Garen, the Might of Demacia

Overview

Hailing from Demacia, Garen is a loyal warrior as he enters the League of Legends. He is one of only two characters whose abilities have no cost but their cooldowns (the other being

Katarina

). This makes him an easier character to play, but still a dangerous hero to play against.

Garen can be played as a semi-tank/sponge (able to "soak up" damage to an extent due to his passive ability and above-average health/level increase) or as a physical dps.

Skills

Passive

: After 10 seconds of not taking damage, Garen's health regeneration increases to 0.4 of his health per second.

Active Ability (Q):

Garen's next attack will have bonus damage and silence the enemy for 2.5 seconds. He also gains 35% bonus movement speed boost and instandly breaks him free of slows that are currently effecting him..

Active Ability (W):

Passive: Garen's armor and magic resistance are increased by 20%. Active: Garen gains a shield that grants him 30% reduction in damage and Crowd control duration. The length of this spell increases as it is leveled up, reaching 6 seconds at level 5.

Active Ability (E):

Garen spins around with his sword for 3 seconds, similar to Dota's Juggernaut's skill. This is Garen's main damaging skill (excluding his ultimate). Pressing the abilty again will end the effect early, allow it to come back off cooldown sooner. He can also travel through enemy units while this skill is active, but will move at 80% movement speed while he does this.

Active Ability (R):

Garen's execute skill. It deals a flat amount of Magic damage, but deals additional damage based on how much health the enemy is missing. A very damaging skills which shows as a giant sword falls on the enemy. Although the ability does magic damage, it does not stack with ap items.

Strategy

• Garen is a very proficient "tower diver" early game, as his combo of Decisive Strike, Judgment, and Demacian Justice (if needed) can deal with any lower health champion, and Garen can then escape by activating courage at any time during the combo to tank the tower hits.
• Garen is also able to escape possible gank situations, as his 3 skills excluding his ultimate can be used to run as well. Decisive Strike increases his movement speed for a short time; Courage decreases any incoming damage, and Judgment can negate any slows or roots on Garen.
• Garen also has great staying power early game, thanks to his passive which grants amazing health regeneration as long as Garen takes no damage from enemy champions.
• Garen's main weakness is that he lacks a gap closer that other champiosn possess (such as Ezreal's arcane shift or Wukong's nimbus strike), as such it is recommended you build at least one other item to increase your speed other than your boots.
• Since he has no resources on his abiltys, he is only stopped by the cooldown on his abilites, as such it is a good idea to build some cooldown reduction on him to allow him to use his abilties again.