Galio LoL Classic: Magic Resist Is an Ability Power Item

Galio arrives in League Classic on September 10 with patch 26.18, alongside Fiora, Poppy, Shyvana, and Xin Zhao in the Demacian wave.

He is the strangest champion of the five, and not because his kit is complicated. It is not. He is strange because his passive inverts how you are supposed to think about buying items, and because his ultimate is the only ability in the mode that actively rewards the enemy team for attacking you.

He is not live yet, so this comes from the PBE tooltips rather than played games and the numbers may still move.

Planned approach: max Q, then E, then W, with R at 6, 11, and 16. Build Magic Resist, because on this champion Magic Resist is Ability Power.

The Kit

Runic Skin Changes How You Shop

Half of your Magic Resist becomes Ability Power. That is the whole champion in one line.

It means every defensive purchase against a mage is simultaneously a damage purchase. Abyssal Scepter is not a compromise item on Galio, it is a core item that gives you Ability Power twice, once directly and once through the passive. Force of Nature stops being a pure tank item and becomes one of your largest sources of Ability Power in the game.

It also means your rune page is doing something unusual. Magic Resist glyphs are normally an insurance policy. Here they are a small damage rune that happens to also keep you alive.

The practical consequence is that Galio gets stronger the more magic damage the enemy team drafts, and not in a vague way. Literally. Their composition determines how much Ability Power you can justify buying.

The Ultimate Wants You to Get Hit

Idol of Durand taunts everyone nearby, reduces incoming damage by 50% during the channel, and then deals 5% more damage per attack you suffered while channelling, up to 40% extra.

Every part of that fits together. You are forcing them to attack you, halving what those attacks do, and converting each one into damage on the explosion that follows.

And Bulwark can be cast on yourself. Self shield before the channel and you gain 90 Armor and 90 Magic Resist for the duration, on top of the 50% reduction, while healing for up to 85 plus a ratio every single time you get hit.

So the signature Galio play is: Flash in, self shield, ultimate, take a full team's worth of attacks at half damage behind 90 of both resistances while healing off every hit, then explode for up to 40% bonus damage.

That is a champion who wins by standing still and being attacked, which is not a sentence you get to write very often.

The Planned Build

Start. Doran's Ring and two Health Potions, or Boots and potions into a lane that will push you around.

1. Shushei's Mana Jug. Magic Resist, Ability Power, mana regeneration, and cooldown reduction. Every statistic on it does something for you, and the Magic Resist is doing it twice.

2. Sorcerer's Shoes or Mercury's Treads. Sorcerer's if you want to threaten people, Merc Treads if your job is landing a channelled ultimate through their crowd control.

3. Abyssal Scepter. Ability Power, Magic Resist, and an aura that cuts enemy Magic Resist nearby. The most on theme item in the shop for this champion.

4. Force of Nature. Enormous Magic Resist, movement speed, and health regeneration. On any other mage this is a defensive concession. Here it is a damage item that happens to make you unkillable to mages.

5. Rabadon's Deathcap. Multiplies everything, including the Ability Power your Magic Resist is quietly generating.

6. Read the game. Zhonya's Hourglass if the enemy damage is physical and you need Armor. Rylai's Crystal Scepter if you want your Resolute Smite slow to stick even harder. Warmog's Armor if you need raw health to survive long enough to channel.

Skill order: Q, then E, then W.

Q first because Resolute Smite is your only repeatable damage and your only reliable slow, on a 7 second cooldown that does not change with ranks.

E second for the damage and the increasingly powerful movement speed draft, which is genuine team utility and a setup tool for your own engage.

W last, though take one point early. Rank 1 Bulwark already shields and already heals you per hit, and the extra ranks are worth less than a rank of your damage until later. If you play him as a support rather than a mid laner, invert this and max W second.

Runes and Masteries

Proposals rather than a settled page, since nothing about Classic Galio is established yet.

Marks of Magic Penetration. All of your damage is magic.

Seals of Armor. You are melee range in every fight you matter in, and Runic Skin does nothing for physical damage.

Glyphs of Magic Resist. The obvious pick and a slightly better one than usual, because half of it becomes Ability Power.

Quintessences of Ability Power or Spell Vamp. Flat Ability Power for a stronger early Q, Spell Vamp if you want to lean fully into the passive and the lane is a mage.

Masteries: 21 offense, 9 defense. Offense for the magic penetration, cooldown reduction, and Ability Power. The nine defensive points cover you before your Magic Resist has accumulated. If you play support Galio, 9 offense and 21 defense makes more sense.

How It Should Play

Lane phase is poke and slow. Resolute Smite on a 7 second cooldown, Righteous Gust for damage and repositioning, and Bulwark when you take a bad trade. You are not going to solo kill anybody early, and you do not need to.

Righteous Gust is a team ability, not a poke ability. Cast it toward the fight, then everybody on your side moving along it gets up to 52% movement speed. Use it before an engage rather than as a damage button, and use it to escape a lost fight.

Bulwark on the right person matters enormously. Every hit the shielded unit takes heals you. Shield the person the enemy team is about to focus, not the person who is safe. The healing is diminished 20% per consecutive hit, so it favours several attackers hitting once over one attacker hitting repeatedly.

Your ultimate is a two second channel and everybody can see it. That is the honest weakness. Any hard crowd control interrupts it, so you want either Flash to arrive on top of them, or a teammate who commits first and creates the moment.

Draft matters more than usual. Against a heavy Ability Power composition, Galio buys Magic Resist, converts it to damage, and becomes very hard to remove. Against a heavy Attack Damage composition, his passive does nothing and he is a mage with a channelled ultimate. Pick accordingly.

What Beats You

Physical damage compositions. Runic Skin is inert against them and you have to buy Armor, which gives you nothing back.

Crowd control on the channel. Two seconds is a long time to be visible and stationary.

Being ignored. The taunt only affects nearby enemies. A team that spreads out and kites reduces your ultimate to a slow and a poke tool.

What Changed From Modern Galio

• Runic Skin converts Magic Resist into Ability Power. Modern Galio's passive is an empowered basic attack.

• Bulwark is a targeted shield that heals Galio per hit. Modern W is a self channel that grants damage reduction and a taunt.

• Righteous Gust leaves a movement speed draft. Modern E is a dash and knock up.

• Idol of Durand is the channelled taunt explosion. Modern Hero's Entrance is a global flight to an ally.

The habit to unlearn is the global. This Galio does not travel across the map. He stands in one place and dares people to hit him.

The Honest Caveat

He is not out until September 10 and these numbers come from PBE tooltips. Treat the build as a plan rather than a verdict. The one thing I would bet on regardless of tuning is the Magic Resist to Ability Power interaction, because it is the entire identity of the champion and it is not something Riot would change while porting him.

Want to be ready on release day? Read our guides on climbing the Summoner's Journey and leveling to 30 fast.