New Galio and the future of Champion updates
With the reveal of the updated Galio I've seen a lot of reactions to it. I've seen people that love it and people that hate it, so I'm not sure what the general consensus about it is. For those that like new Galio I don't want to shoot you down. I know there's always a group that dislikes reworked champs and I must say I think this is the first update I dislike, and honestly I kind of hate it. Maybe it'll grow on me but that's not really my point with all this. My point is this-
Riot's update team is getting into some dangerous territory for future reworks.
Personally I've always been a fan of reworks.
I think the majority would agree Sion's rework was a huge success. Old Sion's kit was a complete mess and personally I thought his design was pretty ugly.
Poppy also had some gameplay issues and I think her new look is more appealing than her old one.
Honestly they could've ruined his kit and I might have been okay with it simply because his visual update was completely amazing.
But the thing these reworks had in common is that these champs didn't really have a lot worth keeping. Sion's old kit made no sense whatsoever and I'm not sure anyone really cared to see his visuals go. Poppy sorta kept her theme but her kit had some glaring issues. Taric simply wasn't beautiful enough so that needed to be fixed.
http://ddragon.leagueoflegends.com/cdn/img/champion/splash/Galio_0.jpg
But then we get to Galio, and here is the start of Riot's potential problems. Again if you like new Galio then that's fine, but I always thought old Galio had one of the coolest designs in league. I didn't play him much simply because I'm not a big fan of mage champs and he was admittedly a bit outdated. He also had a pretty unique playstyle that I don't think any other champ matched - a bulky mage that benefits from being in the middle of the fight. I also loved his voice and personality of a calm but righteous guardian. The only real issue I had with him is that he was showing his age, and that's what I was hoping his rework would do. And with that issue I bring up my question for Riot...
How does Riot plan to do big updates to champs that need small changes?
Most of Riot's updates so far have dealt with complete messes with outdated kits, art and pretty much everything else. But Riot is running out of the biggest offenders and I doubt they plan on slowing down with these updates. But now they're getting to the point where they have to deal with champions that are simply showing their age. So how does a team that's been dealing with huge updates adapt to champs that simply don't need a full overhaul?
That's where Warwick comes in. This update is what gave me hope for future updates and what gave me hope for Galio's update. The great thing about Warwick's update is that it barely changed him. He's still a werewolf (Riot would've had to try really hard to mess up his visuals) and if you look at his kit pretty much all of his skills are just modernized versions of his old skills (except his new E). Personally I think this is how most future reworks should look like. Keeping what works and losing what doesn't, and we're getting to the point where upcoming updates should have more stuff worth keeping.
But that's not the case with Galio. His new look doesn't look at all like old Galio outside of the fact that he's still a gargoyle - and even that's a stretch without the bat wings. From the trailer it seems his mage playstyle might be replaced with yet another tank (and no, ap scaling won't make him a mage). He doesn't even fly around anymore, he walks around more like a statue than a gargoyle. His personality looks like he's a cocky superhero that's looking to jump in and save the day and show off while doing it, as opposed to old Galio who was more of a silent protector.
If it turns out people like this Galio better then I guess that's just a shame for those of us that liked the old one. But my biggest request is that in the future Riot looks at coming reworks like they looked at Warwick - improve, don't replace.
