Posts are going up unexpectedly late tonight – I’ve been working on two longer articles today and unfortunately they just aren’t done. Keep an eye out for those early next week. In the meantime, let’s talk about the Gangplank nerf.
Yes, I said nerf, because that’s just the most accurate term. Gangplank was already a bit of a niche character, occasionally effective in his ability to deny experience in his lane and set up jungle ganks. He struggled in teamfights from both an unreliable ultimate and his lack of mobility tools, especially when there weren’t creeps in the vicinity. His damage output was also typically unpredictable – occasionally through the roof but rarely consistent thanks to Parrrley. This rework did very little to address his biggest problems.
Raise Morale has lost its ability to deny creep experience, an admittedly broken mechanic when only one character in the game can do it. Removing that facet of the ability also meant Gangplank lost his ability to effectively lane. Because Parrrley grants bonus gold on kill, it’s best used every time it’s off cooldown, resulting in a lane push. Raise Morale gave Gangplank, who has low mobility compared to all the dashers in the game, the ability to lane against highly mobile teams by hanging back at his turret. For interested parties, Gangplank is one of three melee champions in the game to have neither a dash nor CC (slow/stun/fear – the terrible slow on his ult does not count). The other two champions are Mordekaiser and Garen, two of the most poorly designed characters in the game in my opinion. As far as laning goes, both these guys absolutely rock Gangplank, though Kaiser might push a little too hard.
The changes to Gangplank’s ult might be the most embarrassing part of his “rework.” The AoE is smaller, the slow is half as effective, and the random damage element is still there, though worse than before because the area of effect is so much smaller. Now, I’m no fan of global ults, but the fact that GP could blanket a lane with this bad boy every couple minutes was pretty nice. It could be fired quickly without a ton of regard for placement, a simplicity countered by the fact that it might not do so much damage. Now it has to be carefully placed, still does unreliable, often pathetic damage, and hardly slows the target. Gangplank has plenty of trouble getting to his intended target – he didn’t need a slow nerf to make things worse.
Gangplank needs a remake, not this rework crap. His ultimate is terrible, Parrrley is poorly conceived, and Raise Morale doesn’t give him the boost he needs when he needs it. His one good skill, Remove Scurvy, remains the only skill in the game that can break suppression, a feature that will likely be removed someday for the same reasons his deny was removed. I won’t be touching Gangplank again until he gets his remake.
