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Spells:
Flash
Teleport
Ability Order
Trial By Fire (PASSIVE)
Gangplank Passive Ability
Introduction - Why BankPlank?
AVAST! Welcome to my Gangplank guide. Gangplank has been one of my favourite champions in League for a long time, but due to the meta changing constantly (and several nerfs) he's fallen out of favour as of late. I've been looking at different ways to make him work in the current game.
Enter Bankplank (I didn't invent the name). The aim of Bankplank is simple. Grab all the gold income items, runes and masteries and last hit with your



The reason this works is simple. Most top laners want to fight, kill you and snowball. But Bankplank doesn't want to fight, he wants to farm farm farm farm all day long at his tower to get his riches. You scale a lot better than most top laners (especially the newer ones) and you eventually out damage them and be able to bully them back. His playstyle is VERY similar to

Bankplank however is not all sunshine and treasure islands, and you should never blindly pick him into an enemy team who knows how to deal with him. There are other reasons to pick him and not pick him but I'll go over that later in this guide.
Like Bankplank or want to know what he plays like? Check out these guys



NEVER CHOOSE RISKY CHAMPION THAT COULD POTENTIALLY LOSE YOU A LANE IN SOLOQUEUE UNLESS YOU'RE 100% YOU CAN WIN OR SURVIVE THE LANING PHASE AND NOT INTERFERE WITH YOUR TEAM MATES PICKS. Bankplank is one of those champions, so take care when deciding to play him.
Your team
The very first thing you need to (if you can) is look at your team composition and see if Bankplank fits. Bankplank is not a tank or a good initiator, so make sure you have either a tanky jungler or



While mid and bottom aren't too important, it's worth a quick glance to see how their early game is. For example, if you have a

The enemy top laner
Next, see if you can find out who their top laner is. Sometimes it's obvious, other times it's not. From there you can judge whether or not you can counter with Bankplank. For a list of counters and lane matchups, see below. It is important, as Bankplank can be easily countered by certain characters.
The enemy jungler
Finally the enemy jungler. You basically need to look at your lane opponent and jungler and judge whether the both of them are strong enough to take you on while you're under your tower. As long as one of them is Tanky and the other can deal enough damage, you can be tower dove. For example, if you're top lane is




Greater Mark of Desolation - Pirates hate armour, so we should do away with it. This is enough to shred most champion's base armour and will also help you last hit with your









Offense Tree
You want to pick up






Defense Tree
Here you'll opt for






Utility Tree
Your remaining 12 points will go into





















- When you see a jungler going in for a mid or bot lane gank, throw down your ult behind your enemies after they initiate. Even if it looks like they're going to get the kill, you simply can't keep track of who has what escapes left. This can help get the kill, and while you don't really WANT to steal kills, the assist gold will help you a lot.
- If you see a full out fight (people burning all their spells on each other) break out in any lane (or jungle), just drop your ult immediately on top of the enemy. Sometimes it will help, sometimes it won't, but it's worth the risk.
- If you see the enemy team towerdiving one of your laners, drop down the ult around the tower. If your allies react they may be able to pick up a kill, and if not, maybe the tower will get the last hit and score you the kill.
- If your jungler is coming for a gank, SAVE YOUR ULTIMATE for the gank. Kills are worth more than assists, so secure them.
- On that note, if it's midgame and you think you can take on your lane opponent 1v1, save your ultimate for when you engage them.
- DO NOT use your ultimate to initiate a fight in a lane UNLESS you specify that you're going to in chat/skype/etc. Also before you do this, judge whether it will actually help. If your laners are lower level you may end up just baiting them to their deaths.
- DO NOT use your ultimate to attempt to save a life unless you're 100% sure it will save them or turn the tides of the battle. You are not Shen (but being map aware is great for both champions).
- Even if you missed an opportunity to help someone in lane and score an assist, check the remaining health of the enemies just in case you can get a cheese kill. If you think you can, try to land your ult dead center on top of them so they have little chance of getting out of it.
- If your team is unable to secure Dragon and the enemy team is doing it, drop your ultimate. You have a very low chance of stealing it if the jungler is there, but it has happened a lot for me. Same with Baron and even jungle buff camps sometimes (don't do this if you're going to need your ultimate for a team fight soon).
Try to help out your team and don't get greedy with your ultimates and you should be okay. One important thing to remember though: PAY ATTENTION TO YOUR POSITION IN LANE! If you're scanning the map because a bunch if icons clustered up, be sure to move away from your creeps behind your tower. You don't want to give your top lane an opportunity to get a cheese kill on you just because you looked away for 3 seconds. Trust me, it happens!
Staring items
The standard start for most champions these days. It makes sense. A bit of cheap sustain and movement speed so you can't get caught out close to your tower. I rarely ever go off this path unless I'm against someone with heavy AD harass, in which case I would buy a Dorans Shield.
Early Game
The three GP10 items you care about. Philosopher's Stone is pretty much mandatory for Bankplank to farm with his


Mid Game
These are the boots choices for Bankplank. You want choose your boots depending on your lane opponent. If your opponent has lots of magic harass or CC, grab



These are quite expensive items for mid game, but you'll be surprised at how much gold you have. That's the name of the game with Bankplank, you'll easily have enough money to buy a trinity force 20 minutes in if you've been farming properly and been getting assists with your ultimate, and then some.
So first grab your


Then you should decide whether you want some defensive item (check who's getting fed) or start building your



Late Game
Late game you should be looking at who your opponents are, how fed they are and who needs to die first. Therefore, I will simply list all the useful items that I would recommend considering on Gangplank.














Miscellaneous
Sight Ward Sight Ward - Sight wards are very important for ANY POSITION OR CHAMPION ON THE TEAM. There are different times for wards, but generally near mid-endgame you'll always want a few in your pocket. Sight wards are so important, they get their own section! See below for details.










Laning Phase

The first thing you want to do in your lane is get there. If you've helped with a jungle invasion you may want to burn your

Your job is to now farm. Nothing else. You shouldn't even interact with your lane opponent unless they're doing something stupid. Pretend they're not there and dodge their spells/autoattacks and proceed to farm from a safe distance. Only autoattack to last hit creeps if you know you aren't going to get damaged in the process, otherwise just use your

You may notice that your mana is falling hard, so make sure you have 800 gold or more and push your lane a little bit and recall back to base. Grab a Philosopher's Stone and a couple of wards if you can, then teleport back to your lane so you don't miss out on any farm. Usually teleport won't be useful until midgame anyway so you may as well burn it early. Now your objective is to farm farm farm farm farm farm farm until the cows come home. Again, just ignore your lane opponent. You'll deal with him later...
By now you should be level 6 and watching the map for opportunities to use your ultimate (see above). Your next trip back should be when your lane opponent goes home to buy and stops pushing your lane. As soon as you notice he's gone, push the lane back a little if necessary and recall. You now want to grab the rest of your gold generation items and upgrade your boots if you can. You may even be able to start on your


Mid Game

You should have a ton of money by now, and should be able to afford

Your objective now is to try and help out in team fights, push towers and of course, farm with your

When it comes to full blown team fights, you want to focus down the enemy squishies who (should be) doing the most damage. Of course, you're not

Late Game

The scariest part of the game. Both teams have lots of items and are trying to contest Baron and push for the win. Dying can mean a lost Baron fight, an Inhibitor or even the game. If your support isn't warding, you may want to sacrifice an item slot for wards. Also if you have spare gold lying around and can't finish your next big item, grab some Elixers (




If you manage to make it a 4v5 or better, decide whether it's best to either push, challenge baron or head home. Deciding this is simple. If you win a team fight and you've all got capable health for Baron, by all means take it. If your minions are pushing a tower and you're fairly close to it, push towers instead. If you're low, see it's possible to push with your team to try and get as many structures as possible without getting picked off. Most importantly, USE YOUR PINGS! Ping when you decide what you want to do. There is no single leader in LoL, but by spamming pings you can (hopefully) help co-odinate your team a little better to do the most logical thing. Also take dragons when you have chance. Gangplank can solo dragon very easily after

They are especially important to Bankplank, because he is vulnerable to ganks and towerdives. He also provides very little lane pressure, so knowing where your lane opponent is leaving to go gank or counter jungle is very important. However, Bankplank can sometimes have an issue of not having slots for wards due to all his monkeymaking items. Just remember to always leave your base with 2 if you can afford them and have slots for them after purchasing items. Do not sell your items (except Philospher's Stone when it's no longer required, and your

Early/Mid Game
After your first recall to base, if you have enough money for a ward or two after your Philospher's stone grab them. Otherwise you'll have to wait until next time, so just play very safe if this happens. From then on, always try to have 2 wards on you if you can. Here's some examples of where you should be placing your wards depending on which team you're on and who you're fighting.
Blue Side
Passive Opponent


Pushing Opponent


Purple Side
Passive Opponent

Pushing Opponent

Late Game

Safe to pick Bankplank
Nasus
If for some reason they pick Nasus against you, you want to change builds and go for a more offensive based Gangplank. Nasus is a ticking timebomb, all he wants to do is farm too. Go look up a more offensive build and try to poke him out of lane. While you could just farm up with Nasus and just ignore each other, it's not worth the risk. Gangplank scales very well into late game... Nasus scales infinitely (seriously) into late game.
Shen
He wasn't banned?... Huh. Well Shen is another passive farmer like yourself, but harder to kill than



Pantheon
This is hilarious because generally Pantheon is considered a good counter to Gankplank. His Shield will block his bullets, that ruins Gangplank right? NOPE, not Bankplank. Bankplank can simply farm up by his tower and not give a damn about Pantheon. Gangplank scales incredibly well compared to Pantheon, so you'll rarely lose your lane. HOWEVER, let your other lanes know about this as Pantheon will likely try to snowball elsewhere with his


Jayce
Jayce has some very annoying poke, but you should be fast enough to react to his gate/plasma combo. His auto attack range is pretty decent too but you should be okay to just farm at the tower pretty much forever. He may try to harass you with his

Nautilus
Nautilus top lane is perfect for Bankplank. He won't ever be able to kill you BUT he can CC lock you down, which is bad news if the jungler is around. Just don't over extend and keep a ward handy and you'll be fine. He may try to kill you under your tower but he'll NEVER have the damage to do it on his own, so just kite him around it and he'll either give up or you can cheese kill him. Another thing to note is Nautilus cannot push to save his life, so feel free to teleport gank and help out the team once you've got a damage item (like

Can use Bankplank to some extent
Wukong
Wukong will harass you when you dare get near creeps if he knows what he's doing. You need to play very safe and request a gank or two nice and early to stop him from becoming strong, because as soon as he gets tanky he WILL dive you with his ultimate. Just play very safe and try not to feed him, as he gets very strong after a few kills.
Renekton
Renekton is one of those champs that loves to get into fights and snowball. You can deny him this to an extent, but once he gets a few items he will be able to towerdive and kill you with his ultimate

Malphite
Malphites generally build a bit of AP and constantly spam you with rocks and pound the ground to wear you down. To deal with this, just eat fruit if you seem him advance after his


PICK ANOTHER CHAMPION
Cho'gath
Cho'gath is one of those characters you really have to shut down, or else they become unkillable (due to

Singed
Another character that farms and snowballs. Singed has to be dealt with early on, or else he becomes an unkillable nuisance. Same as Cho'gath, you want to constantly be shutting him down, and Gangplank just can't do that.
Olaf
A good Olaf will wreck you in lane, be very aggressive and

Fiora
I was privileged to fight a Fiora as Bankplank one day... then I wanted to ban her every game. As soon as she hits 6 you'll get tower dived.


Trundle
Odd as it may sound, I managed to face off with a Trundle one game in top lane of all things. Trundle is very tanky and hits like a truck early on with his

Nidalee
I haven't fought an AP Nidalee top yet but the AD variety usually build tanky DPS. Her cat form is very strong and she's very slippery with that and her heals. She's also super safe, so shutting her down in lane is very difficult. She'll eventually get tired of your farming and go for the tower, so bad choice here. Pick another champion.
Ranged AD Carries
Sometimes you'll get an AD carry at top lane in an attempt to bully you. If you can't see a good top lane champion in champion select, you need to prepare for an AD carry lane. To do this, you should NOT follow this build and go for a more tanky DPS/poke Gangplank so you can trade with their autoattacks. If you don't, you'll just get dominated.
2v1 Lane
If for some reason you end up against two lane opponents, you need to play even safer than before. Bankplank is pretty decent against 2v1 lanes early game because of his nature to ignore his opponents and farm under the tower. There's no real strategies I can offer due to the fact there's so many deadly combinations you could face. Just play safe, farm up and ask your jungler for ganks. You'll be higher level than your opponents and they'll probably be out of position a lot, making them very vulnerable for ganking.
Thanks for reading my Bankplank guide! It's my first (and probably last) one and I would appreciate any feedback you can throw at me, negative or otherwise. It may seem like a troll build at first glance, but I've won several games with this and it's a well known build. I can post replays and such if necessary but if you didn't believe it worked I doubt you'd have read this far down anyway.
Good luck! May your top lane be filled with infinite treasures!
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