User blog:Willbachbakal/(Champion Rework) Garen, the Might of Demacia

This is a tentative rework for Garen, the Might of Demacia. Like a lot of older fighters, Garen suffers from a fair bit of short-sighted gameplay: he's a good lane bully, but otherwise contributes very little to his team that is unique, and he struggles to make an impact after the laning phase. His playstyle also doesn't really allow for a high level of mastery, and as such locks him out of higher elo levels where he gets constantly outplayed by other champions. However, it may not actually be the best idea to make him any more complex: Garen is a great learner champion, and his mechanics, while overly simplistic, also allow newer players to succeed in top lane even against more complex or skilled opponents. He can't really succeed at high-level play in his current state, but he also can't really become much more complicated without losing his ease of use.

Despite this, though, I think it's possible to find a sweet spot: a core tenet of champion design is that a champion should be easy to learn and take forever to master, and the recent changes to Garen's passive sustain have opened a possible niche he might be able to fill. Garen is, by design, a meat shield, but I think he can put that to the service of his team and work as a protector against poke. Additionally, I think his kit can be adjusted a little so that he can a) hold up better against tanky top laners, which he currently struggles to make an impact on, b) jungle, which seems like a given yet is currently extremely sub-par, and c) truly influence teamfights, instead of just spinning around for minimum damage and soaking up AoE until he finds a target to execute. There are a lot of unique strengths to Garen, and I think they can be brought up to a level where he can have a lot more potential for interesting play while also keeping his low skill floor.

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What are your thoughts? What do you think of Garen: how good a spot do you think he is in-game, and what do you think his unique contributions are (or should be)? Do the above changes appeal to the role you think Garen fits into?