This is the first guide I have created on MOBAFIRE and hopefully won't be the last. This is how I personally play Gangplank at solo top, and may differ to many other guides on the forums. Please comment and give advice for me to improve this guide in the future!

As with any guide ever written on MOBAFIRE, never follow this blindly. Take into consideration the comments made about masteries, runes, skills and items. On League of Legends you MUST
be able to adapt to situations to win games. For example, an AD carry such as Ashe becoming a problem? Buy more armor such as a Thornmail. If you are getting zoned within the laning phase or constantly griefed? Max Remove Scurvey first before Parrrley. The winning factor of any LoL game is teamwork, but you have to be individually smart.

Pros Highly sustainable Great early damage Late game dominance Easy to grief opponents He's a pirate!

SPACE

Cons Partially squishy early game Easy to counter Ulti is easy to dodge High mana cost early game If anyone could help me with this layout please message me!

This setup is fairly simple to understand, but other rune choices will also be discussed:

Greater Mark of Desolation is highly useful for early game damage with your Parrrley and basic attack. Most solo top players will come equipped with armor, so a nice amount of armor penetration will do the trick. This combinded with Greater Quint of Desolation will give you a total of 25 armor penetration. If you are against a solo top with offensive runes and masteries that do not include armor or magic resist, you could start dealing true damage.

Greater Seal of Armor is a normal choice for any solo top, as usually you will have 2 offtanks fighting each other who are AD. The rune setups for many of these characters will virtually be the same.

Greater Glyph of Magic Resist may not be useful against a full AD offtank, but it is useful against AP junglers such as Amumu and Fiddlesticks. This slight amount of Magic Resist may be the difference between life and death. Also within this build there is no other source of Magic resist apart from Resistance

OTHER FEASIBLE RUNE CHOICES

Greater Quintessence of Critical Chance Some people choose to go full crit chance with Gangplank OR they choose to have 3/4 Crit chance and the other Crit Damage. A full rune set of Crit Chance would result in you having 20% crit chance without any items. If you changed this Quintesance for Greater Quintessence of Critical Damage you would have an extra 15% Crit Damage combined with 15% crit chance. Both of these runes make sense, but as it says it is a chance. The reason I choose Armor Penetration over crit chance is because of that reason.

Greater Seal of Defense if you prefer more Armor late game. This has to be considered when in draft mode. If you see a highly dominant AD team that thrives in late game, consider changing from your normal armor seal, to armor per level.

Within this section, I will discuss the reasoning for my choices and the item order but will also consider other item choices.

As you would expect, Parrrley is unlocked first and maxed as soon as possible. With Gangplank, you want to grief your opponent as much as possible during the laning phase, making it harder for them to farm and therefore being less useful mid to late game.

I strongly believe that Parrrley has to be maxed first, unless you are actually being zoned and outfarmed or there is a jungler who is constantly ganking you. If this is the case, you may consider maxing Remove Scurvey first as it provides great early sustainability and removes any cc effects from gangplank, including fears, stuns, silences, snares etc.

Gangplanks Raise Morale is a great move, but is overshadowed by his Q and W. There isn't a strict skill sequence with Gangplank, it just depends how and where you are playing him. If you were supporting an AD carry on bot lane, you may consider maxing Raise Morale first, but as this guide focuses on solo top, maxing Parrrley first is the most reasonable option.

Lastly, Gangplanks ulti Cannon Barrage is fantastic as it can be fired anywhere on the map. Just like Shen, you can be helpful within a fight that is on the other side of the map. Within a normal game, you should be spotting fights on the minimap that you can gain free gold from by assissting your teammates. It's simple! Gangplank can be having an average time farming, but can make up for it through becoming Assistplank. It's also great in fights early, mid and late game as people highly underestimate its damage. It may be reliant on luck, but when the cannonballs hit, they hit hard and can turn a losing fight into a winning one.

As mentioned earlier this skill set could change depending on the lane you are facing, but I would strongly reccomend maxing Parrrley by Level 9.

Other realistic Skill Sequences would include:
Maximum DamageMaximum SustainabilitySupport Plank (Unlikely)
All of the above skill sequences make sense. Don't follow one blindly but choose your skills wisely. If you're winning a lane, keep upgrading Parrrley otherwise max Remove Scurvey simple, eh?

This is a must on Gangplank. This combinded with Parrrley will lead to early kills against squishy characters. The damage output from these spells combinded is easily over 200, even at level 1 and if Parrrley crits, then the early kills will keep on coming.

This is a summoner spell I would recommend on ever single character in League of Legends, including characters with their own flashes such as Ahri, Ezreal and LeBlanc. It closes down gaps, makes chasing easier and makes an enemy flash redundant if they're escaping. I would recommend this and Ignite as you may need to flash to be in range for an ignite and that all important Parrrley to finish the enemy off. Its almost an unstoppable combo.