i think GP only needs some minor tweaks to make him actually viable in ranked.
the BIGGEST problem with him is that he has SOOOOO many counters that, even playing blind picked, if you top lane GP, there is probably a 60-70% chance that whoever you lane against will be a counter to you.
While, because i don't fully understand all the mechanics of the game, the only things i can say about GP that should be changed are things revolving around his abilities, mostly regarding the casting times.
First i will state the problems i have noticed, and then at the end i will state what i believe would be acceptable rectifications to these problems.
The first problem being the fact that GP has to actually STOP moving for about a half a second to fire off his Q. while this may not seem like a big deal to most people, it is. Having to stop to fire off his Q effectively negates the slow that gets applied by his passive to the enemy that gets hit. it doesn't matter how slow the enemy is moving if you are still within the range of their abilities, such as darius's pull (which i believe has the same range as GP's Parrrly, so even using it on darius is a moot point).
The second problem: Oranges. i cant think of anyone i know that isnt capable of peeling and eating an orange while walking or running. you run with your feet, and you feel/eat the orange with your hands and mouth. having to stop moving while running away from an enemy just to remove a slow or a stun, is just like spending all your savings to buy a high tech safe to store your savings in. it defeats its own purpose. sure, some of you may say "But GP's oranges are meant to heal more than anything" and you would be partially right, except for the fact that unless you are building AP on him, the heal is rather minor, and lets be honest....im willing to bet the majority of people use GP's oranges as a CC removal more often than to heal. The amount of mana that oranges use is rather high for the amount of health they heal.
Problem three.
Raise moral. while this is without a doubt the smallest of the 3 problems i have found, it is still an annoyance. the amount of speed boost/ attack bonus given by raise moral is so small that when you compare the benefits of using it to the amount of mana it takes and the fact that you must stop moving to cast it, raise moral pretty much becomes a waste of a spell until mid-late game where team fights occur.
Now on to what i believe would be solutions to these 3 problems
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completely remove the need to stop moving to cast Parrrly, increase the magnitude of the slow that is applied by GP's passive, Lower the casting cost of Parrly or Increase the range at which GP can fire his Parrly off. Any one of those changes would greatly effect the playability of GP
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Either increase the amount GP is healed by his oranges or lower the mana cost of eating them. but regardless of which you choose, you need to remove the fact that you need to stop moving to eat the oranges.
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either increase the damage/ speed boost given from raise moral, increase the range of its effect so you can be farther from allies and still be able to give them the boost, or just reduce its mana cost.
Over all, GP could use with a across the grid mana cost reduction for his abilities, or just an increase to their effectiveness.
and please, i cant say it enough, PLEASE DONT MAKE ME HAVE TO STOP MOVING TO EAT AN ORANGE, I BEG YOU!
Please Riot, please at least give this some thought and possibly just give it a try in whatever private beta you use to test this.
