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Possible improvements on Gangplank's consistency as a champion

PsiberPiRat··1 votes·676 views

Disclaimer: I'm not incredibly good at League nor do I claim to be, and for that matter I do not main Gangplank or play him often, but I do want to know what everyone thinks about the idea

I had been rattling this idea around in my head for a day or two, particularly after Gangplank 's ult got changed on the PBE. Riot is trying to make Gangplank more consistent with his ult, but his playstyle (Due to his entire q getting amplified) tends to revolve around crits, even with only two crit items (trinity force and Shiv). So I got to thinking: how would you make a crit playstyle reliable? My thought process about how to make Gangplank 's style reliable stems from a few characteristics that I see Gangplank as having

  1. He is an excellent splitpusher because of his ult
  2. He is a pirate (He should feel like he can go in, wreck stuff up, then get out safely)

So my idea to make him work more consistently revolves around making him a better anti-turret splitpusher (wrecking stuff) than other crit based splitpushers like Tryndamere who like to push really hard then whittle a turret down to draw people to his lane. It would involve a new passive, and I'm not sure how core Gangplank mains think his current passive is towards his playstyle, but the idea is basically that he can crit towers for reduced damage (Like Yasuo 's passive it would be around 180% damage crits, but only to towers (otherwise crits would do normal 200% damage)) and that he gets tenacity off of his crit chance like Hecarim 's or Galio's passives do with other stats. What this should do is allow Gangplank to walk up and start wailing on towers, chunking them hard, then walking away from enemies with weak cc or only a few cc abilities, but still leaving him vulnerable to burst. Plus, it can act like a "release valve" the way that Soraka 's passive temporarily did on the PBE when they were testing her rework. Gangplank chunking towers too hard? Tower crits can do less damage. Gangplank surviving things he really shouldn't be able to? Lower the crit to tenacity ratio.

Anyway, I want to know people's thoughts on this, especially the Gangplank mains floating around. I also wanted to get this out there in case Riot decides to go to the forums to get community opinions for the eventual rework, which I believe they have done with some other champs before.

4 Comments

GanksLikeGast0n1 votes

So I have recently started playing a lot of gangplank, and I have a point of interest for you. Gangplank's kit isn't so much revolved around critical hits as it is about on hit effects in general. The fact that Q applies on hits is what makes trinity/shiv (critplank) appear so effective. In reality Critplank is expensive and relatively inefficient compared to on-hit plank, which utilizes Rav hydra and shiv to AOE harass at range, as well as splitpush much faster due to improved waveclears. The slow and stacking damage on his passive is what allows him to trade so effectively, and gives him so much laning power. In many cases Iceborn is more effective than trinity for him as well, since is gives him tank stats and the AOE slow is a FANTASTIC engage/disengage tool.

PsiberPiRat1 votes

Very interesting. I'll note that. I thought the reason crit seamed to work well (better than a few other on hits at least) was that the bonus damage (120 at rank 5) from q also gets amplified. I guess I always thought Triforce -> shiv was the standard. As a GP player, what do you think his core problems are?

GanksLikeGast0n1 votes

His Q is actually a one point wonder. At first glance it seems like the skill to max first, but his heal is actually far more efficient. Q tends to be second unless you are split pushing, in which case the AD and more importantly movement speed bonus from his E are far more valuable to you. Gangplanks core problems are his ult and his heal. Riot has taken steps towards his ult that I am really happy with, the RNG factor has cost me a lot of really important kills. As for his heal, the only problem is the cast time. While it does save me a lot, it is basically trading hard enemy CC for a shorter duration self CC since it forces you to stand still for around .5 of a second. The consistent damage change to his ult on PVP is a huge step in the right direction, and I really hope it pushes through to live.

GanksLikeGast0n1 votes

Oh, and as to the Q being amplified, it has such low base damage (120+1.0AD) that it almost needs to crit in order to match the damage output of most top laner abilities. For instance renekton's empowered Q (easily set up BTW) outscales it at two ranks and heals him. What it is, is a safe way to harass or powerfarm, and since his passive applies a 7% slow for three seconds it is incredibly hard to answer effectively.

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