Garen vs Cho'Gath
Skill matchup
Build vs Cho'Gath
Build adapted to this matchup
Recommended items for Garen: Stridebreaker, Phantom Dancer, Mortal Reminder, Berserker's Greaves, Dead Man's Plate, Youmuu's Ghostblade, Lord Dominik's Regards, Black Cleaver.
Starting items
Core build
Standard
Summoner spells
Anti CC
Other options
Power Spikes
Strength by game phase
Cho'Gath's abilities
Passive, spells and ultimate
Whenever Cho'Gath kills a unit, he recovers Health and Mana. The values restored increase with Cho'Gath's level.
Cooldowns
Cooldowns by spell rank
| Level | Q | W | E | R |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3 | 6s | 11s | 8s | – |
| 6 | 6s | 11s | 8s | 1m20 |
| 9 | 6s | 10.5s | 8s | 1m20 |
| 11 | 6s | 10s | 8s | 1m10 |
| 16 | 6s | 9s | 6s | 1m |
| 18 | 6s | 9s | 4s | 1m |
Playing as Garen
Tips to maximize your impact
- Silence, spin, back off
Trade with Decisive Strike (Q), then Judgment (E), and back off: the Decisive Strike silence stops your opponent from answering with spells.
- Stay closest to your opponent
During Judgment (E), stay closer to your opponent than to their minions: the nearest enemy takes extra damage.
- Back off to regenerate
After a trade, back off until Perseverance (passive) kicks in: without recent damage taken, you regenerate part of your health every second.
- Courage just before impact
Activate Courage (W) just before the bulk of the damage: you first gain a shield and tenacity, then a longer damage reduction.
- Save your R to finish
Save Demacian Justice (R) to finish: its true damage grows with the target's missing health.
Playing against Cho'Gath
How to counter and exploit weaknesses
- Keep moving
Keep moving against him: Rupture (Q) strikes an area on the ground, and an enemy standing still takes a knock-up, damage and a slow.
- Punish him while he farms
Punish him when he goes for last hits: Carnivore (passive) restores health and mana for each unit he kills, and he lasts a long time in lane if you let him farm.
- Keep your distance if you can
If you have range, keep your distance: his kit has no dash, only the slows from Rupture (Q) and Vorpal Spikes (E).
- Beware Feast at low health
Don't stay in melee range at low health when Feast (R) is up: its true damage ignores your resistances, even if you're a tank.
Other Garen matchups
Patch 16.21.1