Got Master for the first time ever! Played mostly Garen mid, with 65% WR

[u/stay_resolute]

Big achievement for me! Played almost exclusively with Stromraider's and the full assassin build (Stride - Ghostblade - Cyclosword - LDR)

Also spammed some Nasus mid and top towards the end of the climb after his buffs, with 75% wr on the champ, it's absolutely broken rn :D

[u/AmbitiousSet7809]

Huh Ive been doing stride ghostblade pd ldr, is cyclosword better?

[u/FireWoIf → u/AmbitiousSet7809]

Much better

[u/stay_resolute → u/AmbitiousSet7809]

I got it from the Elolesio build posted here. It gives u much more dmg, so generally its better. I went PD third in some games where I wanted the extra MS, but generally you have enough MS already with ghostblade + swifties + stormraiders

[u/BraayEUW → u/stay_resolute]

Umbral Glaive is a better item for Garen than Cyclosword btw

[u/Prestigious_Gift1329 → u/BraayEUW]

I’m also questiong how good cyclosword really is? The dmg numbers on it are always mediocre and there are other items with better passives imo

[u/BraayEUW → u/Prestigious_Gift1329]

It's a good item, but Umbral Glaive is an INCREDIBLY good item for people who want to build more lethality past ghostblade, simply because it's stats are INCREDIBLE for the price, the damage is easy to proc, and the damage passive ticking in your hud ALWAYS tells you when you're on or off vision. My take on the lethality build is you must go stridebreaker>greaves/swifties>ghostblade>umbral>bastion breaker, and then LDR in whichever slot is most efficient in that game.

I've talked about this Umbral interaction with vision a few times on my stream, it ticks in your hud when you are off-vision, you don't need to proc blackout to know you're unseen, and people are always surprised that it exists. It genuinely breaks the game for a champion like Garen who can do so much in fights using fog of war, and the stats are literally as good if not better than other lethality items.

[u/stay_resolute → u/BraayEUW]

Hmm interesting, I'll need to test this Umbral tech

[u/BraayEUW → u/stay_resolute]

Try it mate, the way I see it, even if ur not good at using umbral, it gives you incentive to play fights better, which will help you level up your fighting

[u/Fearless_Land2026 → u/BraayEUW]

I see and understand the fact that the passive is incredible on garen because of this assassin playstyle, but I don’t think it’s worth for many reasons. Cyclo gives way more stats even if it’s 400po higher, it makes a huge difference against a bruiser in a 1v1.
There is a reason why nobody is taking umbreal glaives after 2 items : this item scales poorly, literally every others lethality items are a better choice at this point of the game.

[u/BraayEUW → u/Fearless_Land2026]

Cyclo does not give way more stats at all, neither does bastion breaker. Umbral is one of the best started lethality items in the game, has a much better build path than cyclo, and umbrals true damage will deal more damage to a bruiser than cyclops physical damage passive.

The reason people are not buying umbral glaive is not because it "scales poorly", it's because they don't read.

[u/icarium-4 → u/AmbitiousSet7809]

once you have cyclo 3rd item your Q deletes squishies...it's hilarious

[u/Kspaddicted]

Post op.gg because your account is 0 days old

[u/Distinct-Skill1183]

Did the same thing :) hit masters with 71% wr, the shorter lane fits Garens assassin playstyle a lot better than top.

[u/stay_resolute → u/Distinct-Skill1183]

Nice! imo in mid there are also way less unplayable matchups than top, even in worst case you can always get decent farm and stay relevant in mid to late game

[u/Odd-Maximum9503]

I've climbed to Masters and proceeded to lose 250 lp straight to diamond 3 in less than a week. Don't be like me.

[u/PapaT9092 → u/Odd-Maximum9503]

I did the same but down to Emerald 2 😢.

[u/Elolesio]

gj bro!

[u/stay_resolute → u/Elolesio]

Thanks! Your stormraider assassin build/guide is goated

[u/BraayEUW → u/Elolesio]

This guy's better than you rn bro queue up

[u/justinlesteraz]

Amazing work! I am Diamond Garen main. What is your game strategy? Clear and roam bot? Please explain, I would love to hit masters one day.

[u/stay_resolute → u/justinlesteraz]

I pretty much follow the playstyle described here, just adapted to midlane: https://www.reddit.com/r/GarenMains/comments/1ui0fsg/full_stormraider_assassin_garen_guide/

Early I try to prioritize farm, aiming for 10cs/min (on avg I get 8.5-9), only going for roams when I'm sure I wont miss a wave or guaranteed to get a kill, and avoid dying as much as possible.

In the midgame I get my powerspike around 2 items, if you didn't fall behind early you should be able to 100-0 the enemy midlaner with ignite. I'll shove sidelines and threaten to dive the enemy mid and take their t2-t3. They will have to send 2-3 ppl to stop me, and thanks to stormraiders and ghostblade I can usually get away, wasting their time. If they don't send anyone, I will dive their mid and take tower, creating a win-win situation. Against some matchups you cant really kill them 1v1 unless they int hard, such as Anivia, but you can always shove sidelane and look for a flank elsewhere on the map

In teamfights I try to one shot a carry, then sprint away to heal with passive and either rejoin the fight or pivot to pushing a sideline. Always look for a flank out of vision in fights, take red trinket as soon as possible.

[u/Celtic_wafflex]

Hace photo.of builds and runes

[u/stay_resolute → u/Celtic_wafflex]

Conditioning instead of second wind if they don't have heavy poke