The Might of Demacia [12.22] Garen Top guide (2024)

Stridebreaker

It's a very good mythic that sinergyzes extremely well with Garen and compensates both, his lack of Mobility and Utility.
It gives Garen all he could want: a slow, additional movement speed, bonus waveclear, and attack speed, it also improves your teamfighting potential significantly.
Overall The item's active and the stats combine very well with Garen and for that reason works well into almost every match.

Trinity Force

When you need more Burst or DPS and you don't need the slow from Stridebreaker, but instead just damage, then Trinity Force it's a really good choice, and the best alternative to Stride, and like Stride it gives atk speed.

It gives you the most DPS out of all Garen mythics, and if you can land some attacks on an enemy the additional AD from the passive it's a very good damage boost for 1v1's, and since it works on towers too it helps a to take them down while splitpushing, and when combined with Hullbreaker you become a monster at taking towers.
The main downside of Trinity is that most of it's power budget it's on the Three fold strike passive, and Garen isn't an autoattack champion, but more of a spellcaster who uses autos in beetwen. Also if you get kited you don't really make use of the item's damage at all, although Sheen gives you huge burst on your Q.
Another downside of Trinity is the Sheen effect, Garen is a spellcaster but he doesn't have great quick spell rotations to make good use of Sheen.

Divine Sunderer

DS gives Garen some Tank shredding and the damage and tankyness to fight tanks and bruisers, since these days every bruiser has built in healing or %Max Health damage.

The Max health damage and armor pen helps in fights or if you have to deal with the enemy frontline in teamfights.
You should only build DS against a mostly meele or tank enemy comp, or if you want to splitpush and want/have to duel a beffy enemy, generally it being the enemy top.
If the enemy team has only 1 or 2 tanky champs you are better off building
Trinity Force or Stridebreaker.

Galeforce

Although Galeforce seems like a troll item it is actually quite good.
It gives Garen some much needed mobility as a Gapclose which also deals %Missing Health damage, and the stats increase your overall damage too.
But i only recommend it if you need mobility and damage to kill the squishy champs, or if you know you are gonna get hard kited, or if the enemy is full squishy and ranged, where damage and mobility is all you need to win, otherwise you should build more tanquier and get other mythic.
If you want to build Galeforce but you don't want to have no HP in the early game, you can alternativelly get a tank or bruiser legendary item first and then get Galeforce second, or get a Health component and upgrade it later after finishing Galeforce.

Goredrinker

Gore seems suboptimal on Garen, but on a closer look it is actually quite good if you are agains't a lot meele champions, where the bonus healing and omnivamp shine during duels and teamfights, and the stats and mythic passive are also pretty good overall. The only problem with the item is that it doesn't grant atk speed nor MS, which are very important stats on Garen, which makes Goredrinker not a huge powerspike for you and makes it feel kinda clunky to play with until you get your 2nd or 3rd legendary item. Additionally most of Garen items don't sinergyze at all with Goredrinker.
Nedless to say, agains't squishy or ranged champions this item is useless.
If you do buy GD don't forget to get atk speed Asap from some item or your E will deal no damage.

Berserker's Greaves

Because Garen's E has attack speed scaling this boots are a Core part of all Garen builds, because they increase by a lot Judgment's DPS very early on.
But atk speed by itself it's also useful for additional damage with autos, since Conqueror alreay gives you AD, having quicker autos considerably increases your dps in 1v1's.

Plated Steelcaps

Plated steelcaps, or more known as tabis, are another good (situational) option for boots which grants Garen extra Armor and reduced damage against autoattackers, like Tryndamere or Irelia.
If the enemy team is Full AD or of tabis counter your lane opponent early on, then you should get this boots.

Mercury's Treads

Mercs are situational boots which are good vs. magic damage or high CC, the tenacity is very useful and it's good to counter Full AP or Heavy CC team comps, or ocassional AP Bully's toplaners like Ryze or Kennen, who have a lot poke and CC.

Deadman's Plate

Since Garen lacks of any CC or gapclose Dead Man's Plate it's really useful for getting close to enemies, splitpushing, and moving around the map, and overall being faster.
Since Deadman's 'charge' not only slows, but also deals bonus physical damage you don't sacrifice too much offensivenes when getting this item, and also helps to push lanes and damage towers, because the damage works on them.
The only problem with the item is that compared with other Armor items it's the one that makes you the less tanquier, if you need to frontline something like Randuin's Omen, or anything else, is a better purchase.

Mortal Reminder

This item it's very good even if we don't need the grievous wounds effect, because the stats it gives really suit Garen.
You get AD, Attack speed and crit, for more DPS on your E, as well as
%movement speed, being faster is always very good. Additionally it's a very cheap item.

If you are thinking "why go for Mortal Reminder instead of Chempunk Chainsword?", the reason is that DPS wise it's one of the best items for Garen, and probably the only crit and attack speed legendary item that sinergyzes well with him, and also because Chempunk stats are not very good, though it isn't a bad item by any means, and it might be better for a completely Bruiser build, but generally Mortal Reminder is just better.
Quick tip: you can prock almost inmediately the 60% healing reduction with a (AA + Q reset + AA) combo.

Black Cleaver

BC it's still a good item for Garen, that sinergyzes with his E, procking very fast the %armor shred (wich stacks with the armor reduction from Judgment) and also giving movement speed against the shredded target.
The Stats and passive are good for more durability and damage.
BC is a good option against tanks or very tanky bruisers which are stacking armor, the armor shred also helps in 1v1's.
A deatil about the armor shred it's that during a teamfight you can amplify your team's physical damage against a certain target or frontliner, for example the damage from your ADC or AD jungler.

Sterak's Gage

Steraks it's a good item for any bruiser, and Garen is no exception, it gives a lot of HP and AD, and a Huge shield for frontlining or enduring damage in teamfights or 1v1's, it also helps to survive clutch situations on low health and ensures that you don't get bursted on too easily when getting focused, it's also greato for 1v1's where the big shield can deny the enemy killing you, especially if they are a bursty champion.
Sterak's is a good 3rd or 4th item buy, when you want to get it comes to your item preference, or to what you need the most in the match, but because the shield scales with Bonus HP and it gives Base AD as bonus AD, so it generally is better to delay the item's purchase until past mid-game.

Generally you want to buy it when you need to endure damage and frontline for your team, or if you know you are gonna be Teamfighting. While you frontline and the enemy tries to kill you though your Courage and Sterak's shield activated, your team should have enough free time and resources to deal with the enemy team.

Death's Dance

It's a very good item once you get your core items, it excells into AD comps with a lot of burst (although it works for magic damage too).
Death's Dance gives you a lot of potential for 1v2 or 1v3's, not only because it delays damage (as a true damage bleed) but also because of the other pasisve, Defy, which removes the bleed stored damage and heals you based on your bonus AD.

On paper this item doesn't seems that good, but there are a lot of situations where you get hard bursted and die before doing anything, but with Death's Dance you get some valuable seconds where you can kill the enemy with Demacian Justice before they kill you, ironically defying death.
Although the item's potential it's quite hard to see, during fights and teamfights it's really good.
If you purchase Death's Dance remember to try and get a kill or takedown asap if you get bursted, and if everything goes right you will heal and survive.

Youmuu's Ghostblade

Youmuu's is one of my favorite Garen items, and one that not many people buy.
It is really good for catching squishy champions and murdering them.
The stats are very good, it gives AD, AH, and most importantly, 18 lethality. That bonus lethality plus the movement speed from the item gives you the upper hand on squishys and makes it easier to kill them, because of the speed and the stast youmuu's gives i consider it the best Lethality item for Garen.

The bonus speed from the active and passive are very good for going around the map
and chasing enemies or gapclosing them. Also something worth emtnioning is that lethality works on towers, which makes this item good for splitpushing since you get a lot of damage for destroying towers.

Gargoyle Stoneplate

Gargoyle is a very good late-game item that gives a really big shield (that scales with your Bonus HP) that is very useful in teamfights when you have to frontline or endure a lot of the enemys burst or abilities for your team.
It also gives very good stats and additional resistances, which sinergyzes with Courage because it also gives you additional resistances. The passive and active help to teamfight and endure damage, and also incentivates you to dive in the whole enemy team to kill someonne or distract them from focusing your team.

The shield can be used in a lot of ways, for example, to bait a Zed into using Death Mark because you are on low hp, but then you active Gargoyle's shield, wasting Zed's ult and possibly killing him, or baiting an enemy or frontliner to go all-in to kill you and surprise them with the shield while your team does their job.

Force of Nature

If you already have HP and AD and need MR to deal with magic damage, Force of Nature is the best choice.
It gives a lot of MR and movement speed and a bunch of HP.
If the enemy it's hybrid damage but their main threath it's AP, or the enemy team is full magic damage this is a good third or fourth option That helps in teamfights giving you tankiness and mobility.

Hullbreaker

Hullbreaker helps Garen when he needs to splitpush, it gives very good stats and when you don't have any ally nearby you boost nearby Cannon's and Siege minions and increase their damage to towers and make them tanquier, you also gain additional Armor and MR (scaling with levels).
So even if someone contests your push you can duel them since you are tanquier while alone.
Because Garen isn't an innate splitpusher like Yorick, Trundle or Jax, he needs items to support this playstyle, and Hullbreaker it's very good for that purpose. The only and obvious downside of the item it's that the passive is wasted if you need to Teamfight with your team.

Generally as Garen you want to swap beetwen splitpushing and teamfighting, and grouping with your team, that's why this item is very situational. If you really want to split you can go other items while not getting locked out of teamfights, items like: Trinity Force, Divine Sunderer, Dead Man's Plate, Youmuu's Ghostblade, etc...

Another reason why Hullbreaker isn't so good is because there are other items that Garen needs more, since his kit lacks most of the tools other natural splitpushers like Yorick or Fiora already have, like sustain, max hp% damage, a way to escape or some form of CC].

Anathema's Chains

Anathema's it's a situtaional item that's amazing on Garen, it makes you really tanky and at max stacks of it's Active it reduces 30% of an enemy's damage to you, and while you are nearby, they get reduced tenacity, and if the enemy doesn't have any it can make them have negative tenacity, effectively increasing CC duration on them.
Which makes this item good for teamfighting if your team has a lot of CC.

Anathema's it's very good when you have to deal with 1 really feed enemy (who doesn't deal true damage), or if theres a certain enemy you have to always deal with, which makes this item very effective for counter-splitpushing champs like Yorick or Illaoi, or atleast be able to tank their damage while defending your towers.
Since it's damage reduction it doesn't reduce true damage, which most toplaners have nowdays, so keep that in mind.