Garen needs a mini rework desperately. He is just a ball of stats who is useless against players who know how to play around him but he shits on players who don't. No garen is not "telegraphed" like some garen mains on here like to say. He needs a rework so he can actually be played past d5 and so he doenst crush lower elo with his pure stats.
Fair enough
his abilities are telegraphed and he is not just a ball of stats.
its because everything he does is so telegraphed, why he is easier to deal with for people with faster reaction times and strategic foresight, than for people at lower ratings.
meddler said theyre looking into updating him aswell, but another rioter who would be in charge of the update mentioned that they dont have a specific idea what to give him, and i think it would be a terrible idea to force an update without doing proper research.
in my opinion they need to prioritize on the villain mechanic and refine the concept.
other than that, there are ways to improve garen without changing his kit - at all.
if they want to buff him for higher ratings and add skill ceiling, they should look into giving him animation cancel mechanics for his q.
a full rotation on garen should look like:
auto attack, q, auto attack, spin, auto attack, ult.
usually the long animation time on his q is the weak link in that chain. it gives his opponent enough time to react with a defensive ability in the timeframe the animation plays. (yes, thats what a telegraphed ability is)
Garen was just fine before the juggernaught update and was played at higher elo. Then RIOT 'juggernauted' him and he lost everything. "Yeah but his W scales better into late game!" they said....well late game doesnt exist anymore does it so it's kinda useless when your 2nd towers in a pile of rubble.
And his passive is his real ultimate not his R but you don't get it's usefulness until 11 which means Renektons, Trundles and even Rivens can bully you from lane. And don't ever get me started on Darius. This is why he's no longer relevant; its a sad day when a lane bully gets gutted like this. His passive used to be 2% regen now it's not even that at lvl 11, it's 1.6%.........................
Lane against a Gnar / Jayce / Teemo / Vayne who know what they're doing and unless you have a good jungler with a clue you may as well just quit. That regen before 11 is useless and you're just a walking bullseye.
And that 2.5 second silence he had was great for AP and burst champions. And Jesus, in today's ADC meta that would make all the difference. Imagine vayne or tristana actually knowing they need to fight you from ranged - like an adc should - instead of standing in front of you like melee knowing they can auto / heal and ult you to death? Oh I also left out the tenacity removal....but wait aren't we in a heavy CC meta too? Removed just before it was really needed. Brutal RIOT Games........just brutal
.........yet still RIOT are 'struggling' to find ways to buff him. He was perfectly fine before. Just remove that useless villain mechanic and transfer the power back to his Q silence length duration and movement speed it gave him. If you're worried about low elo then keep his passive as it is that way they can still bully him from lane, get ahead and carry / win against him.
Garen's kit is what makes Garen, Garen. We don't need another rework or a high macro buttom bashing overloaded motility champion. Garen is basic and fun. He's just useless right now. If you wan't him reworked please focus on one of the other 100+ odd champions instead.
P.S. Here's a link to the old and new Garen. Reading this is like an obituary. Really sad.
