Ahoy Captains!

I am STIERNACKENTÜP, a Gangplank addicted Player since ever with moar than 1.000.000+ mastery points on him. I peaked in Season 7 @ Diamond III with an average 55% winratio on my mainaccount. Lolskill said, I was #543 GP World at the end of Season 7 :O I played him alot before his rework and started to main him after his rework. For me Gangplank is the first champ I can play like 20 times a day and he never gets boring. He has so much potential, so many different builds/playstyles which make him so much fun for me. Gangplank isnt easy to master but hella strong if u increase ur experience with him. I decided to create a guide since I luv this champ and I luv Cometplank.


This is a Toplane guide, since i dont play Mid and i dont like GP Mid because u have no roam potential and in this meta, the Midlaner who has early pressure and can roam, will win the game.

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I usually always go for Sapphire Crystal + Refillable Potion as starters. After Parrrley nerfs in 8.4 u just cant start a gp10 item anymore, since u really need the extra mana. U could also start Corrupting Potion - take it in hard early lanes.

If u have atleast 700g I would recommend to back off, get ur Sheen.

If u need to back up early and only have 450g, Cull is decent, since u get freegold, 7 AD + 3 life on hit.

Always try to rush Trinity Force.

With patch 8.12 and Sterak's Gage changes, its no necessary item for GP anymore. We used to build it to increase the Trinity Force sheen procs, but this is gone now. U can still build it for tankyness, especially when they have AP + AD assassins but a Guardian Angel or Maw of Malmortius will be better now.

Now I usually rush Caulfield's Warhammer for the 10% cdr. Decide how good u are in game for ur next item. Finish it and get ur Essence Reaver.

Now I love the new Edge of Night. Gives us AD + Lethality + HP and a Spellshield.

Get ur Infinity Edge for the 75% Crit and more Crit damage.

For the last item, check what u need. The new Edge of Night is a good roundup, since it gives us hp + ad + lethality and a shield.

Mortal Reminder when u play vs 2+ hard healing champs.

If u need sometankyness get a Guardian Angel or Maw of Malmortius or Sterak's Gage.









Ninja Tabi: I always go for Ninja Tabi, since u face 70%+ AD toplaner/jungler. Even when they have much magic damage, Ninja Tabi are always worth since there is always an AD-Carry u play against. And thx to ur Remove Scurvy, u have a perma Quicksilver Sash and dont need the tenacity from Mercury's Treads. I recommend Mercury's Treads only when every champ has CC and they dont have much onhit/AA damage.

Trinity Force: Not much to say about, this item is selfexplanatory and ur must have, always.

Edge of Night: Lethality is still very good on GP, since it scales so good with the 40% armorpen from ur Powder Keg. Just dont build Edge of Night when they stack armor. After 100+ armor, Lord Dominik's Regards is better.

Infinity Edge: After crit update @ 9.3 we love Infinity Edge, again. Sure its not as strong as it used to be with 250% Crit damage, but 225% is still alot.

Essence Reaver: It went a good item again after patch 9.3. Gives us 25% Crit chance + 60AD + 20%cdr. Together with Infinity Edge we have our core 50% crit chance. If u crit, its insane damage. If not, u still got alot of ad and together with ur Trinity Force and lethality/armorpen items its good damage.

Lord Dominik's Regards/ Mortal Reminder: Since they give full armorpen again and especially after buffs @ 9.3 they are really good roundups as last item. But only take them if needed! Lethality is nearly always better, u only need them when enemies have hard healing or 3+ armor stacking tanks.

Phantom Dancer: Probably just better than a Sterak's Gage after Phantom Dancer rework. Same passive hp shield, just better stats (25% crit - movspeed).

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U face heavy AP (Ap Top + Jungle + Mid)? Get an early Hexdrinker and upgrade it later into a Maw of Malmortius. Its still a very good item on GP.


Remember that ur Maw of Malmortius shield passive dont stack with Phantom Dancer shield so u shouldnt get both.

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U play vs heavy AD? Get a Guardian Angel last. Heavy heal enemy team ( Fiora/ Nasus top + Warwick Jungle etc)? Get a Mortal Reminder.

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With Ninja Tabi + Youmuu's Ghostblade + Trinity Force + Infinity Edge + Essence Reaver + Lord Dominik's Regards u deal ~900 damage with Powder Keg on targets with 100 armor without critting. If Powder Keg crits, the damage is about 1400+.

When u sell boots in lategame for Phantom Dancer u have 75% crit chance then for more consistent bursts.

Oneshots are gone since they removed good old lethality rune times. Here are 2 juicy oneshots back from Season 7:

Gangplank is one of the hardest champs to master. Sure, u get his Powder Keg mechanic after 50 games, Panthom Barrels, Tripple Barrels etc isnt thard hard to master but the difficult thing about GP is to know when to go in or not, when to split or not, what build u need in which situationetc. Especially in Plat2+ elo, enemys know how to fck GP. They know they can permadive/gank u in lane. They know they need to clear barrels in fights. And to not feed and get ur items to smash them, thats the difficult part on GP, especially when the elo gets higher.

After patch 8.4 i recommend to play more passive early, dont spam every Parrrley on ur enemy, use Parrrley to farm, save ur mana since u get fast oom. U really need to stay in lane until u got atleast 700g for ur Sheen. Our captain isnt the Q spamming early bot anymore, we are back to roots now!

After Teleport nerfs patch 8.14 I came back to use Exhaust in a few matchups. Especially vs hard burst matchups (Riven/Trynda/Zed) etc I would recommend to take Flash + Exhaust. But overall Flash + Teleport is still our best choice.

Gangplank is a great splitpusher and u should ALWAYS splitpush and farm. Before u dont have 2-3 Damage items and especially before lvl13 its just useless to group since ur Powder Keg are sh1t and u are sh1t. After u reach lvl13 and have some items, try to split as hard as u can, since u have Cannon Barrage and Teleport to help ur team. But dont make the mistake to only split, since ur team needs u.
I usually split very much, but always have an eye on my team. If they get engaged on, I ult and tp to the fight. If u fall behind or they have a better splitpusher ( Jax/ Fiora etc) u should consider to stay grouped since ur Powder Keg are such a good teamfighting tool.

Farming is the most difficult thing on Gangplank, especially in Plat2+ Elo. U really need to learn that u sometimes have to miss like ~20 cs early to stay in game. U will get sitted, u will get countered and a few lasthits arent worth dying for. U need to give up some farm very often, to stay in game. But thats ok since u have ur Q for tons of bonus cäsh.

All in all our captain got one of the best reworks and is one of the funniest champs ingame. At the same time he is one of the hardest champs to master, especially in high elo. Ur core mechanic is the barrel managment. Pre lvl13 and especially pre lvl7 ur Powder Keg suck so hard. 1.5 and 1.0 sec to proc them make them very useless to start dynamic plays. So try to harass ur lane opponent as much as u can with ur Parrrley but always keep a defensive Powder Keg to be save. If u have no Powder Keg left and they are on CD, play passive for a while in this moment since then u cant do anything. Once u get ur items and reached lvl13, u will become a monster.
And never forget, if u kill an enemy or more, always write in ALL-chat: GET GOTTED! :)