Garen Build Guide by

The Spinning Menace [14.13] Garen Top in-depth guide

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Garen Build Guide By Updated on

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Choose Champion Build:

Garen Top
Garen Jg (For fun)

Runes: Conqueror #1 (Standard setup)

1 2 3 4 5

Precision

Conqueror

Triumph

Legend: Haste

Last Stand

Resolve

Conditioning

Overgrowth

Bonus:

+9 Adaptive (5.4 AD or 9 AP)
+9 Adaptive (5.4 AD or 9 AP)
+10-180 Bonus Health

Spells:

1 2 3 4 5

Standard setup

Flash

Ignite

Items

Starting Items

D.shield (check notes for explanation)

D.Blade (check notes for explanation)

Armor cloth Start

Early Components and Build paths

Early item options

Boots Options (from Worst > Best)

Stridebreaker - Build path

Item options

Core items

Items after core

Situational Items

Niche items

Full Build Examples

Standard Build

Trinity Force build

VS. Ranged comp

VS. Meele comp

Teamfighting build

Splitpush #1 Living in sidelanes

Splitpush #2 Safe option (phase rush recommended)

Off-meta Builds

Crit garen

One-shot build

Tank Garen

Ability Order Ability Max E > Q > W > R

Garen Passive Ability

Threats & Synergies

Threats

Synergies

Extreme Major Even Minor Tiny

Show All

None Low Ok Strong Ideal

Extreme Threats

Ideal Synergies

Darius

Extreme

Darius is very hard to lane against, doesn't matter what you do, it seems like he is always ahead. First of all, you don't win extended fights, and since Garen wants to hit his enemies with the full duration of judgement it's had to trade at all with Darius. In the early game focus on farming and don't overextended both in lane and fights, if you push the wave too much or go for farm when the wave is nearby his tower he can just drop Ghost and run you down, so be careful and stay as close as you can from your tower. And remember to save Q to disengage when he uses E or W. Post-6 you can kill darius if he missplays since your Ult execute is as (or more) powerful as his, and doesn't have the requirements Darius has.

Yuumi

Ideal

Gives attack speed and movement speed while also healing and shielding. So all around is the perfect companionship for Garen. And she can even allow you to hard carry some games even if your team ultra int.

Synergies

Ideal Strong Ok Low None

Yuumi

Ideal

Champion Build Guide

Introduction

Who i am? Im SkullFan22, a standard player who plays tanks, bruisers and mages principaly, i play Toplane and Jungle and i play on the LAS server (which may not be the best server skillwise in lol), aside from that, i don't have lots of achievements on league to talk about.

I want to say that im just another enthusiast, but im always triying to improve, both in the game and this guide, and i hope that you enjoy it, so if you have time please leave a comment to improve it.
Also, English it's not my main Language, so there can be a couple of ortography errors, if you catch some serious ones let me know in the comments, also feel free to leave any feedback!
Aside from that theres not much else to say from me, so let's run ahead and spin to win!

Words Explanation

Heres a quick list explaining some of the words used here for an easier read.

regen = abbreviation for regeneration or regenerate.
Resistances = Refers to Armor and Magic resistance together.
HP = Health
AD & AS = Attack Damage & Attack Speed.
CC = Abbreviation for Crowd crontrol, an effect that generally inmobilizes or disrupts enemies.
AR = Armor.
MR = Magic resistance.
MS = Movement speed / Speed.
CDR / AH = Cooldown reduction / Ability haste, which increases your abilities uptime.
DPS = Damage per second.
Pushing/Shoving = it refers to "Pushing" a wave of minions by attacking the enemy ones so yours goes forward.
Last hitting = Killing minions by using attacks or abilities when they are very low on Health to gain gold and xp.
Freeze/Freezing = Only last-hitting minions so the wave doesn't push and stays on your side of the lane the maximum time possible.
TF/teamfights = Fights where you group with your team and fight the enemy team in a similar situation with (generally) the same amount of people, around 3-4.

Why Garen?

PROS

+Good early kill pressure post-6.
+You are very tanky with , so you can focus on building damage.
+Easy to play.
+Can Spin.
+His Ult is one of the best Executions in the game.
+Good sustain with passive.
+Can delete carrys and squishys while not getting blow up.
+Great Frontliner.
+Has a silence in his kit.
+Pretty good at splitpushing and pushing waves.
+Very forgiving laning phase.
+Very Flexible on build paths and playstyles.

CONS

-Even if you are a lane bully in the early game,
isn't that good at it compared to others
like .
-Bad teamfighter with nothing to give to his team.
-Get's hard kited.
-Has no CC in his kit.
-Can't duel most toplaners or deal with Frontliners if not very ahead.
-Reliant on abilities and summoner spells Cooldowns.
-Has no mobility outside of a little MS boost on Q.
- healing only works as out of combat and laning phase sustain, not as in-combat sustain.
-Hard to deal with tanks stacking Armor.

it's a very simple and fun champion who is really begginer friendly with a very straighforward gameplay of running at people and swinging your sword around until they die, while being tanky as hell.
His simple kit let's you focus more on macro than micro, which also backfires you the higher you climb with him, as he has no utility to provide to his team aside of Frontlining and Splitpushing. He is also an odd mix of a Bruiser and an Assasin that likes to execute the backline, all while being a Frontliner, even though he has no utility or CC (ignoring ).
Even if he is outclassed by other bruisers that do his job better, and even if he gets kited by 90% of league's roster, i still think that is a very fun champ worth maining, who also helps to learn how to play Toplane and bruisers, and let's you focus on other parts of the game like Itemization, Farming, Wave management, Decision Making, delaing with bad Matchups, etc...
He is also very flexible in his builds and runes options (although his Core items are mostly the same).

Abilities Explanation

PASSIVE

Perseverance

restores 1.5% − 10% of his maximum health every 5 seconds (based on level).

is interrupted for 8 seconds if takes damage from Champions, Epic monsters, Turrets or is affected by an enemy summoner spell, taking damage from normal jungle monsters don't interrupt this ability.

Notes

Decisive Strike

removes all slows on him and gains 35% bonus movement speed for 1 - 3.6 seconds.
His next attack within 4.5 seconds will deal 30 - 150 (+50% attack damage) bonus physical damage and silences his target for 1.5 seconds.

Notes

Decisive Strike is one of your few abilities that requires some skill. In certain situations and agains't certain champions using your silence and slow cleanse without much though can screw you up really hard, so it's important to sometimes wait and save it for the correct moment.
If you want the bonus MS you can cast Q without attacking the enemy, so you can save the silence effect until your spin ends.
Generally you want to wait to use Decisive Strike agains't champs with important abilities that are used in certain moments, like Ekko R, Kayle R, Darius R, Mordekaiser W , etc... The reason you save up the silence is so they can't cast those important abilities, which let's us use Demacian Justice more frelly, the best example of this is Ekko R, most players will use the ability when they are low, but then you save your Q for when your E ends and silence them and they can't cast it, which let's you kill Ekko with R without him being able to do anything. This trick is very useful since people generally don't expect the silence + R.
Decisive Strike makes Garen next attack an uncancellable attack, which makes it undodgeable once the animation starts (even if you get CC'ed), and also makes Garen lunge at the target, which puts you on top of your target by a slight amount of movement, so it doesn't count as a dash, other similar abilities like Jax Empower just extended your attack range, but they don't move you.
This little lunge is there so it's easier to use Judgment when you do a Q + E Combo.
It resets Garen attack timer, which let's him do a quick AA + Q + AA combo resetting his autos to get a little bit of extra damage in fights.
This attack can Critically strike (the Bonus Damage doesn't work though) and apply On-hit effects.
Decisive Strike locks Garen out of using basic attacks for a short period of time. This is shortened with Attack speed.
The enhanced attack will still complete and hit the target even if they become untargetable during the attack's windup, for example you can hit Fizz even if he uses Playful / Trickster.

Courage

Passive: permanently gains 0.2 bonus Armor and Magic resistance every time he kills an enemy unit, up to a maximum of 30 bonus resistances at 150 unit kills.
After reaching the maximum quantity of stacks, gains 10% bonus Armor and Magic resistance.
it's a proactive ability, this means that you will gain stacks of it even without leveling it up.

Active: reduces all incoming damage by 30% for 4 seconds. For the first 0.75 seconds,
additionally gains a 70 - 170 (+18% Bonus health) Shield and 60% bonus Tenacity.

Notes

Judgement

rapidly spins his sword around him 7 (+1 per 25% attack speed from items and levels) times over 3 seconds, ignoring unit collision and dealing 4 - 20 (+0 - 8.2 based on level) (+36% - 40% attack damage) physical damage per spin to nearby enemies.
This damage is increased by 25% against nearest enemy, who is marked with a demacian sword over his head.
The total damage is increased by 50% against non-epic monsters.

Additionally, Enemy champions hit 6 times have their armor reduced by 25% for 6 seconds (any hits after the 6th refresh the duration of the effect).

can deactivate earlier by activating the ability again after 1 second, which reduces its cooldown by the remaining duration of the spin.
can Critically strike for 33% bonus damage.

Notes

Demacian Justice

gains True sight of his target for 1 second, revealing them, and brings down Demacian Justice upon them after a 0.5 second delay, dealing true damage to them equal to 150 / 300 / 450 plus 25/30/35% of the target's missing health.

Notes

Summoner spells

Summoner Spells

		Flash - Flash is the most used summ in the game, and for good reason. The possibilities it gives and the mobility is very good on any champ, either to engage, all-in, escape or using it during a combo. On Garen it is better than in most champs because he is very inmobile by default and his engage pattern is really telegraphed, but Flash allows you to do stuff Garen normally can't, like surprising enemies through walls with Flash + Decisive Strike, or Flashing from a brush. Flashing in someones face gives them no reaction time to Garen's combo, making it a very really realiable and useful tool, also Flash helps to avoid ganks since Garen isn't very mobile and can easily die in the early game, all of this makes it your best summoner spell overall. You can also use Flash to escape using walls (which makes it harder to follow you), and you can also cast Demacian Justice and then Flash away, this can be used to dodge an skillshot, quickly get out of a bad situation and repositionite, or to get out of tower range during a dive.
		Ignite - Is a really good summ for Garen since he lacks damage in the early game, giving you kill pressure and free Grievous wounds which is very useful in Toplane and generally comes in handy in all phases of the game. Additionally it allows you to get "calculated" kills when you can't chase anymore, so even if they Flash, dash or become invisible they will burn to death anyway. With how many escapes and mobility the game has Ignite ensures enemies die even if they get out of your grasp, generally champs like Akali or Kha'Zix. You can also use Ignite as a Finisher if your Ult doesn't kill them.
		Teleport - TP is a good summ that's not used regularly on Garen and is mostly matchup or game dependant, based on what you need or want to do in the match, for example TP is good for Splitpushing or Teamfighting. Even though i said it's matchup dependant (mostly) it actually is not used even in situations where it is favorable simply because the kill pressure of Ignite is too good to pass for someone like Garen. And because Garen is not a good TP user to begin with since he has no problem staying in lane thanks to his Passive and generally you push so quickly that you can get good recalls without the enemy shoving into your tower, which is another reason why TP us used. The other reason is that Garen is not a great teamfighter so he doesn't get much value from Teleport.
		Ghost - Ghost is very good on Garen as he likes to get Movement speed (MS). It helps to close the gap beetwen his enemies more easily and stick on them, which is why this summ is most of the time better than Flash and quite underrated in my opinion, though it's only recommended into inmobile comps with low Mobility and CC. Also Ghost has a pretty long duration, which makes it good for chasing enemies overextending or while flanking someone alone in a sidelane. Also the duration extends when getting a takedown, so if you kill an enemy you were chasing or if you assasinate someone in a Teamfight you can flee away easily from danger and reposition yourself or you can keep fighting and go for another target with the bonus speed from Ghost. Another ways you can make use of Ghost is to chase or escape in a sidelane, if enemies come for you you pop Ghost and just run away, wasting their time.
		Exhaust - Exhaust seems useless for a Bruiser like Garen who wants to go agressive and fight his opponents, but it isn't as bad as it may seem. The slow is useful to gapclose and stay on top of an enemy (especially ranged) and the damage reduction makes it very hard for the enemy to fight back, and if you use it right as they burn every ability during a combo you will negate around 70% of their whole damage and leave them very vulnerable, turning a trade or fight in your favor. I mainly use it against ranged champs who you can't realiably engage or catch up until you get your items( Stridebreaker / Dead Man's Plate), and who also have high kill pressure on you early on, like Quinn, Cassiopeia or Heimerdinger. It also works well against champions with huge burst like Pantheon or Jayce, since the %damage reduction leaves them Very vulnerable because then you can punch them back with everything up, while they burned all of their cooldowns, so they can do nothing agains't you.

Items

Garen Itemization

wants items that give stats like AD, Health and Attack speed.
resistances, MS and Ability haste are also very good on , but the first 3 ones mentioned are the most important ones that you should proritize when deciding what to build.
Since gets free resistances from he can focus on building only Damage and Health and still be quite tanky, though it is always worth to invest on some AR and MR to counter the enemy team.

needs to get Damage and Durability to boost his strength's and compensate his lack of utillity and mobility by dealing enough damage to the enemy Frontline or deleting their backline to aid your team, instead of directly helping them with direct utility or CC.
Once you have enough damage you should start to look for tank or situational items like: , or .
Since doesn't have any CC to keep enemies in his range, you should also look to buy movement speed items, mostly agains't ranged comps so you can get close to them.
Against a meele or fighter comp you want to get bruiser items and maximize your durability and damage with stuff like and , since they generally will fight you head on, you don't need to gapclose, but instead be able to stand in fights and duels dishing out as much damage as possible while absorbing their damage, something that is very good at.

Stridebreaker

It's a very good mythic that sinergyzes extremely well with and compensates both, his lack of Mobility and Utility.
It gives all he could want: a slow, additional movement speed, bonus waveclear, and attack speed, it also improves your teamfighting potential significantly.
Overall The item's active and the stats combine very well with and for that reason works well into almost every match.

item notes

Trinity Force

When you need more Burst or DPS and you don't need the slow from , but instead just damage, then it's a really good choice, and the best alternative to Stride, and like Stride it gives atk speed.

It gives you the most DPS out of all mythics, and if you can land some attacks on an enemy the additional AD from the passive it's a very good damage boost for 1v1's, and since it works on towers too it helps a to take them down while splitpushing, and when combined with you become a monster at taking towers.
The main downside of Trinity is that most of it's power budget it's on the Three fold strike passive, and isn't an autoattack champion, but more of a spellcaster who uses autos in beetwen. Also if you get kited you don't really make use of the item's damage at all, although gives you huge burst on your Q.
Another downside of Trinity is the effect, is a spellcaster but he doesn't have great quick spell rotations to make good use of .

Berserker's Greaves

Because 's E has attack speed scaling this boots are a Core part of all builds, because they increase by a lot 's DPS very early on.
But atk speed by itself it's also useful for additional damage with autos, since alreay gives you AD, having quicker autos considerably increases your dps in 1v1's.

Plated Steelcaps

Plated steelcaps, or more known as tabis, are another good (situational) option for boots which grants extra Armor and reduced damage against autoattackers, like or .
If the enemy team is Full AD or of tabis counter your lane opponent early on, then you should get this boots.

Mercury's Treads

Mercs are situational boots which are good vs. magic damage or high CC, the tenacity is very useful and it's good to counter Full AP or Heavy CC team comps, or ocassional AP Bully's toplaners like or , who have a lot poke and CC.

Phantom Dancer

This item is now a very good second item rush on , giving you insane damage on E with the atk speed and crit and also granting 12% MS and giving you a permanent Ghost effect (giving you collision inmunity). In short, it pairs really well with and gives you really good stats, although if you wanna be tankier or your need needs a frontliner consider going another option.

Deadman's Plate

Since lacks of any CC or gapclose it's really useful for getting close to enemies, splitpushing, and moving around the map, and overall being faster.
Since Deadman's 'charge' not only slows, but also deals bonus physical damage you don't sacrifice too much offensivenes when getting this item, and also helps to push lanes and damage towers, because the damage works on them.
The only problem with the item is that compared with other Armor items it's the one that makes you the less tanquier, if you need to frontline something like , or anything else, is a better purchase.

Mortal Reminder

This item it's very good even if we don't need the grievous wounds effect, because the stats it gives really suit .
You get AD, Attack speed and %AR pen, for more DPS on your E.

If you are thinking "why go for instead of ?", the reason is that DPS wise it's one of the best items for , and probably the only good crit item that sinergyzes well with him, and also because Chempunk stats are not very good, though it isn't a bad item by any means, and it might be better for a completely Bruiser build, but, generally speaking, is just better.

Black Cleaver

BC it's still a solid item for that sinergyzes with his E, procking very fast the %Armor shred (which stacks with the armor reduction from ) and also giving movement speed when dealing damage.
The Stats and passive are good for more durability and damage.
BC is a good option against tanks or very tanky bruisers which are stacking armor, the armor shred also helps in 1v1's.
A detail about the armor shred it's that it amplify your team's physical damage against a certain target, for example the damage from your ADC.

Sterak's Gage

Steraks it's a good item for any bruiser, and is no exception, it gives a lot of HP and AD some needed Tenacity, and a Huge shield for frontlining or enduring damage in teamfights or 1v1's, it also helps to survive clutch situations on low health and ensures that you don't get bursted on too easily when getting focused, it's also great for 1v1's where the shield can deny the enemy killing you, especially if they are a bursty champion.
Sterak's is a good 3rd or 4th item buy, when you want to get it comes to your item preference, or to what you need the most in the match, but because the shield scales with Bonus HP and it gives Base AD as bonus AD, so it generally is better to delay the item's purchase until past mid-game.

Generally you want to buy it when you need to endure damage and frontline for your team, or if you know you are gonna be Teamfighting. While you frontline and the enemy tries to kill you though your and Sterak's shield activated, your team should have enough free time and resources to deal with the enemy team.

Youmuu's Ghostblade

Youmuu's is one of my favorite items, and one that not many people buy.
It is really good for catching squishy champions and murdering them.
The stats are very good, it gives AD, AH, and most importantly, 18 lethality. That bonus lethality plus the movement speed from the item gives you the upper hand on squishys and makes it easier to kill them, because of the speed and the stast youmuu's gives i consider it the best Lethality item for .

The bonus speed from the active and passive are very good for going around the map
and chasing enemies or gapclosing them. Also something worth emtnioning is that lethality works on towers, which makes this item good for splitpushing since you get a lot of damage for destroying towers.

Force of Nature

If you already have HP and AD and need MR to deal with magic damage, is the best choice.
It gives a lot of MR and movement speed and a bunch of HP.
If the enemy it's hybrid damage but their main threath it's AP, or the enemy team is full magic damage this is a good third or fourth option That helps in teamfights giving you tankiness and mobility.

Hullbreaker

helps when he needs to splitpush, it gives very good stats and when you don't have any ally nearby you boost nearby Cannon's and Siege minions and increase their damage to towers and make them tanquier, you also gain additional Armor and MR (scaling with levels).
So even if someone contests your push you can duel them since you are tanquier while alone.
Because isn't an innate splitpusher like , or , he needs items to support this playstyle, and it's very good for that purpose.

Another reason why isn't so good is because there are other items that needs more, since his kit lacks most of the tools other natural splitpushers like or already have, like sustain, max hp% damage, a way to escape or some form of CC].

Runes

Here i will discuss and explain all the possible Runes i could find/think for . Explaining why you would want to use them, or in what situations it's preferable to go one or the other.

PRECISION

is main keystone because procks stacks with every spin so you prock it very quickly, and bonus AD it's very good for , and it scales well into the mid-late game, where kinda falls off.
Early on it helps to trade since the bonus AD makes your attacks hit harder and makes you able to go for extend fights, since normally once uses his Q and E he has no damage left and has to back off until his CD's are back up, but with Conq you can still do some damage with your attacks.

is very good for to agains't bruiser/meele champs and to be able to win extended fights, which are very common in toplane, because if you go with something else, like , you HAVE to do only short trades, and if the enemy forces a long fight you are kinda screwed since damage comes from his abilities and not much from passives or attacks (like or ).

helps in hard matchups or if you are gonna be constantly trading with attacks.
Fleet isn't a good keystone against poke and harassh due to the healing being lower on minions and better against Champions.
Even with what i said about the sustain, Fleet can still be used in ranged and hard matchups to survive the laning phase, and if you get to attack something the MS boost helps to stick or chase them.
Though in general i recommend to just run or in those cases, as they end up being way more useful than Fleet in every way.

The downside of is that it's really only useful during the laning phase but it scales mediocrely when compared to runes like past the mid-game.
While the heal and speed are not useless in the mid-game, you don't get much benefit from it compared to other champions, but it's still a for-fun option for some matches.

in the first row is the best choice available, doesn't work on , isn't that bad on , but you already have passive to heal, though it's quite useful to survive hard matchups or against tanks/farming matchups.

helps in low HP duels and teamfights.
In the early game can save our life a lot of times, from diying to minions, during a 1v2, or from a tower shot after a dive, healing comes very in clutch in a lot situations, and is actually underrated how much it helps when teamfighting or when fighting multiple enemies, also the additional gold you get is quite useful for snowballing the early game if you get ahead.

The attack speed from doesn't work on , and since isn't an autoattacker it doesn't benefit him, the same with , doesn't get any use from lifesteal.

Which leaves as our only, but useful, choice. Getting some free haste is always useful, and for being our only choice in this tree, it's a good option.

is wasted on because you already have to execute enemies on low health, and since it deals true damage it doesn't get amplified by , so you don't get any value off from this runes.
I would only recommend it if you are going for a Oneshot or Full damage build (like crit, lethality or full attack speed, where you want to kill with or without your Ult).

it's the best choice from this row, since you are always fighting on low health or taking damage, you are gonna be using it 90% of the time during the match.
It's good for the Toplane where you are gonna be constantly on low health, in clutch situations the damage from is very helpful and let's you turn around fights.
It also helps during teamfights, where you are going to be tanking a lot of damage, and the lower you are the more damage you get, which is perfect for frontlining.

, after it's changes, it's another viable option for , as it increasees your damage on enemies with lots of hp, and because of yourt Ult, that extra damage on targets above 50% HP is very useful, though in my opinion which of the two runes to use it's up to personal choice.

RESOLVE

used to be the go-to keystone for , but since his rework and shift in playstyle and itemws, it's very rare nowdays to see Grasp .
Grasp encourages a very specific "Harassh with Q > back off > wait for Q CD > repeat" playstyle, where you chunk enemies with Q + Grasp everytime they go for cs. But without you lack damage in extended trades, and it scales worse into the mid-late game compared to since people will kite you more easily and fights will become more short, which is not what you want with Grasp.

Grasp is good situationally agains't tanks or in matchups where you rely on short trades, for example: , , ,
or .. If you are not confident you can win against a tank, it's pretty good into them and it let's you scale off from just trading with them.

it's the best rune from the first row, the others don't work well with , so it's the only option you have here.
is very good for splitpushing and taking down towers faster, and in the early game you can use it to get a couple of tower platings.
Later on it comes in handy for taking down towers on a sidelane while theres a teamfight or objective somewhere else on the map.
Although if you don't have the resolve tree as your priamry rune tree then you have to sacrifice and 's scaling and tankyness in favor of pressure, since you can only choose 2 secondary runes.

it's pointless on , unless you have .

is an interesting rune, but which ultimatelly doesn't work, the reason it's mainly because and the other rune rows offer better stuff and because it isn't optimal when considering that the only shield you have, it's very weak in the early game and scales with bonus health, has a long cooldown and lasts only 1 second, which makes not get much usage from this rune until really late in the match, and with a very specific build to maximize the shield amount.

In the second row is the best one and sinergyzes with passive, granting free resistances and leaving you with around 130 armor and MR just with this rune and fully stacked in the mid-game.
But compared to other options from the same row, it only helps with scaling and not with laning phase, and it doesn't kick in until 12 minutes.

it's very good for surviving the early game in rough matchups where you are gonna get harrased or poked a lot, and combined with + you get insane sustain in the early game. It's good in matchups like: , or .

it's very good for mitigating damage from all in's, and it's pretty useful in short trades against champions that blow their entire combo and then run or extended the trade, like: , or .
When you run remember to try to trade only when it isn't on cooldown, so you get the upper hand during trades, and don't forget to not let enemies prock it for free with an attack.
This rune also works in the lategame, if you are frontlining or dealing with assasins it mitigates quite a lot of burst, and if you don't group and decide to splitpush helps to duel whoever comes for you, generally being the enemy toplaner which you tock this rune agains't, reducing their burst damage.

it's the best option from the third row, as it grants additional HP per every minion or monsters that dies nearby, and at 120 minion or monster kill it increases your Max health by 3.5%.
This bonus HP it's really good and makes you tankyer in the late game, and the more you drag the match on the more useful this rune becomes.

You rarely want to swap , but the other two options are also decent.
increases and shield and increases the heals you receive, both increasing when you are on low health.
The problem is that doesn't have built-in healing in his kit, and doesn't really get sustain items, and additionally is health regen, not a healing, so doesn't work with it.

I personally don't like the new , but in high CC comps or if you plan on teamfighting it is quite good.

SORCERY

is another keystone that you can use on , which doesn't give damage but gives instead the extra utility of having a big boost of movement speed and be almost inmune to slows.
Additionally the Sorcery tree has some very nice scaling and helpful runes.
*You can prock PR with Stridebreaker and Ironspike Whip active, or having a
Bami's Cinder, since the passive burn from the item procks this rune, Ignite can also prock it.

The problem of using is that damage is way better than PR movement speed 90% of the time, especially in SoloQ, and during laning phase the only use of PR is for running away from an enemy after a trade or for sticking on them if you are winning the trade, and although that's useful, generally the extra damage you get from is more useful during trades and fights, especially early on.

Once the early game is over PR movement speed comes in clutch in a lot more situations, for example when teamfighting it helps to stick to squishy enemies and makes it very hard to kite you once you catch them.
is also very good if you are planning on splitpushing, because if an enemy you don't want to fight comes to stop you, you just have to quickly prock PR with a Q + E + combo and then you Zoom out of there while wasting their time!

Overall I would say is a situational rune that's good for sticking to enemies and specially ranged champions, and for running away in bad matchups or if you want to do short trades with Q (, , or for example).

it's an interesting rune on , genrally he doesn't need it because he is a bruiser, so a lil' magic shield isn't that effective, and it also gets outclassed by other sorcery secondary runes you can use, but against 3+ AP champions, or against a burst AP champ, or toplaner, it can be decent.

it's the only and best choice from the first row, and a really good one at that, Nimbus give you a burst of MS when you use a summoner spells, since uses summs like , and , specially for combat, the movement speed it's really good.
Additionally it allows you to use some summs like and offensive and defensivelly, giving them new uses, like escaping from ganks dropping an on someone, and saving your .

it's pretty good, it gives some free CDR as the game goes on, and a level 11 you get a little bonus which, upon a takedown, reduces a % of your basic ability cooldowns, which makes this rune pretty good for 1v2-3 and obviously for teamfights, which can sometimes allow you to get two W usages or multiple Q's and E's in a single teamfight. Aside from the lv11 special thingy, the bonus CDR it's pretty good to get your ibilities back up, since realies a lot on them, instead of his autos, to deal damage.

it's pretty good since get's a lot of movement speed from using and from most of his items ( and for example) and he gets a lot of value from MS. This rune also pairs really well with and , granting even more MS.

is Bad for the contrary reason that is good
on . Since you are a bruiser and you get hurt a lot during laning phase your health will almost never be above 70%.
In short, it's not worth to use this rune just for some ocassional bonus AD, even if you are going an Assasin build.

can be good for some additional spicy damage during trades, and it's magic damage, which is pretty nice for an AD bruiser with 90% of it's damage being physical. But aside form being good in lanes where you are gonna trade a lot, it's not even worth taking since is not a character that can safely harrassh, and the rune falls of a cliff past mid-game.
In general it's bad, but rarely it can be a good option.

Unless you are playing Mid and you are plan on roaming/rotating a lot,
it's not worth taking, theres a lot of better stuff to help than this rune, and additionally, it's useless for the laning phase

is one of my favorite runes, it grants you scaling AD as the game progresses, beetwen mid-late game this rune it's pretty good, and although it's not a lot, some bonus AD is always good. I wouldn't say theres a specific situation to use it, but i think it's very good if you are against champions that outscale you hard, this rune allows you to scale as much as them, and with enough XP and items, you can have a chance of even surpassing them, although this is an ideal scenario, there are champs like , or that outscale you no matter what.
But i think you get the point, is very good to boost your scaling and get some bonus AD.

How to play every Phase

Laning Phase and Early game

During laning phase you want to farm a lot to stack up as fast as possible.
Once you reach level 2, or before your opponent does, you should inmediatelly look to trade with Q + E, if the enemy doesn't run from you can also do an AA + Q + E combo which does more damage, generally try to hit enemies with E a little bit and then back off, only after you get some items and put points on E it will start to do noticeable damage. Remember that if you run you have a lot of kill pressure in the early game during level 2, 4, and 6, and even more if you are a level ahead of your enemy, since they will be weaker than you.

At level 6 with and up, you should look to all-in and kill the enemy toplaner, even if they and you don't get kill, it's still worth it.
After you get or a on your first back your trades become a lot more consistent and it increases your DPS, and even more with extra AD, since attack speed increases the number of spins, which equals to more DPS and a faster prock, which is why those boots are such a Core item on .

is the key to overcome bad matchups, especially the ones where you get bullied and poked, and it's very important to abuse it.
You can use brushes to still get xp while the enemy can't see you and so they can't attack you to "break" your passive, this is very useful in ranged matchups, but you can also do this in any matchup to catch xp while using your passive.
When the enemy sees you back off after a trade they will generally try to interrupt your passive to not let you regenerate, what you can do is use the brush tip i mentioned before, doing so means that enemies can't target or attack you without wasting a ward, which should give you enough free time to make good use of , alternativelly you can also push the wave to regenerate health while they are busy clearing the wave, until it bounces back to you.

is a very important ability that you have to use wisely in lane, the slow cleanse and additional MS helps to catch targets, but also to run away from them, for example, if you all in and he has Ult and up he can then just run you down with and kill you.
So there are matchups & situations where you want to save your Q.
it's used first during trades because the Silence ensures the enemy can't respond to your trade, and when the silence wears off you just walk away and use .

Mid game and Splitpush

In the Mid game as you have a couple of options as to what you want or need to do, this mainly depends on your playstyle, build, and the yours and the enemy team composition.

What i advice is to try to indetify your win con based on what i said before and other factors, like what's more important in that match, or what can help your team the most to win, for example, "is the enemy team full of meele or beffy champions?" if that's the case then your win con is probably staying with your team and frontlining for them, especially if is up, since has no problem dealing with melee enemies and he is very tanky, you can also pressure the enemy team and split to force those meele enemies to fight you in the sidelane while your team does something else.

Helping your team out into those kind of overwhelming comps (who have a way to
hard-engage and also deal a lot of damage) can make a huge difference, because if you leave your team alone in these scenario to ,for example, splitpush, it's very likely that they are gonna get wiped out without your help.
if they are mostly ranged champs you can try to teamfight and look to flank and kill the backline or surprise an enemy, because in teamfights agains't ranged opponents you can't engage and you get kited really hard, so looking for opportunities or a place that's not warded it's key to deal with them, and possibly oneshot one of them.

Alternativelly if you can't teamfight or if your team is really behind and constantly dying, then Splitpushing is another very viable win con for you, since in this cases forcing yourself to teamfight is probably not gonna work, so this way you can help your team in a way.
This forces the enemy to contest your push or try to ace your team in a 5v4 while you get their towers. Though if you are very ahead or the enemy is playing for objectives, or you can't splitpush because certain enemies deny you of spliting, then you should be teamfighting and grouping with your team.

Splitting it's also a good idea when you are behind because then you can get back with the gold and xp you get while pushing waves, since in that scenario you will probably die in teamfights so it's better to get back in the game.
During the midgame aside from getting Jg camps and pushing waves, and providing vision, you have to also check the map to see if theres a possible roam or if an objective is about to spawn.

Late game

Generally doesn't excell in the late game because of his lack of utility and how volatile and coin-flipy the game becomes in this stage, 1 death or a bad call can cost you the entire game here. Additionally in Teamfights ADC's melt and kite you without letting you do anything, making it very hard for to make anything, that's why in the late-game you have to be constantly looking for picks and flanks, and don't forget to abuse brushes and un-Warded spots. Also the later the game goes the more falls off and his weaknesess become more exploitable while damage becomes higher, that's why generally past-30 minutes most 's become a punching bag in teamfights and are forced to splitpush.

Though kinda scales, and if you don't get kited, you are not only really hard to take down but you also deal a lot of damage in fights, with full build you should be able to oneshot any squishy that gets near you, and even bruisers like or with the help of .
Even in the late game splitpushing it's still a valid strategy, and it's not easy to take down or catch up, which means the enemy team needs to send 2 or more people to stop you. If the enemy is not stupid they will not let you push to their base, but you can use this pressure to mkae it easier for your team to take an important objective like or (And also Soul and elder), and if the enemy leaves you alone you can just win the game by yourself, using objectives as a Bait.

Here good vision control and warding is important because if one teammate get's caught up you are in a 4v5, and in the late game this can easily lead to free objetives, or even to a loss if your team can't defend.
If you are ahead you should group with your team for objetives or Teamfight to close out the game.

Warding Tips

Warding is very important for any champ, good wards can help to avoid ganks and know where the enemy jungler and mid are and play accordingly to that information.
Also, since tends to splitpush, knowing how to ward is very useful so you can spot enemies who are coming for you and from where they are coming, so you can back off with time, for example if you don't run the moment you see or they will probably catch and murder you because of their high mobility and damage.

Warding helps during teamfights to know how to Flank the enemy by knowing their locations. For example if theres a and you are in Blue side you can ward with anticipation around their blue jungle entrances or their blue buff spot and then go around in the jungle without being spotted and go for the enemy backline.
Knowing where enemies are is very important if you want to Flank because if the enemy ADC get's peeled, or the enemy team groups too much you can't do anything.
It can also happen that you try to surprise their ADC but then the support suddenly
heals or shields him from behind a wall and then you die, possibly also wasting resources. So when you Flank it's important to know where veryone is and go for a kill when you are sure enemies are splitted.

and are really good for so he can Flank or Camp brushes with the confidence and knowledge that the enemy doesn't where you are.
When splitpushing you can also put a in a bush near Tier 2 tower after shoving the wave and then waiting until whoever comes to stop you goes nearby to kill them.
If you are using to deny enemy vision you can afford to go for , it helps to quickly put a ward while splitpushing without going there, and it helps to spot enemies who may be waiting for you nearby or in a brush.
Additionally, and i learned this from Fulza12, theres a useful trick you can use when going with a Blue trinket, the trick is that if enemies clear a Blue trinket you put on a brush while they are not inside of it, or if they directly go and destroy it inmeditaelly, it means the Brush has been previously warded.

After covering general warding tips and ways to use them, let's see some Warding locations that i use, and think are good.
There will be 4 types: Early wards, Mid-Late game wards, Spots for Control wards and Splitpush wards.

DISCLAIMER: The reason why the warding spots are only on 1 side of the map is because the map is mirrored, so it is the same in both sides, so to save some time i just did the warding spots on 1 side, but they can obviosuly be applied on the other side since it is the same.

Early game Wards

In the early game you generally want to ward places that can get you information about the enemy jungler, mid laner and sometimes their toplaner.
Sometimes knowing what your opponent is doing let's you act with more knowledge in hand to take a better decision instead of blindly doing what you think it's best, for example, if you see your opponent backing in a brush or nearby their tower you act based on that information, you can either shove the wave and do the same and recall, or keep freezing, or maybe let the freeze and recall too. Or maybe you saw through a lane or burh ward that the enemy went to red side jungle, possibly to farm his , in that case you can use that information to push the wave and hopefully make miss some farm if he can't clear fast enough, or you can use this time to recall or roam.

Aside from knowing where your opponent is and what is he doing, the most important wards for the early game are those that give you info about the enemy jungler or midlaner.
Wards in the river, for example, are very good since they let you know with anticipation they are walking towards you.
To know where the enemy jungler is you want to ward their buffs or some small camp nearby toplane like or , which sometimes doesn't tell where the enemy jungler is, but it let's you guess their pathing, and if the camp is up that ward let's you if they are aroudn toplane since junglers tend to clear 1 or 2 camps and then look for a gank, so if you see their jungler finishing and walking towards you, you have time to back off.

Mid-Late game Wards

In the mid & late game you want to place wards in places where enemies are generally gonna pass sonner or later, and if for example or are up, you know enemies are gonna walk nearby those objectives, with that in mind you want to place your wards in highly contested brushes or zones, most of the time in the enemy jungle, an example of a good ward spot in the enemy jungle is the middle zone beetwen and , where enemies are gonna frequently pass around, a ward there gives you information about their locations and what they are doing or where they are going next.
But don't forget to ward objectives before they spawn and before both teams group and try to contest it, since you can get surprised by the enemy while warding and you risk dying.

Control Wards

's are very useful and underused by a lot of players below Diamond,
they help to secure a specific zone for a lot of time if they are well placed, and when used correctly they are extremelly valuable and can give very useful information, for just 75g.

's are commonly used in the early game to prevent ganks and denies the enemy of vision, which helps your jungler to gank you and makes it riskier for your opponent overextend nearby your tower.

Later on they are used for securing a specific Brush or zone,
and if well placed they can last for a long time before enemies see it.
While splitpushing they are good for knowing if enemies are around or coming for you (if they are in the jungle), though you need to put them with anticipation before going for a tower or before even trying to split nearby said zone of the map.

-In the Box below you can see a detailed explanation of every spot and how them use it and why.

All Spots explanation

1 & 2 - This are the toplane brushes, you can put a Control Ward in both of them depending where you started.
Using a Control Ward here early on allows your jungler to gank without being seen and makes it harder for the enemy jungler to gank you, and since they don't expire either your opponent or their jungler has to come and destroy that ward to gank you.
Though these wards are not recommended if you are not ahead since then the enemy will be able to frelly destroy them without being in danger, because if you are behind it's actually very risky to overextend in river agains't a feed enemy.
3 - this spot is very good for tracking the enemy jungler, and works for both control and normal wards. It let's you know if krugs are up, and if the enemy jungler did them or if he is doing the camp right now.
Sometimes it might not help you to know where they are since a lot of people skip krugs or gank from river, but generally and with some experience it's a very good ward.
In the mid-late this spot is still good since it let's you know if theres an enemy nearby either doing krugs or waiting around toplane to clear a wave if you are pushing top. This spot is very good while splitting as it let's you know what your enemies are doing around the tower, having that information while pushing is very useful to know if you want to continue pushing or retire beforehand to do something else.
4 - This spot is pretty good since most of the time people don't check this bush, especially in the early game.
Which if well placed helps to track the enemy jungler.
It's also a really good spot for Control Ward's while splitpushing, since it let's you know if enemies are coming beforehand, or if they are going away from toplane, which let's you decide if you want to continue pushing or not.
5 - This spot is very good when warding for objectives or if you want to surprise an enemy and want to know if it's warded.
The only bad thing about this spot is that it's a highly contested zone, which means enemies are going to quickly check the brush and destroy the ward. So when warding here have on mind the ward is not gonna last long and use for having (temporally) more map control for an obejective or if you want to brush camp this spot.
6 - This spot is a Bait spot, or a Bait Control Ward.
As i said before in the Spot N5, a lot fo people pass though this zone and most wards here are gonna be quickly cleared, the same applies to this ward, but this one is intentionally placed outside the bush to bait enemies into clearing it while theres a Garen in the bush, waiting to kill however goes for it...
This ward is more useful when going full damage since it gives enemies less reaction time because of the dash.
7 - This is another spot you can use while theress an objective or if you are splitpushing, while splitting it let's you know if enemies want to collapse on you with anticipation. And when theres an objective it let's you see if enemies are coming from the jungle, and generally this bush is not checked a lot, which makes it a very good spot overall for Control Ward's.
And don't forget you can also hide in this spot to surprise enemies.
8 - This is another Bait spot or Bait Control Ward you can use. Generally it's more effective when you know only few people will pass through here and if theres an objective to contest.
This spot is a little riskier than N6 since a lot of people pass here and theres a high chance you can run into 2-3 enemies, so if you want to surprise enemies with a bait ward here you need to know beforehand only 1 or 2 enemis will surelly pass there.

Splitpush Wards

While splitpushing you want to ward areas where an enemies are most likely to be seen or detected, where you place it depends on a couple factors.
For example; "Are members of the enemy team nearby the part of the map where i am?" If the answer is no, because everyone is on or teamfighting somewhere else then you don't really need to ward, or you can ward the entrances of the enemy jungle, so in case someone goes to stop you, you will see them long before they even come to the lane, giving you time to back off, do some jungle camps, push other lane, ward or even walk up to a teamfight if it's still going or nothing has happened yet. Another question you can make yourself is "if everyone was mid lane a couple of seconds ago, where they are gonna go now?", in this case the enemy team is probably gonna try to collapse on you, so you want to get vision of zones nearby where the they were so you can see if they are coming for you or not.

Generally you ward specific spots in the enemy jungle where players tend to pass a lot so you can get information about where they are and what they are doing.
So if for example you see 3 people in top farming and grouping, then it's very probable they want to force a , in which case you can inmediatelly go botlane and start to split, which pressures the enemy team and makes them have to take a decision.
If you ward a place nearby where you are splitting you need to have on mind what champs are gonna go for you and which ward spots are best agains't them.
For example, you won't place wards in the same place if you are agains't an , , + botlane or a , which are champs that can flank you and kill you in different angles than other champions.

Brush camping

Brush Camping is an old trick that has been in the game since the start, this simple technique consists of waiting in a Brush where you know or think the enemy has no vision, and then wait until an unsuspecting prey walks into you, and then BOOOOM, you Q, you spin and you Ult and they are dead.
This is because 's kit is very good for brush camping since with your Silence and big damage plus your R True damage execute makes squishy enemies explode in seconds withouth any counterplay.

Heres an example of a outplay using a brush:

is one of the few meele champs in the game that relies A LOT on camping unwarded brushes to surprise enemies, as a totally legit strat in all of his matches.
This is especially important for Assasin and Crit , since you are very squishy, using the surprise factor of brushes to your adavntague to oneshot enemies is very important.

This strategy or trick comes very in handy, especially in low elo, because most people dont expect you to stay on a brush or location for so long. Which is why in part 'bush camping' is actually quite of a test of your patience, and being able to know and predict your enemies.

So, in conclusion, even though this technique sounds quite silly and cheesy, it's important to abuse it as much as you can on .

Special thanks!

I want to thank here everyone thats reading that guide, if you came all the way down her and readed all (or most) of the guie i want to really thank you, as it took a lot of time to do and write it, i hope you enjoyed it and got something useful out of it! And i hope that you will enjoy (if i do) future guides!

Also i want to thank the Mobafire staff for their work and help, and i want to give a special thank you to Katasandra and jhoijhoi for their guides of BBcode and their general help for making guides.

That's all, bye and have fun in the rift. ;)

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The Spinning Menace [14.13] Garen Top in-depth guide

Introduction

Why Garen?

Abilities Explanation

Summoner spells

Items

Runes

How to play every Phase

Warding Tips

Brush camping

Special thanks!

The Spinning Menace [14.13] Garen Top in-depth guide

The Spinning Menace [14.13] Garen Top in-depth guide

Choose Champion Build:

Recommended Items

Runes: Conqueror #1 (Standard setup)

Spells:

Flash

Ignite

Flash

Ghost

Flash

Teleport

Exhaust

Flash

Ghost

Teleport

Items

Ability Order Ability Max E > Q > W > R

Perseverance (PASSIVE)

Decisive Strike (Q)

Courage (W)

Judgment (E)

Demacian Justice (R)

Threats & Synergies

Darius

Camille

Akali

Fiora

Rengar

Vayne

Dr. Mundo

Jax

Cho'Gath

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Malphite

Aatrox

Volibear

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Warwick

Nasus

Yorick

Tryndamere

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Kayle

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Mordekaiser

Akshan

Yuumi

Zilean

Diana

Blitzcrank

Vi

Ahri

Bard

Rammus

Hecarim

Skarner

Viego

Lee Sin

Karma

Yuumi

Zilean

Diana

Blitzcrank

Vi

Ahri

Bard

Rammus

Hecarim

Skarner

Viego

Lee Sin

Karma

Runes: Conqueror (Bruiser)

Spells:

Flash

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