Galio
In the first half of Season 6, Galio was one of the most chosen units in Teamfight Tactics due to its terrifying versatility. With a Giant champion type and the Guardian trait, Galio at 1-star level was already an incredibly strong tank without holding any tank items. There was even a time when players exploited this to equip a series of crit items for Galio, taking advantage of its high base AD and the wide crowd control effect it offered.
However, as we moved into Season 5, various disadvantages emerged, causing Galio to be increasingly “overlooked” by players. First, Riot directly nerfed the appearance rate of 5-cost champions at level 8. Next, the reroll meta that swept through the last two patches of Season 6.5 diminished the value of 5-cost champions that did not provide explosive damage at 1-star. Therefore, even though Galio’s power has not been reduced for a long time, it still only has a pick rate of 5.4%.
Ashe
Once an extremely strong champion in the early stages of patch 12.5, after being nerfed by Riot with a 10 AD reduction in update 12.5b, Ashe’s pick rate has dropped to just 4.8%. Of course, this “overlook” also stems from the heavy nerfs to the Gang composition, both in terms of trait effects and other units. However, Ashe herself has quite a few weaknesses, so when she is not part of a dominating team composition, very few players will use her.
Essentially, Ashe does not have any skills or passives that enhance her attack damage. Therefore, the damage dealt by Ashe will completely depend on her items and the marksman thresholds. Clearly, when comparing, with the same amount of items and gold spent, players will often lean towards stable 4-cost 2-star carries like Irelia or Jhin instead of rolling for a 3-star Ashe, which is too much of a risk. As a result, Ashe’s pick rate has continuously decreased since patch 12.5b.
Nocturne
It’s not an exaggeration to say that Nocturne is one of the best early game tanks due to its good base damage and ability to fear enemy carries. At levels 4-5, Nocturne’s skill is extremely strong in preventing a significant source of damage from the enemy team. Not to stop there, Nocturne is also a good piece to hold both physical and magical damage items, making it easy to “pivot” your strategy.
However, this very factor also leads to Nocturne having a very poor power scaling in later stages, meaning this unit rarely appears in meta compositions. As a result, Nocturne’s current pick rate is only 3%, an extremely low figure at this time. Perhaps if Riot changes Nocturne’s skills to interact with crit capabilities, this unit would not be so “ignored”. However, that has not happened, and Nocturne remains just a unit for early game tanking.