Hey guys this is my 1st post, so I haven't really read most of the blogs so I don't know if someone already pointed this out but anyway...
Lets begin with Garen's 'little" problem, as we all know Garen has an incredible laning phase, especially because of his passive, I mean its like his packed with an early Force of Nature(or Warmog regen ability cuz of S3) health regen at the beginning of the game. I mean if you were hurt pretty bad you can either just hide in the bush and wait for your passive to activate or hug the tower to keep you safe while regaining health. This makes him excellent by far in solo tops or with support at bottom lane or can even sometimes jungle with right equips.
But the main issue however is the limitations of his passive, because from an attack of an enemy champ or tower the passive turns off. A lot of you may think thats completely fair because how over-powering Garen's passive is with the massive regen but the real point is that the enemy team will always hold the "off-switch" to Garen's passive. Some of you may think that its ok that Garen's passive can be switched off because his kit is also quite powerful especially with his silence and his ever-famouse "spin-to-win" E and also considering that he gets a second passive from his W. The issue however remains, that means in every late game clash, with Garen either initiating or he got hit by an enemy champ's AoE burst, Garen in the clash will be the only champ with no main passive. Some even say that there is an option to leave in the middle of the clash to wait and regen after a LONG while and hope your team survives when you come back healthy, but seriously how is that useful in 5v5 clash?
Its kinda disappointing really for 3 seasons the only changes I have seen with Garen was either improving his kit or fixing the time counter on his passive, with the issue still remaining. By far all I see Riot do is make his tool kit so pretty and over-powering that it makes an illusion to make people believe that its ok that Garen's passive can be shut off, but that will always make him indifferent to all other champions, especially with the viable bruisers and all another reason why I don't see Garen in most picks in ranked matches.
You may also think there are other champions that may have a similar problem to Garen but here's my research so far.(UPDATED thanks to everyone and their comments)
- Malphite - Can also be shut-off but its a barrier so it fulfills its purpose in a clash
- Volibear - By far very similar to Garen's passive issue but can still save your ass better in a clash however its cooldown is another issue I don't wanna add.
- Rengar and Nidalee - Limited to bushes? There's bushes everywhere in all maps :I (except proving grounds or close to Inhibitors)
- Fiora - Can also shut off if you stop attacking, but her skills activates on hit attacks so her ult can turn it on again
- Veigar - Lane sustain like Garen but he can still hold the option to use his passive in a clash
- Swain - Just like Veigar, but a kill in a clash means free mana, in a sense it "helped"
- Zilean - Completely useless when everyone is at level 18, but helps if there are underleveled champs, especially in a winning clash
- Twisted Fate - Like Zilean, but this time when everyone gets all their Items
- Vi - Barrier, same as Malphite
- Miss Fortune - She's ranged, similar draw back like Garen but takes a lot more effort
Passives that activate upon death means it still helped if it was succesfully used I know there could be more but I'm still not sure with the new champs, thats where I leave you guys to think about this, I'm sure many of you think Garen is still a very viable champs and I do too despite these issues I explained, However it will never change the fact that his passive is useless in a clash :(.
Thank you for reading and for your time :).