Garen
Matchup Summary
Garen is a relatively easy match up early on, as Renekton simply needs to play accordingly to what ability Garen uses. If Garen uses Q, Renekton should look to AA Q within that frame, or AA W. When Garen uses E, Renekton should look to disengage away from him, as Garen E provides him the damage needed to win duels. Once Garen is level 3, Renekton should try to avoid using his damage into Garen's W, as this will lose out all potential damage Renekton has to kill Garen. Once Garen has no W, Renekton can use all his damage right after to help him heavily chunk Garen. While out of combat, Garen will try to use his passive to heal from any fights, forcing us to break his regen by using our E or Q. When laning vs Garen, make sure to keep the wave state on your side to help provide room to look for kill windows. Whenever you're low vs Garen, make sure to stay out of his range of Flash > Q > R, as this will easily allow him to kill any low HP targets. Later on in the game, Garen's teamfighting ability consists of him jumping on your carries looking for R kills. Try to peel against Garen by stunning him away from your team, or getting your team to kill him before he's able to do it.
Detailed Tips
- 01
Respect Garen’s Level 1 Trades - Garen’s level 1 can be pretty strong when it comes to playing vs Renekton, as Garen can simply AA Q AA then proc his phase rush, or utilise his raw damage from Conqueror, in being able to easily out trade Renekton. This strategy however is only strong if Renekton isn’t proactive enough. If Renekton skills Q, he can simply AA Q Garen back in the exact frames of Garen’s Q. Doing this will help you go even or ahead of Garen in the trade. Level 1 you will have push advantage to help you shove the wave and reach level 2 before him, so make sure to play to push and abuse your strong level 2 and 3 spikes.
- 02
Abuse Garen’s Q Timing - So we already mentioned that you can AA Q in Garen’s Q frames, however Renekton can also W as well, allowing him to CC Garen on his own silence, providing Renekton with a safety net of locking Garen from being able to trade back. Doing this will help you easily win trades and overpower Garen without his W, so make sure you’re doing this if Garen doesn’t have W. Otherwise if he does use W he will eat up your damage and CC timer, helping him break out faster allowing him to out damage you. Alternatively I recommend simply baiting out Garen’s Q to begin with, by short clicking in and out of his range to bait out his Q. Overall this helps me put it on CD allowing me to get beneficial trading patterns against him, allowing my overall changes to overpower and win against him.
- 03
Respect And Avoid Garen E - Garen E is the real strength when it comes to playing vs Garen, as this is the ability he usually maxes on top of it also being uncancelable against CC. As Renekton typically if Garen tries to Q me, I will buffer my W within the cast, followed by E’ing out of his beginning E frames to help me avoid his overall damage. If you tank too much E damage this will essentially lose you the duels, so try and play around avoiding his E and abusing his CDs to leverage power within the lane.
- 04
Avoid Comboing into Garen’s W - Garen’s W is a really annoying ability for Renekton, as he can use it to reduce your overall damage, alongside easily breaking out of your CC. As Renekton you never want to blow your damage into his W, otherwise this results in you losing fights against Garen. Typically later through the laning phase, I simply will try to dash on Garen after his Q is on CD, then I will hold my entire damage until W wears off, then I will use all my damage and try to look for an all in if I’m available to. Alternatively, if Garen does engage with Q and W’s at the same time, I’ll hold old from using my W and will only use it after his W wears off.
- 05
Remove Garen’s Passive - Garen’s passive allows him to heal health while he isn’t in combat, allowing him to consistently sustain in lane with doran’s shield and second wind after any short combos. Once Garen exists while staying in range to you, make sure you chip his passive off with Q, or alternatively you can use your E Q to strategically hit Garen without ruining your potential wave state. Doing this can help you dive Garen within that window of his passive being on CD, or you can drop his overall sustain to help you zone him off the minion wave.
- 06
Play Wave On Your Side - Playing the wave on your side essentially means playing wave states on your side of the map, via abusing wave manipulation tactics or freezing on your side of the map. Simply use this to help you combo on your laner, taking away any space from them being able to trade you back (This also helps prevent the enemy running you down with their extended or sustained movement speed abilities). You can also use this wave state to run down your opponent with your abilities up, helping you obtain kills a lot easier vs stalemate or ranged match ups. Look to do this when your opponents are below 50% HP, or potentially make a mistake to provide you an all in opportunity to run them down.
- 07
Abuse Renekton's R Powerspike - Once you reach level 6 your ultimate will essentially help you consistently stat check and dominate any match ups you were winning or losing. Make sure to always wait for your R CD to help you make plays, otherwise it will lead you towards a major disadvantage in dueling your enemies.
- 08
3 Points Q > W Max - I personally prefer W max into Garen, as I’m available to use multiple W’s onto Garen within a fight, denying the ability for him to escape or overpower me within the 1v1 battles. Doing this when you’re even or ahead is a great way to nullify and consistently overpower Garen in 1v1’s, so make sure to fully take advantage of this to always have the edge over Garen.
- 09
Respect And Avoid His R - Garen R is by far his most dangerous ability that can help him cheese kills over Renekton, alongside helping him pick up kills through skirmishes and teamfights. When playing vs Garen, you always want to make sure your HP is higher than his at all points, so playing away from his damage through the use of other tips is very important. If Garen has flash and ignite, he will try to flash on you with 40-30% and look to kill you with R execute. Try to consider this whenever you’re low, otherwise Garen will easily secure a kill on you. Alternatively, you can bait out his combo and buffer your R through Q, to help you miscalculate his damage and help you turn the fight against him. When it comes to avoiding Garen using R on your teammates, make sure to abuse your pings before the fights so Garen’s potential kills can be avoided.
- 10
Build Eclipse, Black Cleaver or BoTRK - Go Eclipse for consistent power through mid game and damage mitigation with the shield. / Go Black Cleaver for additional CDR and other versatile stats for utility based gameplay. / Go BoTRK to one shot and snowball with a damage focused build.
- 11
Mid Game + Teamfighting Tips - Within the mid stages of the game, if you have successfully played the Garen match, you should have a substantial CS advantage over him and you should have taken his tower. Once doing these you should try your hardest to use your lead on the map while Garen is behind. One thing that should be said is that Garen can naturally outscale in terms of being a general threat, due to his R damage and annoying stats his build and kit is available to provide. With this in mind you should try to use your lead as much as you can before these points, with your overall teamfighting and skirmishing power. Try to go to each objective and part of the map with the intent of distributing your power in other lanes, doing this will give you an easier time to collectively win the game as a team. Within teamfights against Garen, try to utilise your empowered W’s from W max and your empowered E to easily shred his armour and overall bruiser power. If you can successfully peel off your team from getting caught, Garen won’t be able to leverage much else as a front liner and your team will have a much easier time in being able to play the game.