Boards›Gameplay

Galio's ult and hard counters

Eph289·8/10/2015, 9:44:14 PM·2 votes·1,770 views

I know Galio is one of the least popular champions in the game (lol what's a Galio amirite, guys?), but as someone who played him a lot in S1/S2 and who still has a soft spot for the 'ol gargoyle, the current state of Idol of Durand really drives me nuts.

On paper, it's a super-powerful ult. Up to 1.08 possible AP ratio + 400 base damage is basically the old Gragas ult, and it clusters up your enemies for all your other AOE for 2 seconds. In practice, it's so coinflippy and easy to interrupt. It's the CLG of ults.

Since the ult is so (potentially) good, I understand that it needs some counterplay. The part that grinds my gears is when I (as the Galio player) have to deal with counterpicks that basically require me to massively outplay the enemy team because they INNATELY have ways to counter my ult with little/No skill required on the part of the other guy. Playing Galio vs a Janna team feels good because it's a skill battle. If I get off a great Idol of Durand, it's because my team outplayed the Janna, and vice versa. These matchups are different.

  1. On-hit CCs (Bear Stance, Decisive Strike, Power Fist, Three-Talon, etc.) are really, really annoying, but there's a least a skill battle involved. As a Galio player, you have to know the opponent's ability, then bait the cooldown/tank the hit before using ult. Frustrating because it feels like way more effort on the Galio player's part, but you feel like such a boss when you flash into the enemy team, let Udyr stun you, and THEN taunt the whole team. And it is a crazy-good ult.

  2. The ones that I hate are the ones there is no skill battle involved. It's just LOL U SUCK GALIO NICE ULT LOLZ. Specifically, Rek'Sai and Braum. Braum's passive makes it utterly pointless to pick Galio unless you see their support pick. Even if you get off a great taunt, it's going to be almost instantly popped because BRAUM IS HERE FOR YOU. And then there's Rek'Sai. Forcing her to unburrow makes her knock you up. Rek'Sai is almost ALWAYS burrowed prior to a teamfight. How do you outplay that as a Galio player? There's no reason why Rek'Sai would ever leave burrow mode until she wants to engage.

**TL;DR **On-hit CC's really make Galio's ult frustrating to use, especially when they're passive counters (Bear Stance, Unburrow, and Concussive Blows) that require Galio to give up strategic initiative and don't require good play from the counter-champion, just not pants-on-head stupid.

5 Comments

Prospector Pete8/10/2015, 9:47:28 PM1 votes

Maybe make it so that champions that are under the effect of the taunt cannot interrupt it?

TheI3igDaddy8/10/2015, 10:18:49 PM1 votes

Let me pre-face this by saying I'm a fan of Galio and I love playing him. But in my personal opinion, his ult shouldn't be altered like this.

Galio's ult is MASSIVELY strong already, and giving it immunity to on-hit CC would push it too far. Counterpicking the gargoyle is usually a good way to balance it.

So the key here when playing Galio is to always pay attention in champ select, and if you're early in pick order, ask to swap with someone else down the list if you're REALLY hellbent on playing him.

Let's go over who screws Galio up. Udyr, Xin, and Rek'sai were mentioned; do you see a common theme among them? Yes, they're all usually junglers, with the occasional top pick every now and again. You need to pay attention to their teamcomp and guess if their jungler has already locked in.

Same thing goes for bot lane. Leona, Blitz, and Braum can all screw Galio up with on-hit CC, but you're ever only going to see one of them on a typical enemy comp, as they're all supports. See someone else? Should be easier to pick Galio. Garen is also almost solely a top laner, so you can use this same strategy again.

Of course if you see Braum, you're just better off not playing Galio that game. The only way you can deal with him, is if you can get your ult off while he's at the max range, causing him to spend the first second of the taunt walking up to you. The stun charges won't start until after HE hits you, so by the time the stun goes off, the ult would've ended shortly after anyway.

When you have an ultimate that can single-handedly win teamfights lategame, it does need ways to counter it. Same with how Fidd needs to be hidden before ulting, or else you can just interrupt him and seriously gimp his fighting.

TURBO 5OOO8/10/2015, 11:09:45 PM1 votes

Galio Ult need more range and everything is fine.

Eph2898/11/2015, 5:36:56 PM1 votes

Food for thought: Ghostcrawler posted on ask.fm that Riot "overall we don't want you to lose at champ select. We want how you perform on the map to really determine who wins."

http://ask.fm/RiotGhostcrawler/answer/132235536267

If you get counterpicked by a Braum/Rek'Sai as Galio, there's no fight where Braum/Rek'Sai is present where you can get a good taunt off. You can't really outplay a passive counter.