This could be you, if you follow this build like I explained it. Best part is, it was a ranked game and I got my first day win. I ended up with 305 Attack Damage, I wasn't sure if that was with or without Baron, but without it you will have at least 265 Damage guaranteed. By end game, I found myself with a Parrrley critical hit up to at least 1300.

This isn't the only example, this is the only one I had available when I decided to add this to my guide, they let me pick Gangplank from his recent bans, and I'm trying to get back into playing ranked daily. Let me play some more games with him and I'll try to get some more examples of some good scores with him. If you want you can message me with a picture of your end game score and I'll be glad to post it in this guide. Feel free, I need some examples to really get this guide going.

: A Grogsoaked Build

Gangplank has been buffed as of recently. He's now a Top-Tier pick in ranked, I have been stuck in Elo-Hell for a bit, I started playing Gangplank, it is a slow but steady crawl way up, but when I do play him, all I need is a good team backing me up. With this build, you can expect to build some surviving ability and damage early game. With this, you will, hopefully get fed with kills or assists when you are helping out your team. It's not a complicated build, and it grants gold fast.
Please, read the Items section for the guide, that isn't his core build up there.
"Enjoy your visit to the depths of the sea, landlubber!"

Recent Changes

8/2/2011 - Added a picture for the "Introduction" section, explaining how if you have played smart, you could end up minimizing your max deaths, maximizing your assists, and carrying your game to victory. I have changed the "Rune Page" to something I have found to work better for me than the other choice of runes I had. Plus, this transition is a lot more cheaper for those early Level 20s and newborn Level 30s.

7/25/2011 - Revamped my guide, added some more rune options, and added an item to the Starter Items section. Added some information on how much gold to bring back for your first trip to base. Added some information on what to build as you go along for Starter Items and Core Items sections. Updated the Summoner Spells section. Re-did a lot of my descriptions for almost everything listed except for Introduction and Conclusion sections. Split the Skills section into two, Skill Information and Skill Sequence.

Here are the Patch Notes as of now for Gangplank

- Parrrley
Gold bonus reduced to 4/5/6/7/8 from 4/6/8/10/12

- Raise Morale
Active attack damage bonus reduced to 14/22/30/38/46 from 20/28/36/44/52
Active movement speed bonus reduced to 10/14/18/22/26% from 14/18/22/26/30%

As far as the Patch goes for our pirate, he hasn't been nerfed to oblivion, he should still be a viable pick as far as ranked goes, he can still farm like a boss, his Raise Morale won't be affected that much because Attack bonus has been reduced by 6% all ranks, and movement speed reduced by 4% in all ranks.

7/12/2011 - Added some more detail about what skills not to choose, added some more details in Summary, switched up the choice of items, and added some information in the Skills section.

Greater Mark of Desolation Greater Quintessence of Desolation Greater Mark of Desolation Armor Penetration Marks for your build, because you want to maximize your damage, I take these instead of Flat Damage Marks because, it's too easy to counter the Damage, called.. Armor. Greater Seal of Armor I recommend some early armor, simply because you will be building yourself up an Avarice Blade, grabbing yourself some cheap runes that will benefit you in a way, early game. Nothing wrong with grabbing some armor. Greater Glyph of Magic Resist This would be the counterpart to the Greater Seal of Armor, giving you bonus magic resist, I mean as far as late game goes, this isn't that significant but, honestly, after you build your main core, no one can kill you 1v1. Greater Quintessence of Desolation Same as the thing for Marks of Desolation, you get 25+ Armor Penetration, and it helps a lot early game. Greater Quintessence of Health Health Runes never hurt on this squishy character, early game this will hopefully bunk you up to around 600, I'm not sure at the moment but it's a good pairing with the Greater Seal of Vitality runes.

Offense - 21
x3 x1 x4 x3 x3 x3 x3 x1

Defense - 0

Utility - 9
x3 x1 x4 x1

For masteries I like to go with 21 points in the Offense category, 0 points in the Defense category, and for the remaining 9 points, I put them in the Utility category. This is the current mastery set for any AD damage dealer basically, and it does what it does. Boosts up your damage and reduces cooldowns by a bit, for the Utility, grabbing points for Ghost mastery and the 3 points for Health and Mana regen, all ideal things for Gangplank. Don't worry about the Defense section, don't play like a crackhead and you'll be fine as far as defense goes.

Good Choices

Ghost I prefer this simply because, the mastery point is much easier to get than flash and it's good because you do have your Remove Scurvy skill. Eat some oranges, press it, voila, your out of there.. Hopefully. Exhaust I find this good, all around game, I can slow someone down, and crit basic attack them to death, or I can exhaust them and have myself and a team member pick them off slowly. Flash It's very useful, I also find it a need to get when facing a Jarvan IV in ranked play, not a bad choice at all. Instant blink to catch a running champion, Q, and your out. Teleport I don't really find this needed for Gangplank, but it's not a bad choice if your team isn't gonna pick it up in a game, you can teleport and farm some minions if you must. Cleanse You have your own Cleanse, but it's not as good as the real one. You can use this to get a maximized escape plan if you must. Always pair it with Raise Morale or Ghost, either your going to chase someone into their turret, or you are running to your own, don't just cleanse with nothing to help boost your escape. Smite I don't really know a jungle build for Gangplank but it's possible on Gangplank. I'd only recommend this if you know a jungle route and in ranked you need a last resort jungler. I'm going to put up a map or a little explanation of Jungle Gangplank. As of now, it's work in progress. Ignite You can also get this skill if you want to finish it off early game if you happen to get a crit shot on someone, ignite, and voila, normally dead. Bad Choices I don't have explanations for all of them but, wasting one of your two summoner skills on support Spells isn't gonna help you. These spells all pair better with a Tank, Support, or Twisted Fate.

Gangplank's Kit

[Passive] : Grog Soaked Blade Gangplank's attacks apply a poison that deals magic damage per second, increasing with level, and decreases healing received by the target by 50% for 10 seconds. A great slowing, damage over time, on-hit, passive. You land this with Parrrley, simply walk over to them and keep auto-attacking, the more you attack, the more stacks it could land. [Q] : Parrrley Gankplank takes aim and shoots an enemy unit with his pistol. If he kills it, he gains extra gold. This is Gangplank's bread and butter. It applies on-hit effects like critical hits, slows, and procs from additional items you might have. It also has the base damage applied onto it so the more damage you have, the more you are going to deal. [W] : Remove Scurvy Consumes a large quantity of citrus fruit which clears any crowd control effects on him and heals him. I like to consider this a mini Cleanse and a mini Heal, just for our pirate though. It's good for escaping exhausts, slows, stuns, and suppression from Malzahar or Warwick. If you have blue buff, you could always stay in lane longer by repeatedly using this to heal yourself back to full health. [E] : Raise Morale Gangplank fires a shot into the air, increasing nearby allied champions' increased attack damage and movement speed. This is a mid game - late game skill that helps you push turrets, the ones you haven't at least. If you ace the team, this basically let's you push a turret twice as fast, maybe causing an additional turret to be pushed. It's a team buff, your team gets Attack Damage and [Movement/Attack] Speed. [R] : Cannon Barrage Gangplank signals his ship to fire upon an area for 7 seconds, slowing enemies and dealing random damage in the area. Your AoE Slow, it has been revamped so that it has more of a chance to hit someone now, good for initiation, slowing, and it has a good chance to last hit someone trying to get away.

Gangplank's Skill Sequence


[Q]
You always want to build first, it's where all your damage comes from aside from basic attacks. All your damage comes from this, increasing in base damage as you level it up also increasing in gold gain when you kill a minion or a champion.

[E]
Next, build in , your party buff that let's your team push towers as the game progresses. Increasing in Attack Damage gained and Movement/Attack Speed gained as you level it up, it becomes more and more important as the game goes on.

[W]
Last you want to build is your , basic heal and a free short term . This early game isn't that all important because, if you give away a few kills it's fine, but late game when it comes to the the team fights, you use this to keep yourself away from all the CC, the longer you last the better the outcome of the team.

[R]
Don't forget to grab a point in , whenever you can. Great for team fights and tower saves. It's a good ultimate, AoE damage and slow, you can use this for almost anything that has to do with fighting, someone taking down a turret, someone running away, or someone needing an extra hand when initiating in another lane. Always use it to pick up a kill or an assist if granted.

Philosopher's Stone Grab Avarice Blade and 1 of the following items : Avarice Blade This is just a must grab for Gangplank, the extra gold is always a good choice for this pirate, extending his incredible skill at farming. Just adds more money to his pockets which just let's you get to his core faster than ever. Heart Of Gold If you feel you need a little more boost in health, get this item. It will give you a bit of more lane sustain because you can take in a few more hits. After all the point of laning for Gangplank is killing, either minions which can easily be killed, or champions which aren't so easy. Philosopher's Stone I usually go for the Philosopher's Stone because I find the regen for both health and mana, to be fantastic. I mean nothing's better than a little more lane sustain right? With the mana regen you get to stay in lane longer and keep farming your Parrrley, that is priority for me. Game Start - - 470 Gold First Trip Back - - 1495 Gold This is for the Heart of Gold path. Game Start - - 470 Gold First Trip Back - Philosopher's Stone - 1470 Gold This is for the Philosopher's Stone Philosopher's Stone path.

Build these in ANY order, you get movement speed from Zeal so considering critical chance is never a problem before movement speed. Mercury's Treads These choice of boots are a great match, now this can change to whatever you want, I prefer these because the CC reduction is nice along with the MResist bonus. Infinity Edge A huge chunk of his damage comes from this item, I sometimes build it before Phantom Dancer when I feel like I have enough farms or kills, you always want to build damage for Gangplank first, critical hits mean nothing if you don't walk away with the kill. Expanding his critical chance and critical damage along with overall damage, this item is well made for him. Phantom Dancer This item is a must on any critical hit character, it's a good bonus to Gangplank cause of the critical hits but also because of the amount of speed you gain overall, movement and attack. Helping you to push out the lanes later in the game. Trinity Force This is such a great item for our pirate. It's just an overall item with many side effects good for on-hit attackers, many good utilities on this item. As far as item builds go, this is just roughly how you should build each one as you go along. The first set is if you aren't getting much done and you are just farming, you pick up your Phantom Dancer first. The second set is if you have been getting fed enough to pick up the recipe items for an Infinity Edge. I don't like to build Trinity Force before those two because, although it helps, I only wish to deal damage earlier on, so I go with one of the two choices above. It just doesn't provide as much as the other two do. The goal of my build is to dish out damage and help your team earlier as much as possible, lucky critical hits shouldn't be relied on.

x x / x x x You have 2 item choices left, choose wisely. ATMOGS I would normally want to build this, some Health and Armor with the missing crit chance. This gives you some more surviving ability. It's not a bad build, you also get some more damage out of it. Armor Heavy You can build this, penetrating 40% of the enemy's armor, it's amazing how much this can help. Can go either way with this, grabbing yourself some health or some damage. AP Heavy If they are Magic Heavy and you want that extra HP Boost to add some more surviving. The Sash for escaping a CC heavy team and it is cheaper. It is usually paired well with some backup damage to boost yourself. AD Heavy For the DPS or flat AD champions, make them slowly kill themselves as well. Get yourself some health if you decide to head down this item path. More Damage For some extra damage to your build, the life steal also helps you out. It's a good item but don't forget to pair it with something that'll give you some health. All Around Making you live longer and a boost to both types of attackers. Get yourself some health, I mean your squishy as hell, the whole point of this is to survive longer correct? Might as well add some health to do what you can for the team.

Early Game
My Gangplank is farming early game. You want to get all the gold you can get for your first trip back to your base. At Level 6, you can start helping your team out with their fights or fights for yourself, start off with your ultimate, you'll end up getting an Assist or a Kill. You want to prioritize these two things, to help you get as much gold to help your build out. Wait for a few towers or turrets to be put down or your team and you take out a few. Get out of the early game phase and get to the fighting parts.

Mid Game
Keep farming but, don't forget to help out your team whenever they need you or call you. This is simple, just keep your Ultimate ready if you want to farm, I usually stay with the team after the first two towers are pushed or our first two towers are pushed. Remember not to get shut down, stay close to a turret if you are farming, make sure you have an escape plan, and stay close to a buddy, just to be on the safe side. You are easily kill-able, and you can kill anyone easily, but don't get cocky ever.

Late Game
You are a dangerous man, Gangplank. I don't find that much is needed to be explained, you can critical chance some champions to death or help your team push towers. He just does enough damage to do anything, try to stay behind your tank, and not get singled out. You can put out so much, you don't want to out before everyone else. Don't try to be in the midst of things and you'll do fine, getting chased, slowly kite around him/her.

I hope this guide helps you when you lock in a Gangplank. He's got a good kit, might as well take advantage of whenever he isn't being banned in ranked play. Keep your Parrrley on cooldown, try to keep Cannon Barrage on cooldown, and try to benefit to your team as much as possible, the assists early game help if you can't pull of a kill in your lane. I can't say much more, if you have read the notes included in the guide. Nothing is left to say here. I'll be updating this guide when I have enough experience with some laning partners, more teamwork notes, some surviving tips, and some alternate rune choices, so stay tuned. Have fun and don't forget to
"Swab the poop deck!"