I am Mrpeter94,
I have been playing LoL for nearly 2 years now, In season 2 I enterd the ranked scene with 200 normal wins, and quickly fell down to around 1000 ELO. Then came the S3 reset and i found myself at 1100 after my 10 placement games.

I decided that to propel my ELO forward i needed to pick a solid Top laner to carry my team.




GO GO GAREN!!

I then won 9 ranked games in a row (8 as Garen) And i am now at 1340 ELO.

I think Garen is one of the best champs that can be used to carry people from ELO hell.

Garen Is.....

Easy to play

Counters a lot of popular top champs

Becomes very tanky and stil deals tonnes of damage

Can carry teams by shutting down fed opponets

However,

Garen is easily kited and other than Q has no real gap closer

Garen can also be hard counterd in lane (Teemo and Jayce)

MS Quints: These are so good!!! Extra 25 ish move speed, this means you will generally be faster than your lane opponent! I cant stress how good these are!! Could be swapped for AD reds



Armor Yellows - These are very useful as most top laners are AD nowadays, this also reduces damage from Minions, Towers and Jungle monsters!




Scaling MR Blues - Generally good late game, Not much Mres in this build so generally good, Can Also be substituted for Flat Mres blues



AD Reds - Good runes for last hitting, AD scales with Q and E, Could also have Apen reds

Flash/Ghost are vital, these can help you secure kills and get out of ganks.



Ignite - good for finishing off your opponent if R hasn't quite worked


Exhaust - Good for 1v1 in the top lane, and shutting down fed carries later on



Teleport, Could be useful against more difficult match ups[/color]

Q - Extra damage and silence, Also breaks any slows affecting Garen and gives him a nice move speed boost.

W - Sheild, Reduces damage by 30%!! Ideal for getting out of tricky situations and negating harass, also reduces cc!! And gives a 20% resistance increase!!

E - Spin to win!! Good to use with Q, Level this it does a lot of damage and procs black clever!!

R - Your ulti, If there low, there dead. Simple. It has a farily long CD at early levels so be careful not to waste it, Usually if an opponent is on 2/3 bars oh hp Ignite R will kill them easilly.

Lane Phase, this is where Garen excels, Even if the match up is tough Garen just needs 1 kill to get ahead in the lane and win.



Boots 3 pots - Standard

Also can take Dorans sheild if facing tricky AD's Such ad Nida and Jayce This will help negate damage from harassing auto attacks, by its passive and armour, it also gives 100hp whitch can make all the difference in early skrimishes! The health regen also adds to that of your passive to make you a healing machine!!


Get Q at level 1, E at 2, W at 3. Then max E

Typical Harras is QE combo then W to negate incoming retaliation DMG[/color]

At early levels 1-4 Q is your best freind, When your opponent goes for a last hit Q them in the face, then decide either to follow up with a Spin or to back off and keep last hitting.

Be careful however, Using your E when around minions will push your lane and leave you vounerable to ganks, Try to buy wards after your first B.

Using E on minions will also slow you down so if your trying to combo someone while they are in the minions can slow you significantly.




You can cancel your spin early if nessecary.

You can also start E and use Q to get the movespeed boost, however be careful as if you activate Q to early your spin may end and you wont get the Q off, leaving you open to a bunch of harass.

When you Get to level 6 and they are on about 1/2 HP, QE Ignite Demacian Justice Should be enough to kill most enemies.

]By now you should be way through the core build, Aim to have a black clever level 2 boots and most of your frozen mallet . Try to push your tower and go roaming, Remember you can use Q on towers for extra damage!!

When you roam be careful not to let your top lane opponent counter push your tower, ask your jungle to hold the tower if nessecary.

When you roam try to press the advantage of the extra man, get towers>drake>kills>farm, also help your team defend turrets when nessecary.





Taking Drake is a good way of getting your team ahead in gold, 190x5 = 950 gold for the team, this can be very important at Low ELO as some members may be lacking in farm.

Taking enemy buffs is also a good way of making that extra man count (dont try this alone unless your sure there jungler is low)

In teamfights try to get to the squishy's at the back of the enemy team. If they have a fed AP mid or ADC ITS YOUR JOB TO TAKE THEM OUT!! QER should be enough to take them out, Dont forget to use your sheild too when you charge in.

Try not to get kited or seperated from the team, this is one of Garens main weaknesses as he has no real gap closer after Q.

After the squishies have been taken out try to mop up the rest of the team and take objectives, Baron Nashor, Towers and inhibitors are especially important now, Drake is also important throughout the game but late game the former 3 are more important.

First of all I'm going to talk about Garen Vs Teemo

Teemo is a ranged champion, generally played AP now by most people. This lane is a tough one if Teemo knows what he's doing, However just because your against a Teemo doesnt mean you have lost lane, if you can get your combo off on him after level 6 he is dead for sure.

Try to use the brush to your advantage pre 6 (After it will be full of shrooms!!) Come out for a last hit and run back in asap before you take to much dmg. If you can get in Teemo's face early on you can do quite well against him. Watch out for him turning on you after you've landed your combo however. Also try to get your Jungler to gank Pre 6 as after the river will be full of mushrooms!! (pink wards could be used to clear these)


Jayce

Jayce in my opinion is a better counter to Garen than Teemo, he will harass you with his ranged abilities and spring in to meelee form if you get close to him. Try to dodge his Q, you can see when he will do it becuase of the acceleration gate.

Try to stay clear of Jayce Pre 6, you scale slightly better than he does, try to get your jungler to gank.[/color]

Nida

- This depends on how nida is played, AP nid shouldnt be to much of a problem, just stand behind creeps to dodge the HUGE spears!! AD nid however is a real pain in the A**, just try to stay out of her way and get lots of help from the jungler pre 6, becuase after she is pretty much ungankable!!

Fiora

Annoying match up that can go either way depending on the first kill, Keep her harrased as she will life steal very quickly back up of the creeps in the lane, Care for her ulti at level 6 as she can easily tower dive you!!


Yorick

Really annoying to lane against! Has so much sustain, when fighting him save your Q until he slows you, then break out and QE combo him, Use the bush and W sheild to your advantage when he is harassing, He tails of a little in teamfights and is always out of mana!

Overall Garen is a well rounded top Laner, Who can snowball incredibly well. I think Garen is the ideal champ for people looking to get out of ELO Hell!!

Spin2win!!!!