is a Top Lane Bruiser who is also a very good beginner champion to pick up. He has a lot of sustain and can dish out some pretty good damage. Some games you will play a more passive tank and other games you will become an unstoppable juggernaut. Your mid/late game farming is God tier with your and your becomes super useful once you have your . Don't expect to secure every kill, but try your best. My most recent game as of 6/19/16 at 11:30 A.M. I went 27/4/16. The problem is that you don't have enough burst and movement speed to kill fast movement speed champs like Azir. But overall, Garen is still a great champion.

PROS

• Easy to play
• Can carry games
• Great sustain
• Late game God
• Villain mechanic is awesome for shutting down fed enemy champs
• No mana!
• Can win most 1v1s
• Crazy late game tower dives.

CONS

• Pretty much no CC besides
  
• Low movement speed
• Can't close gaps well
• No mana (Pro and Con since a lot of good mana items aren't efficient on him)
  

GREATER SEAL OF ARMOR

This is a staple with Garen.


Choose between
GREATER GLYPH OF SCALING MAGIC RESIST

or
GREATER GLYPH OF MAGIC RESIST

GREATER MARK OF ATTACK DAMAGE

is my preference, I know of people that like to go for crit marks, but this isn't a crit Garen build so I'd stick with AD marks.

I love GREATER QUINTESSENCE OF ATTACK DAMAGE

on Garen, I feel like it helps a lot to secure kills. I know many prefer
GREATER QUINTESSENCE OF MOVEMENT SPEED


P.S. This is only a guide, you don't have to follow it 100%, choose the runes that you feel work the best.

over
REASON: Your passive + the items you will build is already enough regen. Also you need MR on Garen it's imperative.

or
EXPLANATION: I see people play both, but personally I feel like tough skin isn't worth it and I can't stress it enough that you need movement speed on Garen.

over
REASON: Veteran Scars doesn't give that much health to Garen in comparison to how much total health you're gonna have. Also Runic armor syncs really well with your keystone.

over
REASON: CC resist is so much more vital in this situation, also pretty much every top laner besides maybe will take Swiftness over Legendary Guardian.

is the best keystone on Garen, sustain is great and combos with Runic Armor like I said before. When I first switched to Grasp, I didn't like it because I used Thunderlord's before and I liked the damage, but Grasp is really amazing.

is of course a staple spell for most every champion especially Garen. Helps a lot with escapes if timed correctly. Also use it offensively if your opponent is playing too conservative and you want to secure a kill. Super good tool, do not waste it. One good play I had with flash was when an Azir roamed into top with half HP, I went to fight him, he used his ult to try and keep me from chasing into the jungle, but I quickly flashed over the wall and killed him.


is very useful if you need to back and then get back into lane quickly. Also good for stopping split pushes. Teleporting behind enemy lines and killing the Villain is one of the best things you can do as Garen.


OTHER SPELLS
is decent on Garen for helping with kills, but it's mainly carried by players who are less skillful at getting kills with Garen. It's decent in some cases, but in my opinion teleport has better utility.

can be used if you're not playing standard solo Top Garen and you're playing kill lane with your buddy. I pretty much prefer Tele+Flash 100% of the time, so I would never use this.

Your Q will be your level 1 spell 100% of the time. The poke is great and the movement speed is also really good.

Tips:

• Use this with homestart at the beginning of the game to get into top lane faster. I'm not actually sure if it makes a huge difference, but on many occasions I get starting bush control by doing this. The CD is low enough that it will be available once you reach tower anyways.
• Don't be afraid to use your Q when leashing and farming, but don't use it too much because you want to have it up when you really need it.
• Always start an engage with this skill.
• Your Q works on objectives, use it to get that last bit of tower health down!
• This along with your flash is going to be your number 1 means of escape, so use it to escape if you need to. Don't take every fight.
• If you can, AA (auto attack) once before you use this ability because it resets your AA.

Your W is a great tool for escaping and tower diving, but it's also somewhat tricky. The duration of the spell is very short, so don't just pop it when you initiate a fight. Use it at a time when you realize that you're taking or going to take big damage. Experience will help you get a feel for the right time to use your W. Also is CS syncs with the passive of this skill.


Oh yes, your E skill, the skill that makes Garen so great. This is your big damage skill and also really great utility.

Tips:

• Using this in succession with your Q is going to dish out a lot of damage.
• You can activate your W during your spins if you feel the need. Don't forget about this!
• This skill can actually be really useful for escaping because you're spinning even faster if you use this with your Q's speed boost and it will deal some damage to your chasers which might scare them off.
• Wave clear with this is God Tier and once you get sunfire it gets even more ridiculous. Your CS is going to shoot through the roof.
• This ability ignores CC which is really good especially against enemies that don't know about that.

Your ult is probably the best single target ult in the LOL universe. The passive makes your ult even better. This skill, it's just ridiculous, and it's pretty easy to use.

Tips:

• This skill does more damage the lower the enemy is so only use it as a finisher.
• Ignore people that call you out for KSing, it's a team game and you were doing your job.
• Use your ult sparingly. If you don't need it to secure a kill, then don't use it.
• You don't always have to use this ability on the Villain, secure kills with it against anyone that needs justice served to them.
• When a Villain is low enough to be killed by your ult, the sword above their head with flash a glowing effect quickly and play a sound effect, so watch out for that.

STARTING ITEMS

Is the original starting item and a more conservative build. Best used against AP top laners and top laners that are more passive.


One of the best starting items especially against aggro top laners. Would recommend most of the time.


Probably the best start against AP top laners. Pretty much only start it against AP top laners.



BOOTS

Best boots because of CC reduction and again MR is very vital on Garen. The only time you wouldn't use these boots would probably against ranged top laners.


Best boots against long ranged top laners. Still would suggest Merc Treads most of the time especially if there's a lot of CC on the enemy team.



MID GAME ITEMS

Rush this because of its passive and it builds into sunfire.


Rush this against AP top laners because you're going to start Spirit Visage against them first and this item is Pseudo-Spirit Visage.


Go for this item after you finish sunfire if sunfire was your first full item.


This is actually going to be built late game unless you're just carrying and getting all the kills and have a bunch of gold.



LATE GAME

This is the core of the core items, always always always build this, it is amazing.


This will almost always be your first item. Mainly because spinning while on fire is OP. Everything about it is good. It keeps you alive when you want to initiate fights and sometimes the fire passive will actually kill champions that attempt to escape with a sliver of health. Those are the funny moments...


Is another staple item on Garen because MR is very vital. Also the cool down reduction helps A LOT. Not to mention the HP regen is amazing. An all around great item like Sunfire.


This will be built late game if the game lasts long enough, I pretty much always end up building it. It's a great tank item and helps with your damage a lot. Also the passive on it is super awesome for turning around fights.



LAST ITEM

Dead Man's Plate is my Go-To item, it helps a lot to secure kills during chase. Really helps to close gaps and also makes your basic attack stronger. To sum up this item, nerfed Sion ult.


Randuin's is a really good pick against high basic attack damage champions. Also good if there is a lot of clumping in team fights. Decent item, but it's been nerfed a bit. Again only preferred if the enemy team has high crit or high base attack champions.


Not recommended unless the enemy team has high auto attack. Counters ADCs really well, but its other stats aren't supreme. Very situational and I really don't ever suggest building it unless there's like 4-5 AD auto attack enemy champions.


This items causes Garen regen rate to be freaking ridiculous. It's a bit too much to be honest, but can be pretty fun in some situations. If the enemy team has a lot of high output and is very squishy, you can definitely build this, but most of the time Dead Man's Plate is gonna be better utility than all of the other armor listed here.



OTHER ITEMS

Extremely situational. Kinda like thornmail, but instead of building it against AD heavy teams, you're going to build Maw against AP heavy teams. Also, spellvamp dude, that's some good stuff right there.


Again very situational and will be used against big CC and/or heavy AP teams. Spirit Visage still has Priority over this item.


Another situational item that will only be built against extreme AP teams. Also CDR is great on this item.


Some people like this item, but I don't think its that great on Garen. Play around with it for yourself and see if you like it. This will be built last if you end up building it.


For that crit build.

General/VS AD:
-> -> -> -> -> ->


VS AP:

-> -> -> -> -> -> -> /

Garen is a top lane bruiser and one of the best champions for beginners to learn. He is viable in low/mid elo and is fun and easy to play. A primary combo of his is AA>Q>E>R. He has lots of utility with his skills and summmoner spells that allows him to make some decent escapes and ganks. If you want a quick, very general idea of what items to put on Garen, read the TL;DR above. If you're new to League of Legends and you want to play a melee champion, Garen is the guy for you.



DEMACIA!!!!