MEDIUM MATCHUP RUNES: Conqueror, Triumph, Tenacity, Last Stand. Resolve: Conditioning, Unflinching/Overgrowth. (Phase Rush runes if you want as well) SUMMONER SPELLS: Flash Ignite, Flash Ghost against better Jax players. What's the win condition? : Jax is a weird matchup where your skills as a player will be tested when it comes to trading, understanding cooldowns, and knowing when a champion is strong or weak. You have to realize that Jax is incredibly strong if he's capable of extending a trade on you when you don't have Q or E, so it's important to not fight him if you don't have either of your abilities up. You want to all in Jax with Ignite when he's 80-70% HP when you also have all of your cooldowns available at level 6 so that you can snowball into him. How to trade ? : What's usually best especially with Conqueror is to auto the Jax and walk away when he counterstrikes. If he is chasing you, you start your E and simply walk away. You can W when you think he will use the stun, and then after that you back off. If you don't have W or E into Jax, it's really bad to extend the trade so you want to keep it short like that. Your goal is to chunk him in little bits since he has no sustain. You mainly want to kite Jax and stay away from him when you have no W. W his Q auto W combo as well if he uses that, it's really effective. If he has E on cooldown after he goes out of his counterstrike when you finish your E, you can go for an auto Q on him if you are sure he won't extend the trade. What to build? : Berserker Greaves rush is probably best since it allows you to match his high base move speed and also his time warp tonic move speed as well. You want to be able to kite Jax with your E so Berserker Greaves is the perfect item. If the game goes to mid to late game, investing in a Black Cleaver is advised so you can 1v1 him in the side lane if you are ahead. Otherwise you can just front to back him in teamfights with your R and Ignite.

MEDIUM MATCHUP, HARD MATCHUP IN HIGH ELO RUNES: Phase Rush, Nimbus Cloak, Celerity, Gathering Storm. Resolve: Conditioning/Second Wind, Unflinching/Overgrowth. SUMMONER SPELLS: Flash Ghost. Flash Ignite can work if you are confident you can kill him before Stridebreaker. What's the win condition? : Playing for scaling to the Stridebreaker spike is key here. Gangplank beats you up hard early, specially when he has Grasp of the Undying and Bone Plating, so you want to go for the all-ins with Ironspike Whip and Stridebreaker since he is so squishy. He will win short types of trades since he goes for items like Sheen so the best is setting yourself up for a situation where you run your full E and get a Q E R on Gangplank. This is mostly possible when you have at least Ironspike Whip first. Otherwise you farm, and only go for one shots on him since he is so squishy. (It's best to short trade him before so he's chunked for a bit of hp.) How to trade? : Short trading Gangplank isn't preferred, but you can do it with W. You usually just want to do Q E walk away against him and to not extend it too far. Once you get Ironspike Whip you can try to go for Q E Ironspike Whip on him to get him chunked to an hp like 80% so that the next time you have your cooldowns up you can all in him easier with the full combo. You usually want to lead with your Q though since he has a lot of move speed. Remember to W his barrels and his Q during the lane! What to build? : I think Stridebreaker Deadman's Plate 2nd works great into him since he is so squishy that you don't even need Mortal Reminder to kill him most of the time. If his team is overall pretty squishy, you can just go for the Deadman's Plate 2nd and Death's Dance or Mortal Reminder 3rd item. You're looking to one shot him in the side lane repeatedly since he is easy to kill after level 11 and Deadman's enables that since you get more move speed to pressure him.

MEDIUM MATCHUP RUNES: Phase Rush, Nimbus Cloak, Celerity, Gathering Storm. Resolve: Conditioning/Bone Plating, Unflinching/Overgrowth. SUMMONER SPELLS: Flash Ghost. Flash Ignite can work if you are confident you can kill him easier throughout the game with it. What's the win condition? : Sett beats Garen up early very hard, which means you will want to play for scaling. The reason we take Phase Rush into Sett here is because you want to avoid his W damage. You can do this by playing around your silence duration and Phase Rush move speed. When Sett uses W and has it on cooldown, you want to go for a one shot on him. If he's smart with his W usage, then all you can do is slowly poke him out with Ironspike Whip and Stridebreaker. When Sett is at an HP where you can Q E Ironspike Whip or Stridebreaker him and burst him with R while he's silenced, then you can easily kill him. You want to use your silence to make sure he can't get his W shield when you all in him for a kill. How to trade? : Knowing how to trade with Sett is incredibly important as you can get punished by him very fast and very hard if you extend the trade or get hit by his E in a particular part of the lane. You need to make sure to be using W on his E to bring yourself out of his stun faster. It allows you to avoid things like his W and Q damage. In early levels you can try to auto Q E Sett and then run away with Phase Rush right after, but it's risky. You mostly want to play for the Ironspike Whip powerspike so that you can repeatedly short trade him with Q E Ironspike Whip. You want to avoid his grit damage after doing this trade so make sure to not walk into him after you get your Phase Rush running. You can do the same with Stridebreaker and you essentially want to poke Sett out of lane without doing an extended fight against him. What to build? : Rushing Ironspike Whip is a must, sometimes rushing Stridebreaker right after instead of Berserker Greaves can be good too so you can get the best poke possible on him in the side lane and during laning phase in general. You can most likely stick with the normal build without going anything like Black Cleaver into him because eventually you will not be able to side lane against him. Play to one shot his team if you can with items like Death's Dance.

MEDIUM MATCHUP RUNES: Phase Rush, Nimbus Cloak, Celerity, Gathering Storm. Resolve: Conditioning, Unflinching/Overgrowth. SUMMONER SPELLS: Flash Ghost to match Tryndamere's Ghost. What's the win condition? : Tryndamere is one of those matchups where all you need to do is survive. Garen becomes way stronger than Tryndamere in the 1v1 as the game goes on, purely because Garen will be able to kite Tryndamere with items like Stridebreaker, and runes like Phase Rush. In order to actually beat Tryndamere, you need to poke off his ultimate with yours. This can be hard to do before Stridebreaker, so a general good rule of thumb is to just farm until you have it and then you can go for an all-in with your Q E R onto him so that he Rs. Once he has no R, you can easily one shot him with Q E Stridebreaker. It's very important you kite him with the Stridebreaker active and Phase Rush when forcing out his ultimate ability. How to trade? : You don't really want to trade at all in the laning phase against Tryndamere. If he spins on you, you want to W his spin damage and then auto Q E and run away with the Phase Rush active. If Tryndamere ghosts, you ghost in response, and you avoid all extended trades against him if possible. Eventually when you get Stridebreaker you can spam Q E Stridebreaker on him to poke him down, but there's not much to do in laning phase even with Ironspike Whip due to his immense sustain. What to build? : If you see Tryndamere build boots, you need to build boots. If you see him build Berserker Greaves, you need to build Berserker Greaves. Matching Tryndamere's movement speed is incredibly important as he has tons of mobility and you don't want to get all inned since your objective is to survive. Going Deadman's Plate 2nd is advised since he's squishy enough for you to force his R with just Stridebreaker and Deadman's. Death's Dance is a pretty good item here if you're against a mostly AD team.

MEDIUM MATCHUP, HARD MATCHUP IN HIGH ELO RUNES: Phase Rush, Nimbus Cloak, Celerity, Gathering Storm. Resolve: Conditioning/Second Wind, Unflinching/Overgrowth. SUMMONER SPELLS: Flash Ghost. Flash Ignite can work if you are confident you can kill him before Stridebreaker. What's the win condition? : The Jayce matchup is similar to the Gangplank matchup in the sense that you can't win early game, but you can easily kill him once you get Stridebreaker. You want to farm as hard as possible, but it's not bad to give some CS since he bullies you incredibly hard early game. The plan is to one shot him once you get R with your ghost when he's on your side of the lane. This is preferably done with Ironspike Whip, and is pretty consistent to do as long as you don't get one shot by him first. If you are at a low hp already, it's risky to do since he can just kill you first before you burst him. When he's around 80-90% hp though, you can definitely all in with ghost if he's on your side of the lane and you have Ironspike Whip. How to trade? : You don't really want to trade with Jayce too often. You can put 2 points into Q early game since he will just knock you back if you aren't ghosting at him and the most you will get is a Q. When you get Ironspike Whip you can Q E Ironspike Whip him for a short trade, but this can be risky at times since he can extend trades on you pretty easily with his range and fast combos. Stick to all inning with ghost for the most part. What to build? : Rush Ironspike Whip first item for your all in strength. Jayce is incredibly squishy and builds lethality early, so building Deadman's Plate 2nd is probably a good idea if the rest of his team is somewhat squishy. It's hard to deal with his insane burst if you don't have any armor, and you need the move speed to catch up to him. Death's Dance is a good option at some point as well.

MEDIUM MATCHUP RUNES: Phase Rush, Nimbus Cloak, Celerity, Gathering Storm OR Conqueror, Triumph, Legend: Tenacity, Last Stand. Resolve: Conditioning, Unflinching/Overgrowth. SUMMONER SPELLS: Flash Ignite so that you can cut off her insane healing in all ins. What's the win condition? : Gwen beats you in extended trades, but not in short ones. You want to go for tons of short trades into Gwen even if she wins them slightly since she has no sustain compared to you and if you are patient enough you can easily all in her from 60-70% hp with Ignite and R available. Don't forget to use Phase Rush to escape her ult by doing auto Q E to get it running since Phase Rush reduces the slow amount. This matchup is just about playing around your Ignite and ultimate so that you can all in her when she's been slightly chunked. How to trade? : Gwen loses usually to Garen's auto Q E, especially with Phase Rush since she has no way of extending the trade past that kind of interaction. You never want to use your E as a starter to a trade since it'll just lead to her getting the extended trade she wants. You want to focus on poking her with just Q and auto Q E. When you get Ironspike Whip you can Q E Ironspike as well, just remember to time your W with her Q. What to build? : Gwen becomes INCREDIBLY strong mid to late game, so it's advised to purchase a Maw of Malmortius at some point along with a Black Cleaver to reduce her insane armor. Building Mortal Reminder 2nd is essential because of her healing and tankiness, so make sure you do that. Rush Ironspike Whip as well so you can go for more short trades.

MEDIUM MATCHUP RUNES: Conqueror, Triumph, Legend: Tenacity, Last Stand. Resolve: Conditioning/Bone Plating, Unflinching/Overgrowth/Demolish. SUMMONER SPELLS: Flash Ghost. Flash Ignite can work if you are confident you can kill him easier throughout the game with it. What's the win condition? : Shen is a champion that is very strong early game. It's important to respect him as his Q does a lot of damage, I even go W start level 1 into Shen to avoid his damage. When Shen passive expires you can go for extended trades on him with your E and W up, but it's important to remember that he can use his taunt to bring you to his jungle if you get ganked. Respecting Shen before level 6 is a good idea since he isn't really able to do anything other than kill you with his good early game at that point. Once you get level 6 though, you can start looking for trades onto him provided you aren't too low so you don't die to his Ignite cheese. You want to permanently shove in Shen at level 6 and ping that he has ultimate so your team is the safest possible from his roaming. It becomes really easy to fight him once you get Berserker Greaves and Ironspike Whip. He dies from about 60% HP post 6 in an all in. How to trade ? : If possible, it's good to E as Shen taunts you as he will probably be stuck on top of you as you're taunted and you'll just keep spinning while CC'd. You can also W his E to greatly reduce the duration of the taunt, or you can W his Q auto empowerment since it's a lot of damage added on. It's generally good to E a Shen for an extended duration to stack up your Conqueror after he has an ability on cooldown to punish him. What to build? : Building against Shen is pretty straightforward, since he's tankier, you will want to go Mortal Reminder 2nd so that you're able to punish him and bully him easier in the 1v1. You will mostly be side laning against Shen and trying to make him weak so he can't help his team with his R. Deadman's Plate is advised 3rd since you will need to escape the enemy team collapsing on you when you are side laning against the Shen. Black Cleaver at a later stage if he becomes too tanky is also good too.

HARD MATCHUP RUNES: Conqueror, Triumph, Legend: Tenacity, Last Stand. Resolve: Conditioning, Unflinching/Overgrowth. SUMMONER SPELLS: Flash Ghost, or Flash Ignite if you think you will be able to all in him before Stridebreaker. What's the win condition? : Aatrox is a hard lane bully, and will win early game easily if he is half decent as a player. He makes farming very hard for Garen by being able to land Qs on you every time you walk up for CS and can easily dive you if he has Ignite. It's important to survive lane if you can and try to make it to your Stridebreaker without being significantly behind. If you have any form of grievous wounds and you have Stridebreaker finished, you can probably kill Aatrox in a 1v1 from full HP. It can be risky, but it's very doable once you get your item finished. Otherwise, turtle up and get as much CS as you can in lane as he is brutal to deal with in laning phase. Remember to be thinking about the fact that you will outscale if you get level 11 and Stridebreaker at the same time he gets Goredrinker and level 11 as well. (Remember to get at least executioners before all inning with ghost!) How to trade? : Aatrox isn't really a champion you are going to short trade against very often. He can easily win the short trade against you since he will just dash backwards and Q you in the face. You can try to dodge these, but if you are going to go for a trade, it's preferred that it's extended and slightly after he has used 1 or 2 of his Qs to begin with. Usually just Q E walk away will work after you dodge some of his abilities. Otherwise, you really just want to farm in this matchup. What to build? : Berserker's Greaves rush is a must and also a Mortal Reminder 2nd is also a must. You need to be able to kill him 1v1 since he is a lot better at teamfighting. If he gets too tanky with an item like Death's Dance, it's not a bad idea to buy Black Cleaver.

HARD MATCHUP RUNES: Phase Rush, Nimbus Cloak, Celerity, Gathering Storm OR Conqueror, Triumph, Legend: Tenacity, Last Stand. Resolve: Conditioning, Unflinching/Overgrowth. SUMMONER SPELLS: Flash Ignite so that you can easily one shot her early and later in the game since she gets a bit tanky with HP. What's the win condition? : Akali isn't actually that strong in the early game, especially not into Garen. She can harass you with Qs here and there, but as long as you don't go too crazy, it's pretty much impossible for her to kill you before she hits level 6. You want to play for some early game aggression by going for some auto Q E plays with Phase Rush and slightly extending the trades with your E over her for a few seconds. If she's chunked to 60% HP it's very possible to just Q E Ignite the Akali once you have ultimate and one shot her even if she uses her dashes. However if you don't make anything happen early game, it can be very difficult to deal with her once she's scaled up. How to trade? : It's not really easy to do, but understanding when Akali will use Q so that you can W it is pretty big in this matchup sometimes. You usually want to just go for auto Q or Q E into Akali since it can be hard to extend trades into her when she has her shroud or her E available. She has a lot of ways to dodge your E while it's running so be sure to only use it during the starting of your silence or to get Phase Rush going with auto Q E. You don't want to extend trades too much into her if she is post level 6 since she will be able to R Ignite you at some point. What to build? : Buying Maw of Malmortius 3rd item if there are other AP champs on her team is definitely a good idea. You will also need Mortal Reminder 2nd to kill her later as she will be very tanky by the time you're buying a 2nd item and it's important to have enough damage. You can go either Berserker Greaves or Ironspike Whip, both are good.

EASY MATCHUP RUNES: Phase Rush, Nimbus Cloak, Celerity, Gathering Storm OR Conqueror, Triumph, Legend: Tenacity, Last Stand. Resolve: Conditioning, Unflinching/Overgrowth. SUMMONER SPELLS: Flash Ignite. Can go Flash Ghost if you are confident in trading and all-inning the Yone. What's the win condition? : Yone is a very squishy champion that is easy to one shot and beat since he has no sustain early game. However, this does not mean he is a pushover entirely. If you use your E and he kites it out and is able to re-engage on you with it on cooldown, you can easily die. He can do this with R, but it's unlikely if you use Phase Rush properly to back off after you use your cooldowns. It's also very easy to all-in Yone at around 80% hp when you have R and Ignite. Respecting him until you have at least level 5 is advised since his early game isn't that bad with Lethal Tempo. How to trade? : Trading Yone is quite easy as he doesn't have many ways to stop you once you purchase Ironspike Whip. He's capable of kiting with his Q dash and E, but if he has to use those abilities to avoid your Q E Ironspike Whip combo or auto Q E, you are winning. You want to look for tiny bits of short trade damage on him through those combos and then you can easily all-in him even when he's almost full hp with Ignite and R. It's important to recognize the fact he has a large shield with his W so keep that in mind when calculating your damage for all-ins and trades. You don't want to move into Yone as you spin since he will win extended trades from full hp. What to build? : Yone is a shieldbow user so it's a good idea to think about Serpent's Fang later in the game as a potential 4th or 5th item if the enemy composition also has some other shields. Rushing Ironspike Whip if you have Phase Rush is advised as you will be able to go for more short trades to poke him down with Q E Ironspike Whip. You can also purchase Black Cleaver at some point as well if he becomes too tanky with Death's Dance and Guardian Angel. Mortal Reminder as your 2nd item is advised since you lose 1v1 potential if you buy too much armor and tank items.

MEDIUM MATCHUP RUNES: Conqueror, Triumph, Legend: Tenacity, Last Stand. Resolve: Conditioning, Unflinching/Overgrowth. SUMMONER SPELLS: Flash Ghost, or Flash Ignite if you think you will be able to all in him before Stridebreaker. What's the win condition? : Renekton is one of those champions like Aatrox that can easily just win early game. Renekton is built around being an early game champion, so if you are able to put yourself in a position where you have Stridebreaker and level 11 with just a little bit less CS than him, you're going to have a pretty good advantage. If you have any form of grievous wounds and he isn't significantly ahead with level 11 and Stridebreaker, you can easily win 1v1 against him. It's just about surviving that early game, and doing your best to not get dove by him and his jungler after a bad trade which you want to avoid. How to trade? : Renekton isn't a champion you want to try trading if he has any fury stacked up (the red bar below his health) since that is when he is at his strong point. All of his empowered abilities will be stronger than Garen's in the early game and you want to avoid going for short trades when he has it. However if he does not, you can simply go for a Q E, let your E run on him for a bit with Conqueror stacking up, and then back off when your E is over. If you continue, you won't have any more damage to use without Q and E and the trade will be loseable after that. Consider the fact that he has insane dive potential so sometimes it's worth to just go for scaling instead of trading at all if his jungler is topside so you don't get dove. What to build? : Berserker Greaves rush is advised since you are going Conqueror and you don't want to be slower than Renekton. Buying a Ruby Crystal at some point early game if you have only 400 gold is also pretty good so that you can get through the laning phase better. Make sure to buy Mortal Reminder 2nd so that you have better all in potential after level 11, especially with Flash Ghost since you need your grievous to come from somewhere.

EASY MATCHUP RUNES: Conqueror, Triumph, Legend: Tenacity, Last Stand. Resolve: Conditioning, Unflinching/Overgrowth. SUMMONER SPELLS: Flash Ghost, or Flash Ignite if you think you will be able to all in him sometime during the lane. What's the win condition? : Malphite is a weak laner against Garen. His whole idea is to abuse champions with low sustain by spamming his Q with Arcane Comet, but this doesn't work against Garen since Garen builds Doran's Shield and has his passive to survive Malphite's poke. It's still good to be careful if you take too much poke as it's possible for him to kill you with an all in with his R when you are 30% hp, but it's pretty hard to get poked out that hard without just running at his face repeatedly. You want to look for all-ins on him with your E and Conqueror stacking up damage on him after he has no Q so that you can snowball into him hard. Be careful post 6 for his R, his jungler can get a massive gank setup from Malphite's airborne so be careful if the enemy jungler is top with Malphite. When it comes time to teamfight, you need to match him as you will be more useful than him if you have flash ghost since you will be able to kill his back line quite easily. How to trade? : When Malphite uses his Q, even if you cleanse the slow with your Q, it can still be hard to catch up to him when he gets his insane move speed. That's why you need to catch Malphite off guard by Q E'ing him when he goes for a minion, or if he does not have Q up. You want to zone him off the minions and go for long trades with Q E, spinning on him as long as possible since his passive shield prevents you from going for poke onto him. What to build? : Malphite is a champion you should rush Berserker Greaves into since he will got a lot of move speed from his Q and you want to be able to punish him easier when he doesn't have it with your extended trades. It's important to realize that you don't need Mortal Reminder to kill him since he has no sustain in the side lane. You can build it, but Deadman's Plate 2nd is also good into him because it allows you to chase him with multiple slows to prevent his Q move speed. Black Cleaver later in the game is usable into him, but it doesn't really do much since he becomes so tanky.

EASY MATCHUP RUNES: Conqueror, Triumph, Legend: Tenacity, Last Stand. Resolve: Conditioning, Unflinching/Overgrowth. SUMMONER SPELLS: Flash Ignite, or Flash Ghost if you think you can kill him without Ignite. What's the win condition? : The Sion matchup is pretty easy to win by playing it similar to the Malphite matchup. You can extend trades on him with your Conqueror and E, and his base hp early game is too low to deal with Garen's damage. You want to chunk Sion out since he has no sustain and then all in him preferably when he has his shield (W) on cooldown. If he's around 60% hp, it's pretty doable for an all-in. You want to usually stay side laning mid to late game against Sion since he is able to split push pretty effectively. He will essentially be a bag of money at a certain point if you put him far back enough. Just match what he is doing and you will be fine. How to trade? : You want to chunk Sion out of lane very hard at every opportunity you get with Q and E. Sion can't deal with Garen's extended trades since his base hp is so low early game and you will be able to easily survive his response of abilities if you W at the proper time. Remember that short trades into his W will probably not work since he has Grasp of the Undying and his shield will get pretty big fast. Remember to use your W against his Q when you are just about to move out of the Q since that's when he will smash it down. What to build? : Going for Berserker Greaves rush is probably the best since you want to extend and punish the Sion easily and the Greaves move speed allows you to follow up your armor penetration from your E since you want to extend after his W shield is over. Building Deadman's 2nd is a good idea into him if you are fed enough since you will be able to chunk him very hard by running your full Q E Stridebreaker on him on top of Conqueror. If you are even in gold, Mortal Reminder is probably better for more damage. If you want to continue side laning into him into the mid to late game, buying Black Cleaver after your 3rd item is probably a good idea. Otherwise you can build normally and just focus his team instead.

HARD MATCHUP (In lane.) RUNES: Phase Rush, Nimbus Cloak, Celerity, Gathering Storm. Resolve: Conditioning, Unflinching/Overgrowth. SUMMONER SPELLS: Flash Ghost, Flash Ignite if you think you can all in him after winning a series of short trades. What's the win condition? : Mordekaiser is another one of those lane bullies that just beats Garen in lane if he hits his abilities, but becomes very useless outside of lane, especially into the mid to late game objective teamfights. He's very slow and has no movement abilities, which is why he's strong in lane. He's investing all of his strengths into beating you up in lane and has no move speed which means he's allocating everything into 1v1 potential. The best play as Garen is to fish for certain small short trades while avoiding an extended trade from Mordekaiser's pull. It's possible to all-in him if he uses W incorrectly and puts it on cooldown when he's 60-70% HP, but it's usually best to just farm for your Stridebreaker and level 11 so you can go straight into teamfighting since he will get outranged and cc'd by your team. How to trade? : Focusing on dodging Mordekaisers abilities before going for a trade is a good idea almost all the time. If you dodge his pull (E), you'll be in a great spot since he will have no way to extend the trade on you if you want out of the trade since you can simply go for an auto Q E on him. The main purpose of Phase Rush however is to simply be able to run away from him during the laning phase. You don't want him to extend the trade against him since his passive gives him nice sustained damage and he overall has a better all-in than Garen. Use Phase Rush to speed away from him if he pulls you in as well, but you overall want to avoid trading too much against Mordekaiser as he usually will win the laning phase interactions. What to build? : Rushing Ironspike Whip is best since you can get more consistent short trades into him without having to go for an auto Q E because of Phase Rush. Buying Mortal Reminder 2nd is probably the best idea since even though you are going to be teamfighting, you want to be able to front to back the Mordekaiser if he is trying to frontline. Buying Serpent's Fang at some point isn't a bad idea either if the enemy team composition has some decent shielding along with Mordekaiser's shields.

EASY MATCHUP RUNES: Conqueror, Triumph, Legend: Tenacity, Last Stand. Resolve: Conditioning, Unflinching/Overgrowth. SUMMONER SPELLS: Flash Ignite, or Flash Ghost if you think you can kill him without Ignite. What's the win condition? : Similar to other tank matchups, the Ornn matchup is about extending the trade with Conqueror and E running for full duration. You need to do big chunks against him and playing aggressively is advised since he is weak early game. He can mess you up if you play a bit too crazy, but it's important to punish him early. You can easily all in him with E auto Q and Ignite R when he is around 60-70% hp. It's important to not focus him in teamfights later in the game unless he is caught out since he will be too tanky to deal with, even with Black Cleaver on Garen. How to trade? : An important thing to realize is that it's very hard for Garen to lose trades into Ornn, no matter how you approach it. It's typically good to go for Q E and then E'ing for full duration, but you can do E auto Q if he walks into you for even more damage from the armor shred. Make sure to W his W, the empowered auto that marks you with a symbol above your head, and don't fight him without W after level 3 unless you are confident you win the trade with something like Ironspike Whip or Stridebreaker. He has no sustain so even short trades will work as well if you want to avoid the enemy jungler from ganking. What to build? : Rushing Berserker Greaves is probably best since you want to extend trades into him with Q E and have the move speed to follow up the armor shred. Buying Black Cleaver 4th item is possible, but probably not best as he will be too tanky anyway for you to deal with. Best to build for the other champions on his team that you want to one shot mid to late game.

EASY MATCHUP RUNES: Conqueror, Triumph, Legend: Tenacity, Last Stand. Resolve: Conditioning, Unflinching/Overgrowth. SUMMONER SPELLS: Flash Ignite so that you can punish his weak early game. What's the win condition? : Nasus is a champion you need to stop from scaling immediately. You want to zone him off of every minion possible, stand in front of the wave, and make sure he gets as little stacks as possible. You also want to chunk him with a long Q E trade as soon as he steps up to Q a minion. Slow pushing every wave is ideal as you will crash a big minion wave and then be able to recall since his wave clear is terrible early game. Once he pushes back to you after your recall, freeze as soon as you get back to lane and he will be screwed. You keep 4 casters perpetually, and he will get chunked massively every time he walks up. You can all in him when he's about 60-70% hp with Ignite, just factor in his ultimate into your all in calculations. It's really easy to punish Nasus, I would recommend watching a few videos of high elo Garen vs Nasus so you know for sure since it can be very bad if you make small laning mistakes against him. It's very important to remember chunking him hard is better than a short trade since he has plenty of sustain. Be careful for Nasus' potential to all in you as well if you have no Q. If you use Q into a Nasus with sheen and he has ghost to R and run you down when you have no escape, you are as good as dead so it's important to remember that he's able to punish your Q with his wither that you want to cleanse. How to trade? : Trading Nasus is very easy, you want to go as crazy on him as possible if he steps up in melee range against you. If you don't have E, you just auto Q him, and if you have E, you extend the trade to the maximum length possible so that he gets chunked the hardest. If you put him to around 40% hp and you are both pre 6, you can probably dive him with Q E Ignite. It's just important to realize that he has lots of sustain so you want your trades to be setup in a way where you can easily run your full E on him. Remember that leading a trade with Q can be dangerous since you won't be able to cleanse his slow without it so make sure you are positioned in a way that is safe in the lane so you don't get run down for putting Q on cooldown. What to build? : Ironspike Whip or Berserker Greaves rush both work, it depends on what Nasus builds. If he goes for boots it's probably good to respond to his boots since his base move speed is high and you want to be able to extend the trades. Buying Black Cleaver at some point mid to late game is a good idea since his ultimate gives him a lot of armor. Mortal Reminder is a must buy on your 2nd because of his healing with Divine Sunderer and passive.

EASY MATCHUP RUNES: Phase Rush, Nimbus Cloak, Celerity, Gathering Storm OR Conqueror, Triumph, Legend: Tenacity, Last Stand. Resolve: Conditioning, Unflinching/Overgrowth. SUMMONER SPELLS: Flash Ignite, or Flash Ghost if you think you can kill him without Ignite. What's the win condition? : Gragas isn't a champion I have seen much of so I can't give great advice, but what I can say is that he will not be able to deal with Garen's sustain since he will run out of mana. Gragas does have a lot of free healing in his kit, but Garen can repeatedly trade with Q E and W up and the most he can do is body slam you and walk away. Short trades and long trades against him will work, and the goal is to just burst him when he's around 50-60% hp with an all in. You can typically walk at him and see what happens, using Q as he body slams will work since Garen's Q is an unstoppable auto attack. How to trade? : As mentioned above, you can kinda just brute force him by going for a Q E on him every time it's up. It's important to respect the aoe slowing barrel he throws out and he has good gank setup, but you can easily go for short and long trades against him and Garen will out sustain his mana problems. What to build? : A Berserker's Greaves rush is probably best since it will allow you to extend trades on him easier. Mortal Reminder 2nd is probably best since he deals magic damage and you don't want to build armor into that. If he gets too tanky later in the game you can opt for a Black Cleaver or a Maw of Malmortius.

HARD MATCHUP RUNES: Conqueror, Triumph, Legend: Tenacity, Last Stand. Resolve: Conditioning, Unflinching/Overgrowth. SUMMONER SPELLS: Flash Ignite, or Flash Ghost if you think you can kill him without Ignite. What's the win condition? : Urgot is one of those champions that you need to chunk out with extended trades since he has little sustain. His early game beats yours, but there are things to do to win. It's very hard to deal with his mid to late game after the 1st item he buys regardless of what it is, since he gets incredibly tanky for Garen, so it's important to win early game. It's important to start W level 1 into him because of the whole interaction with Urgot E (his flip) and Garen's W tenacity. Since Urgot stuns you after he places you from the flip, it's important to W it. Urgot's level 1-2 should be respected as he beats 90% of melee champions during it and there's not much you can do to win. After chunking him to around 50-60% hp and you have Ignite, you should be able to beat him in an all in with Ignite and R while using your W to reduce his flips stun duration. How to trade? : It's important to remind yourself again that you cannot win if you do not have W, Q, and E available. However if you have all of your abilities up and you're not already on low hp, you can go for a trade that chunks him that is quite specific. If you run at him with Q he will dash towards you to flip you, which is what you want. As you see him move towards you, you W, and then you will reduce his flips stun duration. Then you can E and move backwards to get away from him and usually you will go even or lose the trade upfront. But since Garen has a healing passive, you will be fine since he has 0 sustain. You can also start this trade with E, it's just a bit more risky since he may not flip you immediately. If he doesn't flip you at all and you hit Q, it's a good idea to just E and move away since you will win the trade that way without using W. Remember that you can't trade him at all if you have no W since you will get flipped and chunked out incredibly hard for it. Always W his flip. What to build? : It's almost never a good idea to build to kill him, he will be too strong for you to deal with. Building Ironspike Whip first is generally a good idea into him even with Conqueror since you are going for the one specific trade where you chunk him hard while using your W for his flip. I would recommend just building to help your team with teamfights and objectives since that's where Urgot is weaker. It's impossible to 1v1 him in the side lane unless you're ahead.

MEDIUM MATCHUP RUNES: Conqueror, Triumph, Legend: Tenacity, Last Stand. Resolve: Conditioning, Unflinching/Overgrowth. SUMMONER SPELLS: Flash Ghost so that you can punish him easier for his hop being on cooldown. What's the win condition? : Gnar is one of those top laners that you won't really be able to do much into early game. He is able to easily poke you out and you want to respect his early game. At level 3 you can try going for short trades, but it isn't advised particularly. His mega passive can be dangerous since he can cc lock you for a long time and burst you with plenty of abilities if you are already low. What's important to do is to Q at him and force him to hop. If he doesn't hop you can just punish him for not moving at all with a Q E, and then you'll be happy. If he does hop, you back off and wait for your abilities to be up since his hop is on a long cooldown. Then if he walks up onto your side of the lane and he's slightly chunked on hp AND he does not have mega coming up soon with his hop on cooldown, you can ghost and all in him. Be sure to factor in his Bone Plating and Plated Steelcaps damage reduction that could throw you off for your burst. How to trade ? : You can chunk him out while he's in mega since it's easier because he is a melee champion. Be sure to use W on his abilities as you Q on him, and keep the trade short with your E while backing off. You can try to run at him with Q while he is mini, just be sure that you aren't already low. The goal is to bait out his hop so you can setup your ghost all in when your Q and E are up. What to build? : It's almost always a good idea to build a Mortal Reminder 2nd since he has a lot of healing with Divine Sunderer. Buying Berserker Greaves first is probably best for your Conqueror all in since it brings you more move speed and more spins. Black Cleaver can be bought later in the game since he isn't too tanky for you to not kill him with it.

HARD MATCHUP RUNES: Phase Rush, Nimbus Cloak, Celerity, Gathering Storm. Resolve: Conditioning, Unflinching/Overgrowth. SUMMONER SPELLS: Flash Ghost, or Flash Ignite if you think you can all in her in lane. What's the win condition? : Kayle is a massive outscaler to Garen. You need to zone her off of every minion pre 6 since you want to be as ahead as possible. However her early game can still be scary if you extend the trades as her auto attacks with Press the Attack can do a lot of damage. You typically want to go for auto Q into her to build up damage on her as you slow push the first waves and crash into her turret. If you crashed 3 waves together, you can recall and buy boots or Long Sword to punish her harder early as you come back. You want to try to freeze on her or Ghost/Ignite onto her if she's chunked to 50% hp or lower and the wave is slow pushing back to you if she hasn't recalled. If you don't punish her early game like this, it gets very hard to deal with her after level 6 since she will be able to slow you and outrange you very easily. If you are full hp, you can try to go for damage onto her by walking at her and seeing if she will use her slow on you. If she does, you can cleanse it with your Q and go for a short trade. If you poke her hard enough, you can easily all in her with your summoner spells up. Otherwise you farm for your Stridebreaker so you can use your slow to poke her in the end of laning phase and side lane with Q E Stridebreaker. This matchup is about getting her low enough so that you can be full hp to use your summoner spells on her to burst her. Remember that you can test her by using your Q when she's super low to see if she will R your Q. If she doesn't, you will just R her after if she is 20-25% hp. How to trade? : In the early game before she's ranged at level 6, you want to keep it short by doing auto Q or auto Q E and running away with Phase Rush. She wins extended trades in the early game even before level 6 so it's important to always keep it short. If you chunk her enough you can all in her, but it can be difficult still regardless cause of her kiting capabilities. Use your Q E Ironspike Whip as well to poke her if you get in melee range. What to build? : It's probably almost always best to rush Berserker Greaves since she gets so much free movement speed. The downside of this is that you will have to go for auto Q E to get Phase Rush running so that you can run away, but it's best so that you can match her move speed. Going Mortal Reminder 2nd is a must since she will get a lot of hp from Riftmaker. Maw of Malmortius and Force of Nature is also a really good option 3rd or 4th item.

MEDIUM MATCHUP RUNES: Phase Rush, Nimbus Cloak, Celerity, Gathering Storm. Resolve: Conditioning/Second Wind, Unflinching/Overgrowth. SUMMONER SPELLS: Flash Ghost, or Flash Ignite if you think you can kill him easier with it. What's the win condition? : Playing for your scaling as Garen into Teemo is always a good idea. His laning is a lot better than yours and he will poke you out quite easily, but all you have to do is survive. If you finish your Stridebreaker, Teemo will be super easy to kill with your ghost since he will get one shot and won't be able to keep himself off of you once you slow and ghost on him. Don't be afraid to give up some CS, and don't forget that he can blind your Q. If he blinds you while you are charging at him with Q, don't worry, as you can start your E while Q is running and then hit him with Q as your E ends. Make sure he's chunked a bit and is on your side of the lane before all inning with Ironspike Whip/Stridebreaker and ghost. Make sure you only all in when you have ultimate or a jungle ganking. How to trade? : Trading doesn't really exist into Teemo. It's all about that all in. You can try to Q and E at him and see if you hit it if he steps too close, but it's generally not a good idea. What to build? : Building Ironspike Whip first is essential since when you all in, you want the maximum damage possible and Berserker's Greaves won't do anything for you. You want to be able to ghost at him for the all in and Q E Ironspike Whip for the Phase Rush active to stay on top of him so you can auto him a few times into your ultimate execute. Building a Force of Nature at some point if there's other AP champions is also probably a good idea because of his shrooms.

MEDIUM MATCHUP RUNES: Conqueror, Triumph, Legend: Tenacity, Last Stand. Resolve: Conditioning, Unflinching/Overgrowth. SUMMONER SPELLS: Flash Ghost if you want to ignore him or Flash Ignite if you think you will be able to all in him. What's the win condition? : Volibear is a champion that is incredibly strong early, but gets outscaled when you buy an item like Stridebreaker. Getting to that point is the hard though, since he can easily dive you with his jungler since Volibear's R disables turrets. It's important to respect him early and to avoid being low when his jungler is top side. It's crucial to W his Q since will follow it up with an E which will slow you and do massive damage. Make sure to not walk up to him if he has W'd you since he will heal from using it again. You will be more useful at level 11 in 1v1 and teamfights, you just have to farm until then. It's possible to kill him pre level 11 if he uses E and it's on cooldown, but you probably have to have ignite. You can chunk him easily after Stridebreaker since he relies on movement speed and you can kite him with the slow. How to trade? : There is one way you can trade with Volibear, and it's through proper W usage. You need to use your W to reduce his stun duration of his Q so you can Q E walk away immediately after while avoiding his E since it slows you and does massive damage. If you do that enough times you will be fine, but it's important to have W for it. What to build? : Berserker Greaves rush is probably the best since it gives you more move speed to avoid his E after his Q. Mortal Reminder 2nd is advised since he rushes Divine Sunderer. Black Cleaver 4th item is good if he gets too tanky later.

MEDIUM MATCHUP RUNES: Conqueror, Triumph, Legend: Tenacity, Last Stand. Resolve: Conditioning, Unflinching/Overgrowth. SUMMONER SPELLS: Flash Ignite to cut off the healing from his ultimate. What is the win condition? : Mundo's early game can be surprisingly strong, especially if he knows what he is doing. He will be able to kite you with his Q slow and it will be hard to extend the trade on him. It's important to try to get your full E to run on him if you can as he doesn't handle Garen's extended trades well, it's just important to not take too much damage early game as he can really bully you hard if you go too crazy with it. When he's about 50-60% hp, you can easily all in him with Q E Ignite, it's just important to realize that he gains a bit of hp when he uses his ultimate. How to trade? : If Mundo walks into you, the maximum damage combo is E auto Q. It can be hard to land if he knows how to kite you though, so it's usually best to just go for Q E extended trades with your full spin. It depends on the wave state as well, if he's on his side of the lane you want to go for short trades. What to build? : Berserker Greaves is probably the best item to rush as he gets a lot of move speed and kiting potential from his abilities. Buying Mortal Reminder 2nd is a must into Mundo, and a Black Cleaver at 4th item is also super good too since he's made up of mostly hp and armor.

HARD MATCHUP RUNES: Phase Rush, Nimbus Cloak, Celerity, Gathering Storm. Resolve: Conditioning/Second Wind, Unflinching/Overgrowth. SUMMONER SPELLS: Flash Ghost so that you can follow up your junglers possible ganks and to scale into mid to late game. What's the win condition? : Quinn is one of those champions you won't be able to beat in lane until you have at least Stridebreaker. You have to farm as hard as you can since if you even try to Q her, she is able to hop off of you and cancel it entirely. The only time you can hit Q on her is if she kicks you and you don't use Q since her kick is on cooldown. And even then, you won't be able to get close enough to a Quinn for her to be in range for her to feel like she has to do that. If she uses her kick on you without you using Q and she's on your side of the lane and you have at least Ironspike Whip, you can probably ghost on her and try to Q E Ironspike Whip her for a kill with some auto attacks into a R. That's the only way I can see you getting a kill on her outside of getting her to kick off of you and then using Stridebreaker to slow her as well. Otherwise you have to farm because it's impossible to kill her without doing this. Make sure to ping your team if she's roaming! How to trade? : There isn't really much trading to be done into Quinn. You can try and test her by running at her and seeing if she uses her kick so that you can go for a Q on her afterwards, but it's really hard since she gets free move speed. Best to farm. What to build? : If her team is squishy like she is, building Deadman's Plate 2nd is a great idea. You will do enough damage to one shot people and you'll get some nice extra armor. Rushing Plated Steelcaps or Ironspike Whip is probably best since you want to survive and be able to one shot her with the massive AD Ironspike Whip gets when you ghost on her. Only buy Steelcaps if she has other auto attack champions on her team like Yone and an ADC.

EASY MATCHUP RUNES: Phase Rush, Nimbus Cloak, Celerity, Gathering Storm. Resolve: Conditioning, Unflinching/Overgrowth. SUMMONER SPELLS: Flash Ignite so that you can do damage through his free armor and reduce his Divine Sunderer healing if you haven't gotten Executioner's Calling yet. What's the win condition? : Short trades. Short trades are what make this matchup so easy, and Garen excels at them against Wukong in particular. You want to avoid fighting him for too long since he will stack up his passive armor and he has more sustained damage than Garen, but Garen can easily back off after hitting his Q and can disengage with W. Wukong has 0 sustain so after enough short trades of you just walking away from him every time, he will have to recall or else he gets one shot and tower dove. At around 50-60% hp if you have Ignite and R, you can probably burst him. How to trade? : Usually against Wukong as mentioned above, you want to keep the trades short. You do this by hitting him with auto Q, auto Q E, and Q E. After doing these trades you need to run away immediately so that he does not extend the trade on you. If Wukong is CS'ing a minion, you can go for auto Q E. If he Es onto you, you W his E damage, and then you Q E and move away. Your goal is to keep the trades short with simple Qs and backing off with E running so that if he chases you he gets hit by the E while you are moving away. What to build? : Rushing Ironspike Whip is best since it allows you to go for harder short trades and you won't really be needing the move speed to hit him with the trades you want to do. Buying Mortal Reminder 2nd is necessary since you want anti-heal for his Divine Sunderer when you chunk him in the side lane with Q E Stridebreaker. If he gets too tanky with items like Death's Dance, you can opt for Black Cleaver.

MEDIUM MATCHUP RUNES: Conqueror, Triumph, Legend: Tenacity, Last Stand. Resolve: Conditioning, Unflinching/Overgrowth. SUMMONER SPELLS: Flash Ghost so that you can punish him for extending far in your lane when you have R. What's the win condition? : Graves bullies Garen pretty hard in lane so you want to try to survive his poke. Your goal is to get him chunked out slightly with a short trade, and then using ghost on him when he is on your side of the lane and you think you will have enough damage to burst him with Q E. It's hard to do sometimes so it's not too bad to go for the consistent scaling strategy with ghost to just farm until Stridebreaker. If you get Stridebreaker though, you can easily chunk him super hard in lane and in side lane. Just be careful for his surprising damage he can dish out at times. The overall winning play though is to keep the wave on your side and see if you can run him down with ghost if he's chunked out enough. How to trade? : It's a bit hard to trade into Graves since he is ranged. The best thing you can do is if he doesn't respect you at all is Q E him if he Es towards you. Otherwise it's very hard to chunk him at all if he only uses E to move backwards. It's all about all-inning him if he took a towershot or minion aggro and then you can use ghost if you have enough damage and space in the lane to run him down. What to build? : Ironspike Whip rush is the best since you will have enough move speed in the all in already with ghost to stay on top of him. Mortal Reminder 2nd is a must since he gets too tanky with his free armor and your goal is to burst him first. You can build Serpent's Fang into him later if he has Immortal Shieldbow along with some shielding champion on his team.

MEDIUM MATCHUP RUNES: Conqueror, Triumph, Legend: Tenacity, Last Stand. Resolve: Conditioning, Unflinching/Overgrowth. SUMMONER SPELLS: Flash Ignite so that you can punish his weak early game and 1v1 him when he split pushes. What's the win condition? : Yorick is very weak level 1. You can start E level 1 into him and immediately play aggressive since he doesn't have much to stop you. You can simply auto E him and spin on him with Conqueror to get it fully stacked up. You have Ignite and you should be fine if he responds with an all-in since you will have the Grievous Wounds and true damage. It's important to realize when Yorick gets his level 3 with all of his abilities, you need to respect his cage. If he's slowpushing a wave to you when he has his ghouls up with more minions than you, it's important to respect him. If he hits you with his cage, you may need to flash if you are getting killed by his horde in the cage. The only thing you can do about the cage is auto Q and run away if you get hit by it, it's pretty much impossible to fight him while you're in it since you won't be able to move towards him if you E. If Yorick uses his cage and it doesn't hit you and you have level 6, you can try to all in him if he doesn't have too much health built yet with E auto Q Ignite R. You can also flash on him for a Q E Ignite R all in when he's around 50-60% hp. Main thing about this matchup is just respecting his slow push and punishing him in level 1-2 if you can. You can match his side lane pressure if you aren't behind quite easily with Ignite. If you see him splitpushing, you need to match him. How to trade? : When Yorick misuses his cage or you get out of it after he uses it by doing an auto Q on it, you can go for extended trades against him provided he doesn't have a stacked minion wave. This is done through Q E or E auto Q, just to chunk him so you can all in him with Ignite and R when he doesn't have cage up again. It's especially easy to chunk him with Stridebreaker since he has no movement and you can just Q E Stridebreaker him in the side lane and back off. What to build? : Yorick becomes very tanky later in the game, Black Cleaver is almost a must at 4th so you can do damage to him. He outscales you somewhat if he is even gold with you, so it's important to go for items that cut off his strengths like Mortal Reminder 2nd which reduces his Divine Sunderer healing. Rushing Berserker Greaves is probably best since it allows you to break his cage faster if needed and allows you to extend trades easier.

MEDIUM MATCHUP RUNES: Phase Rush, Nimbus Cloak, Celerity, Gathering Storm OR Conqueror, Triumph, Legend: Tenacity, Last Stand. Resolve: Conditioning, Unflinching/Overgrowth. SUMMONER SPELLS: Flash Ignite if you want to punish his low HP in the early game, or Flash Ghost if you think you will be unable to kill him and you want to scale. What's the win condition? : Cho'Gath is a champion that has some of the most amounts of sustain in top lane. The healing he gets from killing minions is insane, and you want to chunk him hard similar to Nasus. If he's chunked hard enough, he won't even be able to walk up to the wave to heal since you will be able to zone him off so you want to go for very heavy trades if you can. Eventually he will outscale you in the side lane since he will be too tanky to deal with unless he's already super behind. It might sound weird, but you want to play around your team against Cho'Gath mid to late game if he survived lane since he gets destroyed by range and CC very hard. Your ADC can build LDR and he will go poof. It's important to try zone him off the minions in laning phase though since he will try to heal off of them. Don't underestimate his strong base numbers as he can dish out a lot of damage early if you're not careful. Make sure to not focus him in teamfights unless your team has caught him out, you want to kill his team and not him since you do no damage to him unless he's low and you can R. How to trade? : It depends on what rune you have, but generally what's good is auto Q E, letting your spin rest on him for a bit, and then backing off. You want to chunk him hard so it's important to let your E rest for a bit on him as much as you can. However if he's responding with too much damage it's not bad to go for shorter trades or just auto Q and Q E walk away. What to build? : Probably Berserker Greaves if you have Conqueror, and Ironspike Whip if you have Phase Rush. It's important to realize that past level 9 and his first tank item, it'll be very hard to kill him. So because of this, building Mortal Reminder won't be very effective since you want to play around your team mid game, and you won't be killing him even if you build it. You can build Mortal Reminder 3rd item after Deadman's Plate 2nd, but you wouldn't go it to kill Cho'Gath. Probably not worth going Black Cleaver into him since he will be too tanky that Black Cleaver won't even matter. You just want to go straight for his team in teamfights so you build to kill them.

HARD MATCHUP RUNES: Phase Rush, Nimbus Cloak, Celerity, Gathering Storm. Resolve: Conditioning/Second Wind, Unflinching/Overgrowth. SUMMONER SPELLS: Flash Ghost so that you can follow up your junglers possible ganks and to scale into mid to late game. What's the win condition? : Playing to scale is pretty crucial into Akshan as he has one of the best early games in top lane. He will bully you incredibly hard and there's not much you will be able to do about it other than farm as hard as you can without getting dove by his jungler. You can try to all in him if he doesn't have Immortal Shieldbow and you have Stridebreaker and ghost, but it's still really difficult as he can grappling hook for an easy escape. Make sure to include his shield he gets in your damage calculation. Teamfighting against him is advised since you will provide more utility and your team will be able to catch him out if you Q E Stridebreaker him. All-inning him in lane is possible once you get level 6 and he maybe is chunked to 60-70% hp, but it's still pretty difficult and it's safer to farm. Waiting for your jungler to gank him when you have ghost available is also a good strategy. How to trade? : You can't really do much to trade against Akshan as he will get free movement speed, a shield, has Bone Plating, and can just grappling hook away from you whenever he feels there's any danger to him. It's best to go for all-ins or just farm into Akshan. What to build? : Buying Plated Steelcaps first into Akshan isn't a bad option if he has other auto attackers on his team since it reduces his damage a ton in laning phase. Buying Deadman's Plate 2nd isn't a bad idea if he doesn't have Immortal Shieldbow. If he does have Immortal Shieldbow, Mortal Reminder 2nd is probably better so you can actually kill him by yourself.

EASY MATCHUP RUNES: Phase Rush, Nimbus Cloak, Celerity, Gathering Storm. Resolve: Conditioning, Demolish. SUMMONER SPELLS: Flash Ghost so that you can run away from her team collapsing on you while you try to take towers. What's the win condition? : Janna top is a roaming support top lane which means she probably won't be laning for the most part. You want to permanently shove the minion waves unless you're clearly getting collapsed on by her mid and jungle so be sure to look at your minimap to see if you are going to get ganked. You definitely want to go Demolish into this lane since you will be able to use it pretty much every time it is up. Your goal is to get as fed as you can as she runs around the map. You try to take as many plates as you can and kill the turret ASAP. Once you get your level 11 you can start roaming around matching her with your ghost up to one shot her squishy hypercarry team. It's pretty easy to lane against since she doesn't even lane, and you can steal the enemy jungle camps and take the tier 2 turret even if you know where the enemy team is on the map with Janna. How to trade? : When she's in lane for the little amount of time that she is, you just respect her and shove the wave fast. She's able to completely neutralize trades if you try to go for them, and unless you have a way to all in her with ghost and Stridebreaker, you aren't going to kill her with trades. What to build? : You don't have to every game, but rushing Hullbreaker 1st item into Janna top is pretty good. It allows you to eat the turrets alive and lets you take both top tier 2 turret and bot tier 2 turret which is a total of 1200 gold for you. You don't even have to go into your mythic on your 2nd item if you bought Hullbreaker first since you can just go for a Deadman's Plate 2nd to avoid getting collapsed on and to also rotate to teamfights that Janna will cause. You can also build Stridebreaker 2nd and then the normal build after that, it's whatever you want to do. Berserker Greaves rush is probably best since it gives you attack speed to hit the turret and move speed to run away if her team collapses on you while you split push.

MEDIUM MATCHUP RUNES: Phase Rush, Nimbus Cloak, Celerity, Gathering Storm. Resolve: Conditioning, Unflinching/Overgrowth. SUMMONER SPELLS: Flash Ghost so that you can match his ghost, or Flash Ignite if you think you can one shot him within your Q E Ignite R. What's the win condition? : Singed is a champion that is very weird to play against as Garen. He has no sustain so it's good to go for short trades against him if he is laning early game, but it's important to realize he can easily kill you if he has Ignite and you stand behind him while he has fling up. If you are level 6 and he is chunked to about 60-70% hp, you can try to all in him if you have Ironspike Whip with ghost or ignite. It's not the easiest to do though if he has his R and ghost to match yours so be careful. If he proxies behind your turret there's not much you can do other than wait for your jungler to come collapse on him and then you ghost on him to catch up for a Q E R. If he's proxying, you can just kill the minions that come to your turret or you can respond with a proxy of your own, just make sure you won't get rotated on by their mid and jungler. Remember to get Phase Rush active if he is slowing you with his goop circle. How to trade? : Usually you want to keep it short with auto Q E since he has little sustain and you can get away with the Phase Rush move speed with that combo. When you get Ironspike Whip it's good to go for Q E Ironspike Whip, although he may fling you if you try to do either of these. It's fine if he does since you can just back off and keep making him use mana as long as you're not too low on health. Using W on his fling is a good idea, and if he doesn't fling, on his poison as you walk at him is good too. What to build? : Ironspike Whip rush is pretty nice since you're going for short trades with Phase Rush anyway and you want to go for Q E Ironspike Whip. Building Mortal Reminder 2nd is a good idea since he will get too tanky to deal with if you go for Deadman's Plate. Force of Nature at some point if he has a team that does primarily magic damage is also good since you will need some move speed.

EASY MATCHUP RUNES: Phase Rush, Nimbus Cloak, Celerity, Gathering Storm OR Conqueror, Triumph, Legend: Tenacity, Last Stand. Resolve: Conditioning, Unflinching/Overgrowth. SUMMONER SPELLS: Flash Ignite. Can go Flash Ghost if you are confident in trading and all-inning the Yasuo. What's the win condition? : While this is an easy matchup, it's important to recognize that Yasuo is capable of kiting you in his minion wave, and also has a stronger level 1. If you respect these two things and play around them, there's not really much he can do to win this lane. Especially if you have Phase Rush, he won't be able to extend the trade on you with his Lethal Tempo if you use the Phase Rush move speed to run away after chunking him hard with a Q and E. It's so easy to all in Yasuo after level 4 and up though since his base HP is too low to deal with Garen's base damage. If you have Ignite Q E available and he has his passive shield on cooldown along with him being 60-70% hp, you can all in him and he will probably die to Q E Ignite. It becomes even easier with ultimate and an 1100 gold item. How to trade? : It's usually best to approach the trade with Q since he will get silenced and then you can let your spin run on him while he's silenced and he won't be able to use his E to kite you around the minion wave. However if there are no minions around, it's best to start with E since your Q damage is worse into his passive since it blocks all of it instantly while E's damage is more gradual. You're playing to get a big chunk on him since you want to punch through his passive shield and setup an HP where he is able to be all inned. What to build? : Ironspike Whip rush is probably best since it gives you the most all in power and will allow you to one shot his low base HP quite easily. It's also super good if you have Phase Rush since you will be able to stick on him anyway with Berserker Greaves since you can Q E Ironspike Whip. Building Mortal Reminder 2nd is a must, and buying Serpent's Fang later in the game isn't a bad idea if his Immortal Shieldbow is too much to deal with.

EASY MATCHUP RUNES: Conqueror, Triumph, Legend: Tenacity, Last Stand. Resolve: Conditioning, Unflinching/Overgrowth. SUMMONER SPELLS: Flash Ghost, or Flash Ignite if you think you will be able to all in her easier with it. What's the win condition? : Respecting Poppy's early levels is a good idea since she has very high base numbers. Until you get at least level 3, you probably don't want to go for anything too crazy. Poppy works similar to the other tanks where Garen will exceed in the fully extended trades with his E after level 3. It's important to W her push that stuns you against a wall since that ability is needed to work for her so she can extend a trade on you. Using Q E on Poppy is probably for the best since starting with E onto her is hard because she gets free move speed from her abilities. After level 6 the matchup starts to become very easy since her ult is for CC and peeling her team while yours is for a straight up 1v1. She's mostly made up out of HP so your base damage will cut through her like butter once you get through the early game. When she's around 50-60% HP, you can easily all in her with Q E R. How to trade? : Using your W on her projectile shield that she throws at you is a good idea since it does a lot of damage when it's stacked with Sheen and Grasp of the Undying. You want to also use W to reduce the CC of her push into the wall since that's an important ability for her. Otherwise you can just do short trades in early levels with Q E walk away and Q E in an extended manner post level 6. What to build? : Rushing Berserker Greaves is probably best to match her move speed that she gets from her kit and to also extend trades when you get your level 6 so that you can chunk her out pretty hard. Building Mortal Reminder 2nd is probably a good idea since she gets a lot of healing from Divine Sunderer. Consider Black Cleaver 4th item if the rest of her team is decently tanky.

HARD MATCHUP RUNES: Phase Rush, Nimbus Cloak, Celerity, Gathering Storm. Resolve: Conditioning/Second Wind, Unflinching/Overgrowth. SUMMONER SPELLS: Flash Ignite since she will be too tanky with Immortal Shieldbow and too fast with her own ghost and R. What's the win condition? : There's not much you can do against Vayne in lane other than hope she takes damage from your minions and turret. If she gets chunked out for at least 15% of her hp and you have Ignite and R, you can go for a Q E Ignite R all in on her since Q E Ignite gives you your Phase Rush active, but other than that there's not much you can do other than farm for Stridebreaker. She bullies you pretty hard in lane and it's not bad to drop a few CS to survive. Once you get Stridebreaker, it's important to check if she has Immortal Shieldbow before all-inning since it will cuck your damage pretty hard. You still can even if she has it up, you just need to be sure you hit your full damage with Ignite and everything available. Try to keep the wave on your side so your jungler can gank for you. How to trade? : You can't exactly trade into Vayne. She will auto you and take damage from minions while having no sustain which is super good for you since every bit of health that she loses counts to a potential all in for you with your Ignite and ultimate, but other than you can only really farm. What to build? : Building Berserker Greaves first is probably best since you want to be able to run away from her if she is using her passive to walk at you and continuously auto you with her W. You also don't need Ironspike Whip even though you have Phase Rush because you are just planning to Q E Ignite her for your Phase Rush to get active since that counts as 3 abilities hit. Going Serpent's Fang at some point is very effective into her Shieldbow. Building Mortal Reminder or Deadman's 2nd is fine, you just need to make sure you have enough damage into her for Deadman's 2nd to work.

EASY MATCHUP RUNES: Conqueror, Triumph, Legend: Tenacity, Last Stand. Resolve: Conditioning, Unflinching/Overgrowth. SUMMONER SPELLS: Flash Ignite so that you can punish him for dismounting when you have R. What's the win condition? : Kled can win early game against you quite easily since even if you dismount him before you hit 6, he will probably be able to get back on Skaarl right away before you kill him. It's important to respect him until you have at least level 6 since you can take too much damage and get dove by him quite easily. However once you have level 6 and you dismount him, you want to back off when he's hopped off of Skaaral. Once he's off and you get your Q E and Ignite up with R, you can simply combo him with that and he will die from the Ignite. It's good to flash on him sometimes with it since he gets his shotgun to vault himself backwards. Otherwise you farm and don't trade him unless you have these kinds of abilities available in your arsenal. How to trade? : You want to keep your trades against Kled short since he has pretty good extended trades with his Vicious Strike auto attacks. You typically just want to Q E him and then move away. Only do this when you will be able to safely walk back to your turret afterwards. If he gets his hook on you, W as it activates to reduce the slow duration afterwards. What to build? : Building Mortal Reminder is pretty good into him 2nd since he goes Goredrinker first typically. I would rush Berserker Greaves first into him since you want to be able to chase him when he's off of Skaaral. Black Cleaver at some point is good if he's too tanky to deal with and you want to be able to beat him in side lane or front to back him in a teamfight.

EASY MATCHUP RUNES: Phase Rush, Nimbus Cloak, Celerity, Gathering Storm. Resolve: Conditioning, Unflinching/Overgrowth. SUMMONER SPELLS: Flash Ignite so that you can do damage through his free armor and reduce his Divine Sunderer healing if you haven't gotten Executioner's Calling yet. What's the win condition? : Trundle has sustain but not much compared to yours. He won't be able to handle the short trades from Garen and he won't be able to win any short trades since Garen can W his empowered auto attack. Trundle can only possibly win if Garen extends the trade, and that's why we go Phase Rush here. If Trundle Rs you, you can simply run away with your Phase Rush move speed and if he uses his pillar, it will have almost no effect since you have Phase Rush to reduce the effectiveness of slows on you. If you poke him hard enough and he doesn't have R, you can all in with your Q E Ignite R. Doing an all in against him is pretty easy to do if he is 50-60% hp. How to trade? : auto Q, auto Q E, and Q E Ironspike Whip should always work. Remember to use your W for when he will use his chomp auto attack on you as that is the most damage from his kit. If he uses his pillar, you need to get your Phase Rush running ASAP to run away since he will extend the trade and win it when you are slowed. You almost never want to E auto Q him. What to build? : You almost always want to build Mortal Reminder 2nd into him as he will just steal your armor when he ults if you have Deadman's Plate 2nd. Building Black Cleaver 4th is advised if he stacks armor. Rush Ironspike Whip first since you are going Phase Rush for short trades with Q E Ironspike Whip.

EASY MATCHUP RUNES: Conqueror, Triumph, Legend: Tenacity, Last Stand. Resolve: Conditioning, Unflinching/Overgrowth. SUMMONER SPELLS: Flash Ghost, or Flash Ignite if you think you will be able to all in him easier with it. What's the win condition? : In order to beat Kench, you need to go for extended trades. He will usually win the short trades since he has Grasp of the Undying and his Q which is a big amount of healing and damage for him. He has sustain, but not as much as before, so it's possible to chunk him out to go for an all in on him when he's 50-60% HP. Remember to save your Q for when he may want to use his dive to get away as you can silence it because it is a channel. It's especially important for ganks from your jungler. It's important to be careful about his 3 stacks that can lead into him eating you with his R. If his jungler is top side he will eat you and spit you out into his jungler so that you can't escape so make sure to be aware of that. How to trade? : Usually you want to run a E auto Q into Kench since he will typically walk into you or into the wave and it will be easy to get. Once he realizes he messed up too he might try to dive away and then you will have Q to cancel his dive as he tries to escape. You can also do Q E, just make sure your E is spinning on him for an extended amount of time to stack up your Conqueror. What to build? : Rushing Berserker Greaves is probably best so you can extend the trades on him with your E. Going Deadman's Plate against him if you aren't going to be side laning against him can be a good idea since you won't be focusing him in teamfights unless he gets caught out by your team. Typically going for his ADC is best with Deadman's Plate since he becomes incredibly tanky mid to late game.

MEDIUM MATCHUP RUNES: Phase Rush, Nimbus Cloak, Celerity, Gathering Storm. Resolve: Conditioning, Unflinching/Overgrowth. SUMMONER SPELLS: Flash Ignite since ghost won't really do you any good because of his pool and healing. What's the win condition? : Vladimir can poke you out very hard if he has a rune like Summon Aery. It's hard to deal with his early game and even if you chunk him out from a nice trade early, he will just sustain it back up very fast. It's important to only start going for big chunks on him right before you get your level 6 since you want to have his HP setup for a time where you will actually all in him. You can try and test if he will kite properly by running at him with Q, just make sure you have a decent amount of HP to begin with. One shotting him with Ignite and R after he's chunked hard before he can pool utilizing your silence is probably the best play in this matchup. If he's 50% HP, it's possible to flash Q E Ignite R him before he can pool since he will be silenced if you do it fast. How to trade? : You typically want to Q E Vlad since he will go into his pool if you E and then you will have no damage. Chunking him hard with Q E Ironspike Whip is also crucial to setup his HP to be low enough for an all in. You need to fight him fast after this chunk of damage you do to him since he will heal up eventually from his Q. What to build? : Vladimir gets surprisingly tanky as the game goes on so it's important to purchase a Mortal Reminder 2nd. Rush Ironspike Whip since you are looking for an all in on Vladimir with the most damage you can do within your silence duration. If he gets too tanky with his HP and Zhonya's, it's not bad to go for Black Cleaver 4th item.

HARD MATCHUP RUNES: Phase Rush, Nimbus Cloak, Celerity, Gathering Storm. Resolve: Conditioning/Second Wind, Unflinching/Overgrowth. SUMMONER SPELLS: Flash Ghost so that you can follow up your junglers possible ganks and to scale into mid to late game. What's the win condition? : Kennen is a champion that is very hard to deal with for Garen. He has massive kiting with his move speed from his kit and can CC you when you go for an all in. It's advised to mostly go for farming and not much fighting in this lane since he's able to bully you easily. Don't be afraid to give up CS if it means not dying. Farming until Stridebreaker is probably the best idea unless you are able to use Ironspike Whip and ghost to run him down when he's chunked for some hp on your side of the lane. Once you get Stridebreaker though, it's really easy to kill him since he can't deal with the slow since he's relying on move speed. One thing that is possible is trying to force out his movement speed ability by walking at him. If he uses it without you using any abilities and he walks up again, you can try to ghost on him for an all in if he's on your side of the lane. How to trade? : You can't really trade with Kennen since he has tools to stun and run from you. It's best to just farm into him or all-in only. Hope he takes a turret shot possibly and takes damage from minion aggro. What to build? : It's generally a good idea to build Ironspike Whip first in this matchup since if you are all-inning, you will have enough movement speed from Phase Rush and ghost to stay on top of him. Building Deadman's Plate 2nd isn't a bad idea if the rest of his team is squishy since you will have enough damage to one shot him. Force of Nature at some point is good if his team has other AP champions.

EASY MATCHUP RUNES: Conqueror, Triumph, Legend: Tenacity, Last Stand. Resolve: Conditioning, Unflinching/Overgrowth. SUMMONER SPELLS: Flash Ignite to cut off the healing from his W. What's the win condition? : Sylas is a champion with a very low base HP and no sustain. He particularly has mana issues and it's important to abuse those issues. He can mess you up early game though so it's important to not walk too far deep into him when you do trades. However, when you get level 6 and have Ignite up, you can easily one shot him if he's chunked to 60-70% HP. It's important to realize that you need to Ignite him immediately as you all in him when he's at a low HP because he will heal from his W if you don't apply the Grievous Wounds instantly. If Sylas misses any of his abilities, it's typically good to go for a decent chunk of damage on him if you can. Just be mindful of his W heal as it can turn things around fast if you don't have Ignite or Grievous Wounds available. How to trade? : Usually going for Q first in your trade is better because he can dash away from your E when you use it and then re-engage easily when you stop spinning which can be very bad since your E is a lot of your damage. Usually auto Q'ing him will be good enough when he walks up to the wave as well since he has no sustain. Big chunks with Q E trades are recommended though since you're able to go for them if you punish his misuse of an ability. What to build? : Berserker Greaves rush is probably best here since you want to be able to deal with his mobility and run your full E on him if possible. Mortal Reminder 2nd is a must in this situation since it will be hard to deal with his healing without it. Going Maw of Malmortius 3rd so you can 1v1 him in the side lane also isn't a bad idea either if he has other AP champs on his team.

MEDIUM MATCHUP RUNES: Conqueror, Triumph, Legend: Tenacity, Last Stand. Resolve: Conditioning, Unflinching/Overgrowth. SUMMONER SPELLS: Flash Ignite to cut off the healing from his kit. What's the win condition? : Warwick is a very strong early game champion that counters what Garen wants to do. Warwick top players will typically take barrier which completely destroys Garen's R since it's a true damage shield and he can use it while silenced. It's important to get in the mindset that you probably won't beat him in lane, as it's very difficult as he has so much sustain and short trade potential against you. However, once you start playing around your team and you get your level 11, it becomes a lot easier to deal with. It's best to not try to solo kill him and just play in teamfights because he can't do as well as you in them. It becomes possible to side lane into him once you get Stridebreaker since you are able to kite him after going for a chunk of a trade with Q E. It's only really possible to all in him during lane if he has no barrier. How to trade? : You want to W his little magic damage chomp that heals him since it's the most damage he does in short trades. It's important to also know that your W is good to use when his fear is about to go off since it'll reduce the duration. Typically you just want to Q E walk away from him since you can't walk into him because he will tank through your extended trade and heal up the chunk of damage you do to him anyway. It's best to farm until Stridebreaker. What to build? : Buying Mortal Reminder 2nd is pretty much essential since he heals so much. Black Cleaver 4th item is pretty good since he stacks up on armor later. You want to mostly build to fight his team though since you won't want to focus on him in teamfights unless you are front to backing the enemy team.

EASY MATCHUP RUNES: Conqueror, Triumph, Legend: Tenacity, Last Stand. Resolve: Conditioning, Unflinching/Overgrowth. SUMMONER SPELLS: Flash Ignite to cut off the healing from her kit and to make punishing her more consistent. What's the win condition? : Dodging Illaoi's E is the whole matchup. And even if she hits it, you're fine because you can W and just walk out of the circle and deal with the tentacle curse for a few seconds. If she misses it, you can go for a massive chunk on her since she has no damage if she has no E. Her E is super important for her to win trades so you need to Q E her immediately if she misses it. If she hits it, just make sure to back off and wait for you to be in a position to try to dodge it again. Even if she uses R, if she has not hit E, you will be able to all in her with Q E Ignite R. If she's chunked to 50-60% hp, you can probably all in her even if she hits E since you will burst her so hard. How to trade? : As mentioned above, if Illaoi misses E, you want to Q E her immediately and run your full damage on her until she backs off and has her E up again. It's very important to play like this in this matchup because she can punish you hard if you try to fight her in her R or her E. You just have to be patient and dodge her abilities. What to build? : Berserker Greaves is probably best since she has a high base movement speed and you want to be able to extend trades on her after she misses her E. Going Mortal Reminder 2nd is a must since she heals so much from her kit. Black Cleaver 4th item is good if she's side laning and getting tanky.

MEDIUM MATCHUP RUNES: Phase Rush, Nimbus Cloak, Celerity, Gathering Storm. Resolve: Conditioning/Bone Plating, Unflinching/Overgrowth. SUMMONER SPELLS: Flash Ignite so that you can do damage through his free healing that he gets. What's the win condition? : Rengar is a champ that is incredibly strong in the early levels. I start W level 1 into Rengar because I want to be able to pick up CS without getting mauled by his jumps from the bushes. You want to stand on the farthest side away from the bush and pick up CS as much as you can. If you've never played the matchup before, it'll be hard to deal with since you won't know his jump range but once you figure it out, you just want to stay outside of it at all times. You outscale him really hard so it's important to just survive the lane. You can short trade him down hard after you get a few items and all in him when you have ultimate and Ignite fairly easy, just don't expect the laning phase to be easy at all as he bullies you super hard. Treat Rengar as a ranged champion in lane. You can all in him with Ignite and ultimate when he is 70-80% HP depending on his items and your items. Start all ins with Q as he has ways of preventing an E start. How to trade? : Once you get at least level 3, you can try fighting back with your W. Rengar does lots of mini short trades as he jumps on you from the bush so the only time you want to go for those is when you have your W ready. If you W his auto attack as he jumps out of the bush, you can auto Q E, or just Q E him and run away immediately before he walks into the bush again. Make sure you only do this when you have W available otherwise he will burst you too hard. What to build? : Ironspike Whip rush is best due to the way you are short trading Rengar with your Q E Ironspike Whip active. Your other items depend on what Rengar is building. Some Rengar players like going for an assassin damage build which you can build Deadman's Plate 2nd into since you won't need more damage to kill him. But if he has bruiser items like Divine Sunderer and Goredrinker, Mortal Reminder 2nd is needed to cut off his healing. Black Cleaver 4th if he tanks up too much is not bad either.