Not Updated For Current Season
This guide has not yet been updated for the current season. Please keep this in mind while reading. You can see the most recently updated guides on the browse guides page
x
Build Guide By MaoTheDong
79,305
Views
6
Comments
79,305
Views
6
Comments
Gangplank Build Guide By MaoTheDong
x
Did this guide help you? If so please give them a vote or leave a comment.
You can even win prizes by doing so!
Vote
Comment
I liked this Guide
I didn't like this Guide
Thank You!
Your votes and comments encourage our guide authors to continue
creating helpful guides for the League of Legends community.
Choose Champion Build:
-
TobiasPlank *WIP* (currently w
![LoL Champion: Gangplank]()
-
KoreaPlank
![LoL Champion: Gangplank]()
Recommended Items
Spells:
Flash
Exhaust
Items
Classic GP start
![]()
Sapphire Start
![]()
Ult upgrade + boots
![]()
Read notes
![]()
Crit after Core (notes)
![]()
LDR or Mortal?
![]()
Survivability (notes)
![]()
Finisher (read notes)
![]()
Example (common build)
![]()
Ability Order
Trial By Fire (PASSIVE)
Gangplank Passive Ability
Threats & Synergies
Threats
Synergies
Extreme
Major
Even
Minor
Tiny
Show All
None
Low
Ok
Strong
Ideal
Extreme Threats
Ideal Synergies
Fiora
*WIP*
Synergies
Ideal
Strong
Ok
Low
None
Introduction
About Me
Hey, My name is Skoms(IGN:挪威第一名), and I am currently Plat 5 at the Chinese Server, I've been playing league of legends since the end of Season 2, and i haven't stopped playing the game yet, through the times I've been one of those guys that chance their mains every week... But last autumn I Started playing
Gangplank, and I love playing him, So i decided to start maining him, so know I've been playing him for about half a year I guess, i have about 400 games with the champion and I am constantly improving as a player, but when i started I was struggling a lot, because I found no Guide that was in-depth enough for me, so I decided to make this guide right here, Of course there a lot of you guys out there that are better or know matchups and etc better, and I appreciate if you shared it with me in the comments or you can send me a message so I can improve this guide and make it even better, this guide is more pointed towards upcoming GP players that want to join the hype-train.And finally thanks for checking my guide out!
Runes
Stuggle vs AD, the only thing you need to do is simply switch out the Scaling Health Seals for Flat Armor Seals
Struggle vs AP, now this is kinda different, i recommend you to try your best with the standard runes, but let's say you can't, you have 2 choices, drop all the 10% flat CD and put in MR blues, and put in another Lethality Quint, another thing u also can do if u really want the CD, you can take away one Lethality Quinnt and Flat CD Quint, and then put in x2 5% Scaling CD Quints, switch out the blues for MR and you good ;^) You can also in both of those pages go Flat health yellows for the early extra health if you feel she might go all in at lvl 1-3 and just kill you if you dont have that 72 extra health. This might be a good Idea vs champs like
LeBlanc and Katarina.
Masteries
Sorcery, one point in
Fresh Blood
, 1 point in
Vampirism
, 4 in
Natural Talent
, and last in the Ferocity Tree is one point in
Double Edged Sword
, the biggest difference is in the Cunning Tree, So they put like us 5 points in Savagery and one point in
Assassin
, but then they only go one point in
Meditation
and 4 points in
Merciless
, further they go one point in
Bandit
, but 5 points in Precision and of course a point in
Thunderlord's Decree
.So to conclude this, the NA/EU build is more substain focused and we go all lategame, which leaves us very weak early, but they sacrifice some substain to get the extra damage to strengthen their early game, they also go AD runes instead of Lethality.
Just an input from my side, there are certain matchups I go
Stormraider's Surge
instead of
Thunderlord's Decree
, for the huge kiting potential, the matchup i always go this, is versus Tryndamere. You can try it and tell me how it goes, I had a lot of succes with it!
Pros / Cons
| Pros | Cons |
| +Can Snowball very hard with early lead | -He might struggle a lot if he falls behind, hard to get back into the game |
| +Can blow up and win a teamfight without the need of his teammates if he lands a prime 3-5 man barrel!! | -Fairly squishy and shouldn't build tanky, if he does, he will lack very in the dmg departament |
| +Fairly flexible with builds | -Forced to build aggressively to be useful |
| +A lot of movement speed boosts from barrels and passive | -No leap/Dash/blink(escape) |
| +Global Ult |
-Ult has very long CD and needs "stacks"(silver serpents) to be upgraded and to be worth even using |
| +His W, the Oranges is a heal and is a mini QSS with only 14-22s CD | -GP has no hard CC(Stuns,Charms, Snares etc) |
Items
| Orange = Most common build | Light Blue = Often used situational items! | Purple = Very situational Items |
|
|
Trinity Force: This Item is a total no-brainer, it is the one item you will ALWAYS go on gangplank, even if you're going bruiser or tank, it just works too well with his kit in general. The Sheen proc for his Parrrley and Powder Keg, the movements speed from Phage and the AS from Stinger is always a nice asset in every duel!
|
|
|
Youmuu's Ghostblade: Now, this item a lot of people ask if they should still build it in light of the recent nerfs(lost 5 lethality, pretty substantial nerf). Okay, so if you like me watch a lot of Tobias Fate, not only because he's very entertaining but also because he if VERY good at Gangplank, you'd notice that he hasn't dropped the item, and neither should you, I mean.. it sucks we lost 5 lethality on the item, but it still has 15 lethality, the cooldown reduction is very nice, as you don't need to buy lucidity boots, and don't forget the movement speed active, do not come here and tell me that hasn't either saved you or secured you a kill before! nuff said.
|
|
|
Infinity Edge: This item is also one of the core items in a CRITPLANK. This item is not needed in other gangplank build as the full lethality build, bruiser or tankplank, but that's for another guide. So according to my guide, you should always build this item as we go crits for days. Now when it comes to when you build it, you should build it AFTER Trinity Force and Youmuu's Ghostblade. it doesn't need to be the 3rd item at all, or even the fourth, you can go Statikk Shiv/ Phantom Dancer, and then IE, but I do recommend at least going Cloak of Agility and then an AS/Crit item of your choice to get that crit building earlier!
|
|
|
Statikk Shiv: This item is a very good choice and most often built by anyone playing critplank. This is quite frankly because it adds an extra 50-12 Magic Damage when you Auto Attack an enemy target, this also applies to your Parrrley, which is very nice when you want to oneshot a squishy enemy midlaner or ADC. Also note that it does not proc with barrels!
|
|
|
Phantom Dancer: Also a very common item, but not so often to build before Statikk Shiv, this is because you wont really often have more need for 1v1 strength over the extra burst from Statikk, but if you are in toplane all game because the other top is just splitting the whole game and you need that extra dueling-power, go ahead and get that Phantom Dancer, no one's stopping you.
|
|
|
Lord Dominik's Regards: This item is very often needed as they usually have at least 1 very strong tank, and if your team don't have any very effective way to deal with that in your team already, you have to wear the pants and penetrate that armor! If more than 2 enemies build armor I'd usually go this item, but also if they have one super tank that's just smashing my team and is almost unkillable! You will most likely build this item very often in light of the tank meta, but as the tank meta is now slowly going down you might not need it, but there will soon be a tank update, so you will definitely need to pick up dominik's sooner or later!
|
|
|
Sterak's Gage: Is a very common situational item to build and it gives you a lot more survivability, but is usually built strictly against burst champions that you can't stay away from, but this is not the only reason why it's pretty good on Gangplank, it also gives you +25% BASE attack damage!, now some might be like; "ugh, that aint good.." but that's where you are wrong, because the Spellblade passive on Trinity is a 200% boost to your BASE attack damage, so you basically get 50% extra attack damage when used with Spellblade. Every boost to your Q is great for your damage output!
|
|
|
Maw of Malmortius: This item is often used the same way as Sterak's Gage, but against Magic Damage enemies, like if the enemy has a lot of AP damagers i recommend you to go Hexdrinker in to Edge of Night and then finish Maw of Malmortius, now this gives you a ton of MR and the two passives Lifeline which is the shield you get when you drop below 30% health and is a 300 Magic Shield, and Lifegrip that gives you 20 AD, 10% lifesteal and 10% spellvamp until you leave combat, Lifegrip triggers as Lifeline triggers.
|
|
|
Edge of Night: As I explained in the description of Maw of Malmortius these two items are often built together, because it offers a lot of MR, you still get that 15 lethality and the 10% CD, the only bad part is that it takes up two item slots. Now you do not have to build these two together, you can choose to build Edge of Night without building Maw of Malmortius if you feel like you don't need more MR and you have another item that will fill in that last 10% CD whether it's lucidity boots or something else. The passive of Edge of Night is also very nice when you scout through territories without vision and you don't want to get caught of guard with an Ashe Arrow, hook and ETC, but note that the passive is nerfed, now it has a longer CD and a shorter duration!
|
|
|
Mortal Reminder: Firstly, welcome to the very situational items that you wont build too often, now this is not too often built as usually midlane or ADC would build Grevious Wounds in form of Executioner's Calling or Morellonomicon, but if they don't or you really need it in laning phase, this is the item for you, and if you dont already know, this is very good items against champions like Swain, Xin Zhao, Soraka and other that build a lot of Lifesteal/Spellvamp or simply have it in their kit!
|
|
|
Dead Man's Plate: Is a rare but effective situational item you can go VS very AD heavy teams, now i personally only go this item when its super-lategame and you sell your boots, because it give you much health, armor and movement speed from it's passive, and because you then would have 5 Damage items and 1 defensive you still will have a lot of damage and it will be slightly harder to kill you as you wont run up in their face 1v5, but in a 1v1 this helps a lot if you catch them out lategame! as your lategame is most likely much better than theirs!
|
|
|
Spirit Visage: Has the same function as Dead Man's Plate, for lategame tankiness but for AP heavy teams instead of AD heavy, building this instead of Dead Man's Plate should only occur if they have 3 or more strong AP champions! The passive of Visage is also very nice as in increases your W heal by 25% :^)
|
|
|
Essence Reaver: is an item you'll only build when you wanna have fun with 100% crit and/or when you know you'll win, so you just mess around with the enemy. I don't recommend this item in a game that's super close as it leaves you very squishy! so if you get caught, u can single-handedly lose the game for your team..
|
|
|
Ohmwrecker: this is for when you are a salty sailor and just wanna troll your team because you are too damn salty, build this to get reported, please do, no one likes a salty sailor! Walk the plank!
|
Summoner Spells
|
|
Flash: is the summoner spell you go 110% of the games no question, I shouldn't and won't need to give you any reason for this, just read what the summoner spell does and you know Gangplank will need it!
|
|
|
Exhaust: is the summoner I would go in most midlane matchups, you can read the matchup section for more info on when you should. As a short explanation, you will want to go Exhaust against most champions that can get to you from far and do great damage within a short amount of time, examples: Zed in mid, and Riven in toplane.
|
|
|
Teleport: is mainly for toplane, you will want to go TP in toplane all the time, but in some matchups you shouldn't like versus very burst heavy laners like Renekton, Riven and Tryndamere, for these Exhaust would be better. Teleport in midlane should only be chosen in very easy matchups you know you will win or at least wont die.
|
|
|
Ghost: is very rarely chosen and I don't recommend it, but if you wont need Exhaust or Teleport, it is a good summoner spell to go, it gives you more kite potential.
|
|
|
Ignite: I wouldn't really ever go ignite as a damage summoner spell isn't as needed as mobility/survivability for Gangplank, early you wont need it, as you wont duel much, but rather farm, and later you shouldn't run into them as you will be collapsed, but hey, if you have an Ignite fetish, more power to ya!
|
|
|
YOU HAVE W! totally useless summoner spell |
|
|
YOU HAVE W! :^) |
|
|
Exhaust is better
|
Spell Mechanics Tips and Combos
|
|
Trial By Fire: is a very strong passive when used right, but often ignored by new Gangplank players, most don't even know what it does when they just started. Trial By Fire is a true damage burn that also gives you a huge speed boost for a short while, and this passive is very good against tanks. Now the normal trading combo is
+AA(
) and then run away, this will do a decent amount of damage and if you are against someone that can't jump you, you should be safe too. Don't try this vs Riven. Here's a crucial point with the passive, when you destroy a barrel, it resets!
can also be applied to turrets. Okay, so you have a few barrels set up defensively, you have you passive up, you go apply
, Parrrley the barrel, try to combo it on him if possible, and then apply Trial By Fire on him again, this is a lot of true damage and you can often escape easily with the movementspeed you get. This is mostly used against tanks because of the burn, but it can also be very effective in many matchups, but be smart, you don't want to go face to face with Riven or Jax. There's also a combo where you have a double-barrel combo ready, you
the double-barrel, and instantly AA the target before the second one blows up, and if you had trial by fire before doing that, you can apply 3
within a very short duration, plus the barrel damage, its a lot of true damage and AD damage within a short amount of time, if you can pull it off in a teamfight against a tank, its amazing, but it's more used against Drake, Baron and turrets, as its often a little hard to pull of in a teamfight!
|
|
|
Parrrley: is a point and click spell used mainly for Farming and detonating Powder Keg, but is also an essential tool to harass your enemy in lane from LVL 1-2, but just because you have your barrels doesn't mean that you can't harass him with Q anymore. Parrrley is often very nice in lane if you feel like they can just dodge all your barrels. You will need to have 100% over the animation of the Q and how long it takes from when you get in range untill you hit your target, this is for barrel-combos. Also you will early in bad matchups use you Q mainly to farm, which is also good when it comes to stacking up your Silver Serpents for your ult upgrade. This spell is combined with barrels and will be most of your damage through out the game
|
|
|
Remove Scurvy: is first of all an awesome spell overall, it offers sustain and can help you out of a kinky situation. Remove Scurvy for people that don't know for some reason, is a Heal and mini-QSS in one. They have a Malzahar? don't worry, if he is dumb enough to ult you, you just Remove Scurvy and you're gone. Knowing this, it's obvious you shouldn't use it for the heal if there's a chance you will need to survive an engage and ETC. People can easily abuse you not having Remove Scurvy up, especially in a 1v1 or for an incoming gank! knowing this, you should always go Remove Scurvy at level 3, sometimes you might consider even doing it at level 2, I did this latest earlier today against a Jax, and it resulted in me surviving, then my jungler came and got a double kill on Jax and Vi. It's a simple spell, but using it at the right time can sometimes be tricky!
|
|
|
Powder Keg: is probably the reason you play Gangplank, you have seen those crazy barrel combos where you just obliterate the enemy team, but getting the hang of barrels and combos can be tricky, and knowing when to do what, and for a rookie, I recommend going in to Sandbox mode which recently got added, then go around and practice the timing for as long as it takes you, try to get as close to the time as possible, so the enemy wont "out-time" you, that can often be very frustrating, so practice that alot. Do not only practice level 13 barrel timers, do all, the pre level 7 timer, pre 13 timer and post 13 timer! When it comes to combos, I will make that a little sooner in this guide! |
*WIP* more coming later today
|
|
MaoTheDong
Gangplank Guide
A wannabe good GP player guide *WIP* [7.6]
You must be logged in to comment. Please login or register.