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Gangplank? More like garbageplank

Wtflolrich··7 votes·1,634 views

Why? Why did Riot take Gangplank, one of my favorite characters and make him more useless than football bat. They took away his buff skill and instead replaced it with a skill that requires you to drop a barrel wait several seconds then use a separate skill to shoot the barrel and explode it causing it to deliver a pathetic amount of damage. This barrel can be attacked by the enemy using basic attack and if they hit it, the barrel just breaks apart and that's the end of that, good try, enjoy going 0/14/0 because you will be doing no damage.

The new barrel is useless in my opinion because:

  1. It does little damage even if you get a successful hit.
  2. It can easily be destroyed by the enemy.
  3. You have to conserve your parrrrrley skill so you can use it on the barrel
  4. It is very easy to hit the swarms of minions or champs around the barrel causing you to miss the barrel completely.
  5. It can't even be used as a getaway ability because you have to stop, turn around aim and fire to do anything with it.

Your only option now for offense as Gangplank is parrrrley which is not a sufficient amount of damage considering the cooldown.

In the end, I hope this isn't a permanent upgrade, I hope they revert him back to a real champion. Also the new standard skin looks dumb to me, the sword looks cool though.

Am I the only one that feels like they ruined Gangplank? Am I just bitter because he was the first champ I bought and I don't like to see him changed, or is he actually as useless as I feel he is?

21 Comments

TheWoollyMammoth3 votes

Work up some crit and hit the barrel with q in the middle of a minion group. You work up stacks fairly quick. and clear like a madman. it gives your q damage aoe and armor pen. if you get it off, you hurt.

Wtflolrich1 votes

But do you think he could still stand up and solo top? I was having issues with him up on top.

Ironclad Dragon1 votes

{quoted}

But do you think he could still stand up and solo top?

Definitely. But as I've discovered, your performance will vary on who you're going up against. Against a passive laner or someone who can't whittle you down that hard, you're going to have a much better time than, say, against an aggressive or early game powerhouse or heaven-forbid, a ranged top.

I play him as an AD Fighter mostly; the early damage supplement works wonders on certain champs, not so much on others. His barrels do immense damage once you get a damage item or two (then I'd transition to tank you can actually survive to deal said damage). Crystalline Flask is always a good choice to start out with, Teleport keeps him in lane and makes him a rapid-response operator, whether it be a team-fight or an endangered tower. I recommend Trinity Force; it helps out your barrels a ton. Not only will they have the chance to critical hit, but since they deal your triggering attack in damage, your Spellblade proc from Sheen will help them kill minions. It's best to detonate your barrels with your Q; more damage that way.

SoberToaster3 votes

Yep thanks riot for ruining my favorite character, if this is the pirate "king" I'd rather have the footman back. If they wanted to make Donkeykong a character, they could have made a new one and not streamrolled over an old one.

FatesDefiler2 votes

i played plank as a jungler, so this rework killed him for me, personally. even with the loss of raise morale which is what made him good as a niche jungler with ad team comps, the loss of his passive slow means even if you could still jungle with him, you wouldn't want to. thar remake, she blows.

BaronVonTarkin1 votes

But wouldn't powder kegs be better for jungling? Better wave clear, you can also set up chains of barrels in the bushes and hide in them when someone invades. And them blow them up when they walk past! Or better, when you invade. making every bush a death sentence.

Calabok1 votes

Nobody liked him anyways, it's all good, yo!

Wtflolrich1 votes

I LIKED HIMMM!!!!!

KaminoX1 votes

its not hard... you probably just get everything set up right

lolipopevelynn1 votes

been playing him alot since his update. at first glance his new kit looks amazing and more powerful than his old kit, but in practice its the opposite. the removal of his steroid/his old E was a HUGE deal. without it he gets outtraded by everyone, even a damn shen ffs. his passive is actually dangerous to use because if you try to proc it with your auto a shit ton of minions will just swarm you, making the trade more favorable for your opponent. and the damage itself is pathetic anyway untill u get AD items, which critplank doesnt build till later.

his barrels are decent, but again you need A) high ammounts of AD and B) high ammounts of crit. also its pretty hard to use in team fights if not impossible. and they ARE impossible to use if ur against a range top like nid or vlad or gnar.

so what does he do? he pretty much is forced to farm with his Q and hope that his laner doesnt bother him while he is doing it. but even if he farms w ell and get his items crit pank is still nerfed because he no longer has his old E and Q no longer applies his passive.

so his rework looks like a buff, but its actually a HUGE fucking nerf to the champ. the reason being is simple. GP is a lane bully and they took away ALL of his lane bullying mechanics. even tho his Q is the same you cant use it to harass because you need to use it in order to last hit for the silver serpents or u cant upgrade ur ult. previous crit plank on farmed with his Q untill he got shyv, and once he got shyv he went ham with bullying his opponents out of lane. new GP cant do that anymore even after he gets shyve because you STILL need to use ur Q to get the silver, and even if you do use it to harass its still weaker because it doesnt apply passive and his steroid from E is gone. also his ult is still trash for damage unless its upgraded.

to fix ALL of this he only needs 2 changes.

A) let his Q apply his passive aswell. now his Q has alot more bullying power. its also not so overpowering as one might think because he has to choose between bullying or farming to upgrade his ult.

B) his ult scales with AD. having his ult scale with AP is stupid. riot needs to learn to let abilities synerzies with your item choices better. the fact that his ult scales off AP basically means it has zero scaling and thus zero damage.

thats all that really needs to happen.

right now he is forced to play as bankplank/tankplank/brusierplank, which i guess was riots intention. critblank is completely unviable.

BaronVonTarkin1 votes

Let me tell you why you are wrong in some cases.

1: For starters, at level 5, kegs has an 80% slow and deals 200 non-scaling bonus damage to champions on top of the damage of a basic attack. WHILE IGNORING 60% OF THE TARGETS ARMOUR, which is a lot of damage. Have sheen or trinity? Procs on keg explosions. Crit the keg? Deal crit damage to every enemy hit. They're honestly REALLY strong if you know how to use them. Which I've seen plenty of examples of them being used really well. He also now has wave clear without having to purchase items or using his ult because of kegs.

2: If you level up the barrels first. (which is what i do) It's only like 1.5 seconds wait at level 5. So you can time it right and parrrrrly the barrel before they get to it.

3: The only reason you really use parrrrly is to get the extra gold. And if you kill the barrels with parrrrrly, you get he extra gold from whatever the barrels kill. Making it so you get extra gold from a whole wave.

4: I don't have an answer, that's usually a problem with me too.

And 5: Did you know, if you destroy the barrel, it gives you a speed boost? At level 5, say, you are running away from a Garen. Place a barrel at max range ahead of you. By the time you are in auto attack distance. It's at 1 health. Auto attack it as you walk past to get the speed boost and run away. Or don't, and q it as Garen is walking past and slow him down. dealing damage and escaping. If he q's you. eat an orange and be k Gangplank

Also, GP still gets gold for Q'ing minions, the exact same amount of gold per level on Q as he had before the rework. He just gets silver serpents as a bonus.

Actually play and research GP before complaining.

I hope this gave you a second thought.

Oh, and I'd like to thank EffectFX for bringing up the points for argument 1 and the Q gold argument.

BaronVonTarkin1 votes

I think I know why you don't like the new GP! You must be a conservative.

Wtflolrich1 votes

Lol! I'm not, I don't mind change, but when its needed. Gangplank was by no means broken, he was fun to play but didn't dominate a map. In my opinion, If it ain't broke don't fix it.

Wtflolrich1 votes

These are fair strategies, they look very good on paper. You used Garen as an example which makes your strategy look exceptionally good seeing how Garen is very good at running people down and is a worthy opponent for most champions, however say you are matched against Ashe, all she has to do is basic attack your barrel three times (which she can do before she is in range) and you barrel is rendered useless. Not only can she attack your barrel without being in range, but she can also hit you. You are literally dying to use skills. The barrels may be very useful, but in the same way a corn kernel remover is useful. If you are in the very specific situation where you need it, it is definitely the best thing for the job, but if you are in any other situation you are not going to use it because it just won't do what you need it to.

All this being said, I am going to continue trying Gangplank and trying new strategies and builds. I just wanted to see the opinions of other players and see different points of view. Your comment is very useful to me and I appreciate the feedback.

BaronVonTarkin1 votes

I agree that GP is pretty useless against a ranged top laner, like Quinn. He's especially useless if the jungler noctourne never ganks you and the Quinn goes 22/5. But against an ap top laner like Lissandra, GP could easily counter her. Mostly his w. Her 2 stuns are useless against him. Also, with the edition of the barrels, they buffed his early game. He used to have a quite bad early game, all he could do is harass with q. But with the edition of barrels gave him a much better early game. They do so much damage champion level 1-5. He can set a barrel in a bush, then link a barrel on the enemy and shoot the one in the bush for a sure explosion. Which is a way to stop the ranged champ from getting the barrels before you. And if Ashe is chasing you down, you can eat an orange and be k to stop her ult stun and q the maxed out barrel before you or her get into auto attack range. And maybe ult to slow her or any of her team mates down. or just put a barrel by Ashe or any champ really, and use it as a distraction, so when the try to destroy it they stand still to aa it, giving you time to escape since you can move while placing it. PS: Building sash or scimitar on GP is FUCKING STUPID.

insaiyanbacca1 votes

honestly i like new gp, i just wish it was slightly less cost wise for his ult upgrades say like 450 instead of 500 because it seems like your only going to get two on average per game(from what ive seen and played of him) and that makes me a little sad :c

3TWarrior1 votes

yeah, but you do have to consider that the final upgrade is literally doubling his ultimate's damage

insaiyanbacca1 votes

final one? there is an order? the one i dont usually end up buying is raise morale

Dracid1 votes

are you on crack? The waveclear on the barrel is freaking nuts. You can push lanes so fast with it

3TWarrior1 votes

you didn't read the patch notes, his Q wasn't changed at all, it was now upgraded to where in addition to gold, it provides silver serpents, a unique currency used to upgrade gangplank's ult

upgrade one: the ult now does a minor percentage of its damage as true damage upgrade two: the ult now increases the movespeed of allied champions in addition to slowing enemies upgrade three: the ult now does double damage by doubling the frequency of cannon fire

his barrel is new that it can make playing with him a real headache because it allows him an even greater gold potential in an even skill matchup between teams

for instance, using his ult on the minion wave, laying a barrel, exploding the barrel with Q, you farm the whole minion wave for up to 56 gold (level 5 Q on 7 targets), although unlikely

Wtflolrich1 votes

Upon further review of the champion I have come to this realization. Although I have not tried to play him again, I believe he could be a worthy adversary to a melee character who is tanky, however I stand firm in my belief that he is useless to a ranged opponent.

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