WHY IS THE MOST ICONIC LOL CHAMPION SO FORGOTTEN?

Hey guys.. I've been thinking about creating this post for a while, and I wanted to do it well so it would have the deserved attention (I hope it does)

What is the champion i'm talking about? It's GAREN. So, as we know Garen is a very iconic champion in League of Legends.. since... always. He is in a lot of covers, he is in a lot of cinematics (including the 2017 Worlds Promo - "Legends Never Die"), he is also the leader of the Demacian army, so we can say he is very notorious in the lore too.

Is Garen in a good spot right now? Let's see. http://prntscr.com/gz2gtf Garen sits right now in** 37th WIN RATE** of 57th champions in top lane (where lots of them are mid or junglers being used secondarily in top lane) and he has 2.5% pick rate. Ok.. so he is not popular or even good in solo queue, but what about competitive? http://prntscr.com/gz2mvc This is Garen's Competitive History with exception of a match in OPL Spring played by Cuden with a loss and 1/3/3. By the end of 2015 he had the worlds 2015 with the Colossus reworked and we could see Darius, Skarner and Mordekaiser as a crazy PICK-OR-BAN but not a clue of Garen. 73 champions picked, 0 Garen. That Worlds Championship was the one with the most variety of champions with 77 champs being played, guess what? 0 Garen.

I hope those statistics are enough to make the point that Garen is not picked or used not in solo queue, not in competitive. But now.. WHY? Let's take a look and answer this question. Why people doesn't pick Garen? What he has to offer, why is he so bad?

As a Split Pusher: Garen's closest role in the game is probably as a split pusher. He's can desengage with his Q, clear the waves fast, when he has room for it, and his passive alows him small skirmishers going in, goint out, healing and going in again. But we have a lot of other split pushers better than him at doing this and his passive can be replaced by any champion with a Warmog's armor.

As a Team Fighter: Being a split pusher means also joining your team when it's necessary. Garen is a bad Teleporter because of his lack of gap closers/engages, he can be easily peeled, kited and killed. His main engaging tool is his Q, which breaks him free from slows, but does't grant him any slow resistence. So you have to be CC'd before you engage, which makes this slow-breaker mechanic useless for engaging. Also his tank capabilities comes mainly from his W, which has a fairly high cooldown (20s CD maxed). What if garen suceeds in engaging, then what? He needs 3 seconds to apply his E enterily, which is his main damaging ability.

As a Tank: Garen can be a pretty nice meat shield, just like Dr. Mundo , No hard CC, no Initiation, no way to proc Courage of the Colossus no "tanky spell" that making him more resistant of durable in fights, except for his very long W cooldown. And he probabily has a lower DPS than Dr. Mundo. But that's it, right? Any champion can be a "meatshield" in league of legends.. just give them tanky runes, masteries and itens. What would make Garen a better tank than Fizz or Ekko (not naturel tank champions that can be built as one)? His incapability of jumping walls, dodging skills, lack of gap closers? lol, just kidding. They can do this, Garen can't. But hey, Garen can reduce damage for 6s every 20s, at level 18!!! :D

As a damage dealer: Well, this part is tricky. Garen CAN do a lot of damage.. but he has to build towards it. Just like Illaoi, If you build a good 3 damaging itens you can do a lot of damage. Garen goes well with: (Perfect in every aspect for him) (Damage, healing from E, CDR, more survivability) (Crazy burst + Penetration) and (Chase/escape + Penetration) (IMO, the strongest damaging item he can build, his E can crit and that's how you scale Garen out of the line) and (they give him HP and AD.. so, yeah, good.)

He doesn't go well with Iceborn , because he doesn't use mana.. Trinity force because he is not a good Auto attacker (his main damage comes from ad scaling and a 3s channeling ability) that makes him also not a good user for or or . Also all the Zeal itens , (same reason. And cause he uses no mana.

So building damage on him is very limited and you have to choose it very carefully because you have no engaging tools, you teamfights sucks, late game you are easily kited to death, you have no cc, only one desengage (that usually is used for engage - your Q)

**OVERALL: ** In combat he loses his passive. He loses his auto attacks while spinning. His ultimate is "random" (the mark not always shows in the enemy with most kills and sometimes doesn't even mark anyone, while everyone is alive and "markable"), you can't choose the marked target, it's a single target ability and the worst part.. when it's not the marked target, it deals magic damage.. the champions goes all his way in AD-basis and his ultimate is magic damage. One of the last champions with this "crossed penetration" mechanic. How pathetic is you defending Garen's ult by having a Hexdrinker? Also.. he deals 1% of target's maximum health as true damage.. so he needs 10 AA's to deal 10% of max health.. or spinning 10 times (while level 18 and E maxed) to deal the same 10%. That's literally Fiora's Q with 3 itens. No need to wait for "the luck "of having that target marked, just press Q, an ability with 2.5s cooldown (when refunded by hitting) with a very wide and easy hitbox.

He could be used as an utility split pusher tank, like using (Which are both itens nerfed as hell right now) But come on he could get a little love in this kit, Rito. PLS!

CAN ANY RIOTER PLEASE ANSWER TELLING ME IF THERE ARE ANY PLANS FOR OUR BIG BOY GAREN? [garen-swing]

Here are some simply sugestions: Garen should be exactly the unstopabble force that is shown in "Legends Neve Die" video.. He is like Gatts/Guts (From "Berserk", anime.. who knows it can get a good picture, he is an unstoppable commander/leader/fighter/warrior) His passive could give him a crazy tenaticy when he was rushing towards enemy champions (some value like Irelia's) His W could be an actual a shield based on his max health, may be like Nautilus or Sion, There's not even need for it to do damage. His E spinning should be more rewarding. Like granting him CC imunity while spinning, damage and scaling could remain the same. But make the number of spins not scale with his level, but only with the skill level. And his ultimate.. just make it PHYSICAL DAMAGE! Like Rek'sai or Jinx Ultimates based on missing health. And for the love of god fix that "target acquirement" from the mark of his ultimate.. that is sooooo bugged, he can't have no one marked..

Well, it's a very long post, so I thank and appreciate anyone who can read it all, give your opinion and move this "Motion" forwards! GAREN NEEDS SOME LOVE!

Kind Regards, Reverse1.