Pros

- Strong 2v2's with jungler
- Decent waveclear from your Winds of War and Colossal Smash
- Strong Area of Effect damage
- Relatively tanky with Shield of Durand and Aftershock
- Plenty of crowd control
- Kill pressure in lane if your opponent doesn't respect your damage
- Above average mobility with your Justice Punch
- Very strong roams
- Every dragon soul works well with Galio
- Looks cool as ****
- You have one of the best kits for following an engage
- You can also be the main engage if you have to

Cons

- Long cooldowns (especially early)
- Gets outpoked by many matchups
- Weak damage when behind
- Gets outscaled by most mages
- Once you've done your initial combo you're useless for 5+ seconds

Aftershock

This is a standard example runepage. Aftershock is a staple rune into every matchup as it provides damage and tank stats.
Shield Bash is very standard as it adds more damage to your burst combo as you need every bit of extra damage you can get. You can go Demolish but only if you're confident you won't need the extra burst and will be more focused on splitting/breaking mid tower.

Bone Plating is interchangeable with Second Wind. Take Bone Plating when against all in/burst champion like Zed, Qiyana etc. and Second Wind into poke matchups such as Orianna, Syndra, Xerath.

Unflinching is useful versus enemies with crowd control as you can Flash for Nimbus Cloak movespeed and not be interrupted or slowed as much. Also, the passive tenacity when your summoners are on cooldown is handy. If the enemy team has very little crowd control , you can take Overgrowth for the max hp increase.

For your Secondary Tree, you always want to take Sorcery simply because Nimbus Cloak is too important to Galio's kit.
You have more flexibility when choosing your second Sorcery option. Absolute Focus is a very solid option for extra damage and I take it some games if I'm looking to snowball. However, after the change to Transcendence, I take it most games as it is significantly better for Galio.


Double Adaptive Damage is always the standard option and then Armour/Magic Resist is dependant on your lane opponent. However, if your lane opponent is especially poke heavy and will auto attack you frequently ( Neeko, Syndra, Orianna,) you can go one Armour and one Magic Resist or double MR/Armour.

Unsealed Spellbook

Unsealed Spellbook gives you more utility than Aftershock but less duelling potential. It synergises well with Nimbus Cloak which allows you to run at, and away from enemy champions. Typically, when going Unsealed Spellbook, you would take Flash and Heal as Heal is extremely versatile and on a short cooldown. If you have kill pressure in lane it is fine to go Ignite instead of Heal. When using Unsealed Spellbook, you want to keep Flash if you can, and switch the summoner which is currently on cooldown. The best summoner spells to switch for Heal are: Teleport, Exhaust, Ignite, Ghost, Barrier (and Smite only if you're contesting neutral objectives.)

Magical Footwear and Perfect Timing are both better than Hextech Flashtraption as it does not synergise well with Unsealed Spellbook. Take Perfect Timing if you're going to buy Zhonya's Hourglass. However, if Zhonya's Hourglass isn't core you can go Magical Footwear, but look at your build paths after a few games to see what time you buy Sorcerer's Shoes. If you buy Sorcerer's Shoes after ~10 mins Magical Footwear is fine, unless you need Sorcerer's Shoes for an early powerspike
The next rune is very situational and also depends on your playstyle. If your opponent is looking to poke you out of lane, you can go Biscuit Delivery for sustain. However, most of the time the better option is to try and outpush your laner with Q's and your passive, while trying to avoid incoming damage. Minion Dematerializer allows you to do this more efficiently as you gain permanent damage to minions and can instantly kill the cannon minion. In a safe lane where you want to try and extend your potential lead, you can go Future's Market. This allows you and buy power spiking items such as Hextech Alternator, Sorcerer's Shoes and Hextech Rocketbelt slightly earlier.
Cosmic Insight synergises extremely well with Galio's kit AND Unsealed Spellbook so it's always worth taking over the other two.

For your Secondary Tree, you always want to take Sorcery simply because Nimbus Cloak is too important to Galio's kit. This is amplified significantly with Unsealed Spellbook as summoners are used more frequently, always take Nimbus Cloak
You have more flexibility when choosing your second Sorcery option. Absolute Focus is a very solid option for extra damage and I take it some games if I'm looking to snowball. However, after the change to Transcendence, I take it most games as it is significantly better for Galio. Transcendence works well with the Inspiration tree play-style and should be taken most games with Unsealed Spellbook.

If the enemy champions are extremely mobile you can go Celerity, just for the movespeed increase from Nimbus Cloak and Heal/ Ghost/ Teleport. Only go Celerity if you're confident with it, it is generally a lot weaker than Transcendence/ Absolute Focus.


Double adaptive is always the standard option and then armour/magic resist is dependant on your lane opponent. However, if your lane opponent is especially poke heavy and will auto attack you frequently ( Neeko, Syndra, Orianna,) you can go one armour and one magic resist or double mr/armour.