{Champion Rework Concept} Galio - Recreating the Gargoyle

[[EDIT: ADDED A REWORKED VERSION OF MY KIT BELOW IN THIS POST]]

After posting a thread about this in Gameplay&Balance I got some mixed replies about if and how Galio should be reworked. Actually I wanted to drop the topic, but then I got some awesome ideas that could actually work. Beware: this is something that could be compared to Sion in terms of scale – mostly because there isn't much to save in his old kit.

((Also: Blah, I allow everyone including Riot to use these ideas, blah blah...))

So, first things first. WHO are we even talking about?

I think for a starter I should post the current Lore in here:

Long before the League's regulation of such magic, mages experimented with the creation of artificial life. Now forbidden, instilling golems with reason was once not so uncommon a practice amongst the more expert of craftsmen. One such visionary was the Demacian artificer, Durand. Peerless at crafting sentient beings, Durand's constructs served as tireless guardians for the border towns of his beloved city-state, affording them protection from their Noxian neighbors. For his own defense, however, Durand kept his magnum opus: Galio. This mighty construct - forged in the image of a gargoyle - kept him safe on his journeys, allowing him to perform his important work without fear of reprisal from those hostile to his homeland. That is, until dealing with his taxing sentinels finally roused the ire of the Noxian High Command. As Durand crossed the Howling Marsh with his masterwork in tow, he was set upon by Noxian assassins in force. Outnumbered and overwhelmed, Galio looked on in horror as the murderers cut down his charge, executing him swiftly before vanishing back into the mists. Stripped of his reason for being, Galio despaired. For years he remained in solitude, standing vigil over the bones of the master he had failed to protect... a literal monument to his own everlasting shame. Then, one nondescript day, a sad but determined yordle girl carrying a mighty Demacian crown stopped in the shadow of a great statue to rest. Hidden in plain sight from his unsuspecting visitor, Galio studied the forlorn yordle. She looked as though she too shouldered a tremendous burden. As quietly and as stoically as she had arrived, she departed in the direction of Demacia. This encounter lit a spark in Galio's eye. Remembering the cause that his master had died defending, Galio arose from his silent purgatory and followed in the wake of this brave creature. He had a new reason to live: to join the League of Legends and fight for the will of Demacia.

Okay, while this doesn't tell us much, it DOES tell us the bits we need to fully understand the theme of this character. Let's also just ignore the fact that the institute is stated here.

• Demacia Now this isn't much important for gameplay, but gives us some room for speculation about his character and visual design.
• Protector Here we come close to what his job ingame should be: he's a defensive construct in shape of a gargoyle. So he should be a) able to protect his team somehow and b.)be a force that is hard to battle since he lacks human weaknesses like pain or exhaustion. Also rock hard.
• Gargoyle Specification of his theme. So... let's think about it... what IS a gargoyle? A statue in form of a demon sitting on a bridge a house or a tower... wait sitting on towers... sounds like an interesting idea, no?

OK, now from the gameplay perspective since most people will know that one more than his actual story:

A MR-Tank-Mage-Bruiser-Something-Something, with small AOE slow, a defense steroid that can be used offensively since it rises MR while also useful for the team at some times, the probably weakest mobility tool ever, especially measured by today's standarts, and a ult that forces the enemy team to focus him (and that get's stronger the harder he's focused up to a cap).

Also he's a melee champ that get's no advantage from actually coming close to the enemy (unless that once in a blue moon time you want to ult).

To make it short: he's the dude who crashes into the fight like a massive sack of (stone-)potatoes and draws the enemy’s' attention away from his team and onto himself - but he's no pure tank either.

Now let's see how much of that I can save into the new kit I'm going to propose right here.

To explain what I was thinking when writing this: I'm thinking of turning Galio more into a melee AP -Fighter/Tank, since, let's be honest, these massive stone fists must have another use than to just tickle the enemy! MR will still be very efficient on him since Abyssal is one of the items you might want to grab with this kit.

Also, I don't think his theme is made for an actual mage. He is, as stated before, a protector and guardian. He doesn't have poke battles with the enemy backline. He waits watchfully until someone tries to mess his teammates and then comes crushing down on the poor fool who tried that. In that way he is basicially the opposite of Sion (which makes sense, since Sion is the noxian version of an inhuman war machine – because that's what Galio actually is. The only difference to Sion is a higher level of sentinence and the missing bloodlust, mostly because Galio was created to protect, Sion to rip out the enemy's heart with his bare hands and break every single bone that poor guy owns.)

Okay, let's get started then: the current passive gets completely scrapped. Massive hidden power, low interaction and the reason Galio is such a pain-in-the-ass to play against for AP champions. Oh, he went ahead and bought superior defense? He now has offense powers stronger than you too! Isn't that great? That awesome feeling of knowing you won't be able to do shit for the entire lane phase?

Also it limits Galio to building the same items every single game since MR itemization isn't really known for being great in variation and basically completely negated by MagicPen (Hello there, Void Staff!).

As a new passive I would propose a mechanic that doesn't exist in that form until now, yet perfectly fits into his gargoyle theme:

PASSIVE: Watchful Guardian

“After X seconds of not being in combat Galio can climb on a tower or a piece of terrain. While he loses his ability to move or auto-attack his vision increases DRASTICALLY, even granting true sight while he is stationary. The true sight buff remains for X seconds after he has left the position. His resistances in this mode are massively increased, as well as his Mana and Health regeneration (although their increase isn't that massive).”

Wtf? - yepp, I know what you are thinking, but that's not all since I intend to make this passive work with his other abilities first of all:

Q: Assault from Above:

“After a very short channel (“jumping off”) Galio flies towards a target area, damaging all enemies on impact while getting a temporary attack speed boost.

When used out of the passive state, this skills speed, damage, and range are increased, allowing Galio to dash drastically increased distances when starting of a tower or terrain.

If skill is activated from the passive and Galio has not received or dealt any damage after X seconds, he might reactivate it to fly back to his starting point. Getting damaged mid air cancels the flight.”

W:Rock Hard: “Galio spreads his wings, becoming a living barrier for his team while his armor and magic resistance increase massively. He also blocks projectiles and gets the damage they would deal. Activating this ability will temporary reduce his attack and movement speed.”

If used during Assault from above, Galio shoves every enemy in his path to the targeted area – or crashes with them into the first wall that crosses their path, dealing bonus damage and stunning them.”

A defense mechanism that can be used offensively AND that is good for the team sometimes. I think this is a bit more fun to use than just his old stat-shield with a heal.

E:Getting Stoned

“Galio slams into the ground in an area close to him, causing damage in a small area, stunning enemies for X time and slowing those that are not directly hit.”

This ability has a lower range than his current Q, but is also stronger and fulfills the same purpose to create sticking power.

R:Durand's Pride

“After a short channel Galio uses the full power of his artificial body to dive up, creating such a powerful upwind that enemies are drawn to the position where he jumped up. After a short delay(1,5-2 sec I'd say) he causes a massive explosion in the target area and lands where he took off.

After using this ability his stats are debuffed for some time. (Another possibility would be – "depletes his entire Mana apart from X%" -The idea behind that is that his super move drains a lot of power)”

I didn't want to turn Galio into a full melee brawler without any magical abilties. The explosion is pretty much a massive version of his current Q, but a effect similar to Diana's Moonfall happens before that. This skill basically combines the two magical elements he had before in his kit: the wind from E and the power to shoot explosions from his eyes (Q). I recommend making this spell an AoE execute

So, how does the ideal play pattern look like? First of all, you sit somewhere close, watching how the teams move. If someone tries to mess with your team, you dash right in, if needed use the W and then beat the living crap out of whoever DARED to mess with your squishy teammates. To finish stun your enemy with E (to get over the channel time) and activate your ult. (Note: they might still be able to dash out since there is a short moment in between the Diana-E-like effect and the damage that follows.) This combo can also be used to initiate if your enemy team feels like it's awesome to group too much in one spot. Since using it for the start is not as effective (since it's intended as an execute), the CC (a “draw in”) is enough to keep your enemy team from going after your own mates, just like the Galio ult is currently working.

Now, why is there a delay in between the draw-in and the damage? Well, first of all, to allow the enemy to react, second... you know that moment from movies or games when nothing happens, but you exactly know that only one moment later shit will hit the fan? That short delay is for creating exact that feeling, that will make your enemy think: “OH FUC-” (explosion noise).

This ultimate is intended as a massive, overly flashy, needlessly oversized and morally questionable over-killing execute. Using it at the start of a team fight might help your team greatly, but the price for that is high. Your decision how you want to use it.

In the end, some extra bits for the passive I forgot to mention above: it HAS a short cooldown and can only be used out of combat. It's use is not intended for climbing up on one side of a wall and then jumping down on the other side. Also getting up into the passive takes some time as well.

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VERSION 2.0 OF THE KIT; REWORKED AFTER RECIEVING FEEDBACK HERE:

PASSIVE: Watchful Guardian “After X seconds of not being in combat Galio can climb on a tower or a piece of terrain. While he loses his ability to move or auto-attack his vision increases DRASTICALLY, even granting true sight while he is stationary. The true sight buff remains for X seconds after he has left the position. His resistances in this mode are massively increased, as well as his Mana and Health regeneration (although their increase isn't that massive).”

Q: Getting Stoned

“Galio causes a magical explosion in a target area, marking enemies as “stoned” basic attacks on enemies will consume the mark and cause the enemy to be stunned after X basic attacks. Galio's basic attacks deal bonus magic damage and reduce the cooldown of this ability.”

Watchful Guardian: While sitting on a tower or terrain this ability deals bonus damage to minions, but has a higher cooldown and mana cost.

W: Rock Hard:

“Galio spreads his wings, becoming a living barrier for his team while his armor and magic resistance increase massively. He also blocks projectiles and gets the damage they would deal. Activating this ability will temporary reduce his attack and movement speed.” If used during Assault from above, Galio shoves every enemy in his path to the targeted area – or crashes with them into the first wall that crosses their path, dealing bonus damage and stunning them.”

Watchful Guardian (Passive) Galio protects the towers he sits on, taking part of the damage the tower would take. After taking X damage in X time Galio is forcefully removed from his turret.

E: Assault from Above

“After a very short channel (“jumping off”) Galio flies towards a target area, damaging all enemies on impact while getting a temporary attack speed boost.

Watchful Guardian: While sitting on a tower or terrain this spell's damage, cast speed, AS-Buff and CAST RANGE are drastically increased. Also the cooldown is reduced.

** R:Durand's Pride**

“After a short channel Galio uses the full power of his artificial body to dive up, creating such a powerful upwind that enemies are drawn to the position where he jumped up. After a short delay(1,5-2 sec I'd say) he causes a massive explosion in the target area and lands where he took off. After using this ability Galio loses all his mana apart from X% of his Maximum Mana”

Possible usages for his ultimate: a) execute (missing health damage, mana penality not as important) or b)tieing the damage to the Mana used, making the skill a initiate.

Extra Note 1: You can't see into brush while being in passive state, even with true sight and increased vision.

Extra Note 2: the Q's range in this kit is estimated to be short ranged, aka distance tower-to-caster-minion

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I'll be glad to hear your opinion on this! And not just "Muh he's ok now, he needs no rework!". I want to hear your thoughts on this very concept!

Also, if you have some trouble understanding how he could "drag along" enemies while using Q and W at the same time... here, have a visual representation attached to this post... I love manga! You can find a picture for EVERYTHING, now matter how weird or fucked up it is xD