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Gangplank is one of League’s premier lane bullies, but his early game power doesn’t translate entirely to late game dominance. Riot are looking at potential changes to fix that though in an attempt to salvage the Saltwater Scourge’s player base.

Gangplank can deal out plenty of damage late-game already in League of Legends. His chains of barrels can carve through entire teams if left unchecked, but it’s also quite easy to counter.

It often leads to players having to split push, only throwing down their ultimate for zone control in fights. With teamfighting being such a key component of League right now too, this usually leads to the Saltwater Scourge’s team getting trounced in a 4v5.

This reflects in his win rates too. While Gangplank has a win rate of around 51% for games that finish before 25 minutes, this plummets to around 47% once games tick over the 30 minute mark, according to stats site LoLalytics.

Given 25-35 minutes is the average game time nowadays, this sharp fall off has pushed many people away from picking the Saltwater Scourge.

That could change later in LoL Season 11 though, as Riot start to explore changes to push Gangplank’s power later into the game.

Developer ‘Phlox’ released a poll on Twitter asking Gangplank players would prefer a powerful laning phase ⁠— something he already has with his Parlay harass ⁠— or a buffed late game.

The response was overwhelmingly towards the latter, with Phlox himself hypothesizing a buff that’d reduce the effectiveness of Grasp on his Q in lane, and replace it with more late game scaling.

I'd love to get your feelings on Gangplank. Quick disclaimer that no Gangplank work is guaranteed to ship + this is not binding. I'm happy to read any thoughts in the replies!

Would you want to exchange lane harass for a buffed lategame?
Get: (Ranged Grasp on Q + Buff)

The recent Irelia changes simplified her kit and turbocharged her W, shifting power away from her early game to become more relevant late. Despite original consensus believing it’d nuke the duelist, her win rate jumped from 46.90% to 52.07%.

Gangplank could benefit from the same treatment, but exactly how Riot are going to approach it exactly remains to be seen. We will update you as more information arises.

Stunt says he has been released by 100 Thieves