Why do people build garen as pure tank

Captainn Ginyu·Jun 30, 2019·4 votes·2,508 views

And then end up with a "Suprisedpikachuface.png" and flame the team when he cant do anything but stand there and take the hits when he is the last one standing :|

11 Comments

SEKAIJun 30, 20194 votes

Usually, Black Cleaver is generally the only offensive item Garen needs, though.

He can focus on building tank for the rest of his item slots to make sure he's practically immortal in combat (at least not when he's being analed by today's 'burst per second' meta), while doing not insane, but at least respectable amount of damage.

Captainn GinyuJun 30, 20191 votes

{quoted}

Usually, Black Cleaver is generally the only offensive item Garen needs, though.

He can focus on building tank for the rest of his item slots to make sure he's practically immortal in combat (at least not when he's being analed by today's 'burst per second' meta), while doing not insane, but at least respectable amount of damage.

thats the thing though they NEVER build BC ever iv always had to point it out and usally get the "Dont tel lme how to play" comments

SEKAIJun 30, 20191 votes

[{quoted}](name=Captainn Ginyu,realm=NA,application-id=3ErqAdtq,discussion-id=a0G89G1r,comment-id=00010000,timestamp=2019-06-30T04:36:30.602+0000)

thats the thing though they NEVER build BC ever iv always had to point it out and usally get the "Dont tel lme how to play" comments

Some times you just run into these morons that you have no idea why they're in the same elo range as you, and there is very little you can do besides simply biting the bullet and accept the free loss, or at the very least, a free weight dragging your team down.

La BelloJun 30, 20191 votes

{quoted}

Usually, Black Cleaver is generally the only offensive item Garen needs, though.

He can focus on building tank for the rest of his item slots to make sure he's practically immortal in combat (at least not when he's being analed by today's 'burst per second' meta), while doing not insane, but at least respectable amount of damage.

Cleaver is all you need but double lethality after that is pretty nuts imo. Cleaver into Yommu+Dusk/Edge is my favorite build because it gives you such insane damage potential on spin and crazy high tower pushing.

Critmaster GarenJun 30, 20192 votes

{quoted}

Usually, Black Cleaver is generally the only offensive item Garen needs, though.

He can focus on building tank for the rest of his item slots to make sure he's practically immortal in combat (at least not when he's being analed by today's 'burst per second' meta), while doing not insane, but at least respectable amount of damage.

if you dont at least build steraks gage with cleaver or triforce, your damage feels like shit. there is also almost never a reason not to build it. its burst resistance, its tenacity when the shield procs, and its 70 ad at lvl 18 for garen, which makes it one of the most cost effective and synergistic items with his general playstile. its just a generally well rounded juggernaut item and usually more important than cleaver.

apart from that ive come to realize that at around 300 ad around mid/lategame, garen feels like an actual fighter, like renekton, jax or others when fighting non villains. if you build too few ad items on him you end up not being able to fight anyone whos not the villain. your damage output feels like ass.

Nami Want SalamiJun 30, 20192 votes

Because garen players IQ is low

hoganftwJun 30, 20191 votes

It's because they lack the capacity to understand that Garen tanks by flanking and killing squishies.

Crispy0SnakeJun 30, 20191 votes

Yeah when a player spends 10k+ gold to play a role in your team comp, and then doesn't play that role... it's rough

ADC that you got fed - throws one auto in a fight and doesn't flash a malph ult and you lose the game. All your hard work to win in cs and set up kills and vision utterly dashed, sad times

DarwinTheoryJun 30, 20191 votes

[{quoted}](name=Captainn Ginyu,realm=NA,application-id=3ErqAdtq,discussion-id=a0G89G1r,comment-id=,timestamp=2019-06-30T04:08:47.360+0000)

And then end up with a "Suprisedpikachuface.png" and flame the team when he cant do anything but stand there and take the hits when he is the last one standing :|

Garen is a paradox. You can build all kinda of AD centric items like ghost blade etc and still end up with the same AD total if you just built cleaver and the rest tank items. I've tried working out the numbers and totals and it just doesn't add up.

But you only need BC. RIOT and all the guides tell you to max Q but Garen is still at heart a Spin Bot by core design and cleaver magnifies his spin passive and is a great TF debuffer. That is why you need it even if you build tank.

Oh yeah and it's also a health based AD item so also adds to your tankiness that's another reason :)

LovelleJun 30, 20191 votes

Because, like the rest of the juggernauts, many people think Garen is a tank, and therefore should build tank items.

ThisName1sDumbJun 30, 20191 votes

My philosophy building as Garen is kinda different from most people, based on what I've read and seen. Most people seem to figure Garen has enough damage innately that once he builds a black cleaver and maybe a steracks he has enough damage and he can go full tank from there. And... he can, it legitimately works pretty well. Situationally I'll even go down this route, but what I dislike about it is that for it to be fully effective, it requires the ADC to capitalize on all of the armor shredding you're doing in team fights, which I find I often can't rely upon my ADCs to do.

Instead, my thinking is often that Garen is innately tanky enough with his w stacking that you can get away with building mostly damage items and still be quite tanky. With a fully stacked w and the conditioning rune you'll have nearly 150 armor and magic resist, which is a pretty decent amount imo. Build wise I generally go either trinity or black cleaver, or on rare occasions, both. I usually take transcendence so if I'm looking to buy a black cleaver as a 5th or 6th item after having built a trinity force as a first item, for example, that black cleaver is offering me 64 ad, 400 hp, and great synergy with my e. After making either my trinity or bc, I'll build merc treads or ninja tabis depending on the enemy team comp, and a steracks gage.

Once I have a trinity or bc and a steracks, this is the point where I generally decide if I'm going to be going mostly damage or mostly tanky. If I'm really struggling, I'll usually just go tanky from here on. What I build depends on team comp, but generally it will be stuff like dead mans plate, adaptive helm, spirit visage, thornmail, randuins, etc, depending on what's needed. If I'm doing pretty well but nothing crazy, say I'm 4/2 or something like that with decent cs once I get my steracks, I'll be going a mix between damage and tankiness, probably building stuff like a dmp, spirit visage, maybe a black cleaver or trinity force, whichever I don't already have, or maybe a youmuus if their whole team is squishy. That kind of thing. If I'm really fed though, like 10/0 or whatever, I usually just go for a for fun build that ends up looking like a few of these examples:

Garen item 3078 item 3053 item 3142 item 3147 item 3742 item 3047 / item 3111 Garen item 3071 item 3031 /

or a bunch of other variations that seem like fun but are still pretty viable, especially when fed. Sometimes I like going for straight up move speed and damage to one shot people like this:

Garen item 3078 item 3800 item 3142 item 3742 item 3147 item 3117 <--- with predator too, its super fun