I'm bored to tears playing Cho and Blitz when I need to tank... how is Galio? He looks like he has great potential but I hardly ever see him.

Cons:
-All skills cost tons of mana
-Slow Q
-W heal is laughable at most + duration is so short that is does not help at all.
-Ult dislike mercury threads so badly
-They reduced a LOT his damage output on Q/E/R
-You get ignored sooooooo easily
-His passive isn't so good against AD team comp

Pros:
- Relatively good CC (ult + q)
- Tanky


Yeah, he was nerfed so badly that without being well fed, he does nothing. His damage output is so low trough the whole game and as I said ^ he gets ignored. They don't care about you, they ult dodge then it's finished.

I still play him anyway because he's kinda funny, but only when I'm pissed off about my other tank main.

That's all

Galio fits great with an AoE team.

My friend plays Galio, another plays Karthus, and I play Nunu.

Galio taunts, I slow them in place, and Karthus defiles. Everything dies...if they survived, then Karthus ults. Occasionally, we get another friend who plays Vlad to drop a Hemoplague first.

Not saying that Galio is great over all, but we have a use for him. He's also a good minion farmer.

I started main'ing Galio about 2 weeks before the nerf-bat got applied to him.

Galio's current state is as follows:

1) Two AoE spells on high cooldown. Good for clearing waves of minions, but negligible vs champions, as in you get one relatively ignorable burst in a teamfight, and are pretty useless afterwards. If you Q-E-R, you might get a second burst in afterwards, but don't count on it.
2) Ult is nowhere near as damaging (or disabling) as other tanks unless you go straight caster, and at that point, you don't have enough survivability after your ult is finished.
3) MR-to-AP ability means you are a "hard" counter to AP-heavy teams. However, most AP champs are ranged, meaning trying to ult the enemy will result in the enemies being on the edge of your ult (easy to escape w/ MercTreads) or the enemies will be hiding behind the DPS/Tank. You have to be in the middle or back of the enemy team to get the most effect off of the ult, giving you heavy dependence on Flash for positioning.
4) He is extremely item dependent. He farms well, especially in the solo/2v1 lane, but cannot put pressure on the enemy during laning (due to long cd and relatively low damage spells, and melee AA range). You will have to gear AP heavy to do any damage, or gear tank (and have ignorable damage). Only with a full build can you be both at the same time (Frozen heart, RoA, AA Staff, BV, AbysScept for example).

He is a counter-pick, not a main character anymore. Only get him if the entire other team is AP-based and you want to stack MR and still have damage.

Galio + Kat ult is a pretty loltacular combination

Galio isn't a true tank. The only thing that makes him a tank is his ultimate. Outside of that, there's very little incentive for enemy teams to focus him, as if built like a tank, he doesn't do a whole lot of damage, and only has a weak snare to slow you up.

However, his use as a supportive tank (like Mao) is pretty good. If you build him tankish (so he doesn't die during his ult), but with some AP in mind, he becomes respectable. His damage output won't be overwhelming (due to mediocre ratios), but his initiation combo will still do a lot of damage. In addition to this, his Bulwark spell is excellent for protecting his team mates. It is easily the best of his non-ult skills.

Galio works best in an aoe lineup as an initiating offtank, where he leads the way for the rest of his team to jump in and start their own ultimates up. He can function as a primary tank in non-aoe teams, but a lot of his power goes to waste, as he's forced to build less damage in order to be able to survive after completing his ultimate.

People consider him to be a poor champion these days, but the fact of the matter is, he is still a strong laner, and his initiation combo is still potent. Bulwark is still a very powerful supportive spell too. It's a small niche that he can fill, but he fills it very nicely.

Galio is best described as situational. I've got close to 300 games as the Sentinel's Sorrow and there are certain champs besides the usual Janna or Gragas that mess with all the tanks that just really screw Galio.

If there's an enemy Rammus/Eve/Garen/Udyr/Xin Zhao/Renekton/Twisted Fate/Blitzcrank who knows what they are doing, you will not be able to initiate or counter-initiate reliably. These champions have on-hit CC that is used on their next attack, so if they have it up and you taunt them, your channel gets busted immediately. This means if Udyr with Bear Stance charges your carry, you either have to be stunned by Udyr in the last 6 seconds or wait for him to swap stances before you can taunt him successfully (assuming your Banshee's Veil isn't up. You DO have a Banshee's Veil, right?). Another solution to this problem is to queue with a competent Morgana player--they have great synergy with each other.

There's about 30ish ways to interrupt Idol of Durand, I list them and a lot more about Galio in my Galio guide.

He's a decent laner once he gets Chalice and can fill both the tank and support roles by getting defensive auras like Aegis, Abyssal Scepter and Soul Shroud to complement his MR items, but unfortunately isn't nearly as good a support as Janna nor as good a tank as Shen. His farming took a bit of a nerf this past patch with the scaling MR increases on minions going up and he definitely functions best in an AoE team.

You might also find my comments on areas where Galio needs improvement here. He's fun, but the unreliable nature of his initiation will make him less awesome than Shen, whose only disadvantages over Galio are slightly weaker farming, less AoE, and no poke.

If you're committed to playing support, galio is really good. You have to get the chalice of harmony as soon as you can in order for him to be relevant, but hes really good if you get a thornmail, it works with his ult. My best game with him was 4-0-30

I disagree with him being support. He has 1 support skill with a really low duration that you have to cast in advance since all it does is boost MR/Armor...and it heals GALIO, NOT THE TARGET!! Its a sucky skill compared to most such which at least absorb some damage and can save someone from dying. If target is at 100 health it doesnt matter whether they have 50MR or 150MR. 1 nuke = dead.


He is a fairly decent offensive caster but his "main" spell is underpowered topping at 245 damage at 0.5 AP ratio. That is awful.

Hence he comboes both his spells for a combined 1.3 AP ratio and modest damage. It has really long range, but long cooldown and not much in the way of burst damage.


His Ult is odd. Good for a tank, but Galio has no other tanking skills. Galio is basically just a big mess that has been nerfed into the ground and has no real niche.

Anti-AP is a bad niche by the way. No competent team will go all magical damage so that Galio can counter them. If they did, everyone can easily counter by buying 2 Negatron cloaks. If they have all AP except for 1 carry, the "tank" can't just ignore that carry can they? So he'd still have to get armor.