I would like to play Garen. He's my favorite "toplaner". But he isn't viable enough for the top-lane. Can you change that please?
I don't feel like im asking too much, just please make him better. I don't see the harm in that.
plz buff garerino pleasarino rito
Having actually tried this pretty recently, I'm not entirely sure how I feel about it. It was only one game, and no one seemed to mind that I was top-lane Garen in champ select. I was against a Renekton, so I figured playing defensive was my best bet. Bought 
to start. Wasn't entirely too concerned about being zoned out of farm either, because I happened to be running gold quints (my rune situation is atrocious, but I digress). Even managed 1st blood because the Renekton I was laning against decided to try and dive me. It didn't become a problem until the jungler decided to help. And at that point, we were 4v5 (our poor Kog'maw didn't connect to the game at all)...
I can't really say for sure what's wrong with Garen. His viability seems like it's caught up on his lack of a real gap closer/escape, but does he really need that? I actually avoided a gank in that same game with Decisive Strike, but I'm not sure how well even that would have gone if the jungler was smart enough to bait it out and wait for me to use it on Renekton first.
I suppose what I'm really getting at is this: if you feel like Garen needs to be better, what do you think he's bad at and how would you fix it?
He is a champ that is aimed towards lower level players to learn extremely basic mechanics. He was never meant to go past beginning levels. Also, "more viable top laners" as in one more viable top laner? Finally, tanks<assasins and bruisers right now in the meta so they might buff all tanks to give them a place, but I doubt garen will be a viable pick anytime soon.
Garen is one of those low-counterplay toplaners. As in, if he catches you, he catches you - and there's nothing you can do to dodge it.
If he ever becomes strong, then he'll simply become the next Renekton. Garen, because of his low counterplay, squeezes out other options if he ever becomes strong.
Thing is, top lane isnt THAT small a champ pool. I recently saw a yasuo/oriana lane swap top. I also think we see trundle, shyvana, renekton, jax, and irelia on a regular basis in the lcs. I personally think that this is will change in worlds as pros will have time to learn new champs
Garen is a champion that is designed to ease new players into the game. He has a low skill floor, and a low skill ceiling as well. A champion's damage and effectiveness is always based on their skill requirements, so, since Garen's is low, so is his effectiveness. What you are supposed to do is pick him up, learn the nuances of the lane, then move on to other champions.
Maybe he would be better if we shoe-horned in some CC. Garen already has to make a tough decision around his Q: "Do I want to use it for the silence and damage, or do I want it to cleanse slows and run away faster?". Maybe if we made him make that choice around his Ult: we give it the single target damage it has (maybe reduce it), but make it stun the target champion and knock away any enemies around the target, similar to a Gragas Ult. This makes sense thematically and visually, as the animation from his ultimate makes a giant sword rain down from the heavens and blast a shockwave from the ground. Maybe we can do something about this shockwave.
Also, maybe make his Q cleanse all types of CC, rather than just the slows?
