The Galio Rework And What We Want From It

After playing Galio for roughly three years, I have learned that he is one of the most unique champions in the game for what his purpose is, and how he is meant to function both in mid lane and in the game overall. In mid lane he is the immovable object, the mage whose best offense is his defense, that being the defensive stat we love to call magic resist, and once fully grasped and mastered, he can unload a surprisingly high amount of damage onto his opponent due to his high base stats which are there to compensate for his lack of early game ability power building in addition to having medium-sized scaling ratios to help keep those base stats in check.

My full build for Galio is: with either or as my elixirs. My rune page for Galio is 24 mr, 9 armor, 7 magic penetration and I call it "Death Magenetic" as it makes Galio extremely durable in lane against magic damage, almost to the point where I even feel it's a bit unfair as it gives me around 44 ability power after purchasing doran's ring. Combine this with the aforementioned high base damage and winning lane as well as farming becomes remarkably easy, and I have realized that I can score very easy, early kills against certain melee champions who get too close for comfort. My masteries are 6-18-6, putting just enough to make my spells matter in the ferocity tree, mana sustain and burst in cunning, and extra scaling tankiness and roam potential as what bot lane doesn't enjoy having a free AoE taunt roam down to their lane and securing an easy kill for the ADC and assist for the support, making both of their lives easier?

Now as for why I play Galio: I love bruiser champions who have a good, solid mixture of offense and defense, those who take the pain as well as deliver it with equal or greater force... Trundle for his ability to turn many AD assassin, bruiser, and tanks into mince meat, Swain for his ability to eat most assassins alive and slowly peck out everyone else's eyeballs during teamfights, Malzahar for incredible farming ability in the form of large AoE assaults and anti-assassin lockdown with his ultimate, Malphite for his sheer tankiness, talent for slowing down speedy fuckers with his E+Q debuff and self-buff ontop of the disruption, Udyr very strong melee-mobility and defense primarily through bear and turtle stance (phoenix and tiger are mostly offensive), and champions of those variety who possess really good shut down potential by being able to tank for their team without feeling like just a boring brick wall. I included Malphite on the list because I have a full armor page for him that really makes it feel like you're punched in the jaw by the metallic gauntlet worn by a particularly beefy knight, and it has led to some very fun scenarios.

So the question now is what do I want to see happen to Galio.

Passive: This needs a complete overhaul, has to be redone, because while it is a great stat mechanic and is the core element that makes Galio into the anti-mage-tank that he is, there is no gameplay interaction that goes on with it. It is stats, nothing more and nothing less, and it is simply not fun. His passive, however, should remain, but simply be a passive on one of his other abilities like say his W, this way he will have to be careful for the first three levels, and then find himself becoming tanky as a reward for gaining farm and xp as well as gaining some fighting and farming power to steam his way towards lvl6.

What I want to see is Galio actually make use of his melee autoattacks, and the way one would do this, is by converting a percentage of his magic resist into on-hit magic damage, this way he can take advantage of his tanky get-in-your-face style of gameplay. There was always something that felt very wrong about playing a bigass, gargoyle made of fucking stone that punches you in the face with STONE FISTS and yet there is no tangible effect from that, and this is ontop of the fact that Galio's passive is called runic SKIN, so shouldn't his physical body and the things he can do with it also be interconnected to his ability to be a tank and still fuck other people up?

Q Ability: I frankly find this to be one of the fairest skill-shots in the game as it has decent projectile speed that is neither too slow or too fast, and I have learned that being able to predict where your enemies will run to is highly rewarding as the base damage on this thing is huge, and makes it easier for Galio to set up his E and get in close for the ultimate. This is also simply a great farming ability with a satisfying slow which really helps place an emphasis on his nature as a mage who is particularly good and SHOULD be in my opinion even better at shutting down mobile assassin type mages: Fizz, Diana, Akali, Ekko, Kassadin, and even Ahri to some extent when she dashes in.

This is the only ability I don't think really needs changing at all. It's honestly fine, it's well balanced, the ratios on it aren't too big, the base damage is satisfying, it can be used to farm and harass, and I just flat-out can't find a good reason to really mess with it.

W: The bread and butter beam that holds Galio together and prevents the stone gargoyle from crumbling into a pile of gravel for people to walk over. It buffs both his offense and defense simultaneously while also giving him a means of sustain as it heals him for damage taken during that time. This ability I have never been too sure about as it treads the line of being somewhat overloaded while at the same time fair, and this is because it provides him with a means of healing up, when he is already a tank to begin with, so the question is does he need this as removing it would make an item like Spirit Visage useless on him and no longer synergistic. That said, as a player, I really enjoy using this ability, but can understand the frustration that comes with being playing someone like say Anivia and Galio is low hp, turns on his bulwalk, and instead of taking damage after being walled into the glacial storm, he FUCKING HEALS BACK. I shit you not, when I say I was set on fire by Brand's passive (he was support), a Blackfrost Anivia was on the team, I knew I was going to die if I didn't do something, so I threw Galio into her glacial storm and put out the flames with some ice. I find the concept of Galio being able to pull off shit like this to be hilariously overpowered and ridiculous and yet being clever at the same time, because who uses enemy damage as a means of saving themselves from death? Galio, that's who.

Having said that, yes I want all of those stats to stay on him, but I feel it could be implemented in a much more innovative way as opposed to just a shield that doesn't actually interact and is more or less just another stat check that makes him more durable, grants him more offense, and serves to refill his health bar.

E: Good lord this ability is fucking trash. The only time this trash is useful is when you take the trashcan and dump it over someone's head, causing them to suffocate on the horrible stinky stench, which is to say it never quite feels fast enough, the fact that there's a delay on the spell means you also can't act fast enough upon using it, the range is shitty and the fact that it's a line path means you moreoften than not have to walk single file to actually give your team the speed boost it needs.

What I feel should be done to the ability is this: Galio beats his wings continuously, creating a cone-shaped draft in front of him that deals damage over time and that Galio can push forward simply by moving himself, allowing him to create a wind path that he can control for a duration. This would create prolonged chase scenarios where enemies are forced to flee, and Galio has more consistent mobility that he is also able to dictate and control. If he wants go forward he can, if he wants to turn around and run, he can do that as well, giving him more front line presence as opposed to just being a tank who uses mostly skillshots. This would also provide a more reliable means of setting up his ult and making flash plays easier.

R: The signature ability that allows Galio to obliterate teamfights. It feels strange that this ability is considered a taunt as opposed to an AoE suppression field, but given that suppresses are meant to disable a champion completely, I can see why taunt was the better choice. However, turning into a stone statue just seems like a really strange reason for enemy champions to lose their shit and start attacking Galio. With that said, this ability is hard to set up, it really is, even flashing and ulting doesn't seem to work half the fucking time due to the stupid cast time this ability has on it. It is countered too easily by something as simple as an Udyr stun, Jax using E before leaping in if he isn't caught by Galio, Braum's passive will cause everybody to instantly proc the stun, and it is just an overwall wonky as fuck ability that is difficult to pull off, easily countered, and sometimes is even the cause of death for Galio should the ADC be way too fucking fed. Remember, he builds magic resist as a counter to MAGIC DAMAGE, not ARMOR AS A COUNTER TO PHYSICAL DAMAGE. He's not Rammus. No, I do not believe in building thornmail, that shit is stupid as the damage it dishes back out requires you to build armor for it to be truly effective, and even though you can make the argument that Galio is naturally going to be building abyssal scepter, there are better items to be building on Galio than that shit.

What I want is another version of this ability that functions properly, I do not want to see it removed, as Idol of Durand places heavy emphasis on his identity as a tank as it literally drags enemies off other squishy targets, to Galio, forces them to attack him so he can soak up the damage, and explode back in his opponent's face after all is said and done. I wish I had an idea for this ability, I really do, but Idol of Durand comes off as a very hit or miss type of spell, and I'm not sure that there is anything that can really be done to change it without removing it completely.

With all that said, do you think Galio even needs a full rework or does he just need some tweaks. In my opinion, he's not living up to his full potential, and won't ever be able to without a full rework, so I am in favor of what's going to happen to him. I love playing bruiser champions, especially champions who have a unique means of converting their defensive power into offensive power, and enabling myself to be a tank who doesn't just tank, but can actually hit like a true tank with a real tank cannon mounted ontop of it should hit like.

What do you want from Galio's rework? I'm asking the mains out there, the few and far between mains who genuinely love this champion, and want to see him live up to his full potential and who Goliath himself can look at and say "That there is a real fucking Gargoyle."