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I don't understand what niche Garen has with his rework

Abyssphere·8/5/2015, 1:32:55 PM·9 votes·1,146 views

I'm not a big Garen player so I won't really comment on how fun the rework is, although I definitely have negative thoughts in that area too. However, I feel like the point of these bruiser reworks is to make it so that you have a unique reason to pick every bruiser. Darius for example is the perfect clean up crew for a wombo-combo AOE team, Skarner is... a bit odd but apparently is amazing for objective control and Morde, well... seems like an anti-carry of sorts I guess? Hitting 6 first will be crazy if he's as strong as Riot says he is.

But Garen I cannot figure out. In what world are you going to want him on your team? Because of the nature of his Villain thing the only team comps it'll reliably pick a high priority target in are protect the carry ones where either the enemy mid (or most likely, ADC) will have many of the kills funneled to them, leaving them consistently the villain. This sounds great because Garen will reliably get his bonus damage on them and insane true damage ult. Except protect the carry comps... peel for their carry. And Garen is the easiest guy in the game to peel. What does he do against a Jinx with a Janna support? What if they go full overkill with Lulu top? Jinx can get kill after kill and spend thirty minutes as the enemy's villain without him ever having a chance to get to her.

If the enemy team isn't protect the carry then essentially you would pick him against a team comp that's somewhat lacking in peel but... you're just hoping that one member in particular gets fed there, and it's one of the members you can deal with. In this meta where everyone is mobile I just don't see how you can rely on that, it's a complete roll of the dice.

Don't get me wrong, I realise Garen right now doesn't have the biggest niche either - he's essentially just a lane bully tank like Sion was, except scaling much worse. But at least you had the option of counter-picking him to people like Riven and as a generally decent pick for shutting down enemy top laners that need to snowball. He doesn't have that option anymore and given the variety of nerfs to his stickiness he's not getting to any back lines barring Tahm Kench support either. I just don't understand what he's supposed to be good at anymore.

Can anyone tell me of a team you would pick Garen into or against with his rework? Because I'm genuinely unable to think of any. Riot says his passive encourages his teammates to help him get to the villain but I honestly don't think there's enough ally help in the world to make that happen, even before you take into account the possibility of the villain being a poor target. If he's released as is I genuinely can't imagine ever seeing someone on my team pick him and not groaning.

7 Comments

sp4418/5/2015, 1:49:32 PM3 votes

Y'now, as much as people are bitching about Skarner and Mordekaiser, those can still be made to work. Garen? No fucking chance, they slashed his entire kit for a gimmick that doesn't help jack fucking shit.

And thing is, before he had an identity, he was an attriction-based bruiser, he would chunk your health little by little, because between his sustain and his tankiness, he was sure to outlast you on the long run.

New Garen is some sort of weird fighter/assassin hybrid that can't pick his own targets and can only kill them far past the point where it'd matter. And he can't even do that because they slashed his ability to reach and keep up with his opponents.

Arcane Azmadi8/5/2015, 2:12:46 PM2 votes

Riot doesn't know what the fuck they're talking about any more. The only "niche" Garen is going to fit into if this retarded "rework" goes through without MAJOR overhauls (I would recommend complete cancellation) is "the 0.1% pick rate niche".

Chaotic Reks8/6/2015, 3:18:00 AM1 votes

Morde, well... seems like an anti-carry of sorts I guess? Hitting 6 first will be crazy if he's as strong as Riot says he is.

oh you are going to be sooo disappointed

Vengeful Wolf8/6/2015, 3:48:32 AM1 votes

Garen's my go-to champ.. with this, I feel they just f**ked me over. I don't see how I'm ever going to be of use anymore.. I'll have to forget a main and move to a different champ. That irritates me more. I knew from the moment I heard they were 'working' on him, they'd screw him up.. majorly and that's what happened.

Erockandroll8/6/2015, 3:57:46 AM1 votes

The rework was to give him a better identity, not necessarily a niche. He was designed to stand a part from the other Juggernauts, yet accomplish similar goals.

Riot was also designing him to be an Intro Champion, for new players. It would be a lot more difficult to do that if they squeezed Garen into some niche.

Fodder 698/5/2015, 2:23:34 PM1 votes

His "niche" is now firmly in trash tier. My favorite champ by far but had a lot of weaknesses already. So they nerf everything (including his E, no really do the math) for a gimmicky R that he will NEVER get to use. It was already hard enough to get to a priority target and now it will be virtually impossible. With the E slow, you remove any chance of getting anyone low enough to use your R. Just all around horribly thought out rework of a champ that really just needed some tweaks (nerf passive a bit, maybe lower ratio on W AR/MR, add Villian gimmick).

Critmaster Garen8/5/2015, 2:10:40 PM1 votes

the only way this new mechanic would be worth everything he loses, was if garne could chose his target himself.

they should have put the restriction into how freely he can switch to another target once hes chosen one, instead of making it semi random and useless at least half of the time.

edit.: actually nvm. nothing is worth the slow on the e.