Counter Guide

How to Beat Garen

Matchup Guide · Evergreen · 3 Counter Picks

Garen has no trick. He walks at you, and the matchup comes down to whether you have somewhere to be that isn't there.

He is the champion new players are told is easy and experienced players quietly hate laning against, and both groups are right for the same reason. There's nothing to read, nothing to dodge and nothing clever to punish. He walks up, and either you can leave or you can't. Beating him is a positioning problem and an itemization problem, which is why so many good players somehow lose the lane while insisting they played it well.

Matchup Snapshot Garen, the Might of Demacia

Where You Meet Him Top lane

Damage Type Physical, with true damage on the finish

Why He Is Frustrating Poking him back out of lane does nothing

Mobility Low, but he closes fast in a straight line

Biggest Threat Decisive Strike [Q]

Hardest Counter Kayle

What a Counter Needs

Range, or a reliable way to be somewhere he is not
Grievous Wounds, because his health bar refills for free between every trade
A way to survive the first three seconds of his commitment, since the fight is decided there

Patch 26.18 Matchup Data

Who Beats Garen on Patch 26.18

Best Picks Into Garen

Kayle2,517 games55.9%
Tryndamere3,956 games53.3%
Teemo4,984 games52.4%
Sett5,278 games52.4%
Mordekaiser4,860 games52.2%

Picks Garen Beats

K'Sante2,116 games40.9%
Jax5,158 games42.0%
Riven1,423 games42.5%
Irelia2,037 games45.0%

Win rates are for the champion listed, in the top lane against Garen. They come from Nerfplz's own ranked solo queue games on Patch 26.18, Silver and above, 120,431 Garen games in all. Only matchups that show up in at least 1% of those games are listed.

Garen Overview

Strengths: What Makes Him Dangerous

He wins any trade he chooses to start. His damage arrives the instant he touches you and doesn't need items to hurt, so an even-looking exchange at level three isn't even at all.
The silence lands before you react. Decisive Strike [Q] is there so the channel, the dash or the flash you were saving never happens.
He heals off your poke. Perseverance [Passive] means the chip damage you spent a whole wave landing is gone by the time he walks back to lane.
He's faster than he looks. Between his own speed boost and boots, the gap he covers is larger than the one most people leave, and they only find out once.
His finisher doesn't care how tanky you are. A percentage of your missing health is a percentage whether you built armor or not, so the health bar you were nursing is a liability.

Weaknesses: Where You Get In

He can't touch what he can't reach. There's no dash, no leap and no ranged pressure. Every point of damage he has requires him to be standing next to you.
Grievous Wounds turns the passive (Perseverance [Passive]) off. Cutting the regeneration removes the reason poke fails against him, and for some reason almost nobody buys it in the first fifteen minutes.
He commits, and he can't take it back. Once he starts the spin he's walking in one direction with no escape, which is a gift to anything with a parry, a wall or a knock back.
He's a poor teamfighter. He's at his best against one person in a side lane, and at his worst in a five on five where his entire threat is walking toward the same target everyone else already handled.
Vision beats him outright. He has no way to make you fight him. A warded lane and a wave you're willing to give up costs him the whole lane phase.

Countering Garen

Based on the strengths and weaknesses above, beating Garen comes down to champions who can accomplish at least one of the following:

Buy Grievous Wounds in lane, before the fourth failed poke. It's the single change that flips the matchup, and it costs less than a component of your first item.
Stand where the wave is not. He needs the minion line to walk you down. Give him the wave and take the fight on your terms somewhere else on the map.
Save your escape for the silence. Everyone burns their movement ability at the wrong moment here, because the spin is the visible part and the silence is the part that already happened.
Punish the walk back. He's at his most vulnerable when he has committed and missed, and that window is much longer than his own players think.

If you're already locked into the matchup without any of those tools, these strategies still work:

Playing a Bad Garen Matchup

Play for the second half. There's no version of this lane where you win a straight fight at level three, and there's no version of the twentieth minute where he still scares a full build.

Take teleport or a summoner that lets you leave, because the lane is survivable and being caught in it is not.

Let him shove. A pushed wave under your turret is the safest place in the matchup and the worst possible place for him to start something.

Best Garen Counters

Three ways to beat someone whose entire plan is to be next to you: outlast the lane, punish the commitment, or never be in range. One counter each.

Kayle Outlasts The Lane

She's the one pick here that's allowed to lose the first few levels. Divine Ascent [Passive] makes her ranged at level 6, and from then on every trade he wants starts with a long walk toward somebody who hits him first (she gets another 100 units of range at 16).

Divine Judgment [R] makes her or an ally invulnerable for 2.5 seconds, so the Demacian Justice [R] he was saving for the kill does nothing. Farm under your turret until six, then play the lane he can't reach.

Tryndamere Punishes The Commitment

Every Garen all-in ends with Demacian Justice [R], and Undying Rage [R] gives Tryndamere a health floor for 5 seconds that nothing in Garen's kit gets under. He can even cast it while silenced by Decisive Strike [Q].

Once the execute is gone, the long fight belongs to Tryndamere. Mocking Shout [W] lowers Garen's bonus attack damage and slows him if he turns to leave, which is the walk back this matchup is about.

Teemo Never Enters The Fight

Teemo trades from 500 units with poison that keeps ticking after every hit, and Blinding Dart [Q] makes Garen's basic attacks miss while it lasts. Move Quick [W] keeps Teemo faster than a walking Garen until Teemo takes a hit, which is how the gap stays open.

Don't expect a mushroom to stop the run at you. Decisive Strike [Q] cleanses slows, so distance is the plan, and the wave you're happy to give up is what buys it.

Itemizing Against Garen

The first two are the matchup and the last two are ordinary insurance:

Bramble Vest and Executioner's Calling are the same purchase (Grievous Wounds) for the two halves of the roster, and both of them turn a lane you can't chip away at into a lane you can. Plated Steelcaps handles the basic attacks that fill the gaps between his abilities. Randuin's Omen is the teamfight version of the same idea, and it's aimed at the moment he arrives on your back line at full health looking for a second target.