Garen planned changes coming soon to PBE

Finally, Garen changes! I want to make a discussion with all the Garen mains out there to see if these planned changes really do point Garen in a viable direction because in my opinion, some of the changes WERE DEFINITELY NEEDED while the rest are questionable. Also, Riste has seen AND talked with a Rioter about this and posted a video on his opinions: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=smddRCXQDJo

Here are Riot's goals: -Remove villainy passive to push power back into core pattern -Move to a more early game lane bully power curve -Add AS scaling to open up more builds

These changes appear to be launching as early as Patch 9.20, so it gives us time to discuss them overall. So let's begin the discussion: *NOTE - I will also discuss some QOL buffs as well, listed at the bottom of the discussion.

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Passive - Perseverance

• [REMOVED] No longer doubles below (25%/50%) HP (Level 1/11) The 25% portion of his passive pre-level 11 was rarely ever used, which is the time you would mainly recall unless a rare opportunity presents itself. The 50% portion post level-11 was the only portion ever used, so its removal will definitely hurt unless the discussed changes are more beneficial than its removal.

• Cooldown:: 9/4 (Levels 1/11) >>> 6 (All levels) This is... skeptical. I would have gone with a different approach, like this >>> 9/7/5/3 (Levels 1/6/11/16) with the heal amount as >>> (0.4%/0.5%/1%/2%) (Alternatively 0.4%/0.6%/1.2%/2.4%) HP every second (Levels 1/6/11/16). Again, that's what I would have done, but let's get back to discussing his planned PBE changes, I believe this cooldown change will make him pretty strong early game while keeping him in check late game. I believe he will win those wars of attrition a bit too often, especially in lower elo. He will be less fun and more frustrating to play against unless he's going against higher elo players, which is what this change is going for to begin with.

• Heal Amount:: 2%/8% (HP every 5 seconds) >>> 2.5/2.75/3/3.25/3.5/3.75/4.5/5.25/6/6.75/7.5/8.25/9/9.25/9.5/9.75/10/10.25 (Hiearchy: 2.5% (+0.25% per levels 2-6) + (0.75% per levels 7-13) + (0.25% per levels 14-18)) This hierarchy for increasing your passive's strength as you level up is very interesting. You're passive gets stronger in order to compete against other champions because they are getting stronger too. I can get behind this if it's overall for the better and balanced.

• Non-epic monsters don't break Passive at level 11 >>> non-epic monsters never break it I personally dislike this because I just don't see Garen as a jungle champion, especially thematically, and I believe if this DOES go through, he will be pretty strong here.

So overall with the Passive, I remain skeptical. Encouraging Garen to be a lane bully again may require nerfing his late game as compensation. Don't get me wrong, Garen's early game is pretty frustrating to play against other lane bullies that force you to do not much but sit under tower and look pretty. I'm looking forward to any improvements that don't break him into an OP champion though, that's my issue.

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I'm skipping to his Ultimate, since I believe this is the shortest discussion that I believe ALMOST EVERY GAREN PLAYER approves of this change.

R - Demacian Justice

• [REMOVED] Villain Mechanic I have always argued about Villain Mechanic not fitting Garen's theme. You are rewarded additional true damage for your team's imcompetence, meaning you are more accepting of your teammates dying because that's how you unlocked your "hidden" power, and it just overall made Garen feel more like an Avenger rather than just a man of justice. ADDITIONALLY, the Villain mechanic was not always reliable: CASE 1: You would usually want to use your ultimate a fed carry with a bounty, but it unfortunately ends up on the support because they accidentally stole a couple kills, forcing you to miss out on maximizing your damage on the one who really deserves it. CASE 2: You want to focus that strong battle mage, but the Villain is a marksman you struggle to reach, forcing you to miss out on maximizing your damage to those you CAN reach. There are just too many of these cases happening to make your Garen life more difficult than it needed to be, and relying on a mechanic that took OUR FREEDOM to choose who to maximize our damage just didn't feel right, it just felt out of our control. We are men of justice, we decide who deserves it, not some algorithm. So I fully support its removal 100%. Our theme of controlling our full justice is back in our hands! DEMACIA!!!

• Deals magic damage >>> Deals True Damage

• Damage:: 175/350/525 (+28.6%/33.3%/40% of missing HP) >>> 150/300/450(+20%/25%/30% of missing HP) Now this is an additional change I can get behind. Other champions just have better executes due to it being true damage, along with the factor that they are rewarded for getting their ultimates off. Garen's has always been magic damage, gated by how much magic resistance the enemy stacks along with Hexdrinkers and Nullifying orbs, and it's been difficult having to work around that. The only way you could is if they were the villain, and that's not always going to be the case. So his ultimate converting into true damage is putting him to closer viability as other true damage execute champions.

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Skipping back to his W for now, I believe I can argue a quick discussion here

W - Courage

• Cooldown:: 23/21/19/17/15 >>> 24/23/22/21/20
• Resist per stack:: 0.33 >>> 0.25
• Resist Caps:: 50 >>> 30 (Minion kills to max stacks:: 150 >>> 160) This is a revert of Patch 9.7 Courage changes. I personally dislike this revert because I currently like how it's actually viable to put extra points in Garen's W early! Even maxing Courage second every now and then due to certain situations was kind of cool because now you have more versatility on what to max instead of it always being either Q or E, even though they are indeed the best options overall. But that's my opinion, and I do believe the Garen community would more likely care any less about the revert.

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And finally, his E. This I expected was to be the longest discussion for the changes, so I saved it for last.

E - Judgment

• Ticks:: 5 + 1 per 3 levels (max 10) >>> 8 + 1 per 12.5% attack speed
• Base Damage:: 14/18/22/26/30 >>> 8/13/18/23/28
• AD ratio:: .36/.37/.38/.39/.4 >>> .23/.26/.29/.32/.35
• Hits required to shred armor:: 4 >>> 6
• [REMOVED] No longer deals 33% bonus damage if hitting only one enemy
• [NEW] Now deals 25% bonus damage and applies on hit effects (50% damage) to nearest enemy Oh boy, let the discussion begin. Opening Garen to attack speed builds is huge, and I personally believe it to be overpowered. Get ready for some Lethal Tempo Garens, because Conquerer is about to be viable on him as well, and let's not forget on-hit Garen is about to make a huge, "ravenous", and "titanic" impact. Personally, I like that they are bringing more diversity to Garen's builds. However, I believe where it stands, this current setup will be too strong. And just as much as I like bringing more diversity to Garen's builds is my dislike for Riot's concept for making Garen spin FASTER instead of spin HARDER. I have always believed Garen would win more trades if he spins less but hits harder. I have never really been a fan of Garen acting like a Demacian Tasmanian Devil (those that don't know, look up Looney Tunes), I want him to feel more like a disciplined warrior that uses his spin strategically while feeling powerful rather than just Beyblade it and that's it. But that's just my opinion. Additionally, I have never been a huge fan of how Garen applies his Armor Shred (I am NOT saying I don't want his Armor Shred, I'm saying HOW he applies his Armor Shred). We all can argue that Judgment is the final ability used for almost all physical trades, because we use his Q to lock down his target and Silence them. His Armor Shred "amplifies" our damage, but its in the last part of Judgment and thus the last part of our trade. And how do we maintain our "cohesiveness" element, the Armor Shred? We have to cast Judgment again. This amplification is not cohesive enough, unlike champions like Darius, whose maintains his "cohesive" bleed constantly throughout the fight due to how it's literally in his entire kit. Nothing really maintains Garen's cohesiveness, and Garen's entirety of "hit and run" playstyle is why Garen tends to struggle throughout higher elos. Other champions, and especially other juggernauts, have better cohesion, such as combat sustain or Darius' case of bleeds. If Garen's Armorshred was implemented in his ENTIRE kit, Garen would become more cohesive, and thus more viable. (This is just an argument on Garen's cohesion as a Juggernaut. There is probably another way to work this out, but I'm mainly using Judgment as an example because it could work through his kit.) Returning back to the additions to the Planned changes: gaining more attack speed grants Garen more spins. I fully approve of this change, and while I'm not currently proposing Riots 8+ extra right now, I do propose making attack speed makes Garen spin faster, just keep the amount of attack speed in check. (ESPECIALLY LETHAL TEMPO GAREN) Additionally, dealing 25% bonus damage and applies (50%) of all on-hit effects to the nearest enemy will be, in my opinion, overpowered. Not to mention, Ravenous Hydra proc going off 15 times from one Judgment is something I would discourage (even if it's 50% of the damage) (Or Conquerer, can you already imagine how broken it already is? Now Imagine Garen getting Conquerer through one Judgment?) I think overall this will cause Overpowered issues than solve Garen's actual problems. I like the direction they are heading, but I do not think this is overall the right direction. (Probably on-hit in particular, attack speed will be less problematic I anticipate).

So, that concludes my thoughts on what I believe the changes will perform for Garen. I like some (Such as the Villain Mechanic's Removal makes Garen's ultimate feel more thematic again: Back in our control), I dislike some (I don't want the Courage revert to happen, I like how it works right now. I like his Ability versatility early game as it stands right now) and some are very debatable (Passive changes might be too strong, should focus other aspects in Garen's kit in my opinion but I do want to test out these changes) (Allowing Jugdment to benefit off of attack speed is really cool and probably will be less problematic than the On-hit effects when using it on the nearest enemy). I am super happy we are considering changes to Garen and I hope our discussion will encourage the correct changes to make Garen a more viable champion overall. [garen-swing]