Reworking Garen, the Might of Demacia
So the other day I saw a couple people briefly discuss Garen and how disappointed they were with him. I don't think I've ever seen him in competitive play and it's not like I see people talking about how he tears it up at Diamond / Challenger level. So I decided to put some brain power into thinking about how to bring him up-to-date with current designs. This is the result.
Concept
Who is Garen? He is a soldier, knight, and champion. He does not cower behind a bow or shield, but rather wades into battle with a sword in his hand and his allies by his side. He is the first to enter the fray and the last to fall. His blows should crash like thunder and leave the enemy staggering. Lesser foes should cower as they are faced with a peerless warrior. Garen is not one for ticks and subtly but simply raw might.
Mechanics
Now, we can't just have Garen crush everyone beneath his boot, because that's not an interesting game. So I tried to make Garen a little bit more of a team fight champion. As a melee range fighter Garen has a lot of inherent weaknesses that at the same time make balancing him really hard (ie, lots of extra stats, can't dodge melee abilities). The current Demacian Justice is a good example. There isn't really any counter-play in this ability. Once you get low enough, Garen executes you. The End. So I tried to make Garen's defensive abilities a little more proactive and better when used in conjunction with teammates. Please let me know how well you think I did.
Abilities
Perseverance (passive) - Whenever a nearby allied minion (includes pets) or champion dies, Garen is healed for a percentage of his maximum health. The amount healed is 1% for minions and 6 / 8 / 10% for champions.
This change is probably the most awkward, but I wanted to make his sustain a little more interesting. The sustain in lane is a little less although will generally be harder to prevent, the heal in a team fight though can be devastating and should encourage Garen's role as the first one in (since the enemy is punished for not focusing him). He radius shouldn't be particularly high so that you can realistically zone Gagarin away from creeps or split the team up in a fight to prevent the heal.
Decisive Strike (Q) - Cooldown 10 seconds - Active: Garen steps forward and swings his sword in a massive two-handed blow, inflicting 30 / 55 / 80 / 105 / 130 + (100% total AD) physical damage to all enemies caught in the strike and knocking them back slightly. In addition, all enemy projectiles struck are destroyed.
I think this is the change I am most satisfied with. The ability is very difficult to use well, rewarding to master, and still easy for new players to understand (like swinging a baseball bat). The intent is that the blow strikes a 180 degree arc extending out ~250 units and have a knock back comparable to Flay. Also, the ability should have a very brief wind-up time, both to telegraph the attack and to make batting projectiles out of the air even more satisfying (and to balance out it being a projectile-breaker on such a low cooldown).
Courage (W) - Cooldown 24 / 22 / 20 / 18 / 16 - Passive: Garen's bonus armor and magic resist are increased by 20%. Active: Garen shouts a battle cry that affects him and all nearby allied champions. Those affected break free of all slowing effects on them and game a defensive shield that reduces the damage of he next attack they take by 50%.
This change, at the very least, gives Garen a niche in the form of a team-wide effect that no one else has. It also pushes him more towards team fights, as the ability is not particular useful in a duel (except perhaps as an escape maneuver) but can be immensely impact full in a full 5v5 fight.
Judgement (E) - Cooldown 12 / 11 / 10 / 9 / 8 seconds - Active: Garen rapidly spins his sword around his body for three seconds, dealing 20 / 45 / 70 / 95 / 120 (+70 / 80 / 90 / 100 / 110% total AD) physical damage each second to enemies in rankings. Garen increases his movement speed by 30 / 35 / 40 / 45 / 50% (decays over the duration of the ability) and ignores unit collision while spinning. You may reactivity this ability after 0.5 seconds to end the effect early.
Spin to win. Not much else to say here. Too iconic to change much. I added the movement speed bonus since he lost it on his Q. The decay acts as a handy visual indicator for how much longer the ability will last.
Demacian Justice (R) - Cooldown 120 / 100 / 80 seconds - Active: Garen call upon the might of Demacia to attempt to execute an enemy champion. After a short delay, the target suffers 200 / 325 / 450 (+20 / 30 / 40% of the target's missing health) magic damage. If the target is slain, all enemies near the target suffer 200 / 325 / 450 magic damage and are knocked away from the point of impact.
The purpose of these changes is to add a little gameplay to Demacian Justice. You still can't stop it from killing you (although I added a small delay for last-ditch shields and heals), but where you die now has an impact on the fight. A fleeing enemy can position themselves behind their allies, so that the knock back pushes them to safety. It also makes using the ability more thoughtful do you use on that target that's moderately injured to bring them in range to kill, or do you use it on that guy who has barely any life left to get to knock back?
General Thoughts
So I've been working on this for about four hours now and I think I'm ready to rest. I may have lost track of what I was thinking during that time, so I apologize of things got a little weird. So here's the Garen I made. He's not much a duelist but can be beastly in teamfights if you aren't careful. Most importantly, I hope I made him actually interesting to play as and against.
