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Gangplank Build Guide by link491

Other [6.16] Captain Gangplank's Revenge!

Other [6.16] Captain Gangplank's Revenge!

Updated on August 11, 2016
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League of Legends Build Guide Author link491 Build Guide By link491 344 34 7,711,496 Views 377 Comments
344 34 7,711,496 Views 377 Comments League of Legends Build Guide Author link491 Gangplank Build Guide By link491 Updated on August 11, 2016
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Spells:

LoL Summoner Spell: Teleport

Teleport

LoL Summoner Spell: Flash

Flash

Threats & Synergies

Threats Synergies
Extreme Major Even Minor Tiny
Show All
None Low Ok Strong Ideal
Extreme Threats
Ideal Synergies
Synergies
Ideal Strong Ok Low None

Captain Gangplank's Revenge
A guide by link491
Credits
Some Music to Set the Tone:

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Early, Mid, and Lategame
Barrel Mechanics
Items and Upgrades

Conclusion
Changelog
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Overview

So, why would you want to play gangplank, you might ask. Well, do you mean aside from him having the best laugh and the best taunt in the game? Not to mention the best skins? Oh that's right, you'll also get to be a freaking pirate! Not enough? Alright, well recently Gangplank got a rework, and he's pretty fun now. Follow this guide and I, link491, will show you the path of piracy success with Gangplank.

Firstly, the sheer power and DAMAGE than you can unleash is just silly at times. The combination of free true damage on basic attacks, huge critical strikes and overall a kit that lets you be extremely slippery, and your opponents are going to have a pretty hard time dealing with you as you melt their squishies and proceed to spam laugh, which you should obviously have bound to clicking your mouse scroll wheel.

On the downside, of course, pertains the danger of recklessly sailing the seven seas without a map. Being alone and stranded in the vast and dangerous jungle can quickly lead to your downfall should rival pirates and jealous corporate bosses come to hunt your glorious booty. Stay behind your ADC tank so they don't focus you!

So, I've been a Gangplank main since around halfway through Season 1. I remember the day when my friend came over, at the time I was saving up for some other less interesting champion (*cough* Mordekaiser*cough*), but my friend decided to go on my account and buy Gangplank. After around an hour of him teaching me what to build (at the time it was Heart of Gold into Atma's Impaler and Warmog's Armor, and how to play him, I had discovered my favorite champion. Flash forward to season 5, and Gangplank's still my favorite champion. Sure he's had changes, most recently for the better, but he's still every bit as badass as he was back then. Now then, I've had a bit of a ramble so it seems it's time to move onward to the guide!

Pros
Cons

The Deftest Skirmisher
Parrrley has good range and procs Trinity Force passive, allowing you to deftly quickscope the enemy noob and run away before you have to face the wrath of semi-organized retaliation.

Legendary Banker
Gangplank's natural build path and kit rakes in tons of money. Parrrley and Avarice Blade in conjunction helps fuel your expensive build path so you can deal tons of damage.

Oranges!
Here's a strong healthy pirate that ain't got scurvy! Disregard cc and debuff effects by simply using Remove Scurvy. This gets rid of almost every single debuff in the game, which proves to be incredibly useful and is basically a Quicksilver Sash on a shorter cooldown with heals.

Global Presence
Cannon Barrage as a global ability is the perfect tool for you to help your teammates set up engages and win some tax money from it! The slow is quite useful and the damage is not to be undermined. If an enemy is under 200 health it may be possible to finish them off with a well aimed Cannon Barrage

Glass Sculpting
A full damage build path offers little in terms of survival and in addition Gangplank has no natural tank properties, so you'll have to bolt should rival pirates set their beady little eyes upon you.

A Captain Never Runs!
Gangplank has no real escape mechanisms, and this can really hurt him when playing against champions that have large amounts of mobility ( Riven, Renekton, Wukong, etc.)

Too Heavy
Gangplank is NOT a solo carry no matter how to look at it. Despite the fact that he can deal excellent damage he can't trade very well and does not have sustained damage. His greatest strengths are poking and team fighting, where he shines as a high damage almost support-style champion.

Relies on a Good Crew
While Gangplank can deal a lot of damage in a short amount of time, he is very team reliant as he can only really blow up one, maybe two champions easily. Skirmishes and team fights are where Gangplank is going to be the most useful.




Trial by Fire
Overall a pretty good passive. The strategy with this is simple: Farm up while it's down, and when it's up go and smack your opponent. Killing a Powder Keg will reignite this, so you can use those to deal really nice harass damage over a short period.
Ability Details
Parrrley
Parrrley is your first damage source and is certainly one of my favorite skills. It provides good ranged harass, and procs anything that your basic attacks can. It also gives you bonus gold whenever you kill a minion, as well as the currency that you're going to need later on to upgrade your Cannon Barrage. In lane, you're going to want to try to use this skill to farm as much as possible, the only time you should be using it otherwise is to kill a Powder Keg or to harass the enemy if they act stupid and get too close. We max this first so that we can maximize our gold potential as well as earn as much as we can so we can upgrade Cannon Barrage as early as possible.
Ability Details
Remove Scurvy
We don't like to be bogged down by scurvy, so we always take our daily vitamin c! Remove Scurvy is the ability that Gangplank is probably best known for, and it provides massive sustain to boot. The power to nullify any cc makes it incredibility difficult for the enemy team to lock you down. The mana costs of this ability can get pretty hefty at later levels, so we only grab a point or two in this early, as that will provide more than enough sustain until late game.
Ability Details
Powder Keg
This is your second form of damage, as well as your main method of wave clear. Essentially you're going to want to drop one of these down on the back line of minions and then hit it with a Parrrley to clear out the wave with sheen. The timer on these things is pretty slow until level 7 though, so aside from an early point in them at level 2, we're not going to be upgrading these much until after we've maxed Parrrley.
Ability Details
Cannon Barrage
Probably the most under-rated ultimate in the game. It provides a global slow in a large area, as well as tons of utility. You can go three ways with this skill, either you're going to provide a large burst of damage by purchasing Death's Daughter, more damage over time from Fire at Will or big utility in teamfights with Raise Morale.
Ability Details


Runes


Flat Attack Damage
Attack damage helps Gangplank in a multitude of ways, and most other marks won't give you the raw power that these will. Firstly, Trial By Fire scales with 100% of the damage provided from these. Secondly, Parrrley and Powder Keg both scale off of 100% of the damage that these will give as they both scale off 100% of your AD. They also help you last hit, which is always nice. If you find you don't have trouble last hitting and would like to have more damage around the mid game when you hit your power spike, you could go for a full set of Greater Mark of Scaling Attack Damage, which will be far better in mid game at the cost of some early help.

Flat Armor Flat Magic Resist
Before Gangplank recieved his glorious rework, you could argue that Greater Seal of Armor was equally as effective as Greater Seal of Scaling Health, well not so much now. You really need the early game armor bonus to combat the more oppressive top lanes like Darius and Garen that are floating around right now. Flat magic resist will give you some more protection from the many mages that exist in the game, and will in many cases be the thing that saves you from dying to a mage after you kill them. If you feel like you want a bit more resistance for late game, you could go for a 5/4 split of Greater Glyph of Scaling Magic Resist and Greater Glyph of Magic Resist, or just a full set of 9 Greater Glyph of Scaling Magic Resist.


Flat Attack Damage
The two Greater Quintessence of Attack Damage should be pretty self explanatory. Most of Gangplank's abilities scale with damage, as does his passive. More damage means we can farm and kill easier, what's not to like? If you don't want to be running full damage, and would prefer to have a bit more protection or utility you could swap one of these out for an armor or magic resist quint, or you could run scaling damage instead if you feel you can get away with it, but generally I would recommend just sticking with flat AD quints.
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Masteries
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FEROCITY CUNNING


For offensive masteries, we basically take everything that we can use. Sorcery pumps our damage from Powder Keg and Cannon Barrage while Double Edged Sword and Oppressor increase our overall damage. Now you could go with Bounty Hunter instead of Oppressor as they're both equally good, so it really depends on if you want more early game damage or late game damage. The cunning tree is going to give us a lot of utility and stats that Gangplank will benefit from. Savagery makes farming easier while Secret Stash will give sustain and protection if somebody is betting on ignite to kill you early. Meditation will help your mana sustain even more, but Merciless is a fine alternative. Bandit rewards you for harassing the enemy with Parrrley, which will give you the full 10 gold, and Precision gives you that sweet, sweet armor and magic penetration. Finally pick either Thunderlord's Decree to increase your burst or Stormraider's Surge to gain more movement speed when you burst somebody down.





Recommended Summoner Spells
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Flash is essentially the best summoner spell in existence just because of how overpowered it is. An instant gapcloser than can be used in a multitude of ways is a must have.
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Teleport provides you with lots of utility, it will let you set up ganks, split push, and make all sorts of other interesting plays. Teleport stays relevant through the entire game, and I would say that its power is at the very least on par with flash.
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Alternatives
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Exhaust will provide you with a good slow and damage reduction, perfect for killing the enemy or disengaging if you have to.
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Ignite is that spell we all use to finish off the opponent. Grab this if you plan to go for an early kill.
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The only times I would really recommend grabbing barrier are when you're facing somebody with an execute ability, like Riven or Cho'Gath.



Early, Mid, and Lategame
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Early Game
You're going to want to spend your laning phase doing a few things. Firstly you should prioritize last-hitting everything you can with Parrrley. This will let you rack up a sizable gold advantage, as well as the Silver Serpents that you'll need to upgrade Cannon Barrage later on. While you're last hitting, do yourself a favor and drop a few Powder Keg down when it suits you. The best places to place them are generally in places that the enemy is going to need to go or in places where you can use them to clear large groups of minions. If you Parrrley a barrel and it kills something, it will give you the bonus gold, so you should use this to your advantage to rack up even more gold.

Try to stay out of the enemy's range at all times, farming and harassing with Powder Keg where needed until the enemy either dies or has to recall. If they recall before you, push out the lane and recall yourself. One thing that I can not stress enough is to make sure that you are always moving. This makes dodging skill shots and avoiding ganks much easier. It also can be quite off-putting for the enemy, as it forces them to really focus on aiming their abilities, and creates a higher possibility of them missing a skill or click.

Once you hit 6, you've come to the point in the game that you become a massive asset to the other lanes. Start watching the other lanes, and see if they are able to engage for a kill. If they can, ping and drop an ult on the enemy to slow them, hopefully netting your allies a kill and you an assist. This works the best when you work with the jungler to set up mega ganks that are pretty much impossible to escape from.
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Mid-Late Game
Once you hit mid game you should begin roaming. Help out any lanes that may be having trouble, and make sure you participate in skirmishes. When you're in a fight, drop a Powder Keg in the center of it, and use Parrrley to detonate it, dealing damage to all your enemies and slowing them. Harass the squishies with Parrrley and use your passive to hit anybody that gets near you and get out of their range as fast as you can. Remove Scurvy will sustain you if you get low.

Moving into late game, you can pretty much just do what you want cause a pirate is free! You can just run around the map, pushing turrets quickly and melting anything that comes near you with less than 150 armor. In team fights you should be hitting whoever's near you, while using Parrrley to establish dominance over their ADC and using your Powder Kegs to slow the enemy while dealing significant amounts of splash damage. What you're going to want to do when placing the barrels is drop one in a safe position near you, and then drop the second one near whoever you're trying to deal damage to, then you can smack the barrel that's close to you in order to deal more damage from a safe distance. Once fights are ending, you can use Cannon Barrage or Powder Keg to pick off any stragglers or to help your team escape if things didn't go your way.


Barrel Mechanics
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Farming
Drop a Powder Keg near you first so that you can protect it while it ticks down, since the ticking rate at early levels is pretty slow. Once it's at one hit point, you can drop a second one connecting to it and hit it with a parley to detonate both barrels. This will deal the AOE damage from Parrrley, as well as the bonus damage from the barrels themselves providing really nice wave clear if you use it when the minions are at around half health or less. This will let you rack up Silver Serpents rather quickly, since the gold you get from parley is applied when you hit a barrel with it.
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Harassing
Harassing is going to change based on your enemy. Most of the time you're going to be playing against a melee, so you can do the same thing you did when farming to get more or less instant damage. Drop the first barrel where it's safe, then detonate the second when you want to. You should try to harass when the enemy goes to farm if you plan to use this method, so you can double the barrel value by dealing damage to the enemy as well as using it to kill a few minions at the same time. Keep in mind that it's not a good idea to spam barrels too much though, since you want to always have one available to you to get out of stick situations. Note that Powder Keg will not proc Bandit , so I would recommend prioritizing harassing the enemy with Parrrley if you can. This way you will get to abuse Bandit from a far range effectively netting you free gold.
Now then, ranged opponent, or one with a lot of mobility ( Riven, etc.) is where things are going to get complicated. Firstly, you should freeze the lane. This will let you place the first barrel with no fear of them being able to get to it. When you go to harass or clear a wave now you're going to have to be very fast. Drop the barrel on the enemy, and right as it lands Parrrley the first one. If done correctly, you should be able to deal the harass damage even if the enemy uses a dash to escape.
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Kiting
Kiting is relatively different from harassing and farming. For one thing, you're only going to need one barrel, and you can only really do it easily once you're level 7 or higher, since that's when the barrel tick down timer gets reduced. When being chased, drop a barrel in front of you at max range, then wait for the enemy to come near. When they get in range for the barrel to deal damage, Parrrley it for big damage, a slow and a movement speed boost. This should give you ample opportunity to escape anybody that's chasing you.
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Pushing
When pushing, you can use Powder Keg to deal massive damage to the turret in a short amount of time. Drop a barrel whenever Trial By Fire is down and hit that barrel to bring it back up. When you hit the turret it will expend your passive and deal true damage. Rinse and repeat to take turrets quickly.


Itemization
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Core Items

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Our core items are as simple as they come. Trinity Force massively increases our overall damage output and will let your Powder Keg one-shot back line minions if you choose to return to lane after getting this. Ionian Boots of Lucidity give you more cooldown reduction on your abilities and summoner spells, and Caulfield's Warhammer will let you max out your cooldown reduction while building into either Youmuu's Ghostblade or Death's Dance.

Final Items (Pick Three)

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Your last three items are completely situational. This versatility is what makes Gangplank such an interesting champion. He can literally benefit from anything you want to buy. Need another tank? Grab some resistances and still blow up squishies. Need to deal with some tanks? Grab some armor penetration and proceed to blow them up with the squishies. Is your adc feeding? Great! You can go full damage and become the new carry! Overall this versatility will let you fill many different roles, which makes Gangplank a champion that will fit into any team comp regardless of who's in it.

If you're looking for a good default for last items, I would recommend grabbing a Youmuu's Ghostblade, a Lord Dominik's Regards and an Infinity Edge so that you can run around the map screaming into all chat "YOU WILL ALWAYS REMEMBER THIS AS THE DAY THAT YOU ALMOST CAUGHT CAPTAIN GANGPLANK!"

Cannon Barrage Upgrades

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Right then, now that we have a good idea of what all of our abilities do and what we should be building, it's time we talked about Cannon Barrage.

First let's talk about Fire At Will. Fire At Will is in my opinion the best of the three upgrades that are available to us. It adds 6 additional waves to the ult, which will massively increase our damage and since cannons slow on an individual basis now, once you have this you're pretty much guaranteed to deal at least 250 damage, most of the time far more than that. The only real downside to this upgrade is that it doesn't maximize your damage potential if you get it first, and so it probably better to grab second or third (if the game goes that long).

Now, Death's Daughter is your mid game bread and butter. A bunch of true damage that can hit multiple people? Yes please! The burst that this provides can be such a game changing amount that it would be ludicrous to not buy this as soon as you possibly can. Once you have it you will be able to turn the tide of a team fight with just this ability simply from landing the true damage portion of your ult. One thing to keep in mind is that the radius of the large cannon ball is about half that of the entire ult field, and is positioned in the center, so you're going to need to predict the enemy's movement a little bit so that you can land it.

Finally we come to Raise Morale. Now this is the utility upgrade, but it's nowhere near as powerful as the other two, so you're not going to get it until you've got the other two first. Essentially grabbing this will make escape impossible for the enemy without burning flash or some escape ability, and even then it's going to be difficult. Raise Morale is great for chasing and disengaging, but honestly it's not good enough to grab above the other upgrades most of the time. You'd be better off grabbing Death's Daughter above this unless your team is the most immobile team ever.
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Thanks
Alright to start with, thanks so much to all of you for looking at my guide and up-voting it. I owe the guide's success to you.

Feedback
I always like to hear from readers about their thoughts on my guide, ways I could improve, etc. So please, don't hesitate to leave comments about anything relevant! Questions can be dropped in the comments as well, or if you want to you can send me a PM with your questions. If you do notice any typos or mistakes, please don't hesitate to let me know, I do give +reps.
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Changelog
A Closing Video
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