airborne icon Displacements).)

At this point in time, the defensive boot options in League of Legends are just vastly more cost efficient. As a bruiser/Tank Garen has a preference towards these boots anyways. Pretty self explanatory, Ninja Tabi for versus attack damage comps. Mercurys Treads versus high crowd control teams or 4+ magic damage dealers. Boots are nice and simple for a nice and simple champion.


Situational Items explanations will be expanded later.

Ionian Boots of Lucidity (Stats UNIQUE: +10% cooldown reduction
Passive
UNIQUE – ENHANCED MOVEMENT: +45 flat movement speed
UNIQUE: Reduces summoner spell cooldowns by 10%.)

These boots are no longer as good as they once were thanks to my entire Celestial Build being nerfed and removed. All around just kinda a cheesy item now.

IN PROGRESS

IN PROGRESS

IN PROGRESS

IN PROGRESS

IN PROGRESS

Well boys (and girls if any of you are out there) I hope you have enjoyed my guide so far. Its not the most filled out guide at the moment but It gives you the basics and explanations for what you need to get started playing everyones favorite Bringer of JUSTICE. I will be updating this guide over time and if you have any suggestions leave a comment.