When I think of most top laners, 
, etc, they dont do alot of damage unless they build damage items. But garen can go almost straight tank and do a TON of damage.
I was pantheon against him today, a long time ago I used to kill garens, idk what changed, but garen is extremely strong.
71883083DEL12 votesIt's garen dude, his W lets him build armor passively. He's not strong, he's a bruiser
iisabrina1 votesI mean there are lots of other bruisers, like irelia, darius, maybe riven?. These guys arent going anywhere though if they skip even one damage item. Darius honestly needs atleast 2.
Critmaster Garen2 votesWhen I think of most top laners,
I was pantheon against him today, a long time ago I used to kill garens, idk what changed, but garen is extremely strong.
are you seriously trolling? asking for garen nerfs right now is as ridiculous as asking for urgot nerfs.
all these champions are lane bullies. far stronger early on than garen was since his initial nerfs in season 1. and theyre also considered his lane counters.
pantheons early all in is unrivaled. darius wears you down and wins any extended trade at early levels. yorick is a brick in lane who wears you down with constant ghoul spam.
i played all of those champions except aatrox, and theyre simply stronger than garen by far. at least until around lvl 11. heck, ive used them as a counter to garen myself when he had a higher pickrate a few month ago.
and to answer you original comment.
http://champion.gg/champion/Garen
4% play rate, less than 50% winrate. since 1.10 its not even possible to do well, even when youre maining him, right now. garen is in serious need of buffs at the moment.
iisabrina1 votesPantheon is a counter to all, but I still found garen to be very strong. Pre mana pot dispersal, it was very easy to make sure garen could not farm. Now , with roughly 300-400 mana, each once costing 6 abilities, he is really poor.
iisabrina1 votesAlso learn to be respectful on these forums, dont ask a question like im talking like a mad man. Many people agree. Ive seen garens intentionally feed and just annihilate others in semi-higher elos.
NikoC20161 votesgaren is balanced. the only true balanced character in the game. stacking a spirit visage with his passive makes his survivability skyrocket.
iisabrina1 voteshe just took my health from 1900 to 0 with just black cleaver, that isnt balanced.
Zoeeee1 votesIt's to easy to get a penta as Garen after feeding your lane.
DemainaNyx1 votesI've had a build Black Cleaver and then go full tank do tons of damage. One of my friends does that almost regularly.
I agree though that it's insane that a full tank can murder my full damage ADC without me putting a dent in their health. Why do bruiser/tanks get true damage abilites with resets while my ult only does 500 damage once maxed?