Any tips? Champs with more mobility seem to dance circles around me during laning phase x.x
I've been going phase rush keystone > Black Cleaver > defensive items
not sure if black cleaver is always good to rush 1st though
Also finding more success maxing E before Q. Sorry if that's obvious..im completely new to garen xD
if you prefer phase rush, i recommend a very early 
the sunfire aura helps you proc the rune. you only need q, spin and a sunfire proc to get the keystone to activate, whereas otherwise youd always need an auto attack. you should auto attack into q anyways, but it just makes it a bit easier.
in pretty much any melee matchup, grasp is the better choice imo. though if you feel more comfortable with phase rush, then thats fine too.
Right now the hip thing Garen mains do is go Grasp w/ sorcery secondary runes
You max Q, get triforce (Sheen + Q max = gud stuff), gage, deadmans, then whatever else defensive/countering items you need (Like say you need grievous wounds for Mundo)
The reason Garen doesn't take BC anymore after years of it being it's core item is because BC is pretty weak compared to other items and Garen recently got armor shred added to his E
If you do go phase rush, then like critmaster said, you need bami early since it allows you to proc rush super easy
One more option if you wanna have fun playing around it is unsealed spellbook + hexflash, taking ignite for the start and going for damage build hexflashing in to ability dump people
his laning is pretty trash against basically every meta top laner. Its kinda awkward they're pitting him against Darius for lore reasons, but Darius should dumpster garen without any effort.
max Q because E scales more with garen's level rather than the skill's level, and it grants a longer movement speed buff which helps your shitty mobility. although i find putting 2 points into E helps clearing waves a lot. Q max also allows you to do your damage and get out, where E max makes you have to stay and take damage.
always try to use Q as an auto attack reset.
take grasp and all the runes that help you stay in lane longer.
i hear the hot thing is to build trinity force now. either way, i recommend something with CDR. playing garen without CDR feels awful.
above all, remember that you are Garen, the king of top lane. Your team answers to you and you answer to nobody. If you see a chance to assert dominance over an enemy, do it.
he lost his early game after the rework just max q first since spin damage is sad
Im pretty sure it's almost entirely dependent on the matchup but I could be wrong
Same. Can’t wait for it to release!!!!
If you need help learning garen then you need actual help irl
Black Cleaver has been nerfed many times the item is not worth it on Garen. Trinityforce is better and should be the first item to complete once you get sheen in laningphase that adds alot of power to your q. You can also splitpush with trinityforce because you melt towers better (amplified q damage, movement speed,attack speed). The only reason i would ever go Black Cleaver would be if my adc is extremely fed and the enemy toplaner is a champion that you cant splitpush against at the same time the enemy needs to stack armor so then the utility of BC can be worth.
Thanks for the help guys. I feel like I'm finally starting to hit my stride on garen.
The phase rush bami interaction was something I'd have just assumed wouldn't work so ty for the insight.
I'd also have missed out on trinity, since the mana is such a natural gold efficiency deterrent for garen
Lastly, I see now why maxing Q over E in lane is the way to go
Now that i have some garen gameplay behind me, I'm looking forwards to the skin tomorrow!
