Patch 8.24 breakdown: a bad Dark Harvest and colossal Galio changes

Galio

"Q – Winds of War COST: 70/85/100/115/130 mana ⇒ 70/75/80/85/90 mana WIND BLAST DAMAGE: 50/80/110/140/170 (+0.8 ability power) ⇒70/110/150/190/230 (+0.9 ability power) [REMOVED] FLAT TORNADO DAMAGE: Tornado no longer deals 30/40/50/60/70 (+0.6 ability power) flat damage MAX HEALTH TORNADO DAMAGE: 0 (+3% per 100 ability power) target’s max health ⇒ 6 (+4% per 100 ability power) target’s max health E – Justice Punch WINDUP BEFORE FORWARD DASH: 0.45 seconds ⇒ 0.4 seconds DASH SPEED: 1900 ⇒ 2300 [NEW] AIMED TOO HIGH:Now deals 50% reduced damage to non-champions R – Hero’s Entrance [REMOVED] DAMAGE REDUCTION: The targeted ally no longer gains 20/25/30% (+8% per 100 Galio’s bonus magic resist) damage reduction [REMOVED] GROUND ZERO: Enemies in the center are no longer knocked up longer (now 0.75 second knockup for all enemies hit)"

Lot of changes to dissect here, as Riot attempts to make the ultimate competitive champion more forgiving for soloQ. Let’s take it one step at a time.

The Q mana changes are pretty insignificant. Although you max it first, you’re only getting a 20 mana decrease at third rank when you should have some mana item to keep you from going OOM (either Lost Chapter or Catalyst).

The change to the damage is interesting, as making it all based on the target’s max HP and AP means Galio won’t be able to shove waves as quickly early with low AP and low health minions. However, this will make him significantly better into tanks later and could make top Galio more viable when combined with his ultimate.

The E changes seem very quality of life, making his windup lower and dash quicker will make the ability easier to hit. The reduced damage to non-champions makes sense given the Q changes, signaling Riot doesn’t want him to just be a constantly shoving gargoyle.

Finally, the R changes are certainly bigger for competitive play than soloQ. Taking away the damage reduction for allies he targets makes this ability less appealing as a defensive/counter-engage tool. The fact that all enemies are knocked up the same amount makes it more forgiving as an engage tool. Top lane Galio might become more prominent, as there will be more benefits to using your ult to engage mid (similar to Pantheon ult).

Heimerdinger

"Q – H-28G Evolution Turret COOLDOWN REDUCTION: Turret beam attack cooldown now actually scales with cooldown reduction TOOLTIP: Turret stats have been moved into the expanded tooltip (hold SHIFT). Expanded tooltip now indicates that turret health scales off Heimerdinger’s ability power. W – Hextech Micro-Rockets TOOLTIP: Now states the actual damage rockets deal to minions instead of “60%” (which was lower than actual damage dealt due to additional AP scaling) UPGRADE!!!’d W – Hextech Rocket Swarm MAX DAMAGE: 499/687/862 (+1.83 ability power) ⇒ 503/697.5/892 (+1.83 ability power) MISSILE 1 DAMAGE: 135/180/225 (+0.45 ability power) (unchanged) MISSILE 2,3,4,5 DAMAGE: 28/39/49 (+0.12 ability power) ⇒ 32/45/58 (+0.12 ability power) MISSILE 6-20 DAMAGE: 16.8/23.4/29.4 (+0.06 ability power) ⇒ 16/22.5/29 (+0.06 ability power)"

A couple of bug fixes to his abilities that are overall buffs. His Q will be up more often late game with CDR now applying to them. The rockets on W will deal more damage to minions, and base damage on his upgraded rockets do more except for the sixth missile and beyond. Basically, that means even if you get out of the way of those last rockets, you’ll take more damage than you did previously. Dongers are up.