Galio might become a burst mage in the next patch

Galio may be all over the professional scene, but his solo queue performance is absolutely abysmal.

That’s why Riot might be boosting the AP ratio on almost all of his damaging abilities while simultaneously nerfing his tankiness and utility in the next patch, according to the most recent PBE update.

His solo queue winrate is a horrid 46 percent, according to League of Legends stats site OP.gg. His mid lane winrate is slightly better, sitting at almost 47 percent, but it’s still not great. This is a far cry from the absolutely absurd 83 percent winrate he has at Worlds so far, according to Mobalytics.

His dominance in professional play comes from the very obvious utility of his ultimate ability and AoE taunt, but his solo lane pressure is significantly weaker thanks to low damage numbers. This has resulted in the rare circumstance in which a champion is too strong on the pro stage but too weak in amateur games, so Riot has to figure out a way to boost his solo queue performance without also boosting his pro impact even further.

To help his poor laning performance, his damage is being increased—a lot. The AP ratio on his Q, passive, E, and R are all being significantly buffed. His passive’s AP scaling is going up from 40 percent to 70, his Q is going up from 75 percent to 90, his E is increasing from 70 percent to 90, and his ultimate will now scale with 85 percent of his AP, up from 70.

Needless to say, Galio’s AP damage is going to be ludicrous. Rushing a Rod of Ages and building defensive AP items like Zhonya’s Hourglass and Banshee’s Veil will give Galio so much damage, you might mistake him for an assassin.

With just those three items, he’s able to maintain decent tankiness while also dishing out bursts of damage of 1,500 and higher.

To compensate for these massive buffs the knockout potency on his ultimate is being reduced—and so is the damage reduction on his taunt. His taunt’s damage reduction percentage will now have an additional AP ratio, meaning building those AP items will inadvertently help his tankiness as well.

These many changes to Galio’s kit should arrive with next week’s patch.