Talk:Garen/@comment-15031918-20151024103808/@comment-26231232-20151027214126

The question you should be asking is: why should I level Q? You don't get a lower CD out of it, you don't get better scalings, your silence duration doesn't increase, the bonus movement speed doesn't increase (only the duration)... You basically get nothing out of levelling, except for higher base damage, obviously.

Meanwhile, levelling E grants you better waveclear, higher AD scalings, and higher DPS. Actually, the waveclear alone makes levelling E better, since having no waveclear means you'll get pushed to your turret very often, and Garen needs to bully his lane opponent, otherwise there's no purpose to playing Garen.

But let's do the math. For theoretical purposes, let's assume your enemy is damaged by all ticks of your E, whichever the level you're at. Let's also assume you take Q at level 1, which you should, and E at level 2, which you also should, then W at level 3. From this point onward, there are two scenarios: max E, or max Q.

So, at level 4:

- Q (rank 2) does 55 base damage, plus 40% AD;

- E (rank 2) does 112.8 base damage, plus 211.8% AD, IF damaging more than one target;

- E (rank 2) does 150 base damage, plus 282% AD, IF damaging only one target.

At level 5:

- Q (rank 3) does 80 base damage, plus 40% AD;

- E (rank 3) does 135 base damage, plus 216% AD, IF damaging more than one target;

- E (rank 3) does 180 base damage, plus 288% AD, IF damaging only one target.

At level 8:

- Q (rank 4) does 105 base damage, plus 40% AD;

- E (rank 4) does 184.1 base damage, plus 257.6% AD, IF damaging more than one target;

- E (rank 4) does 245 base damage, plus 343% AD, IF damaging only one target.

At level 9:

- Q (rank 5) does 130 base damage, plus 40% AD;

- E (rank 5) does 210 base damage, plus 262.5% AD, IF damaging more than one target;

- E (rank 5) does 280 base damage, plus 350% AD, IF damaging only one target.

This is, of course, purely from a total damage standpoint. This ignores the fact that Q is burst damage, while E is DPS, and the fact that your enemy can CC you to get out of your E, and also assumes that you can get on top of the enemy (good luck doing that vs Quinn). However, in a typical trading or all-in scenario against >90% of the champions you'd face in the top lane, it holds true: E is your main source of waveclear, and of damage for trading/all-ins.

Also, as a side note: if you go to Garen's Champion.gg page, you'll see the most popular AND the highest winrate skill order for Garen is E->Q->W.