Please help explain why Garen is so strong and is left unchanged

TAYL0R·May 25, 2016·2 votes·1,311 views

I don't understand why it seems like he is extremely strong.. i get that i only think this way because I'm horrible at the game and get destroyed by him but he has a loaded kit with a silence and an execution as an ult.. on top of that he is one of the tankiest champions i know of.. He is classified as a Juggernaut but he cant be kited like Darius and Illaoi can becuase of his Q.. I'm currently in Bronze 2 at the moment which might be half my problem but i see a lot of lower elo players with the same opinion as I current have.. Is it just the elo I'm in or is he overpowered in higher elo's as well?? I've tried playing his counters but that hasn't yielded any positive results.. please help me understand why he seems so overpowered and maybe what i could try to do to make him seem not as strong.. thanks for the help

8 Comments

Bud LightMay 25, 20161 votes

I'm in diamond and he is never picked because of how bad he is... its low elo problems not the champion

KVbqbFsC8eMay 25, 20161 votes

Its a low ELO thing. Not that I mean that as insulting, but pretty much every thread complaining about Garen is coming from someone in Bronze. He's also very easy to kite, you just use your CC/Slow after he Qs.

Bud LightMay 25, 20161 votes

I'm going to add to what you said. (not insulting but honest) most low elo people want kills and only focus on that as a source as (WE ARE WINNING THE GAME ITS 8-2) when in reality you are losing because you have no towers taken to their 2 and ur cs is half of your opponents. Garen is single target q/r damage and no actual gap closers besides his q which makes him a little faster... when you compare that to a malphite who can press R and blow up the back line compared to a garen who has no hard cc(stuns/slows) and has to run through 4 members to get to the adc the difference in strength is obvious

QuephaMay 25, 20161 votes

He can definitely still be kited, Q is a very poor excuse for mobility.

redniwediSMay 25, 20161 votes

Champions are allowed to be strong, so long as their weaknesses are properly pronounced as well. Here's another thread where I gave a fair bit of advice on the subject. Might as well link it rather than type it all out again.

For what you're asking in particular, however, no he's not overpowered in any elo. He does well in low elo simply because low ranks tend to be filled with less knowledgeable players. Once you understand the steps needed to beat a champion like Garen you'll be able to beat most Garen players down there, since they haven't spent the time to really understand why Garen can do what he does.

He can still do well in the higher ranks, but it requires actually knowing what you're doing. More often than not Garen's simplicity ends up giving his opponents the upper hand in lane, forcing Garen to play safe and wait for his opponents to mess up. Garen doesn't actually have to win lane since his kit lets him roam pretty well in the mid game, so all Garen has to do is not lose. A tied lane phase is a perfectly acceptable outcome for Garen in most cases.

Simple champions like Garen throw mechanics out the window and turn the lane into a knowledge matchup. The player who knows the current situation best will win almost every time. Considering how easy Garen is to pick up this makes him a bit overbearing at the lower knowledge levels, but overall he's in a pretty good spot.

Just make sure you don't only work on your mechanics when ranking up. Mechanics can take you pretty far, but if you don't actively improve your knowledge base it will eventually start holding you back.

BluePolarizerMay 25, 20161 votes

I'm plat and I see Garen only as a counterpick to Riven or other non-Darius AD casters.

CerealBoxOfDoomMay 25, 20161 votes

First define strength

this seems to be the likely cause of your confusion

Br4ndonMay 25, 20161 votes

He's got an amazing early game that translates well midgame because E crits. Come late game he can be mostly ignored while you work on the rest of his team. If he builds damage not so much ignore but peel while you kill everyone else.