League of Legends Galio Guide

The dormant colossus awakens to protect his people from those who seek them harm. Blessed with material to deflect even the most powerful magic in the land, Galio is every mage’s greatest nightmare. In this Galio guide, we will be learning how to use this mage-resistant stone statue to dominate the mid lane and help your team secure victory. Familiarize yourself on how to use mid lane tanks with a heavy global presence, diverging from the carry-style mid laners that most players in that lane want to play.

Galio wearing a fancy white suit
Learn how to master the colossus in this Galio guide!

The Stone Colossus That Watches Over Demacia

Galio was born when the Demacian sculptor, Durand, was tasked with creating a shield that will protect the Demacian armies from the attacks of its enemies. At first, he was created as a simple stone statue made from petricide to deflect both physical and magical attacks. However, due to the amount of magic he absorbed during his time, he suddenly began having life energy and is able to speak and fight alongside the Demacians.

Galio shielding the Demacian army from the Freljord
Demacia’s shield and protector

The Colossus was originally made as a badly designed support champion in early League of Legends. This champion’s rework was the one that finally breathed him some life again. Created as a true counter to champions that rely too much on magic damage, Galion has always found its way as a counter to most mages. He is only one of few dedicated mid lane champions that is a tank. This Galio guide will focus on his capabilities as a mid laner and how to use his abilities to conquer the game.

Galio’s General Gameplay

Galio is often found in the mid lane trying to deal with annoying mages with a heavy reliance on magic damage. He has a passive laning stage, trying to survive the aggression from enemy champions. After he reaches level 6, Galio likes to roam around the map trying to be part of almost every battle that his teammates get themselves into. In this Galio Guide, we will be learning how to make use of his kit to counter mages and have a heavy global presence.

Galio Champion Spotlight | Gameplay - League of Legends

Galio Guide: Skills and Rotations

Galio has a really interesting kit that tries to combine engage skills and damage skills into one. Even though his skills are designed to look defensive, they are excellent in offensive situations during the right situations. In this Galio guide, we’ll take a deeper look on what the skills do and how you can use them to their maximum potential. Learn how to use The Colossus efficiently and be the key factor to your team’s success.

Passive: Colossal Smash

Galio's Passive, Colossal Smash Innate: Galio’s next attack will become unstoppable and deal bonus magic damage while smashing his target into the ground. The bonus damage is calculated based on Galio’s Attack Damage, Ability Power, and Magic Resist.

Colossal Smash will critically strike the target, dealing a percentage of his Attack Damage to the target as magic damage.

Galio’s passive is mostly use to clear waves since being a melee champion in the mid lane is often a dangerous agenda. Ideally, you want to hit the target with the highest HP with a lot of low HP units/minions surrounding that target to ensure that you can full clear that wave. This is because it deals more damage to the main target thanks to the added critical damage that the passive gives when colossal smash is on cooldaown.

Q: Winds of War

Galio's Q, Winds of War Active: Galio firest two windblasts that arc to both sides before converging in an area in the middle. The wind shots deal magic damage to all enemies they pass through.

When the windblasts converge, the gusts turn into a tornado that stays for 2 seconds and dealing magic damage to all units that are inside it every 0.5 seconds.

This is Galio’s main damage skill and should often be used to clear minion waves quickly. Remember that the windblasts also deal magic damage even before they turn into tornadoes so angle the use of this skill to hit as many targets as possible before they converge. Positioning your tornado also helps you zone enemies away from an area which is extremely useful in the laning phase if your opponent is also a melee champion.

W: Shield of Durand

Galio's W Passive, Shield of Durand Passive: After learning this ability or when Galio has not taken any damage within 12 seconds, Galio gains Anti-magic Bulward, giving him a small shield that absorbs magic damage.

Galio's W, Shield of Durand Active: Galio curls in defensively covering his body with his massive wings. He charges up and slows down his movement speed by 15% and gains magic damage reduction and half that amount into physical damage reduction. This ability can be recast a second time.

While Galio is charging up Shield of Durand, the radius of the ability, damage, and taunt duration increases. When Galio is interrupted during this charge, the ability is automatically recast.

Recast: When Galio recasts this ability, his damage reduction is refreshed for 2 seconds and deals magic damage to any champions within the radius of this ability. Champions caught within the radius are also Taunted and have their movement speed set to 60 for a short duration.

Galio's W, Shield of Durand Shield of Durand is Galio’s main engage ability, working well after comboing it with Justice Punch and charging it while the enemy is knocked-up. Try to charge the ability as long as possible and get as many champions within the radius to taunt. Also, try to time this ability when enemies are trying to burst you down so that you can resist a bit of the damage they throw out which will help you survive longer in short bursts.

E: Justice Punch

Galio's E, Justice Punch Active: Galio steps back and readies himself to vault forward. He then immediately dashes forward in a direction and knocks-up the first enemy champion he collides with. (This ability cannot be used to pass through terrain)

Units also hit in the direction this ability was cast will also take magic damage. Non-champions receive 50% less damage from this ability.

This ability is a great gap closer. Use this ability to open up after using Galio's Ultimate, Hero's Entrance Hero’s Entrance or when an enemy is close enough for you to knock up. Be mindful of the fact that this ability has a short delay since he needs to step back. Also make sure that there are no enemy champions behind or they might be the ones knocked-up instead. This is also a great ability to farm some CS since it deals a decent amount of magic damage.

R: Hero’s Entrance

Galio's Ultimate, Hero's Entrance Active: Galio targets an ally champion and gives them the effects of Shield of Durand, which offers them a magic damage shield, magic damage reduction, and halved physical damage reduction.

After Galio targets that ally champion, flies up into the air and prepares to join his ally into the battle. The area surrounding the targeted ally is marked and after Galio lands, enemies within the marked area will be knocked up and is dealt magic damage.

Galio's Ultimate, Hero's Entrance Hero’s Entrance is Galio’s signature ability and is what makes him a threatening mid lane champion. Having this ability on cooldown ensures that Galio always has map presence since he can jump into battle right away. Much like Shen, you should make sure to watch your allies on the minimap to know if they are getting into a fight. Also, try to roam up and down the river to get in range to use this ability or simply threaten the enemy laners into thinking you’re ready to jump in.

Galio Guide: Items and Builds

In this Galio guide, we will be discussing Galio’s item set as a mid lane semi-tank champion. Galio likes to build items with Ability Power and defensive stats such as armor or health. You shouldn’t try to build Galio as a pure tank since he works best when catching enemies by surprise with his counter-engages and heavy magic damage abilities. You can build tankier items once you finish building your AP items to make you relevant.

Starting Item

Starting Item doran's ring icon Doran’s Ring – Doran’s Ring is the standard item for mages like Galio. This gives him the necessary survivability to make life in the mid lane where poking is constant more tolerable. It also provides mana regen which will help a lot since you’ll spam Winds of War and Justice Punch a lot.

Core Items

finished item hextech protobelt-01 icon Hextech Protobelt-01 – Hextech Protobelt helps Galio get closer to his opponents and adds another damage ability to his kit. Use this to position yourself better and combo it with Shield of Durand to catch as many champions as possible.

finished item zhonya's hourglass icon Zhonya’s Hourglass – Zhonya’s Hourglass helps Galio, who likes to get in the middle of the enemy team, survive a bit longer. Since he doesn’t commit to being full tank, he can be surprisingly squishy. Use this after expending all your skills in the middle of the fight and after the effects of Galio's W, Shield of Durand Shield of Durand wears off.

Recommended Items

A mask with blood tears Liandry’s Torment – Liandry’s Torment gives Galio more HP to help him tank more damage from the enemy team. This also greatly increases his damage output seeing that he stays in fights longer than most mid laners.

Sylas - Rabadons Deathcap in League of Legends Rabadon’s Deathcap – This item greatly increases your total Ability Power ratio. The more AP items you build, the greater the amount of total AP you will have later on.

finished item morellonomicon icon Morellonomicon – Morellonomicon is a good item when your opponent’s composition features a lot of healing. Build this after A mask with blood tears Liandry’s to maximize the amount of magic damage you deal.

Full Build Item Banshee's Veil Banshee’s Veil – This item helps Galio survive more by canceling the first spell that hits him. This combined with his tankiness makes him difficult to deal with.

Gargoyle Stoneplate League of Legends Item Icon Gargoyle’s Stoneplate – Great item to have in the late game since it’ll make you even more difficult to deal with once you dive into the fray.

Galio Guide: Runes

Primary: The Rune Icon - Resolve Resolve

Keystone: Resolve Rune - Aftershock Keystone Aftershock – Galio is riddled with crowd-control abilities which makes this incredibly easy to use. This will also help Galio out a bit once he dives into battle and stands in the middle of everyone.

Resolve rune shield bash icon Shield Bash – Increases your next basic attack when you have a shield. This is activated with Shield of Durand and is a great combo with his passive ability Colossus Smash.

three sharp bones - bone plating icon Bone Plating – This rune is mostly to help Galio survive the oppressive early game. Having 30-60 less damage can mean life and death in certain situations.

Resolve Rune - Unflinching Unflinching – Helps Galio reduce crowd control abilities cast on him. You can expect the enemy to throw everything at you when you dive in the middle so a little resistance will help you a lot.

Secondary: Sorcery Rune Icon Sorcery

a veil of mana infused wind Nimbus Cloak – Gaining movement speed will help you a lot and is provides a good combo by Flashing first, then activating Shield of Durand to catch up to enemies and taunt them. (Due to a previous update, you can no longer Flash while using Shield of Durand)

Transcendence Rune icon Transendence – Galio doesn’t build that much CDR items, so having this rune helps him reduce the cooldown of his abilities without having to spend the extra item slot from them.

Galio Overview

Throughout this Galio guide, we discussed how this champion is great at responding to fights and turning around unfavorable battles into winning ones by properly timing your abilities. Galio is a great champion to have when the enemy team has a lot of magic damage. This champion isn’t that hard to learn but can easily be abused by more experienced mid laners because of his limited range as a melee champion.

A demonic looking Galio protecting an evil gate
What did you think of Galio?

Can you play Galio as a support?

Yes, you can play Galio as a support but he will be itemizing more towards tank items rather than AP items mentioned in this Galio guide. Top Lane won’t benefit too much from him in the early stages of the game.

Is Galio a pure tank?

Galio isn’t necessarily a pure tank champion. He relies mostly on his defensive passives to gain most of his resistances. He builds more Ability Power rather than tank items that set his pressure behind.

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