GP actually needs buffs

i'm not a gp main but i play it sometimes cause it's fun. But from watching streams and playing i notice that yes his late game is powerful with items but not powerful to the point of having such a trash laning phase. Also mid-late game people are good at destroying barrels well-timed and quickly it makes its hard to setup an area and drop some hp from squishies (tobias fate even has to drop 2 barrels on the same spot now so he can auto 1 even if 1 gets destroyed). I got to know gp back when triforce had critical chance. Since then triforce with no crit was a huge indirect nerf to him and then his healing mana cost got nerfed as well and his barrels cooldown was longer and limited to 3. My personal experience playing gp is most matchups are hard and in this meta u get dove easily early and theres nothing more really that you can do other than 1 barrel + 1-2 auto before dying. Imo his barrels exploded by Q should do more damage early game which would make it worthwhile to try to land combos/make plays/trade right now using barrels to harass feels like wasted barrels. Also to try to turn early dives cause if you don't run exhaust ur an easy target. Alot of "late game" champs have much better early game and sustain and do as well if not better than gp late game. Anyways would be fun if gp could have a better laning phase.