Hello, and welcome to my guide on Galio, The Sentinel's Sorrow, a niche pick for the top lane. In this guide you will learn what runes and masteries to use when playing Galio, as well as an in depth look into Galio's item builds and his abilities. Galio excels at late game team fights, and utilizing his ultimate and shield to lock down and destroy entire enemy teams at once.

Runes

This runepage is the best all around Galio page that I've used. It gives the early magic resist and armor that you need to trade with enemy laners early on, scaling magic resist so you are both more tanky and deal more damage lategame, and hybrid pen runes to help with both killing creeps and killing enemies.

Masteries

There is nothing incredibly strange about this runepage, and is focused around early game survival. The 9 points in offense allows you to trade early game, and the 21 points in defense allows you to be immovable in lane.

Abilities

Runic Skin: Galio gains bonus ability power equal to 50% of his total magic resistance. This is a very powerful passive, especially when utilized versus an AP toplaner. This passive allows Galio to itemize in such a way that he gains power from his defense, which is a unique passive. When using this passive it allows you to have more defensive runes and starting items and still be able to trade with other laners. When playing Galio one should always keep this passive in mind, as it is what makes Galio such a hard counter to heavy AP team comps.

Resolute Smite: Galio fires a concussive blast from his eyes to a target 235-radius area, dealing magic damage and slowing enemies hit for 2.5 seconds. This is Galio's Q ability, and should generally be leveled first. This ability has a scaling slow per level, stacking from 24 to 40%. Generally when playing as Galio, you want to use his Q to poke the enemy down because of the 940 range, and because of the high area of damage you can hit both the caster and melee creeps at the same time, so if needed you can also just sit back and farm.

Late game this is a large nuke, and can be used to both peel for your carries, or assassinate the enemy carries. The only downside to this ability is the slow projectile speed, which will take a few games to get used to. Once you are used to the projectile speed and size of this ability, you will be able to out trade and poke almost any enemy out of lane.

Bulwark: Galio shields an allied champion or himself for 4 seconds, increasing their armor and magic resistance. Each time that unit takes damage, Galio is healed. The heal is 20% weaker than the last for each consecutive hit. Bulwark is Galio's W ability, and is one of the best defensive w abilities in the game. With this ability it both gives a ton of defense to the target, as well as a heal for Galio. Because of the heavy magic resist itemization, as Galio you will generally get a Spirit Visage, which adds to the heals that the W gives.

At max level, this ability gives the target 90 armor and magic resist, heals 85 damage (scaling with 30% of AP), and the max heal possible is 425 hp (scaling with 150% of AP). This helps Galio stay alive while using his Idol of Durand, as it heals him a ton while taking almost no damage. Be sure to utilize this passive to its maximum, for example if you use this ability at the same time Malzahar uses his e ability, you will be healed to full HP. This makes Galio a direct counter to Malzahar, as well as any other mid or top laners who have a long lasting DoT ability.

Righteous Gust: Galio unleashes a gust of magical wind that deals magic damage to all enemies in its path. A directional draft remains for 5 seconds, increasing the movement speed of allies passing through it. This ability is the closest thing that Galio has to an escape, and at level 5 it gives a 52% movespeed buff, as well as 240 base damage. This ability is similar to Nocturne's Q, but does not follow the enemy.

Instead of following, it leaves a static gust of wind on the ground that your allies can pass through. This move is generally leveled last, as the mana is too high to be reliable for last hitting or waveclear, and Galio takes a long time to start roaming. Be sure to use this ability to give your jungler a speed boost if they decide to gank your lane for much easier kills.

Idol of Durand: Galio becomes a statue and channels for 2 seconds, taunting nearby foes and reducing incoming physical and magic damage by 50%. When the channel ends, Galio bursts out of his statue form, dealing magic damage to enemies within range. The damage is increased by 5% for each attack suffered while channeling, capping at 40%. If the channel is canceled, the damage radius is reduced to 575 instead of normal.

This is Galio's ultimate ability and is what makes Galio such a force to be reckoned with. This ability, when combined with flash, makes Galio's teamfighting presence beaten by nobody. With the potential to lock down 5 targets for two seconds easily, Galio is a must pick for almost any teamfight or wombo combo team comp.

Item Builds

My item build for Galio is generally static, but some changes can be used depending on what the enemy team looks like. With a build like this, Galio has both high burst and high sustain, which is what makes him a strong contender for the top lane. The Grail not only gives Galio a huge boost in mana regeneration, but also in defense and offense. This is considered one of the best items on Galio, and should be picked up in almost any matchup. The rest of the items are relatively lane dependant in what order to get them, but they are all very strong picks for Galio in almost any situation.

I hope that with this guide you are able to be an eternal sentinel, and defeat the enemy top laners with your non-meta toplane picks!

-Exile