Why this build
They have made many changes to the league items, including removing phage from black cleaver which is both good and bad. Its good because now we can stack black cleaver and triforce as garen, its bad because garen does benefit immensely from phage, Meaning we definitely need triforce. Triforce no longer has mana items meaning its more gold efficient for garen as well (besides being mythic now) so I would say it is generally best to start triforce > black cleaver. They also got ride of the dash on stride breaker!!! So that mythic is not an option. Deadmans plate slow on hit after the build up is still good.
the runes are set up for max sustain, conqueror gives a heal after 12 stacks plus bonus adaptive damage, triumph resotres 12% of missing health on takedowns, bloodline gives permanent lifesteal which is great when we are going build paths with only one lifesteal item, but high attack speed. Coup de grace lets us do bonus damage on low health enemies which synergizes with our ult.
Resolve adds some tankiness to us with conditioning which will give us bonus armor after 12 min (the amount of armor it gives makes it basically a free 600 gold worth of items), and revitalize will make our W and any life steal we get 10% more effective when below 40% health.
Now for the items themselves and why we chose them.
Start items -
Start dorans if you are anything other than support for max sustain, it synergizes with our passive as garen. Then grab health pots and a ward. Depending on the situation you might want refillable health pots when you first go back if you are getting poked hard.
Then if you are building against an AP get magic mantle:
This is because it can build into wits end, merc treads, or maw of morpheus meaning you get your choice of three items to choose based on your situation. Generally wits end will be best due to its on hit damage effect that adds to your spin E move
if you want to build against AD get cloth armor:
This will let you build bramble vest (which will throw damage back at the ADC poking you, or plated steel caps which reduces incoming attacks by 12%. Between thronmail and plated steel caps, you can move onto building damage items.
If you want to build the high damage path get long sowrd:
This will let you get triforce, BORK, mortal reminder, bloodthirster, or black cleaver as a first build item so you can be flexible based on the situation.
if going bruiser mix pth:
get long sword or health crystal because it lets you build into triforce (high q damage) black cleaver (armor shred) or steraks gage (more health and sustain) based on the situation.
Expanding on each build:
Bruiser Mix:
As a bruiser you want good damage but good sustain. Your goal is to be a light int. Not a full tank int. So you want to dance around the edge of battle, and q in sometimes to harass the enemy team and maybe silence someone. When you see a really squishy target that is a good opportunity to int. Hit your W that way triforce activates and q in on the target to get the bonus 200% damage then press e to shredd their armor with your E as well as black cleaver.
Blade of the ruined king will help sustain you for a while, but at worst you can then activate gargoyles stone plate to get the bonus health added as a shield, and steraks lifeline can trigger as well to help you disengage from the enemy team. Side note, taking damage from enemys can give you up to a 15% bonus armor and magic resist with gargoyles stone plate.
We also have berserkers greaves which with triforce will add decent attack speed boosting our E to new heights as well as allowing us to take better advantage of BORK. You CANNOt go toe to toe with a high lifesteal character like a fed trynd or jinx but it WILL help you immensely with survivability against those characters.
High AD:
With the high ad build, youre all bang and no sustain, so pick your targets carefully. the goal is to burst them down before they burst you down. That is why we have triforce for the bonus Q damage, it also adds attack speed as does the berserkers greaves, BORK, and mortal reminder.
Bork will let you slow them after 3 hits (your E counts), black cleaver will shred their health, as well as your E. So now they are slowed, have 60% heal reduction (due to mortal reminder being proc'ed by your e) and armor less. You can Q them and do insane damage. This whole time you are also being healed by bork and bloodthirster which is a total of 32% lifesteal.
The reason we take both bork and blood thirster is because bork will let you shred tanks, and when combined with blood thirster it lets you lifesteal with the best of them. Black cleaver also helps with tank shred/team fights. but you CAN be deleted so be careful.
Anti ADC:
supp garen can be rough in terms of getting poked. Thornmail will bounce damage the adc does to you back to them, scaling based on your total bonus armor. It also applies grevious wounds, so if they built life steal and keep poking you, they wont be able to heal off minions as well. plated steel caps will reduce the adcs damage by 12% which is also amazing. Mortal reminder is really there for the attack speed, crit chance, and movement speed boost. But also this makes it so that if you engage and hit the adc, they get grevious wounds, instead of just relying on them to hit you. If they do hit you, and you proc grevious wounds on the thornmail, and the mortal reminder, great. Their lifesteal will be neglible and help level the playing field.
Steraks lifeline and rage give you great sustain as dealing damage or taking damage restores 2% max health over 6 seconds (can stack to 10% health restoration over 6 seconds), and when they attack and your health goes below 30% you get a shield (which is likely when facing poking champs. Black cleaver gets you that rmor shred which is always great with garen in team fights.
And lastly Gargoyles stone plate is just to add more armor for the thornmail scaling. As well as a little MR in case they have a decent mage. Plus if the enemy damages you you get up to 15% bonus armor (so gargoyles plate and steraks can give 10% health bonus and 15% armor bonus when being attacked). It also can activate to save you with the bonus health shield. Which when combined with steraks lifeline gives you two ways to try to outlast your enemy
Anti AP:
Simple build, burst them down before they burst you down. Wits end will give you some magic resist as well as AD and attack speed. Merc treads will help with magic resist, blood thirster will help your sustain. Black cleaver will shred armor on characters like ryze. Maw of morpheus will add damage, but also give a spell shield. Spirit visage works with your health boosting passive, but adds MR as well.
