This abyssal Garen rework.
TL;DR: This rework is garbage and whoever did it should be removed from making any game balance decisions for the rest of their life. And I say this as someone with >500 games on Garen to know his kit, his best case scenarios, and his worst case scenarios.
The Base Stats
HP/lvl: 96->84.25 AD/lvl: 3.5->4.5 Armor/lvl: 2.7->3.0 Range: 125->175
Honestly, these changes are an overall buff to Garen's damage and ability to hit targets, with a slight nerf to his tankiness. I can tolerate this because so much of how Garen works is on base damage and armor pen, so losing a little tanky (which is what I'm gonna be spending most of my money on anyhow) isn't that big a deal.
Passive
Regen at 16: 2%->1.6%
That is bullshit. Plain and simple. ADCs are allowed to heal off of like 2 waves of creep or less to go from basically dead to full health. Other champs with some form of healing aren't 100% gated by time, and this increases the time it takes Garen to go from nearly dead to full hp by 20%.
Q: Decisive Strike
Silence Duration: Now 1.5 at all ranks! (from 1.5-2.5 with ranks)
Well hello nerf straight from the depths of hell. Garen relies on enemies not flashing/dashing/tumbling away. Well, hope you didn't want that to be a thing. Ranking up decisive strike now is a relatively poor option because the damage scaling was less significant than the silence scaling and because of another nerf straight from the depths of hell that I'll be mentioning later... In the top three list of the nerfs being leveled at Garen on the PBE at the moment, and a decisive blow to his ability to dual champions like Riven/Renekton because it makes dipping into and out of combat remarkably more difficult and with remarkably less of Garen's patented spin.
W: Courage
Armor/Mr: Lost the 20% increase. Instead have the old mechanic of 10-30 armor/mr harvested .2 at a time from farming. Tenacity: GONE.
Well, I sure hope that Garen doesn't have issues with being kited... Oh, wait, that's his hardest counter. Well... At least he's less tanky to go along with that? Even if you leveled courage first and "perfect" farmed 10 minions a minute... The 30 bonus armor would be less than building Randuin's/Thornmail (even if the nerfs on the PBE on those items go through). The MR change is arguably a buff IF Garen only builds one MR item. In spite of being, especially after these changes, objectively better against mages than ADCs.
The loss of tenacity on this one is a REAL kick in the nuts because Garen was one of the most kite-able champions because he totally lacked hard CC. When combined with another change made a little later... Things get REALLY interesting for how hilariously easy it is to kite Garen...
E: Judgement
Damage: 10-60/tick->12-28/tick Scaling: .35-.55 total ad/tick->.47-.55 total ad/tick Base ticks: Now 5 instead of 6 Cooldown: 13-9->9 Tick scaling: Gains a bonus tick at level 4/7/10/13/16 for a total of 10 instead of 6. Canceling: Gain the total remaining time left on the ability off the cooldown Removed: 20% slow when going through minions and crit scaling Gained: 20% slower when moving towards champion(s) being hit by Judgment
And, here is where I lost it. 28x10=280 damage. 60x6=360 damage. Objective nerf to lategame damage in spite of prior claims the goal was to help his damage. If the scaling was higher, that might make sense, but the scaling is the same at max rank. So, at max rank Garen's spin is objectively less damage no matter what. The lower cooldown at lower levels is nice, as is the very slightly higher damage, but losing 80 base damage at max rank while needing enemies to stand in the spin longer is a total catastrophe.
But, all of that is NOTHING compared to Garen, one of the easiest to kite champions in the entire game, SLOWING HIMSELF WHEN HE HITS ENEMIES WITH HIS SPIN. ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME? IS THIS FOR REAL?
Combined with the vastly shorter silence duration (40% at max rank), the loss of tenacity on W, and the self-slow this is one of the most egregious nerfs I have ever seen to a champion that needs a buff in my entire life. If Riot wanted to send Garen to the Eve tier of old, I think they got their wish because this if god damned unacceptable.
R: Demacian Justice
Passive: Deals 1% max health true damage to enemies on autos or ticks of E. Active: Against the "villain" ultimate deals true damage instead of magic damage.
Is this supposed to compensate for making Garen 100% easier to kite...? I mean, when he isn't kiting himself, that is. While that does tentatively make the damage from Q and E better against a single target, it likely does very little for Garen's laning, and his teamfighting would be a mess of trying (and failing) to chase a target since he slows himself.
Overall
The addition of Villains for Garen would be a buff if the only other changes were to his base stats. But instead Riot is looking at eviscerating Garen's kit to make it hypothetically possible for Garen to deal marginally more damage to one target... If he and his enemies don't kite him into uselessness.
Silence Duration loss, Tenacity loss, and spin slowing you when you hit a champion has to be one of the most potent negative combinations in a nerf I have ever seen in my entire life. Garen will likely still be played by his most loyal of players, but his winrate will tank into the 20s and 30s if these changes go through. And that is in the ridiculously rare circumstances when anyone is actually drunk enough to pick him.
