A possible way to add depth to Garen without harming his accessibility

Angyal·6/1/2019, 3:41:16 AM·3 votes·2,438 views

As we all know, Garen is a very basic boy. There is little room for skill expression due to how basic everything in his kit. My idea is to keep him as a simple introduction character while adding a new layer of depth to the character for more experienced players. Now you may be asking yourself, how would you change Garen while keeping him basic? That answer to that would be to give Decisive Strike a more interesting ability.

In my mind, the concept of his Q is perfectly fine, cleanse all move speed slows, gain move speed, deal bonus damage and silence the target. It's simple, straight forward and gets the job done. But it also could be taken a step forward. The change would be to reward Garen for holding onto Decisive Strike. The longer he holds onto the Q, the more speed, damage, and silence time he would be rewarded.

While I do not want to deal with numbers, the concept would be along the lines of:

Held 1 second or less: Minor move speed, damage and silence time

Held for 2 seconds: Moderate move speed, damage and silence time

Held for 3 seconds or more: Major move speed, damage and silence time

This type of change would add a certain amount of deliberation and patience that goes with the rest of Garens kit. While the rest of the Juggernauts are all about swinging around doing lots of aoe damage when possible as soon as possible, Garen has always been more about singling out a person for personal punishment.

Sorry if this was a poorly worded post, this idea just popped into my head and it seemed like an interesting way to add depth to one basic Demacian.

Any thoughts?

7 Comments

Gall6/1/2019, 3:45:57 AM2 votes

I think it's really cool :)

IMelchorI6/1/2019, 3:48:38 AM2 votes

NO. This is a nerf.

<---------- 800 000 points Garen main.

If you want to rework change villainy.

Greenette6/2/2019, 4:36:54 AM1 votes

This would feel awful to trade with. You'd lose so much damage trying to "mind game" your enemy.

As for the Villain mechanic, I like it and think it suits Garen's character quite well. It just needs a facelift and more interaction with his kit in general. Some suggestions:

  • If Garen executes the Villain, activate his W in full just as it is when a player activates it
  • If Garen silences the Villain, refresh the movespeed granted by Decisive Strike

Just some ideas off the top of my head. I think some number tuning and basic QoL changes would elevate Garen and not turn him into a pub stomper in low skill games.

Speed up his Q and R animations, let his E execute low hp minions, and add a second milestone to his passive so that more games aren't just "level 11 or bust"