Garen Tests in PBE

Now I may main Garen, but I do know his limitations. He has strengths, but also glaring weaknesses, so I kept an open mind when I tested him on the PBE.

To make a long story short: My first impressions were positive, but when I played further games his weaknesses became so glaring that it made laning the worst part of Garen's skillset, which just feels wrong in general.

I tried three games to start. The first game actually felt pretty fun. I fought a Fiora and could trade with her properly, and I managed to do well enough to dominate late game. When I went into a team fight I was a presence to be feared, which I am sure was Riot's intentions. It made the Garen changes feel good. It felt awesome hunting down villains and getting into team fights. Though granted, I got a few good ganks to swing the game my way.

Second game not so much. Granted our Gangplank jungler was virtually nonexistent and their Riven ganked me constantly, but the biggest issue was that, late game, I simply could not stop Riven. Her shield felt unbreakable and her skills unstoppable, as my shortened silence was less of a counterplay, and more of a rest for her to focus on AA during cooldowns. I felt useless this match, but I felt that it was more of the early ganks being and issue. Still, the hurt on silences could be felt then.

The third game was horrifying. I fought Darius, and grand general absolutely destroyed me. He could lane bully me easily due to his Q's AOE, his bleed countering my gimped regen, and my Q doing nothing to stop his onslaught. He denied farm and XP the entire match, and I was unable to buy anything substantial the whole laning phase and was free kill to anyone going top. My score was pathetic, and FELT pathetic. If I was a squishier champ I could understand this matchup, but I was playing Garen of all characters: The one guy that normally trades well with Darius.

Is that what a vanguard of Demacia is supposed to feel like? I'd like to think that was not the case, but these changes make it so that Garen is absolutely useless unless he gets frequent ganks top to make it to the items that make him viable. The Might of Demacia? He currently feels more Meek than anything else.

I hope to see some input on this issue soon, perhaps either through a note that they are looking into the issue, or at the very least some notification that they intend to tweak this build. I am usually told to just wait and see, but after actually testing the kit I cannot let my favorite champ go live in such a state. He has changed from a lane bully, to a champ that will get bullied in lane. It's unacceptable and I do hope Riot will fix some of these issues in the coming days.

But I do understand a few bad games are not enough to really make a full conclusion. He just felt weird those previous games. I'll test a few more to see if that one shining example that was the first game comes back around.