I posted this in a Garen thread, and I thought I might as well share it in it's own discussion. Of course, this is all just an idea, but I think I've come up with a version of Garen that can be worth something in higher elos, and actually take skill.

Base Stats (1-18)

Health: 616 - 2049 Health Regen: 8.84 - 20 (buffed to compensate for Perseverance's change) (No resource) Attack Damage: 58 - 140 Attack Speed: 0.625 (+ 0 - 49.3%) Armour: 28 - 82 Magic Resist: 32.1 - 53.4 Range: 175 Movespeed: 340

Passive: "Perseverance"

Taking Physical Damage from a Champion, or Epic Monster will cause Garen to gain 10% Perseverance. at level 11, this effect is extended to Magic Damage. at level 16, this effect is increased to 15% per attack.

Perseverance grants an additional 1% of Garen's AD for every 10% of Perseverance he has, and at 100%, this increases to 1.5%. Perseverance also grants additional 5% movespeed per 15% of Perseverance he has, up to a maximum of 15%. At 100%, this increases to 20% Perseverance declines by 20% every second while out of combat, and 30% every second while affected by hard CC. Garen cannot not gain Perseverance while affected by hard cc.

My reasoning behind this, is that Garen's current passive isn't really perseverance, you just run away, heal, and come back.

With this change, the longer you persevere through a fight, the better your chances of winning due to the damage ramp up. 15% extra AD and 20% movement speed at 100% perseverance is meant to help you stick a bit more, or run away like a little bitch. But champs with hard CC will still shut him down HARD.

Q: Might of the Righteous (Cooldown - 8/7.5/7/6.5/6) 40 / 55 / 70 / 95 / 120 (+ 30% AD)

Passive: Garen gains 1% Perseverance when auto attacking an enemy champion or Epic monsters.

Active: Garen cleanses himself of slows, and his next auto attack in the next 2 seconds grants him 15% Perseverance, and silences the enemy struck for 1 second.

MotR's passive effect is disabled while this ability is on cooldown.

================================= Now, I didn't change much with this ability, because I felt that it was fine for the most part. I removed the 30% speed increase, because Perseverance would grant a decent amount of it passively while Garen is in battle. As for the perseverance gain, it's really just a thought, but I figured it couldn't hurt. The reasoning behind the bonus perseverance gain on the next auto is so you can whack someone, and maybe get away with the boost of speed you get, or stick a bit more.

W: Heroic Presence (Cooldown - 15/13.5/12/11/10)

Passive: Every time Garen kills an enemy unit, Garen gains 0.25 armor and magic resist. (0.5 for an enemy champion) up to a max of 30 bonus armor and magic resist.

Active: Garen inspires allies (and himself) within 400 units of him, increasing their movement speed by 10%, their attack speed by 20%, and gives them bonus armor and magic resist equal to Garen's bonus stats gained from Heroic Presence's passive effect, and how many stacks of Renown Garen has. Lasts 3 seconds, and you can only get the full 3 seconds if you stay near Garen throughout.

Garen only receives half of the stat increases from this abilities active.

================================ I changed the basic effect it had before, which at the most just made him more annoying to kill, and gave him some utility instead. Not much to say here, but I do think that this will encourage some support Garens, or at least it will make him less brain dead.

E: Strength of the True (Cooldown - 12/11/10.5/9.5/8) Phys Damage Per Spin: 12 / 15 / 20 / 28 / 35 (+ 35% AD)

Passive: Garen's auto attacks deal true damage to the villain, and his abilities deal 50% increased damage to the villain.

Active: Garen rapidly spins his sword around his body for 3 seconds.

For the duration, deals physical damage to enemies within range, increased by 25% when damaging a single enemy.

Enemy champions hit 3 times take 20% increased damage from Garen for 6 seconds. Spin hits after the 3rd refresh the duration of the debuff.

SotT's Passive effect is disabled while the ability is on cooldown.

There's a lot here, but I only really mentioned what I changed. He's still got his spin to win, but I tweaked exactly how much damage he can pump out of this early, and tied his true damage to it in another attempt to make Garen good, but less brain dead.

R: Demacian Judgement (Cooldown - 120/90/60) 150 / 350 / 500 (+ 35% of target's missing health)

Passive: The enemy with the highest number of kills (or the least amount of deaths) is made the villain. The villain will not change until the Villain dies, Garen or otherwise, or if Garen manually changes who the villain is using his ult. The villain cannot change to the person it was previously, you can't get the same villain twice in a row. Garen can either hunt down and kill the villain for a stack of Renown, or use the ability on someone who isn't the villain, to change who the villain is. The cooldown of Demacian Justice is halved if you use it to change the villain.

Whenever Garen kills a villain with Demacian Judgement, he gets 500 bonus gold (unless he changes Villain targets), and a stack of renown. For every stack of Renown Garen earns, he gets new bonuses.

1 stack: 5% Increased health

2 stacks: 5 bonus armour and magic resist

3 stacks: 5 movement speed (flat increase)

4 stacks: 5 bonus armor and magic resist (total of 10, which also adds more to Heroic Presence)

5 stacks: Kills reduce active cooldowns by 1 second

6 stacks: Health regen increased by 5

7 stacks: 5 movement speed (flat increase, total of 10)

8 stacks: 5% increased health (total of 10%)

9 stacks: Health Regen increased by 5 (total of 10)

10 stacks: Perseverance buffs now last for 3 seconds after you exit combat.

Renown stacks can ONLY be gained if Garen scores the killing blow on the VILLAIN using Demacian Judgement.

If anything other than your ult kills the villain, a new villain will be selected, and you will not receive any bonus gold or renown stack for the one you missed.

Bonus gold can only be earned if you kill the assigned villain. If you change villains, you will get no bonus gold for slaying your new target.

Garen's basic attacks against the villain grant 5% Perseverance and his abilities against the villain grant 10% (does not stack with any other modifier)

(A really long ass passive, I know, but was a bigger pain in the ass for me than it was for you.)

Active: Garen calls upon the might of Demacia and attempts to execute the villain, dealing magic damage and true damage depending on the Villain's missing health. (35% of the villain's missing health is added to the damage as true damage.)

To be clear, this ult deals BOTH true damage based on missing health, AND magic damage, not one or the other.

If you don't want to fight the villain selected, you can use Demacian Judgement on another enemy champion to make them the villain. Doing this will put the ability on cooldown, but it will be halved for this usage.

Uuugh, that was a long one. The idea here is to make his ult and the villain something that you WANT to do. Something that compels you, you WANT to hunt down the villain, so you can become stronger. In addition to that, he can't just throw it at someone who's getting away.

I may have gone overboard with the Renown stacks, but if you kite him enough, he's gotta switch, or risk never even getting started with his renown stacks, and if you make him switch, you deny him that bounty's gold. Currently, there's no reason to give a shit about the villain system, so I figured I'd make it interesting.

In the end, this is all just brainstorming, but I want Garen to be worth more than a wood elo pubstomper,who is only played top, and get's destroyed by anyone with half a brain cell. What I tried to do here is give him more potential in top lane and possibly some usage in the jungle or even as a support.

This idea here gives him some complexity, and while it might be a bit much for the newbies out there, I think this is a far less brain dead Garen.