Remember when Gangplank was an earlygame champion?

When I first started playing league like six years ago, I immediately fell in love with Gangplank. I loved the fantasy of being a pirate, and he was the first champion I ever owned outside of a freeweek. I loved him dearly, as he was a relentless lane bully that could 1v1 pretty much anyone early on. He had over 700 base health level 1, higher than any other champion in the game. His passive magic damage meant the only champion that could ever fight him at level 1 was Darius, who was at his most broken at the time I started playing, right after his release.

Before his rework you could build practically anything on Gangplank you wanted and he could make it work. AD? Of course. Crit? You'll have a great lategame. Onhit? You'll have a great earlygame. You could go anything between full damage and bruiser, and it would work. Fast forward to today, and that couldn't be further from the truth. His base health level 1 was decreased by almost 200, from about 712 down to 540. Instead of having the highest, he now has one of the lowest base health values among melees. The only melee champions with a worse level 1 health are Yasuo, Morde, and Evelynn. You can't really go into melee range and expect to succeed in most matchups. He's a glass cannon.

Don't get me wrong, I love the changes. I think he's much more interesting to play now than he ever was before. He just isn't the same Gangplank I used to know and love. You can't get in peoples faces early on like you used to be able to. He's so limited until you hit full build; so much of his power is locked up in his barrels, particularly critically striking them, that his base stats had to be absolutely gutted. It feels awful to me, as someone who enjoyed old Gangplank for his in-your-face playstyle. His kit doesn't feel like a pirate fantasy to me anymore, if anything I feel like I'm trying to be a demolitions expert that just spends the entire first half of the game kiting. I know a lot of people might disagree with this, but I'd rather Parrrley could only minicrit. I'd want to take 50% crit damage off of Parrrley so it'd deal 150% damage on a crit instead of 200%. (or 200% and 250% respectively with IE) Maybe increase Barrel cooldown/recharge time. That alone should nerf him enough that he can have actual base stats again. Buff his base stats back up close to their original values. Let him get into the thick of the fight. That's all I want.