Talk:Garen/@comment-46.7.207.128-20121008224226/@comment-5414313-20121009154417

Youmuu's Ghostblade.

If you wait too long for Infinity Edge, the tables might be turned and you might start losing.

With Youmuu's Ghostblade, you can carry extremely hard *extremely early* in the game, which will give you the gold to quickly build Infinity Edge. This works. Buy a Giant's Belt or Phage or whatever smaller defensive item(s) you may need to keep carrying if you're having trouble, but build that Infinity Edge as soon as possible.

If you build Frozen Mallet, you have no damage and therefore can't get kills. No kills = no snowballing = tables can be turned and you will start losing.

Youmuu's Ghostblade is so strong because of its cost. A lot of bruisers get Brutalizer and then they build their big damage item, but you get your big damage item in 1/3 the amount of time, allowing you to completely dominate them in lane. Because so many bruisers get Brutalizer, think of Youmuu's Ghostblade as costing about 1,350 gold and not 2,687.

If you build IE first, you lose a lot of your early game snowballing advantage.

It's for this reason that I disagree with Elementz, and will say Youmuu's + IE is better than IE + Last Whisper. Greater snowballing potential, strong active and higher crit chance is why I say this, and ignoring 51 flat armor is nothing to scoff at and makes LW a late-game item, rather than forcing you to be dependent on it, which can be hit or miss depending on who you're fighting.