Think Garen will get nerfed with the PBE change? Here's a list of all the ways his new E is awesome.
Let's start with Runes.
Press the Attack: Since every E spin counts as a single auto attack, it will only take a Q into two spins for him to proc it and deal 12% damage with the rest of his E.
Phase Rush: Since every E spin counts as a single auto attack it will only take a Q into two spins for him to proc it and get the MS buff. So you don't even need to build Bami's Cinder / Sunfire anymore to proc it which was kind of a meh item on Garen anyway.
Conqueror: Since every E spin counts as a single auto attack, it will only take a Q into four spins for him to fully stack Conqueror, which arguably makes him the best Conqueror stacker in the game. This shit is straight up insane and probably the biggest buff to come out of this.
Lethal Tempo: It will only take 2.5% extra attack speed and Lethal Tempo alone will give you 10 extra spins on your E, which is the same as the max amount of spins you get with Garen right now at level 18.
Fleet Footwork Since each E spin will apply on-hit effects, each one will also give you 12 Energized stacks ( you proc FF when you have a total of 100 Energized stacks ).
Glacial Augment: See below for BotRK interaction.
Now, let's continue with items.
Trinity Force: it's already being built by Garen players for a while now instead of Black Cleaver but there are a few things that make it kinda meh on him. First of all, he doesn't really use the attack speed all that much because you can't auto during your E and secondly, the Phage effect on Trinity only procs on auto attacks, not all physical damage like on Black Cleaver. Now you don't have these problems anymore, since your E scales with attack speed and will proc the Phage on-hit effect aswell as the Sheen on-hit effect.
Titanic Hydra: Since every E spin will apply on-hit effects, this means that each one will apply the Hydra cone aswell for some superb waveclear and damage.
Ravenous Hydra / Tiamat: Since every E spin will apply on-hit effects, this will mean that it will proc the Tiamat circle for extra waveclear. Also remember that you can use the Tiamat active during your E ( they added that a few years ago ). Lastly, since life steal counts as an on-hit effect, the life steal from Ravenous Hydra will proc on your E.
BotRK: Since every E spin will apply on-hit effects, every spin will apply the BotRK passive aswell as the life steal you get from BotRK. And since Garen will be able to build BotRK now, this will also mean that Glacial Augment just got better on him aswell. Currently, he only really has Randuin's and Righteous Glory to proc the active item slow effect of Glacial Augment and both are kind of meh options on him. With BotRK as a first item, he will be able to proc it with BotRK's active and Cutlass' active. Every Q auto attack, other basic attack and E spin will be able to proc Glacial Augment's on-hit slow aswell.
Wit's End: Because Garen's E will scale with attack speed, this item alone will give him 4 extra spins. Each spin will apply on-hit effects aswell, which means that it will apply Wit's End's on-hit. Overall a great new anti-magic dmg option for Garen.
Guinsoo's Rageblade: Since each E spin will apply on-hit effects, each one will apply Guinsoo's On-Hit damage. Not only that, each E spin will give you a Guinsoo's stack, which means that after 1 Q and 5 spins it will be fully stacked. A fully stacked Guinsoo's means that every third spin will apply on-hit effects twice and that you will get about 6 extra spins on your E.
Bloodrazor: For the low price of 2650 Gold you will get 4 extra spins on your E and each spin will deal 2% of your enemy's max HP as damage. This, combined with the fact that his passive won't get interrupted by non-epic monsters anymore might just make Garen Jungle a thing.
Statikk Shiv and Stormrazor: Like I pointed out with the Fleet Footwork Rune, each spin will give you 12 Energized stacks, meaning that you will get to proc the Energized effect very often. Also, you don't even have to feel that badly about the critical strike chance from these items because Garen's E can still crit!
Lastly, here are some example item builds.
ON-HIT GAREN JUNGLE
Runes: Predator - Cheap Shot - Zombie ward / Eyeball Collection - Ingenious Hunter - Alacrity - Last Stand / Triumph
Items: Bloodrazor: Challenging Smite - Defensive Boots - Guinsoo's - BotRK
Optional: Wit's End, Dead Man's Plate, Randuin's, Thornmail, Spirit Visage
Predator Garen was already a thing in the midlane for a while because of the powerful roams he could pull of with it. Now that his clear speed is going to be greatly improved ( more spins at lvl 1 and his E will apply the lifesteal and on-hit effect from machete ) combined with the fact that jungle monsters won't break his passive regen anymore, we might start seeing it in the jungle instead . You might think that with the dmg penalty on on-hit effects from his E he won't be able to deal that much damage, but consider this - with 15 spins on his E, which is easily achievable with your first attack speed item, you will already have an artificial attack speed of 5.0, which is like fully applying on-hit effects with an attack speed of 2.5 - and with this full build, you will get upwards of 28 spins on his E, so an artificial attack speed of about 9.4. Like, this shit might just deal more on-hit damage than the current on-hit god himself, Master Yi.
BRUISER GAREN TOP:
Runes: Conqueror / Press the Attack - Triumph - Alacrity - Last Stand -Cheap Shot - Ghost Poro
or
Phase Rush - Nullifying Orb / Nimbus Cloak - Celerity / Transcendence - Scorch / Gathering Storm - Alacrity - Triumph / Last Stand
Items: Trinity Foce - Defensive Boots - Titanic Hydra
Optional: Dead Man's, Wit's End, Randuin's, Thornmail, Spirit Visage, Adaptive Helm, Sterak's Gage
This is the build I came up with that most closely resembles the current Iteration of Garen. He will likely be a little less tanky but deal a whole ton more damage than before. He will also have better waveclear because of the Titanic Hydra in this build.
BOTRK FREEZE TECH GAREN TOP:
Runes:
Glacial Augment - Magical Footwear - Future's Market - Approach Velocity - Legend Alacrity - Last Stand / Triumph
Items:
BotRK - Defensive Boots - Trinity
Optional: Dead Man's , Wit's End, Randuin's, Righteous Glory, Thornmail, Spirit Visage, Adaptive Helm
This will likely be my go-to build on the new Garen. The extra damage and healing from Conqueror is fine and all, but Garen already is a good fighter and bruiser by nature - what he really needs is sticking potential and this build will give him that en masse. The combination of all the slows and MS buffs you will be able to get with this build will make this more ridiculous than the speedy Darius build with Zz'Rot that we already see today.
ENERGIZED CRIT GAREN TOP:
Runes:
Fleet Footwork - Triumph - Alacrity - Last Stand - Cheap Shot - Ghost Poro
Items:
Statikk - Defensive Boots - Stormrazor - IE - Trinity Force - Essence Reaver
Compared to the other builds listed here it might not be the most effective but it's arguably going to be the most fun. A Garen Q combined with a critting Statikk basic attack and a sheen on top sounds stupidly awesome. And then the fact that you are going to have a super energized effect every few seconds or so because of how fast you generate it with your E. It will certainly be a fun build to witness.
So, that's about it. Let me know what you think. Do you still think Garen is going to be nerfed with these changes?
