I came to notice that he's one of the 3 least popular champions (the other two being Urgot and Cassiopeia).
Personally - I like his utility and his poke is also nice, not to mention that he performs really well against popular picks like Fizz.
He has great poke and waveclear which both have become even more important with the pre-season tower changes. (Also Abyssal got buffed)
So, why do so few people play him?
RiotRiot Stashu16 votesWhile his abilities are all strong individually, they don't really have a flow that feels particularly rewarding. What I mean is, you can W yourself for AP before casting your abilities, and that feels kind of clever, but it doesn't feel particularly good because it's not very exciting. Likewise, you can slow a target with Q so that you're more likely to hit E, or use E to approach a target to hit your ulti, and all of this is smart play, but doesn't feel quite like the combos that other champions have access to.
Renekton E'ing through a minion to W/Q enemy champion, then E'ing back to safety is both smart play and feels super rewarding, like you've done it right. Ulting on Vayne and then using a stealthed tumble to get in position to condemn someone into a wall is clever and feels amazing. Galio can cast W to get that slight AP boost from his passive, Q to slow the enemy so as to get a guaranteed E, which will allow him to run up and R, but this will never feel as good as that Vayne play or even the simple Renekton trading pattern.
That's my theory anyway. Oh, also Galio's basic attacks are super lame, which is actually a pretty big deal for a melee champion.
Kowe The Ewok1 votesYou are definitely right here.
In-and-out seems to have become the very deifnition looking at many recent champion releases. I admit, it's really fun - even though it actually is kinda broken since many old champiosn lake the approprite tools to respond to it.
Galio knows only one way: In. And even that doesn't work to well since he can't keep up with everybody dashing away.
I know you're busy with reworking Cass: But do you have some thing in mind that might help him?
I really think a slight CD on E would already be a great help to make him feel more impactful in siege-battles. Or the speedbuff on his E could possibly be doubled for himself. (Or the range increased when passing through an ally?)
RiotRiot Stashu8 votesWell, to truly make Galio interesting, I think we'd need to take a good long look at his whole kit, which would require a ton of support from other disciplines as well (art, animation, etc).
That said, there might be some small things we can add to make him feel good about. Even adding something to his Q that says "marks target. Galio's basic attack deals bonus damage to target = x% of his ap or mr or w.e, consumes mark." This mechanic is pretty overused so I'd be hesitant to do that specifically, but anything that could give him an optimization case while improving the feel of his basic attack would likely go a long way.
Anyway, I'm looking into a few champions at the moment, so no promises, but I'll keep him in mind and in discussions, maybe me or another designer could find some room for him some time.
CupcakeTrap6 votesEven adding something to his Q that says "marks target. Galio's basic attack deals bonus damage to target = x% of his ap or mr or w.e, consumes mark." This mechanic is pretty overused so I'd be hesitant to do that specifically
Just chiming in: please no more "consumable stack" passives. That is my least favorite design trope in LoL. Especially when it rewards counting how many stacks are on each enemy and cashing them in at just the right moment. Nothing would drive me away from a Champion faster than that sort of mid-combat chore.
Duke Anax3 votesI don't think his kit is all that off. his biggest problem is that he is All In, but his In his too weak, so he can't keep up with a lot of competition. The other problem is the waste of his passive.
So do this: E: Turning Reighteus Gust around so that it imediately propels him vorward and leaves a trail behind would help him a lot. Maybe add a second activation to turn the trail around and provide an Out for him and allies.
Passive: move the MR scaling directly into the other Abbilities. SO you have room for a completely new one. How about: Galio absorbs a part of magic attacks storing the energy to empower his other spells.
Q: roughly the same, becomes stronger and faster the more energy he has absorbed. Since it's pretty much an explosion, might be worth a stun rather than a slow. Or turns for a slow to stun at certain powerlevel.
W: shield, greatly increases magic absorbtion and uses energy to heal the shields target as well as Galio.
R: same, empowered by stored energy.
Eek, I just realized I'm reponsing to Stashu, suggesting a charge passive, they'll gonna rip me a new one for this (; Just to clarify: it's a charge and release mechanic, not an evolving one.
Edit: I just realized how awesome that would really be. Currently his identity as an antimage tank is only based on his MR synergy. But with this he could actively work against a mage as it's be a bad idea to attack him with magic when his Bulwark is up.
Apakakuta2 votesGalio 
is actually one of my most endeared champ and I play him against those pesky mids like 
or 
also good in top match ups like 
and 
.
However If you guys there at Riot do decide to change galio can we keep the aspect of bulwark that heals him as he is hit? It is one of the things I've personally come to love about him barely surviving ignites living through dots.Also his mage tank is a niche that is not filled all that well he is the only one that comes to mind. There is the anti magic mage assassin 
that you could build to be durable but he is not a tank. You have the anti physical tanks like 
and 
that punish ad champions either reflecting aa's or slowing their attack and move speed while also scaling off Armor. Galio is the only tank for Magic teams survives burst and heals damage over time and scales with Magic resistance. Take away his ult his e his q and change it completely but Please leave the integrity of his Mr scaling and healing resistance shield.
Mahnigguh1 votesThe art for him in my opinion is perfect but the animations kinda pull him out of his role. In my mind i see him as a tank...a front line warrior, but the way he flies and hovers makes him seem kinda bored. When i play naut or voli the are intense and in the battle but Galio is like "hey guys ima go hover over here".
My solution- make him walk on his legs and when he moves over his wind, make him leap and glide sort of. I think it would add to his appeal as a gargoyle and make his Kit feel a bit more solid.
Also that mark idea + wits end would solve his lack of AA.
Anomander3 votesPlease leave Galio alone. The only reason he is not picked a lot more is this is a Heavy ad meta and he is a mage tank needing resists but doesn't scale off armor. This is a much larger issue for mage like tanks who have a hard time optimizing for armor where MR is easily obtainable in the form of chalice and abyssal. The exception to this rule is ryze who had to be nerfed because of how strong he was.
This issue has come from Riot making super mobile Assassin who can dominate most mids without counter play. Zed has very little counter play early as he can farm safely with little to no energy because of his q. Yasuo had to be nerfed into the ground(his shield). Even Jayce has little to no counterplay if he stays safe and farms waiting for a gank.(jayce has some ms but not true mobility)
JoDari1 votesPlease leave Galio alone.
I love playing Galio. He's a fun champ, and he does well. He has great synergy with the new champ Kallista. I hate for Riot to take these older champs and turn them into newer champs that nobody wants to play. There are way too many champions in this game. There are always going to be some champs that don't get played much.
Michicha2 votesThis is an overstatement. Sometimes older champs are nolstalgic, but its widely agreed that they can use some work. I love current Galio, but there have been a lot of people asking for a kit update for him, and frankly I agree with most of them. He's outdated, the only counterplay against him is picking AD, and really only his ult is iconic. I love his shield and Q, but as the Rioter said, they don't feel right in the same kit. You may not agree, thats fine, but you can't say he's fine, cause thats a lie.
Ale non è male1 votesWhat Galio need is a graphic and animation update. His animations are really..well...terrible. Make them smoother and people will start to look more at him
Michicha1 votesThe goal now isn't to make people look at him, it's to put him in a healthy state. Riot isn't always after your money.
Ale non è male1 votesGalio is in an healthy state as a niche counterpick against mages on mid. He just feels clunky and people on mid usually go more for a flashier champ that they can play than get a guy who is chosen to counterpick the enemy
Michicha1 votesThat's the issue, he wasn't meant to go mid in the first place and I despise taking him there. His niche shouldn't counter an entire type of damage is what I'm saying. He's also not as healthy as you think, as confirmed by a Rioter that he is kept weak due to being too strong against AP mids, and has been known to skew picks too much. Counterpicking shouldn't be based off a stat, it should be based off a kit as a whole.
Ale non è male1 votesThat's the issue, he wasn't meant to go mid in the first place and I despise taking him there. His niche shouldn't counter an entire type of damage is what I'm saying. He's also not as healthy as you think, as confirmed by a Rioter that he is kept weak due to being too strong against AP mids, and has been known to skew picks too much. Counterpicking shouldn't be based off a stat, it should be based off a kit as a whole.
Issue? isn't this conceptually better than having champs that can go basically in every line-up, thus leading to only these few champs being actually played? Galio is kept slightly weak, yeah, but not on the power side, rather on the mana cost according to his late game scaling. The problem are more the other champs that doesn't fall off at any point in the game rather than Galio And Galio whole kit is the kit of a tank that has to absorb damage for himself and his mates, the fact that he does better vs magic damage dealers because of his passive that lead to a certain builds does not make his kit completely useless against AD champs. Bulwark and Idol of Durand work as well against AD champs as they do against AP champs, Galio as overall kit is addressed to absorb damage and provide some utility for his mates(taunt + slow + as boost)
He could get better upon a reowrk? Of course, Q and E overlap a bit imho and Rioters could find a different formula to replace one of those eventually. But he is definitively not in a bad state. His win rate is not bad despite his troubles. His niche is well defined. He IS in an healthy state, although not being close to the top of the power tiers
Havik2231 votesHave you guys tried taking him against an AD mid? He still does perfectly fine and Zhonyas is still a great item on him. His natural tankiness makes fighting him tough for whoever you're up against, Zed and Yasuo included. Neither of those champs can go in on you and fight you head on. Your shield stops off their damage and your burst ensures you'll get more. They can't push towers because of the ulti; speaking of which, it crushes any Zed who tries to ult you. I've seen grown men cry trying to ult into a Galio.
Michicha1 votesGalio wasn't designed to go mid and I really don't like taking him there TBH. I love playing him as support no matter what, it fits his theme and has more counterplay other than "You lose if you pick an AP mid against him, Pick Yasuo or Zed" It's not the introduction of those champions that made him unviable, its the introduction that introduced the issues Galio always had.
Anomander1 votesI used those as examples.....However if you read it all I said it is because it is a Heavy AD META. He has one of the lowest pick rates because of this meta but when used as a counter pick he also has one of the highest win rates. High mobility ad champions made him almost non viable. Not 1-2 but several. I listed common counter picks to galio mid but considering all the high damage high mobility AD champions on the current meta galio is pretty non viable. And this has far more to do with itemization then anything else.
Just to give you some of the mobility champions who just eat him Lee Sin' Vi Khazix Zed Yasuo Kalista Gnar Jayce Rengar Aatrox Fiora Wukong
And any ADC. I specifically metioned Kalista as try hitting a q will all those dashes. As for some of the others who have lower mobility like Jayce and Fiora. Galio is dependent on Kiting with q and stay at range till he can ult. All of these can stick to him and wreck him in seconds. Hell jayce even out pokes him.
Most of these champions came out well after galio. A lot of these are part of the current meta. This doesn't even count the AP counters that can still wreck him by building magic pen or having High mobility.
Galio is in a bad spot but he needs tweaks not reworks.
Michicha1 votesI don't experience this heavy AD meta you speak of, and they actually had to buff Zed and just buffed Yasuo,so that contention is kinda out the window...
Anomander2 votesIn the last 10 months Zed has had a minor tweek to positioning on his ult. and Yasuo has had two nerfs and several bug fixes. No buffs.
As for heavy ad meta.... When you have 3-4 people on every team who scale off ad that is a heavy ad meta. Not a FULL ad meta just heavy. Current meta is a Bruiser top(most are ad except ryze.) A burst/caster mid.( about 1/3 are ad) A jungle (tank or assassin 2/3 are ad) A support and a ADC. This makes it a far heavier AD comp in general.
Combine this with the low amount of non-tank ad defense itemization(which I do not want) with the large amount of armor pen items and it is a really heavy Ad META.
Chaotic Reks1 votes
Michicha1 votesLooking into it your right, but most of the heavy AD meta stems from the jungle being either AD or tank. Top and mid lane have more diversity in terms of damage output, mid seeing champs like Syndra picked over AD champs. Swain and Akali top were going strong and supports alos tend to spew some decent amounts of AP (Caster supports) At the same time there shouldn't be a champion who relies in the dominance/rarity of a single stat in order to be viable. Galio may not need a full rework, but he sure as heck needs more than tweaks.
Anomander1 votesActually a couple of small tweaks could do it.
Change the passive to scale off ad and Mr but only 40%. Seeing as how he ahs to build them anyways would give him a bump.
Comboing the EQ could snare. When they are within the E and you hit them with a q it snares for 1 sec. Lowering the slow.
Change the w so that it heals whoever is shielded but reduce the resists.
Some small tweaks to to cast animation on the q would make it more responsive.
These are some ideas of tweaks. No need to do all of them just a couple would make him far more viable. Number tweaks are not my thing but I am sure riot can figure out the numbers.
Michicha1 votesAs much as those would improve him, they don't fix the core issue of his kit. His passive being strange as is, it's pretty much like Malphite's armor scaling on his abilities and other tanks who scale much better. It'd be better to implement these scalings into the abilities themselves and give him a passive with more counter play then "My name is Malzahar and I hope Galio doesn't get MR" I feel his passive is what restricts and punishes him for building armor instead of Magic resist, due to as you build armor, you feel bad for not building Magic Resist instead. I'd like to find a way that Galio can still feel like a niche pick against mages without it just being 1 stat and an outdated passive.
Jezríen1 votesI really like to make my imagination work. So, I have some thoughts on Galio.
Mostly I relied on his role as tanky supportive mage (according to his lore as being made to serve and defend). I like tricky and kind of tough mechanics which can provide good and spectacular plays. What's more, Galio as himself could have really unique mechanics.
First of all, I don't like Galio can poke hard and clear waves. It's boring. Especially since you don't need to go mele (even after 6) at all, you just need to rely on hitting his Qs and Es. Secondary, what i found out was his quote "Assault from above". He did nothing like that. I mean... nothing at all.
Passive really makes no sense. And I like "Galio absorbs a part of magic attacks storing the energy to empower his other spells." (c) Duke Anax.
Q: Galio throws a bunch of magic in a direction damaging 1st enemy it hits. Enchanced Q: In a towering rage Galio goes up in the air and fires magic blast dealing area damage (not too strong) and marking that spot where he lands immediately after, stunning all enemies it hit for 0.25 (?) seconds.
W: Healing shield is nice. Enchanced W: Healing not only Galio but the target it was casted on as well.
E: Galio starts to flitter his giant wings providing wind which increases ally movement speed and decreasing enemies if the wind blows in their faces. If Galio releases the wind blowing in the enemies back he knocks them back instead. Enchanced E: Galio starts to flitter so hard that he can interact with the terrain and surface (I really want some day Riot will be able to make interactive environment more than just wall colliding). Casting Empowered E on the ground will deal some damage to enemies it hits and blinds their basic attacks or decreases their vision. Casting Empowered E on the water will silence all enemies it hits. The effect depends on where Galio is standing.
R: His current massive taunt ult. Enchanced R: ult can't be interrupted. Or it can be no empower for his ult.
FiendOfOne1 votesThis. As much as people make fun of 'LCS big plays', pulling one of those off feels AWESOME. I watched a top 5 plays that was along the lines of great mechanics with Galio (and it really was amazing mechanical play) but it didn't look awesome. I've played Galio, and done some neat stuff with him .None of it felt as good as say, the other day when I used Amumu to bandage toss on their jungler during a dragon fight, smite stealing it from the team into a Curse of the Sad Mummy, locking them down long enough for my team to get there and clean up the teamfight.
It just feels good to do something like that.
Chaotic Reks1 votesIt doesn't feel good landing that fight winning (possibly game winning) ultimate taunt?
draqxqard1 votesWhile his abilities are all strong individually, they don't really have a flow that feels particularly rewarding. What I mean is, you can W yourself for AP before casting your abilities, and that feels kind of clever, but it doesn't feel particularly good because it's not very exciting. Likewise, you can slow a target with Q so that you're more likely to hit E, or use E to approach a target to hit your ulti, and all of this is smart play, but doesn't feel quite like the combos that other champions have access to.
Renekton E'ing through a minion to W/Q enemy champion, then E'ing back to safety is both smart play and feels super rewarding, like you've done it right. Ulting on Vayne and then using a stealthed tumble to get in position to condemn someone into a wall is clever and feels amazing. Galio can cast W to get that slight AP boost from his passive, Q to slow the enemy so as to get a guaranteed E, which will allow him to run up and R, but this will never feel as good as that Vayne play or even the simple Renekton trading pattern.
That's my theory anyway. Oh, also Galio's basic attacks are super lame, which is actually a pretty big deal for a melee champion.
Stashu, I played Galio for a while and I highly disagree on the basic attack part.
Galio's auto attack is very satisfying, the sound; the animation and the AD feels like you're giving more pain than when Yi basic attacks something.
5G8Nri0B544 votes2. Repeated nerfs, repeated nerfs to MR runes, repeated nerfs to his itemization.
Nothing screams more fun than never being OP to begin with but still having to face hundreds of nerfs to the face.
zane yalgir1 votes
An R that has literally no built in tools to make usable (Amumu's bandage grab for instance)
2. Repeated nerfs, repeated nerfs to MR runes, repeated nerfs to his itemization.
Nothing screams more fun than never being OP to begin with but still having to face hundreds of nerfs to the face.
sounds like something riot would do
darkdill3 votesEasy to counterpick (Udyr, Leona, Garen, etc.), very hard to get off the ground, poor engage capability for a tank, frequently mana-burns, vulnerable early-game.
That's just to name a few downsides, but ultimately Galio is hugely out-performed by others.
Kowe The Ewok1 votesI disagree with the vulnearable early game, but yea the rest is relatively fittin. It wouldn't keep him from being a viable last pick option though.
darkdill1 votesPersonally, I'm left to wonder whether or not a Galio/Kalista combo could work. Kalista's ultimate would compensate for Galio's lack of engage.
Kowe The Ewok1 votesThe problem here would be that Kalista sacrifices her Support Bond which makes laning extreely difficult.
I'Ve seen support Galios back in S2 though, but he isn't mana efficient enought to do that anymore (imho).
LucidLunatic1 votesI've tried support Galio in S4, and you've hit it on the nose. It's sort of doable, since you have huge damage with your poke, but if you so much as miss a single Q, or if the opposing lane is more than mildly aggressive, you're done for.
Dayblazer3 votesHe a niche pick to shut down mids. Thats pretty much it. People bitch about Fizz like crazy.. you know who craps all over him. Galio.
Avious3 votesI feel like what he needs is a boost to his anti-AP orientation. Currently, he only has a useless passive that converts MR to AP, which could be replaced by adding mr scalings to his abilities. There you are, room for new gameplay without touching his abilities. Now here is the tricky part. His passive must fit his archetype of a flying gargoyle guardian and add new and satisfying gameplay options. Here's what I thought.
(Names subject to change obviously) Guardian's Wrath: Galio stores the magic damage negated by his Magic Resistance. Upon reaching a certain amount of magic damage stored he ascents higher (assault from above?), gains a small movespeed buff (not necessary) and his next ability gains new and powerful effects. The effect ends upon casting an ability or after 20 seconds. Resolute Smite becomes Petrifying Smite: Galio fires a continuous ray of magic from his eyes dealing massive damage over 2,5 seconds to all champions it hits and applying a stacking slow. It has the same AoE circle and same cast range, but is a continuous beam. Galio is allowed to move freely, but the distance between Galio and where the ability is cast is fixed. Kinda like Lucian's ultimate where he can move, but the skillshot is fixed. Deals 100/175/250/325/400 (+70% ap) (+50& mr) maximum damage and slows for 40/50/60/70/80% maximum if a champion stays in the aoe for the whole duration. Invovles a new and satisfying mechanic and involves counterplay. Just imagine Galio firing a huge ground targeted beam while flying high... Priceless and iconic.
Bulwack becomes Sentnel's Bestowal: Target gets a small, but constantly refreshing, shield (think inner turrets) for the duration and is healed for the same amount Galio is healed. Shield absorbs 50/10/150/200/250 (+20% ap) (+50% mr) damage and constantly refreshes and healing paradigm remains the same.
Righteous Gust becomes Reprobating Gust: Galio claps his wings so hard he unleashes a shockwave in a cone. Enemies hit while facing Galio are interrupted (small displacement like Quinn's Vault) and enemies not facing Galio are knocked back slightly. Allies hit get a huge and short speed boost. Damage remains the same cone range similar to Miss Fortune's ultimate and gives +100% movespeed for 1 second.
Idol of Durrant becomes Idol of Judgement Exactly the same effect, but Galio gets a small 400 range gapcloser and slightly knocks people up so that they can't escape even with Tenacity. Basically, not different effect on champions not building Tenacity. Just imagine Galio dropping in a team from sky-high and taunting them without chance of escaping. Galio is now a really unique and fun to play champion with unique and demanding mechanics. For this passive to work he needs retuning in his basic kit and a ton of visual improvements, which he needs anyway. I really hope someone notices this. @RiotStashu @Morello @Ghostcrawler
BeatzBoyFTW2 votes
counters you hard in terms of both AP damage & ult taunt.Kowe The Ewok2 votesOOM: Well that'S why Chalice is a must - and it synergizes well will his passive
As for getting counterpicked: Galio is more like a counterpick by himself.
TheI3igDaddy2 votesHe's a situational counterpick that only works well if you're facing a high AP team. He's good when you need him, but there are a lot of cases when you don't need him and can pick someone else with little comparison.
WARLAG02 votesAbilities:
Passive- Runic Skin: Pretty good but..I rarely need to build MR because I usually just find myself in a situation where all the magic damage comes from the support. Late game I get around a 75AP bonus off of it which is nice actually, but I get that bonus not because I want the magic resist but because my essential items just happen to give me that, along with my base stats, runes, and masteries. I usually don't need the 25MR from 
, but I need its mana regen, I don't need the 25MR on , but I need tenacity and MS, I don't need 
50MR but its passive works great with my ult. Cool I got 3 items that I need, giving me ~200AP and ~120MR (runes/masteries included), I have a decent amount of AP myself I'm basically immune to their support damage. Being supposedly a tank, I have 0 armor or health items so I need those to last a couple of seconds against their AD team.
Getting 
or 
that are great items with Galio that give good passives and health is kind of useless because I don't need more MR so those are a no, 
gives insane armor and CDR but gives no health and its passive works against my ult by reducing attack speed, 
also works against my ult, 
gives decent health and armor and works well with my ult too so I think ill get it. Unfortunately 45 armor won't last long with all the armor penetration out there, a 
will give me insane armor and works good with my ult too, ok. At this point I have ~180armor ~120MR ~2.5k health, ~200AP and with room for 1 more item, I got a decent amount of health, good armor and even though i don't need it good MR so I guess a damage item is in order, maybe a 
to boost my damage. Problem is, my ~120MR is too much for just their support its kind of a waste, ~180armor with ~2.5k health is not amazing and you'll probably get killed fast (even if you bulwark yourself you won't heal as much as you will recieve damage), and your damage will just scratch their tanks because you don't have magic pen (unless you are near them for abyssal scepter to help you a bit, and even then it won't be much), and even though you can hurt their ADC or APC significantly you will have a hard time getting to them with your poor mobility and their CC or making an impact with their probable heals.
Q - Resolute Smite: This one is pretty good, really good slow, damage, and decent CD. I guess people complain about mana cost, more about that later.
W - Bulwark: Again, pretty good, armor/mr steroid to yourself or allies, heals you decently. Kind of contradictory though. What do I mean by that? Supposedly you are a tank, but this ability heals you more with more AP. Makes you wonder, build tank and heal less, or build AP and heal more (not to mention you hurt more)? Hmm.
E - Righteous Gust: This one I believe it could use a few tweaks. Not the best damage unless building AP but that's ok and it gives a pretty good movement speed buff in 1 direction. Unfortunately your movement speed is 380, 400 if with alacrity enchantment, the enemies just out-run you because they have a higher movement speed than that and because probably they can jump/dash away or long range CC you. The times when I find this the most useful is when chasing down an enemy that survived in a teamfight or when you want to run away, and even when you want to run away the short cast time it has is usually enough for the enemy to CC you and therefore, you are dead.
A slight tweak I've thought of is, if the wind is strong enough to push your allies forward, shouldn't it be strong enough to push your enemies back? It only makes sense to slow enemies down when walking in the opposite direction of the wind. Anyways, that's just a thought. (and just to make sure, I'm not making it my idea, there has probably been other people that have said this that I'm not aware of.)
R - Idol of Durand: A pretty good ult that could CC the whole team. Yes, it's kind of lame when the enemies have tenacity and possibly flash away before they take your damage (if they don't have flash and try to walk away you can sacrifice your last .seconds of channeling and move to interrupt your ult before they get out of range, if you really want them to take your damage) and also really unfortunate when you decide to press R and let's say, Janna, decides to press R right before she gets taunted, cancelling immediately your ult (they still get damage though, just not the CC..which is kind of what matters mostly). But hey, you can't really complain about that, otherwise then make Katarina's ult unstoppable too for example, that wouldn't be nice right?
Laning phase/Late game
People complain that Galio has trouble early game because of his lack of mana regen and the fact that he is melee which can cause farming and getting poked troublesome, which is true, lvl 3 cast your 3 abilities in a row to kite away from a gank for example and you are left with 1/2 mana that won't be regenerating soon, and you probably can't rely on your melee autoattacks to do most of the job when trading and you are exposed to getting poked when farming. But even if it's true, your abilities hit quite strong early game, the lack of regen before chalice and your farming is what you must manage and overcome, personally, I feel his mana manageable and farming not so hard.
Supposedly you are a tank, but If you go tank, your hard-to-land abilities will significantly hurt their carries, and just scratch their tanks, your 2 autoattacks every 3 seconds will be beyond laughable because they are slow, a bit weak, and even weaker because you won't have armor penetration, IMO it's not so impactful as other tanks can be.
It feels way more impactful building AP, but it kind of still lacks consistency, I normally have 25% CDR, and casting your 3 abilities in a row leaves you with a 5 second useless before you can cast another Q and after that another 3 seconds standing there waiting for your W and E to come up. Your ult will be hard to use at its maximum unless you have your flash available to burn it up to get a hopefully uninterrupted 3-or-more-man ult almost deleting their carries, if they survived, you better zhonyas and pray to get saved during those 2 seconds or be able to walk away to continue to deal damage from afar.
Long story short:
Phew, long 1st post haha. I like him how he is but he could surely use a couple of tweaks. Anyways those are my thoughts and I guess they could be debateable too, hope they helped though, have a good day.
Pryotra1 votesHonestly? Mana. He consumes it, and there just isn't good early mana regen choices anymore.
Back when he was made, their was an entirely diffferent item for mana regen called the Meki Pendant iirc. It gave more regen than fairy charm.
Honestly, The level of mana regen and mana he needs requires him to rush chalice, and even then he has problems. But that isn't his only problem
Merc treds still hard counter his ult. He is the only champion that has his R hard countered by an item that literally all champions have the option of putting in their builds and not disrupt their build or playstyle too significantly.
Those two things really need to change to some degree. Note that I am not asking for his manacosts to disappear or become immune to tenacity, but something to help those two huge situations.
Michicha1 votesThe main reason he has high mana costs (Which were lowered some patches ago) is because of the high utility his abilities offer. A high damage AOE strong slow? Needs a high mana cost. An AOE long lasting speedboost that does AOE damage? High Mana cost. A shield thats gives a fairly large portion of defenses and heal you for a LOT? High mana cost. A long duration AOE taunt with damage? Yep. He needs to have some more power moved around and have more visible power. Then they can lower his mana costs or make his abilities feel better.
On Merc treads, the fact being you made the enemy ADC or AP Mid take Merc Treads over Berserkers, Sorcerers, or Lucidity Boots is a huge advantage that people seem to forget. Firstly, It makes the said carries lose damage output, which is a benefit to your entire team. Second, you set the carries behind due to those Merc treads costing a fair amount more than other boots in the store. I feel like Merc Treads isn't a huge issue against Galio, and offers necessary counterplay against things like the flash ult.
Pryotra1 votesyeah, but going out of mana after 3 q's is kinda insane. It doesn't do that much damage early, nor is it big nor does it slow for that much. Make them ramp up in costs, not and arm and a leg at lvl 1. I get they are worth it, but they simply aren't in the early stages of the game.
As for Mercs, the thing is that they still benefit from those boots. OH NO, they have to buy boots that are a decent choice for carries anyways to negate an ult. It's not even like they need to adjust the build. Heck, it can actually open a build up in the case of Ionian boots.
GG Beers1 votesHe's incredibly boring and clunky to play, same reason Anivia isn't as popular as she should be.
Khristophoros1 votesHe's incredibly boring and clunky to play, same reason Anivia isn't as popular as she should be.
I enjoy both of these champs but I don't feel like they can win me games, so I don't play them. Well that's changing with Galio. I had a great game with him and Righteous Glory seems to be a big buff to him.
Anivia has a lot of trouble because a lot of champions can dive her even with her passive. I get too frustrated with her due to the meta, despite enjoying her kit.
It honestly comes down to viability. Riot likes to tell us that champions aren't popular because of low satisfaction but look what happened after they remade Trundle and Sejuani. They remained obscure because they weren't buffed enough. The exception being Sejuani for one patch until she was nerfed, proving that her popularity depends on viability.
Gyges Skyeye1 votesI really have enjoyed playing Galio every time I've gotten him on ARAM, on Summoners Rift, not so much. My feelings of lack of satisfaction playing him on Summoners Rift I believe come from his utter lack of instant mobility. Galio's ultimate threat is so immense and so universally respected that people -actually- move away from Galio. When playing Galio your not fooling anyone when you start running straight up towards them. If your 
is down, then your Ultimate is effectively down. That isn't very satisfying. On the ARAM map the mobility of course isn't that big a deal where everyone is channeled together. But I'd hazard a guess that people would rather Galio be functional on SR.
To this end I'm going to postulate that right now Galio is in the same stage as Maokai was before a few tweaks sent him to god-tier pick-ban level in the top lane. If we could give Galio a repositioning tool (more abrupt than just the movement speed on E) through combo'ing his abilities I feel that he will much more widely usable and satisfying champion. Thankfully there are some simple mechanics in game players are familiar with that we can lend to Galio. I think Galio would play wonderfully with a E+Q combo ala 
(the knockup can be cut as Galio doesn't need that in his power budget.). Galio's E creates a telegraphed zone of threat that enemies can avoid. If Galio's Q lands on his E it does some bonus damage and Galio swoops in with an 
like animation. Galio can now dive in to an enemy team to taunt or jump to his backline to peel with his ultimate instead. A simple change like this end should increase Galio's reliability without adding untold damage or CC to his power budget.
Thoughts?
Sirsir1 votesHe is a mage counter in an AD heavy environment. I see full AD teams all the time, but I can't recall the last time I've seen a team with more than 2 magic damage dealers (I think it was when annie support was a big thing...)
Havik2231 votesI love Galio just the way he is. Sure he doesn't have Yasuo-level ability synergies, but I like all his abilities and what they can do.
His Q poke is a little bit tough to land but does enough damage that it feels rewarding. His E is great for chasing through jungle and helping your team get to objectives. His W might be the best ability in the game. No, I'm not joking, level it and you cannot die unless you have wounds on you. Not to mention it does wonders to keep carries alive. And with the new R buff I'd say he's stronger than ever.
Do not touch Galio, I love him too much.