Comprehensive Gangplank Rework Feedback

Hi all!

So, jumping on here to talk about new GP and get feedback on new GP. I want to do this in an organized way so Riot can get some real community involvement and have a reason to look at this thread instead of another forum rant. Here we go!

The good things about new GP:

1. His visual update does a lot for him. The new attack animations and the taunt where he sets the ground on fire are awesome.

2. Trial by Fire is a much better passive in general because of the true damage, where as old GP would just die horribly if your opponent got too tanky and you couldn't kill them.

3. Being able to upgrade the ult is by far one of the coolest updates. I can't say I'm able to kill anything with GP ult very often because it's just not that damaging of an ability (even though I could see it being really crazy if it got buffed), however, having customization on it is great and gives you another reason to use Parrrley.

4. Adding the % HP upgrade to Scurvy also helps it not scale off so badly in late game which is nice.

5. The powder kegs are a very cool design. They are IMO a little too difficult to put to practical use most of the time, but exploding barrels are always fun.

In summary, I really dig all the small buffs to his existing skills and updated concept.

The bad things about new GP:

1. There is a little bit of a shift in the way GP's kit works together that is less intuitive. You sort of want to bait people into your barrels, and the Q isn't as effective, but your passive wants you to be doing melee. One side of me feels like this means I'm supposed to shoot people repeatedly with Q in between Parrrley minions and then use the ignite passive. The other part of me feels like this means I'm supposed to be brawling with the other person. IMO Gangplank shouldn't melee someone until they jump on you or you want to gap close to finish them off. It's not a big thing, but it's how I feel about it. Old GP flowed a little bit better in the way his kit came together when in actual practice.

2. The Q seems a bit weaker than before. Am I imagining this? Not sure. Overall, now I build statik shiv and I just don't get those big crits I used to see. Someone who knows all the numbers will have to fill me in on this. Gangplank as a whole is all about the Q, even with the new barrels. You harass and kill with Q. Everything else on your kit is not very reliable leading to a poke and skirmish pattern. The Q really needs to proc his passive which should be on a shorter CD or affected by CDR. The whole point of Q in part on the old kit was applying the slow, ticking off some poison from Grog soaked blade, and doing a lot of damage. A slow is also a little bit more universally helpful because it allows allies to catch up with the enemy rather than just you speeding up to the enemy team (or keeping them inside your ult). Giving the move speed buff and damage after I've already gap closed on them and putting myself in harms way is messy. I get that they don't want to make a GP top lane where all he does is Q everyone to death, but on the other hand he doesn't have a regular rotation like a burst mage or wukong does.

3. The barrels are fun... but immensely difficult to set up. This probably gets easier the more you play GP, but right now when I'm just learning his new kit I can tell you those barrels miss.. a lot.. or people just run away. I have pulled off some awesome combos by using the ult and a chain of barrels, but that is the exception rather than the rule. This is OKAY, but this is again why I think the passive needs to apply on Q and the barrels need to give a good pay out/reward for all that set up. Against anyone with range they can just stay away from them and disable them as they please.

4. The ultimate upgrades are amazing, but I just want to suggest that the ultimate does a bit more damage when upgraded and that the one that gives ally movement speed instead applies a greater slow. This would be better in short because if they are already slowed giving your allies move speed is redundant, but anything that keeps them in your ult longer is a lot more helpful.

In summary, the new kit is the right direction, but it could use some minor tweaks. I want to thank Riot for putting so much work into GP. There was a lot more put into these updates and events and I appreciate that and I'm sure a lot of other people do too.

Oh also a bug report! On using Q gangplank will sometimes just stop attacking the thing he just shot. It's not a huge bug and I just have to click again to make him attack, but just mentioning it.

*Shout out to the rest of the League Community how are your experiences with new GP?

"Arrggghh!"