Garen Top Lane Build Guides, Runes, Items, and Abilities

Garen, the revered fighter of Demacia, is a champion in League of Legends who embodies resilience and strength. Known for his exceptional tankiness, high damage output, and ease of use, Garen is a popular choice for both new and experienced players alike. His ability to endure damage while dishing out punishment makes him a formidable presence on the battlefield, especially in the top lane. In this article, we'll dive into Garen's strengths and weaknesses, as well as provide some valuable tips and tricks for mastering him.

Use Decisive Strike for Engages and Escapes: Garen’s Q not only provides movement speed but also removes slows. This makes it a perfect tool to engage enemies or disengage from tough situations. Make sure to use it when you’re about to be hit by a crowd control effect or when trying to chase down an enemy.

Don’t Forget About Your Passive: Perseverance is a game-changing ability for lane sustain. When you haven’t taken damage for a while, Garen can heal quickly, so be sure to back off and wait for your health to regenerate before re-engaging in fights.

Maximize Damage with Judgment (E): Garen’s E is an area-of-effect damage ability, so use it when surrounded by enemies to deal consistent damage. You can spin through minions to clear waves, but don’t forget to use it in teamfights to hit multiple targets.

Time Your Ultimate for Maximum Effect: Demacian Justice (R) works best when an enemy champion is at low health. Make sure to keep an eye on your target’s health bar, and use your ultimate when it’s most likely to execute them. It can be the deciding factor in a teamfight.

Build Tank Items: Garen can be a tanky champion, so building items like Sterak’s Gage, Dead Man’s Plate, and Spirit Visage can make him even more difficult to kill. Focus on survivability while still maintaining your ability to deal decent damage.

1. Strengths:

Garen excels as a beginner-friendly champion due to his straightforward yet effective kit. His passive healing allows him to stay in lane through difficult matchups, providing forgiveness for trading mistakes. The absence of mana or energy management lets new players focus entirely on positioning and trading fundamentals.

His Q-E combo delivers reliable damage while being simple to execute, making him excellent for learning trading patterns. The true damage ultimate provides clear kill windows and helps develop execution timing.

His W’s damage reduction and tenacity make him surprisingly durable, allowing players to survive situations that would punish squishier champions.

2. Weaknesses:

Despite his strengths, Garen struggles significantly against ranged champions who can kite him and deny his passive healing. His predictable gameplay pattern makes him easy to counter at higher levels of play, where opponents can anticipate his engage attempts.

The reliance on his passive healing can be exploited by opponents who understand how to keep him damaged and deny regeneration. Without any hard crowd control beyond his silence, Garen can struggle to lock down mobile targets or make game-changing plays in teamfights.

His lack of gap closers beyond Q makes him vulnerable to being kited in teamfights.

• AA + Q + AA: Make sure to use Q as an Auto Attack Reset. AA instantly into Q and another AA.
• Q + AA + E + AA + R: To fight normally activate Q to gain movespeed then AA E, once E finishes AA again and execute with R.
• E + AA + Q + R: When close to an opponent E then Q R instantly after your AA finishes.
• AA + Q + E + AA: Your most simple trade is to Q instantly after your first AA then E.
• R + FLASH: You can R then instantly Flash during the animation to reposition.
• Q + FLASH + EAA + R: Quickly burst by activating Q then Flash once in AA range and instantly R after your AA.
• Q + FLASH + AA + E +AA + R: To All In activate Q then Flash once in AA range, follow up with E and execute your target with R.

As a beginner with Garen, focus on utilizing your passive healing between trades. Start each trade with Q to silence the enemy and prevent retaliation, followed by spinning with E while staying close to them.

After trading, back off and let your passive heal you up. In lane, use bushes to break vision and zone enemies from CS. Save your W for when you expect incoming burst damage or heavy trades – timing this well can be the difference between winning and losing an all-in.

Your ultimate deals more damage the more health the enemy is missing, so use it as an execute when enemies are below 25-30% health. In teamfights, try to flank the enemy backline rather than running straight in, as you can be kited easily.

If you can’t reach the carries, peel for your own backline by punishing anyone who dives them. Remember that your E shreds armor, making you more effective against tanks, and your Q breaks slows, allowing you to escape bad situations.

1. Early game

• Play safe in the first few levels. Garen needs some time to come online or else he’ll fall behind and be unable to scale.
• Once you’ve unlocked your Ultimate Demacian Justice R, you can look to play more aggressive. Your Ultimate Demacian Justice R can be seen as an execute and will help you finish off the enemy.
• Once you have a few levels or an item under your belt, you can look to play more aggressive and look for fights.

2. Mid game

• When no team fights are occurring, split push and draw the enemies attention to you while your team sieges or makes plays on the other side of the map.
• Look for picks with your Decisive Strike Q and Demacian Justice R. Garen deals a surprising amount of damage, so don’t be afraid to move around the map and try to assassinate someone with your team.
• Garen is a skirmish heavy laner. When you’re split pushing, look to fight anyone who tries to stop you.

3. Late game

• Look for picks with your Decisive Strike Q and Demacian Justice R in team fights. If you’re able to catch somebody out with the help from your allies, you’ll increase your chances of winning the fight.
• Peel for your team as much as possible in team fights. Peeling and keeping them alive for as long as possible will help you win the fight.
• If you’ve been harassed and poked down by the enemy, try to retreat and let your Passive kick in. Avoid recalling if possible as the enemy may force a fight while you’re in base.

Garen is a versatile champion capable of both tanking damage and dealing substantial damage in League of Legends. His straightforward kit, combined with his high sustain and powerful execute, makes him a reliable choice for many players. However, mastering Garen requires understanding his strengths in combat while being mindful of his weaknesses, such as his lack of mobility and vulnerability to crowd control. With the right build and tactics, Garen can be an unstoppable force on the Rift, leading his team to victory with the power of Demacia.

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Good luck to you! – Cheng