Hello to any one reading this guide and welcome. This guide, as the title says, is a quick guide to a successful DPS Garen. Meaning everything you need to know is in the quick reference above. If you wish you can read the below sections for a summery of why i picked what i did. Please note that this is not a tank build although you can do some minor tanking. Also please give it a try before you judge it. I use this build all the time and even though it's not always effective, it's always fun. Also if you have any suggestions put them in the comments and i will try them out and edit the guide if i like them. I will be experimenting and trying to make a tank build and add it to this one.

Pros

Very strong early game
Can generate alot of gold
Can kill just about anybody

Cons

Very expensive
Not very tanky

This is mainly for early game to allow you to get through some of the more tankyer champion's armor.
this gives you more health to allow you to survive.

because garen has no mana he has high cool-downs, this will help with that.

this will give you more armor pen for early game domination.

I chose 23-6-1 because this is a DPS build and to be a DPS you need offence, but this is still garen so your going to need some defense and early game, also with promote and flash mastering them just makes them better.

This is so that decicive strike's speed bonus has more effect and allows you to get out and back into the battle faster.
This will make your passive more effective and will also give you much more survivability. Also the UNIQUE Passive will make it easier to farm minions and deals DPS on champions as your fighting them.
Gives you attack damadge, attack speed, and reduces enemy armor...enough said.
This will give you more colldown reduction along with armor pen and attack damadge.
80 attack damadge and 25% crit chance is welcome in any DPS build any day.
this will give you lots of armor pen when facing thos tanky enemys like chogath or nunu.

If the enemy team is mostly AP you can swap out the sunfire cape with aor if their team is mixed you can change it to a . you can also change it to any defensive item you want, i just prefer the sunfire cape.

I love this spell. Use it when you are going after a weakened tank you don't think you can kill with just your abilitys or on a squishy champion you for the same reason. You can also use it early game just to make enemy champions back off of your lane.
This spell will save your life many many times over the corse of your games. But that is not is only purpose. Use this spell to get away from ganks, warwick, or just anything else deadly and also use it to chase down enemy champions that you can't catch.

Other Possible Spells:
This is a good spell for those of you who are constantly going back to base to heal or purchase items. It will allow you to get back into battle instantly.
this is my favorite spell to use with garen paired with flash. this will give you more early game farm potential and will allow you to take down turrets better.

Great for keeping the enemy in you range. Also great if the enemy team has a healer because of this spell's reuced healing effect.

This skill sequence is very good because it will allow you to have a very strong early game as which will set you up for mid and late game. Decicive strike in the early game can do from 1/3 all the way up to 1/2 of an enemy champion's health dependeing on the champion. Also judgement will allow you to escape, chase, and kill. Courage is not very importana except for its passive allowing you to get upto 25 extra armor and magic resist.

If you are solo top against two opponents, play defense until u are 1-2 levels higher than them, then when you feel the time is right get aggressive. if one of the enemies is a tank and one's squishy, attack the squishy first. after killing the squishy back off unless you think you can kill the tank. if you are laning against two squishies get aggressive very early and try to keep them out of lane as much as possible.

If you are laning with a teammate with CC, try to get first blood. after that it's mostly the same as solo except you should be aggressive the entire time.

If your lane partner does not have CC, find out who your laning against and if you think you can burst kill one of them go for it. then be aggressive the entire time.

If you are laning against a tryndamere, kill him as fast as possibe and keep him out of lane to keep him from getting to six.

No mater how you laning, after level four kill minions to get your bonus MR and armor. if you get low on health let your passive heal you, unless you need to buy something.

So, in summary, you will be able to gank, somewhat tank, and kill almost anybody. I average about 30 kills. I hope this guide helpped. If you have any suggestions for changes put them in the comments and i will try them out and edit the guide if i like the changes. And one last thing, try to have fun. It is a game after all.

November 16 2011: changed the masteries so they are the new masteries from the november 15 patch. changed item purchases to get rid of a useless item for a better one

November 27 2011: changed the runes to make them better and make garen slightly more tanky. added detail to the item list. changed masteries to make garen more offensive. changed skill sequence to give you better early game.

December 12 2011: changed around the masteries to add a little defense. added an early laning guide for several situations. changed the item part of the guide to give options for defense. thnx for the suggestions Kreinas