Let's talk about Gangplank

Let's dive right in. The current state of Gangplank may be the most overloaded/overpowered/broken champion in the history of the game. (Which is really saying something)

I'm sure people will instantly be like "No, he's perfectly balanced", "He has clear and definite weaknesses", "He has counters", etc. However, this really isn't the case at all as I will attempt to illustrate. So please read the entire post before replying.

Let's go thru his kit. His passive is a DoT TRUE DAMAGE ability that has a 100% AD ratio, grants GP 30% bonus movement speed, has it's CD renewed by his barrels, and also works on towers (at a 50% rate). We are just on his passive and can already see the overloaded OPness. True damage with a 100% ratio is ridiculous to begin with by itself but then it's up pretty much constantly due to the barrels renewing it, then you add in the MS bonus which is totally unnecessary since he already gets a MS boost from his barrels. This is arguably the best passive in the game.

His Q, Parrrley, is his ranged poke. It let's him apply on-hit effects and can also crit. So this is a very strong ability already. But wait, there's more! If it kills anything by itself or used with the barrels, it give GP bonus gold and serpents. ANY ability in the game that gives you extra gold is incredibly strong. It allows the player to basically suck in the laning phase and still keep up with the opponent. So this is definitely one of the strongest abilities in the game since it allows a melee champ to trade in lane and not have to worry about falling behind in gold generation. So if he even goes close to even in lane, he's won lane.

His W, Remove Scurvy, removes ALL CC in the game. This alone makes it one of the strongest abilities in the game, including ultimates. But wait, just like every other ability he has, there's more to it. He also gets a heal on top of it all that has a .9 AP ratio AND 15% of his missing health. Once again, one of the strongest abilities in the entire game that completely removes counterplay from any champion that relies on CC to win.

His E, Powder Keg, is arguably the strongest ability in the entire game including ults. It is an AoE damage ability that has NO COST other than a charge of the ability. It ignores 40%(!) of the target's armor AND slows them up to 80% for 2 seconds AND speeds up GP. This ability is pure cancer. I'm sure you hear people say "There's plenty of counterplay, you just have to set off the barrel before GP". However, once the timer gets low enough as the game goes on, this is practically impossible. He can put the first barrel where you either can't reach it in time or where you can't even target it (in a bush). If this wasn't bad enough, he can Ghost Barrel you. If you don't know what that is, look it up and see it in action. There is literally zero counterplay to it, not even pros can do anything about it. And if this wasn't bad enough, GP can buy a Last Whisper and the damage is basically true damage. Let that sink in.

Finally, we get to his ult Cannon Barrage. A global ability with a large area of effect. It does magic damage, so it makes it even harder to itemize against GP. It also slows enemies (yet another CC in his kit) and has a 120% AP ratio! That's one of the highest in the game. But, just like everything else in his kit, there's way more! He can upgrade his ult with the Silver Serpents he earns during the game. This allows him to do some more true damage, slow enemies even more, increase allies MS, and increase the damage 50% over the duration. Global ults are incredibly strong just by their nature, but when you add in all of this, it once again gets into the "What the hell were you thinking Rito" realm.

You can see when it's all laid out, GP's kit is probably the most overloaded and overpowered in the history of the game. This is why he is such a broken champ right now. Yeah, he takes a lot of practice to be able to pull off all of the things I have listed, but that is pretty easy now due to the practice mode. Right now he has a win rate over 50 in top lane despite being a mechanically difficult champion and being the 5th most played champ in that lane. If you look at that numbers for GP mains, he has a win rate over 57%. Obviously mandatory nerf territory.

So what can we do to fix GP? Here are a few suggestions I have come up with.

#1 Get rid of the MS bonus on his passive. Totally unnecessary since he can get it by using his barrels and from his upgraded ult. #2 There are a couple ways you change his gold and serpent generation. The first is to get rid of the bonus gold all together and just have it grant serpents. This allows him to be actually punished if he does bad in the laning phase and he can actually be set back. This gives him actual risk/reward when picked. Another possible solution is to get rid of the serpents entirely and make GP players decide between buying an item or upgrading their ult. An ult upgrade could cost like 2.5-3k gold. This way he has to make significant choices during the game. #3 Get rid of the ghost barrel effect. It literally has zero counterplay which is always a bad thing. Also, GP's barrels should be seen when in bushes just like Illaoi's tentacles. This allows you to know they are there before you walk close enough and get one shot late game. #4 Nerf the MS debuff you get from being hit by a barrel. It's way too strong considering he can use his ult to slow down the enemy team as well. #5 Remove the heal from Remove Scurvy or get rid of the CC removal. Way too strong to have both on one ability. Either that or have the heal replace his passive. He has enough true damage in his kit already anyway.

There you go, how to balance GP while still having him completely viable at all levels of play. As always CONSTRUCTIVE comments are always appreciated and troll/QQ comments are always ignored.