Champ of the Week: Pirate Power
I was pretty surprised by the number of comments and the magnitude of feeling about Gangplank with my initial Champ of the Week post. He is apparently quite the hot topic, so I’m going to try to handle this as delicately as possible. I want everyone to at least understand where I’m coming from on Gangplank’s design before we discuss the specifics of his changes and why he has suddenly vaulted into the spotlight.
I want to start by saying that Parley is just bad design, plain and simple. It is too spammable, too good for farming, and too random. No skill hits like a Parrrley crit – not even Nidalee’s spear – in the early-mid game and for good reason. That kind of damage output is just silly on such a low-cooldown, low-cost skill. Period.
That said, this patch didn’t make much of a change to Parley. Very little was changed other than his passive, which is certainly strong, but I don’t think that’s the problem. The basic issue, as I see it, is as follows. Gangplank used to suffer from the fact that he had a very strong harass but abysmal damage if you got in his face. His passive was next to worthless, only good against a subset of characters that rely on healing, and honestly, if he was close enough to apply the debuff he was probably dead. Now fighting Gangplank in the early game is basically a DPS race, and it’s one he can often win, thanks to poking harass he’ll have on his target from Parley. It all comes back to the low-cooldown, targeted harassment from Parley.
Enough hate. Gangplank is a blast to play, and it’s because he feels like it’s worth it to engage a target. I think that’s a really good thing. His damage needs some tweaking to be sure, but he’s gone from being a character that was useful every 5 seconds to a champion I actually enjoy trying to set up a kill with, which I consider a huge success. I actually think he is incredibly close to a perfect balance point. He’s still extremely soft, which makes up for his damage output in most cases. I just think Riot needs to tone down his laning against low armor targets a bit.
I’ve tried the jungle thing a few times now and been mostly unimpressed by Executioner’s Calling. I’m sure I’ll have more on that later, but for now, I think he has much better lane presence.
The most common jungleplank I’ve seen is wriggle lantern, Ionian boots, trinity force 3free slots.
I picked him up again after a long time and went an old Tankplank route: 2x Faerie Charm start, then Philo Stone, Warmog, Atmas, Merc Treads, Sheen/Trinity. It was pretty ridiculous at the time.
“Near a perfect balance point,” perhaps if the numbers on Q were changed and the crit component removed. GP’s new passive allows him to attain a 35% permaslow+DoT. That’s HUGE. Even with just a 7% slow on a Q hit, he can save himself, and teammates. Hit Q, slash once, take a stun; cleanse/heal, bloodlust every ally in the area, walk away. Solo-queue, it’s a nightmare to deal with.
We need to burn not one, but TWO team CC’s to kill him. Even if he’s out of position, he hits E and walks away – even if he’s eating a Malz ult. This is incredibly frustrating for people like me who learn Malz to respond to tanky DPS. He can walks away faster than you can run, short of summoners.
With high-percentage slow/permaslow (hard to know, given his cleanse, heal, and haste), he simply offers too much for one toon. Five-man premades, we counter him – we either ban him, or spec up for AOE/burst damage. When we pick him, if he’s underfarmed, he still contributes at ANY range with his AOE bloodlust and global slow. If he’s farmed, then he’s a CC tank, DPS, support, jungler, and anti-carry, all in one.
I gotcha all fixed up, Slam. I think the crit component of Parley has to go, for sure. The crits get too big, too fast. I played a game yesterday against a Vlad who brought like 400 health potions to lane, so I just farmed. I had a Sheen and an IE at 18 minutes and was critting for 950.
Thanks! Yeah, that kind of crit damage is insane.. double crit early (kind of random, happens from time to time) and JACKPOT, he blue pills back to heal and buy pots, or dies and buys pots, or just keeps dying.. in anycase, lane won. I played a Taric + GP; 1 stun, a Parryley and two slashes, and it’s as it’s as effective as Summoner Spell Exhaust, but with a hefty DoT and no time limit.
Right now, he’s basically a Janna that can deal carry-level damage. His new passive makes his E+2Q/2-auto combo as effective at level 1 as Janna’s max-ranked slow at level 5. Just one hit with his Q can have the same effect. His E fully ranked is 5x/10x stronger than her global passive. But Janna doesn’t have a spammable self-heal, self-cleanse, and global disengage… and can’t shoot you in the face and deal ONE BILLION damage to your carry while shrugging off suppression ults like he’s Olaf, every ten seconds (with blue).
I think you’re going overboard comparing Janna to Gangplank.Janna is mostly used to counter AoE teams while providing support,while Gangplank is a carry.
Regarding Parrrley,I think that making it not work with armor pen would be enough of a nerf to him.
My point is he’s now a strong carry AND a strong support.
GP’s Q is now a slowing nuke (with his free frozen mallet); Janna’s E is a slowing nuke. GP’s W provides an AD buff and a movement buff. Janna’s W provides an AD buff and her passive provides a movement buff. GP’s W is a disengage/heal. Janna’s R is a disengage, heal.
I understand that Janna’s ult heals; but it’s amazing for simply ending a bad fight, even against non-AoE heavy engagements. Somebody got caught out of position? Ult, disengage, re-engage later. GP’s ult functions in very a similar way, except it’s global. It does crap damage, but if someone’s getting chased, how often have you seen its slow simply end a chase, or force a disengagement? Or even pick up kills/assists?
The free frozen mallet lets him play support: slow a target to secure a kill, slow a target to help the team get away.
… sorry, I wrote a lot up there; just a bit frustrated that my teams win games we should’ve lost and lost games we should’ve won – I know he’s supposed to be squishy, so maybe I’m doing something wrong, but I can’t seem to burst him down; he just… eats damage, in addition to nutty burst..
I maintain what I said in a previous post. He’s more of a pain to deal with in lane than Rumble right now. I’ll be extremely surprised if there isn’t strong downwards adjustments in some area or another in the next couple patches.
Slam, I’ll be straight with you – my honest guess is that you were bound to lose those games anyway, but Gangplank poses a unique and frustrating set of circumstances that make the loss feel worse. I absolutely respect your opinion if you don’t feel this is the case – I’m still trying to sort out just where I stand on his power level – but for the time being, I feel like he isn’t a lot different from a Xin Zhao or even someone like Yi. When he’s fed, you’re going to know about it, and unfortunately he gets fed quite often. Do you think you would have lost those games if it was Xin Zhao or Yi instead of Gangplank? If no, cool, and I’ll continue to look at his balance level, but I haven’t had many games where I could decisively say “Gangplank won this in a way no other champ could have.”
I have had that moment with other toons that I consider OP.
@admin: In pre-mades we won certain games we should’ve lost; no nesc a bad thing, but certain games do feel like cheap wins.
It doesn’t sound like you agree, I but IMO the free Frozen Hammer and remake of E makes him on of the strongest right now. The slow component Q forces people to burn Summoner spells WAY too often, prevents/secures kills, and functions like a crit-capable Janna Zephyr. Maybe your experiences have been different.
Xin Zhao and Yi can carry games if fed; but IMO they don’t snowball as randomly and can’t contribute in mid or end game if they fall behind.