What is the best build for Garen?

We do not publish a best build for Garen, and the reason is worth thirty seconds. The most recorded Garen top build on patch 16.14 is Mortal Reminder, Phantom Dancer and Stridebreaker, in 214 games. A finished item set is read at the end of the game, so a build only appears once the game ran long enough to buy it, and a game that runs long is usually a game you were winning. Any share of wins taken from those games leans high for that reason on its own, which is why there is not one in this answer. The page lists every recorded build with the games behind it.

What are the best runes for Garen?

The most recorded Garen top rune page on patch 16.14 takes Conqueror out of Precision, with Triumph, Legend: Haste and Cut Down beside it and Axiom Arcanist and Celerity out of Sorcery. Players who ran it won 51.8% of 1,155 games, range 48.9% to 54.6%. A rune page is locked in at champion select, so that share is not inflated by long games the way a build is, but it counts who picked the page rather than what the page did.

Garen build, patch 16.14

Q: What skill order should I use on Garen?

Recorded Garen top players max E, then Q, then W. 501 recorded games on patch 16.14. Win comparisons only count games that ran long enough to finish the max: 100% of 483 E-first games and 100% of 17 Q-first games. Short games are missing from both sides, and short games are usually decided ones.

2,364 games of Garen recorded on patch 16.14, across top, mid, bot, jungle and support.

Win rate

50.8% of top games this patch

Pick rate

2.7% of top games

Games

2,118 top, patch 16.14

Rank in role

9 of 122 top champions

Win impact against the average top pick on patch 16.14: +0.4 wins per 100 games (range -1.1 to 1.9) 2,118 games Pooled

What most Garen top players build, patch 16.14

Build Mortal Reminder, Phantom Dancer and Stridebreaker, and run Conqueror

The rune page they run

Precision

Conqueror

Sorcery

Shards

1,155 games ran this page exactly as it is drawn. We never stitch the most picked keystone onto the most picked second row and call it a page: nobody ran that one.

The skill path Each filled cell is the skill most players took at that level, from 501 games.
skill	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18
Q		Q						Q		Q		Q	Q
W			W											W	W		W	W
E	E			E	E		E		E
R						R					R					R

Levels 10 to 18

10 Q, 11 R, 12 Q, 13 Q, 14 W, 15 W, 16 R, 17 W, 18 W

Max E, then Q, then W. The level by level count.

214 games finished this exact set. It is the set recorded most often, which is a fact about players rather than about the items.

Share of those games that were wins, in percent 52.8% (range 46.1-59.4) · 214 games · Measured

Games that finish a build are games that lasted, and lasting usually means winning, so this figure leans high before the items do anything. It is how those games went, not what the build does to your chances. How far that can bend a number.

Garen top is the role with the most recorded games on patch 16.14: 2,118 games, of which 1,076 were wins. That is the role this page leads with. Measured on this page: top and mid, the roles that cleared 30 recorded games.

wins 0.4 per 100 vs the top average · 2,118 games on 16.14 · first-time players measured (1,822 games) · no clear move vs 16.13 (-7.0, range -18.0 to +4.0)

The build above is the one recorded most often, nothing more. Every recorded build, with its own games and its own share, is in the build list, in the order players built them.

Why this answer

A champion and role pair needs 30 recorded games before we put a score or a win impact on it: under that, a handful of lucky games moves a win rate by ten points. The same floor applies to a single build and to a single rune page, and anything under it prints its games and no number.

The share on that figure says how the games went, not what the build does to you. Nothing on this page measures that; the method note at the end says why.

What do most Garen players build?

Item sets recorded on patch 16.14, most built first, never sorted by how the games went. The share is how many of a build's own games were wins; a build under 30 games shows its games and no share.

Garen, top

8 item sets were recorded in this role and 8 of them cleared 30 games.

Mortal Reminder, Phantom Dancer and Stridebreaker
52.8% 214 games
Mortal Reminder, Phantom Dancer, Dead Man's Plate and Stridebreaker
60.3% 78 games
Phantom Dancer, Dead Man's Plate and Stridebreaker
50.0% 68 games
Mortal Reminder, Youmuu's Ghostblade and Stridebreaker
52.0% 50 games
Infinity Edge, Mortal Reminder, Phantom Dancer and Stridebreaker
59.1% 44 games
Phantom Dancer, Youmuu's Ghostblade and Stridebreaker
63.2% 38 games

A finished set is read at the end of the game, so every share here leans high: games that last long enough to finish a build are usually games that were already going well. How far that can bend a number.

Garen, mid

3 item sets were recorded in this role and 0 of them cleared 30 games.

Mortal Reminder, Phantom Dancer and Stridebreaker
not enough games yet. 18 games so far, this needs 30. 18 games
Phantom Dancer, Dead Man's Plate and Stridebreaker
not enough games yet. 12 games so far, this needs 30. 12 games
Mortal Reminder, Phantom Dancer, Dead Man's Plate and Stridebreaker
not enough games yet. 10 games so far, this needs 30. 10 games

What runes do most Garen players run?

Whole pages that players actually ran, most recorded first. A page is locked in at champion select, so long games do not inflate its share the way they inflate a build's; it still counts who picked the page rather than what the page did.

Garen, top

10 complete pages were recorded in this role and 4 of them cleared 30 games.

Conqueror Precision with Sorcery

1,155 games

Precision

Conqueror

Sorcery

Shards

1,155 games ran this page exactly as it is drawn. We never stitch the most picked keystone onto the most picked second row and call it a page: nobody ran that one.

Other pages players ran

Stormraider's Surge Sorcery with Resolve

458 games

Conqueror Precision with Resolve

366 games

Stormraider's Surge Sorcery with Precision

61 games

Keystones picked, one slot on its own

Conqueror: 51.1% 1,547 games
Stormraider's Surge: 50.0% 530 games
Grasp of the Undying: 46.2% 39 games

4 keystones were recorded in this role: one slot on its own, counted across every page that used it, so the share carries the rest of each page with it.

Garen, mid

6 complete pages were recorded in this role and 2 of them cleared 30 games.

Stormraider's Surge Sorcery with Resolve

99 games

Sorcery

Stormraider's Surge

Resolve

Shards

99 games ran this page exactly as it is drawn. We never stitch the most picked keystone onto the most picked second row and call it a page: nobody ran that one.

Other pages players ran

Conqueror Precision with Sorcery

86 games

Keystones picked, one slot on its own

Conqueror: 55.2% 116 games
Stormraider's Surge: 53.3% 107 games

2 keystones were recorded in this role: one slot on its own, counted across every page that used it, so the share carries the rest of each page with it.

What skill order should I use?

Counted from recorded level-ups on patch 16.14, one player per game.

Max E, then Q, then W

501 recorded games on patch 16.14. Win comparisons only count games that ran long enough to finish the max: 100% of 483 E-first games and 100% of 17 Q-first games. Short games are missing from both sides, and short games are usually decided ones.

not enough games

Garen top skill path Each filled cell is the skill most players took at that level, from 501 games.
skill	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18
Q		Q						Q		Q		Q	Q
W			W											W	W		W	W
E	E			E	E		E		E
R						R					R					R

Levels 10 to 18

10 Q, 11 R, 12 Q, 13 Q, 14 W, 15 W, 16 R, 17 W, 18 W

Almost nobody maxed Q first, so there is nothing to compare. +2.2 wins per 100 games (range -7.7 to 12.1) 498 games Measured 481 games maxed E first, 17 games maxed Q first.

Max E, then Q, then W

Only 49 recorded games on patch 16.14. A soft read. Win comparisons only count games that ran long enough to finish the max: 98% of 43 E-first games and 100% of 6 Q-first games. Short games are missing from both sides, and short games are usually decided ones.

not enough games

Garen mid skill path Each filled cell is the skill most players took at that level, from 49 games.
skill	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18
Q		Q						Q		Q		Q	Q
W			W											W	W		W	W
E	E			E	E		E		E
R						R					R					R

Levels 10 to 18

10 Q, 11 R, 12 Q, 13 Q, 14 W, 15 W, 16 R, 17 W, 18 W

Almost nobody maxed Q first, so there is nothing to compare. 0 wins per 100 games (range -13 to 12) 48 games Measured 42 games maxed E first, 6 games maxed Q first.

When do players buy each piece?

The pieces of the most recorded Garen top build, in the order players buy them. The time is the middle of the spread across every recorded game on patch 16.14, measured at the buy rather than at the end of the game: half the recorded buys of the item happen before it, half after.

Buy times, earliest first

Stridebreaker: 14:14 523 games
Phantom Dancer: 18:32 424 games
Mortal Reminder: 24:48 570 games

The bar is scaled to the latest piece of the set. Each item links to its own page, where the whole spread sits beside the games behind it.

Who counters Garen?

The opponents Garen top loses to most and the teammates Garen gains the most beside on patch 16.14. The chip is the edge in wins per 100 games, and the games behind it sit under the name.

Hardest opponents

104 more opponents sit under 50 games against Garen and are counted, not ranked. Every measured Garen opponent, with the full table

Best teammates

Every measured Garen teammate, with the full table

These numbers come from 108,616 ranked games we recorded on EUW, Korea and NA, found by following Diamond players and the people they play with. That is not every rank and it is not every region. Everything on this page is patch 16.14. Counted up to 24 July 2026.

How does Garen rank?

Every role we recorded Garen in on patch 16.14, scored or not. Win impact is measured against the average pick in that role on the same patch, and a role needs 30 recorded games before it is scored.

Garen by role

top B +0.4 wins per 100 games (range -1.1 to 1.9) 2,118 games Pooled: 54 2,118 games
mid B +0.4 wins per 100 games (range -1.7 to 2.5) 226 games Pooled: 48 226 games
bot not enough games yet. 10 games so far, this needs 30.: not scored 10 games
jungle not enough games yet. 8 games so far, this needs 30.: not scored 8 games
support not enough games yet. 2 games so far, this needs 30.: not scored 2 games

Why no share of wins on this page says a build is good for Garen

A finished item set is read at the end of the game. A player who bought the first two items and lost at twenty minutes never finished the set, so they are not in its row. Everybody in the row lasted long enough to buy it, and lasting is most of what winning looks like. The share those games won is pushed up by that on its own, before the items do anything at all, and the push is largest on the most expensive builds and backwards on the ones you buy when a game is going badly.

We know the size of it. In simulation, with every item's real effect set to exactly zero, an item read at the end of the game shows about 92% as a sixth completed item. A defensive item with a real 5 point benefit shows about 20 points the wrong way, because it gets bought when a player is behind. The measurement is here.

So this page counts and labels rather than ranks. The estimate that answers the real question is taken at the moment of the buy, from the state the purchase happened in, and it runs in the desktop app because it needs the game in front of it.