Galio/Development

Champion Sneak Peak: Galio, the Sentinel's Sorrow
By ByronicHero

With this next champion we had a couple of goals in mind. For starters, we wanted to show our continued commitment to the monster enthusiasts by bringing those monstrous champions into the lineup. On the other hand, we wanted to appeal to those sensitive types who don't identify with anything that's capable of toxic bile,  its victims whole, or  the very ground on which it treads. We know that it's a pretty tall order, but we're pretty sure that, the Sentinel's Sorrow, should just be able to bridge that gap. If you're a fan of monsters, just imagine a swooping, deadly predator perched on the edge of a building, waiting patiently to strike. And if you're one of those artsy types who doesn't appreciate the grotesque, well then, think of him as a piece of elegant.

Champion Update: Galio, the Colossus
Looming brazen above Demacia's walls, the stands with silent lips. The elders tell of ages past, when the mighty man stirred to defend the huddled masses. Many doubt these legends. But - like imprisoned lightning - the Colossus is waiting. And when he's most needed, he'll stretch his conquering limbs again.


 * Abilities

I= Galio's next basic attack deals in an area, scaling with his  and. Colossal Smash's cooldown is reduced whenever Galio's spells hit a unique champion (once per spell)
 * Colossal Smash

Galio fires two gusts of wind that deal. Where the windblasts converge, a vortex that deals additional damage is formed, including bonus damage based on.
 * -|Q=
 * Winds of War


 * -|W=
 * Shield of Durand
 * If Galio avoids taking damage for a moderate period, he gains a shield that.
 * Holding down the W key causes Galio to enter a defensive stance, gaining damage reduction but moving significantly . This channel can't be interrupted even if Galio gets hit with a crowd-control spell.
 * When W is released, Galio nearby enemy champions. The  range and duration extend based on how long he remained in a defensive stance.

Galio hops back to wind up for an epic haymaker. After a brief delay, he charges forward, dealing to enemies and  them up. Galio's charge stops upon colliding with a champion or terrain.
 * -|E=
 * Justice Punch

Galio designates an ally's current position as his landing spot, granting them  damage reduction for a few seconds. He then leaps high into the air, torpedoing to the place his targeted ally was when Galio activated Hero's Entrance. When he lands, he deals to all enemies in the area and  them up. The lasts longer for those in the center of the landing zone.
 * -|R=
 * Hero's Entrance





Galio's a stone-cold warden who loves making earth-shattering to teamfights. He's tankier than most magic users: he smashes skulls on the frontlines, grabbing glory for himself with rowdy.
 * Playing as Galio

Galio wants to hit you, and he also wants to make you hit him back. It doesn't much matter who's doing the hitting - the living statue just needs to stretch his bulky, long-dormant limbs, preferably by beating up a lot of folks.

Early in lane, Galio can blow up minion waves with a whirlwind of area-of-effect damage from his, , and abilities. This gives him more time to apply near-global pressure with his, . Wise Galio players will keep an eye on their teammates' health bars and look for chances to take to the skies for a daring salvation.
 * Strengths

 lets the Colossus blow down enemies from a distance, but the rest of his kit rewards a more intimate, physical approach to combat. Once he's boulders-deep in the brouhaha he can bash everybody at once with basic attacks and . When Galio's buddies close in, he can hold peeps down with  massive taunt (we put Galio's old on his, xD)

Galio's great at starting epic battles, but he's not so great at escaping them. ' delayed lunge can be easily body-blocked or dodged, and ' can be canceled by enemy stuns or roots. When the Colossus crashes a party, he's usually in it until the bloody end.
 * Weaknesses

Galio also tends to have a tough time against champs that can match his wave clear and roaming potential, like. And although the scrappy sculpture's not as dependant on magic resistance items as he was before, he's still at a disadvantage against AD-heavy teams. remains a bread-and-butter item, but it ain't much use against a fed.

Champ Insights: Galio, the Colossus
By Ryan 'Cactopus' Rigney

may be a gargoyle, but he's never really acted like one.

have a specific purpose in architecture, and it's not to make old buildings look hella scary. Actually, they're supposed to be used as rainspouts. Rainwater runs into a trough in the gargoyle's back, and then it spits out the water away from the sides of the building to prevent erosion in the mortar. Basically, gargoyles are just a way for architects to make drainage pipes look cool.



Our old buddy Galio is definitely not a drainage pipe - he's a living statue that counters the cloaks off of magic-wielding enemies. And when we set out to rework the Sentinel's Sorrow, we decided we didn't want to change that. But we did want to make him into a more important player in Demacia's story. We needed to make him bigger.

Like, way bigger.

Long ago, Demacian explorers discovered something that would change their civilization: petricite. The petricite ore is a sort of fossilized wood that possesses anti-magic properties. For the Demacians, who eschew magic and fear the threat of invading magical forces, petricite was a godsend. The people built their city amidst a petricite forest on a hilltop, using the precious substance to construct their walls.
 * From Rainspout to Colossus

These walls worked splendidly when it came to defending Demacia from antagonistic mages, but whenever soldiers went into the field, they were without defense against magic. So, a wise Demacian tactician requested a 'portable petricite wall' that could be taken into battle. A sculptor named Durand was hired for the job, and he built an enormous man made of petricite. The statue acted as both a practical protective totem and as a sort of rallying banner for the Demacian soldiers.



Over the years, the petricite man absorbed countless magical attacks. Any time magic is used, there is a consequence, and in this case that consequence was enormous: one day, while the Demacians faced down an immense magical beast, the petricite man awoke.

But that was a long time ago. Now, no living man remembers the last time the great colossus awoke, so some doubt the stories of Galio's awakening. As they sip organic Demacian teas and twist their ironic mustaches, these young skeptics mock the old stories as nothing more than fairy tales from the lips of doddering fools.

But all in Demacia see Galio as the great symbol of their civilization. He's a mountain-sized statue representing eternal liberty, security, and war.

When you're a tank, it's not enough to be big. You wanna feel big. Champion designer Sol 'Solcrushed' Kim wanted Galio players to feel like god-sized monsters while rotating through the petricite man's spells, "That's why everything he does is so exaggerated, weighty, and bulky feeling", Solcrushed says. "He's deliberate with everything that he does, like a huge, lumbering statue."
 * The Petricite Man Hits the Rift

Quickly, though, Solcrushed discovered that not all 'heavy, deliberate' gameplay ends up feeling fun. In its earliest iterations, Galio's ability  had a long charge-up period before its dash. That, Solcrushed says, felt sort of bad. "So I got this idea for a jump / windup movement before the dash", he says. "Even though it's still a delay, it feels a lot better because you're still moving. You still get something at the moment of the button press."



Of course, Galio isn't just a big, petrified man that likes to stuff - he's the great defender of an entire people, and he needed to look the part. Concept artist Gem 'Lonewingy' Lim poses the question this way: "If Demacians constructed their own, what would it look like?"

The first thing we had to consider when deciding Galio's look is his purpose in the new narrative: defending Demacians in battle. Even before coming to life, Galio performed this task admirably. "When Demacian knights rode to war", says Lonewingy, "they were protected by the anti-magical properties emitting from the statue." With this aura in place, few could throw the Knights from their mounts, the legendary ebony wyverns. Thus, the sculptor Durand specifically designed Galio to look like a chimeric combination of knights and wyverns, to signify the unity of Demacian warrior and beast.
 * Liberty and for All

"We wanted Galio's to be something really spectacular, like something out of ." - JohnODyin

The colossus' great wings also symbolize his defensive purpose, forming a whenever he enters a defensive stance. He's decked out in white and gold colors, the favored colors of Demacia. Inherent in all this design is a sort of over-the-top patriotic feel. Galio is bold and brash. He's serious in his task of defending Demacia, but he's also got a joyful side. "People see a giant majestic sculpture and they assume he'll behave majestically", says narrative writer John 'JohnODyin' O’Bryan. "We thought it'd be more interesting if he defied expectations a bit."

Galio's youthful vigor is, in part, due to the unique way he sees the world. Even though he's very old, he only 'awakens' for a few minutes at a time, giving him a very limited perspective on the world. "He's basically just super stoked he gets to move", JohnODyin says. "Working on Galio was refreshing because he doesn't have any complicated feelings about fighting. He's just happy to be alive and smashing shit."



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 * Related Music

Galio/Development