Garen's Passive

Alright, guys. It's that time of the year again where I comment on the design of Garen. I hope you guys enjoy the dialogue.

Pulling straight from the champion spotlight:

Garen's a melee fighter who excels at bringing justice to his opponents in the form of tough, physical DPS. With a Decisive Strike silence, a Courage damage-reducing shield and a Demacian Justice execute-style ability to help secure kills, Garen's toolkit is ideal for trading hits in one-on-one skirmishes while still remaining tanky. And of course there's Judgment. Judgment, his signature ability, a furious, non-interruptable damaging spin. Garen's zero-cost spells and sturdy foundation of Courage resistances and Perseverance regeneration make for an aggressive, bullying play style that justifies his reputation as the most respected warrior in Demacia's fighting elite.

I think this says a lot about what Riot expects out of Garen. However, players don't get to experience this fantasy. More often than not, players are playing passively in lane. The issue lies within the systems that make up Garen, particularly his passive.

Innate: Garen passively regenerates 「 0.2 / 0.8% maximum health every half-second 」. This regeneration is interrupted for 9 / 4 seconds if he takes non-minion damage or if he is hit by an enemy ability. Regeneration increased to 「 0.4 / 1.6% maximum health every half-second 」 while below 25 / 50% of his maximum health. At level 11, damage from non-epic monsters will no longer stop Perseverance.

                                                                                                   **Outlining the Problem with Garen**

Basically, players have to back off for the upwards of 20 seconds to win a trade. There's no way to easily evade champion damage in lane. This is something players have to do, if they want to remain competitive in lane. Not winning the trade could mean losing lane control, which Garen has to do anyways to utilize his passive (lose-lose situation that benefits the enemy). The big up-side is that Garen can stay in lane safely for a long time. With the prevalence of lifesteal in items/masteries, active regeneration (Refillable, Doran's items), and items for Juggernauts that benefit the longer they are in combat (Black Cleaver, Sterak's, Death's Dance), it doesn't feel right having a passive that says don't do that.

Now, I know that most champions do have ways to keep them from adhering to an abusive play style. It would be obnoxious if Garen were able to trade all day. Think of Lux's passive. It encourages her to get closer to her targets rather than stay far away, like most artillery mages. This is good design, because it reigns in her low risk, higher reward playstyle by encouraging good players to play riskier. Think of Garen's most popular keystone, Grasp of the Undying. It encourages Garen to be in combat for a period of time to utilize the burst for a trade that offers both mixed damage and sustain. This should be his bread and butter! Players have a hard time utilizing it, and other keystones, because these items/masteries encourage interacting with enemies. Perseverance does not. Even though I get the feeling that Garen is gated by his passive, I think it can be designed better.

There are also more minor issues to note. Most Juggernauts have a reliable way of bringing targets to them or reaching their targets. Their damage depends on their range to their targets, and that's properly designed to be gating. However, Garen's just lackluster in this department. While other Juggernauts are, within reason, able to reach their targets, Garen isn't.

Fixing Garen's Problems

Garen's most glaring problem is the gameplay patterns that emerge from his passive, Perseverance. He falls into weird patterns where he backs off after trades, potentially losing control of the wave, to win a trade vying for lane control. It feels really bad for players to back off to win trades utilizing Garen's passive while at the same time encouraging behavior that is bad for good play. Good Garen players get punished for being good at the game. Here's a few systems that would reward good players via better player experience.

When Garen uses an ability, (vary what return on condition is). When Garen is auto attacked / uses an ability / takes spell damage, reduce cooldown of Courage/Decisive Strike by #X seconds. Garen regenerates a % of his maximum health when he takes spell damage (# second cooldown). Garen regenerates a % of his maximum health when he enters combat (# second cooldown, amount of time considered to leave combat). If Garen takes X% amount of damage, (vary what return on condition is). If Garen is out of combat for X seconds, gain X% movement speed towards champions and a spell shield that decays over 0.XX #seconds upon taking dmg.

All of the patterns that emerge from these ideas encourage interactivity and don't penalize players for it while not creating experiences that are "un-fun." Garen's Decisive Strike is another area that could be improved upon, but that's beyond the scope of what this is about. Changing Perseverance is definitely what would lead to the largest improvement of player experience.