Gangplank Rework Update? Thoughts on his Identity and Kit.

I remember reading that Gangplank's rework was in progress but there was no set timeline for when he would be headed to the PBE. Is Riot taking ideas for reworking his kit or has he already passed development and he's undergoing internal testing before being re-released?

I had some ideas regarding his current kit, and trying to convey that identity of a Pirate Captian.

Current issues: 1) Champions without gap-closers gives gangplank 2 options - slow the enemy with auto-attacks and parrley while using e to catch up, or run away when engaged using w to shrug off cc Chapions with gap-closers make gangplank keep his distance and farm with q untill he has enough gold and mana to start poking,

ie: a very small amount of counter play

2) lack of identity. GP is seen mostly top, but he can still do moderately well in any other role. His build is similar to Yasuo for mid and top, and can act as a second ADC when he get's IE. Jungle is similar to Yi/Nasus. Support GP just E's and Q's the enemy ADC until he's out of mana.

I'm going to suggest tweaks to his kit and i'll explain my reasoning after each suggestion.

Passive 1- Grog-Soaked Weaponry:

• remove slow from Grog-Soaked Weaponry +damage scales off Bonus health [removing the slow opens up some counter play making GP rely on his E and R for MS to chase and escape engages] [damage scaling off Bonus health gives him some incentive to build like a bruiser instead of an ADC] [also re-named Grog-Soaked Blade to Grog-Soaked Weaponry because his pistol will add a stack of Grog-Soaked Blade which thematically didn't make and sense unless he's shooting knives, as well as Cannon Barrage now also applies a stack per wave]

New Passive 2 - Pirates Luck: Gangplank pre-empitevly determines critical strikes for his on-hit attacks (AA or Q, visual indicator on GP's pistol and an active icon similar to Ashe's Focus) [this is the big game change and will have some more game play based off this and the next passive, this is here to give him little more reliability in his crits but will also require him to make a decision between using the crit for an AA, or his Q, and whether on not he uses it to farm or poke, as well as giving the enemy a chance to retreat if they see his pistol glowing, giving counter play to his Crits]

** New Passive 3 -The Black Spot ** Semi-permanent de-buff that is removed on Champion death, or upon being hit by Cannon Barrage. Champions afflicted by this de-buff take extra critical damage from all sources. [GP is a Pirate Captain, it only makes thematic sense that he carries the ability to curse someone with the fabled black spot, however applying this de-buff is the hard part and is solely tied to an interaction with his E, Q and other passives]

Q - Parrely: +new Passive - Hitting an Enemy with Parrley Critical-strike while the enemy has 3 stacks of Grog Soaked Weaponry and during Raise Morale will apply The Black Spot de-buff. The de-buff is applied before damage is calculated. [and here is GP's new bread and butter, a super hard to apply de-buff that lets GP curse his opposing lamer for future trades if and only if he's able to get in 3 auto attacks, a critted q, and after casting Raise Morale]

W - Cure Scurvy: +no longer interrupts movement +heal scales with bonus health and AP [again, more incentive to build health, and the movement interrupt never made sense for a ability that removes cc but cc's yourself for a spit second when it's cast. Also GP doesn't have a slow anymore, so being mobile is necessary]

E - Raise Morale: +no longer interrupts movement +Additional Active - Purge the Spot: casting E briefly gains sight of all champions afflicted by The Black Spot within [range] [If GP's actually able to get The Black Spot on somebody then this lets him capitalize on that if they happen to get away, which isn't as hard now that GP doesn't have a slow. This thematically reminds me of a Captain looking through a spyglass and yelling "Land HO!" Also same reason behind removing the interrupt of GP's W- "i'm gonna CC myself so I can move faster" is just counter intuitive]

R- Cannon Barrage: +no longer interrupts movement [obvious repeated reasons are obvious. This one did have the added effect of stopping where you're headed COMPLETELY when it's cast, so this s a nice quality of life buff that lets GP look and see if he can ult someone's lane while he walks back into his own] +removes The Black Spot from champions hit by Cannon Barrage +apply's 1 stack of Grog-Soaked Weaponry to enemies hit per wave of cannon balls [* if you use this on a champion who already has The Black Spot it's already clear you're all-inning, the bonus damage is overkill for your ADC so if an enemy can get away after GP ults then it gives them counter play as they forced GP to remove the de-buff. Later in the game though this is a more reliable way to get The Black Spot applied to enemies who you cant auto attack and q without getting engaged upon*]

On a whole this I believe this solidifies Gangplank into a AD bruiser/support role and redefines his identity as a point and click crit Pirate who sentences his enemies to death. I also tried not to include numbers in this kit as those will allow the devs to tweak him into a good place, however I do think that the extra crit damage on The Black Spot should be around 25% - 50%, given it's so hard to apply. The other thing to note is that The Black Spot is a de-buff, which Means QSS, cleanse, and Remove Scurvy (Yay Pirate Ditto's) will remove the curse, allowing some counter play.

P.S. This is my first post on boards P.P.S: Scrapped honorable mention Ideas:

• E gives guaranteed crit on next on-hit attack
• increased AA range when GP has a crit to mimic q
• E is replaced with a similar ability to Parrely but uses his cutlass instead

P.P.P.S. This was mostly just to throw some thematic kit ideas out there. I'm hoping it was at least an entertaining read regarding our favourite Pirate.