Why do people build Garen as an AD champ?
 

Really frustrates me.

He seems to do better as a straight forward tank.

Or is it just me?

because he is not a tank, his role is not a tank, he is more anti tank with his ult and the way it works

I know his role is not a tank. But he does better as a tank. I can understand possibly getting last whisper or something mid game.

I see Garens get just as many kills with NO AD items, and then they are beefy as hell.

Garen is interesting in the sense that he plays differently pending the player's preferences. He can be built fairly tanky, or pursue more damage. Building a lot of Armor Pen and damage items makes him quite threatening in all honesty, and he can rely more on cooldowns to survive in this manner. I think he's probably more effective building damage early game, then mid-late game beginning to build against an enemy team.

ive built him both ways, and i have to say building him dps with maybe a sunfire cape is just amazing, having like 51 ArP with youmumu's and like 300 AD you can rip through people faster then a tank garen can, the AD ratio on his Q is high if i remember correctly, his judgement is meh but can still hurt in a team fight, there are way better tanks out there then tank garen, all he can really do is silence someone every 8 secs or what ever, and thats about it, maybe pick someone off with his ult. Thats just how i feel, i think he shouldnt be played as a tank, because he was not intended to be a tank. just my 2 cents

Garen is gonna get his kills due to his ult either way. The difference being a Ghostblade/Last Whisper Garen is going to be a threat in fights, totally shredding enemy carries simply by spinning on top of them. Getting some sort of AD/Armor Pen item early then getting survivability is the way to go from what I understand it.

Garen is a bruiser, or tanky DPS. Which means he is not as effective as a straight forward tank although he is beefy. This build is usually what I go with since it allows more farming and makes you more of a threat.

-Phage
-Berserkers Greaves
-Sunfire Cloak
-Zeal
-Infinity Edge or Force of Nature depending on fight.

I will then upgrade Phage into Frozen Mallet and Zeal into Phantom Dancer.

If the game for some reason gets to this point I will get Atma's Impaler for my last item.

Since he does not have any real CC this is what I go with and It works pretty well for me!

only reason is because of his ult. doesnt scale off from anything you build so building tank doesnt matter.

and the only reason it seems like he does better as a tank is because, aside from his ult, his damage poses no real threat so people just ignore him in team fights. he does best as tanky dps

Frozen Mallet+Infinity Edge+Black Cleaver+Bloodthirster+Occult+Berserker/Mercury Treads = :D
(Starting with a Dorans Blade)

lol.

He isn't reliable as a tank. He only has one minor cc which is the single target silence