User blog comment:Willbachbakal/(Champion Rework) Garen, the Might of Demacia/@comment-25414280-20150402205445/@comment-1330314-20150402211144

Whooooooops. The Riposte typo is a copy-paste error from another blog post to cover generic on-hit effect info. All fixed now.

I also agree that it's likely I overcharged Garen's bases, and you're not the only one to think that. My main reasoning here is that, because I'm removing Garen's large resistance bonus on W as well as a good portion of his base health regen, he'd need compensation in the form of better base tankiness. On the other hand, as you mentioned, he also has a really strong active defense steroid, so he may not need those.

While most of my changes were geared towards a tanky Garen, I don't think damage builds should be entirely excluded: despite the lack of crit, which I think isn't something Garen should have (silences and large potential burst don't go well together on one kit), his AD ratios are significantly stronger, and building damage increases his ult's execution potential, something he can't do now. Black Cleaver would synergize even better with him, as would items like, and. His stronger bases also mean he can afford to build a bit more damage and still be tanky. He has fewer itemization options, but he would nonetheless still be able to go full damage and be effective in his own right (he'd have even better waveclear, as well as some tank-busting potential that would also help him jungle).