Jax Counters

Disagree with some of this. You're correct in saying that he wins lane and loses the game, but Garen wins against most of the meta top lanes right now (very hard, actually.) Especially Jax, Renekton, and to a certain extent, even Ryze. Garen doesn't need a heal, his kit is centered around efficient trading.

Have you played the match up of Garen v. Riven or Garen v. Renekton? It's a stomp if you pit two evenly matched players against each other. Bruisers have an inherently hard time dealing with extended silences because of the nature of the lane (excessive trading.) I wouldn't defend Garen as a good pick, because, well, he doesn't translate cleanly into late game and his team fighting is pretty abysmal, but he is a fantastic laner -- certainly one of the best top counters in this meta.

 

Okay I agree with your points, so let me be a bit more specific:


Garen, while "good" in lane, is worthless in the grand scheme of things. In general, a Jax doesn't care much about "winning" lane because once the laning phase is over, he can still 1v1 anyone while he split pushes. Mid-to-lategame, Jax can easily out-trade Garen safely enough to continue his split push. When their team then sends 2 people top, Jax can just sneak away while it's a 3v4 to win dragon or another tower.


I guess your points about Garen winning nearly every matchup is accurate, but the current state of League makes games so long that this doesn't matter. After a certain point, Garen's only a good damage sponge, but for anyone outside of Bronze, attacking Garen is stupid anyway.