In League of Legends there are some champions that are hated by many parts of the community. Often, these are simple champions that lower-ranked players struggle to handle. Currently, a simple champion is dominating a lane where he doesn’t really belong.
Which champion is it? When a champion in LoL is hated by many players, it often has one of two reasons. He is too complex, so players need to understand his abilities correctly first, or the champion is so simple that players get frustrated when they die against him.
Garen is a champion that belongs to the second category. His kit is super simple and there isn’t much to understand. He also has some tools that help him survive in the laning phase. Even the professionals have discovered him this year. Currently, he seems to be quite successful with weaker players in the lower ranks. Even on a lane where he doesn’t really belong.
A Hidden Gem for Low Ranks
How successful is Garen currently? Looking at the current statistics for Garen on U.GG, you can see that he is doing quite well in Bronze and Silver – especially on the mid lane, which is typically associated with mages and AP champions.
- On the mid lane, he currently has a win rate of 54.7% in Bronze, and 54.08% in Silver
- On his original lane, the top lane, he has a win rate of 50.88% in Bronze and 50.85% in Silver
- Even in the 2 patches before (14.22/14.21), he had a win rate of between 53% and 54% on mid lane in Silver and Bronze
This is quite a high win rate, even though one must consider that he is played very little on mid lane. There he only has a pick rate of 0.6%. Nevertheless, he seems to be a pretty good champion on the lane, especially for weaker players who struggle against him. This is mainly due to his simple kit.
Garen also seems to be performing well in higher ranks, but only on the mid lane. At all ranks above Emerald, he has a win rate of 52.55%. However, Garen is quite poor on the top lane, with a win rate of only 48.8%.
Easy to Understand, Hard to Counter
What makes Garen so successful on the mid lane? Garen’s kit is quite good for 1v1 on the lane. His passive allows him to heal when he hasn’t taken damage for a short period. This is good against mid lane champions who try to deal damage continuously with abilities.
- His Q allows him to ignore slows and silence the opponent for a brief time. Mages rarely have ways to counter without their abilities.
- With his W, Garen passively gains resistances. When activated, he receives a shield and, more importantly: tenacity. This reduces the duration of stuns for a short time.
- With his ultimate combined with his aggressive item build featuring crit items, he can quickly eliminate many champions with low health like an assassin.
His overall kit is countered by many champions on the top lane, mid laners who don’t know the matchup have bigger problems. Especially since players often don’t perform well with their champions in the lower ranks. You don’t have to learn much for Garen. You can focus on the aspects of the lane.
The patch is still quite new, but looking at the recent patches, it seems that Garen’s success won’t change anytime soon. After all, he is not played as often as other champions.
What do you think of Garen? Do you find him too dull or do you have no problems with him? Let us know in the comments. The opposite also happens in LoL. There are complex champions that are mainly played by professionals. A new champion from 2024 was changed for this reason: LoL: A new champion needs to be changed after not even 6 months because professionals are simply too good
