The State of Gangplank: From Friend to Imposter

I'll start this off with an honest opinion. Gangplank is ruined. He may be somewhat strong, i'm not denying that but that's not my point. Let's start with a little personal story (Coming from a former pre rework Gangplank main)

(I apologies before hand if this gets stupid long, I don't have a script or any plan for this rant/topic, I am just saying what comes to mind/have basic ideas of what I want to cover)

I started playing league around the the end of season 3/start of season 4 because of high school friends. Before hand I have never played, even heard of a MOBA before. I got into it slowly, being a little overwhelmed by what was around me, because when I was the level to play normal blind games, instead of trying out more champs and such in bot games, I got immediately rushed into blinds with my level 30 friends who have played for longer then I started, one of those friends has played since beta/season 1. So in my first game with really unbalanced level/rank teammates/enemies, I played Garen. He was the most comfortable in the small preparation time I got before getting rushed into this chaos to me at the time. I was apparently vs a Platinum player top lane. Tldr, I some how didn't feed my ass off and we ended up with the W. Many games of Garen top later, my beta/S1 friend praised me, and gifted me Gangplank.

First game with him I fell in love. He was what I could ever want in a character for me. He had his gimmick that appealed to me, he was silly, a straight forward but not totally useless kit (to me). Even if I would normally be tilted off the face of the earth in some games, he always seemed to bring an aura that instantly calmed be down. His joke, his taunt, HIS LAUGH, just his voice in general was lovely. <Inserts video that brings me all the feels>

> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7oVCbtEwSYU

He was my main until the dreaded day came, of the Bildgewater Event, that in my opinion, was the true death of Gangplank. Ever since, he's not even the same person anymore. He's no Gangplank to me. I don't like his voice as much as the old one, his gimmick was gutted, his kit was updated (which is the few things I actually kinda liked about new gangplank) But maaaaaaaan, he was super OP, turned my diamond in the ruff, few players played my silly pirate and mained him, to this pro play monster, and received countless barrel nerfs, Parrrley nerfs, and even nerfed (for him) Trinity Force.

I don't care that Grog Soaked Blade was pretty much useless, or that Raise Morale was pretty much useless too, only used to get free/cheap assists. I loved that pirate, and you took him away from me Riot. You should have this current Gangplank truly die, and never come back from the event.

Riot, you need to take in more consideration before you change people's gems (No Taric pun intended...kinda) This isn't the first time you've crushed us mains of unpopular old "out dated" champ's hearts. But I think Gangplank is a better example of "Most can agree the previous was better" along with Shen.

I do kind of like the new gangplank, I do play him, but he is still an impostor to me. The visual is good, still doesn't feel like Gangplank, more of a mini imo. He even has barrels.

In all, I just really needed to get this off my chest. Something I hadn't really expressed before, but kept inside bottled up.

So now, I just have a question to you Riot. What's next for my pirate friend? More nerfs? Maybe buffs? Another rework? Maybe even a first ever revert? I surely can't be the only one that wants at least a little response from you, your thoughts on Gangplanks situation, from past to present to future. It'd mean a lot, it really would.

I do appreciate what you tried to do for Gangplank, I really do. But to me, I would have rather had a minor change, or even just left him alone. Leave it to a community vote to see if we actually wanted an update as far as it went, idk.

He is honestly in a really weird position as of from the Trinity Force change. He can still be strong. I'm not saying that Critplank is best/onlyplank, but with what he normally built, IE/Shiv, it was really a bigger nerf then meets the eye. Ironically, I feel that Gangplank is almost in a similar state to old Ganglank, in that he is not played so often anymore, but this time, he was actually noticed, and nerfed a bunch.

Thank you for anyone who reads this all the way. Any feedback would be appropriated. Get some current/past GP mains up in here eh? :)

EDIT: This is in no way to be taken as a negative rampage if anything comes off that way. It's just a little rant on my opinions of everything. I'm not the best at wording things

EDIT 2: The perfect thing for me really would be a Gangplank where he has his current kit, but old voice.