My current thoughts on Gangplank
Gangplank has been weaker lately since games are shorter than usual and also because of the Stormrazer rework, and the fact that he revolves so much around RNG doesn't help. He currently sits on a 47% winrate on champion.gg which is pretty low, but rather than buffing his numbers, I think buffing his consistency while nerfing his oppressiveness during the laning phase would be better in the long run.
Here are my ideas on how to balance Gangplank:
Part 1 - The laning phase:
Q - Parrrley:
Mana cost changed to 60 at all ranks from 60/55/50/45/40.
NEW: Killing a unit with Parrrley refunds half of its mana cost.
Gangplank's laning phase should mostly revolve around farming and scaling rather than poking, so this change would add to that.
But if he still ends up too oppressive:
Q - Parrrley:
- Parrrley now applies on-hit as if it was a ranged basic attack.
Additionally changing Parrrley on-hit effect to count as ranged would no longer grant him the full melee effect of Grasp of the Undying when poking, although he would still be able to utillize Klepto the same way, might not be needed though.
Part 2 - Consistency:
Consistency, this what Gangplank lacks the most, since he greatly revolves around RNG and timing.
The nerf to the keg duration during patch 8.4 was justified, since before Gangplank could just sit on a barrel and safely farm and poke throughout the laning phase, but it also ended up nerfing his mid-to-late game in the process. This greatly affected his playstyle after the laning phase, which revolved around strategically placing barrels around the map to set up barrel combos, but this nerf removed that strategy completely and ended up making Gangplank less consistent, when its intention was to only nerf his safety during the laning phase.
This nerf wouldn't have been such a big deal if he didn't also recieve a nerf way before this one during patch 6.4 that also affected his consistency, which was the removal of scaling barrel charges. At the time this nerf was also justified, but after the duration nerf on top of that, he became a little too inconsistent.
So the solution would be to either keep the changes to the barrel duration but revert the changes to the barrel charges, or to keep the changes to the barrel charges but increase the barrel duration, the main difference between the solutions being the playstyle.
Solution 1 - revert or partially revert stored barrel charges:
E - Powder Keg:
Recharge time increased to 18/17/16/15/14 seconds from 18/16/14/12/10 seconds
Maximum stored kegs reduced to 2 from 3.
Suggestion 1: Gain an additional keg charge each time you level up your ultimate.
or (if too strong)
Suggestion 2: Gain an additional keg charge each time you purchase an upgrade for your ultimate with silver serpents.
or
Solution 2 - add level scaling to the keg duration:
E - Powder Keg:
- Keg duration changed to 20/30/40/50/60 (based on level) seconds from 25 seconds at all ranks.
The first solution focuses on adding more consistency in combat, while the other solution focuses on adding more strategy.
Either one of the solutions aim to improve Gangplank's overall consistency, but it all comes down to which one is of them is the healthier option.
But then there's also crit chance, another culprit that enforces RNG, and probably the biggest. But I have a solution, which aims to completely remove RNG from GPs barrels, while smoothing out his power curve.
The solution:
E - Powder Keg:
You can no longer apply critical strikes on barrels.
NEW: Barrels deal 100% (+1% per 1% critical strike chance) critical strike damage.
No more RNG, no more leaving it up to luck, finally; Gangplank is consistent and has a smooth power curve.
Examples: If you have 25% crit chance, barrels always crit for 125% damage, if you have 50% crit chance, barrels always crit for 150% damage, if you have 75% crit chance, barrels always crit for 175% damage, and of course; if you have 100% crit chance; barrels always crit for 200% damage, and if combined with an Infinity Edge, up to 225% damage like before.
This change could make Gangplank a little too weak before reaching 100% crit chance, but it would make him much easier to balance, so that if he needed some buffs; you would no longer need to take RNG into account.
This also makes Infinity Edge a great second item after buying Trinity Force since it increases the overall damage of the barrels. Infinity Edge would increase barrels damage by 50% since it gives 25% crit chance and increases it by an additional 25% with its passive.
Part 3 - Lethality and armor penetration:
The removal of Lethality runes ended up being a big indirect nerf towards Gangplank. His inventory has ever since become extra cluttered after forcing him to give up other good items in order to give extra room for lethality items, since he now needs more of them to get the same amount lethality as before.
This wasn't an issue after Stormrazor was introduced. With Stormrazor added; he had plenty of extra inventory space for lethality items, since he no longer needed 4 inventory slots for gauranteed crits, plus it made him more consistent and less revolved around RNG. But then Stormrazor got reworked in exchange for a lesser Infinity Edge, and reverting Stormrazor would just bring back the issues other crit users had in the process. And after my crit changes to his E above, although more consistent; he could in theory end up dealing less damage before hitting 100% crit chance than he used to since you could no longer get those lucky crits.
My idea to fix these issues would be to either increase the armor penetration on his barrels or make it scale with level:
E - Powder Keg:
- Armor penetration increased to 50% from 40% or (if too strong early-to-mid game) Armor penetration changed to 30/35/40/45/50% (based on level) from 40% at all ranks
This change would compensate for the reduced damage while also making lethality less mandatory to build.
Bonus Ideas:
E - Powder Keg:
- You can now apply energized attacks on barrels, but it doesn't increase their damage.
This would make Fleet Footwork a viable keystone on Gangplank.
R - Cannon Barrage:
- Damage type changed from magic damage to physical damage.
To synergise better with lethality and armor penetration, but weaker towards armored opponents as compensation. Keep in mind that it would still only scale with AP.
Thanks for reading. Friendly feedback and constructive critisism is appreciated.
