The first time I ever played this game, I played my first game as Gangplank since he was in the free hero rotation. I had played DotA and thought I would be ok. I actually did horribly and decided right on the spot that Gangplank was a terrible character and should never be picked or played. It wasn't about until a couple hundred games later that I went against a Gangplank and he was in my lane. I laughed to myself thinking, "haha this should be easy, what a sh*t character." That was the first time I ever ran into the loveable Critplank build and decided to try this character again.

So, after playing about 80-100ish+ games as Gangplank and continually evolving my strategy, item builds, rune builds, talent builds I've come up with what I like to call Spamplank. Spamplank is a more skill-intensive variation of Denyplank that emphasizes being able to spam all of your skills without every worrying of depleting your mana mid to late game. This will allow you to continually deny a mob every wave, Be able to Q for last hits, and Scurvey whenever needed.

The major effect this has on your gameplay is your staying power. You will literally never ever have to leave your lane. Took too much harass and your hp is low? Hug the tower and spam scurvey, just last hit with q until your hp is full again and begin to reclaim lane dominance. Tired of going oom unless soraka or someone with mana manipulator babysits you so you can't harass or deny? Go Spamplank and stay in lane while your enemies have to back under your relentlessness. I very literally am easily able to ensure at best a 3-4 level difference between my opponents in lane. And at worst, with a Herp Derp, I can get a 1-2 level difference.

So if you've made it this far I'm sure you're wondering about my item build. I start with the meki pendant for some more mp5 early game. The 2 hp pots are pretty standard and don't really need an explanation. I rush a Goddess Tear for the fact that it gives me more mana and for it's passive. Since I intend on spamming skills, the earlier I get this item the better. Especially since I plan on turning it into Manamune. Essentially the faster I build up the mana the stronger Manamune will be when I build it. On a plus side you don't even have to do very well in your lane to buy the Tear. It is a very cheap first major item.

Next I get boots to increase my mobility, nothing fancy here. I also try to get Sheen at the same time I get the boots. This shouldn't be very hard because you should already have a decently sized mana pool and by now your mp5/level seals should be getting stroner. I cannot stress how important it is to get sheen in this build. Sheen is an amazing item for GP since it will fold your base damage into your Q. Again. This is like boosting Q's AD coefficient from 1 to 2. Essentially you are now double dipping your base damage. If you want to think of it like auto-critting that's fine, just know that it isn't and it's better than auto-critting. The best part of this is your enemies will see your item build and not take you very seriously when they very well should. Your Q won't be critting often, but the base damage is now very decent and more importantly it will be consistent.

The next time I base I like to try and simultaneously build Berserker's Greaves and Brutalizer. The reasoning behind going Berserker's Greaves is that I play very conservatively. I don't like to blindly spearhead charges into teamfights. This is a very dumb notion as GP. You will get obliterated regardless of whether or not you have merc. treads vs. the amount of cc they have. You're just too squishy and I will talk more about this later. Basically, since you have Remove Scurvy you won't need Merc Treads if you play smartly enough and anticipate stuns/CC with your W. Brutalizer is more simplistic. More ArP. More Damage. More CDR.

By now your Goddess Tear should be pretty much fully charged. Time to build a Manamune and take advantage of the mp% to damage conversion. Usually by now, I have around 170ish AD and my Q will land for about 5-600 damage before armor is accounted for. This is pretty decent considering this damage isn't before considering Critical hits. I know it's kind of late by now to pick up Scepter as an item, but this is when I do it. Mostly because I like to be able to farm minions without needing my minions to be there. For example. Your enemy is a faster minion killer but doesn't want to risk harassing you because of your Q. So you farm the rest of the wave RIGHT outside of your turret's range.

I suppose it's personal prefence on whether you build the Youmuu's or Trinity Force next. I prefer Youmuu's for it's on use effect. I find it very helpful for escaping ganks or catching runners. Then I build the Trinity Force. Trinity Force is such an amazing item for GP. Your Q's AD coefficient is now 2.5, WOW. That's pretty high! As if your Q wasn't hitting hard enough, now it flat out decimates. Also you get some more crit% and a sometimes snare effect. Both of which are really helpful since your Q can crit and can apply "On hit effects".

Since I've never made it this far in a game, the rest of the item build is theorycrafting. Personally I would just try to up my AD more than anything considering most of Gangplank's game is his Q. Infinity Edge is a ridiculously good item for GP. It will also boost your Crit Damage % making your Q pretty much Broken at this point when pointed at squishies. For the 6th item I'd probably go Bloodthirster for more AD and some life steal.

The reason I made two identical builds except for skill order is because generally my item build never changes. I really, really enjoy what I'm able to do with this item build. My Skill Order will most definately change depending on what I'm up against. For instance, if the enemy is really passive and I'm allowed to free farm then I will go with the "Dominating Lane" Skill Order. This order will allow you to farm easier and harass harder.

And now for the "Bad Match-up" Skill Order explanation. I started doing this skill order when I started taking top lane for 1v2's. And have since then applied it to whenever I have to lane in what I call a bad match-up. In a 1v2 situation Spamplank thrives where other types of GP's will fail or perform not as well. Since you're easily able to deny your level advantage will be pretty significant during the laning phase as long as you don't die. By maxing W more often than Q, you give yourself more wiggle room with mistakes. Also it allows you to try and bait your enemies into making them. Does TF with low health look like he's going to Gold Card you while you're at low health? Eat card, W, Q, Exhaust, get your kill, sit on tower spamming W to full health. Rinse and Repeat.

Other conditions for when the "Bad Match-up" Skill Order should apply are:
Is your laning partner an idiot?
Are your laning opponents overly aggressive AND good?
Is one of your laning opponents a babysitter?

If one or more of these conditions apply then you will probably want to consider this skill order since you will more than likely need the survivability.

I pretty much use Exhaust and Ghost Exclusively on GP. My reasoning for Exhaust is it's a great snare and it will also shut down some one with a very devastating Auto Attack from killing you or your teammates hopefully long enough to kill said champion. And now with the Exhaust update will let you shut down champions like Fiddle/Nunu During their ults if there isn't a better choice for you to use it on.

I use Ghost because it's a great Escape tool. Have you ever heard how the slowest person always gets eaten by the dogs? This holds true in LoL. If your opponent is just plain faster than you and you're in some hot sh*t then you need to get the hell outta dodge and Ghost is pretty hand for it. On the other hand Ghost is an amazing chase tool for GP. Consider the fact that because of my item build and GP's skill Raise Morale then if you can Youmuu's, Ghost, and Gp's E then your opponent will almost never get away unless they pull a "Hat Trick"

I suppose you could get Flash if you wanted. But I find this skill gets me into trouble more often than it gets me out of it. Also you really don't need to do anything like Flash+Q to score kills. That's what a good Ult is for. Especially considering you can't Flash out of projectiles this is a weaker skill to consider for GP.

Ignite, another favorite among summoners. The main reason I can think of to using this is for the Healing Debuff. The thing is... GP has one built in already. So unless you want to toss on like I dunno a 410damage over 5 seconds spell on someone at level 18, which is very insignificant considering your Q should easily do at least twice as much damage. And if you're using it to try and get runners, then I suggest again to use a well placed Ult.

Cleanse: Since you already have W which is on a shorter CD this skill is really only useful for if you see the other team is packing like 5 characters who have ridiculous CC. W is good, but it's only a get out of jail free card once every 20'ish seconds.

I suppose I will give some tips here before giving my conclusion. This build seems like it has a lot of mana regen. But this is only really true at around level 11-15'ish and after you've gotten sheen/goddess tear. Until then you can very easily oom yourself by spamming. So try to keep your spam priority to something like this.

1.)Is Siege Creep Near?
2.)Deny Siege Creep
3.)Is mana over 60?
4.)Is Raise Morale up?
5.)Deny Creep.
6.)Is mana over 100?
7.)Attempt to last hit with Q.
8.)Is hp low?
9.)Remove Scurvy

Remember that when denying it's always best to wait at the nexus and immediately deny one creep at the start of the game. This allows you to deny a second creep by the time the creep waves meet.

I apologize that this is my first guide and that it might not be as nifty looking as some others, but if people like it I will definately do some touch ups. I just want to also say that I believe Spamplank is a solid pick for solo q if played well. And that in my personal opinion playing him in this fashion really brings out the most in him. Also feedback is very much appreciated :D

-Thanks
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