State of Gangplank in 4.5 and his potential...

[quote=DaRastaPasta]Hi I like to play as [[Gangplank]] occasionally and was wondering how he matches up in 3 different roles with the new items and gold changes. I never see him on any tier lists and was just curious on this champion. Top [[Gangplank]]? Jungle [[Gangplank]]? Support [[Gangplank]]? Also I have heard he is getting a rework sometime possibly? What would I expect to change in his kit? Thanks for responses in advance.[/quote]

[quote=NicknameMy]I play him mostly as jungler lately and had quite good success. The good thing about him is that he brings so many slows to a fight, he can chase and disengage very well. There is now the problem, you have to trust your team in order to win, as Gangplank himself doesn't deal that much damage (Crit builds suck...). At least, [[feral flare]] seems to be good at him. Okay, he ganks very often, but everything he does except his ult adds [[feral flare]] on top of it. Then there are also mana problems if you spam your Q, so in the end, [[spirit of the ancient golem]] might be still better. Who knows... Oh. the price reduction on [[iceborn gauntlet]] helps him as this item has perfect synergy with him. But the best part about GP is his global presence which makes him a great counterganker. My Skill Order for GP in the jungle is R>E>W>Q becasue if you don't max Q first, there is also no reason to max it second. If you max Q first you want to snowball from the gold but in the jungle that isn't possible. And E allows better jungle clear anyway. Also, the heal of W allows you to delay the construction of HP a bit, which makes room for an early [[iceborn gauntlet]]. GP isn't played as a jungler currently because he doesn't fit the meta. Currently, most junglers are about killing stuff and GP is practically the opposite of that. His jungle speed is also meh, and his ganks aren't the best aswell. But if he gets close to you, you are practically dead thanks to his passive. The rework to him, as riot said, will remove the teambuff of E and make him a bit more selfish. More isn't known yet.[/quote]

[quote=Latest Legend]His stats are way too low I think. They nerfed him too hard(mana cost and passive). I wouldn't play him right now except for the lulz. Something like [[shen]] is roughly the same idea and does it better. I've never seen someone maxing E on gp. I'd say it doesn't synergize with his main edge which is poking with his long-range auto-attack Q. It merely gives some AS, MS and a meager amount of AD. Leveling Q makes a lot more of a difference damage-wise. While W is nice for sustain. I'd max either W or Q first, but not E. Some burst will also make the scare factor during ganks bigger and will make more of a difference if going for a kill. E is definitely nice late-game in team-fights, but I wouldn't prefer it earlier in the game. I'd rather play him AP mid than as support. Other supports just bring more to the table nowadays. E only helps in long fights and the laning phase is dominated by poke champions. If they reduce his mana-hungriness and/or make his passive useful again I'll probably start playing him again.[/quote]

[quote=BlueArtist]For the change you mentioned.. I remember some rioter once said the major complain was the unreliability on his ultimate, confused with role, E being underwhelming, and not much decision making during combat. They said [spoiler] "However, GP just kinda buffs his team, then runs around in teamfights while Q is off CD. I'd love it if he had more defined strengths and weaknesses, because the well-rounded nature of his kit just leads him to be wonderfully average in all phases" and "Gangplank is definitely one of the more boring champions to play against. When he was strong, there were 3 things that could happen: he will shoot you when his Q is off CD and sometimes it hurts more than others; he will run at you when he gets an advantage and slow you forever so you cant get away; or he will run away from you when you get an advantage and nullify any CC you lay down. " also "Raise Morale has been overworked and overnerfed into an incredibly boring and underpowered ability. I have zero morale for the current state of Raise Morale. Raise my Raise Morale Morale, morelloplz " [/spoiler] which is true. However, there isn't any change as of now (correct me if I'm wrong) and most likely his E is gonna get replaced by some other spells. Also, FeralPony wants a treasure chest included in his gameplay... Go read up here: [url=http://www.surrenderat20.net/2014/03/red-post-collection-gangplank.html]Gangplank Potential Updates[/url] On a side note, this discussion took place quite awhile ago.[/quote]

[quote=NicknameMy][quote=Latest Legend] His stats are way too low I think. They nerfed him too hard(mana cost and passive). I wouldn't play him right now except for the lulz. Something like [[shen]] is roughly the same idea and does it better. I've never seen someone maxing E on gp. I'd say it doesn't synergize with his main edge which is poking with his long-range auto-attack Q. It merely gives some AS, MS and a meager amount of AD. Leveling Q makes a lot more of a difference damage-wise. While W is nice for sustain. I'd max either W or Q first, but not E. Some burst will also make the scare factor during ganks bigger and will make more of a difference if going for a kill. E is definitely nice late-game in team-fights, but I wouldn't prefer it earlier in the game. I'd rather play him AP mid than as support. Other supports just bring more to the table nowadays. E only helps in long fights and the laning phase is dominated by poke champions. If they reduce his mana-hungriness and/or make his passive useful again I'll probably start playing him again. [/quote] But E also affects any champs nearby and since GP isn't really focused onto damage and rather supporting his laners and helping his team to catch up and dealing more damage helps more. Also, if you max E, you have way less mana problems, cuz spamming [[parrrley]] costs way to much mana. Also, [[shen]] is a way slower jungle clearer, his gank idea is way diffierent and he also fits in way different teamcomps. GP is rather someone for a push teamcomp thanks to his team buff and disengages, [[shen]] would be someone to either splitpush or teamfight. Also GP ganks through buffing his teammates up, while [[shen]] locks his enemy down.[/quote]

[quote=Latest Legend]Sure, an early point in E is well worth the investment. But to max it first? Like I said before, during most ganks maxing [[parrley]] will bring more damage to the table than maxing [[raise morale]]. Sure, [[raise morale]] may be good when you're pushing the mid inhib with your whole team, but that won't happen early to mid game most of the time. Furthermore, as you pointed out yourself, [[raise morale]] is useful when with your team members. When clearing the jungle it won't be that much of an edge to let the chance on decent ganks slide. Note that this edge becomes even smaller if you calculate in the extra gold from [[parrley]] kills. If I think [[gangplank]] I think harass(Q), sustain(W), engaging(E, R), immobilizing(R + passive), chasing(E, R) and global pressure(R). [[shen]] has harass(Q), sustain(W), engages(E), immobilizes(E) and global pressure(R). Surely there are differences and surely they have their own niche, but I consider [[shen]] and [[gangplank]] to be decently similar in this aspect. I think [[gangplank]] can be a decent splitpusher too with his E and R, and is also good in teamfights because of those two abilities. Note that I'm talking about gp in general here, not only as a jungler.[/quote]