Gangplank Build Guide by The_Nameless_Bard

Wanna know why my roger is so jolly?

Because I've been playing lots of support Gangplank, that's why!

Runes

Quints

this is generally what I find myself using on Gangplank for maximum harass early game. Combined with flat AD Marks you get enough AD to make things poke pretty hard.


these are good if you want to start the game with more income, commonly utilized on supports. I just happen to prefer the flat AD for extra harass.


These can give you decent mobility early game if you feel you don't have enough or just want more. Because they are a percent increase to movement speed, they are strong all game.

Marks

These ensure you can harass the enemy very hard early game, which is kind of your function as support Gangplank.


These can be good against a high damage bot lane, but I generally find I prefer the latter.

Seals

I find that these are the best choice by far on support Gangplank. Because Gangplank is a harass support he doesn't really work well as a passive Greater Seal of Gold-wielding, gold-gaining machine. His strength lies in his ability to harass the enemy carry and boost his carry's damage during trades, which means he needs to be able to mitigate some of the damage dealt to him.

Glyphs

These are generally what I take on all supports now. They give you a decent MR mid-late game without any MR items, which is nice to have. I wouldn't really recommend much else on support GP, as even late game he's still a harass support.

Masteries

I like to run 1-21-8 on an aggressive Supportplank because it gives you a little bit of everything you want (the improved exhaust, the defensive stats you need, and just enough utility to top it all off). You can also run 9-21-0 if you like, but I wouldn't recommend 9-0-21 or 0-9-21 because the utility tree just isn't that good on Supportplank

Skill Sequence

> > >

Early game:
Start with Parrrley. Whether you take Remove Scurvy or Raise Morale should depend on the lane and how the game is going, but you'll nearly always want to take Raise Morale next.

: This is your main harassing skill, after the second rank it barely changes in damage (but goes up in mana cost) so I generally leave it after that.
: Good for removing CC and for healing if you need it. The mana cost never goes up, so don't worry about putting points in it.
: your main support skill. this ability is awesome. Always level this fully first.

Summoner Spells

and

Pretty much core on supports right now.

other good choices:
: This is interchangeable with Flash, it's really dependent on what your personal preference happens to be.

: This can work if your carry already has Exhaust, but I wouldn't take it unless you think your team needs it.

Possible substitutions
: While this can be useful, I don't think it's really worth it on a harass heavy support like Gangplank.

: If your carry takes Exhaust or Ignite and you feel your lane needs it, you can take this. I wouldn't consider it a core spell at all though, Gangplank's function is to harass and boost his carry's damage output.

Starting items

: This is what I prefer to start with. It gives you the extra mobility to harass well.

X3 X2: This is good if you want an early philo, I just like the mobility from boots more.

Core Items

Early game:
or : Either of these are fine depending on what you need/want.

or : You're going to get both of these in the end, but chose which one you get first based on what your team needs (more defense or more mobility). I pretty much always end up with an Aegis first unless my lane is really fed.


Mid game:
: Get this in between your Aegis and Reverie so you have a little more CC in general. Eventually you can finish it into a Frozen Mallet if you like/need, but don't worry about that until later.

or : Buy whichever of these you didn't get before your phage, in my case this is nearly always Shurelya's Reverie.


Late game:
: I nearly always get this item on supportplank. It synergizes well with Raise Morale and is generally a good item if because you will have at least 2 AD oriented champions (you and your AD carry).

Situational Items

Offensive items:
: This item is always fun to grab if you have the gold. I usually get a Phage anyways for the little bit of extra CC and damage it gives you, so I nearly always finish this item if I can afford it.
: If there are multiple AP oriented champions and only one of them has this item, you should consider buying it.
: If you get Ninja Tabi early and still want a tenacity item, grab this...the extra crit chance is good even on Supportplank, so it's worth it.
: This can be a decent choice for an early game item if you're only planning to support in the laning phase (aka no support items). I generally support all game, so I don't usually get this.

Defensive items:
: This is good against an AoE team comp, but I wouldn't recommend it unless you really need it.
: This is good if you find your team needs a bit more CC and you want more armor.


Utility Items:
: This item is good if you find yourself harassing your way into an empty mana bar. Please, for the love of the cute fluffy puppies...DO NOT buy Manamune, you are NOT an AD carry and, even if you were, that item is terrible on most AD champions.

Lane Synergy

Best:

One of my favorite champions to support with Gangplank. This lane is pretty mean. Just harass the enemy AD and support with Parrrley while Cait farms and use Raise Morale when she start poking at the enemies. Raise Morale gives her a nice damage boost to Piltover Peacemaker and the MS is nice because she's kinda slow early game. She has very little built in CC, so you may wanna grab a slightly earlier phage than average when laning with her.


This lane brings strong damage and a lot of utility. You will be slightly lacking on hard CC though, so you may find you need Exhaust more than you would in other lanes.


This lane hits incredibly hard early game... Raise Morale + Focus means BIG crit harass in early trades, provided you use it well. Ashe's own constant CC with make it hard to enemies to escape. This lane is slightly risky though, due to Ashe's lack of an escape, so be careful.


This lane is just stupid strong. Graves synergizes VERY well with Raise Morale and Gangplank's style of supporting. His built-in attack speed steroid makes poking the enemies down extremely easy and quite fun and his own CC makes keeping enemies in place fairly easy.


Welcome to the League of...A LOT OF ****ING DAMAGE. Draven's Blood Rush synergizes super well with Raise Morale, and his others skills scale really well with AD...making this lane incredibly strong.


Whaaaat AD Kayle? Her kit actually works really well with Gangplank's. She scales very well with AD, making the harass on this lane incredibly good.


This lane is also very strong in terms of damage because Varus scales well with AD. Since he has a bit of hard CC this lane's harass is fairly easy to dish out, provided he's good enough to hit with it.

Decent:

Vayne already as a lot of innate movement speed and she scales well with pure AD early game. She has her own CC that makes this lane even more fun. This lane is a bit of a gamble though, I wouldn't recommend it against most bot lane comps.


This can be a strong lane against a passive support and their farming carry. Sivir packs a nice punch early game with Boomerang Blade and her passive synergizes well with Raise Morale's movement speed boost. This lane isn't as risky as GP-Vayne, but it's not a perfect lane either.


Aah, the Pirate Hunter/Pirate lane. This lane is pretty average in terms of synergy. The damage you're dishing out will be good, but because Miss Fortune has very little CC herself, it won't work very well.


This lane is strong in terms of damage, but lacking in terms of utility and CC. Twitch tends to work better with supports who can bind targets down and Gangplank can't really do that.


This lane works mainly because Raise Morale boosts Corki's Hextech Shrapnel Shells' damage. This makes the lane deal quite a lot of damage early, which will push the enemy carry around quite easily.

Not Optimal:

I personally dislike this lane. Ezreal has no CC and doesn't scale as well with AD as other better syngizing champions.


Gangplank can't really provide the stats Tristana needs to be able to effectively use her combos. He doesn't have any hard CC and he can't give her the defensive stats to allow her to use Rocket Jump in a trade.

Gameplay

Mostly you're just going to harass the enemy AD with Parrrley. Be sure to use Raise Morale when your AD starts to trade damage with the enemy carry, If needed use exhaust on them and add a little of your own damage to help them win the fight.

Mid-game you can start to use Cannon Barrage to help with fights anywhere it's needed, but try to avoid wasting it.

Late game, you effectively become a bruiser, and you should play as such. Just use Parrrley to damage enemies and slow them and use Raise Morale to give your allies damage to help them kill the enemy...again, you can use Cannon Barrage whenever needed to help win a fight.

Warding

General Ward placement:
(Early game
Mid-late game
When doing Dragon or Baron, respectively
Black : When pushing midlane)

Where you should be warding early game:







Mid-late game warding:


















When going for Dragon:





When going for Baron:




When pushing Midlane:

Thanks to:

IceCreamy, for allowing me to use his screenshots of warding and going over my guide to make sure I hadn't missed anything. Ooh...and just generally being awesome. ^ ^

So far that's it.

Thanks for reading!

I hope you found this helpful!

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