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Galio Rework needed

ElJergon··6 votes·1,985 views

Before I started playing LOL, I did my research. I looked at all the champions to see which ones I thought we be cool to play or had the best concepts. One of the champions I really loved was Galio. Who doesn't want to play a bulwark gargoyle and wreck faces with your stone fists? However, when he came up on free rotation a couple weeks ago, I realized that he is probably one of the weaker champions in the game. I did some more research on the wiki and on Lolking. Galio (aside from minor tweaks and the tenacity buff on his ult) hasn't had any major updates since 2012. To give some perspective, that was when Nami was released. And around the same time anything really happened to Sion before his relaunch. Now to the Lolking portion of my research: Before his minor buff in 4.21, in normal matches Galio had a pick rate of.... drum roll please..... around 1%. After 4.21, he got bumped up to 8%. For one day. Then he gradually went back to cry in the corner because no one loves him (I still love you Galio.) I know Rito doesn't care about win rates too much, so I won't go there. But a fairly steady 1% pick rate from a champion that has been untouched for 2 years? I think that should raise some flags. Finally to the gameplay aspect of my analysis. From my experience, Galio is generally weak and his kit leaves much to be desired. First off: the passive. His passive is nice, but building full MR (flat runes, 0/30/0, Abyssal Scepter, Merc Treads, Banshee's, Spirit Visage, GA, and Maw and his Bulwark up), he only gets 222.6 AP. His Q will do 133 more damage and his E does 111 more. Kinda low for a tank themed mage. (Yes I know that this is a bad build. I'm just using it to show his passive is relatively weak compared to how it sounds) His Q doesn't even come close to the graphics and beauty it deserves. IMO, it looks like a water balloon (inb4 Pool Party Galio). His W seems strange. It's essentially "Here, take some damage ADC so I can get the healses." The self heal just doesn't work. Maybe the person who has the shield on them gets the heals? His E has relatively low damage and a long cooldown. His ult is nice, but definitely in need of some major ways to decrease counterability (Hard CC is just way too easy to stop him. Make him untargetable, but decrease the duration maybe?) Another issue with his ult: He has essentially no ability to use it. His only real gap closer is his E, but that requires him to WALK up to his enemies. In the modern meta with high-CC supports, this isn't happening. The last portion of his kit is his range. I know he is a tanky mid, but early game is really tough on the big guy. He has to go to melee range to farm while his opponent pokes him down because he has almost no MR. Or he could use his Q to farm, except for the fact that it has a high cooldown and mana cost (base mana of 319 and a base mana cost of 60) early game and does only a little bit of the damages. Finally to Galio's actual model. I don't think much needs to be said here. His classic skin is in some real need of love. The colors are way off in terms of the concept (Most gargoyles are stone grey. Not toothpaste color) And his fists are just way too large. In conclusion, Galio has one of the coolest concepts in the game, but his kit and appearance leave much to be desired. His kit isn't very cohesive and is highly counterable leaving him to be deemed unviable. Galio is in need of considerable love. Maybe not Sion scale, but he is up there.

Sorry if I seemed angry or rude; I just want to see this champion get the love he deserves.

20 Comments

thePandev5 votes

Galio is stupid strong. He destroys so many mids easily early game. I don't get how you can say his W is bad. The ability it's self should be nerfed if anything. The heal is very strong, and don't forget it also gives armor. Basically amounting to (Max level):

45 AP 90 Armor 90 MR Heal which with about 400-500 AP late game heals for nearly thousands, allowing you to absorb so much damage or just get healed from the turret.

His ultimate is so easy to land. Just either flash in or simply run into their team and since his ultimate doesn't get affected by tenacity anymore, 95% of the time everyone get's obliterated (Except for the 5% who manage to flash out in time.) I'd go as far as to argue that he has the best ultimate CC wise in the game. His damage doesn't scale well into late game but he has simply so much utility in his kit that you don't need any.

The problem is that he's considered a counter pick because he really just is. I personally hate that in champions, when you just pick to counter a certain comp. His passive should be refined to be more broad on a general scale. There is simply no point of choosing Galio into a Zed or Yasuo or any team with less than 2 AP's really. If his passive included something tied in with armor with tuning on his MR, then I can see him being more of a pick rather than a hard counter against Veigar.

ElJergon1 votes

His ultimate, to me is TOO dependent on positioning. A summoner spell shouldn't have to be REQUIRED for a champion to be viable. The kit should be the only thing that impacts how viable a champion is. And as I said earlier, his E MS buff isn't terribly helpful in getting up close and snuggly with the enemy team. They will either just run away, CC him, or poke him down REALLY fast. Plus the ult only works if the team is close together. Not very useful if they are spread out and can just CC him outside of his ult range. As for his passive, I was thinking they could do something similar to Vlad: 50% of MR turns to AP and say 10-15% of AP turns to MR (not stacking with itself ofc) And I never said his W was bad. Just the ability to cast it on allies but only providing a self heal just seems weird to me. I was thinking the shield heals whoever it is cast on.

thePandev2 votes

{quoted}

His ultimate, to me is TOO dependent on positioning. A summoner spell shouldn't have to be REQUIRED for a champion to be viable. The kit should be the only thing that impacts how viable a champion is. And as I said earlier, his E MS buff isn't terribly helpful in getting up close and snuggly with the enemy team. They will either just run away, CC him, or poke him down REALLY fast. Plus the ult only works if the team is close together. Not very useful if they are spread out and can just CC him outside of his ult range. As for his passive, I was thinking they could do something similar to Vlad: 50% of MR turns to AP and say 10-15% of AP turns to MR (not stacking with itself ofc) And I never said his W was bad. Just the ability to cast it on allies but only providing a self heal just seems weird to me. I was thinking the shield heals whoever it is cast on.

If you actually have a team, QE into ult is very, very easy to land. How will he be poked down really fast with his W? His ultimate doesn't work if the team is close together, because you don't have to hit their whole team. I'd say at least 2 people are always guaranteed to be caught and decimated in his ultimate. I have almost never been hit by enemy CC because they've already used it or because my team is there to protect me and zone.

That passive change won't really do anything. Galio doesn't need more MR. He needs to be a pick that someone can think of and say: ''Hmmm... Maybe I should pick Galio into Zed?'' Instead of: ''Nah, Galio wouldn't work, they don't even have more than 2 AP's.

Kratos2631 votes

He already got his love like, last week, and that's all he needed.

ElJergon1 votes

But it was the first time anyone has really paid attention to him in almost 3 years. 4.21 was only a minor buff. He is still overall in need of some attention

Kroda131 votes

Galio is pretty strong and a great mid laner. I don't think he needs much more than a VU

Abyssphere1 votes

I think a kit rework/VU wouldn't be a bad idea. Right now everything he does just looks weird and only his ult could be considered fun.

I mean he's a gargoyle, why is he throwing flowers into the air?

Boulderox1 votes

i do feel his bulwork early should have a bit more umph whenever i play him i feel my shield isnt viable at all until i max it out, idk why but that is the feel i get when i play him. Early game it is a half hit block and a tad heal, which essentually blocks an aa effectivly, but isn't that useful in most reguards.

I feel his e needs a lower mana cost, the damage on it isn't worth the cost, it has more utility, but is 10 MORE cost than your main damage dealing spell. Q which does 80 +(.6 AP) and slows for 24% =60 MANA E which does 60 +(.5 ap) with 20% MS boost =70 MANA. /(ಠ_ಠ)-wut.... That is a main problem i find with galio, the MS buff is bad early because his AA takes forever, you get that boost, but only can get one AA out of it, not an effective means of chasing down. And i know that is also what the Q is for, that is true, but if I need to use 2 skills to utilize my AA's that isn't effective. (Side note)Thats why he is so good in PORO KING gamemode, he is able to chase effectively with the poro throw ability, making him able to stick to targets better than his Q and E could do combined. and rivals his flash ult.

AA speed buff PLEASE, he desperatly needs that if anything. 61 lvl 1 ad is high, i will give it that. but makes CS'ing incredibly hard if you cant bully them out of lane early and are stuck under tower, forced to use skill to pick up farm.

He is meant to be an MR tank, that does considerable damage back at any ap enemies, but he falls flat in half his skills early on, which makes the ones he should counter have the upper hand.

Now i have said a lot about early game, Late game he can be viable depending on how fed he is, i find him to be like a yasuo in some situations, you need to kill to stay viable, otherwise you fall off and are useless.

His R buff is great, it really is, but its predictable what galio is gunna do when he comes at your whole team.

All in all i find galio to be a fine champion, love his character, lore (NEVER CHANGE IT RITO), and idea, but falls flat in many areas that make him unvaible to do what he was made for.

Dryditch1 votes

Drop him into a match against AP heavy teams, and he suddenly becomes a freaking nuke machine.

All he needs is Banner of Command, Locket of Iron Solari, and Deathcap. Game over.

Vesarixx1 votes

Galio is a disengage tank, probably the best in the game, people in solo queue rarely pick that type of champion because it's more of a team focused role, he's not meant to always be diving in and ulting the entire enemy team, it's not what his kit is for. Galios W gives an incredible amount of tanking ability, 90 AR and MR at rank 5, along with a heal, allowing him to tank very effectively. His Q, E and especially his ult are amazing for peeling people off your carries. So he has an amazing tank steroid, gets free damage from MR and has great peel, if you want to build full MR, you should go top lane, mid lane you can go an AP/magic pen and any MR you do build vs an enemy AP midlane will still give you some extra damage.

Also a tip for Galio players, go tear over chalice unless it's an all AP team, the seraphs passive plus your passive will mean you can itemize to get AP from both your MR and AR.

Kratos2631 votes

People think galio destroys mages only. The truth is, Galio destroys everything, ad or ap. He can't get tanky against ad with his passive, but his shield procs more time against ad champs, meaning he can poke for almost eternity without taking much damage, and every galio player knows how much that Q can hurt.

The only champs galio can't beat are tanks, but that's mid/late game.If he's laning against one, he can still win the lane before they get tanky.

Vesarixx1 votes

He can still get tanky Vs AD, the free AP is a bonus but a lot of his power is in his base damage rather than his scalings, and he might be the best champion in the game to make use of thornmail, since he can 5 man taunt and heal with W while still getting the passive from it.

Apex Citavista1 votes

his mid isnt too great, but still very strong, especially against assassin types like Katarina and akali. he owns them. But when he doesnt fit in mid, but well with the team comp, just do what I do. Go Galio jungle. he has really good clear time actually, and with his W he has incredible sustain. I can usually do camp>buff>buff and be at almost full hp. Also being a jungler oyu can swoop around behind for ganks, with makes using his ulti easier. I've only done like 10 games as galio jungle, and I've won like 7 of them.

TheI3igDaddy1 votes

Here's the way I would buff Galio to be competitive:

-Increase the % of MR that gets turned into AP -Increase the width of his Righteous Gust (maybe 150% of its current width) -Make the gust trail last a bit longer

Just my opinion is all.

Vesarixx1 votes

Reduce the cost of his spells especially at early levels as well, he goes oom pretty fast

chumbler1 votes

Galio needs help, but given how every rework Riot has done has gone (namely, being ultimately purely intended to remove a champion from the game and leaving them far worse than they were before), for the love of god don't ask for a rework.

Slushi Simcambi1 votes

They need to make sure he can't be hit out of his ultimate.

Then he will be just fine imo.

Dangerous Man1 votes

Galio is one of the weaker ones...I think you are dumb lol

Discount Support1 votes

Galio doesn't really need any rework per say. He has a unique kit that works somewhat well around his ultimate, allowing him to engage and his shield allows him to be healed during it. His passive allows him to wreck AP and his ult scaling off of the number of times he has been hit allows him to wreck almost anyone who builds attack speed. AD casters are about the only ones with an easy time against him. I play galio a lot and never have any problems with him being "under powered". If you want to see a roflstomp play him vs anyone with dot damage.

Lugg1 votes

Galio is one of the stronger champions in the game if you are good with him. The problem is that people don't want to take the time to learn him. He has a VERY mana gated early game that makes early laning difficult. That's why he isn't popular. However, once you level him up, he has the best waveclear in the game (and yes that includes Anivia). Plus his ult is game winning.

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