One of the oldest League of Legends Champions finally rises. Garen, the Might of Demacia, ranked on the tier list as a tier-one champ. 

The pick rate and win rate of Garen drastically rose with the 10.4 patch which buffed him a lot. Not only that his base statistics are fine, but also his passive skill for W (Courage; Garen permanently gains 0.25 bonus armor and 0.25 bonus magic resistance every time he kills an enemy, up to a maximum of 30 bonus resistances at 120 unit kills) makes him solid without any armor items. 

Furthermore, the nerfs for Sett and Ornn made summoners pick Garen more often. According to OP.GG, the win rate and pick rate of Garen in 10.5 are 53.87% and 15.41%, respectively, which are the best records since he’s been ever summoned on the Rift.

Runes 

By pressing E once, the Conquerer stacks are fully recharged. Choosing Legends: Tenacity or Legends: Alacrity depends on how many CCs the enemies have. Coup de Grace is not a good choice since Garen's ult skill was changed to true damage so there isn’t any synergy with it. So picking Last Stand is inevitable. 

Nimbus Cloak is the core rune. Ignite and Flash activate Nimbus Cloak which can make it easier for Garen to charge the enemies. Since movement speed is one of the most important stats for a non-mobile champion, Celerity is a great rune for him in any kind of situation. 

Summoner Spells and Skill Builds 

Ignite is simply better than Teleport. Born in top lane, born to kill. E skill is the main source of damage dealing, master it first.

How to Play 

There's nothing special on the combos. Auto-attack Q+E/ Q+E/ E+Q (to enhance movement speed). Garen is one of the easiest champions in the league. Managing lane to recall is a lot more important since we picked ignite. If your enemy seems like a cookie, use those combos to show how strong Garen is. Activate Courage (W skill) just before getting attacked by the enemy. 

Skirmishes are good chances to get gold. Ignite will help to win against 1v1 or 2v2 battles. But it doesn't matter even if there aren’t any skirmishes in the early game. Garen's prime time starts with lv.6. If you can reduce your enemy’s half health with Q+E, the Ignite and ult combo will slide 300 gold in your account directly. Don't hesitate to use Ignite first since there's an advantage to activate ult on the enemy's missing health. 

Once you’ve dominated the top lane, it's time to harass your enemy jungler. Garen’s ability to counter jungle is so fast with his E skill (the total damage is increased by 50% against non-epic monsters) that your enemy jungler will suffer from hunger and have great anxiety to fight with his top laner who hugged the top tower to avoid eye contact with Garen in the open. 

It took a long time for Garen to stand on the Rift as a top-tier champion. But his era may be ending soon because he's too strong to just let him be. This time may be the correct time to buy the God-King Garen skin.