I WILL NOT UPDATE THE GUIDE FROM PATCH 12.10 FORWARD!

Hi, I'm Scallywag, A High Diamond-Master player in EUW. I've been a Gangplank main since Season 6 and reached Master this season. Currently, I'm trying to see how high I can climb by mostly playing Gangplank. I sometimes stream on Twitch, so join and watch some scuffed Gangplank gameplay.

Gangplank - The Saltwater Scourge Why should you play this champion? ORANGES AND BARRELS!

| Cooldown: 15 | Damage: 55-225 | His passive deals true damage and gives you a movement speed buff. Popping a barrel refreshes the passive. This passive is very useful to burst down squishies and kill tanks.

| Cooldown: 4.5 | Damage: 20 / 45 / 70 / 95 / 120 (+ 100% AD) | Cost: 55 / 50 / 45 / 40 / 35 | Gangplanks bread and butter ability. This ability is what makes Gangplank quite safe in lane and very annoying to deal with if you are laning against him. You can use Parrrley to pop your Powder Keg. It can crit and procs on-hit and on-attack effects, but does not apply your passive Trial By Fire. Killing enemies with Parrrley grants you silver serpents which you can use to buy upgrades for your ult (see notes of ult upgrades above).

| Cooldown: 22 / 20 / 18 / 16 / 14 | Healing: 50 / 75 / 100 / 125 / 150 (+ 90% AP) (+ 15% missing health) | Cost: 80 / 90 / 100 / 110 / 120 | One of the most frustrating abilities to play against. It does not only function as a Quicksilver Sash, but it also heals you. Use it to get out of sticky situations or just to heal yourself when you are missing hp.

| Recharge Time: 18 / 17 / 16 / 15 / 14 | Cost: 1 Charge | Maximum Charges: 3 / 3 / 4 / 4 / 5| Your main damaging and zoning tool. You can pop barrels with your auto attack or Parrrley. Enemies hit are slowed and are dealt the auto attack/ Parrrley damage, on-hit effects and some bonus damage from the Powder Keg itself. You can chain barrels to increase the range, but enemies hit by multiple chained barrels are only damaged once.

| Cooldown: 180 / 160 / 140 | Damage per wave: 40 / 70 / 100 (+ 10% AP) | Cost: 100 | Gangplank's tool to impact the map on top lane. It has a global range and it creates a massive damaging and slowing zone. Enemies who stay in it will take a lot of damage overtime without realizing it. Map awareness is very important to have when playing Gangplank.

SUMMONER SPELLS - FLASH: Standard summoner spell for most champions. Gangplank doesn't have any mobility, so Flash is a must have to chase enemies or to get out of sticky situations. TELEPORT: Teleport is used to quickly get back to lane after a back or to join your team in fights after minute 14. You choose teleport in most matchups where the enemy also takes Teleport or where you don't need Ignite to win a 1v1. IGNITE: Ignite is picked when the enemy picks ignite ( Aatrox, Sett, Riven for example) to match it and have an easier time in laning phase. Other cases where you can take Ignite are matchups where you need to pressure and kill them early so they don't start scaling into oblivion ( Vladimir or Kayle for example). You have to manage your wave well since you don't have Teleport to have a good recall. EXHAUST: Exhaust can be taken instead of ignite if you are playing vs champions that have a lot of burst( Riven, Kled for example) or champions that can easily run you down ( Tryndamere, Fiora, Irelia). It is very powerful if used properly and may allow you to live in situations where you would have otherwise died or turn fights around you would have otherwise lost. Be sure to use it on time, since I notice that people panic use Exhaust when they are low AFTER the enemy champion has done their full rotation of spells. This is obviously suboptimal since the damage reduction of Exhaust will have less value in this situation.

GRASP OF THE UNDYING RUNE PAGE

Grasp of the Undying gives you good poke damage and a bit sustain in the form of max health and healing. Parrrley counts as a ranged attack, so you will not get the full value out of Grasp of the Undying. It is still the best rune to run if you want to fight a lot in lane and bully your lane opponent. If you don't know which keystone to run, you can't go wrong with Grasp of the Undying

You take Demolish since you can't really use the other runes and Demolish helps you get turret plating and split pushing later on in the game.

You swap between Bone Plating and Second Wind depending on matchup

Overgrowth gives you a bit of tankiness for free over the duration of the game. Revitalize can be run if you fight a lot and you need that clutch little bit of healing or just healing in general.

Future's Market helps you reach your powerspikes earlier or lets you back earlier if you are low on hp etc. Biscuit Delivery is picked if you are in hard matchups where you will fight a lot. Future's Market gives more value than Biscuit Delivery the longer the game is going

Time Warp Tonic gives you small bursts of healing and movement speed which help you in early trades. The movement speed buff is very useful to chase or run away from enemies.

or

Pick Shield or Tenacity and Slow Resist depending on matchup. Pick Attack Speed shard if you struggle with last hitting early game.

FIRST STRIKE RUNE PAGE

First Strike gives you increased gold income and increases the damage done by your barrels or ults when it is up. Take it if you are in a comfortable matchup where you don't need Grasp of the Undying to win trades/fights. Glacial Augment is useless on Gangplank and Unsealed Spellbook has some niche uses, but Gangplank can abuse First Strike very nicely.

Take Magical Footwear if you are in a comfortable matchup and Perfect Timing in harder matchups or matchups where you can get dove easily.

Future's Market helps you reach your powerspikes earlier or lets you back earlier if you are low on hp etc. Minion Dematerializer can be used to oneshot the caster minions before finishing Trinity Force or Essence Reaver. To do this you have to use all Minion Dematerializer stacks on the caster minions and you need to be at least level 7 and need at least Sheen and some extra ad from Long Sword or Cull. Biscuit Delivery is picked if you are in hard matchups where you will fight a lot. Future's Market gives more value than Biscuit Delivery the longer the game is going

Time Warp Tonic gives you small bursts of healing and movement speed which help you in early trades. The movement speed buff is very useful to chase or run away from enemies.

You take Demolish since you can't really use the other runes and Demolish helps you get turret plating and split pushing later on in the game.

You swap between Bone Plating and Second Wind depending on matchup

Cooldown reduction is very nice on Gangplank. Celerity is not that good on Gangplank because he can't abuse it like Hecarim for example. Absolute Focus doesn't give that much ad and you will be brawling a lot in lane so most of the time you won't have Absolute Focus active in lane.

Go Gathering Storm for ultimate late game scaling and gives you the most value of the three runes. Scorch can be taken to increase early game power and Waterwalking is just bad so don't take that.

or

Pick Shield or Tenacity and Slow Resist depending on matchup. Pick Attack Speed shard if you struggle with last hitting early game.

FLEET FOOTWORK: Fleet gives you healing and movement speed which gives you nice sustain in lane. The problem is that while it is useful to have to survive your lane, it doesn't give you any extra damage. As I will describe later, I think that Gangplank should be played as a lane bully to boost his gold income and Fleet Footwork does not give Gangplank any benefit for this playstyle.

DARK HARVEST: It's the same reason as for Fleet Footwork. It is nice to secure kills with your ult around the map, but it grants even less power than Fleet Footwork in lane. The Domination tree also has subpar runes for Gangplank.

SUMMON AERY: Probably the first rune I would take if I wouldn't run Grasp of the Undying or First Strike. It increases your poke damage of Parrrley early on and adds a little bit damage to Cannon Barrage. It does however not grant you any sustain, so it is in my opinion subpar to Grasp of the Undying.

A more general reason of why I prefer the Resolve primary and Inspiration secondary or Inspiration primary and Resolve secondary combination is mainly because of the runes in those trees. Demolish helps you get plating and destroy turrets for increased gold income. Bone Plating or Second Wind help you win fights or sustain through poke lanes. Time Warp Tonic is just an amazing rune to help you bully your lane opponent or barely survive incoming damage because of the instant heal. Future's Market is obviously nice to reach your powerspikes earlier which is huge for Gangplank.
The other trees have some useful runes, but they don't help Gangplank as much as the aforementioned runes. He is still a quite squishy melee champion so going full damage in your runes and build is very risky.

Lord Dominik's Regards

VS

The Collector

Before we go over items that Gangplank can build, lets first discuss Lord Dominik's Regards and The Collector.
Both items are similar to each other: they provide AD, crit chance and armor penetration. Because of this reason people do not know which one is better to build as second item.
Thanks to WizardGangplank who posted this useful table on the r/gangplankmains subreddit where the damage difference between Lord Dominik's Regards and The Collector are compared, based on the armor and health of the enemy champion.

Table comparing the damage of Lord Dominik's Regards and The Collector

As you can see even in the worst cases, Lord Dominik's Regards does "only" 5.8% less damage than The Collector. Often on top lane, the enemy will build Plated Steelcaps and often top lane champions build some form of hp, so you will often benefit more from Lord Dominik's Regards than The Collector. As a rule of thumb, if the enemy builds some kind of armor then Lord Dominik's Regards will outvalue The Collector most of the times. This value will only increase the more hp and armor they build. If you are building Trinity Force and Hullbreaker you may consider building The Collector instead, since you gain 600 hp from these items together.


But Scallywag?! What about The Collector passive! Executing targets below 5%! Isn't that OP?!


Yes, the passive sounds very nice on paper. An execute on an item AND you get 25 bonus gold!
But in practice, this passive only comes to play with very little damaging abilities (like Cannon Barrage). In most scenarios you would have killed the target anyway and the increased damage of Lord Dominik's Regards compared to The Collector is way higher than the damage of the execute in fights.

TLDR:
Build The Collector if the enemy builds no armor or health.
Build The Collector if you need to snowball. Lord Dominik's Regards has less value if the enemy has less than 100 armor or a 800 health difference. This is usually the case in the early game.
Build Lord Dominik's Regards in all other scenarios.

Trinity Force

Spellblade items synergies the best with Gangplank. It increases the damage of Parrrley, Powder Keg and just give the most value compared to other items. It gives Gangplank the biggest first item powerspike compared to any other item. For the Trinity Force build you obviously build Trinity Force as your first item. Gangplank is able to use every stat of Trinity Force very well and gets full value from the spellblade passive (looking at you Divine Sunderer).

Mortal Reminder	Lord Dominik's Regards
The Collector	Hullbreaker		Build Mortal Reminder if the enemy has healing. Build the Lord Dominik's Regards or The Collector if you need more damage. Build Hullbreaker if you need the tankiness to survive your lane or the sidelane.

After your first options you build want to build crit items you haven't build yet. If you have 40% crit chance from two crit items you want to build towards Infinity Edge.
If you don't build Serpent's Fang or Hullbreaker, you will have one item slot left which can be used to build extra crit ( Navori Quickblades) or something defensive like Guardian Angel, Death's Dance if enemy has ad burst, Maw of Malmortius if the enemy has ap burst or even Zhonya's Hourglass.

Trinity Force

Spellblade items synergies the best with Gangplank. It increases the damage of Parrrley, Powder Keg and just give the most value compared to other items. It gives Gangplank the biggest first item powerspike compared to any other item. For the Trinity Force build you obviously build Trinity Force as your first item.

Hullbreaker

Hullbreaker is one of the best items to build for bruiser Gangplank. It gives you AD, health and resistances for only 2800 gold. You should always build this second because of how cheap it is and how many stats it gives you.

death's dance	Maw of Malmortius
Chempunk chainsword	Ravenous Hydra	Serylda's Grudge		Build Death's Dance if the enemy has many ad threats and Maw of Malmortius if the enemy has many ap threats. Build Chempunk Chainsword if the enemy has a lot of healing. Build Ravenous Hydra if you need extra damage and sustain. Build Serylda's Grudge if the enemy has tanks.

Essence Reaver

Spellblade items synergies the best with Gangplank. It increases the damage of Parrrley, Powder Keg and just give the most value compared to other items. It gives Gangplank the biggest first item powerspike compared to any other item. For the one-shot build, you want to build Essence Reaver since it gives crit chance.

Prowler's claw

You build Prowler's Claw in most cases because of how much lethality it gives you.

After Prowler's Claw build one of the following crit items based on the game state:

Mortal Reminder

Lord Dominik's Regards

The Collector

After you have 40% crit chance from Essence Reaver and a crit item you build Infinity Edge to reach your ultimate powerspike. At this point a crit barrel can LITERALLY one shot squishy champions.
After Infinity Edge you usually have an item slot left.
A Zhonya's Hourglass or Guardian Angel have a lot of benefit because Gangplank is VERY squishy with this build.

Another thing you can build is to buy two Cloak of Agility after Essence Reaver to get 50% crit chance. It gives a second, very big powerspike after Essence Reaver and before getting lethality. It gives you more consistent crits and crit barrels at this stage of the game can chunk half of the enemy's hp bar.

This build path does force you to sell Corrupting Potion to get components for Prowler's Claw as your third item or to sit on extra gold before being able to finish Prowler's Claw.

Serpent's Fang

Randuin's Omen

Frozen Heart

Zhonya's Hourglass

Umbral Glaive

Build Serpent's Fang if the enemy has shielding. It cuts shields in half, which is very big vs Immortal Shieldbow users or enchanters in general. You can build Randuin's Omen or Frozen Heart against Tryndamere if you struggle with this matchup or if you get behind in lane vs other auto attack champions, like Yasuo or Yone. Randuin's Omen gives you so much survivability to the point where Tryndamere can't just dive you for free anymore when he is level 6. Frozen Heart lowers the attack speed, which prevents auto attack champions from stacking Lethal Tempo as quickly and allows you to run away without being chunked too much. Zhonya's Hourglass has been mentioned before in the builds above. Build this if you are a priority target and the enemy is able to kill you very easily (a fed Rengar or Kha'Zix for example) Umbral Glaive was buffed in patch 12.7. It is very cheap, costing only 2300 gold, and gives insane stats for the price. I thought about building this item second vs Teemo or maybe as a quick powerspike after your spellblade item. I am not sure how good this is, since I haven't had the time to extensively test Umbral Glaive in solo queue.

Everyone has become tankier and sustain has gone down. I assume that the bruiser builds are even better because you rely on multiple passive applications in a fight. The damage of the passive is still the same so you will still shred through everyone and everything.
I will try to play some games and see what feels better.

Gangplank wants to be ahead in gold compared to the enemies by using his increased gold generation thanks to Parrrley and his ability to win lanes because of his kit. In my opinion, Gangplank should be played as a lane bully in the right matchups to get this advantage. Gangplank can hard bully/zone melee matchups because he is semi-ranged because of Parrrley and Powder Keg. Try to poke the enemy laner as much as possible with Parrrley and Grasp of the Undying and make sure you don't forget to use your Corrupting Potion. Trading equal damage is fine early, since you can outsustain your enemy because you have Corrupting Potion. This is especially important in range matchups, since most of the time they are squishy and trading equal damage in laning phase means you can outsustain them and kill them. Make sure to get turret platings or the whole turret when possible. These two give A LOT of gold. You do not get the local turret gold if a turret breaks and you are not near, so make sure you don't walk away too early from a falling turret. This is especially big for tier two turrets in the sidelane (the second turret), which give 550 LOCAL GOLD. This is almost worth 2 kills in gold! If you can't bully your lane opponent because of circumstances, then use your range to farm from safely and look to use your ultimate around the map. Gangplank still scales very well when building crit, but in the current meta games usually don't last very long so optimally you want to look for advantages where you can get them. Some general tips, ward against enemy junglers and look to help your jungle if you have priority in lane. Sometimes you are forced to give up farm, so it is better you just do that instead of losing the farm AND donating a kill to the enemies.

I was planning to show some barrel combo and mechanics, but since Solarbacca has an excellent video on this topic I suggest to just watch this video instead of me reinventing the wheel in this guide.

Barrel combo video

Special thanks to:
Jhoijhoi for making an excellent guide on making guides.

Solarbacca for teaching people so much about Gangplank.

Patch 12.10 Big durability patch! I put my thoughts down under the build section. Will change it if I have played some games and change my mind.

Patch 12.9 Some rewording in the LDR vs Collector section.

Patch 12.8 No changes to guide. Gangplank the betrayer hype!

Patch 12.7 Time Warp Tonic nerfed and Gangplank passive and w buffed. Nothing changed to guide. Umbral Glaive buffed, added it to "Situational Items" section.

Patch 12.6 Added Frozen Heart to "Situational Items" and added the two Cloak of Agility path to "Build"


Patch 12.5 Full guide release