NOTE: The build above is very generalized. No single build will work with every game. Alternate purchase routes and rune/mastery builds below. Also, I do a good deal of premades, and premades are where Galio shines. Due to the extra level of communication, landing clutch ulti's becomes much easier/and it's generally better exploited by your team. Galio also shines in a 2v1/solo lane, the extra farm and levels he get gives him a much needed edge over the rest of their team.

Galio: The Sentinel's Sorrow, By TheOmegaEidolon

This is my first build, but I'm making it because I've seen some other Galio builds out there and feel that I have something different to bring to the table (and, to be frank, better). Thank you for taking the time to view my build, and I hope it works well for you.

In the beginning of Galio he did not just do well in a lane, he dominated. Being able to take major harass while throwing serious burst back. His ulti was an absolute force to be reckoned with in teamfights. His support to his team mates was unparalleled. After a few subsequent nerfs to him he's not nearly as strong as he was before, however with the right team behind him, he can effectively play the roll of main tank and support while doing some decent burst damage to boot.

Pros:

-Strong tank.
-AoE Ulti is a strong teamwide disable with decent damage.
-Strong farmer.
-Strong support.
-His passive gives him a a strong advantage versus magic heavy teams.
-Strong early/mid damage shifting into unkillable support tank late game.
-His kit has incredible utility.
-Strong 2v1 laner

Cons:

-His damage has been nerfed to the ground.
-Righteous Gust has a noticeably long cooldown.
-Very team dependent.
-Difficult to learn and to master.
-Has no way to check bushes (Why Resolute Smite doesn't reveal is beyond me.)

Galio's kit is by far my favorite in the game. All of his skills have crazy utility while merging together to form one devastating combo.
____________________
His passive:
Runic Skin: Galio converts 50% of his total Magic Resistance into Ability Power.

Galio's Passive is part of what makes Galio, Galio. It allows him to stack straight tank, yet do some decent burst damage back. It's a one way road, unlike Vladimir's passive, but I believe that is to compensate for converting 50% of his total MR into AP.

____________________
Resolute Smite: Galio fires a concussive blast from his eyes, dealing magic damage near the impact location and reducing enemy movement speed for 2.5 seconds.
Cooldown: Flat 8 seconds.
Mana Cost: 70/75/80/85/90
Magic Damage: 60/115/170/225/280 (+0.75 per ability power)
% Slow: Slow: 24/28/32/36/40%

Your main harass. It does good damage, is on a decently low CD, has a decent AP ratio, and has a slow to boot. Altogether a great skill, although can be fairly difficult to land at times.
____________________

Bulwark: Galio shields a friendly champion for 3.5 seconds, increasing their Armor and Magic Resistance. Each time that unit suffers damage, Galio is healed (-20% healing for each consecutive hit).
Mana cost: 60
Cooldown: Flat 13 seconds
Armor & Magic Resistance: 30/45/60/75/90
Healing: 20/32/44/56/68 (+0.30 per ability power)

An absolutely amazing skill. Early/mid game is where this shines. Throw it on anyone being focused, throw it on yourself for some self heals, throw it on your low team mate for that Karthus ulti, tank turrets with it, throw it on yourself for some free AP to harass with, but most importantly throw it on yourself before you cast your ulti. The uses for this skill are numerous, but remember it has a 13 second cooldown so use it when you need it but don't spam it unnecessarily.
____________________

Righteous Gust: Galio unleashes a gust of concussive wind that deals magic damage to all enemies in its path. A directional draft remains for 5 seconds, increasing the movement speed of allies passing through it.
Mana Cost: 80/85/90/95/100
Cooldown: Flat 12 seconds
Magic Damage: 65/110/155/200/245 (+0.50 per ability power)
Speed Increase: 20/25/30/35/40%

A good skill, used to be a lot better before 2 or 3 nerfs. However it is still a great harass, great chase skill, great escape skill, great gank skill, decent damage, and on top of all that-it's a quick skill to cast. Just remember, like Bulwark, it has a decent cooldown. Generally speaking you can initiate with it-do your teamfight and afterwards run/chase with it, but that's it.

____________________

Idol of Durand: Galio channels for 2 seconds, taunting nearby foes and blocking 30% of incoming damage.

After channeling, Galio deals magic damage to surrounding enemies, plus an additional 5% damage for each attack suffered while channeling. Maximum +40% bonus damage. Can be cancelled early for less damage.
Cost: 100/150/200 Mana
Cooldown: 170/150/130 seconds
Magic Damage: 220/330/440 (+0.60 per ability power)

The other part that makes Galio, Galio. A 2 second AoE taunt and damage. That. Is. Crazy. Smaller radius than Amumu's but with so much more to offer. Amumu's ulti is a root so enemies cannot move, and cannot autoattack, but can still cast. Galio's Idol of Durand is a taunt; enemies caught in it are left completely helpless. In this way I consider Galio ulti to be superior to Amumu's. But they are different champions and have similar, yet decisively different playstyles. And although I currently and will probably always prefer Galio's support and utility over Amumu they are both game changing champions. Word of caution however, enemies with Merc Treds can shrug off the taunt and leave the circle before your channel ends, taking no damage. If you see this happening-break your channel early. It might not get that extra damage multiplier, but most of the damage comes from his base damage anyway, so breaking it early is usually the best thing to do.

Galio's ultimate is all about timing. It's what separates good Galio's from bad Galio's. (Good Galio's win games, bad Galio's lose games). You have to recognize that using your ulti means being auto'd by (up to) their entire team. With a full enemy team of casters, this usually isn't a big deal. But when dealing with multiple "right-click" heroes you can get hit with some serious damage. Full DPS teams are not Galio's forte, building a thornmail will help.

I'm going to go straight out to say Flash and Teleport/Clairvoyance is the best combo I have found. Flash is absolutely necessary for Galio, without question. The second is up to your preference, however you are taking on the roll of a support tank, teleport allows you to be where your team needs you at any time, and clairvoyance gives strong map awareness and is altogether great for a team to have (you have an empty slot, so why not take it?).

But here is a recap of the other possible summoner spells you can take, and their possible advantages and disadvantages.

Flash-

Absolutely required. Flash in itself is a great (some would say OP) Summoner Spell. Being able to flash/ulti is just icing on the enormous cake. If you are playing Galio and you run straight at their team, all they will do is scatter. Running at them and Flashing into place means they have very little time to react, and will therefore mean you get more people caught into your ulti (always a good thing).

Teleport-

As I said before it lets you be where you need to be. Galio can safely defend a tower from multiple people because he is great at killing minions. Teleporting to a tower will give your team the time it takes to run over to help you defend the tower.

Clairvoyance-

One of my personal favorites. Checking dragon, checking baron, checking bushes, checking on their jungler, checking for ganks, this skill gives great map awareness. It also makes up for the fact that Galio has no skill that reveals.

Ghost-

A solid summoner spell, allows you to kite or catch up with your enemies and it compounds well with Righteous Gust. Pick it up if you are in ranked and they have a lot of slows, or if you care for another escape/chase skill.

Exhaust-

A decent spell for an AD carry, or melee DPS, however not essential for you. It can,however, be lifesaving for you or someone on your team. If you are in ranked and you see they have a good amount of range/melee carries, then you can pick it up. If you are in normal and no one else on your team has it, it might be a good choice to pick up.

Clarity-

Useful for your team, useful for you. It's altogether useful, but simply not the best. Galio is fairly mana hungry, but grabbing a Chalice usually solves that problem.

Cleanse-

If you're playing normal and really hate CC, then you can take this. If you're playing ranked and see they have one of those crazy CC-lock teams, then take this.

Ignite-

If you are in ranked and they have excessive heals, grab this. If you are in normal and really want to make sure they die, you can grab this.

Rally-

Will help with pushing towers and Galio is good at that, but altogether not useful for Galio.

Rally-

Not useful for you. Let a real AP softcarry or hybrid take this.

Heal-

It has it's uses, but not on you. Don't bother with it. If you need to heal, tank some minions with Bulwark up.

Smite-

You are not jungling, you don't need it.

Revive-

Just don't get it. With a 9 minute cooldown, this is the worst summoner spell for almost anyone, including Galio.

If you are in a 2v1 lane, solo top, or mid, I suggest grabbing:
Flash
Teleport.

If you are playing more of a support Galio:
Flash
Clairvoyance

I usually 2v1 lane with Galio, and therefore my runes are about half offensive/half defensive.

I roll with Magic Penetration Marks, Flat Armor Seals (avoid dodge Seals, as dodging an attack while you are channeling your ultimate will reduce it's damage), cooldown per level Glyphs, and Flat Health Quints.

-The benefits of this rune set is that it allows you to be sufficiently tanky early game, allowing you to be bold in your actions and take control of your lane by force.

Alternate runes:

Marks:

-Flat armor. Might be useful, will give you another 10 armor with a full set. Not too bad.
-Flat health. Will give you 31 extra hp at level 1. With the nerf to Veteran's Scars and HP Quints, it could give you an edge.

Magic Pen Marks are really the best way to go.

Seals:

-Flat health: Gives 48hp at lvl 1. Not too bad at all.
-Flat mana: Gives 62 extra mana at lvl 1. Also not bad at all.

Either of those could definitely help your early game.

Glpyhs:

-Flat MR: Gives 13 MR at lvl 1, which due to your passive will give you an additional 7 AP.
-MR per lvl: Gives 25 MR at lvl 18, which due to your passive gives 13 AP at level 18. Not too bad either.
-Flat mana: Gives 101 mana at lvl 1. Which would allow you to spam some more skills early game. Not bad.

CD/lvl glyphs are the best way to go in my opinion. At lvl 18 between just your runes/masteries/Omen you get a 25% flat CDR. That reduces the CD on your ulti at lvl 18 from 130 seconds to 97.5 seconds.

Quintessences:

-CDR per level: Gives 7% CDR at lvl 18. Which helps you get your ulti faster. Not bad at all.
-Magic Pen: Gives 6 Magic pen at lvl 1. Will help you do more damage, but not significantly more.
-Flat Mana: Gives 112 mana at lvl 1. Allowing you to spam skills a bit more.
-MR per level: Gives 18 MR at lvl 18, giving you 9 more AP. Not terrible.
-XP gained: 6% more XP gained. Allowing that solo lane exp to level you even faster. Pretty good imo, just have never seen these used personally.

HP quints are awesome for everyone, Galio included. If you want more bang for your IP get HP Quints, if you have plenty of IP to spare you can specialize in another set. I, however, love being more tanky in the beginning as it gives me a bit of an edge on a 2v1 lane.

The mastery change was pretty substantial change for all League of Legends and Galio is no different. Nothing major has changed in particular to Galio but a few different options are now available to you as a player.

0/21/9
Pros:

This build is tanky and even harder to bully now than before. And a rather large buff here being the CD/lvl mastery! You're getting a full set of CD/lvl runes with those masteries. Meaning by lvl 18 you will have an inherent 16% CDR.

Cons:

Not as much damage early game as if you went with the flat AP and magic pen 9/21/0 or 9/0/21 build.

9/0/21
Pros:

Increased damage with the flat AP, 10% FLAT CDR. That's more than what you get out of the 0/21/9 build and you get it at level 1. Spellvamp, increased buff duration, and most importantly for this build is summoner spell CDR. Flash CD is lowered to 213 seconds with both the Summoner's Insight and Mastermind masteries.

Cons:

Not as tanky

Your Core build will be as follows:
Catalyst the Protector

*Smaller icons mean are the intermediates, try to buy them in that order if you can't buy the item outright.

Item sequence/When to go back:
Level 1 start with
Meki Pendant and either:
2 health pots, or:
1 health pot and a mana pot.
As soon as you get 500g blue pill for your
Chalice of Harmony.

-Assuming you have Teleport, tele back to your lane.


Farm and harass like a crazy man now. Your Chalice will give strong mana regen which allows you to strongly harass your enemies and farm like mad.

Once your teleport comes back off cooldown, check to see if anyone needs help. If not blue pill again and build Merc treds.
- Merc treds are generally the best boot choice for Galio. However if their team really lacks on the CC, grab those tasty CDR boots.

Now that you've got your Nike's you're ready to start building into your core build.

You must decide which works best for who you are facing.

Primarily magic damage:
Build a Banshees.
Primarily Physical damage:
Build a Randuin's Omen.
Good mix of both: Go with a Banshees. Range harass is usually magic damage, therefore building a Banshees early will give you more AP, more HP, more mana for spamming your spells, more MR to fend off that harass, and the signature Banshee's passive.

Then build the other thing you didn't build. I.E. If you built a Banshees then build an Omen, or vice versa. The combination between Banshee's and Omen sets you up perfectly for Mid/Late game. You get a net of 675HP, 375 mana, 80 armor, 50 MR, 25 hp regen/5, 8% CDR, and both of the amazing Banshee's and Omen's passives, on top of Omen's active.

The next item you should get:
Abyssal Scepter.
This item synergizes with Galio more than any other item in the game in my opinion. It gives him AP, MR (which gives him in turn more AP), and reduces enemy's MR by 20 (in turn giving his burst and ulti more damage).

From here it is entirely up to you and the team you are facing. Some good items include:
Guardian Angel-

All around amazing tanking item. Get it if they have a mix of AD/AP.

Frozen Heart-

This should be the last or second to last item you get. At this point your Idol of Durand is going to be *solely* for the team disable and not the damage. Having the AoE AS debuff *and* Randuin's Omen will absolutely effect the damage on your ulti. Get this only if they have a maxed stacked AS/AD carry, it will help shut them down.)

Force of Nature-

For those heavy AP teams.

Warmog's-

If you feel you just need more HP. You can max this pretty quickly with Galio's farming abilities.

Rod of Ages-

Gives HP, mana, and AP. The standard for AP/support tanks. It's build up though means it is usually something to get early in the game, and I've found that Banshees into Omen into Abyssal just works too perfectly to sacrifice any piece of it for some AP. Though, if you think the game is going to last a while longer (takes 10 minutes to max a RoA) then you could very feasibly grab a RoA after the Abyssal.

Sunfire Cape-

Gives armor, gives health, and even a bit more damage to boot. A pretty decent item if you need a little bit more health a little bit more armor.

Thornmail-

For those late game AD supercarries.

Spirit Visage-

MR, Health, CDR, and will increase the healing from your Bulwark. I've never actually purchased this item to be honest. But I can definitely see it as a solid item (especially since the CDR from this and the rest of the build will nearly bring you to the CDR cap.)

Zhonya's Hourglass -

You're not going to be using the active on this often. If they're focusing you, then you're doing your job right. You don't want to pop the active on this and force them to focus your your carries. The only time I can see the active being effectively used is if you are incredibly low, throw a bulwark on yourself to keep them enticed but making you very hard to kill then popping the active at the very last second.

Rabadon's Deathcap-

Straight AP. Only get this if your team is roflstomping and you really want to rolfstomp that much more. I've also gotten this when I feel absolutely sufficiently tanky and need that late game damage. Generally speaking it will take the ~200 AP you have and more than double it.

Archangel's Staff-

See above, then add that you will never run out of mana whilst the roflstomping occurs.

Void Staff-

For those insanely tanky teams where every piece of damage helps.

My key picks would be (in relative order):
Physical Team:
-GA, Frozen Heart, Warmogs.
or
-GA, Zhonya's Hourglass, Frozen Heart.

Magic Team:
-Spirit Visage, Force of Nature, GA.
or
-FoN, Warmogs, Deathcap.

Mix teams:
-GA, Spirit Visage, Warmogs.
or
-GA, Spirit Visage, Zhonya's.

The other items are useful in certain situations, all depends on their team. Only get the AP items if you feel you are sufficiently tanky and would rather do more damage. Buy a Void staff only when you feel it is necessary, it's probably the least useful and most situational item on the above list. An example of how it might be useful is if there are a lot of late game standoffs on towers the magic pen will help harass them down. Frozen Heart is the other incredibly situational item. Only get it very late game if they have 1-2 (or more) AD supercarries that are messing up your team, at that point debuffing them with Frozen Heart's passive and Omen's active is more important than the possible damage on your ulti. And don't be afraid to sell your Chalice for another tanky item, or even for some extra AP. It's served it's purpose, just make sure you realize you don't have that extra mana regen.

One of the commenters brought up the possible issue with Randuin's Omen and reducing your possible damage output on Galio's ulti. So I replied in the comments below, but decided to make it part of my guide as well:



I explained why I use Randuin' Omen in my build. Primarily, it gives armor, health, CDR. Secondly, after you ulti, the majority of the time the team tries to run or regroup. Popping an AoE slow on them will inhibit that, and if they try to turn to fight they are further crippled.

Also, I might have agreed with you when his ulti actually did damage, but they nerfed it so hard that it's damage is negligible. Galio's main purpose with his ulti is to disable as many of the enemies at once, damage is secondary. The *small* chance that you *might* lose some small amount of damage is irrelevant compared to AoE debuff applied from Omen's active (not to mention Omen is an absolutely amazing tanking item).

But you don't believe me? Let's crunch the numbers. Say a pretty standard enemy team consisting of 1 tank, 2 melee dps, 1 AP carry, 1 AD carry.

The tank will probably have an attack speed just under 1.
The melee dpsers will have an attack speed of 1.3
AP carry-less than 1.
AD carry- let's be generous and say 2.0 AS.

That means if the entire enemy team attacks you for the full duration of Galio's 2 second channel you will be hit by the tank once, melee dps twice each, AP carry once, and the AD carry 4 times. Total of 8 times (need 8 hits to cap the damage increase).

Now there is a 20% chance to slow the attacker's AS by 35%. What will happen if someone gets the debuff? One of their attack speeds is slowed by 35%. The tank and the AP carry will have an AS of .65, still will only hit me once each. No net effect.

Now I've crunched the numbers and compiled them into a nice neat spreadsheet. (HPU means hits per ulti: to save space)


Now let's talk statistics.
Worst possible scenario: The chances that 3 of the enemy team will get the debuff on their first hit. That's a 20% chance * 3. Or in other words, a .8% chance this will happen. Not likely. (negating the AP carry and the tank because them getting the debuff has no net effect).
Middle scenario: 2 of the enemy team gets the debuff on their first hit. That's a 4% chance. And even then you only lose 2 stacks on your ulti's damage multiplier.
Best case scenario: None of them get the debuff on their first hit. There is a 51.2% chance of this happening. Then even if all of them get the buff on their next hits, you are only losing 1 stack of damage multiplier (from the fed AD carry).

That relates to a 5% increase in damage. If you go by this basic build you will have ~170 AP and generally you will be over lvl 16. Which means Galio's ulti will be hitting for 550 (+170*.6) damage. A total of 652 damage before MR. 5% of that is 32.6 damage. Wooo. Thirty damage (before MR mind you).

Ideally you will throw your ultimate down on minions to make absolutely sure you hit your damage cap. But, again, (and most importantly) Galio's ulti isn't for damage it's for disable. Imagine if Galio's ulti instead said:

"(Active): Galio channels for 2 seconds, taunting nearby foes and blocking 30% of incoming damage.
After channeling, Galio deals magic damage to surrounding enemies, plus an additional 5% damage for each attack suffered while channeling. Maximum +40% bonus damage. Can be canceled early for less damage. Additionally, Galio's ultimate slows movement speed and attack speed of surrounding units by 35% for 2 second + 0.5 seconds for each 100 Armor and Magic Resist."

With this build you have near 200 armor and magic resist. Which means after a 2 second AoE taunt you are debuffing the enemy team for a little less than 4 seconds. That's 6 seconds of disabled/debuffed enemy team. That, in my opinion, is pretty ridiculous. That is why I include the item in my build.

Your skills as Galio depend entirely on your enemy team and how new you are to Galio.

The main chunk of harass damage you have is from Resolute Smite, it has a higher base damage, higher AP ratio, and a lower CD than Righteous Gust. But at the same time, it is a harder skillshot to land.

Righteous Gust is a much easier skillshot to land, but has a sizeable CD and lower damage. If you are new to Galio and his skillshots level Righteous Gust instead of Resolute Smite for your harass.

If you feel you are not getting a lot of harass or are in a particularly easy lane, instead of leveling Bulwark, level Righteous Gust along with Resolute Smite for more burst damage and harass.

Bulwark is an altogether an absolutely amazing skill, but it really shines early and mid game. In the laning phase it's amazing for harass and self-heal. In mid-game, when maxed, it will usually double target ally's armor and MR. The extra armor is absolutely great for tanking towers. Throw it on yourself for the increased heal as well, and most of the time the damage from the tower won't even be noticeable.

Also, it might be a good choice to put at least one point into Righteous gust before maxing both Resolute Smite and Bulwark, simply for the movespeed bonus.

-When harassing mid-late game (you should by now have Resolute Smite maxed and at least some points into Righteous Gust) Your burst combo is throwing Q then E back-to-back. If they hit, they will hit at exactly the same time, giving you a substantial burst combo.

-Try throwing your bulwark on yourself beforehand as it will increase your MR and therefore your AP (from your passive). Word of caution however is a good team might seize the opportunity to engage while bulwark is down. Be wary when using this skill for harass.

-Leveling Bulwark early game allows you to tank towers for a *long* time. Use this to your advantage.

-I play him enough to where I have hotkey'd "selfcast spell W" to an easy to reach key. It's much easier to throw do your burst combo, flash, press a button to self cast bulwark, then ulti instead of having to target/click yourself for bulwark. (Funny thing as well is a lot of buffs end up being on the W skill slot anyway, so it works for plenty of other champs as well.

-After you build your Randiun's Omen, don't forget to pop the active just after your ulti pops. It's a devastating combo, but popping the active will inturupt your ulti, doing less damage. So remember to pop the active only after your utli pops.

-Some things to look out for on the enemy team. If you are playing against a good Garen, TF, Xin Zhao, Udyr, or Blitzcrank they will charge their next attack ( Decisive Strike/ Gold Card/ Three Talon Strike/ Bear Stance/ Power fist, respectively) before you ulti and wait for it. The result of this is they will get taunted, walk up to you and their first auto will instantly break your ulti. Wait for their buff to run out-then initiate.

-Remember to play to your strengths. If you're dominating a lane and not taking much harass back, pour some more points into Resolute Smite to get even more early game lane domination, but if you're the one taking all the harass then level up your Bulwark.

That's the best I can do for you. But I leave you with this, he's pretty UP in terms of damage right now, so don't go into this expecting to rock faces. He can still dominate a lane, and he's still a force on the battlefield if played correctly, but your main job now is to protect and buff your teammates, and disable and debuff theirs.

And remember, you're a tank first and damage dealer second.

Galio doesn't get very many updates. His speed on Resolute Smite was increased a while ago, but nothing amazing.

Update: 11/16/11
So this isn't a change to Galio at all, but a change to the masteries. Have actually changed to a 0/21/9 build above. I think this is a very solid change because so many things in the defensive tree are strong now. Although the next best build in my opinion would be the standard 9/0/21 build. Just depends on playstyle and what you are looking for in your masteries.

I feel the people that take the time to read my guide and give me constructive criticism, tips, tricks, helpful hints, ect. should at least get a shout out. So here it is:

Dyscolus.
jørgensen
Chaotic Bliss (Recommendation, thank you)
Jebus McAzn (Recommendation, thank you)

Thanks to these guys for helping me out making my first guide the best it can be.

And a big thanks to my team, can't rofl so hard without them:
PlagueOsiris
Chemicalgecko
Texas20
Nightbanjo