You could always rush black cleaver on Garen and do just fine. It was actually more effective building it first before the patch, since you could stack the effect more effectively. After a Q, unless the person could downright outrun you, there was no way they couldn't get hit by every E tick. An he could spin on multiple targets and be apparent in team fights in the mid game. Since he build two Armor or Magic resist items/ or one of each. He could face tank a lot better.
And garen always required a good amount of skill and knowledge to play him how he was supposed to be played. Since you could push his early game advantage into mid game. An he was even stronger against one side team comps whether it be ALL AP, or ALL AD.
He was a decent split-pusher, and a decent fighter in team fights.
What he is now, is a weird avenger. If you haven't played Garen, you wouldn't understand. He's not as simple as one would think, his kit was designed for Gorilla tactic warfare. Even in lane. You hit, spin, run away. Hide in a bush, flank the carry, and take him out an W the hard CC so you can run if need be.
With his avenger like kit, it doesn't click well for a "Tank" or a "Bruiser" who has an even harder time to get to the back line. You will have to play against a bunch of potatoes to get every tick off with getting blown the fuck up by hard cc. An if your farming suffered during lane phase since his early game was gutted. You're not nearly as tanky.
IN my honest opinion, the passive would have worked better on ADC's or Assassins. Not on a tank. WHo can be peeled back by 1 stun, or 1 hard CC.
