Garamond Special Tactics

[Lettow]

Garamond Special Tactics

 

Hello everyone, first I would like to make clear that this is NOT a build for Garamond, nor an explanation on how to play him. There are already multiple guides out there on Gara and I highly recommend checking them out if you are new.

 

This guide is a list of some of the interesting techniques Gara has available to him, with recommendations about how to make them work and an approximation of their difficulty. I plan on adding to this guide as I go along, but since I have a few minutes now, I figured why not get started? So, without further ado...

 

1. All Your Base Are Belong to Us

Difficulty: Easy

 

Get the teleport talent and max out turrets early on. When someone goes MIA teleport to the now open lane, quickly burn all your skills, and set up turrets to attack the enemy base. You can destroy an enemy's tier 1 tower in 2 waves, quickly punishing your opponents for trying to gank.

 

2. I Spy With My Little Eye

Difficulty: Easy

 

Having a hard time connecting with seeker missiles? Then make those dots disappear! This works extremely well on the long lane, where you can often fire seeker missiles into areas that are obscured by foliage (thus making the red dots not visible), but can also be used anywhere by first using oil slick, and then firing missiles into the oil.

 

3. Old McGara Had a Farm

Difficulty: Easy-Medium

 

Mr. Singsprocket is an excellent farmer who should take very little to no damage while farming neutral creeps. In the early levels, set up 2 turrets a ways apart from each other (to avoid having both hurt at once, for example by thor's special / seige tank). Next, attack 1 of your own turrets to generate two scvs, then stop attacking the turret and switch to attacking your own scvs (scv juggling, explained in the other guide) and get out 4 scvs. Now send your scvs in a circle around one of the marauders and attack, while keeping gara a safe distance away. Scvs will take priority, followed by towers, while you move back and forth adding in scvs and making sure that you gain xp for each creep kill, while minimizing damage and mana cost. In the higher levels only 1 turret is necessary.

 

4. The Big Bang Theory

Difficulty: Medium

 

Are those strength heroes getting you down? Get a Lockbox, Yamato, Sunflare Gun, and taser (if needed, depending on items / hero you're going against), as well as Argus and Gravity Edge. Attack the enemy when they're in a group battle / when they're in a lane with creeps. Use Yamato first, then lockbox the enemy, throwing 2 scvs at the nearby creeps / other heroes. Next, set up a tower, use missiles (or flip the order, depending on the distance), then use oil and throw another 2 scvs (thanks to Yamato you should have another 2 up by now). Finally, set up your last turret and use your ulti. Before your ulti goes off make sure to use Sunflare gun and taser if necessary, as well as commanding your turrets to target the enemy (they will otherwise auto-target the creeps). Finally, make sure to surround with your scvs to connect with all 8 and achieve maximum dmg.

 

5. You Shall Not Pass

Difficulty: Medium

 

Need to help a friend escape, buy yourself a little time for your own escape, or prevent an enemy from escaping? Get out 4-6 scvs and do the equivalent of a zergling run by - that is, move your scvs in front of the target so that they form a U shape. Then set them to attack the target all together. This will prevent the target from moving forward, and buy you the time you need to accomplish your objective.

 

6. Catch Me If You Can

Difficulty: Medium-Hard

 

Are heroes like Maar, Queen, or Boros staying out of your range? Get a Small Hedron Collar (SHC) for teleportation and stun purposes, followed up by taser (if necessary), lockbox, and then a technique like the big bang theory to catch those pesky heroes. Unfortunately Boros can be especially problematic for Gara, but the following can be very helpful:

 

Boros Must Die:

Get a lockbox, taser, SHC, argus, edge, and either a sunflare gun (if Boros has a lot of life / resist), or a nitrogen. Try and angle the terrain advantage to be able to teleport on top of Boros to stun him, and immediately use taser. If successful then lockbox him, following it up with a simple big bang theory. If unsuccessful (meaning Boros spellstorms himself in time), keep your distance as best possible and wait for Boros to use his ulti, then lockbox yourself. After his ulti is over, if you are close to him use oil slick, missiles, turret, and ulti (as well as sunflare gun BEFORE the ulti triggers if you have it), or if you are not close to him then run away and attempt again later.

 

7. SCV Love Hug

Difficulty: Hard

 

An advanced version of #5, this technique requires crazy good APM and micro precision. This technique works best during the laning phase, especially at the low levels, but can be used at any point in the game. Get out 4-6 scvs and set 2-3 as control group 1, and 2-3 as control group 2. With one group of scvs move towards the back of the target, and with the other move towards the front. When both groups are in position attack the target, and adjust as necessary to completely surround the target in scvs. They will not be able to move, as scvs have push priority, and when they auto attack they will attack creeps first, so they will have to specifically target your scvs. Combining this technique with missiles and turrets is great, although just getting a perfect surround and maintaining it is VERY difficult.

[xNOVAxPRIMEx]

haha You werent kidding. Excellent Job. Showing Gara some ♥

 

 

EDIT:

 

Can't wait to see the xNOVAxPRIMEx Lure9000

while upping at base you notice a wild Nova Prime over extended thinking he can take the whole enemy team. Quickly warp to the creeps nearest this helpless Nova as at this point Nova will be in serious trouble trying to flee with 100 hp and phantom menace from 2 or more enemies. Quickly intercept targets Lockboxing Nova and oil slicking the enemies dropping turrets, release seekers while stacking scvs up. Ult and proceed to get TRIPLE KILL!!!!!! while Nova goes "hue hue hue you cant kill me :p"

[Psyght]

lol Lettow is the best garamond I've ever seen, he was able to defeat me when I was playing Nova and I was fed a godlike by his team, but still he was able to overcome this and beat me. garamond op xD nerf nao!

[Banzaiguy]

Wouldn't 5 be pretty ineffective since your first SCVs would just expire in a second or so?

[Lettow]

Yes Banzai, you have to do the surround quickly because your scvs will shortly thereafter expire. I've done it so that I've had about 4 seconds after the surround. However, if you time everything right you can replace the scvs that are about to expire with new ones, extending the SCV love hug. And you only need 2 seconds on the surround for your missiles to connect, as well as for your lvl 3+ turrets to fire off their missiles.

[Rem]

Ouchies......

[Kbizzle]

while upping at base you notice a wild Nova Prime over extended thinking he can take the whole enemy team

 

the frequency of this is uncanny =p

[LOLLMAO]

You used lockbox all the time when I played Dustin Brawler (as Andiu).

 

I'll buy more spell resist next time like you suggested.

[xNOVAxPRIMEx]

the frequency of this is uncanny =p

 

as frequent as it is...... it is only that much more successful. You are welcome for your 11k rating Lettow ♥ lol

[Aellectris]

You forgot Operation: Sherwood Forest.

[Lettow]

Haha, that's a great name for one Aellectris. I only started this yesterday and plan on adding more in between work for fun, so maybe it'll be included soon ^_^

 

Lollmao, you can also be a super awesome saver hero and get a lockbox / dial and then save yourself / other people whenever Gara uses his ulti. It's just like dealing with Zera, except in Gara's case if he messes up his ulti his dmg output is WAY reduced. Taser is also great for killing Gara.

[Lightning]

Your combo was very hard to deal with. The Big Bang Theory thoroughly owned my Drake with ample spell resist. And even when I had enough to live through a combo, your allies weren't far behind.

 

I think I countered you pretty well with my Cyprus. Hang back, wait for you to lockbox an ally, initiate your combo, and ult up your scvs. Then I Q+E to aoe to nullify and prevent heavy damage.

 

Granted, it wouldn't have mattered if we didn't have such a good Micro (Sid).

[xNOVAxPRIMEx]

Your combo was very hard to deal with. The Big Bang Theory thoroughly owned my Drake with ample spell resist. And even when I had enough to live through a combo, your allies weren't far behind.

 

I think I countered you pretty well with my Cyprus. Hang back, wait for you to lockbox an ally, initiate your combo, and ult up your scvs. Then I Q+E to aoe to nullify and prevent heavy damage.

 

Granted, it wouldn't have mattered if we didn't have such a good Micro (Sid).

 

really i thought your game went to micro he effectively shut us down most team fights. me at least for sure. i couldnt touch him all though it was 3v5 and you guys had insane CC lol tough game for a rory lol

[Lettow]

You played great Lightning! Getting taser and killing the scvs before they can connect is exactly how to wreck Gara, especially your teamwork with Sid was perfect. Gara's ability to do lots of damage / push towers, but also be countered with good team play, is why I like him so much and feel he's so well balanced.

[xNOVAxPRIMEx]

I just like how Sid made a point to tell you that Gara was OP XD in my book we won that game just for that comment haha. Personal victories :)

[Lettow]

Updated with two new techniques. Still working out a few kinks, but more to come :)

[SidVicious]

I absolutely despise the Big Bang Theory lol. Keep up the good work Lettow :D

[barwick]

It's annoying as *ahem* when you get into a game and see Lettow on the other side as gara. All by himself with anyone else on his team who has even a clue what they're doing, you're going to either be dead every so often, or lose your main and secondary towers right quick.

 

And, does lockbox outrange taser? Cause I coulda swore I tasered him a few times only to disappear out of existence before I could even W Q R W Q him as Penthos.

[Lettow]

Barwick, taser outranges lockbox, but only by a small amount. So the best way to catch Gara is to use terrain advantage and taser him before he sees you, use some sort of cloaking, have an initiator, or use a warp shard / small hedron collar. Especially the way I build Gara in pubs he tends to have quite low health, so as long as you can catch him and taser him you're good to go :)

[Misantrophy]

I think I've never lost a game playing with you XD (I raged once and you won after that xD)

[WaterToFire]

Is garamond special tactics like whitera special tactics?

 

Also, could you put up an item build?

[Lettow]

Hmm, I suppose if more people are interested I'll include a list of what items I think are best for Gara in different situations, with a few build ideas that people might enjoy trying.

[EterNity]

Only if your SCVs do not refuse to attack in the mid fight LOL

[Nuparu]

The hard counter to Garamond, no matter what bullshap you say, is Explosive Retrofit.

[Lettow]

@eternity - haha, ya, it's always annoying to have Gara be unable to throw his scvs and have to do a little marine stutter step action to fix it. Even a slight delay in attacking thanks to that glitch can make life a lot harder.

 

@Nuparu - Anything that blows up Gara's scvs is a really effective counter. After all, in order to die from Gara's ulti he has to get a bunch of red scvs from him to surrounding you, and then make sure they properly detonate without you LBing, teleporting, dialing, etc... away.

 

I ♥ the design behind Gara's ulti - it's really balanced IMO. Good work devs! Please fix AA next ;)