Let's talk about the current state of Gangplank and how to balance him

Hi!

I'm a diamond 5 GP main and i would like to discuss about GP and his balance. Currently GP is known for his barrel nuking & farming which is the reason what makes him so opressive to play against. It begins from single Parrrley (his Q) last hits and later he can clean up entire waves. After finishing Trinity Force + Infinity Edge he's ready to go teamfighting with his powder kegs. The problem with GP is clearly these kegs and that's why their power should be tuned down. Riot has already tried to balance him but they have done it wrong. Instead of hitting the ridiculous damage of the barrels (Only small damage reductions have been done) they have removed the mana refund on his Q, early HP and added a cast time on the barrels.

Links to the official patch notes where you can check the changes:

http://na.leagueoflegends.com/en/news/game-updates/patch/patch-517-notes http://na.leagueoflegends.com/en/news/game-updates/patch/patch-518-notes http://na.leagueoflegends.com/en/news/game-updates/patch/patch-521-notes

This **IS NOT **the right way how to balance GP because it leads to a situation where GP either survives from laning phase and starts winning teamfights with his barrel combos or then he loses his lane and can't finish Triforce which leaves him far behind. This is an "all or nothing" situation which isn't ejoyable for either sides.

In my opinion GP's laning should have been kept quite strong (preseason did make it even weaker because of mana problems) with the cost of his mid & late game. On lane GP wants to last hit minions with Parrrley but because it will overall cost you more mana than before it's much better to spam it on your opponent.

Q before patch 5.21: Costs 50 mana and is refunded if it kills the target (very good for farming) Q after patch 5.21: Costs 40 mana and doesn't refund mana on kill (bad for farming as you will run out of mana, much better to use it as poke tool)

This change along with the HP nerf should be reverted as it will make his laning phase a lot easier.

So? Now his laning is good but his barrels are still too strong. We will have to nerf them in order to compensate his laning phase buff.

Current damage on E (Powder Keg/Barrel): Deals 60 / 90 / 120 / 150 / 180 bonus damage on champions and ignores 40% armor (has a 0.25 second cast time) How to change it: Remove bonus damage on champions, increase armor penetration to 50%, remove cast time and make the time between chained barrel explosions higher.

The removal of flat bonus damage is significant on squishies and the increase of the armor penetration won't have effect on them. Instead it will make sure barrel damage on tanks wont drop too much. By removing the cast time Skilled GP players who have a perfect timing when to detonate barrels with Q can once again use their skills instead of having their opponets having an advantage of disarming it freely. (When GP gets to lvl 13 barrel HP decrease speed is so fast that he can't do a chain of two barrels without his opponets always having the chance of disarming it first.) This cast time removal will also give GP once again the possiblity to continue his chain explosion by adding extra barrels when they are still exploding. (I miss this mechanic so much...). Ofcourse this would make his barrels almost impossible to dodge so the time between linked barrel explosions should be increased.

That's it! Would be nice to get some creative feedback from a wide variety of people. (Other GP mains than myself, those who hate GP, those who don't know what to say or even a comment from a rioter who works on the balance team!)