Garen/Strategy

Skill usage

 * strength as a bruiser comes from his passive, and  to keep himself healthy along with his decent early damage and utility from  and, with  providing a reliable and powerful execute.
 * health regeneration is greatly increased due to his passive, . This only activates if he can avoid receiving champion or monster damage for 9 seconds, granting him exceptional sustainability in lane as minions do not stop this effect.
 * makes him a powerful chaser, easily closing the gap and silencing enemies before they can cast a slow or any debuff. It can also be used to make a swift escape since it removes slows.
 * This makes very strong against most caster-type champions due to its silence; disrupting combos can save teammates by preventing casters (both AP and AD) from comfortably using all their skills before they endanger themselves, especially since Garen himself is naturally tanky enough to rush in with little casualties, be it 1 v 1 or in a large teamfight.
 * can be used effectively to push lanes, as this ability also affects structures (turrets and inhibitors).
 * Using to catch up with, silence, and deal damage to a fleeing champion is the perfect precursor to a killing blow with.
 * can be used to return to/move between lanes quickly, as it has no mana costs and a fairly low cooldown, especially at higher ranks.
 * resets auto-attack timer, effectively allowing him to deal good damage in a short period of time. However,  will have to come to melee range without a speed boost if he uses the skill to double-attack.
 * can be lethal in early game fights, especially after getting his ultimate. deals good continuous damage to enemies and  speed boost is good for chasing enemies.  also does extra damage based on how much health the enemy has missing.
 * best starting skill is, as it can be used to last-hit, silence, speed himself up, remove slows, reset autoattacks and has very high burst damage at early levels.
 * and mix well for a powerful chasing and escape combo. The speed boost from  allows you to get in or out of range, while the damage reduction of  allows you to mitigate any retaliation from enemies.
 * Because of his strong early game damage from, lanes well with a partner with an early game stun such as  , though he is most often played as a solo top laner.
 * Unlike other abilities, remains active when  is stunned because it is not a channeled spell.
 * With some points into, can easily farm and push minions with it.
 * is main source of damage, but has a significant cooldown and long duration to maximize its damage. Make sure you activate  properly or you will be left being fairly ineffectual in combat while it is on cooldown.
 * Beware that can be blocked by  and its damage depends on the enemy champion's magic resistance and missing health.
 * can be activated during on an enemy at low health. This will cause  to immediately end his spin and cast if the target is in range.
 * While any champion benefits from brush control, excels at this due to the threat of his gap closing and damage capabilities; use this to your advantage, especially against ranged opponents.

Build usage
is a melee champion, who excels in quickly killing priority targets and being able to soak up tons of damage.


 * Damage
 * is a good early item for him and can later be built into, which is very effective on as  can quickly apply stacks on multiple enemies.
 * Another option would be ; it gives similar AD and Armor penetration, but it also gives critical chance and a short boost to movement and attack speed. This makes it a great late game item when critical chance outscales raw AD and can use the extra attack speed to help destroy turrets.
 * They can also be built together for an easy source of 20% CDR to combine with . This also increases wave minion clear due to minions having low armor values.
 * is a good counter to teams stacking mass amounts of armor but gives no defensive stats, which are important if you are to survive the enemy's damage long enough to deal yours.
 * As both and  benefit from critical strike, items such as  increases the ability's damage output as well as his basic attacks.
 * is a good anti-mage item. An early can help  against high burst magic damage.


 * Resistances
 * scales with armor and magic resistance; therefore, purchasing items with said stats makes the ability more effective.
 * synergizes well with, easily allowing him to regenerate % of his health each second.
 * is an excellent health item for, as it provides some attack damage and a powerful slow to help stick to his target.
 * can be a good choice as well; the item's passive along with allows him to regenerate % of his health per second, allowing him to recover health quickly after teamfights without going back to base. The extra health along with  makes him very hard to kill in a teamfight.
 * In combination with, an early helps with  wave clearing capabilities, as well as providing mixed damage and constant threat.
 * can help greatly against being kited and reduces the enemy ranged carry's DPS. An early is good against auto-attack reliant champions such as, , , etc.

Countering

 * damage output is very high early game; avoid early confrontations and play passively if needed.
 * Harass in lane every few seconds, if possible, to minimize the effect of.
 * Ranged champions can easily stop with an auto-attack (unless  goes farther back, which forces him to miss last-hits) and farm in lane at a safe distance from him - they generally also have abilities to keep their distance. Ranged carries will scale stronger than him in this situation.
 * Avoid going into a brush that does not have a ward in it if current whereabouts are unknown.  players have a tendency to hide in bushes, due to the synergy between his silence from  and damage from.
 * is a cooldown based champion. However, all of his ability cooldowns are high. Try to attack him when they are on cooldown.
 * is very good at stopping combos due to its silence; if you happen to be playing a caster champion who relies a lot on their abilities to deal most of their damage, be wary of this ability as can save a teammate or even himself from your burst, as well as leaving you without the use of your defensive abilities or summoners such as.
 * Be very cautious when low on health and you know is off cooldown.
 * It is often worth the investment to purchase armor to counter high physical damage.
 * Think carefully before using your Crowd Control abilities on . His  will remove Slows and will reduce the duration of such abilities by 30% while active. Additionally, hard CC will not stop , only his movement. Keep some distance from him, especially if playing squishier champions as it deals very high damage over a short duration.
 * Like most melee champions, is quite vulnerable to ranged harassment.
 * However, because of his high damage and better durability, he can force ranged champions away or even kill them if he gets all of his damage off.
 * Buying a may help as it can block a fair amount of damage from  early on. Do not forget that his main form of damage is still physical, however.
 * Because usually builds a lot of health, getting champions or items that deal % health damage can cause him to melt quickly, such as  active and passive,, ,  and . Being able to outsustain his damage will also help.
 * is considered to be one of the best known counters to . He can effectively poke and escape from him, if played correctly. can be used to both deal damage and prevent him from dealing damage with  (the silence will still affect you).  allows you to harass and prevent his  from activating, and  allows you to slow and zone him. Use it while you are escaping from him, then retaliate when he attempts to escape. Keep in mind, however, that his combo is strong enough to kill you at early levels and he can utilize the brush to prevent you from harassing him.