The Real Reason Old Gangplank was Stronger (All about the Gold, baby)

So this whole Gangplank rework...

I've been maining him all season up until now. His new rework isn't bad, and maybe to most people, he's stronger overall because of the linear thought that most players have between damage/kills = stronger. I see this a lot when I lurk the boards. The other important note is Riot actually talks about "hidden" or "passive" strength, which old Gangplank had a lot of.

The problem is, that old hidden strength fit him as a character. He's a pirate, help him work behind the scenes to plunder his enemies!

Let me explain:

Old passive - DoT (meh), but more importantly a slow. It's wasn't a lot, but it was more than most people expected and helped your whole team, be it in ganks or in teamfights by making that opposing player just a little less mobile. League is inherently a game is milliseconds and inches, so every little bit helped.

**Old Q **- Applied the DoT and (more importantly) the slow from his passive. This was HUGE for helping secure cleanups. Again, every little bit helped.

By changing the passive to now be a personal speed boost, he lost the utility he had from helping his team secure targets with the slow. Similarly, changing his Q to no longer proc that passive hits him hard in the chase game, as he can no longer speed from range.

These two PALE in comparison to the loss of his E, which was one of the most underrated skills in the game. Now, let me be frank here, it's passive effect was nice, but nothing to write home about. Even it's active was solid, but nothing crazy from a power standpoint. It's real , underappriciated strength was it's ability to rack up assists. More assists = more gold.

PIRATES ARE ALL ABOUT THAT BOOTY.

Seriously, that was Gangplank's greatest power, his ability to rack up gold. Behind in lane? Ult and E for $$$. Ahead in lane? Ult and E for $$$$. Add in Q for more $$$ and by midgame you were making Floyd Mayweather seem poor. The ability in a teamfight to get an assist just by having an ally kill an enemy was huge, and it's what helped him scale strongly into mid and late game. And, it fit the character. What do pirates want? Gold. When do they want it? All the time.

Now, he just pulls a barrel out of thin air that deals the same damage as his auto, or maybe a bit more if you chain them. Sure, it slows too, but it's a ridiculously complex process for unreliable damage and slow as his opponents can cancel it just as easily as he can initiate it. We traded reliable gold production and teamfight strength for an ability that doesn't help him at all in the world of dashes and flashes, which was most people's big complaint anyway.

New ult? Eh, doesn't feel that different but overall I think it's a change for the better.

Now, I'll admit I'm not a great player, or a super highly ranked player, nor do I have thousands and thousands of games with one champion...but I do have a 60% win rate with the plank and loved his old kit very, very dearly. Now, he feels like another lifeless brawler who has added complexity and unreliable damage and is poorer than Detroit in a recession.

Maybe I'm wrong, and I get the vision that Riot was going with because it's true, he DID have a ton of hidden strength, but it was primarily a misunderstanding of how to use that strength that caused his lower winrate and general lack of success (IMO).

Rest in peace me 'hearty!

TL;DR - New Gangplank can't make $$$ rain like old GP did.