Much Needed Garen Update / Mini Rework

OmegasisX·Apr 18, 2018·5 votes·5,982 views

It has been some time since Riot has enhanced Garen's kit, especially after staing in 7.14 that his buffs were the "start of a larger discussion" concerning Garen.

His early game needs a little enhancement, but the major section that needs improvement is his teamfighting relevance. What Garen lacks in a teamfight is initiation; therefore, if he has no clear method of doing so, he needs to be able to simply reach the enemy backline. Period. Also, when he gets there, he needs to be able to provide meaningful impact to the teamfight as it is occurring, as well as be able to survive long enough for his teammates to assist him.

These enhancements are meant to provide such avenues for him. At the same time, these suggestions are also meant to be realistics when concerned with what will Riot most likely be able (& willing) to implement into a champion like Garen. I have thought of more outrageous ideas that would be really cool to see on him, but would make him broken and make playing him (& against him) less competitive or fun. With that in mind, let's dive into it.

Passive - Perseverance (Make early levels stronger)

"Vile scourge": From levels 1-10, taking damage puts Perseverance on an 8 second CD instead of 9, & his regeneration increases to 4% when he is below 50% health instead of 25%.

Q - Decisive Strike (Without clear engage, makes movement more functional in game)

"I Will Lead the Charge": At level 11 & after, Garen's Q now also grants slow immunity for the duration (1.5/2.0/2.5/3.0/3.5 seconds).

"Charge!": Garen receives 30-60% increased movement speed (based on champion level) when activated.

Really Decisive: Garen's Q animation is now a complete auto attack reset (instantly triggering another auto attack).

"The scoundrels will pay!": Garen's silence against an enemy champion also disarms them, preventing them from basic attacking for the duration (1.5 seconds).

W - Courage (Extended combat survival)

Additional Passive - "Show Them the Strength of Demacia!": Garen's thrill for combat enhances his durability whenever enemies are around, granting him 6% bonus tenacity for each nearby enemy champion (up to 30% total bonus tenacity).

"I will fight as long as I stand!": While on CD, each instance of taking damage that would put Perseverance on CD reduces the CD on his W by 1 second.

E - Judgment (More teamfight potential than just armor shred & in-combat sustain)

"Justice, by law, or by sword": Enemy champions hit 4 times have their armor reduced by 25% & have grievous wounds applied to them for 6 seconds (hits after the 4th refresh the duration).

"Battle the Infamy": Garen reinvigorates his conviction through combat, healing for 25% of the damage dealt by his Judgment against enemy champions & epic monsters.

R - Demacian Justice (More impactful True Villain mechanic & better execute)

Passive - The True Villain: Garen marks the enemy champion with the most kills (changed from highest killing spree) as the Villain, causing his basic attacks and each spin of Judgment against them to deal 1/2/3% (increases with skill point level) of the target's maximum health as bonus true damage.

Active - "Victory Awaits": Garen calls upon the might of Demacia to attempt to execute an enemy champion. After a brief channel, he deals 175/350/525 true damage (not magic) plus 30/35/40% (slightly increased damage) of the target's missing health.

Please let me know what you think, thanks. :)

P.S. - As a side note, Garen should be a scary champion; when enemies are far away from him, they are safe, but if they are close by, they should legitimately be concerned about facing death very quickly. These enhancements should provide players the feeling that Garen IS relevant in any game is he played, and that whether you like him or not, you respect the potential threat he can represent.

When it comes down to it, Garen IS a simple champion. He is not very mechanically difficult to master, nor is he difficult to play as or against. It comes down to knowing general game mechanics and being comfortable with item builds and individual champion skills in order to play effectively (or not). these suggestions are not intended to make Garen an advanced champion - they are meant to enhance his simplicity to make it functional against all levels of play.

16 Comments

UoL NicknameMyApr 22, 20183 votes

Very very very very overloaded in every aspect.

OmegasisXApr 22, 20181 votes

Very very very very overloaded in every aspect.

XDDDDDD

Well, we got to start somewhere, and it's more likely that if I put out a lot of ideas, then some of them would be heard, as opposed to only a few.

Critmaster GarenApr 21, 20182 votes

Garen passively has 25% Slow Resist, which is increased to 50-75% (based on champion level) while his Q is

the one off slow cleanse is better than slow resist. riot has been adding a lot of 90% and upwards slows to champion kits, and they are quick to buff slow strengths when they touch a champion.

it doesnt really matter if youre slowed for 90% or for 60%. youre fucked either way.

the reduced cooldown on the w sounds interesting. i doubt theyre going to do any of the others.

GewaltherrscherApr 21, 20181 votes

I followed many discussions about Garen and his problems and i belive you are the right person to approach Meddler about potential Garen changes w/o makeing him overpowered in low elo and adding higher skill ceillings to his kit so he gets viable in higher elo would you mind joining the discussion that Meddler submitted? : Quick Gameplay Thoughts: April 20

Critmaster GarenApr 21, 20182 votes

{quoted}

I followed many discussions about Garen and his problems and i belive you are the right person to approach Meddler about potential Garen changes w/o makeing him overpowered in low elo and adding higher skill ceillings to his kit so he gets viable in higher elo would you mind joining the discussion that Meddler submitted? : Quick Gameplay Thoughts: April 20

i mean, i can try. but i tried before with more directed threads.

OmegasisXApr 22, 20183 votes

the one off slow cleanse is better than slow resist. riot has been adding a lot of 90% and upwards slows to champion kits, and they are quick to buff slow strengths when they touch a champion.

it doesnt really matter if youre slowed for 90% or for 60%. youre fucked either way.

What if instead of slow resist, his Q also granted him slow immunity from levels 11 and on (making sure he can get to a carry in a teamfight, initiate somewhat reliably, & have a better escape)?

the reduced cooldown on the w sounds interesting. i doubt theyre going to do any of the others.

What if Garen's Q not only silenced an enemy, but also disarmed them, like how Irelia's ult works? That certainly makes Q'ing an enemy ADC more worthwhile.

There are ways to make Garen much more reliable in a fight, and competitive. They will simply need to be creative ones.

Garen

Lookie19Apr 20, 20181 votes

nice idea ! Garen

OmegasisXApr 22, 20181 votes

nice idea !

Thanks!

Triumphant GloryApr 22, 20181 votes

Here is the one i beleive that would be fair.

'' I Will lead the charge !''
''Charge!''
''Think fast''
''The scoundrels will pay''( Slow immunity or this, not both)
''Stitches Necessary''
''Passive - The True Hero''
''Active -Victory Await''

Also every bugfix need to be applied.

I saw this idea somewhere and i liked it. What if after 4 spins ,Garen could choose to either make his Ult true damage( same application as his current shred, or use Q to silence and disarm or apply a stun of like 1.5 second or something ? It would force Garen to make decision, either run at enemy with Q, silence them , spin on them 4 time and make the ultimate deal true damage, or E , press Q , spin 4 time and finish with a stun, a few basic attack in between with magic damage ult. It would make some creative combo . We could remove the shred if the true damage /stun is too much but i beleive it could stay.

OmegasisXApr 22, 20181 votes

Here is the one i beleive that would be fair.

'' I Will lead the charge !''

''Charge!''

''Think fast''

''The scoundrels will pay''( Slow immunity or this, not both)

''Stitches Necessary''

''Passive - The True Hero''

''Active -Victory Await''

Thanks for the feedback. It's nice to hear other people's takes on what seems balanced and not.

Also every bugfix need to be applied.

Definitely.

I saw this idea somewhere and i liked it. What if after 4 spins ,Garen could choose to either make his Ult true damage( same application as his current shred, or use Q to silence and disarm or apply a stun of like 1.5 second or something ? It would force Garen to make decision, either run at enemy with Q, silence them , spin on them 4 time and make the ultimate deal true damage, or E , press Q , spin 4 time and finish with a stun, a few basic attack in between with magic damage ult. It would make some creative combo . We could remove the shred if the true damage /stun is too much but i beleive it could stay.

Interesting. I'm not entirely certain how they would actually work, but I sort of understand what you are attempting to say:

After a certain number of hits with Judgement, Garen's next ability has a bonus effect (i.e. Q = disarm/stun or R = All True Damage). Does that sound right? That is a cool idea, and I like the concept.

Triumphant GloryApr 22, 20181 votes

{quoted}

Thanks for the feedback. It's nice to hear other people's takes on what seems balanced and not.

Definitely.

Interesting. I'm not entirely certain how they would actually work, but I sort of understand what you are attempting to say:

After a certain number of hits with Judgement, Garen's next ability has a bonus effect (i.e. Q = disarm/stun or R = All True Damage). Does that sound right? That is a cool idea, and I like the concept.

Exactly what i meant, you get the disarm and the silence so Garen stay relevant against AD Caster/Mage and ADC in same time or Stun and remove the silence, because stun > Silence. But you get the idea, it would make you choose if you want a CC or confirmed true damage on the target you spin on.

OmegasisXApr 22, 20181 votes

Exactly what i meant, you get the disarm and the silence so Garen stay relevant against AD Caster/Mage and ADC in same time or Stun and remove the silence, because stun > Silence. But you get the idea, it would make you choose if you want a CC or confirmed true damage on the target you spin on.

Got you. I'll see what comes to mind.

OmegasisXApr 23, 20181 votes

Got you. I'll see what comes to mind.

After thinking about it, I'm not sure Riot would go for something like giving him a stun or guaranteed True damage just after Judgment. They already gave him armor shred after 4 spins (which is what I think they planned on keeping it as). If anything, what I added was a guaranteed critical strike:

"Justice, by law, or by sword": After 4 hits from Judgment, Garen's next basic attack within 2 seconds becomes a guaranteed critical strike.

This would make more sense as the enemy has been spun on for sometime, and Garen's ability to land a "Decisive Strike" has increased significantly.

SEASON 10 SO FUNJul 10, 20181 votes

Slow immunity from Q + tenacity in W passive and active+ tenacity boots + tenacity from runes. Hmm...

WyattB57Aug 11, 20191 votes

Cool ideas but I think you are implementing them wrong this is what I would do to garen

P- same as b4 but is 30% instead and additionally heals even more while in combat below 30% Q- remove ms make it just an aa reset with a silence and armour shred W- same as before but with a ms buff and your tenacity idea E- same as b4 but has ramping ms buff as well and has the armour shred removed R- active- basically the same Passive-I would have it be based on total gold not kills but I don't know I think the villain is thematically cool but gameplay it doesn't work instead I would give him a more universal passive something like renekton has where garen absorbs mana cast around his as a resource which can be spent to buff his abilities like giving his spin bonus magic dmg increasing his q dmg with bonus Magic dmg basically just add magic dmg or magic shield to his abilities and maybe increase the utility like mv speed or range

AcHoudiniAug 18, 20191 votes

im sorry but reading this and looking aqt the game rn, this is stupid like i get a couple of the changes such as to his ult and one of the changes to his Q in regards to slow immune but appart from that this is just too op to be done. changing him from just a bit of a fun number check champ this would make him just i have 3 abilities so now we win like no why would this even be allowed to happen