The Potential is my League of Legends article series which will focus on champions that may have been forgotten or considered unviable. I will try to put them in positions where they can succeed, explain the builds and their purpose in teamfights.

So this guy is played 1% of the time in ranked. You look at his abilities, ratios, his passive and in theory he should be a constant pick, especially at higher brackets. Galio has CC on 3 of his 4 abilities, he has great chasing potential and an ultimate that can completely change the fight in your favor. However he's also incredibly skill based, not a lot of people can play him well, and in bad hands he's completely useless. He's really diverse with his builds and you can build him as an AP Tank or a pure AP burst mage. In this article I will go over two completely different builds.

Runes:

It's not a joke, going flat MR in everything is amazing against any typical AP caster and your passive gives you 19 Ability Power in exchange. The mastery page multiplies this, and going chalice early makes you incredibly tough in lane. Give it a try before ruling this out.

Masteries:

This gives you even more Magic Resist which also gives you the bonus Ability Power. The best mastery in here for Galio is Oppression (Reduces damage taken by 3% from enemies that have impaired movement (Slows, snares, taunts, stuns, etc.)). As I said before, three of Galio's skills have some kind of Crowd Control. It's a great mastery for Galio.

Items:

An example of a decent Galio Tank build. Remember that the masteries enhance your Magic Resist by quite a bit and every one of these items gives you Ability Power even though you are not buying it. It stops the burst of any AP mage and gives quite some damage. USE THIS BUILD ONLY AGAINST AN AP MID.

When going Tank Galio you want to be the person in the front soaking up the damage and looking for an opportunity to initiate with your ultimate. Always use your Bulwark on your AD Carry unless you are going really deep, then you can use it on yourself. With this build you can dish out decent damage and you have incredible sustain for yourself.

Runes:

Pretty much what you should expect from AP Burst Galio runes, but the only thing replacable should be Seals. You can change it to Mana Regen or Armor. However Magic resist works as well since again you get that tasty Ability Power for nothing.

Masteries:

It's almost the same as any AP caster's mastery page, however you still take 2 points in Defense since it adds more Magic Resist which will give you Ability Power. Mana Regen and movement speed works great on Galio.

Items:

When it comes to AP Galio's items there are really no wrong items. There's a lot of choices but in my opinion these work the best on him. If the game is going really slow you can go for Rod of Ages or Liandry's Torment. Both work wonders, but I like how Abyssal Scepter works with Galio's ultimate, it adds really nice burst to it.

When Galio is built this way he's an insane threat and a surprise Flash + Ultimate can demolish an entire enemy team. Your bulwark makes you completely silly, as it allows you to soak up some shots from towers should you dive.

Hope this helped anyone or maybe made you try out Galio. No one really gives him a serious chance in the mid lane and that's really sad to see since he's one of the most versatile champions in the League. As always any tips or suggestions are welcome.