[D] Specific counter picks - Page 7

To understand what can counter Galio, we must first look at his strengths.

1. Galio’s ability to straight up trade most APs, especially those with DoT effects, is second to none when his bulwark is activated. The additional Armor / MR alone would be sufficient to make trades even or in his favor, but the heal combined with this makes him actually heal from weak DoT effects.

2. His relatively low mana costs, along with his ability to buy many mana regen items (Catalyst, Chalice, Philo Stone: try not to get Chalice and Catalyst together if possible) that are useful for him make him a very efficient clearer when he can insta-clear waves and harasser at all levels.

3. The slow / speed on his Q + E also make him a choice chaser when the enemy is low, as well as giving him the ability to peel for himself and reducing the effectiveness of skillshot users.

4. Lastly, his passive: this passive allows Galio to build MR / items such as chalice while gaining damage at the same time, increasing the effectiveness of such builds while drastically reducing AP damage even further.

These factors combined make Galio a monster laning versus most APs. Even basic AD champions can have trouble to Galio due to his incidental harass being more powerful than their autoattacks. However, there are a few picks that either beat his strengths in efficiency or completely counter his kit.

Udyr's Tiger Stance has a strange interaction with Galio: Galio’s bulwark should be great against its DoT, and it is magic damage as well. However, with his stun and the ability to bait bulwarks by simply walking near Galio and walking away again, Udyr can comfortably use his tiger to harass or to bait mana usage from Galio. Should he use it with Galio, he will come out ahead in terms of mana used as well.

Galio’s incidental harass with Q+E in clearing is less effective versus Udyr due to Udyr’s turtle, which, again, is even more mana efficient than Galio’s combo while giving him mana / HP on every hit.

Galio’s ability to push is also negated by turtle. Should Galio begin to push on Udyr, Udyr can stagnate the lane by simply tanking creeps with turtle stance until the creepwaves meet outside of his tower, and be in a safe position to farm while zoning Galio from creeps with tiger / bear.

I recommend taking teleport as Udyr if you are vs. Galio, as a Galio with teleport may simply decide to back and walk to dragon if you are tanking creeps, which you can respond to with a teleport of your own kind if necessary, or you may just push to the tower if there is no need for a teleport – give yourself the option, as one won teamfight may change the pace of the game. You do not need ignite to heavily damage Galio either.

Udyr counters Galio in lane for dealing with Galio’s 1st, 2nd, and 3rd strengths (ability to bait bulwarks and punish when it is down with tiger, 1., beating him in mana efficiency, 2., and negating the slow / speed of Galio’s Q/E with stuns / bear as needed (again going back to mana efficiency as well), 3.). However, Galio still makes good use of his passive in this lane.

In looking at another type of counter to Galio, we see a type of hero that can not only punish Galio in 1., 2., and 3., but also reduce Galio’s usage of 4 such that his teamfighting presence is much weaker.

Garen and Lee Sin both have no mana, making 2. essentially a null point. Their instant application of damage (Garen is able to cancel his spin if Galio activates bulwark and he decides it is not worth using any longer) and kits (Garen’s silence and Lee Sin’s mobility / better slow) make it such that Galio’s slow and speed are difficult to use to avoid these due to mana constraint while making bulwark also less effective, as Garen and Lee do not have to commit greatly in exchanges, and have no mana constraints. Thus, 1., 2., and 3. are not of particular worth to Galio in these matchups.

In these matchups, Galio has 2 options. 1, he can build armor and barely survive / farm inefficiently in lane (with timely bulwark usage versus Garen, especially if Garen decides to flash Q when Galio is low and he is level 6, he can survive) or 2. he can die or get zoned (Garen and Lee’s kits are good for this in that they have a form of melee CC that they can use to prevent Galio from lasthitting from level 1 onwards). In foregoing MR to barely survive in lane (even with teleports to return to lane), Galio loses the great efficiency of his passive along with his effective immunity to magic at early fights.

Gangplank is a versatile toplane in that he has a combination of ranged harass with his Q, a very effective slow, movespeed etc. steroid, and heal in lane. He is fine with farming at tower because he is able to exert pressure around the map with his ultimate, so most stalemate-ing lanes are favorable for him.

The biggest difference in his kit from most toplane bruisers is his ranged harassment capabilities.

The bruisers with an ability to negate or match, or do both, against GP tend to come out favorably against the plank.

Riven is sufficiently stronger midgame that if GP does not get a large advantage in lane, the lane is favorable for her. However, she can straight up win exchanges versus GP when she hits level 3 and has all of her skills. The most difficult period of time against GP is levels 1 (and after the w nerf, level 2) as she is unable to exchange harass efficiently and indeed can die to GP’s passive if she is not careful.

To remedy this, Riven can open E at level 1 and then continue with a normal skill order. With enough practice or reaction time, it is simple to E the majority of GP’s Q harassment. At level 1, your E will entirely shield the damage it deals with armor runes – making passive farming possible. After Riven hits level 3, she has the mobility to reach GP and to disengage as needed: her abilities will win on pure damage if GP is not allowed to amass passive stacks. Essentially, after being stunned, GP has two options: 1. Eat oranges and trade even damage but lose a lot of mana, or 2. Lose the trade. From here on out, if Riven does not die to a gank, she should have very little to no problem dealing with GP as long as she uses her shield to block damage.

Udyr: GP simply does no damage through Udyr’s turtle stance. Unlike Riven’s E which has a very short duration shield, Udyr’s turtle stance lasts for much longer. The passive HP / Mana regained per hit makes it such that if GP ever attempts to commit to an exchange, you can open with turtle whenever he sends a Q at your way, and then follow with tiger and pound on him and one-sidedly win the exchange. GP does not have a lot of options in this matchup, except for to ask for an early gank. Otherwise, an early death / teleport / tower down is almost inevitable. GP simply cannot trade, and against an Udyr who positions himself to damage you whenever you come near the creeps, you will find yourself zoned.

If you are playing as Udyr, note two things: open boots, as there is no need to open cloth to win exchanges with armor yellows; and you do not need to turn on tiger to deal damage when zoning GP, as you may run yourself OOM doing so.

Notable mention:
Pantheon: If GP does not run a full armor setup, Pantheon can dominate this matchup. Even if he does, Pantheon noticeably has the lead in early levels – however, against a passive GP who opens cloth5pot and maxes W, Pantheon must overextend himself to keep pressure on GP from lasthitting properly, which is death against any coordinated jungler gank. However, against armor-less GPs who underestimate Pantheon’s strength, this is a notable counter, as like the other two, Pantheon’s passive largely negates the effectiveness of GP’s ranged harass, and can force favorable trades early on.

As a melee with extremely long ranged poke and high mobility and damage at melee range, Gragas has a strange kit that makes for very strange matchups. His W steroid along with his passive give him innate sustain that has noticeable effect, but is not enough to negate autoattack harass entirely. If he can land his barrels reliably, he can usually exert lane control stronger than most APs; however, if he cannot, he may have to farm from a range against aggressive enemies.

Cassiopeia can straight up out-trade Gragas, as she will out-trade him in all but the most extreme scenarios (Gragas lands his Q and she does not, for instance). Her smooth ranged attack adds extra damage that accumulates as well.

Vlad has the range advantage and a very simple point and click nuke that heals himself, making it difficult for Gragas to build up the harass for a kill combo; in addition, if Gragas ever commits, Vlad always has the option to pool as needed. Indeed, it is the latter (along with Vlad’s increasingly powerful sustain as the game progresses) that makes him a fine counterpick to Gragas.

In Top lane, Gragas has trouble against bruisers who have good sustain, as his sustain is mediocre at best in comparison to some sustain skills (Irelia’s W, WW’s passive and Q, Tryndamere, etc.) while many bruisers also have the mobility to either dodge or counterattack Gragas with ease. Tryndamere, Irelia, and Riven are three examples of very hard scaling top-lane champions that would be able to freefarm and harass Gragas as they pleased in this matchup.

AD carries with fast blinks or small scale movement (Corki, Vayne, Ezreal) are good against Gragas in that they can dodge his kill combos (and with Vayne in particular, counter any harass attempts by using her Q to dodge E/Qs and harass in turn without hurting for mana) and have strong autoattacks to punish any melee lasthits he attempts.

While the list of APs that can harass and trade with Gragas pre-6 is quite long, once Gragas hits 6, almost all matchups should change drastically. In addition to the fact that by this time, Gragas should receive blue or back and buy some DRings (or both), his poke damage and frequency (due to the available mana) and his kill potential (with the ultimate as initiation) is incredibly high. For example, if Cassiopeia ever falls below 50% HP, with an ultimate that brings her into body slam range, Gragas can effectively 1 shot her, whereas Cassiopeia’s ult threat range is much shorter. Matchups that were entirely lost or difficult can change completely, so this is worth taking into consideration.

Also, against those who have the mobility to dodge or negate the effectiveness of his ultimate (short range blinks, invulnerabilities such as Fizz E or Vlad pool, Morgana’s black shield or Galio’s bulwark and Mres in general), if he so desires, Gragas can simply instantly clear waves with 1 or 2 Q’s and Es as needed. Gragas has range only matched by Xerath for these types of clears, so any “hard counter” lanes may lose their effectiveness after a certain point; he has great mobility and can gank after a fast lane clear.

Counter by Vayne's true Damage, Q and E to kite or chase, Vayne can freely freeze the lane and keep singed from getting any cs without taking a big risk, pre-6 you can completely zone him to his own tower even out of xp range, post-6 if singed so much as goes pass half way point on river he's in real danger to die 100-0 from R+Q chase with silver bolt procs, you might need to take a tower hit or two during the dive but you will get the kill and should escape with enough health to fight off most junglers coming to assist.