The more I play Garen the more I realize that

The more I play Garen the more I realize that Black Cleaver is not a 100% must buy. His builds are actually pretty diverse and depending on enemy team comp it might be better to not even go black cleaver or at least hold off to later in the game to buy it.

Into AP top match ups my prefer rush items are and , giving you 20% CDR, movement speed to catch the mage, a shield from being bursted and tons of AD to shred them. They aren't stacking armor and your E already shreds so black cleaver isn't a must buy in this match up.

I do feel the core generally is however and followed by pretty much anything you want, but my build generally ends something like: , or depending on if they have crit or not, for obvious healing late game MR and CDR... or I got ham and drop the /// and get a for my to crit more plus movement speed.

It's funny how a simple champion can have so many build paths, though I much prefer bruiser or AD Garen over tank Garen, personally. Also not a teleport user, ignite/flash baby.