I think part of the problem with Galio right now is that he's really unfocused: he has multiple sources of mobility, damage, durability, and knockups, plus poke, anti-tank damage, waveclear, utility and ganking/roaming potential. This is one of the reasons why he's still occasionally good in competitive, because pros know how to abuse generalists. By contrast, in solo queue his balance has been spread thin across all of these different aspects, to the point where no individual part of him feels all that amazing. This is why I continue to believe his VGU went in the wrong direction, because it took a champion that had some unique features and a clear strength/weakness profile, despite some other major gameplay problems, and replaced him with this do-everything diver/tank hybrid that gained plenty of strengths and lost all of his weaknesses, forcing him to be balanced around an increasing degree of mediocrity.
As far as short-term balance changes go, I'd remove Galio's knockup on his E, his W damage and passive shield, and his ally damage reduction on ult, and instead buff his base health and basic ability cooldowns. In the long term, I'd probably rework him completely in a manner that removed his knockups and mobility, in favor of more damage and utility. Here's a quick-and-dirty example of what I mean, as a non-Galio main:
- Innate - Magic Eater: Galio's next basic attack generates a tornado that travels forth for 2 seconds, dealing 10 - 30 (+ 10% AP) (+ 5% bonus magic resistance) magic damage every 0.25 seconds, for a total of 80 - 240 (+ 80% AP) magic damage. This has a 8-second static cooldown, reduced by 1 second every time Galio is hit by an enemy ability.
- Q - Righteous Gust: Galio fires two gusts that each travel in an arc before meeting at the target location. Each gust deals 40 / 60 / 80 / 100 / 120 (+ 40% AP) (+ 20% bonus magic resistance) magic damage independently, so enemies hit by both gusts take damage from both. If Magic Eater is available and both gusts hit the same enemy champion, they consume Magic Eater to fire a tornado at their location.
- W - Bulwark: Galio projects an area around himself for 1 / 1.25 / 1.5 / 1.75 / 2 seconds, negating the effects of enemy abilities within. Abilities that would otherwise affect him or allied champions contribute to Magic Eater, with area-of-effect abilities only being counted once.
- E - Resolute Smash:
- Passive: Enemy abilities leave a trail where they travel for 3 seconds. While inside this trail, Galio is unstoppable and gains 30% bonus movement speed.
- Active: After a wind-up, Galio's next basic attack deals 60 / 95 / 130 / 165 / 200 (+ 60% AP) (+ 30% bonus magic resistance) bonus magic damage to the main target and all nearby enemies. While on a spell trail, Resolute Smash has no cooldown, and heals for half of its bonus damage upon hitting an enemy champion. This does not reset Galio's autoattack timer.
- R - Idol of Durand: After a short delay, Galio immobilizes himself and channels for up to 2 / 2.5 / 3 seconds, taunting all nearby enemies for the duration. During this time, attacks from taunted enemies contribute to Magic Eater.
's hotfix.
