Gangplank (part one of a brief series of rework suggestions for League's most troublesome designs)

Gangplank

The Good: He’s a pirate. Q is satisfying to use. His kit allows for a variety of playstyles. Oranges are iconic. Ultimate allows for global plays. **The Bad: **“Pirate King” aspect doesn’t really show. He doesn’t feel like a leader. Q and W are both fun for the GP player but have counterplay issues. Randomness of Ult can be frustrating (this was recently fixed). Passive and E both provide strong effects but seem underwhelming.

Proposed Changes Innate Passive: Remove Scurvy – When Gangplank becomes affected by a crowd control ability, he will eat some oranges and he will be k (the CC effect will be removed). This passive ability has a cooldown of 60/50/40/30 seconds (upgraded at lvl 6, lvl 11, and lvl 16).

First off, this spell will still use the same animation when it is put into effect. We can’t lose the oranges. I moved this to his passive because the ability was already quite passive, and it would open up a slot for a more “active” ability. There is now more counterplay for the opponent because they can try and bait out the oranges by using a weaker form of crowd control first. The health restore has been removed and I’m sure that will ruffle some feathers. I think that the large self-heal is problematic however, especially with the huge AP ratio.

Q: Parrrley – Gangplank takes aim and shoots an enemy unit with his pistol. If Parrrley deals a killing blow, he gains extra gold and a portion of the mana cost is refunded.

Gangplank shoots a target unit (625 range) for 20/45/70/95/120 (+100% Attack Damage) physical damage. If Parrrley deals a killing blow, Gangplank gains 4/5/6/7/8 extra gold and 50/60/70/80/90% of the Mana cost is refunded. Parrrley can crit and applies on hit effects as if it were a melee basic attack. Costs 60/65/70/75/80 mana and has a 5 sec cooldown.

Only change here is a higher manacost combined with a scaling mana cost refund as he levels the skill. I felt like incentivizing leveling his Q felt like the right move. The point-and-click nature of his Q can make it overbearing in lane, so I wanted to emphasize the important decision between using it to farm (bonus gold, mana refund) and using it to harass.

W: Grog-soaked Blade – A skill shot basic attack (like Yasuo’s Steel Tempest) that deals additional magic damage over time and lowers the enemy’s sight radius.

Gangplank strikes forward (350 range) dealing 100% attack damage and inflicting enemies hit with grog poisoning for two seconds. Grog poisoning deals 15/20/25/30/35 (+15% AP) magic damage per second and lowers the enemy’s vision radius by 20%. Grog-soaked blade can crit and applies on hit effects as if it were a melee basic attack. Costs no mana, but has an 8 second cooldown.

This is the move I’m least sure about. I wanted to add some type of skillshot, but there’s no doubt that a Steel Tempest-esque move isn’t much of a skillshot. There is certainly a bit of overlap with Gangplank having essentially two auto-attack resets. Still, I do like this skill. I wanted to keep his split scalings because I think it A: keeps him from being way too strong, and B: helps it feel like he’s an improvising swashbuckler of sorts, using whatever items he can get.

E: Aye, Aye Captain – Gangplank fires a shot in the air, inspiring his teammates and granting them increased movement speed and bonus damage on their next basic attack. Additionally, Gangplank gains increased vision radius passively.

Passive: Gangplank gains 8/10/12/14/16% enhanced vision radius. Active: Gangplank fires his pistol into the air, increasing movement speed of all nearby allies (750 radius) by 8/12/16/20/24% (+10% AP) for 2 seconds. All allies in range will also gain 10/15/20/25/30 (+50% of Gangplank’s bonus AD) on their next basic attack (this effect will wear out if not used within 6 seconds). Costs 50/55/60/65/70 mana and has a 16/15/14/13/12 second cooldown.

Functionally, this skill acts fairly similar. Changing from bonus AD to bonus damage on next attack simply allows for a more visceral, noticeable effect. I also like that Gangplank’s scaling can be passed off onto his allies, making him feel more like a leader. With both the passive component of this skill and the effect on Grog-soaked Blade, I wanted to emphasize a vision advantage for Gangplank. I think that implies both leadership skills as well as a rogue-ish feel (like a spy, kind of).

R: Cannon Barrage – Gangplank signals his ship to fire upon an area, slowing enemies and dealing damage within the area.

Signals Gangplank's ship to fire upon an area (global range) for 7 seconds, slowing enemies in the area by 25%. Waves of cannonballs rain upon the area, dealing 75/120/165 (+20% Ability Power) magic damage per second. Costs 100 mana and has a 125/110/95 cooldown.

After Riot made their recent changes to remove the RNG, I didn’t feel like I had much to change here. I love the global aspect of this skill because it is both selfless and selfish (more assist gold!) at the same time. Feels just right for the Pirate King.

Let me know what you think! A reminder that numbers are there to help situate ideas. They can always be adjusted.