Gangplank General Guide by Rolighed

Introduction

Hello everyone. I am a plat player (soon diamond) and i've been playing League for around 2½ years. I love the game, and i've grown and gotten very good at it. My first love in the game was Gangplank, and after playing some games with him I truly fell in love with him, and decided to make a guide to show you guys how I play Gangplank.

Piñata

Just a little update

26-03-2012

My guide has now hit 320.000 views! That's so amazing. Thank ALL of you for viewing and upvoting my guide, I really appreciate it! :)


29-09-2012.. My guide has ALMOST 600.000 views! I love you guys


03-12-2012: Almost 700.000 views. When it hits 750k views, I will update the guide. Thank you!

Why Jungle Gangplank?

-Why not? He may not be the best counter jungler early, but he's got an nice speed, got some VERY nice ganking skills because of the remade passive, also when he uses Parrrley, it applies on-hit effect such as red buff, Trinity Force slow and Grog Soaked Blade. He's very easy to jungle on, and SO fun to play, I loooooooooooooooooooooooove Gangplank, and I hope he loves me too.123123

Why TOP Gangplank?

I've decided to add a top build and section for Gangplank, since he's grown very strong in the top lane. I love how he can help his team with his ultimate, while still being top. This is a function that will make help your bot, mid and jungler.

I max W top, mostly.
(why?)

Maxing Scurvy is so strong top late. Getting the early philo and the masteries from utility gives you loads of mana regen which allows you to spam your scurvy, and never leave lane. At rank 3 it heals around 200, with a pretty short cooldown. At rank 9, you'll be able to trade with anyone (360 heal).

Top Gangplank doesn't NEED to max Q, sure, he can, but if he gets poked down and has to recall, he will loose xp and gold, which is always bad.



Early top lane you always wanna try to hit level 2 before your opponent. Having E for the extra Dmg and move speed, and your Q gives you insane amounts of dmg and movement speed. You can't loose a trade if you're level 2 GP vs level 1 anyone. Simply run to them and auto-q-auto etc, your passive will slow and damage them, while you stick to your target because of your crazy movement speed etc.

Pros and Cons

Gangplank is a BOZZ!

Pros:

+ Insane damage output with auto-attacks and Parrrley
+ Incredible Harass with Parrrley
+ Global ultimate with slow and nice damage to save teammates, initiate and to do incredible damage in team fights
+ Crazy CC remover for a decent amount of mana and a fair cooldown which also heals
+ Nice passive with Damage over time and a nice free-stacking slow[


CONS :/

+ Squishy untill you get Warmog's Armor
+ Gets caught if you use Remove Scurvy at the wrong time (It's not really a "con" but couldn't find anything else =( )

Skill Explanation

This is SO awesome! Do you also know how saddening it is when someone gets away with 5 hp? This is what takes care of it, this skill is SO awesome! Awesome DOT which helps ganking, jungling, and damaging overall, and it has SLOW on it
aswell! SO AWESOME FOR GANKING, Especially because [Parrley] also applies this.


This is the "WTF? LOL" spell, mid and late-game this spell is sooo much fun, awesome to harass with, especially because this crits 1000 dmg, SO awesome, You use this to harass with when people are gathering for a team fight, and an opponent comes a bit close, run and do a quick Parrrley and remove 50% of their HP, just awesome.


OMG This is SO awesome! It's like a free Cleanse! It removes STUNS, SLOWS, SNARES! Do you know how annoying Ashe's Enchanted Crystal Arrow is? This is ASHE COUNTERSPELL! Lol. When I see her arrow on its way to use of my teammates, I usually take it and remove the stun immediately, because this spell also heals, she wasted an ult, you "wasted" 80 mana, who wins?


OMG! ANOTHER AWESOME SPELL! (Gangplank is so awesome) This spell gives Gangplank movement speed and attack damage! FASTER JUNGLE, BETTER GANKS, BETTER GAME OVERALL OMG! And it has an USE effect! As if it wasn't good enough already? Lol. On use it doubles the AD and MS that it gives you, and gives half of that amount to nearby allies, this can really change team fights and secure escapes.


Oh man, this spell.. This spell.. AHHAHA! I love this spell! It has an AoE slow, it deals AoE damage, and an global range! AMAGAD! *scream* I can't explain how good this spell is, but I will try to. As soon as you ding level 6, you need to scout the map once in a while, when talking with your friends on Skype or vent or w/e, you need to be quick to fire it off if they need it. I get SO many kills/assist with this spell early-mid game, and ofcourse also some in late-game. This is the spell I initiate with, ofc not my first spell, because then they'd walk out of it, wait for your tank to go in, watch where your enemies stack and fire it off. Slow them all, damage them all, while you pick them off one by one. I've used this spell to help my friends escape so many times, and also myself, because of the AoE slow, you can use this behind yourself and slow down your enemies so easy, AWESOME spell!!!!!!

Skill Sequence

Why do I max Parrrley first? Because it really helps out my ganking and my jungling. You NEED this spell

Why do I take Remove Scurvy at level 4? Because this allows you to have a safer jungle. Also when you gank, you can remove whatever CC they may cast on you.

Why don't I max Raise Morale first? People tell me to max this first, because of jungle speed, ITS A LIE! Parrrley does more damage if you max it first, this skill gives you more movement speed and attack damage, which is Very useful, but its not giving enough to maxing this before Parrley.

Cannon Barrage I pick this spell every time possible, ofcourse I do. Lower CD, more damage, yes please.

Tips & Tricks

One of the tricks I use on Gangplank, is to last hit as many of my jungle NPCs with Parrrley for the extra gold, this will save you the time waiting for those 30g to buy some item, its just great.

When someone is likely to escape, flash towards them and use Parrrley to finish them off, really good way to pull off kills.

STAY AWARE OF THE MAP! When talking with your friends, fx. your top lane is solo vs another soloing champion, the other champion is half HP and your friend is full, but he's just not sure if he can pull off the kill, use your ultimate to slow and damage the soloing top guy. This is a GREAT way to securing kills/assists.

Do you know the situation of having 20 enemy NPCs pushing top while you whole team is at bottom? Thank god for Global Range on Cannon Barrage . * BUT! CAUTION! BE AWARE! * If it looks like theres a team fight approaching, don't use it to save the tower, save it for the team fight. Rather get an ace and get to push a lane than saving one of your towers. Use this spell with caution.

Use Raise Morale to help your friends get out of sticky situations, get assists with it and make sure to hit your allies with it in team fight, its just an awesome buff.

Runes

Red: Greater Mark of Attack Damage I found that in the new jungle, AD marks and quints work very well. I run +10 AD and +10 Armor Penetration, since this is the fastest way to jungle and you will have very strong ganks. The AD stacks well with your Raise Morale also!

Greater Mark of Desolation "Why only 6 of these?" You can take 9 ofcourse, but I prefer taking 6, since this gives me 10 armor penetration. Along with masteries you will have 16, which is very good for jungling.

Yellow: Greater Seal of Armor9 of these, helps out A LOT in the jungle, mp5 is not needed since you will run around with your blue buff on most of the time. And when you get Sheen and Trinity Force later, you won't be needing blue anymore and can gladly give it away. Junglers use armor all the way.

Blue: Greater Glyph of Scaling Magic Resist We're trying to build a very solid DPS'ish Gangplank here, and to do that we need armor and magic resist just as much as HP, you CAN use attack speed blue, but I really don't see why you would exhange 27 MR for 5% attack speed? It's up to you!

Quintessences: Greater Quintessence of Attack Damage More attack damage! (Yes please) This helps out alot in the jungle and when ganking, can use flat HP quints, but not as fast jungle, tougher ganks etc.

Another option here is the Greater Quintessence of Attack Damage Which I run with sometimes, I love having the extra attack damage, it doesn't really speed up your jungle by alot, but it helps on the ganks and farming.

Masteries

Yay! I love the new masteries. OP stuff. More AD, more crit chance, 3% lifesteal, crit damage, armor penetration, 6% attack speed, more damage on low HP enemies, 4 extra damage against minions, and now you don't need to spend points on getting 4% more XP since they buffed jungle creeps XP! And you get 20% buff duration (had 15 with old masteries)! Wheee!

Currently I use two different mastery trees. I use 21/0/9 which is a bit more offensive but makes me able to gank more since I get 20% more buff duration and 2% more movement speed. This also gives me 10% less death time and 15 secounds off Flash cooldown.

[




_____________________________________________________________________________________________

The other is 21/9/0, which gives you more armor (safer jungle), a bit more magic resist, more health/level plus 30 more starting health. This is more safe, but you will run slower, and lose your buffs faster.

New Masteries (comparing old and new)

Okay, This is the TOTAL stats of the old and new masteries, at the bottom I compare the stats.:

Old Masteries:

2% Crit
5 sec CD off Smite
4% Attack Speed
0.75% Cooldown Reduction
6 Armor Penetration
4 More dmg EVERY hit in the jungle
3 Attack Damage
10% Crit Dmg
4% More Damage Done Overall

10% Less time spent dead
2% More health/mana regen
4% more XP gained
15% longer buff durations

New Masteries:

3 Attack Damage
4 More damage against jungle creeps/minions
6% Attack Speed
10% Armor Penetration
4% Crit Chance
10% Crit Damage
3% Life Steal
4 Armor Penetration
6% Damage increase on targets below 40% HP

10% Less Death Time
15 sec CD off Flash
2% Movement Speed
20% Longer Buff Duration

Okay, now to the math (for 2. graders) I don't write in the stats if they are the same (example 3 AD on old masteries and 3 AD on new masteries) The new stats are to the left and are subtraced from the old stats.

4% Crit Chance - 2% Crit Chance = 2% Crit Chance Gained
6% Attack Speed - 4% Attack Speed = 2% Attack Speed Gained[
20% Buff Duration - 15% Buff Duration = 5% Buff Duration Gained
3% Life Steal - 0% Life Steal = 3% Life Steal Gained
4 Armor Penetration - 6 Armor Penetration = Lost 2 Armor Penetration. If you really want this 2 extra Armor Penetration, you can remove one point from Vampirism and have -1% lifesteal instead. You decide :)
6% Damage against targets under 40% HP - 4% Damage done overall = I guess this can be both a bad and a good thing. The 6% damage under 40% helps finishing off targets alot, but the 4% is "overall" better i'd say. Still not the big loss!
15 Sec off Flash - 2% Health/Mana regen = Profit! Who doesn't want a better cooldown on Flash?
2% Movement Speed - 4% XP = Profit, since they buff'd jungle creeps XP you don't need the 4% xp anymore! So 2% free MS, nice!
20% Buff Duration - 15% Buff Duration = 5% more Buff Duration.

Overall:
+2% Crit Chance
+2% Attack Speed
+3% Lifesteal
+15 sec CD off Flash
+2% Movement Speed
+5% Buff Duration


-2 Armor Penetration
-2% Health/Mana regen

Win or loss? WIN!

Summoner Spells

NEVER Take Ghost over Smite as Gangplank, really. Never. This spell gives you easy escape anytime off cooldown, and easy chase! Ghost is probably better for chasing, but not always. Because of your Grog Soaked Blade and Trinity Force you will slow them down ALOT, allowing you to catch up. Whenever some1 is likely to get away with low health, flash and finish them off with Parrrley , it really is worth picking it over any other summoner spell.

Lol.. Really? Do I have to? Okay.. This spell is AWESOME, this is the spell that secures your Blue buff, your Red buff, Dragon and Baron, "OH NO, BARON HAS 500 HP AND LUX/EZEAEL ETC. IS ULTING! WHAT DO I DO?" *Gangplank looks a bit up the sky, holding his hand up to his jaw, looking awesome, "Ima' smitey'yarr'!" Smite WIN! OMG NICE, another thing: Always keep Dragon and Baron warded, I can't tell you how many times i've gotten ex. Baron buff on Gangplanks ulti because the other team either doesn't have a jungler, or because their jungler used smite too early, also flashing in and smiting to steal Baron gives a great feeling in your tummy .. Lol ;D

Optional:

I don't recommend this, I tell you why under the Flash explanation.

Summoner spells NOT to get:

Lol.. Well, you're not support, you don't really need this. It's okay cool to use this and then ulti if you see someone, but thats it, NOT worth it!

No! Just no. You have enough mana and Flash and Smite is too precious to swap for this.

Nonono, same as above, Flash and Smite can't be replaced

Not worth picking it, again Flash and Smite is way too good

Nonnnonono, Exhaust and Smite just doesn't work on Gangplank, it may work on someone like Trundle ,but that's it.

I want to make a really corny smiley here, something like.. :P .. YES! *Just don't pick it, please.*

Items

NOTE: The new meta is stronk. I found it that getting 1 or 2 Doran's Blade is REALLY useful for jungling- It's cheap and STRONK! Try it out.



This is your first item because you need it for jungling, you need the armor, the damage, the on-hit effect on creeps and epic lifesteal. An AWESOME and CHEAP item, also giving you a FREE ward! Nice.

I almost always get these boots, except if the whole team i'm facing is AD [VERY RARE!!!!] This build doesn't have alot of magic resist in it, so without this you will be very weak against AP champions.

I rush Trinity Force right after Mercury's Treads, "Why start with Phage and not Zeal ? Because, since your passive applies On-hit effects, it also applies Phage 's effect, which is also slowing, so if you have an AD champion who needs a red buff for some slow (AD carry for an example], you can now give on your red buff. Getting Zeal first will give you some movement speed and some crit/attack speed, which isn't very useful at all because you won't be critting for much without your Sheen or entire Trinity Force. The 100% dmg buff from Sheen will also give your [Parrrley] ALOT more dmg, and give you more mana, which is way more useful than the little boost of AS/CRIT/MS from Zeal, so- Phage - Sheen - Zeal

At this point you got ALOT of damage, and if you've ganked / jungled correctly, you will have ALOT of damage comparing to your enemies. You will have alot of AD/crit/MS etc, so this is the time to build some health, so we get a Warmogs. This scales SO well with Atma's Impaler, nothing more to say, awesome item.

At this point you will have 3.5k hp +, and with this item you will also have ALOT of damage, because of your Warmog's Armor etc. The crit and armor from the item is really just a bonus to the AD it provides

This is the best item for Gangplank, "Why do you get this item so late?" Because, having a Trinity force allows your Parrley to crit for over 500 in mid-game, which is so overpowered, you really do have alot of damage, so getting this item before isn't really viable, you will be too squishee and will die too easy, this IS a very tanky build. But this item is so awesome to Gangplank, you will pull off 1000+ crits with Parrrley on AD carries etc. So hawt!!!

If you get this far, you should be pretty OP. But, if you make it this far, sell your Wriggle's Lantern and buy The Bloodthirster for even more lifesteal and damage.





Tanky items viable for Gangplank -

This item is great, especially against hard AP bursters such as Veigar , Annie etc., since this build doesn't contain alot of magic resist, I usally get this mid-game, maybe after I got my Phage as this provides loads of magic resist, mana, health and blocks a spell every 45 sec.

SPACE

This item is great, I usually get this if their team is very high on AD, and if noone else on your team buys this. Except if their team is very very very high on AD, I wouldn't get this item tho, since the main build atop of the page gives loads of armor and AD sustainability.

SPACE

This item is also great on Gankplank, movement speed, health regen and magic resist, but I don't get this item for quite a few reasons- You don't really need the movement speed, the 8% doesn't give alot of movement speed when you got so much movement speed already with Trinity Force and Raise Morale , except for that the magic resist and health regen is awesome ofcourse, but I recommend Banshee's Veil over Force of Nature on Gangplank :)

Core Items

Boots

"Which boots to get?"

Gangplank works well with just about any pair of boots.

I recommend Mercury's Treads in most cases, since this build doesn't contain very much magic resistance, but if their team is heavy AD and have little CC you shouldn't buy these ofcourse.

For Boots of Swiftness I'd like to say no thanks, they're really unnecessary for Gangplank. Your Raise Morale Will give you much of movementspeed just by itself, so getting boots with 2 movement speed will still make you run sh*t fast! (Also, combined with Trinity Force you're even faster.

Ionian Boots of Lucidity - These are very good for Gangplank, especially for this build, since it doesn't contain too much Magic Resist. I get these rarely tho, since when I play ranked I feel in the most cases that I need the magic resist and tenacity from Mercury's Treads more than the cooldown reduction from Ionian Boots of Lucidity - Good boots if the other team is very balanced and or/ low on damage, so that you won't need armor/dodge from Ninja Tabi or magic resist from Mercury's Treads.

Ninja Tabi I get these versus teams with loads of AD, these provide a good chunk of armor and dodge which will help you survive. If the other team is heavy AD and got heavy CC, i'd choose Mercury's Treads over Ninja Tabi in most cases, since your Remove Scurvy won't always be off cooldown.

I wouldn't considder using other boots, Sorcerer's Shoes are just useless for Gangplank, little more damage for Cannon Barrage but not worth buying.

Boots of Mobility Useless too, you got loads of movementspeed already from your boots, Raise Morale and Trinity Force.

Jungling

Buy Cloth Armor and 5 Health Potion , pick up Raise Morale. Go to the wolf pack and kill the big wolf as soon as it spawns, "NOTE - When the wolves spawn, attack the big one and let your AP mid/ or your top champion attack the two small wolves, makes you clear faster!", have mid pull the Blue buff golem and maybe let top do some damage to it to make it easy for you, auto-attack it and Smite it to finish it off.

Go to the wraith camp and kill the big wraith first, try and get as many last hits with your Parrrley without slowing down your jungle or taking too much damage from waiting for CD etc.

Move to the red buff, focus the red down, your Smite may be ready now, else just proceed, you can kill red buff and use smite on the two golems after if needed instead, finish it off and kill the two small creeps, move to the golems and kill them. (with or without smite) :)

If bot/mid is very gankable, go gank else recall and get boots, healing potions and a ward or two.

After you got boots, either go gank in a lane or go do wolf-wraith-golem again, and then gank.

Note: Blue and Red buff respawns 5 mins after death, so at around 7:10 or so, your blue will be up again, be sure to take timers so you can be there when it spawns, and hand it over to mid lane as fast as possible (if a mana champ is mid)

Dragon respawn timer: 6 minutes

PROTIP Always write down either the time you killed the dragon, or if you killed it at 15:15 or something, write "21:15", (6 minutes after) , then you can always be aware when the dragon spawns.

Baron spawns at 15:00 minutes, and has a respawn timer of 7 minutes.




VAMP SCEPTER
Start with Vampiric Scepter Pick up in Raise Morale, go to the wolf camp. When they spawn at 1:40, use Raise Morale and slay the big wolf, then the two small, save your Smite.

Run to the Wraith camp and smite the Blue Wraith, pick up Parrrley, attack the small blue wraith twice, use Parrrley for the extra 4 gold (very useful <3) kill the second small wraith and attack the wraith twice again and use Parrrleyto finish it

Run to the two-golem camp, use Raise Morale and Parrrley to kill the golems, focus the golems down one-by-one. *Level 3* Pick up in Parrrley again.

Recall and purchase Cloth Armor and one Health Potion Use Raise Morale when you leave the spawn, run to the Blue Buff Golem, your Raise Morale Cooldown will be up when you get there, don't worry.

Attack the Blue buff golem, chug your Health Potion and finish it off with Smite, kill the two small npc's.

Move on to the wolf camp kill the biggest wolf first, try and get as many last hits with Parrrley as possible, without slowing down your jungle. *Level 4* Pick up in Raise Morale

Move to the Red Lizard camp, kill the Red buff Lizard first and finish it off with Smite, switch hitting the two small lizard-npc's with melee attack for maximum Passive and Red buff use.

Move to the golem camp, (Here you will have pretty low HP) Use Raise Morale and Parrrley and finish off the closest golem first, as soon as its dead, you get to *Level 5*, pick up in Remove Scurvy and use it, kill the last golem and recall and purchase Boots of Speed and possible Sight Ward Health Potion

Jungling Video

I like cake

Teamfights, what do I do?

In teamfights theres alot to considder, first of all, it depends ALOT on their team. If the enemy team has an AP carry with INSANE burst such as LeBlanc or Veigar ,these two should ALWAYS be your first priority, after that comes AD carries, always pick off the tanks last.

Initiating, sometimes when my tank is behind, I initiate when I see an opening. I initiate using Raise Morale, giving my team attack damage and movement speed for chase and fighting, when you see a good spot, or a spot where you know your enemies will flee to or run to, use Cannon Barrage to slow them down and kill them. Sometimes when towerdiving etc, I use Cannon Barrage, having my enemies in the middle of the ult, forcing them to either run to us, or to retreat while we take down the tower.

Where do I use my ultimate? When in a big fight, DO NOT USE YOUR ULTIMATE UNTIL YOU'RE SURE YOU HIT PEOPLE WITH IT! Wasting this ult is just stupid. When your tank initiates, or when you initiate try to pull off your ult, hitting as many people with it, many people will panic when hit by it, and turn away to get out of it, saving your team for some damage, when they turn around, or they keep shooting, is the time that you want to run in and do some insane damage with Parrrley and autoattacks, pick them off one by one, weakest first ofcourse.

Gameplay Videos

*Coming Soon!* -

This will be ME playing as GanKplank! Coming soon, I promise.

Showoff Pictures *COMING SOON*

Coming soon!

Summary

So this was my guide on Jungle Gangplank, don't be too harsh, its my first guide. By the way, you shouldn't expect a 20-0-20 score in your first game, practice makes master. But trust me, this is THE build for Jungle Gangplank, just wait and see. I will have some links on some of my matches with him, i've had many such as 23-3-16 etc., just so awesome, I barely loose with this sexeh guy.

I hope you enjoyed my guide, If you want me to add something, PLEASE whisper me, I want to improve this guide, I'd really appreciate an upvote, thanks everyone!