TFT Set 12: How to Play Galio Hero Augment – Deja Vu

TFT Set 12 brings a new hero augment, Deja Vu, which transforms Galio from a frontline tank to a solo carry! This augment requires the player to make unique game decisions in order to be successful which we will be going over in this article!

The augment’s name is Deja Vu referring to a previous unit in Set 7 – Daeja. Set 7 introduced Dragons which were units that took two board spaces rather than one. While Set 8 introduced Hero Augments where the augment would upgrade a hero in one way or the other. The cleverly named Deja Vu takes from both of those ideas and reads:

Gain a Galio. Your strongest Galio has +3 range and gains Mana and Ability Power on each attack. His Ability deals more damage, but no longer stuns or reduces damage.

This augment can be offered at 2-1 where the augment gives you a single Galio as well as 3-2 where it gives you a two star Galio.

To select this augment, there are a couple things you will want to look for.

• Do you have any additional Galios already? Although not required, it can be helpful if you are closer to a 2 star Galio earlier. The same goes for 3-2 as you will have further progress into getting a Galio 3.
• Do you have Bows, Rods, or Guinsoos? These are Galio’s main items and without them he has a rough time.
• How many other players are looking to play Galio? Are you contested?

This augment wants you to reroll for Galio 3-star. This is done by saving gold early until going to level 6 at stage 3-2. After that saving to 50 gold and rolling above 50 gold and holding Galios, Rumbles, and Mordekaisers (we will go over the team comp later). Once you hit your Galio 3-star, you will push levels to add more Vanguards to your comp.

Now you have to itemize him properly or he won’t do much. Every attack Galio’s Mana and Ability Power increase, so Galio wants to attack as much as possible. Generally, he wants at least 2 Guinsoo’s Rageblades.

The third and final item can have much more variance. Acceptable items include:

Rabadon’s Deathcap, Giant Slayer, Bloodthirster, Hextech Gunblade, and Red buff.

Other acceptable items that aren’t craftable include:

Talisman of Ascension, Wit’s End, Gambler’s Blade, Sniper’s Focus, and Fishbones.

The team comp is rigid for this comp as Galio is a Vanguard and it is what gives him tankiness and survivability. This comp requires 6 Vanguards as 4 Vanguards isn’t tanky enough and essentially makes a player lose 1-1.5 placements. Make sure you have 6 Vanguards before anything else!

After you have your Vanguards, you can add Nami and Norra to give Mage to Galio. Nami is to help slow down the enemy team and she is also a strong anti heal applier if she has Morello or Red Buff. Yuumi can be attached to Galio to give him additional Ability Power and tankiness.

While rerolling, Rumble and Mordekaiser are the other 3 star units you want in the comp. Generally, you will hit Rumble first so you will want to itemize him first. However, if you are further along on Mordekaisers then you will want to itemize him with tank items as he is the higher cost unit.

This augment can be strong in some lobbies but weaker than others. It can have a tough time getting through extremely tanky teams as Galio is close to the only damage dealing unit on the team.

If Galio can’t put out enough damage to get through the tanks, then he won’t be able to win teamfights. This makes it so he can easily be outscaled in the late game – making it hard to win with this augment; however, he does a good job of achieving top 4 and gaining LP.

This augment is a lot of fun due to watching Galio flap his wings to do damage as well as reminiscing on the Dragon days of TFT. It gives the game a different feel as you can only play Galio this way with this augment. Make sure to try it out!

Good luck to you! - Cheng