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Justify Picking Garen. I Never Can Now.

Croanin·4/4/2016, 1:50:47 AM·3 votes·598 views

From Season 2 to Season 5 Garen was among my most played champions. However after his most recent rework I feel that I can never justify picking him. Overall I would say he is better after the changes, but I just feel like he's seriously lost his niche. I would pick him either to crush lane match ups of champions with weak early games like Irelia Jax Nasus and carry with the lead. Or to screw over Riven , in fact he was incredible against assassins, because he could just silence them the minute they try to jump in on his carries and he would assassinate them before the silence wore off.

Now his early game just isn't as strong anymore, sure he can still push people around and sustain himself with his passive, but he needs far more levels to scale now, were as prior he was extremely strong starting at level 1. He needs around level 5 to really start bringing the pain which gives the weak early champions he used to bend over far more time to scale up. Unless he's gotten far ahead which isn't as easy anymore, they'll be able to 1v1 him by level 11.

Yes he scales far better into late game but.....as I always said he's not a late game champion period, his kit is very straightforward, lacks consistent damage and teamfight presence. And to people who said before his late game sucked, it's because they just built him too tanky. Garen could get away with building only 1 defensive item for armor and resistance and his W would take care of the rest, then build damage, making his damage relevant throughout the game.

Another thing is I feel that I can no longer get away with blind picking the guy. It was always risky on Garen, but I got so many wins by dumping the "Teemo counters" and such. That's because against ranged match ups he could simply Spin to clear the wave, pop W to absorb harass and heal back up with his passive, so he couldn't be denied. Then I could flash Q combo them, but now that his silence is only 1.5 seconds and not 2.5 it's easier for people to get away. Also his Spin no longer wrecks minions as quickly as it used to making him take more damage then he used to before.

Just my thoughts. His winrate is good (probably from low mmr) but I just feel like there is normally a better pick.

14 Comments

Matezoide4/4/2016, 2:09:59 AM6 votes

Above average laning.

Above average sustain.

Very good damage.

Beats assassins in lane.

Doesnt have to win lane anymore to be useful.

True damage allows him to be a relevant damage threat against the strongest enemy even when behind.

Villain allows him to shut down a fed enemy in the early game before he gets too powerful, which can single handidly put his team back in the game.

Tanky as fuck.

Literally does not need to back late game.

Above average mobility for a bruiser.

Weaknesses are incredibly hard to abuse in Low Elo.

One of the burstiest bruisers in the game.

Silence allows him to assassinate mages and assassins through thr entire game if he gets the jump on them with easy.

Snowballs ridiculously well.

Favorable match up against Poppy and Gangplank.

Great synergy with Deadman's, Sterak and Black Cleaver.

http://champion.gg/champion/Garen

52% Win-Rate with a 5% Pick-Rate are very good numbers, and this is in Plat+ across every region.

His main weakness atm is that both Graves and Quinn wreck him.

ViashinoWizard4/4/2016, 5:59:59 AM2 votes

Because you want to spin fast and yell at people.

Seems like reason enough to me.

xl Kirito lx4/4/2016, 2:07:08 AM1 votes

He's a tank with mid- late game assassination potential.

52% win rate, plat+

SwiftKitten884/4/2016, 3:09:18 AM1 votes

the freaking silence is what makes garen so strong. you cant attack him with any abitlies because your silenced and you cant escape becuase you cant use your movement abilities.. because.. guess what.. your silenced

Critmaster Garen4/4/2016, 3:47:28 AM1 votes

for me he feels like a very solid champion now.

yes, he has some particularly terrible matchups. though he always had them. but except from the meta being a bit unfavourable now with all the ranged champions running around and the passive supports running with them (janna), what i like about the rework is that hes a more reliable carry and never feels irrelevant.

hes probably one of the best "solo que champions" right now, in that if one of his lanes screws up and feeds, hes made shut the snowballing opponent down and get his team back in the game.

pre rework garen was a lot "win lane, lose game", as you had a lot of strength during the lane phase and usually came out ahead. but simply did not have the tools to turn that advantage into a victoy when one of your other lanes lost, as you just had little to mediocre impact by lategame. even when you built damage.

to carry with garen you usually didnt just have to do good, but to snowball hard so you could end the game early.

i feel like he has a lot more impact in teamfights and skirmishes later on now, and im fighting less against the clock when i play him.

Vekkna4/4/2016, 7:43:08 PM1 votes

Suggestion: have you tried hitting your R key?