First They Butchered His Look & Then They Butchered His Power
My favorite thing about Garen is his HARD CC* ability that allows him to properly assume the role of tank. This is supplemented by his Free Flash that enables him to stay competitive against a roster that nearly all seem to incorporate this amazing skill. Furthermore there comes a time when Garen is being kited and he really needs to rely on that awesome Ranged Attack that snares and slows enemy players.
Did I lose you yet? Okay, back to reality! I just pointed out the 3 major things that are seriously holding Garen back from being a competitive end game champion and not just a wasted/hindering pick/ban. Does this mean I want him to have all of these types of abilities? No, not exactly! I think that Garen is unique in that he doesn't use mana or resources, he relies on his own strength. He is his own man and he strives to protect and strike back at the heart of injustice. Why then are those the things that causes him to be held back? Because everything else in his kit combined isn't enough to justify the lack of those 3 key ability types. To make it short his current abilities and statistical numbers are not properly compensated for the lack of Hard CC, Free Flash, and Ranged Ability. Indeed, all of his current abilities are gutted in order to appease the other roles he would otherwise have a chance to counter. His Q for example is a measly 1.5 second SOFT CC Silence on an empowered auto that has a rather slow animation, it cleanses a slow but since slows are handed out like Tic Tacs one must simply reapply one after he cleanses the first and he is nearly nullified out of existing. Both his base movement speed and the movement speed of his Q have been nerfed making it harder to be a threat against competent opponents compared to the other picks that can be a nightmare for them to deal with. His W is extremely lackluster through most of the game since most builds have it maxed last. A measly 30% reduction that cannot be activated during stuns or even cleanse is almost Garenteed to be unavailable when it is needed most, especially when it only lasts about the same duration as other Champions more robust version of it. The stacking armor/mr feature is nice but its limited to just 30/30 whereas many champions have near infinite or infinite scaling on certain abilities once again making it something that the enemy team doesn't have to think much about when playing against Garen. Garen used to have a special little bonus to help him against Hard CC in the way of Tenacity and yet that little bonus is nowhere to be found as of late. His E is deceptively nerfed with the wording reversed to make it sound more positive. "Deals 33% more damage to a single target" is in fact Deals 33% LESS damage against more than 1 target, once again making his mechanics easier to ignore and less of a threat in the oh so important team fights that can dictate the fate of the game. Recently it has been given armor shred and while the concept is interesting the execution is a bit lackluster when you consider it was originally designed to apply small percentages every tick of E instead of an easily missable (especially early on) 4 ticks to activate that can easily be blocked from happening by even Soft CC. Originally this would mean the ability would be fluid enough to work even under difficult teamfighting conditions making it a very useful buff, but alas it was changed before it hit live servers. Finally his R Demacian Justice, easily the most satisfying ability in the game by those that enjoy playing our favorite sword swinging justice bringer. However, on closer inspection, after many matches, one may find that its non villain damage is so lackluster often times that it fails to work as an execute compared to all of the other executes that other champions have access to. In fact many of those other champions get some sort of special Temp Cooldown prevention, or life steal style ability for successfully pulling it off. Not Garen, at this point even his sister Luxanna has the ability now to get a lower Cooldown simply because the ability ended someone. Wouldn't you rather have an "Ultimate" that felt THAT ultimate!? Lux is able to hit multiple targets with execute level damage and get CDR on successes. Meanwhile Garen has to run up to and use it on a single target and the only satisfaction that comes afterwards is the fact that it actually worked! (and that it has a sweet animation/particle effect combo)
In closing, I think the way that Garen has been treated from a gameplay perspective is criminal and an embarrassment to anyone that understands game design and I despise seeing new champions be released when it is simply taking attention away from the fact that the currently existing roster isn't even properly sorted yet. Riot shouldn't hinge on this Flavor of the Month game design to generate one time revenue and should instead deliver game design that generates revenue continuously throughout the rest of its lifespan. P.S. What were they thinking when they redesigned his looks? Typical modern short cut with hair pushed forward like a shelf... AND HIS NECK!? WHERE HAS IT GONE!? SERIOUSLY HE HAS NO NECK NOW? His armor looks like a blizzard rip off now with how bulky it looks, his sword looks to be inflated in game which is quite comical compared to its razor sharp asymetrical original design. His armor used to look functional and now he looks like an alliance poster boy for warcraft with the lion pauldrons. Even his scarf looks worse somehow. AT LEAST HAVE AN OPTION FOR THE ORIGINAL STYLE THATS TOUCHED UP WITHOUT LOSING ITS TOUCH /endrant
