Garen Jungle Spin to Win | Weird Pick #143 | Runes Items Build Guide

Guide to Playing Garen Jungle: 

This one's an interesting meme that's somehow found some success. Even a handful of pro players have picked it up in solo queue, but it's not a widespread phenomenon by any means. As a champion with powerful early game and decent clear speed, Garen jungle is something that's consistent, but not terribly feared. This can lead to enemy teams underestimating its potential and at worst, lead to some sweet kill steals with your ultimate. 

Guide to Playing Garen Jungle

This one's an interesting meme that's somehow found some success. Even a handful of pro players have picked it up in solo queue, but it's not a widespread phenomenon by any means. As a champion with powerful early game and decent clear speed, Garen jungle is something that's consistent, but not terribly feared. This can lead to enemy teams underestimating its potential and at worst, lead to some sweet kill steals with your ultimate. 

Check out how to play him below!

How to Play Garen Jungle

Abilities: E, Q, E, W then prioritize R > E > Q > W

Summoner Spells:    

Starting Items: Hailblade, Refillable Potion

Strategy: Standard jungle paths and ganking pattern. Make sure to avoid linear stuns as you approach since he has minimal mobility outside of his speed boost.

Core Items: Stridebreaker, Plated Steelcaps, Deadman's Plate, Thornmail, Force of Nature

Garen Jungle Runes Setup

Primary: Conqueror, Triumph, Legend:Tenacity, Last Stand

Secondary: Nimbus Cloak, Celerity

How It Works

Stridebreaker

+45 attack damage
+20 ability haste
+20% attack speed
+200 health

UNIQUE – HALTING SLASH: Dash up to 300 units to the target location, though not through terrain, and at the end of a cast time deal 75% AD physical damage to enemies in a Range 450 radius centered in front of you at your attack range value (max. 250 distance) slowing them by 40% decaying over 2 seconds (20 (reduced by ability haste) second cooldown).

This item singlehandedly makes the build work. Without this item, Garen has trouble later in the game executing successful ganks. On the other hand, with this item, he becomes an unstoppable force to be reckoned with.

Strong 1v1

Early game, you can expect that his 1v1 is decent in river, and 2v2 melee skirmishes are generally in his favor. While his clear speed isn't all that fast, it's comparable to average junglers and his health at the end of it all is respectable. 

Potential Pitfalls

Low Early Crowd-Control

Before you get the Hailblade online and Stridebreaker, Garen's gank ability is limited to how fast he can get in and stay in. While he's strong in skirmishes, this again relies on the enemies willing to actually fight him.

Late-Game Snowball Reliant

Late game, even a moderately strong Garen will start falling off unless he's snowballed sufficiently to facetank the enemy lines. While this isn't a feature unique to Garen, just keep in mind that the longer the game draws on in neutral farm mode, the less it favors him.

Countering Garen Jungle

Play mobile champions that can avoid linear ganks.

Conclusions

Garen Jungle is a viable pick that's capable of clearing jungle effectively. Overall, he's not super strong until he picks up his items, but is certainly capable of fighting early if enemies underestimate his potential.

Suggested Tier: Mid Tier 2

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