Garen FAQ

He is a solid pick because Mayhem's reduced cooldowns let him spin constantly and heal off his passive much faster than on Summoner's Rift. He struggles against heavy kiting comps, but he absolutely shreds melee-heavy teams that cannot stop his spin. Pick him when your team needs a tanky diver who can force enemies off the point.

Max Judgment (E) first for damage and wave clear, then take a point in Decisive Strike (Q) whenever available to lower its cooldown. Put a second point in Courage (W) early if you are taking heavy poke, but usually one point is enough to block burst. You want E maxed as soon as possible because it is your primary damage tool in extended fights.

Cast Snowball to close the gap on a squishy target, then follow up instantly with Q to silence them before they can flash or dash away. Do not use Snowball purely for damage; save it to engage when the enemy overextends or to escape if you get caught deep. Hitting a Snowball on a backline carry usually guarantees a kill if your team follows up.

Use Q to remove slows right before you engage, or save it to interrupt channels like Katarina's ult or Malzahar's suppression. The silence duration is short, so you need to be in melee range when you cast it to maximize the impact. Do not waste Q just for movement speed if you are about to get hit by a crowd control ability that the silence could prevent.

W gives you a shield and tenacity, which is crucial for surviving burst mages or heavy crowd control chains. Pop W right as you dive in or when you see a big telegraphed ability like a Lux R flying at you. The tenacity helps you stick to targets even if they try to peel you with stuns or slows.

Spin on top of high-priority targets like ADCs or mages while they are silenced or crowd-controlled so they cannot escape the damage. Judgment shreds armor, so keep spinning on tanks if the squishy targets are out of reach. Do not cancel your spin early to auto-attack unless you need to finish a low-HP enemy with Demacian Justice.

Use R as an execute when the enemy is below 30% health, but do not wait too long or they might get healed or shielded. In Mayhem, cooldowns are shorter, so you can use R aggressively in fights rather than saving it only for kills. Just make sure you are in range before you start the animation, or they might slip away.

Start with a tanky component like Kindlegem or a damage item like Phage depending on whether you need survivability or damage. Your core should balance health and ability haste so you can spin more often and survive dives. Avoid pure damage builds because you need to stay alive long enough to get your spin damage off.

Black Cleaver is excellent because your E shreds armor instantly, making your entire team deal more damage to tanks. Build it early if the enemy has multiple tanks or bruisers stacking armor. If the enemy team is mostly squishies, you can delay it for other damage or tank items.

Play patient and let your passive heal you up between waves, only engaging when you have enough health to survive the burst. Use Snowball to gap close and W to block their key abilities as you go in. Do not force bad fights when you are low because you will get poked down again before you can heal.

Save your Q to remove slows and use Snowball to gap close when they burn their escape tools. Build movement speed items or ability haste so you can engage more frequently and force them to fight you. If they have too many dashes, focus on peeling for your carries instead of chasing enemies you cannot catch.

Pick augments that give you ability haste, survivability, or movement speed to help you stick to targets. Damage augments are good if you are ahead, but tanky augments let you dive deeper and spin longer. Avoid augments that only benefit auto-attacks since most of your damage comes from abilities.

Use your E to clear the wave and poke enemies who walk up too far, but do not overextend without your W available. Look for Snowball hits on enemies who misposition, and follow up with Q and E to chunk them. If you get low, back off and let your passive heal you before you engage again.

Dive the backline and force their carries to focus you while your team follows up with damage. Use Q to silence key targets and R to execute anyone who gets low. If you cannot reach the carries, peel for your own damage dealers by spinning on anyone who dives them.