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Galio
Galio was a diamond in the rough when he came out. A tank priced at 6300 IP wasn't going to sell well and a lot of people were low on IP from when Vlad had come out the week before (vlad so cool, vampire so cool, so mut monhay). So for a few weeks he went unnoticed, despite having arguably the strongest ult in the game and tremendous burst AND utility. After he was made a high pick (or was it a ban?) in a high level streamed tourney game, he became FotM and was instaban for a couple months. Due to some nerfs since then, people have stopped playing Galio once more, but I've picked him up again and I've been pleasantly surprised. MAYBE YOU WILL BE TOO.
![[image loading]](http://media.pcgamer.com/files/2010/08/Galio-web.jpg)
You are not required to buy a skin to play Galio, unlike Shen. All of Galio's skins are str8 awful and I will laugh at you
Summoner Spells
Galio has 3 summoner spell setups and only 3. Most importantly, the first commandment in the bible of Galio is Thou shalt take Flash on Galio. Like annie, fiddle, and other champs who absolutely need to be able to re-position as they ult, Galio MUST take flash. The other summoner spells you can take are Ghost, Teleport, and Clairvoyance; the order in which I listed them is their ranking of importance imo. Ghost is just too strong of a summoner spell, I take it on every champion, but Brees has made the case for teleport-ganks being very strong on galio. Clairvoyance is a spell to take if you aren't your team's main tank, but rather the main support hero.
Masteries
Mana consumption is a huge problem on Galio. Movespeed is a problem on Galio. You always want Flash ready for every teamfight. With this in mind, we're definitely going to give Galio 21 points in the utility tree.
0/9/21 is my personal favorite, 3 armor 3 MR 3 SoS, 21 utility emphasizing meditation, flash mastery, and cooldowns.
9/0/21 is also another option but I feel Galio is flimsy in lane with this setup.
Runes
I have two set-ups for Galio depending on if I'm going to solo lane or duo lane with him.
In a solo lane I run:
HP Quints
MP5/level yellows
MPen reds
MR/level blues
This gives you the ability to take a bit of harass (Galio has low base HP for a tank) and keep up a steady stream of harassment yourself.
In a duo lane I run:
MS Quints
armor/level yellows
MPen reds
MR/level blues
You won't be spamming harass as much in a duo lane; rather you'll be using all your spells at once to burst someone down with your partner, and otherwise conserving mana.
Skill Order
Q is Galio's bread and butter. Q will allow you to lock someone down who is trying to run with a permanent slow, and also prevent people from chasing your allies in a teamfight gone wrong.
W is a fantastic shield that can be self-cast or cast on your carry for maximum survivability.
E is your second nuke/team escape skill. Cast in the direction you're running (away from enemies) and you'll get a nice movespeed boost.
R is the "win" button. Feel free to press it and get a penta kill any time you want.
The second commandment in the bible of Galio is Thou shalt know which champs can interrupt thine ultimate.
A quickly cobbled together list of champs that can fuck your penta kill are:
Udyr (bear stance)
Garen (decisive strike)
TF (gold card)
Xin Zhao (three talon strike)
Renekton (ruthless predator)
Soraka (silence)
Kassadin (silence, iirc his Q range is larger than your ult range)
Janna/Sona (will take cleanse to break your ult, then counter with theirs)
The third commandment in the bible of Galio is Thou shalt know the range of Flash Ult, as well as the taunt and damage ranges of thine ultimate. The taunt range is slightly larger than the damage range, meaning if you catch a ranged hero on the tip of your taunt, they will attack you but not be damaged by your ult. Make sure you judge the distance correctly so you can catch their carry near the center of your ult.
Generally this will be your skill order in either lane:
Q, E, Q, E, Q, R, Q, W
then max Q and W before maxing E, taking R when appropriate.
Item Build
Tank Galio has 3 core items as far as I'm concerned: Merc Treads, Aegis, Banshee's Veil. You need to get all three of those to be an effective tank, as well as armor if necessary. Item order will look something like:
Doran's Shield -> 2 Null Mantles -> Boots -> Aegis -> Merc Treads -> Banshee's -> Armor
Support Galio also has a 3 item core that's very similar: Merc Treads, Soul Shroud, Banshee's Veil. Item order may look like:
Doran's Shield or Mana Manipulator -> Kindlegem -> Merc Treads -> Soul Shroud -> Banshee's -> Armor
Support Galio is best when your team has another tank. It allows you to always be ready to W your carry and gives you the mana regen/CDR to spam your spells as well as have a faster ult. Support Galio is also the team's ward bitch so make sure you always buy 2 or 3 wards when you b.
There are a number of luxury items you can run on Galio, including Zhonya's Hourglass (if they are heavy AD), Chalice (if you're having a bad early game), Abyssal Scepter (gives you a shitton of AP, great lategame item), Sunfire (taunt forces them to take 80 additional damage from your cape!), Force of Nature (not core because no HP, but the movespeed is fking incredible on Galio)
Playstyle
early game
In his prime, Galio was an awesome solo who could get every creep in a wave with his Q->E combo, and would be near-impossible to kill with minimal farm while also outputting insane damage (on release, his ult blocked 200% of damage, had a base level of 1000 damage, and could be charged up to do 150% more damage per hit). Today he's outshined by lots of other solos and has a hard time dealing with a lot of harass until he hits level 5, where he can use his combo to nuke creeps and then retreat. Against a melee champ you can probably win the CS war but don't expect miracles against a ranged champ. Galio does have great base damage and a really good attack animation, so last hits come easily.
Duo lane Galio will defer last hits to his duo partner unless his duo partner is a support hero like Taric/Janna/Sona (all three of which are great lane partners for him, btw). Save your spells for when enemies are trying to close in on you (slow them with Q) or when your lane partner wants to go for a kill. Galio's Q->E burst combined with any other dual-spell burster (Annie, Anivia, Taric, Shen, Xin Zhao, etc) is usually enough to kill a hero at half health or below. When you hit level 6 and your flash is up, coordinate with your lane partner for a flash ult, combined with their damage output, and finish with your Q and E if the enemies aren't dead.
mid game
Once you have your Aegis, it's your job to be at every teamfight to provide the stats to your team and provide your ult threat. Now that you're level 8+, cast W on yourself before you flash in and ult to take even less damage. Your ult is a fantastic initiation skill, one of the best in the game, but don't force a fight with your ult if no one is out of position on the other team or if you'll only catch one person. It's better to use it to peel people off your carry or wait until the enemies group up and use it then. Mid game is also when Galio gets all his farm. Galio can hold a lane against 3 people because his Q->E clears creepwaves like a boss and they can't dive you because of your ult threat. Use this time to build towards your Banshee's Veil and armor items.
If you were a solo laner, this is also a great time to gank. Teleporting to wards in or near lanes, or teleporting to creeps/towers in a lane that's being ganked, will allow you to flash ult and catch people off guard. Also keep warding.
late game
Late game your job is to keep W on your carry at all times. This will up their survivability by about a grillion. Pound enemies with Q and E and use your ult to peel/initiate as above. Galio's a good creep killer but not a real tower threat, push in conjunction with someone who can mow down towers for most effectiveness.
The final commandment in the bible of Galio is Thou shalt defer all champion kills to thine carry when possible, for a Galio with no kills and 20 assists is the best Galio. Only when a penta kill is assured may you be a greedy gargoyle. Go in peace :3
edit to prevent this from locking up
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i used to play a solo-top, get kill at lvl 6, 9-0-21 galio with flash/ignite and mpen/mp5/apperlvl/flatap setup but it probably sux now that his ult dmg was considerably nerfed
edit: and went something along the lines of zhonyas + abyssal as core
speaking of, i'd put abyssal as an item to seriously consider on galio, tho not core
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oh yeah, abyssal is definitely a great item on Galio, i'll add that. It just has to come after so many other items i didn't even think of it, derp
deathcap no good, but hourglass is acceptable if they're high AD
i would never run ignite on galio but in the old days maybe
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chalice #1 on galio. he's the only champ I'd ever run it on, but it's legit as fuck on Galio.
my core has always been chalice, mercs, HoG. From there, it depends on the game.
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Add Xin Zhao to champs that fuck with your Ult. All he has to do is activate Three Talon Strike and run right into you, taunt or no taunt.
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On February 02 2011 08:20 Mogwai wrote:
chalice #1 on galio. he's the only champ I'd ever run it on, but it's legit as fuck on Galio.
my core has always been chalice, mercs, HoG. From there, it depends on the game.
chalice for a bad early game maybe, but i wouldn't put off shroud for chalice. shroud just gives you sooo much more
but to each his own ^_^
On February 02 2011 08:26 WaveofShadow wrote:
Add Xin Zhao to champs that fuck with your Ult. All he has to do is activate Three Talon Strike and run right into you, taunt or no taunt.
thank you, i knew i was missing someone obvious derp
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I also like thornmail if you need the armor since it synergizes with his ult, iirc.
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All the patches on Galio:
* Idol of Durand
o Fixed a bug where casting would break an enemy's Spell Shield and then taunt them again
o Fixed a bug where the taunt particle sometimes played on targets that blocked the taunt
o Fixed a bug where Idol of Durand's ability power ratio was inconsistent
o Ability power ratio decreased to .8 from 0.85
* Bulwark duration reduced to 3.5 seconds from 4
* Righteous Gust base damage reduced to 65/110/155/200/245 from 70/115/160/205/250
* Righteous Gust ability power ratio reduced to 0.65 from 0.8
* Resolute Smite ability power ratio increased to 0.70 from 0.6
* Resolute Smite ability power ratio increased to 0.75 from 0.7
* Righteous Gust ability power ratio reduced to 0.5 from 0.65
* Righteous Gust movement speed bonus increased to 20/25/30/35/40% from 20/24/28/32/36%
* Idol of Durand
o Ability power ratio reduced to 0.6 from 0.8
o Damage percent increase on hit reduced to 5% from 10%
o Total damage cap reduced to 140% from 180%
* Resolute Smite's area of effect size and projectile speed have been increased slightly
* Righteous Gust mana cost reduced to 70/75/80/85/90 from 80/85/90/95/100
* Idol of Durand area of effect increased to 550 from 500
* Resolute Smite
o Damage increased to 80/135/190/245/300 from 60/115/170/225/280
o Ability power ratio increased to 0.8 from 0.75
o Cooldown reduced to 7 from 8
* Righteous Gust
o Movespeed increased to 20/28/36/44/52 from 20/25/30/35/40
o Righteous Gust now applies the movespeed buff to Galio more quickly
o Damage reduced to 60/105/150/195/240 from 65/110/155/200/245
Overall:
* Resolute Smite
Damage increased to 80/135/190/245/300 from 60/115/170/225/280
Ability power ratio increased to 0.8 from 0.6
Cooldown reduced to 7 from 8
Area of effect size and projectile speed have been increased slightly
* Bulwark
Duration reduced to 3.5 seconds from 4
* Righteous Gust
Damage reduced to 60/105/150/195/240 from 70/115/160/205/250
Righteous Gust ability power ratio reduced to 0.5 from 0.8
Mana cost reduced to 70/75/80/85/90 from 80/85/90/95/100
Movespeed increased to 20/28/36/44/52% from 20/24/28/32/36%
Now applies the movespeed buff to Galio more quickly
* Idol of Durand
Fixed a bug where casting would break an enemy's Spell Shield and then taunt them again
Fixed a bug where the taunt particle sometimes played on targets that blocked the taunt
Fixed a bug where Idol of Durand's ability power ratio was inconsistent
Ability power ratio reduced to 0.6 from 0.85
Damage percent increase on hit reduced to 5% from 10%
Total damage cap reduced to 140% from 180%
Area of effect increased to 550 from 500
From Feb 2 (when the OP was posted):
* Resolute Smite
Damage increased to 80/135/190/245/300 from 60/115/170/225/280
Ability power ratio increased to 0.8 from 0.75
Cooldown reduced to 7 from 8
* Righteous Gust
Movespeed increased to 20/28/36/44/52 from 20/25/30/35/40
Righteous Gust now applies the movespeed buff to Galio more quickly
Damage reduced to 60/105/150/195/240 from 65/110/155/200/245
Mana cost reduced to 70/75/80/85/90 from 80/85/90/95/100
* Idol of Durand
Area of effect increased to 550 from 500
I started to play Galio again, and I feel that he’s a strong support tank.
Righteous Gust does no damage at all after nerfs to it, so I only get it at lvl 4, and leave it at one point.Doesn't even count as a nuke anymore. I find his W to be pretty strong in lane and put it on a carry in teamfights and you’re set to go Resolute Smite does even more damage. His ult, I don’t see it doing much dmg, but the taunt is still pretty good.
Does Merc’s still reduce taunt duration and therefore gets rid of the dmg from the ult?
Also, Galio + Brand = lolz
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yes mercs reduces taunt duration
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Doesn't really matter all that much though since you can cancel the ult (basically as soon as you see someone move) and it still does the same damage afaik.
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I've been using Galio quite a bit in 3v3s recently, and I gotta say that his ult is not only great for dealing AOE damage, but is also awesome for locking down opponents so my allies can catch up/kill them. Since I play AP somewhat-support Galio, My spells do a decent amount of damage. If I see the opponents running from me and my two teammates that are charging the lane, i Resolute smite in front of them, if needed flash to catch up, and turn on my ult. If it doesn't kill the opponents, my allies have caught up and are already pounding on the guy. I am not really impressed by his E spell though. Yes it is pretty good for escaping, and the damage is OK, but overall the spell seems just kinda meh. Galio+Rumble lane is pretty good, I can imagine something like Support Galio + Ranged carry (ashe, MF, maybe trist) would be pretty good as well.
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United States37500 Posts
On TT, Banshee, GA, Zhonya's. Always bait, never die. Spec runes with MR doesn't hurt either.
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I shouldn't write guides when i am a noob
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How 2 Galio by ruRURU:
Runes:
MPen/Armor/MRLvl/MPen Quints
Summonas:
Flash/Ignite
Skill Order:
Q/E/Q/W R>Q>E>W
Itams:
Core:
Health Pendant -> Philo
Chalice
Boots
AP
Deathcap
Abyssal
Sorcs
Chain Mail
Eleisa's
Zhonyas
Banshees
Eleisa's -> Lichbane/WotA/CDR
AP Tank
HoG
Abyssal
Mercs
Aegis
Deathcap
Banshees
Randuin
I mostly play AP, and most of what I write below reflects that, but I've used the AP Tank build before also fairly successfully. The AP Tank title itself is kind of misleading, because properly casting Bulwark with the first build gives you more than enough survivability. In fact, the only times you should ever be dying as Galio late game with a AP build should be on your Bulwark downtime, which is significantly reduced by Zhonyas/CDR.
Early Game:
Take Mid, or Bottom with a support. Ideally you want to spam Q on them from Lvl 3 onwards, but use it to farm if you need to. At 6, threaten a kill with Q/E/R. (This does comparable damage to Annie at 6; You can also Ult and wait for the Flash before Q/E) You can cast Ignite during the Taunt if you need to. At 7, you can start farming both wraiths if you get the chance to.
Spam your spells non-stop the moment you get Philo/Chalice, unless a teamfight is about to happen because you will be floating ~200 Mana and need a bit more to get spells off.
Mid Game:
Lvl 2 Idol does a ton of damage once you get DC, so abuse that. It does have fairly long CD tho (As does Flash, but it isn't required). Thankfully Galio has a decent poking, and you can usually stop/delay Dragon attempts if your Ult is down. Ideally, aim for at least 2 Squishies, but if you can catch ~3 Tanky DPS, you will be surprised how much your spells do. Remember to cancel early against Ranged Squishies with Mercs. (Most Melees will just keep hitting stuff near them, and rarely have enough time to run out of the radius anyways)
Do note that going running in with Gust -> Ult is quite viable if Flash isn't up and your team doesn't have another initiate. The key is casting Bulwark just before they jump you. (And they will in a lot of cases) Never Bulwark anyone when you're Full HP, unless its multiple people jumping a Squishie (Or you know they can't just switch targets to you right away)
Late Game:
Battles tend to last longer at this stage, and you'll probably find your damage lacking in a straight up fight. Focus on either double nuking enemy Squishies, or using the Snare/Speedup for allied Squishies.
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United States47024 Posts
How is Catalyst as an early mana item? I'm not a huge fan of Chalice, and seeing as Bveil is actually nice for Galio to have earlier, Cata seems preferable for shoring up midgame mana needs.
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Runes:
Flat armor seals, mres/lvl glyphs, mpen marks and flat mres quints.
Summoner spells and masteries
Flash/clarity 0/9/21
This build might not work for everyone, but this is generally what i do:
Claim solo top, start out with either null-magic mantle and 2 Hpots or cloth armor and 5 Hpots, depending on who i might encounter.
Core:
Mercury treads
Abyssal scepter
Banshee
Aegis
Skill order is QWQE, R > Q > W > E
Works like a fucking charm.
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Consider chalice as it cures any of Galio's mana problems past early game
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Well my impression of galio is, that you only need flash. The second summoner spell is just what fits you may it be cv/teleport/ghost/ignite/clarity. So either you're giving up an item space to deal with mana issue or you give up a summoner spell which is just what fits your playstyle. To me, i don't want the 30 MR and not having to worry about mana. I can just take clarity. Also, he's a MR tank, so flat armor seals helps you in laning phase, seeing as the current meta most likely will put a tanky dps on top.
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Clarity isn't good. It's like Teleport if teleport didn't let you heal and buy items.
You're better with CV, TP or Ghost.
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EPT
