Why does GP have almost no mana costs for his laning phase??

His barrels are free, his Q costs 40 mana regardless of rank. His only skill that has any decent sort of mana cost attached is his oranges, but a good gangplank will rarely have to use that unless he gets ganked or cc'd, which most champs can't do all that often when he's zoning you off the wave with barrels.

On top of this, GP has a decent mana pool and regen, which can be exacerbated by taking or as a starting item, in which case he can just hit you with Q every time it comes off of CD. And hardly any champ in the game has the sustain to deal with this.

But what feels the worst about this is that GP isnt really meant to be a lane bully, as his kit hyperscales with crit, AD and armor pen, allowing him to be one of the best scaling late game champs. If a GP hits a barrel onto 2+ members of your team late game, he as just successfully won an objective for his team, as nearly all champs have to back, even tanks, as his barrels have free armor pen attached.

Since his rework, GP has become one of the most undesirable champs to play against. A menace in lane early game. Has huge powerspikes in the mid game when completing items like , and . Map presence even when splitting with his ult and TP. And Late game he doesnt fall off because of free armor pen and AoE multiplicative scaling.

Even if you fall behind as GP, you have free extra gold from your mini-game to pull you back into the game. And he's not as punished for splitting, because even if his TP is down, he still has ult, and is incredibly safe clearing waves if behind through his barrels.

Rito, could someone explain to me where/what GPs weaknesses are supposed to be?? Because honestly after playing against him a ton in soloQ (now dynamicQ) my go to is to just ban him if i have to option. Because if someone can play GP well, then there isnt much that their opponent can do to fight back against them.