How to Play Galio Like a Pro: An In-Depth Galio Guide

Galio is a champion whose fundamental identity is to be a disruptor. In League of Legends, a disruptor is a champion who focuses on shutting down opponents by keeping the enemy carry occupied and preventing enemy damage from reaching his team’s carry. Suppose you ever thought that you would be carrying games singlehandedly on Galio. In that case, you will be disappointed to learn that it is challenging to do so while playing Galio.

In the current state of League of Legends, you can play Galio in three roles: Top, Mid, and Support. Suppose you learn how to play Galio properly. In that case, you will have a champion available to you that can be picked into various team compositions and allow you more freedom than ever before.

In this Galio guide, we will talk about Galio for all three roles. It will allow you to learn how to play Galio and give you a better idea of how to play Galio differently according to your position in the team composition.

Pros to playing Galio

1. Excellent Initiator

There are not many champions in the game that can initiate team fights more effectively than Galio. If you can land your combos perfectly, it is almost certain that your team will win the team fight. If you are a fan of the League of Legends esports scene, then you must have seen players like Faker and Perkz turn the strides of the game when they initiated team fights on their own.

There are not many champions in the game that can initiate team fights more effectively than Galio. If you can land your combos perfectly, it is almost certain that your team will win the team fight. If you are a fan of the League of Legends esports scene, then you must have seen players like Faker and Perkz turn the strides of the game when they initiated team fights on their own.

A beginner player can do that too, and that’s how easy Galio is if you know what you are doing. We will talk about how you can initiate like Faker later in this Galio guide, so stick with us until the end.

2. Benefits from every single Dragon Soul

Galio just might be one of our favorite champions, thanks to how versatile his ability set is. It allows him to benefit from every single type of Dragon Soul.

If you have an Infernal Soul, your Area of Effect damage becomes a problem for the opponents. If you have an Ocean Soul, your healing in the late games makes you almost invulnerable. If you have a Mountain Soul, then there is no way the opponent team can ever kill you with your team backing you up. Finally, if you have a Cloud Soul, your movement speed will ensure no enemy escapes after using your ultimate.

This versatility makes Galio so powerful in the late game that your chances of winning increase tremendously if your tram secures that Dragon Soul.

3. The best Tanky roamer in game

There are so many champions in League of Legends that can roam the map effectively. Still, there is one area Galio takes the lead over them: his tankiness. Suppose you have an excellent opportunity to walk to the other parts of the map. In that case, you can do so without any hesitation because no matter how fed the opponent carries are, they won’t be able to take you down instantly. It will allow your teammates a window to play aggressively. Galio is one of the best champion in LoL to peel for carry champions.

Cons to Picking Galio

1. Not a Carry

You will have a lot of say in the outcome of your games if you know how to play Galio; however, that doesn’t mean you will still win if you play perfectly. Galio is a champion designed to be a facilitator, as we previously discussed in this Galio guide. You cannot win games on your own, and it shouldn’t be your objective in the game.

If you have bad teammates, you will be stuck just waiting to forfeit or your enemies to take away your nexus.

2. Long Cooldowns

Galio is a champion that is dependent on his abilities. Unfortunately, his abilities have very long cooldowns, which can be a problem in the early game. You are useless when all of your abilities are down, and ranged champions can punish you when you are in this state.

The reason Galio is most difficult to play in the top lane is due to this problem. Generally, top laners always like to engage in duels when their opponents are on cooldowns, and Galio suffers due to the nature of this lane. After you have performed your initiation combo, you are practically useless if you are not tanky enough for the next four to five seconds.

3. Weak Early Game

Galio, despite his monstrous late game, is relatively weak in the early game. Suppose you are up against ranged champions like Syndra or Orianna. In that case, you will have a tough time in the laning phase as they can deal a lot of damage and put you behind in the creep score department.

A Galio behind is one of a player’s worst experiences, so be aware of any aggressive trades in the early game.

Galio’s Abilities Explained

Galio’s Passive Skill: Colossal Smash

Galio’s passive is pretty easy to understand. It is an Area of Effect basic attack that resets every five seconds. Not many Galio guides out there will tell you that this passive scales very well into the late game. The ability scales with your level, ability power, and magic resistance. A good Galio build will give you both of these. It will allow you to have very good engage combos and good waveclear without spending all of your mana in the early game.

Q: Winds of War

Galio flaps his wings, creating two tornadoes that move towards a central meeting point in a crescent form. When these two tornadoes clash, a tiny area of effect appears on the ground. All enemy champions or minions inside take damage from this region.

Winds of War is Galio’s primary damage tool that you will also use to waveclear minions to look for potential roams around the rift. The problem with the ability is that it takes a lot of your mana, and you can’t spam it mindlessly in the lane. You will need to use it effectively along your basic attacks to ensure that you aren’t going back to the fountain just to have a mana recharge.

W: Shield of Durand

Shield of Durand is what makes Galio so powerful in team fights. If you want to learn how to play Galio, then you need to master this ability. The ability has three parts, and we will discuss all of them in detail in this Galio guide.

The first part is a passive that grants you a little shield that absorbs almost 15% of the magic damage dealt to you by enemy champions. This shield comes into play when you first level up your W or haven’t received any damage in the last 12 seconds.

The first part is a passive that grants you a little shield that absorbs almost 15% of the magic damage dealt to you by enemy champions. This shield comes into play when you first level up your W or haven’t received any damage in the last 12 seconds.

The second part is that when you first cast the ability, you will gain a shield that will absorb a lot of the damage from enemy champions. However, this will slow you by 30% in the process while the ability is in animation.

The final part is that when you recast your ability, you will taunt all of the nearby enemy champions. This ability makes Galio so scary to play against if he can position himself among the enemy champions.

E: Justice Punch

Galio dashes in the direction you point to when you use your Justice Punch. Galio will come to a complete halt if he collides with a champion or terrain. If Galio hits a champion, the champion will be knocked up and take damage. A fascinating detail about this ability is that you first pullback rather than go towards your target location when you cast the ability. It will allow you to dodge many skillshots, and mastering this ability is a fundamental part of our Galio guide.

R (Ultimate): Heroic Entrance

Heroic Entrance is one of the most incredible-looking global ultimates in League of Legends. Galio leaps into the air and flies toward an allied champion he has chosen. Galio's target takes less damage until he approaches them. Galio slams into the earth surrounding his friend, delivering damage and knocking down all foes in a vast radius. Galio knocks up enemies under him for a more extended period.

Heroic Entrance is extremely valuable since it allows Galio to have a lot of influence in different parts of the rift without being present there. The moment you reach Level 6, the opponents will be afraid to push too far as you can quickly get a big lead for your team with a good ultimate.

Galio’s Best Rune Builds

We will give you three pages for Galio based on what role you are playing in. First, we highly advise you to learn how to play Galio in the middle lane and support position before trying him out in the top lane. Galio isn’t very effective in the top lane right now due to the game’s meta.

Mid Galio Runes to be a Hybrid Carry

This rune page will allow you to deal a lot of damage in every part of the game but will take that tankiness away from you that you want in team fights. It is an excellent option to go against team compositions that don’t deal much damage and rely on one or two champions to carry the game for them.

Mid/Top Disruptor Galio Runes

This rune page will allow you to entirely pilot Galio to his fundamental strengths in the solo lanes. The keystone that we want is Aftershock, as it works very well with your passive and other abilities. This rune page won’t offer you the same damage as the other one we previously discussed in this Galio guide. Still, it will certainly allow you to be a significant disruptor in skirmishes.

Support Galio Runes

The support position is where Galio is showing up the most these days. It is due to nerfs to his damage in recent times, but this way, he can still do everything he wants to do in team fights without being weak in the laning phase of the game. The support rune page offers you so much more power in every stage of the game if you play to your strengths right.

How to Play Galio in the Mid-Lane

The way to play Galio in the mid-lane depends on what you are up against. In this Galio guide, we will talk you through the laning phase and what to do afterward.

How to Play Galio in the Mid Laning Phase?

There are three ways to play the laning phase with Galio. We will teach you all three tactics in this Galio guide depending on who is trying to counter Galio, before moving on to what you should do after the first few waves.

Galio against dangerous Level 1 and 2 ranged champions (LeBlanc, Syndra, Lucian, Morgana, etc.)

The way you have to play against these champions is straightforward. You have to respect their damage in the laning phase and stay on the back foot for the first two levels. It is due to how vulnerable you are to ganks if they get a good chunk out of your health. No matter what happens, please don’t push the wave, as that’s precisely what these sort of champions want you to do.

The way you have to play against these champions is straightforward. You have to respect their damage in the laning phase and stay on the back foot for the first two levels. It is due to how vulnerable you are to ganks if they get a good chunk out of your health. No matter what happens, please don’t push the wave, as that’s precisely what these sort of champions want you to do.

Instead, you can let the first two waves move towards you and then play more confidently when the third wave bounces towards the opponent. If you can do this properly, you will be level 3 and deal with any gank attempts towards your lane.

Galio against dangerous Melee champions (Sett, Darius, Ornn, Renekton, etc.)

These champions have insane all-in potential on you if you lose the lane early on. Hence, you need to create a scenario where you keep the wave in the middle. You should challenge the enemy champion in the early wave clear but make sure you harass them too. A great way to do this is to use your Q on the enemy champions rather than the wave. You can farm with your passive attack instead.

This strategy will allow you to gain level 2 over your opponent first. You can threaten them with a combo to ensure they remain on the back foot if you do so. It would prove to be a disaster for these champions as you will outscale them massively as the game goes on, and they failed to punish you at your most vulnerable state.

Galio against mid/late game champions (Twisted Fate, Cassiopeia, Orianna, Ryze, etc.)

It is the ideal scenario to play Galio. These champions can’t contest waves with you in the early game, and you can punish them for this. A great way to pressure them under their turret and make them lose their farm is to wave clear as fast as possible.

You can do this with the help of your Q and your passive on minions. The standard procedure is always to hit the caster minions with your Q when they first reach the middle of the lane. If you feel like the opponent is trying to play aggressively, then hit them with your Q, and they will go running back to the fountain.

What to do after the first few waves?

The plan is to set up ganks or invades with your jungle. You must communicate with your jungler well to play Galio to its full potential. The best way to do this is to push the wave continuously, as your opponent would need to attend to their minions. It will give you a window to impact other parts of the map.

Whenever you push the wave, see where your jungler is and place a ward on the other side of your lane to avoid any unexpected ganks. You can then roam towards your jungler if you see them invading and fighting with the enemy jungle. Galio has insane 2v2 potential, and if you land your stuns right, your team will win the battle.

How to Play Galio Mid in the Mid Game and Late Game Phases

When the laning phase is over, you will have an insane say in the game’s outcome. You aim to stay in the side lane and push as many waves as you can. It will force the enemy champions to come and deal with the minions pushing towards their turrets and create an opportunity for you to look for any potential engages.

Galio’s ultimate is your most powerful tool when the laning phase is over. The best way to use it is to watch the mini-map and see what your teammates are doing. If any of your allies are targeted by the enemy champions, use your ultimate on the primary carry rather than the support. It will grant them a shield and could very well be the difference between you winning the team fight or losing one.

We will teach you how to play Galio in team fights later in this Galio guide, so don’t worry; we have got you covered.

How to Play Galio in the Support Role

Galio is one of the most robust support in the game due to how versatile his kit is. Many support champions are classified into poke enchanters or tanky engagers, but Galio gives you the best of both. You can land a lot of damage on the enemy champions with your Q and engage when given the opportunity on your own. That’s not all. Galio can even prove to be very tanky and peel for his lakers to do damage without ever being under any threat. This quality makes him the perfect support champion.

Despite the strengths, you are still vulnerable to falling behind in the laning phase. Galio is a melee champion that can be poked from afar by ranged supports like Janna or Soraka. These champions can even interrupt your combos, so be very careful when you are up against them!

When you are playing Galio support, you have a good chance of securing kills on the opponent duo. We will teach you how you can do that in this section of our Galio guide. The main thing that you must focus on is threatening your opponent. It will make them doubt their decisions throughout the laning phase, and the best way to do it is to use the lane bushes.

You can hide in these bushes and poke the enemy champions with your Q. Galio will also have added the threat of a surprise engage, making the enemy ADC miss out on many minions. If they don’t respect your engage threat, then punish them with an all-in combo as you are bound to gain a lead over them.

A good strategy is to always remain on the offense and make your enemy unable to rotate to other areas of the map. It will give you so much authority over the bot side river and allow your jungler some easy invasions or tower dives.

When the mid-game approaches, you will be a force to reckon with. You can leave your ADC and start invading the enemy jungle with your jungler. If things go wrong, you have a free get out of jail card with your ultimate, so don’t be hesitant to take some risks.

We will talk about how to play Galio in team fights later in this Galio guide.

How to Play Galio Top?

We talked about Galio in the mid lane earlier in this Galio guide, but he works a little differently in the top lane. Although there are some similarities, you have to play Galio very defensively in the top lane.

There will be melee bruisers in most of your games, and these champions prove to be very tricky for Galio to handle. The preferred playstyle is to freeze the wave near your turret and force your opponent to overextend. It will allow your jungler to gank your lane constantly as you will have a lot of 2v1 pressure on these melee champions.

Another approach is to push the lane and help your jungler out in invading the opponent’s jungle. However, we will not recommend you to do that in the current meta, as Galio can be pretty weak against melee bruisers if things go wrong.

You can play the game the same as a mid-lane Galio after the laning phase but remember, this laning phase will be more complicated than what you will experience in the mid-lane.

How to Play Galio in Team Fights

You will need to be aware of certain things when participating in team fights around the rift. The first one is to understand your role. When playing Galio, you are nothing more than a crowd control bot in team fights, and there is nothing wrong with it. It should be your goal to make the opponent’s life hell by ensuring that they never start the team fights on their terms.

You will need to be aware of certain things when participating in team fights around the rift. The first one is to understand your role. When playing Galio, you are nothing more than a crowd control bot in team fights, and there is nothing wrong with it. It should be your goal to make the opponent’s life hell by ensuring that they never start the team fights on their terms.

You should always remain in the front line while playing Galio and try to peel as much damage for your carries in these fights. It will allow them to deal damage to the enemy champions without worrying for their own lives. It won’t be the end of the world if you die for the sake of your teammates because, ultimately, you are a facilitator for them rather than an independent carry.

We will talk about what combos you can perform to ensure that the opponents deal with you rather than damage your carries.

Galio Combos

If you want to know how to play Galio like Faker, it’s impossible to do so without learning Galio combos. That’s why we will talk in detail about these combos and what situations you should use them in.

1. The Lane Combo

When to use it?

If you are in the auto-attack range of your opponent laner and they just used one of their abilities, then go for this combo. A key thing to remember is that you must have your passive up; otherwise, the combo won’t be as effective as we want it to be.

How to use it?

You can begin the combo with a basic attack when your passive is up. This part is the make-or-break part of the combo, so be careful when you do this. As we previously discussed in this Galio guide, whenever Galio uses his E, he first goes backward before going forward. You can use this to your advantage.

You can use your E in the opposite direction of where you want to go. A key thing to remember is that this is only possible when you are on top of your opponent. It will ensure that you immediately knock up your opponent champion rather than waiting for that slow animation to finish.

You can use your E in the opposite direction of where you want to go. A key thing to remember is that this is only possible when you are on top of your opponent. It will ensure that you immediately knock up your opponent champion rather than waiting for that slow animation to finish.

As soon as you knock up the enemy champion, follow up with your Q and hit them with another auto-attack before using your W. necessary detail is to wait for the animation to complete before you follow up with another attack. You can then finish off the combo with another auto-attack because your passive would have recharged by now.

The combo is very effective in dealing damage to opponents who use their abilities without any real reason.

Summary: AA > E > Q > AA > W > AA > AA

2. The Hard Engage

When to use it?

The combo is your bread and butter in team fights. It will be almost impossible for the opponents to react, and you will create a massive opening for your teammates to capitalize. However, you need to be careful that you only use this combo when your teammates are nearby for a follow-up; otherwise, you will be left vulnerable and at the mercy of your enemies.

How to use it?

You need your flash to perform this combo, so make sure you follow the exact steps we tell you in this Galio guide to pull this one off. The goal is to taunt as many enemy champions as possible, so always look to flash in the middle of many opponents. You have to immediately cast your W during your flash animation and instantly recast it to taunt your opponents.

You need your flash to perform this combo, so make sure you follow the exact steps we tell you in this Galio guide to pull this one off. The goal is to taunt as many enemy champions as possible, so always look to flash in the middle of many opponents. You have to immediately cast your W during your flash animation and instantly recast it to taunt your opponents.

Now you need to use your full brain power and choose the most crucial target. In most cases, this will be the enemy ADC or mid laner. You can use your E for dashing towards them and then hit them with your Q while they are knocked up in the air. Follow up with another knock-up as your passive should be up after everything.

Summary: Flash > W > E > Q > AA

Conclusion

We worked hard on this Galio guide to ensure you learn how to play Galio and understand the fundamentals behind how the champion works in the game. You would have noticed there is no item guide for Galio present in this Galio guide, and there is a good reason behind it. It is almost impossible to predict what items would work best on any champion due to Riot Games releasing patches every two weeks.

However, we have found a way to help you out. You can find the best items here with our Galio guide for items. We have developed an algorithm that tracks the highest-ranked players’ games and provides you with the most optimal choices based on what team composition they were up against.

If we missed anything important in this Galio guide, please tell us below in the comments section. Our goal is to teach aspiring players how they can play Galio at the highest level, and any feedback would help us out in this venture.

Images Courtesy of Riot Games.