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I had a few ideas for a Gangplank rework and i would like to know your opinions on it (Wall of text)

MarcosLuis97·2/26/2014, 4:45:38 PM·1 votes·576 views

I think it goes without saying that our favorite pirate, Gangplank Gangplank is not in a good sport right, overnerfed two seasons ago due to his absurd gold scaling and power at instakilling squishies with crits but now he is just bad, nowadays with the new top lane hyper tank meta and the changes to item 1054 and item 3047 he just can't survive because his harass is completely meaningless, and if you try to play passive and farm with your Q you will run out of mana very quickly and this is not even to mention the teamifights where he gets his ass kicked by hyper tanks on the jungle and on top lane and he has no instant gapclosers to jump to squishies like Jax.

While his jungle style have been "restored" due to the changes to spirit stone (asides from early invades of ViEliseLeeSinKhazix he does normal) but he still gets outclassed by many other junglers.

So what i wanna do is rework his kit in a way that benefits BOTH top Gangplank and jungle Gangplank and giving him a kit that feels the same while removing the toxic mechanics on his kit, such as cast times on his E, permaslow/magic damage on his passive, the "lucky crit" on his Q, the RNG of his ultimate and his free stats on his E.

Passive

Grog Soaked Blade reworked into Black Spot

Gangplanks's basic attacks or abilities on a target marks it and "places the black spot", causing any further damage dealt by Gangplank increase by a percentage against that target, this percentage stacks up to 3 times, for 3 seconds.

Only one target can be marked for death at any time if hit by a basic attack.

What this does is, i wanna maintain Gangplank's core "increasing damage while attacking the same target" but allowing healthy counterplay for the opponent, since without an escape you will not be able to escape the permanent slow and magic damage on Gangplank.

Q

Parrrley

Passive: Gangplank gains additional gold each time he kills (either by a basic attack or an ability) a unit, and it's double if he kills an champion or big monsters.

Active: Gangplank shoots a target enemy with his pistol, dealing physical damage. If this ability kills the target, it refunds its mana cost. This ability cannot critical strike but it still applies on-hit effects (similar to Ezreal)

Removing his ranged crit was a bit too far, considering it was one of Gangplank's most iconic (and toxic) features so i decided to compensate by increasing his other most iconic feature, his gold gain, since it fits his overall pirate theme, also refunding mana cost will let Gangplank play in a more passive way in situations where he is no match for some champions (like tanky top laners) without completely running out of mana, while rewarding him by correctly last hitting minions (like Annie)

W

Unchanged

E

Raise Morale reworked into Dead Men Tell No Tales

Passive: Gangplank gains a stack each time a minion or a monster dies close to him, giving him additional Attack Damage and Movement Speed, the stack is doubled if it is a large minion or a monster. If Gangplank dies or activates the ability he loses all his stacks.

Active: Gangplank fires into the air, losing all his stacks but inspiring himself to gain additional attack damage and movement speed for 7 seconds.

The cast time has been removed.

In this case i decided to change his E in a way where he has to earn his "free stats" since it allows more gameplay and counterplay where he has to risk his damage and mobility in order to either engage a fight or disengage without letting him abuse his free stats, but giving him a chance to restore some of it if he manages to kill a unit or run past one so he can escape, whether you are in the lane or in the junglem rewarding good plays.

Giving buffs to an ally can also give him great contribution to his team, whether you gank a lane and want your partner to have more damage and mobility to get a kill, or when you feel someone on your can benefit from this buff better than you in certain situation, like ADCs during a teamfight

Also removing the team wide buff will allow more balance to it, like removing the cast time.

R

Cannon Barrage

Active: Gangplank signals his ship to fire a cannonball barrage upon a target 600-radius area for 6 seconds, granting vision of the area and slowing enemies inside it.

Cannonballs will drop over the duration, each one dealing damage to enemies and applying a stack of Black Spot within the radius.

The range will be global, however, the farther away Gangplank is, the less damage enemies take, this damage reduction is not affected to minions and the slow will persist regardless of where he casts it.

Removing the RNG on his ult made me think that it would be too powerful for a global ability, and since i gave him a passive that increase it if he catches people within the radius, it would be more rewarding for Gangplank's that use his ult more wisely and take the most of effect out of it, than trying to snipe people and hope the RNG gods to steal kill from your teammates.

Thoughts?

2 Comments

JackAqua2/26/2014, 6:00:28 PM1 votes

I really enjoy the current passive, since it's massive free damage + slow. Which is why he wins most duels pre 6.
I can't really imagine yours working all too well. If you want to reach the same utility as the former passive, you'll have to make the numbers especially high, and then that'll make all of his other damage sources too strong and Riot would probably nerf it again. Also, by setting some of his damage on a passive that forces him to be close to enemies, without having a gapcloser or slow of sorts, makes him a bit like the old low-mobility Champions, who aren't as dominant currently.
But then again this is just speculation, since I have no idea what the numbers could/would actually be.
Nevertheless I like his current passive.
On his Q you took the chance for crit (which is made up for by his new passive, I presume), however by taking away the crit chance from his Q, building crit on Gangplank would probably no longer be as effective.
Would he be a normal Fighter then ? I can imagine that. Pirates are usually good "Fighter" Champions with even damage and tankiness + some cool explosives and watery spells.
Then you made his Gold+ a passive, and then he could free poke with his Q without consequences. Currently you can choose between poke and extra Gold, which gives him extra space in his power budget (is that the right word ?).
I like his W. It's new, but it makes being in lane/jungle essential for good buffs.( Btw, is it like Nunu's blood boil now ? I didn't quite understand the casting system.)
So you'd probably have to make a second way for him to gain a massive amount of stacks quickly or so. Maybe gaining stacks in the fountain, OOC or when he gets a kill or assists. Idc.
I'm not too sure about his Ult, I'd need to see some numbers on that, but seeing as you nerfed its range it can only be stronger/ have a shorter cooldown than the current Cannon Barrage ...
If the Cooldown is low I take back what I said about him needing to be close to targets.
But I'd still miss his aa-slow ...
Overall some nice conecepts ! Just need some tuning, since it's very vague.
But you said Gangplank isn't as good atm, and yet you're taking away his good and unique things. Do you imagine the numbers really being that high ? And how does this rework help the problems he has ?