The latest patch brought another change to Gangplank, a character who has seen more changes in the last month or so than he has in the probably the last year. I really miss the days of Spell Pen Gangplank, back when he used to deal magic damage with Parrrley. Obviously it was problematic in design, but oh so much fun to play.
I’m really happy to see him get a new passive with the latest patch, even if he’s probably a little OP in lane now. Okay, he’s a lot OP in lane, at least against your average matchup. Still, I think it will be cool to take a look at what needs tweaked about his design, why the passive changes make him problematic, and the types of builds he can use to maximize his damage output. I’m especially interested in the latter. A lot of people think it’s Infinity or bust, but I’m a strong believer in Sheen, especially if you’re up against a softer target like Ashe or Lux.
I might take him into the jungle if I have a chance for enough games, but I’m already seeing him banned in the ranked/custom games I’ve been playing, so Jungleplank may get pushed aside. Check back later in the week for more on everyone’s favorite pirate.
OP while laning? He’s OP all game now! Not even requiring any sort of skillful play. Haven’t lost a game where myself or a friend has got to play Gangplank. Because he can bully extremely well at level 1 with parrrley he seems to be outlaning most Rumbles right now. Yet to lose a game since patch with a good GP on my team (that hasn’t been due to a better enemy Gangplank) he’s absolutely ridiculous right now.
I hate this guy. His passive, together with his Cleanse/heal and AD/MS steroid gets outta hand real fast.
Try it with Clair/CV Taric, and the healing and other math parts starts getting silly, unless it’s vs 2 ranged focused on passive farming.
Still looking forward to this Champ of the Week.. and.. sleep…
He has an amazing kit now. I play everything but AD carries decently and even I can win with plank. You can’t stop his farm and if he wants he can effectively harass you.
^ Happy guy, main gp… hes to strong now…
I disagree with everyone else. Early game, he has two choices: farm or harass. If he goes farm, then he isn’t harassing (thus, the opponent in lane can farm/harass at will). If he goes harass, then his farm tends to suffer. And his parrley is great, but easily countered by anyone with armor. Am I the only one who’s noticed lately that even squishy characters are stacking armor runes and masteries? I can’t even count the number of games lately I’ve come up against a level 1 annie with 50 armor.
Mid-game, GP is either high on damage or sacrificed damage for survivability. And his ult is *still* weak. Even if he does get a decent farm, he’s squishy as hell and easily targeted down.
Am I just crazy? The only good GP’s I’ve seen are ones that are fed early game by newbs. And what hero *isn’t* awesome after they’ve been fed?
I have yet to see anyone show me that he can make a difference in a game. To me, he’s still just average. Not horrible, but not amazing.
@Madman: I hear yah, but most GP’s I’ve seen stack reds and quint ArP; and its hard to CC/harass with his cleanse/heal. That said, most of my games yest were after 36hrs of waking, so maybe you’re right? I’m not sure if everyone stacks Arm yellows or buys armor at fountain, though…
It’s really just the numbers, I think. Not being able to CC him effectively, together with his new stacking slow+DoT.
If he can outharass you, he can zone you out and farm at leisure. With the right lane-mate, not hard.
hey wigg, the reason Gp is being banned right now is exe calling + jungle plank
. His laning isn’t very strong as he has to chose between farming with parley or harassing with parley. In jungle U don’t have those choices and can get almost every creep with your parley (out farming any other jungler in the game) then buy ex calling on 1st b. Now u have the dot (stacks with your passive and applies from parley) Crit, and life steal all from a 1350 item. So when you gank at lvl 4 with red, you will do 200 dmg from the dots alone when you hit with parley.
Interesting stuff here – I’ve been doing quite well in lane, though I do think he’s still quite squishy. I don’t really understand why Parley has to be one or the other. I use it for both purposes and it seems to do just fine.
I’m really interested in the Exec. Calling build, though. I’ve jungled a couple times and been impressed with the speed. Gonna have to try this out.
My issue is that if you commit to melee exchange, you get perma-slowed+DoT’ed, and he can chase.
If it goes badly for him, he can cleanse and back out.
Farming in-lane is easier because his lane presence is far stronger. With the high DoT, Jungleplank is also viable and stronger.
With his current kit he no longer needs ludicrous farm to do things. This whole choose between parrrley harass and farm is now a backwards mentality. You harass, you zone then then you can parrrley farm or whatever you like. While they are there you harass with parrrley and last hit with auto-attacks. As for the gripe of people stacking armour. So what? Do the same if you’re laning an AD or MR if it’s an AP you’re both in the same boat but one of you is a pirate, therefore pirate wins.
You must have terrible luck with his ultimate if you think it does low damage. because it absolutely decimates people most of the time for me. Get a bad dispersion occasionally but cest la vie.
In a euro style setup with a support at bottom taking minimal farm GP really really shines. You simply zone your opponents because you win the harassment war with parley while still farming with autoattacks. Very few characters can take a parley close the gap and not die to a few autoattacks at levels 1-4.
Once you have that BF sword your amazing. Combine that with a speed boost, a CC remover (not a heal), a global slow and a stacking slow on autoattacks and you’ve got one hell of a champ. Boots + PD + IE and you win. If the game continues almost anything works. I like triforce but other people like a warmogs + atmas. I’ve seen pirates have a bad early game to the point where I abandon jungle and lane with them to support and they always carry me once they have the IE.
They need to seriously tone down the damage on Parrlay. As a Jax player, I’m starting to get a taste of my own medicine.
Yeah Zeb been playing most of my GP games with a duo queue pal on soraka it’s truly disgusting the amount lane control we have. Just can’t be threatened at all with the jungle warded.
Executioners calling to jungle? How about wriggles lantern jungleing without a madreds is slow as he’ll and you will be left in the dust in no time.
Executioners is too expensive for jungling and isn’t as good as wriggles for sustainability and speed – it’s great in lane tho, its passive DoT stacks with GP’s passive DoT, and its active can be used the second you see them pop a potion.