New Galio-Final(ish) Thoughts, and Community Building Guides!

Hello everyone. Askio here. My time spent with new Galio has been parts insightful, parts frustrating, and more enjoyable than I thought. I've now decided to present my final thoughts, as well as potential guides that I'll be posting to Mobafire for other people interested playing Galio; I'd love the community to help develop some of those guides, so feel free to post how you feel about new Galio now that we have had him for about a month now.

First off, the simplest explanation for new Galio is...he's different. In some ways good, in some ways bad. Overall, he's a stronger engage champion now, much like a MR version of Malphite or Sej with their kits blended together. His W passive grants him heavy engage on hybrid or enemy teams. But his kit lacks the reliable, long team fight engages that could often occur.

His Passive: Now that I figured how it works, his passive is excellent for early kills when combined with sheen. Unless your enemy is just so tanky or can melt you with AD, you can engage hard with E and your passive, Q them for getting your passive back and do it all over again. My only frustration with this is that MR no longer grants him great offensive powers. More on that in a bit.

His Q: Perfect with his passive since it deals damage over time. The new update reduces long term damage but rewards players with some moderate damage on the initial hit now. It is something his kit needed.

His W: At first I thought his W was worthless. I couldn't have been more wrong. I'll often use his Q and E first to deal damage, then use W to trigger his passive a second or third time and go in for another poke. It's also perfect for trapping assassins that his the carries. I had a game where I came to truly appreciate this new W, since an enemy Talon got fed and kept nailing our adc. Eventually I stopped being the engaging tank and switched gears to being the controller. As soon as I saw talon ult, I'd wind up W next to our ADC and taunt the Talon to me. His W passive is great to level up as an alternative to your Q, depending on how aggressive you want to be or how much of an early shield you want. Still frustrates me that you can't attack while doing it though.

His E: Basically a Sej Q, with higher AP ratios but less utility. Seriously riot, why can't this go over walls. HIS ULT LETS HIM FLY HE KNOWS HOW TO GET LIFT This is one thing that bothers me with his current kit, since it is one of two changes that would grant him more utility and possibly more viability across JNG and other uses. It'd be perfect for stealing barons, engaging team fights on walls, etc etc. Why they went this way I have no idea.

His Ult: Good, now that I've practiced timing with it. But it's also his greatest weakness when in solo lanes. As support and jng it's great for saves and engages. But not having at least some sort of use in solo lane means that against champions that have all their skills available to them, where you only have 3/4, makes Galio weaker in lane then he should be against some enemies. This is the second change that would probably elevate Galio to being used by players in higher ELO's.

So, better than I feared, actually a lot of fun to play now that I know him. He's different, lacks the sustain I'd like, but can't deal amazing amounts of damage if you build him right.

Now for the Community Guide! Here are my initial ideas for itemization on Galio; please feel free to post your own ideas and how we can make this classic champ even more popular (and useful for a change)

Ignite for engages since now you're a heavy melee champ. Barrier for hard engages and the lower cooldown, and exhaust is great if you're facing a champ that likes to dive; saving you from their damage and giving you a chance to nail them.

Anyone else try this? It seems to give you great sustain when you combine his passive with a sheen weapon, mostly since trinity really doesn't do much. I was getting 30-70 hp a hit depending on how I combined things.

or are the two items to build over RoA . Hextech gives you some nice CC, as does Glory. Plus glory can let you actually catch up to champs to use your W on them. (note, as support galio I often go for similar speed boosts)

I always liked this better on Galio. If you only want one counter AD item this is the safe bet, since it doesn't trigger towers and will kill adc's

Def a solid item, though more and more of galio's items don't have hp, so choose this item if you decide to go something like

or ??? Sterak's will buff your sheen item while giving you tankiness against both AD and AP. It also has a 60 second cooldown versus 90 on Maw. Maw on the otherhand will give you even more of a magic shield after your natural passive is depleted, while also giving you some minor sustain and some MR damage on your passive.

Mastery wise, Thunderlords or Grasp of the Undying are the two best things. Thunderlords really hurts with combos, but in team fights or for sustain Grasp will deal almost as much damage, as long as you build HP on galio. Seeing how he lacks natural sustain in his kit, I normally go grasp since the magic damage synergies well with his new kit.

Given that, is a solid choice for all around good item for galio, especially if you have grasp and you need some cooldown reduction.

anyone try this on galio yet? Gives a solid damage boost, steals MR which will buff his ult, W and his passive. Possible attack speed item to give him some extra umph.

All in all, many of galio's items don't have HP now. I'd highly suggest a combination of HP runes with either MR, AP and/or cooldown reduction to make sure you're at least utilizing his HP passive on his W.

Let me know your (finalish) thoughts on the new galio, especially if you're a galio main. Curious about wit's end, AP builds and other oddball things we could do