I've been plinking around with Garen since the introduction of the new Black Cleaver.

Masteries: 21-9-0
Runes: Atk Dmg, Armor, MR, Atk Dmg Quints

Initial Impression

Garen is a weird mix of AoE and single target damage with a kit that is good for hit and run tactics.

I find him rather satisfying to play as it is fun to smack people with with Decisive Strike, then take chunks off of them with Judgment, and finally end them with Demacian Justice.

He also has great emotes and jokes and such. Always fun to start doing one armed handstand push-ups... Read More

If you think the other team is doing dragon or baron, do not face check it to find out, especially if you are by yourself.

In fact don't even do it if you have two or three or four people with you, unless you happen to all be super fed and you can reasonably expect to win a 4v5 or perhaps a 5v5 if you count the damage from Baron or Dragon.

If you feel that you must contest the Dragon or the Baron send in a tank first so if they turn on you the damage and CC from the other team goes where it should, on a champion that can take it.

If your whole team is not with you and your team... Read More

3-10-6 Quinn and Nautilus vs Jinx and Thresh

I've upgraded this matchup to hard as laning against her isn't easy and late game she can just pelt you with rockets and you can't do much about it. Also if she is savvy with the positioning of her traps she can lob them where you are going to land after you Vault off of her.

It also helps to have a Nautilus that actually knows how to support and doesn't cost you half your farm by autoattacking it at inappropriate times.

3-8-9 Quinn and Nami vs Kennen and Nidalee

This lane is one... Read More

12-3-3 Quinn and Blitzcrank vs Graves and Leona

There Jarvan IV was AFK for a chunk of the game, which was the story of the night for my ranked games. Well one guy with connection problems in one game. And two with “lag” in my other ranked game.

Anyway, Graves and Leona, against Quinn and Blitz is not the easiest lane since Blitz can’t really pull Leona and Graves gets a lot of his damage from his abilities. My three deaths came in lane if that tells you something about the fun we... Read More

Skill Order

For these games I tried skilling Vault in preference of Heightened Senses, while in my previous games I did the reverse. Both times I was maxing Blinding Assault first.

In my head the jury is still out on which is better as my lanes were all different than yesterday and so I can't say that one over the other impacted my performance. Tentatively, I feel like last hitting is a little smoother if you max Heightened Senses in preference to Vault, which you really only want to use for trading or re-positioning in the event of a gank or an assassin... Read More