Garen Guide League of Legends

This is a guide for Garen. Learn the best runes, masteries, summoner spells, items, builds, tips and strategies to kick ass with Garen! Garen is an excellent tanky melee damage champion with a silence, powerful AOE that shreds carries, and an instant execute.

This guide written by JuiceItUp (Over 2000 rating in Solo Queue Ladder)

Patch v1.0.0.116

Perseverance (Passive): Garen will regenerate 0.5% of his maximum health per second after not receiving or dealing damage for 7 seconds. The regenerative state will stop if Garen receives damage.

Decisive Strike (Active): Garen gains movement speed for 3 seconds. His next melee attack within 6 seconds will deal physical damage and silence his target for 2.5 seconds.

No cost

Cooldown: 12 / 11 / 10 / 9 / 8 seconds

Total Physical Damage: 30 / 45 / 60 / 75 / 90 (+1.5 per attack damage)

Bonus Movement Speed: 15 / 20 / 25 / 30 / 35 %

Courage (Passive): Garen's armor and magic resistance are permanently increased by 0.5 every time he kills an enemy unit. There is a cap to the armor and magic resistance gained this way. Armor and Magic Resistance Cap: 5 / 10 / 15 / 20 / 25

(Active): Garen places a defensive shield on himself, decreasing all damage taken by a percentage for 3 seconds.

No cost

Cooldown: 30 / 27 / 24 / 21 / 18 seconds

Damage Reduced: 20 / 24 / 28 / 32 / 36 %

Judgment (Active): Garen rapidly spins his sword around his body for 3 seconds, removing all existing slows and reducing the duration of new slows by 50%, plus dealing physical damage to nearby enemies every half second. Minions only take half damage from this ability. Garen can deactivate Judgement early by activating the ability again. Garen can't use Decisive Strike or Demacian Justice while Judgement is in effect.

No cost

Radius of AoE: 330

Cooldown: 14 / 13 / 12 / 11 / 10 seconds

Physical Damage Per Second: 60 / 100 / 140 / 180 / 220 (+1.2 per bonus attack damage)

Demacian Justice (Active): Garen brings down Demacian Justice on his opponent, dealing magic damage, plus additional magic damage per amount of health his opponent has already lost.

No cost

Range: 400

Cooldown: 140 / 120 / 100 seconds

Magic Damage: 175 / 350 / 525

Additional Damage: 1 per 3.5 / 3 / 2.5 health missing

Check out the Garen Champion Spotlight by Phreak. Enjoy!

Start with: Boots and 3 health pots (movement speed helps you land a full duration judgment)

Alternative Starting Items: Doran's Blade (Good for Solo Lane to try to get an early kill)

Doran's Shield (Decent item, good for soaking up damage)

Giant's Belt > Sunifre Cape

Boots > Mercury's Treads

Brutalizer > Ghostblade

Force of Nature

Randuin's Omen

Infinity Edge

Garen Runes:

Reds: Armor Penetration

Yellows: Scaling Health or Armor

Blues: Magic Resistance or CDR

Quintessences: Movement Speed, Armor Pen, or Flat Health

Garen Masteries:

21/0/9 is best for solo laning, 0/21/9 is okay for bottom lane when you need to be tanky, and utility should not be used as it does not benefit Garen nearly as much as Offensive or Defensive Masteries

Garen Summoner Spells:

Ghost/Flash

Flash/Exhaust

Flash/Ignite

Ghost/Exhaust

Ghost/Ignite

Always Max Judgment first as it scales heavily and does most of your damage. Then Max Courage or Decisive Strike depending on whether you want to be tankier or get the run speed/burst of Decisive Strike.

Use Decisive Strike First and then Judgment for a powerful damage combo (Also the silence stops them from flashing or using another spell to get away from your Judgment).

Always Silence enemy mages in team fights (Like Annie, LeBlanc, Orianna, etc.)

Is Garen OP?

Check out this good Garen Video.

Share your Garen tips, strategies and ideas here!