Welcome to my first attempt at a League of Legends champion guide, hopefully you'll find it informative and helpful as you attempt to master Gangplank. I play Gangplank as a mobile, burst damage champion that also has enough sustain in lane to be able to push quickly and farm effectively. To accomplish this, i employ an unusal Masteries and Rune setup, that is aimed at making up the few weak points Gangplank has as a champion.

The three components essential to building crit and atk speed Gangplank are; atk speed, crit (obviously), and mana regeneration. The reason the third is important is because, as Gangplank, your Q is your life. It is your harass, your main damage ability, and as such you always need to have enough mana to cast it. That's my reasoning for chosing mana regen runes, as well as the obvious picks of atk speed and critical strike.

The slightly unorthodox build i use is actually quite effective, this is because it allows you to gain the upper hand early game with your huge damage output and sustain. Needless to say, League of Legends is one of those games where winning of losing is decided (mostly, not always) in the first part of a match. This lends itself nicely to champions that have self-healing abilities, namely Gangplank (and the loathed Master Yi). Soul Shroud is an interesting item because it actually addresses the problems Gangplank has, lack of mana, and mana regen. For that reason, plus its a cost effective item to buy for health purposes, i chose it as my one and only health item in my build. Obviously the way i play Gangplank, you cant rush into the middle of a fight and tank damage, but you can sustain yourself well enough to poke down enemies and win fights through intelligent positioning.