Garen/Strategy

Skill usage

 * health regeneration is greatly increased due to his passive, . This only activates if he can avoid receiving champion damage for 9 seconds, granting him exceptional sustainability in lane, and minions don't stop his regen.
 * 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 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.
 * Because of strong early game damage from, lanes well with a partner with an early game stun such as  or.
 * Unlike other abilities, remains active when  is stunned because it is not a channeled spell.
 * Beware that can be blocked by  and its damage depends on the enemy champion's magic resistance and health.
 * can be activated during on an enemy at low hp. This will cause  to immediately end his spin and cast if the target is in range.
 * 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 removes slows.
 * and mix well for a powerful chasing, and escape combo. The speed boost from  letting you get into, or out of range, while the damage reduction of  allows you to take reduced damage from nearby minions and enemies when chasing or escaping.
 * 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 cooldowns.

Build usage

 * One of the strongest rune pages for is a higher armor penetration build. With maxed Quintessences and Marks,  will deal a lot of early game damage, as his early lane phase is strongly dependent on his ability to hit enemy champs with  and.
 * Rushing armor penetration items will allow to scale a lot more effectively mid and late game.
 * A full AD rune page will allow to deal very high damage at early levels. This tactic can be used in a duo lane for a potential quick first blood.
 * has no ability costs, making cooldown reduction items very strong.
 * is a good early item for him. It can later be built into, which is very effective on.
 * is a good choice when facing an enemy with high magic damage (e.g. ).
 * has high AD ratios, making building AD viable.
 * Since damage is purely physical (except for his ultimate), armor penetration items greatly benefit him.
 * As benefits from critical strike, items such as  increase the ability's damage output as well as his basic attack.
 * All of the stats from benefits, making it a very viable option for garen.
 * does not get any bonuses from ability power, rendering it completely useless on him. He can, however, choose between damage and off-tank roles, having excellent affinities for both of them. He does, however, benefit from magic penetration such as, due to dealing a high amount of base magic damage.
 * Tank items can make an effective off-tank in combination with . Also,  can work really well with  and items like  can make an off-tank Garen a serious threat.
 * However, Garen's lack of hard crowd control makes it difficult for him to fulfill the main tank role, making him just a disrupter off-tank.
 * ,, and  are excellent items for  to make use of his passive in
 * is an excellent health item for, as it provides some attack damage and a powerful slow to help stick to his target. It also synergizes well with.
 * and synergize with, easily allowing him to regenerate ~1% of his health each second.
 * Using armor penetration and flat attack damage runes further improves early game. Armor/magic resistance runes are also recommended, for tankiness.

Countering

 * damage output is very high early game; avoid early confrontations.
 * Harass in lane every few seconds, if possible, to minimize the effect of.
 * Ranged champions can easily stop with an autoattack (unless  goes farther back, which has him give up last-hits) and farm in lane while a safe distance from him - generally also having abilities to let them keep away from  even if he charges at them. Ranged carries in particular will scale far stronger than  in this situation, avoiding his early-game advantages while securing their own late-game advantages.
 * passive can completely disable if you harass him constantly.
 * Avoid going into a brush that does not have a ward in it if Garen's 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. Therefore all of his spell cooldowns are very high. Try to attack him when they are on cooldown.
 * Be very cautious when low on health and is off cooldown.
 * It is often worth the investment to purchase armor to counter high physical damage.
 * Like most melee champions, is quite vulnerable to ranged harassment.

Champion Spotlight
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AcHIxooCfow