EDIT: CURRENTLY UNDERGOING S3 OVERHAUL, BIG CHANGES NEEDED SINCE HEART OF GOLD WAS REMOVED.

Hello, I'm known as H4xDefender in the league community. I'm a semi-pro 1700-1800 elo player that is currently the substitute jungler for Aware Gaming NA. I was moved to the substitute position due to time constraints with my schedule making me unable to commit fully to the accepted practice routine. You probably don't care though. You came here to get a Gangplank solo top guide.

Now some of you who actually bothered reading my short bio above might be saying "well you are jangler wut you no about line top???!!!111"
Well i'll tell you. I played solo top up to my elo, I was formerly a solo top main with my old team, and I've practiced and theory crafted witb countless diamond elo solo top players I've met in tournaments. And that is how I know about how solo top works.

Well now that I've wasted your time efficiently, I'll get into breaking down the guide.
(Bonus points for anyone who actually read this :P).

Well I'll sum it up in two words for you guys since you probably are all asking the same question.

Passive. Farm.

Thats what it is in a nutshell. If you don't like playing this way, and it goes against all your morals to not even attempt to kill the enemy champion, and your mind is exploding at just the very thought of the concept, then just leave now. Everything about this guide will be about playing passive farm Gangplank. No mana regen runes for parrley spam, no crit chance rune gimmicks, this whole setup is oriented around just straight out passive farming all lane long.

Well good question! (Not really).

Lets take some champions who are really good at killing other champions and compare them to Gangplank shall we?

Jax. Jax has a stun, and instant gap closer that doubles as an escape in case he gets baited by a jungler, an auto attack reset that gives him bonus damage on a low as hell cooldown, and he gets more damage as well as an absurd amount of tankiness for building DAMAGE ITEMS when he gets his ult.

Now lets look at Gangplank. Hes got a 21% slow going for him... after he hits the enemy champion three times. Hes got a heal that doubles as a CC remove, but its more of an escape kite ability then a straight out dueling ability. It removes cc, it doesn't give armor like a soraka heal. Hes got a passive movespeed and attack damage boost... but the damage is hard to notice before its maxed, and it won't be maxed until lane phase is over. The movespeed is noticeable, but once again thats more of an escape move.

His ult is completely random and can end up doing 0 damage, and even in good situations it doesn't provide as much in dueling as say a Darius dunk, or the aforementioned Jax ult. The slow is really nice, but how are you going to lock down half the cast who has gapclosers, dashes, and blinks today? I'll give you a hint, you won't.

So now that we've (hopefully) established that there is 0 merit to trying to constantly kill your opponent via gunshot, I can explain how to play Gangplank with this setup.

Shoot creeps.

Shoot more creeps.

(I pushed my lane because I shot too many creeps, what do????)

Go shoot jungle creeps.

If it isn't painstakingly obvious yet, you aren't going to use Parrrley on the enemy champion you are laning against. Not never, but never to just parley them for parley's sake. Its all calculated. You are going to put that half mana refresh on Parrrley and bonus gold to good use.

You also want to be a TEAM PLAYER since this is a TEAM GAME. (Shocking I know).

Now you might be wondering, WHY YOU TAKE TP? TP SUCKS IGNITE WHERE IT AT MAN.

If you are saying this, then son I am disappoint. What does Ignite provide? Damage. To what? Enemy champions. Since ignite doesn't one shot enemy champions, you aren't going to bring it. The only time enemy champions should drop below half against you are in a few scenarios.

1. They suck. (There are many ways to suck).

2. Your jungler f'd him up for you.

3. He tried to duel you after you finished items.

Even then you are going to have trouble killing people even with ignite.

Not worth.

Now lets see what Teleport provides!
Teleport + Cannon Barrage means you have the most map presence out of any top laner ever. Thats huge. You can shove down a creep wave while your ult wreaks havoc in a dragon fight, then teleport in to clean up afterwards. You can lanegank bot lane from behind through a lane brush or tri bush by teleporting to a ward. You can split push late game when baron is being pressured. You can go for PERFECT farm in your lane while getting to back still.

Call me crazy, but I think thats more useful then a bit of damage.

So as you've probably (hopefully) realized by now, this setup has gold per 10... everything. Gp/10 items, runes, and even masteries. For those curious I'll break down the math behind it all.

Gp/10 Runes:
Glyphs: 0.25/10 seconds X 9 = 2.25 gold per 10 seconds, thats 13.5 gold per minute.

Quints: 1/10 seconds X 3 = 3 gold per 10 seconds, thats 18 gold per minute.

Greed Mastery: 2 gold every 10 seconds = 12 gold per minute.

Philosopher's Stone + Heart of Gold

With only one: 5 gold per 10 seconds, thats 30 gold per minute.

With both: 10 gold per 10 seconds, thats 60 gold per minute.

TOTALS:
With no Gp/10s finished = 43.5 gold per minute.

With one Gp/10 finished = 73.5 gold per minute.

With both gp/10s finished = 103.5 gold per minute.

103 gold per minute. Thats pretty much a ward and a pot... for every minute you sit in lane. That is ridiculous. Lets look at some hypothetical numbers now.

With both gp/10s finished by 10 minutes, at 20 minutes you will have made...
1470 gold. That is nothing to scoff at.

At 30 minutes at this same pace you will have made 2505 gold from THIS BUILD'S GP/10 ALONE. THIS DOES NOT COUNT AMBIENT BASE GOLD GAIN.

Factoring ambient gold gain, you will have made at least 3000 gold from doing nothing but buying gp/10s items and sitting in lane. That is a free Warmog's Armor. Tell me that isn't good.

RELEVANT
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5-SfsRFf7Vw

This is a pretty simple thing.

First off, Philosopher's Stone and Heart of Gold help out Gangplank a lot in lane and throughout the game.

Philosopher's Stone: makes it so that you can Parrrley creeps permanently if you hit about 50% of your Parrrley last hits. The mana regen you get from masteries added with this and the mana refresh on kills lets you spam this for tons of monies in lane.

Heart of Gold: Gangplank is very frail before Aegis of the Legion and liable to get dived by a tanky jungler and or top laner. Heart of Gold helps remedy this, and Randuin's Omen while not in the build above, is a good item on Gangplank if that is what the situation calls for.

Now lets take a look at what Avarice Blade and Kage's Lucky Pick provide.

Avarice Blade: Crit is a horribly overrated stat on Gangplank. Crit is only useful against enemy champions, and with this build and playstyle you will not be shooting enemy champions. Sure when you are following up on things or in midgame fights it will give you the potential to crit, but how much damage is that crit even giving you when you don't have AD? Unlike Shurelya's Battlesong and Randuin's Omen, Youmuu's Ghostblade is never something you should build on Gangplank. It has bad stats and does not help your team at all.

Kage's Lucky Pick: This isn't an AP Gangplank build, so building Deathfire Grasp is immediately out of the question. The AP is pretty wasted as well. While Remove Scurvy and Cannon Barrage do have an AP scaling, the AP is pointless on Cannon Barrage and the Remove Scurvy bonus healing is quite insignificant.

Also as a general rule for both of these items, they set back your major items more then they actually help them, and eat up your inventory space to force you to sell one as soon as you finish Aegis of the Legion, which means it will rarely ever pay off anyway. Two gp/10s provide plenty of gold generation without setting you back TOO much in terms of items, and the two gp/10s you do buy provide good benefits, while the other two do not. Don't build them.

Ah, summoner spells. If for some god forsaken reason you didn't know, you get two of them. Not twenty, just two.

THE ONLY VIABLE ONES YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT:

Flash: Flash is op, bring it every game. No exceptions.

Teleport: Teleport is what I bring as my second SS 90% of the time. Not only will you be outgolding the enemy top laner if you play this setup right, with your global ult, Cannon Barrage coupled with TP, you will have truly scary map presence. This is explained more in depth in the previous chapter (WHICH YOU SHOULD HAVE READ).

Exhaust: This is more in organized team games where you can constantly communicate with your jungler and the rest of your team enough to know that your presence won't be needed bottom which allows you to take exhaust to give yourself a THIRD slow and a huge boon to your lategame power.

Promote: This is if you are constantly pushing, and I mean you better be running an entire team comp based around pushing if you are bringing this. Gangplank has no AoE so this does actually help him a good amount in shoving lanes to tower to deny.

Ghost: I hate it, but it is OK. Take it only if you are the absolute worst flasher NA and cannot get any mileage out of Flash.

I'll make this simple.

QUINTS AND SEALS ARE NOT CHANGEABLE. THE POINT OF THIS SETUP IS TO TAKE ADVANTAGE OF THE RIDICULOUS GOLD GAIN YOU GET FROM A TON OF GP/10 EFFECTS.

As for Glyphs and Marks, there are TONS of potential runes you can use.

You are usually going to want armor in one of these, since bringing nothing but the 6 armor from masteries usually means trouble in the top lane.

Marks:

I usually prefer armor marks, since I don't need any help last hitting as Gangplank. The passive AD you get from Raise Morale and the passive damage from Grog Soaked Blade help to last hit immensely. (The first tick of Grog-Soaked Blade's damage is instantly applied on first contact.)

If you have problems with last hitting despite these abilities, then go ahead and bring AD marks. If you know you are fighting an AP top, bring armor pen marks, and skip the armor.

Glyphs:

I put MR glyphs in the cheatsheet because most people who use this build will be in blind pick, and you don't want to get caught without any MR against an AP top in any situation.

If you know who you are laning against, you can use armor glyphs if you like them, although AD glyphs work if thats what floats your boat. HP regen/5 is a good option as well.

Well, since it is a GP/10 setup, obviously we are going to grab the Gp/10 mastery, Greed . Aside from that, since you won't have armor seals in this setup, you'll generally want to spec into the defensive tree after that. Indomitable and Initiator are strong masteries, and a little extra resists never hurt anybody.

Maxing out utility tree doesn't really help Gangplank out all that much, all you really need is that small boost to your mana pool and the gold per 10. The movespeed is taken to get down to the gold person mastery, and because it is more useful then the mana regen overall.

Going 18 points into offense isn't very useful compared to going 18 in defense. You won't be using that damage most of the time, and it becomes useless later when you have your items. You can argue the armor pen but it is the only thing worth taking, and it doesn't outweigh the benefits of grabbing up Indomitable and Initiator as well as the bonus hp/lvl.

9-9-12 is acceptable if you cannot live without the armor pen, but it still isn't optimal as you lose out on Indomitable and Initiator (yes they are really that helpful).

I'm not gonna lie, I HATE the fact you need to provide a skill sequence. For most champions this is situational, and this is no exception for Gangplank.

Parrrley: Max this when your opponent does not harass you at all. Parrrley is usually maxed last since it gains pitiful amounts of damage on skill rank up. The only reason to rank this up is to get the bonus gold on creep kills it provides. Maxed first in REALLY easy farmfest lanes.

Remove Scurvy: This is usually maxed first. It provides a TON of sustain when maxed, and doubles as a CC remove. When using this to escape you want to wait until they blow the most meaningful CC, or wait until they use the final cc on you. Knowing when to do this is hard to teach, it mainly comes from experience. Try to use this before getting ignited, although the heal is still pretty massive when ignited. Maxed first in heavy harass lanes,

Raise Morale: This skill is usually maxed last by medicore Gangplank players, but that is just downright stupid. Parrrley does not gain much on rank up, and since it scales with total AD, ranking Raise Morale up provides passive AD that makes Parrrley stronger as well. This skill also requires judgment from experience on when to use this when escaping. As a general rule of thumb, only use this when they don't have a ranged CC and you are decently in front of your pursuers. Maxed second or last. (Generally second).

Cannon Barrage: An amazing ultimate. Use this to escape, chase down people, save teammates, and annoy people in fights. This does random magic damage, only the slow is reliable. This provides vision wherever you shoot it, and yes it is completely global. Take a point in this whenever possible at levels 6, 11, and 16.

Grog Soaked Blade: You can't NOT use this passive. It applies on Parrrley and auto attacks and stacks three times. This passive doesn't do anything close to a Darius passive in terms of damage, but the slow it provides is enough to annoy the hell out of people and make it hard as hell to escape from Gangplank.

While I have listed that it is generally optimal to start Boots this is not always the case.

If you are playing against someone like Lee Sin, Riven, Garen, Renekton, or someone of the like, (the champions who try to kill you ALL the time) starting Cloth Armor and 5 pots is definitely optimal. While you can farm safely from a range most of the time with Parrrley and Remove Scurvy to fall back on, this isn't always possible if you don't have enough armor to not get 100-0'd.

Refer to the matchup/counterpick section below for more information.

Well this is the part most of you will probably find the most "normal."

In all honesty, you can build anything from full AD crit to straight AP and still do good on Gangplank, he is just that versatile. I'll break down some commonly built items on GP, my own build, and why to buy or not buy certain items.

MY BUILD:

Mercury's Treads: Gangplank is fast as hell with Raise Morale and Trinity Force's movespeed. The only thing hampering you is CC, and Merx as well as Remove Scurvy make you one hard pirate to peel.

Trinity Force: This item gives Gangplank everything he could want. Crit, MORE movespeed, AD, tankiness, a slow, bonus damage from Sheen that can also be applied by Parrrley, there is not a single stat wasted here.

Last Whisper: Gangplank has free AD, but lacks armor pen in his kit. Last Whisper takes care of this problem quite nicely.

Infinity Edge: Built last to make you a complete monster. I don't think I need to explain just how devastatingly powerful Iedge on GP is.

Aegis of the Legion: BECAUSE SOMEONE NEEDS TO BUY IT, AND YOU ARE A TEAMMMM PLAYER. Aegis resists + triforce hp + warmog's HP + merx tenacity + remove scurvy heal and cc remove = have fun.

Warmog's Armor: Just amazing. This transforms you from a relatively tanky bruiser with sick damage output to a MONSTER of a bruiser with sick damage output. All this raw hp coupled with Aegis resists makes you hard as fk to kill.

Commonly Built Items You SHOULD NOT BUILD:

Wriggle's Lantern: It isn't bad, but you don't ever want to build Aegis of the Legion AND Wriggle's Lantern in the same game. It delays Trinity Force and Triforce is amazing on Gangplank as stated earlier.

Bloodthirster: Infinity Edge is better in every way except the price. While lifesteal is good on Gangplank, its far from necessary.

The Brutalizer: Its ok if you aren't building Aegis of the Legion, but you usually want to build Aegis :P.

Frozen Mallet: Bad coupled with Trinity Force since the slows don't stack, and you always want triforce on GP.

Phantom Dancer: You don't need the crit or the movespeed. Triforce takes care of that. The only thing that even remotely helps is the attackspeed and once again Triforce covers that and more.

Atma's Impaler: Nerfed too hard and not better then any of the items in the build already, even with Warmog's Armor.

Situational Items:

Guardian Angel: Always a good option if you need to carry your ****awful teams. What you get rid of is up to you.

Randuin's Omen: If the enemy AD carry gets stupid fed, then finish your Heart of Gold into this so you don't get executed by their auto attacks.

Maw of Malmortius: If this will help you vs a double/triple AP team more then Infinity Edge then go for it. You can also swap this for Last Whisper and build LW last.

Black Cleaver: Good if the enemy team has balanced damage and your team has triple AD, i.e. Corki, Gangplank, and Nocturne.

Gangplank doesn't have the most favorable matchups, but I will list all the common ones, as well as some of the more uncommon ones, and what to do in every single one. This will not be alphabetized, just use ctrl-f, it isn't rocket science.

IT SHOULD BE A GIVEN THAT YOUR PRIMARY OBJECTIVE IN EVERY LANE IS TO FARM UP.


Champion: Warwick
Starting Item: Boots
Marks of Choice: Armor/Magic Resist
Glyphs of Choice: Magic Resist/Hp Regen/Flat CDR
Skill Order: Remove Scurvy, Raise Morale, Parrrley
Difficulty: Easy/Medium
Pick Against? Yes

Warwick isn't really an in your face kill you top laner. He is more of a passive farming champion that scales really well with items, much like Gangplank. While he can go aggressive on you and make your life annoying if he continually keeps his passive Eternal Thirst on you, it takes a lot of Hungering Strikes (and warwick's mana) and auto attacks to take a noticeable amount of your health, and then you can heal most if not all of it back with Remove Scurvy. Keep in mind that Remove Scurvy removes the suppression effect from warwick's ultimate, Infinite Duress. Overall not a hard lane.


Champion: Vladimir
Starting Item: Boots
Marks of Choice: Armor/Magic Resist
Glyphs of Choice: Magic Resist/HP Regen
Skill Order: Remove Scurvy, Raise Morale, Parrrley
Difficulty: Medium
Pick Against? Player discretion.

This lane can go many different ways. If the Vladimir is skilled enough to consistently land lasthits with auto attacks so he can use Transfusions on you, this lane will be rough. If this is not the case, then this lane is generally very easy. Most Vladimirs will want to passive farm just as much as you, and while vlad has a good teamfight, your teamfight is just as good if not better. Once you have finished your build up to Trinity Force, you can fight Vladimir straight up without any problems. This lane is very dependent on the skill of the enemy Vladimir.


Champion: Riven
Starting Item: Cloth Armor
Marks of Choice: Armor
Glyphs of Choice: Armor
Skill Order: Remove Scurvy, Raise Morale, Parrrley
Difficulty: Medium/Hard
Pick Against? Only if confident.

Riven is very very annoying. She has a ton of jumps and deals a lot of damage with her passive and her ultimate. You generally want to save Remove Scurvy until she tries to execute you with Blade of the Exile, but make sure her Ignite is down if this is what you are banking on. Do your best to freeze the lane once it pushes, don't try to shove it back into her turret when she goes back. If she freezes the lane she can chase you down and give you a hard time. You generally want to build your starting Cloth Armor into Aegis of the Legion, but if you are saving serious problems, then build it into a Ninja Tabi and buy another Cloth Armor for your Aegis. As long as she isn't fed you outscale her big time. If you just cannot lane, utilize your global presence and roam around to help your team.


Champion: Lee Sin
Starting Item: Cloth Armor
Marks of Choice: Armor
Glyphs of Choice: Armor/Magic Resist
Skill Order: Remove Scurvy, Raise Morale, Parrrley
Difficulty: Medium/Hard
Pick Against? Only if confident.

Lee Sin isn't the easiest champion to play, so it isn't that easy to place a difficulty on this matchup. One thing common among many Lee sin players though is that they try to kill you constantly. Sonic Wave / Resonating Strike coupled with Dragon's Rage is a strong execute, but it is also heavily mitigated by armor. This is another matchup where you may want to upgrade your Cloth Armor into Ninja Tabi to survive, but make sure you sell it for Mercury's Treads later. If you get hit by the first part of Lee Sin's Q and you have a good amount of health missing, pop Remove Scurvy before he dashes to you as it gains damage based on your missing health, and Remove Scurvy is a burst heal. You don't ever really want to fight Lee Sin, even when you have items finished. As with Riven, don't try to push the lane when he recalls, him freezing the lane is a big problem. You outscale him heavy as well.


Starting Item: Cloth Armor
Marks of Choice: Armor
Glyphs of Choice: Armor/Magic Resist
Skill Order: Remove Scurvy, Raise Morale, Parrrley
Difficulty: Hard
Pick Against? No.

Jayce is one annoying motherfker. Most Jayce players will poke you constantly with To The Skies/Shock Blast and when Shock blast is fired through acceleration gate it will hurt big time. Your only saving grace is that he has mana unlike others and cannot harass you 24/7. If you get hit by a an empowered shock blast, get ready to Remove Scurvy when you are hit by his hammer form To The Skies and you will generally escape. The reason you would not want to pick Gangplank in this lane though is because Jayce can sit in front of his creep wave and poke you away constantly and get his own farm with shock blast to completely shut you down, and a farmed Jayce is one of the few champions that can provide as much to his team and scale up throughout a game as well as a Gangplank can. Try not to ever have to play this lane.


Starting Item: Cloth Armor
Marks of Choice: Armor
Glyphs of Choice: Armor/Magic Resist
Skill Order: Remove Scurvy, Raise Morale, Parrrley
Difficulty: Hard
Pick Against? No.

This lane is a lot like the Jayce lane, but it is even worse. Kayle also has a ranged autoattack, but she has a damage amplification that doubles as a heavy slow as well as a resist shred from her Q and passive, which means the effect of getting an early Aegis of the Legion is greatly diminished. Kayle is very effective at denying you and diving you at level 6 and this lane as a whole is just not fun at all. She is normally built like an AD carry so she will do more damage then you in fights, and contribute just as much as you with the invulnerability ult she provides. AVOID PLAYING THIS LANE.


Starting Item: Cloth Armor
Marks of Choice: Armor
Glyphs of Choice: Armor/Magic Resist/HP Regen
Skill Order: Remove Scurvy, Raise Morale, Parrrley
Difficulty: Medium
Pick Against? Generally yes.

Jarvan is a champ that does OK vs Gangplank. If built correctly he will win fights vs Gangplank early on, but once GP finishes some items, he can destroy Jarvan handily. Jarvan can deny GP from farming effectively early on, but once points get sinked into Remove Scurvy, Jarvan just doesn't have the mana to harass him enough to go in for a kill. Even if Jarvan plays this lane correctly, he'll have his hands full trying to kill a Gangplank with Aegis. As long as you don't get hit by every single Dragon Strike Demacian Standard combo, and don't take unneccessary amounts of damage from Martial Cadence, past level 6 this lane should be smooth sailing. Beware of Jarvans trying to instakill you at level 2, its a relatively common strategy. You outscale Jarvan pretty hard as well. Not as much as Lee Sin or Riven, but by a good amount.


Champion: Shen
Starting Item: Boots
Marks of Choice: Armor/Magic Resist
Glyphs of Choice: Magic Resist/HP Regen
Skill Order: Remove Scurvy, Raise Morale, Parrrley
Difficulty: Easy
Pick Against? Yes.

Shen is one of, if not the easiest lanes for Gangplank. Remove Scurvy removes his only CC from Shadow Dash, so even when you get ganked you can just walk on out. His Vorpal Blade harass is what makes him a strong laner, but once you have some MR and points in Remove Scurvy, it will keep you near full hp throughout the lane. There is NO way Shen can stop your farm, and even though he has great global presence from Stand United, you can Teleport right down to where he is, and if it isn't up you can still drop Cannon Barrage to help out the people he is ulting towards. Lategame you are 20 times more useful than him, and can stop his split push effectively with your global presence. This is definitely a lane you want to play.


Champion: Cho'Gath
Starting Item: Boots
Marks of Choice: Armor/Magic Resist
Glyphs of Choice: Magic Resist/HP Regen/CDR
Skill Order: Raise Morale, Parrrley, Remove Scurvy
Difficulty: Easy
Pick Against? Yes.

This is a lot like the Shen lane, but can be a little harder or easier, depending on how the Cho'Gath player plays. If he builds AP and constantly hits you with Feral Scream and Rupture this lane will be irritating, but nothing that you can't handle. However, most Cho players opt to just farm up, and you scale just as well with items as he does, something most top laners can't say. If he runs out of mana make sure to bully the hell out of him and try to freeze the lane, a manaless Cho'Gath is almost completely harmless. When getting ganked, make sure you use Remove Scurvy to remove the slow from Rupture and not Feral Scream's silence, unless the enemy jungler has some CC that needs to be removed, i.e. Skarner's Impale. This lane isn't hard.


Champion: Singed
Starting Item: Boots
Marks of Choice: Armor/Magic Resist
Glyphs of Choice: Magic Resist/HP Regen/CDR
Skill Order: Raise Morale, Remove Scurvy, Parrrley
Difficulty: Easy/Medium
Pick Against? Generally Yes.

Singed is generally easy, unless you run into a murderous AP Singed. The good thing is that he only has one burst spell and that is from Fling, which you can pretty much counteract with Remove Scurvy. If you realize that your opponent is building AP, then max Remove Scurvy over Raise Morale. Normally Singed is annoying to kill because of his kiting ability and the annoying Poison Trail deterrent, but you aren't trying to kill him so you don't have to worry about this :P. If he farms between turrets then usually you want to just let him, but if your jungler and or mid want to come kill him, obviously go and help out, despite how little you might do. His lategame is just as strong as yours, just even his farm and you'll outgold him because of your gp/10s and you'll be fine. Generally this is a lane you would like to play, but only if you know how to lasthit under tower.


Champion: Jax
Starting Item: Cloth Armor
Marks of Choice: Armor/Magic Resist
Glyphs of Choice: Magic Resist/HP Regen
Skill Order: Remove Scurvy, Raise Morale, Parrrley
Difficulty: Medium/Hard
Pick Against? Generally No.

This lane is a nightmare past level 6, Jax is one of the few champions who can outdamage your sustain straight up. This is a lane where you just want to get farm for your Gp/10s asap, and then just play super passive. While he can deny your farm he shouldn't be able to kill you since you can just Remove Scurvy his Counter Strike stun, but once he gets Bilgewater Cutlass and or Phage do not even bother walking to lane unless it is shoved near your tower, he will chase you down and kill you, even with Remove Scurvy. If your lane is pushed just roam down to other lanes and help them out. While Jax will obviously win a lategamr 1v1 you provide 10 times as much in team utility in fights. Just survive and try to farm if you are forced into this lane, don't pick it unless you have nothing else.


Champion: Irelia
Starting Item: Boots
Marks of Choice: Armor/Magic Resist
Glyphs of Choice: Magic Resist/HP Regen
Skill Order: Remove Scurvy, Raise Morale, Parrrley
Difficulty: Medium/Hard
Pick Against? Generally No.

This lane is pretty much the Jax lane except you don't need to worry about her building a Bilgewater Cutlass, just hope when she is chasing you down she doesn't get a Phage proc. Always use Remove Scurvy on Equilibrium Strike, whether it be a slow or stun. Apply the same roam if lane is pushed, try to freeze near your tower when lane pushes strategy when she hits level 9 and maxes Hiten Style, and has a Phage because when these conditions are met, Remove Scurvy will not always save you from her jumping onto you and chasing you down for a kill. Try to avoid this lane if possible, if you have to play it farm up gp/10s as best you can before she is 6.


Champion: Yorick
Starting Item: Boots
Marks of Choice: Armor/Magic Resist
Glyphs of Choice: Magic Resist/HP Regen
Skill Order: Remove Scurvy, Parrrley, Raise Morale.
Difficulty: Easy/Medium
Pick Against? Yes.

This is actually my standard counterpick to Yorick. You can Parrrley his ghouls for all the normal benefits of killing a minion, (mana refresh + bonus gold for the slow people) so you can walk up to normally farm minions and Parrrley ghouls for MAXIMUM GOLD INCOME. Yorick will struggle to damage you at all when Aegis of the Legion is finished, and after about two cycles of ghouls unleashed on you, one Remove Scurvy will remove pretty much all of it. Just because of his ult, he comes close to lategame utility as you, but you still outscale him. Play this lane if you can last hit ghouls effectively, watch out though, they are more tanky then they appear.


Champion: Malphite
Starting Item: Boots
Marks of Choice: Armor/Magic Resist
Glyphs of Choice: Magic Resist/Hp Regen/Flat CDR
Skill Order: Remove Scurvy, Raise Morale, Parrrley
Difficulty: Easy/Medium
Pick Against? Yes

Malphite isn't a very hard lane for Gangplank at all. It takes Malphite so much mana to whittle people with no sustain down, and whittling down someone with the level of sustain Gangplank has is an exercise in futility. After realizing there is no way in hell he can harass you meaningfully or kill you, he will probably just farm up as well. Make sure you do the same, as Malphite is just as good if not even BETTER then you are in teamfights because of his stupidly overpowered Unstoppable Force ultimate coupled with his Seismic Shard + Ground Slam combo. Pick into this lane if you know you can last hit consistently.


Champion: Garen
Starting Item: Cloth Armor
Marks of Choice: Armor
Glyphs of Choice: Magic Resist/Hp Regen/Flat CDR
Skill Order: Remove Scurvy, Raise Morale, Parrrley
Difficulty: Medium
Pick Against? Generally Yes.

This lane is meh. Garen can't really kill you in one 100-0 at any point of the game if you start Cloth Armor, but if you take repeated Decisive Strike + Judgment (Spin to win) combos then you are going to get chunked rather significantly. This is a lane where you might want to Parrrley the enemy champion every now and then just to deter him from running up to you and cutting you with his sword over and over again. Garen's lategame is one of the most underrated things in the game, (its actually really reallllly good) but yours is still better. Farm up and don't play stupid and you should do fine, although this isn't the most favorable lane for you.


Champion: Renekton
Starting Item: Cloth Armor
Marks of Choice: Armor
Glyphs of Choice: Armor/HP Regen/Magic Resist
Skill Order: Remove Scurvy, Raise Morale, Parrrley
Difficulty: Medium/Hard
Pick Against? Generally No.

Renekton is like Garen but with way more early first blood potential, and way less of any kill potential later. He is easily kited as you can just Remove Scurvy his stun and waltz on out, but he has some sicknasty burst damage especially early on. You shouldn't die once you have Aegis of the Legion finished. If by some grace of god you get him low and dive in for a kill, watch out and don't get baited by Dominus, its pretty much a burst heal much like Remove Scurvy, but since it gives flat hp it isn't mitigated by Ignite and other healing reductions. This lane can be really hard if you play a good Renekton, so I wouldn't advise picking into it if possible, but it isn't the worst lane to play, not by a long shot.


Champion: Darius
Starting Item: Boots
Marks of Choice: Armor
Glyphs of Choice: Armor/Magic Resist/Hp Regen
Skill Order: Remove Scurvy, Raise Morale, Parrrley
Difficulty: Medium
Pick Against? Generally Yes.

Darius is like Renekton, but can actually kill you at any point in the lane after level 6 because Noxian Guillotine + Ignite + Hemorrhage is just flat out stupid amounts of damage. If he is chasing you down with intent to kill, pop Remove Scurvy when you are at 4-5 Hemorrhage stacks, right before he dunks and (hopefully) ignites you. Generally he will push the lane trying to harass you with Decimate, just freeze the lane and he won't ever be able to farm, because he has no escapes and is free food for you and your jungler if he is ever pushed up that far. Pick this lane if you want, just make sure you stay on your toes, Darius always has kill potential on you.


Champion: Rumble
Starting Item: Boots
Marks of Choice: Armor/Magic Resist
Glyphs of Choice: Magic Resist/Hp Regen
Skill Order: Remove Scurvy, Raise Morale, Parrrley
Difficulty: Medium
Pick Against? Player discretion.

Rumble cannot burst you 100-0 after the nerfs. Period. Which means that him harassing you with Flamespitter is going to do nothing but push the lane, which is your cue to freeze and free farm. If he freezes the lane on you you can still farm with Parrrley, because his only harass that isn't blocked by creeps is Flamespitter which like stated before will push the lane. He can however deny you farm by denying himself a lot of farm, if he chooses to just chase you down constantly. Rumble has a good lategame, but Gangplank has a monster lategame. Take in account that he does magic damage, and he also does a lot of damage with his autoattacks when overheated. Generally it is fine to pick this lane, just make sure you aren't stingy about your mana when using Raise Morale and Remove Scurvy to escape, danger zone Rumble does good damage. Not enough to 100-0, but enough in two rotations to kill you.


Champion: Kennen
Starting Item: Boots
Marks of Choice: Armor
Glyphs of Choice: Magic Resist/Hp Regen
Skill Order: Remove Scurvy, Raise Morale, Parrrley
Difficulty: Easy/Medium
Pick Against? Generally Yes.

Kennen isnt that bad since his many ticky-tack nerfs. This is generally a lane you will want to take Exhaust in since an ulting Kennen that is Exhausted does laughable damage. Kennen is known for building Dorans Bladess in lane and auto attacking constantly for a stun and going in for a 100-0, but with Remove Scurvy (and exhaust if you choose to bring it) there is no way he can do this to you, especially once Aegis of the Legion is finished. This lane is rough early if you take too many autos, but once you get some items finished it becomes a LOT easier and you can definitely take control of it.


Champion: Olaf
Starting Item: Boots/ Cloth Armor
Marks of Choice: Armor
Glyphs of Choice: Armor/HP Regen/Magic Resist
Skill Order: Remove Scurvy, Raise Morale, Parrrley
Difficulty: Medium/Hard
Pick Against? Generally No.

This lane is realllly tough if you go against a hyperaggressive kill NOW Olaf. The damage that Olaf gets from Reckless Swing + Undertow at level two is ridiculous damage that is EASILY able to first blood you if you aren't careful. Be VERY wary of early jungle ganks, because one CC is more then enough for Olaf to decimate you in half a second. Just survive to level 6 and some items and you will be able to do fine. Every time Olaf hits you with Reckless Swing, just pop Remove Scurvy and Parrrley him once, and you will have won the trade handily. You outscale Olaf hard, contrary to popular belief.


Champion: Tryndamere
Starting Item: Boots
Marks of Choice: Armor
Glyphs of Choice: Armor/Magic Resist/Hp Regen
Skill Order: Remove Scurvy, Raise Morale, Parrrley
Difficulty: Easy/Medium
Pick Against? Generally Yes.

Tryndamere isn't difficult at all because all he wants to do past early game is farm just like you. Watch out for early crits, if he gets 2 or 3 in succession, your health can evaporate. Past this though, once you have armor he can't really kill you, hes laughably easy to kite with Remove Scurvy and Raise Morale. While he does deal more damage then you lategame, that is a given and you provide a lot more utility. Just don't misplay and die early on and this lane is yours.


Champion: Tryndamere
Starting Item: Cloth Armor
Marks of Choice: Armor
Glyphs of Choice: Armor/Hp Regen/Magic Resist
Skill Order: Remove Scurvy, Raise Morale, Parrrley
Difficulty: Easy/Medium
Pick Against? Generally Yes.

Traditionally this is a counterpick to Gangplank, but guess what... you counter Pantheon by making his passive useless... since you don't ever Parrrley him with this playstyle. GG. 3-4 of his spears is going to equal one Remove Scurvy worth of damage so you will win the mana war for sure, and if he builds mana items, then you pretty much double his lategame efficiency. Even if he builds standard, you absolutely crush him lategame, not just in a straight up fight, but team utility as well. You should never die to him because you can just use Remove Scurvy his only CC, the stun from Aegis of Zeonia.


Champion: Rengar
Starting Item: Cloth Armor
Marks of Choice: Armor
Glyphs of Choice: Armor/Magic Resist
Skill Order: Remove Scurvy, Raise Morale, Parrrley
Difficulty: Medium/Hard
Pick Against? Generally No.

Requires further testing, but generally this lane sucks. Rengar is super annoying in all aspects.

I'm not saying this is the absolute best way to play the pirate, but it is irrefutably one of the best. It is hard as hell to stop a Gangplank with Remove Scurvy maxed, and this coupled with all your free gold gain make you one rich mothafka, and Gangplank is one of the best item scalers in the game. Give the build a try, I will be updating this guide periodically whenever possible.

THINGS TO BE ADDED:
FINISHED MATCHUP SECTION (Uncommon tops i.e. sion, shyvana once more experience)
2V1 SITUATIONS
GAMEPLAY VIDEOS
MORE ITEM EXPLANATIONS

Changelog:
10/4 Guide Released to Public
10/5 Matchup section started
10/5 GP/10 Explanation finished
10/6 Matchup section 90% finished
10/6 Slight mastery hiccup corrected, mastery section explained more indepth.
10/17 Fixed small errors in coding.


If you have any questions leave a comment.
-H4xDefender