Welcome to my second Guide, this one featuring Galio!

As you may know, Galio isn't the most played hero out there, and is in fact rarely seen in MM games. This is what made me wanna play him in the first place, as this gargoyle deals devastating dmg and cant hold an entired team hostage whilst the rest of his team beats them up.

The reason i make this guide is that i hope people will take a look at Galio, and i would love to see him more in the game. He is a fun teammate and a challanging enemy.


Lets get started:

Pros

Galio can farm minion waves INSANELY well.
Galio can farm netural camps from the F'ing LANE. Beat that.
Galio got natural nice MR, and his passive

Runic Skin gives more AP. More dmg! Jay!
His ultimate can win a game over.
The bulwark allows him to stay in lanes and regen in combat.
Tears AP teams APART.


Cons

Not great in 1v1.
CCR allows people to escape his ult before it is done.
Using his ult is a potential hazzard, as everyone will attack you. (can be mean against strong AD teams)
Needs mana.

For the runes i went with a standard build that i use on tanky AP based champs.

Runes, let us take a look:

Id say they are pretty self explainitory:



Marks to make ur AP really punch, and i never really found anything that could compensate for dropping the Mag.Pen marks. They rock.




Seals for some more survival, armour is always nice no matter what, and early game it will help you stick in lanes when minions follow you after you throw a nuke combo of Resolute smite followed by a Righteous gust. Should it hit the creeps and the enemy without killing them, they are headed for you.



Glyphs for more Ap. He needs AP and later he needs it more than ever. He scales well with AP and this helps somewhat. Feel free to take whatever glyphs you want tho, but i will still use these.


greater quint of fortitude
Quints are much like seals for survival. What do ya need armour for if ya aint got the HP to back ip up? Duh ;)

The masteries is something you can all mix for yourself. I go with utility so i can use shorter CD on flash (which is great for getting that perfect Idol of Durand and that can totaly score your team a one-hit-TEAM-K.O

But please make sure you get the offensive masteries at the very least. Ingite is always nice for preventing vladimir and mundo for going too strong on the regen, and a nice way to deal some extra dmg. + taking away 15% of their MR, well, it makes me smile.

Now lets look at the all importaint items!

The core build here consists of 3 items.

Your Nikes! These are the boots to have for you! Basicly these boots give you CCR, MR and AP. Oh, and MS ofc.
Dear old Chalice. Allows you to keep harrassing with your Q-E combo, also gives MR = Ap = BIG SMILES ;)
Veil, TEH veil. I use this on any Mana hero (dont like wasting mana on energy or nocost heroes), the utility of this item is purely great! And guess what? more MR = whaaaat? AP!


Now after these items its all about the game.
Your game.

I generaly find that i lack some HP and some DMG at this point in the game, so throwing a crystal scepter in there wont hurt you at all! This item rocks on Galio, but he still needs more survival from those blasted AD heroes!

Frozen heart Now this item, i love on Galio. It costs a bit, but its well worth the money. When you use Idol of Durand you will start taking much attack dmg. to prevent you from taking too much dmg (tho the more dmg you take the more the other team will have to endure if you survive) we throw in a frozen heart. This items slows down the attackrate of the opponents, and gives armour for dmg reduction, + a larger manapool that scales well with your chalice. And i almost forgot! CDR is a MUST on this guy. The Ult cools down as slow as a nuclear reactor on the verge of total meltdown.

From this point on i'd say take what you need.
Want more dmg? No problem, love your very new Rabadon's deathcap! This item explains itself. It wont make you much harder to kill, wont make you run faster, but it will give u ENOUGH dmg.

Spells tearing you apart STILL? Well i'll be darned! lets have them facemelt:
Force of nature Thats it ladies and gentlemen! The party is officialy OVER This item is royal on Galio. More movement makes his skills easier to plant in faces, more MR = more AP = bloodshed. More HP regen means you will stay in lanes harrassing them from a distance till they quietly weep and /surrender.

Now dont come telling me the AD heroes are messing with you son!
Get that Thornmailand the dmg on your Ult will even skyrocket!

Now i always got for the same summoner spells here. Flash i always use on Galio to get his ult perfect, and potentially to escape.

Ignite is a fun skill, gives more dmg and has great uses against teams with healers too.

If you are not into using ignite, then
Teleport will allow you to get into the mix wherever, and that is the tanks job nr.1

Now this section is gonna be SHORT.
If you have not figured it out yett:

Drop a Q on the creep wave so u hit casters + melee with the and then let the E go straight through the wave afterwards

I am not gonna tell you how to play him, but i will say this:

In lane, or in mid, you dont mind. Because you will fullfill your one goal regardless:

Harrass and farm. At the same time.
If timed right you can cast Q and E to hit both the enemy champ comming forwards for your creeps, or staying back at their own ranged creeps. The range on your spells are above decent, and allows you to hit enemies if you try to expect their movement. Its great for farming, and will mostly be a surfire kill on ranged creeps around lvl 5.

Going mid will allow you to get a fast ult, and possibly pick up a kill if you harras good before you ***ult, or if you get help from minnions/turret. The main thing about your ult is that it rocks with your team around.

So gank sides whenever ur ult is up. Flash out from brush then use your Q to slow, ur W to close the gap and hit R as your team closes up for the kill. Brand combined with Galio is just sad to watch, the CC from the ult combined with Brands INSANE burst AOE makes a 2 on 5 seem like a walk in a park (do not recommend trying that ;) )

In a lane, same story as mid. harras/farm, and once u hit lvl 6 go for the kill. Your team mate will surely get the kill if you dont.

I have not tried jungling Galio, as i see it a waste of great laning prospects.


So you have hopefully come to realize one of the biggest issues with tanks: getting focus. What do you focus in a fight? The source of dmg, something that clarely has a form of CC or high end nuke that needs to be delt with.

With this guide you wont be building for survival untill you got your big guns going, and in this way people will remember the harrass on lanes (achieved with a early Chalice). Going pure tank as galio feels a big like a waste when his skills are so great building some AP. The issue at hand is in regular the taunt, as this means you invite them to deal a ton of dmg on you, so make sure you have bulwark on when taunting more than 2 ppl! Finaly, id like to say that i've personally never had mana items with him, ever. If you are spamming that hard you should probbly slow down a bit and try to hit with the spells instead.

Now you know, Galio is a boss. He eats Squish heroes like teemoo in a lane, and demolishes them even more in a teamfight.

I know he is a pricy charachter, and he was my first 6.4k champ, but all the fun makes it worth while, trust me.