Hi, I'm maxiumilian and this is my guide for Garen, the Might of Demacia, hope you will enjoy and learn how to play this amazing champ. Garen is a melee tank with some nice damage from Decisive Strike, Judgment and Demacian Justice and tankiness from Courage. He's very good against melee champs but ranged ones rape him a bit. In this guide you will learn his Pros & Cons, Spells usage, which spells you should max. first, which runes and masteries you should take, which items you should build, how to farm and work with team. Vote up if i helped you, vote down if that's your real neccesary. P.S. The can be some language mistakes, sorry for them, I'm not perfect in this language.

Pros +Very, very tanky, +Good escapes, +Easy hunting down enemies, +No mana costs,

Cons -Melee -No ranged skills -His only cc is silence -No AP ratios, that he would need for example for more ulti damage

Perseverance gives you health regen based on your max. health when out of fight. Very good for staying long on your lane, mostly when enemy is in base. Minions can't stop this effect expect cannon one, so basically playing safe will not make you lose it.


Decisive strike movement speed buff for few seconds, next basic attack deals additional damage and silences. Good to chase enemies or run. Also good to last hit minions standing far from you. Good in teamfights to burst casters and escapes of enemy.


Courage gives you passive bonuses for armor and mr, used gives a shield, so you're dealt less damage. A bit long cooldown but your tankiness is even bigger than it could be. Amazing spell to use after starting teamfight with Decisive Strike.


Judgment you spin around dealing damage with posibility to past units without stoping with them but with lower movement speed doing it. Very nice to clear minion waves.


Demacian Justice you deal magic damage increased by some percents of enemy's lost health. Very good to end enemy, because for example if you are ulting enemy tank with 5000 hp normally and only 500 left it's instant kill (maybe not if he has Guardian Angel or Zilean's ultimate on him). Just awesome.

I think that's the best ability maximalizing sequence for Garen, 1st Decisive Strike just for damage, 2nd Judgment, because maximalizing Courage doesn't give you much. Ultimate of course at 6,11,16.

So the first summoner spell should be Flash for escapes. You can replace it with Ghost but i prefer Flash, because you have movement speed buff from Decisive Strike Second spell instead of Ignite can be Teleport, Heal, Exhaust or even Clairvoyance if you aren't mainstream :P

Here we will take a closer look on situations of taking specific items.

Possible starters:
Boots +4x Health Potion if enemy hasn't got so much damage.
Cloth Armor +5x Health Potion if enemy is typical AD.
Doran's Shield + Health Potion if enemy is just a bruiser.
Null-Magic Mantle +2x Health Potion for AP enemies.

1st recall:
Chain Vest +1/2 Health Potion if needed but focus on the first half of after recall shopping.

1st item:
Sunfire Aegis and no other option. HP, armor and damage, perfect item for late laning phase, mostly in farming.

Early/mid game:
Warmog's Armor or Frozen Mallet, depends what do you need at the moment.

Late game:
Infinity Edge as 3rd item should be good but you can also take Youmuu's Ghostblade.
If your team is very squishy, then take Randuin's Omen or Spirit Visage. Good items later are Atma's Impaler for AD based on health and Locket of the Iron Solari to help your team in teamfights. Sometimes Guardian Angel can help but I don't prefer taking it.

Boots options:
Mercury's Treads or Boots of Swiftness are the best options. Also Ninja Tabi are good but i don't prefer them, they don't give as much speed as Boots of Swiftness and they haven't got any Tenacity like Mercury's Treads

Runes

I think changes you can make here is changing glyphs from flat to per level and Greater Mark of Attack Damage to Greater Mark of Armor.

Masteries

I think best way to farm as Garen is getting into wave with Judgment, dealing additional damage with Sunfire Aegis and ending minions with last hits and Decisive Strike. But remember to do it wisely and don't push your lane.

Early Game should be easy for Garen because your damage is awesome and you're more or less immortal, farming is easy aswell, with Judgment mostly. Try to keep game in the middle of the lane so your jungler can stab enemy, here good jungle matchups are Evelynn, Shaco, Udyr and even Twitch. If your farm isn't going well, then tell your jungler to babysit, because you would need kills. After having 2/3 kills and max. 1 death you can push a bit but ward your lane to don't let enemy jungler gank. Try to ward river side lane enter and tribush. In early get Boots and Sunfire Aegis.

Okay so you won lane or lost it but you should win it, doesn't matter. Laning phase is over, first team fights and pushes started. Here you need Warmog's Armor for pure tankiness and ability to survive all team fights or Frozen Mallet for a bit of tankiness, some damage and additional CC. Try to initiate fights with Decisive Strike followed by Courage so you should survive 10-20 seconds focus on you. If enemies are that stupid and they try to kill you, use just judgment and try to deal as much damage as possible. If they're clever and they focus carries, nothing harder, protect them. Here you would have great combo with Veigar, because your and his ults are Over Overpowered used together.

Your mega tankiness and some damage should be enough to carry fights for your mates. Nothing more than
-Get to carry with Decisive Strike and Courage
-Use Judgment
-Use Youmuu's Ghostblade if you have and chase this carry autoattacking him
-If needed one more Decisive Strike and end with Demacian Justice.
Just autokill no matter what, of course if you have good items.

Just protect them if you're full tank, if you aren't try to kill enemy carries to reduce their team damage. Nothing more.

Try to counterpick in champion picking. If there's no other way, play safer in laning phase, let enemy push. Mid game and late game should be like I wrote in chapter Game Phases

Hope you enjoyed my Garen, The Might of Demacia guide and you will use it in the game to carry your team. Here's a summary banner for the ending :)