Hi everyone! This is my first guide on Mobafire on a common champion but seen frequently as a different champion they thought he is: Gangplank. Gangplank is one of those champions that's easy to play, but difficult to master. I tend to show people the right way to play him (there IS none, but there are builds/styles that are generally better than others). I got inspired to build this guide when my friend first played whats commonly known as "critplank/speedplank", and let me just say that after he fed so badly, i decided to try out Gangplank myself. Let me just say that this one build just came into my mind, and it was fantastic, but So without further a due, welcome to my guide filled with MY opinions. Criticism a loud, please keep profanity low, and i want to make this the great guide everyone wants it to. Now lets move on!

Read this first to understand exactly what you're doing here. What were trying to do here is:

Play Gangplank as an AD carry, tankplank, support carry, and (I love this one the most) tanky dps gangplank, and to understand how to use him and some basics, laning ability, and what your role is in the team fights/what to do.

Im trying to make this a very high-rated guide, and trying to change many of your opinions on Gangplank, to persuade you to choose the path for your teammates to understand your role.

PROS:

• Very powerful in solo lane/dual lane, and even jungling
• Very strong against durable champions, being able to focus down squishy targets easily
• Relatively tanky, being able to survive team fights while doing the damage you need
• Highly mobile, free cleanse, and global ultimate

CONS:

• Can be relatively squishy
• No initiation skill, but your move speed is high enough to counter that

Gangplank is relatively strong, and better than most AD carries in the game. He's always a good choice in standard and ranked games, but make sure you know when to enter team fights. If you go first, you will probably die in 5 seconds. If you somewhere between middle~last, then you'll probably end up surviving and dealing tons of unfair damage to targets.

^^Here's just a general cheat sheet for you that works best on Gangplank. I put some description on some below, but because of a previous crash, I lost a lot of data regarding a lot of my information. Nonetheless, read the info below for more details.

Greater Mark of DesolationArmor pen marks is ur key for damage. Although alot of gp players rely on crit, thats not his job. If u want to crit, go play tryndamere or something. U want to have a good steady damage output instead of relying on chance. Besides, you shouldn't be harassing the enemy with parrley, just focus on last hitting minions so that you will have a better late game.

Flat armor seals to give urself a boost of defence when it gets rough. You can swap these for
extra HP or AS (attack speed) seals as well.

Flat magic resistant glpyhs, just like the above. If you want instead u can also take CDR glyphs instead. In fact i actually like CDR glyphs a bit better just because u can snipe a bit faster all day erreday.

Greater Quintessence of Desolation either Armor pen, or movespeed. Etiher one is completely fine. Armor pen for more damage output, and movespeed to run/chaes the enemy.

Exhaust Flash this is usually the recommended s.s to use for GP. In any case, exhaust will help your team to bring down necessary enemies and help u in ur 1v1 battles as well. Flash is just there for you to rage quit out of team fights (you WILL get focused) so make sure thats in handy as well. If ur not a Flash Fan, then instead take Ghost by all means (im not a big fan of ghost, but on GP works just fine.)

Here are some other S.S you may be tempted to use.

Ignite It joints with your passive quite well, though it is not recommended BECAUSE of your passive. Better to go with exhaust, mainly because you want to dominate your lane.
Clairvoyance Normally, this isn't good at all on GP because either the support or tank would take it, but by all means if ur team is too lame to take it, then do so (i still strongly suggest not).
Cleanse Remove Scurvy is just much better. Dont take cleanse in general. If you feel even is not enough, then buy a Quicksilver Sash. Too bad it's unique now...
Heal Again, not ideal for GPs standard gameplay, but it all depends on your taste. I strongly disagree Heal on gp just cause remove scurvy makes up ur health anyways.
Clarity Dont take this. Even with all the parrley last hitting minions and other skills, you shouldn't be very mana hungry becuz u shouldn't be SPAMMING them.

All other summoner spells should be disregarded anyways because they wont be very helpful to you at all.

This is how I normally run my Gangplank. Alot of you guys would prefer maxing Remove Scurvy first and I dont blame you. I used to do that too, but I found out that you dont really need it to be used very often early on. Id rather take some extra damage and move speed. Besides, you want to help your team out right? Its my own personal preference, you can still max Remove Scurvy first and if it saves your life, it probably would do the same if it was rank 1 (unless you can take THAT much damage).

Now let's describe these skills:
Grog Soaked Blade : This is like a miniature Ignite and slow at the same time. Because Parrrley has hit-on affects, it will also slow and damage them over time. Overall, this passive is quite strong, and can catch enemies off-guard by realizing they think they can escape anything until Gangplank comes with a perm-slow. The slow itself isn't a lot though, but damage and slow will stack.

Parrrley: Your basic skill. It's essentially a pistol that deals extra physical damage and applies on-hit affects. With Grog Soaked Blade, its essentially a slowing device as well. Cool down reduction makes this skill spammable, allowing it to reach around 2~3 seconds. Not bad at all.

Remove Scurvy: This is basically a healing Cleanse on a 20 second cool down. I really don't have a lot to say about this skill except for one thing: this skill is what pisses off Malzahar the most, being able to not only cancel suppression, but also have Malzahar COMPLETELY stop ulting you (I would know, Malzahar is one of my favorites. It so happens I had to 1v1 a Gangplank solo top, not one of my greatest days...)

Raise Morale: This is Gangplank's buff. Passively increasing attack damage and movement speed and when used will increase it even MORE is quite crazy. Not only for yourself but for your fellow teammates as well! The range of this skill is basically the entire screen if you're in the center.

Cannon Barrage: Of all the possible ultimate that i would get, this one seems far too great. Covers a large area in a circle, and in that circle, cannon balls will drop at random, dealing damage and slowing all enemies inside that vicinity. This makes team fights EXTREMELY easy. Oh its a 5v5 team fight! I'll use my ultimate to damage them all and slow them greatly while I use Raise Morale to make us stronger! It's also global, meaning you can assist your team wherever you are, and whenever (as long as your ult is up). Your ult is best when (best to least best):

1. When a team fight is initiated and the enemy team is all crumbled up
2. To help with a gank somewhere in a lane where you're not present in
3. To farm minions or attempt to kill an enemy champion below 100~250 health

Don't worry, you will have plenty of opportunities to use your ult, so don't hesitate to use it!

As you noticed, above are the items that are probably the best choices for Gangplank. I have left out some important items that I am very aware of (such as Wriggle's Lantern, Hexdrinker, etc...) but I will go into more detail later on. Let's focus on the more important items for now. It's up to you to decide what items are best for the current situation. I mean some things are just obvious (ex. enemy team has 3 ad carries, Im obviously going to buy a Banshee's Veil... herp derp) << this is SARCASM. I would've either gotten a Thornmail or Randuin's Omen just because I will end up getting focused either way.


Here is how you would want to start off with items.
Doran's Blade: This item is probably the best starting item for Gangplank. Mainly because that +10 attack damage, +100 health is just so powerful for early gaming. Its really worth it. You could also do Long Sword and a health potion if you want. This also works.

Doran's Shield: This is not as useful on Gangplank as say a Doran's Blade. However, if the enemy team consists of a hardcore AD (such as Tryndamere or Master Yi) and you are not willing to take any risks, this might also be a good starting item.

Brawler's Gloves: What this item tends to do is make people think they could nuke 2 bars off someone's health with Parrrley (this can be the case ONLY if you crit. If you dont, you end up doing half a bar). Its better to start off with +100 hp and +10 ad. You want to have a good FLAT damage, because many people have mistaken Gangplank for a crit champion (often people will do phantom dancer really early, but it's not very good on Gangplank). You CAN start with this item if you promise me to get Avarice Blade afterwards instead of Zeal. Trust me, you won't need Zeal for Gangplank because he wont need it. What we want is DAMAGE, not crit chance, but I'm not here to describe any attack speed going onto Gangplank, so if you want to be a critplank/speedplank and end up doing fine, trust me, you could do fine without it as well. The only time I would get Zeal is if I was building a Trinity Force, not a Phantom Dancer. THEN I would permit you to buy Zeal. Or i might destroy you and flush you down the toilet XDDDDDDD.

Boots and Health Potion: This is also good. Movement speed is never bad, + allows you to endure the lane a bit tougher.

Okay, now that we've got ourselves a starting item, let's move on and see what we want. Here are some viable choices. Let's start with boots:



These boots will be best on Gangplank. You might want to get Boots of Swiftness if you want to be even more fast, but it's better to get one of the above.

Let's move on to good complete items you want near mid-game:



These are common mid-game items for Gangplank. Mainly because all of these items will make your lane presence bigger and in the process, makes your enemy poop themselves. After you've done that, you can give them a favor and flush them down the toilet. Other items I either did not mention because I forgot to or otherwise it may also be good on Gangplank as well.

My basic set-up would probably be this within 7~12 minutes into the game:




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Ill describe a few "complete" builds here I tend to use:

Carry AD (full-on damage, low survivability):



Generally this build will flush enemies down the toilet, because they will be amazed at exactly how much damage your doing to them. One second they're there, they walk into bush, Parrrley] trollguned, an enemy has been slain! Ok, if you can even get anywhere close to this build, you will kill someone in 2 seconds but you yourself will die in 2 seconds. Im not sure whether you're contributing enough if you just kill one person and then die yourself. Don't you want to do more in life? I guess not, ill just glass cannon them down the toilet XDD. Always a good way to burn enemies down though, so heres an "alright" choice

Support Carry (otherwise known as "skankplank"):



This build consists of alot of defensively active items. Combining Randuin's Omen with Cannon Barrage will basically become like an area-of-effect damage-over-time slowing machine. Zeke's Harbinger combined with Raise Morale will literally boost your teammates move speed/attack speed and lifesteal as well, and Banshee's Veil and Remove Scurvy will eliminate a good source of crowd control you would endure. Frozen Mallet's +700 hp is definitely a force to be reckoned with, and its perma-slow used with Grog Soaked Blade is a crazy slow. Have a Talon on your team and he will be delighted. And of course, Youmuu's Ghostblade and Infinity Edge for raw damage output. I like this build a lot, because it makes you worth something the longer you're alive, but you're still hard to kill, and you're damage output is like a portion of Tryndamere when he's minimally fed.

And here, is my fabulous,"tanky dps" (gangplank at his greatest)::




I like this build for many reasons which I shall tell you now. Sunfire Aegis and Frozen Mallet will give you a total of an increase of 1150 health, which at level 18, makes Gangplank somewhere around 3000 health. That's already quite powerful for a carry, Guardian Angel placed in for that bonus armor and magic res, which will leave you around 200 armor. THAT'S NOT BAD AT ALL! And to top it off, you got Frozen Mallet, Youmuu's Ghostblade, and Infinity Edge for your damage output. You really don't need much more than that, because you will end up having somewhere around 250 AD. You can switch out Sunfire Aegis for Banshee's Veil if the opposing team has more AP threats to you. Otherwise, this is my standard "tanky dps" build for Gangplank. Later on in the game, Youmuu's Ghostblade DOES lose its affectiveness, so with that I will usually replace it with Bloodthirster, making me deal more damage and yet become much harder to kill with life steal capabilities.

Some other complete builds you may want to check out:




Another basic setup you can use. If you aren't doing enough damage, you could swap out Bloodthirster with Infinity Edge. Personal preference only.





Here I'm playing a more tanky role then I would want to, including Warmog's Armor and Atma's Impaler or otherwise known as "atmogs" is not actually a bad idea, though I don't tend to normally use this build, it can work too.




So I heArdz u liKe muDkipz I...I...I mean, killing tanks? =D Here's your anti-armor health-ripping, time-consuming build?





DOMINION IS OUT?!?! yes, its out... and here are some valuable items I would use on Gangplank. Because death timer is extremely low and the game is based on capturing points, you want to be able to move very fast while be able to kill everyone in your way. This build does just that. And if you die? Whatever, you spawn in like less then 30 seconds anyways! GOGOGO

Alright, we have gotten through a HELL load of reading (i have went through hell making this guide so please +1 up. im not forcing u to, and u dont have to if u dont want to, but i put alot of effort doing this =D) but now lets do something EVEN MORE FUN (<<more boring in fact), Lets learn about to uses of gangplank in lane =D.

1. Solo Lane: GP makes a very powerful solo laner, esp if the enemy ur 1v1ing is not a crazy nuker. In solo lanes, just focus on last hitting minions with parrrley and you'll be fine. Try not to go below 40% mana, as u may need the remaining mana for using ur other skills when ur teammates come to help gank and/or u to use ur ult to help ur teammates succeed a fight, so keep your eye on the map, call ur mias, help gank for your teamates, and set up wards if u need to (try not to buy them if u dont need to, becuz that extra gold from parrrley doesn't need to go to wards. have ur support lay down wards first. if u dont have a support/tank, then just do it. better having a ward then not)

2. Dual Lane:: Just play like u normally would. Focus on last-hitting and early aggression (unless the enemy has better harassers such as mr.mordekaiser here makes a very good example im very please to say (not really). But anyhow, constantly gank for your teammates, get alot of goldz and what not.

3. Jungleplank:: Alright, i'll teach you how to jungle gp. For starters, take what every jungler takes. Cloth armor and 5x Health pots, and max out Parrrley normally, but get W first instead of E. Tell ur team to help u get blue buff, and u're on ur way to a successful jungle gp. remember to constantly gank for you teammates as well. If the enemy team doesn't have a jungler, u have quite the advantage. However, if the enemy DOES have a jungler and hes not Warwick, then you can probably kill em while they're jungling. Jungle GP still does quite a ton load of damage.

I am pleased to say that i was so lazy i didn't really write as much as i could've. Later on in the future i may write more on GP (when im not as busy) and when i can pull out more information, But overall, thank you all for reading my guide! Please feel free to criticize my work (in a friendly way) and tell me if u think i could change/add things in, ill try to keep updated. Thank you all!