Why Hello everyone, no need for long winded introductions, I am just a simple man who loves playing Gangplank, am I any good at the champion? Ehhh well probably not too bad I guess, I mean I ain't no Tobias Fate but I'm not total garbage. This is my first guide on Mobafire so please bare with me, any constructive criticism is greatly appreciated.

What I have for you today is my personal favourite guide to Support Gangplank, SupportPlank or whatever you want to call it, for Season 6 post TriForce changes.

Needless to say Gangplank is not a champion that when you think of support would often come to mind, he is to many a top laner that at a stage was OP at his rework, then got hit with the nerf bat many times over and got absolutely blown out the meta like Miss Fortune blew up his ship. BUT wait, he is actually still quite a demon, but our friends over at RITO gemz wanted to make it so that not every Tom, **** and Harry can pick him up and hard carry.

So bare with me my friends as I take you through the journey of support early game carry late game support Gangplank for Season 7 post Trinity Force and Lethality changes.

Please also refer to the notes on the various chapters such as Starting Items and Ability Sequence for example.

Pros Good poke in lane. Global Ultimate. One of the richest supports. High late game damage. Is able to cleanse most cc in the game. Gangplank is not generally known to have the best laning phase whether top or mid but as a support it really isn't all that bad, you have good poke and with that good poke you passively earn mega booty, courtesy of Bandit and Spellthief's Edge, you also need not roam as much as other supports because your Ultimate Cannon Barrage is global so keep your eyes on your map for ganks in other lanes! Plus your lane sustain with Health Potions and your W Remove Scurvy is not something to be underestimated.

Cons Quite mana hungry early Squishy. Very immobile. Cannot farm. Gangplank is not perfect, like every champion he has his faults, it is true that before your first or second back the mana usage is a bit of an issue but it really isn't for very long until mana becomes a non-issue. Yes, Gangplank does a lot damage but, what does he give up for a lot of damage? Tank stats and mobility of course, Gangplank is unfortunately very squishy and very immobile, so always pay attention to your map for ganks. Lastly as a support, do not farm your ADCs minions, you aren't the ADC you are the support, you do not even need the minions gold.

Passive

This is Gangplank's passive, if I had to summarise it in a few words this ability is basically an Ignite, scales in damage very similarly to Ignite and actually does more damage than Ignite at level 18, the damage dealt by this passive is also true damage (ignores any and all resistances), the main difference is that Trial By Fire does not apply grievous wounds but instead grants Gangplank bonus movement speed. This passive is refreshed every time you blow up a Powder Keg meaning you do not have to wait for the cooldown before using it again provided you have just used a Powder Keg, this ability is particularly effective against melee supports, you could essentially land an auto attack and use the movement speed boost to run away for some decent harass.

Q

This may sound cliche, but this is Gangplank's bread and butter, this is the ability that deals the damage, this ability that makes your barrels deal crazy damage, the ability that gets you all that money, this is the reason Gangplank is who he is in my opinion. Parrrley does so much for Gangplank, this ability is a ranged attack which applies all on hit effects, essentially it is a melee attack but ranged, it applies crit, red buff, lifesteal and more importantly it applies the Bandit mastery as if it were a melee attack, of course this ability is not omnipotent as it does not apply Trial By Fire because well, that would be too broken. Pretty much use this ability whenever it is off cooldown for the Bandit stack and just for general harass.

W

Remove Scurvy a godsend from Riot Gods themselves, this ability helps with some of the challenges Gangplank faces in lane, for example he is not very mobile so to compensate for this this ability allows him to remove all crowd control. In lane against certain supports such as Leona you must be careful at what point you use this ability, it has a long cool down and a support like Leona can crowd control you more than once making Remove Scurvy useless. Of course this ability also heals, it heals more based on how much health you are missing, so use if you are already quite low and need a boost of health. This is also an effective tool for baiting the bananas out of people who think they can quickly cc you and kill you, until you whip out the Orange and delete them (or maybe your team does, doesn't matter)

E

The Infamous Powder Keg, this is what makes Gangplank such a monster late game, at rank 5 or level 13 the powder kegs do Gangplank's AD in damage plus 180 bonus physical damage and on top of that ignores 40% of the targets armor and slows them for 80%, but the real kicker is that these barrels are Area of Effect and can damage multiple enemies if used correctly, whenever possible always Q or Parrrley your barrels, the damage is far greater. This is arguably the reason why most people think Gangplank is hard to play, and it is somewhat true, doing the 3 barrel combo and the one-part combo can be challenging at first, landing your barrels on the right targets can be difficult and you will need practice. Something to note, barrels apply Parrrley passive and they can critically strike, they do not however, apply life steal and do not apply your passive Trial By Fire.

R

One of Gangplank's most important abilities in terms of actual team assistance is his ultimate Cannon Barrage, available to you at level 6 with a relatively long cool down at first is an essential part of team fighting with Gangplank. Use this ability to assist your team around the map, since as Gangplank your roaming potential isn't the greatest, or even in the bottom lane when the enemy laners are getting a bit too frisky. The area of effect damage and 30% slow is bound to turn the tides of the battle if used correctly. This ultimate comes with 3 upgrades that can be purchased from the shop with Silver Serpents, these are collected passively by killing minions with your Parrrley, now obviously as a support you won't be farming a whole lot, but, if by some miracle you manage to acquire 500 Silver Serpents then you should prioritize Death's Daughter and Fire At Will over Raise Morale.

Lets get down to business with the Summoner Spells that are in my opinion key to success with Gangplank in the bottom lane.

Flash this summoner spell is without a doubt the most important on Gangplank with numerous uses. Flash helps with the pirate king's lack of mobility and of course for the chase when needed. Always a good spell on nearly any champion in the game most of the time.

Exhaust is for me personally the only second summoner spell that you should take when playing Gangplank support, the kind of utility that this spell brings is unmatched. Exhaust the ADC when skirmishing bot lane or when a jungle gank is incoming and the adc for 2.5 seconds is rendered useless.

Ignite is the second option summoner spell that I never end up taking anyway, don't get me wrong, I adore this spell on Gangplank mid but support, for me it just doesn't perform better than Exhaust. The only time I would take it is against this ***** --> Soraka.

Honestly there isn't very much to say here other than my reasoning for taking Greater Quintessence of Attack Damage and Greater Mark of Lethality as opposed to something a bit more tanky, well I may repeat myself throughout this guide but, you need to understand that my man Gangplank is not a tank, he is a damage dealer and playing him support is not meta and playing him ain't gonna make him as a tank, with a tanks mentality is not going to make him a better support, trust me I've tried.

The other point I want to mention is that I do not run any Greater Glyph of Cooldown Reduction or Greater Glyph of Scaling Cooldown Reduction, this is because with this build that I use for a good 80% of my Gangplank support games, getting 45% cool down reduction is very fast and very easy. Having said that I feel that the flat Greater Glyph of Magic Resist is far more beneficial in most if not all bottom lanes.

With masteries on Gangplank there are a few different keystone possibilities Thunderlord's Decree being my personal favourite since it offers a very noice amount of damage and it is easy to proc with your ultimate Cannon Barrage. Grasp of the Undying is also a viable option but it could be difficult to stay in combat for 4 seconds to actually use the keystone effectively, so to truly take full advantage of that keystone is quite troublesome in certain lanes, Thunderlord's Decree is just in my opinion more useful. When it comes to other masteries other than the keystones the only other debate i can think of is with Precision or Intelligence and in this guide I do use Intelligence because I really do think that 5% makes a different throughout the entire game and even earlier into the game, in laning phase, you shouldn't only try and use your ultimate Cannon Barrage for bot lane alone, instead of a support roam you are able to be useful around the whole map with that ability, and the more often you have it up and obviously all your other abilities up quicker as well, the better for you and the team.

I know what you might be thinking, aren't the core items only usually supposed to be about 2 to 3 items maximum, well yes I suppose you're right but Gangplank is very particular at the moment and I find it difficult to experiment too much with the items that are viable on him, not only that but a Sightstone is core on any support so that takes up a slot, there are definitely a lot items that are usable but these are the best in my opinion.
Keep this item as long as possible, wards are good, wards win games, there may come a time where you may have to sell it to really be fully into the carry role.

Trinity Force honestly should be without question the item you must always purchase on him, the reason is because he is so good at abusing the Sheen passive using his Parrrley and with his Parrrley and Powder Keg combined makes for some serious damage in any lane. Moreover, it gives you the 20% cool down reduction which is amazing for consistent poke, and furthermore the passive from Phage is applied with every Parrrley and Powder Keg you land giving that nice speed boost which can be combo-ed with your own passive Trial By Fire (if of course you find your yourself in melee range), overall lets just say you will have every angle covered :p.

Frost Queen's Claim is my preferred support item on Gangplank, since your Q Parrrley is not going to be used to farm, since you are a support, you will not being getting the bonus gold that it gives for killing minions, nor will you get your R Cannon Barrage upgrades any time soon or even at all. For these reasons and others which I will explain now. Frost Queen's Claim is a great support item for its UNIQUE Passive Tribute, this passive enables your Spells and Auto Attacks to deal bonus damage to champions and buildings while also granting 15 bonus gold, this can occur 3 times every 30 seconds, after collecting 650 gold in total with this item you will have completed its' quest granting a boost of movement speed every time you proc the Tribute Passive. (Quite Noice).
Not to mention the mana sustain it provides is also extremely valuable in lane.
This item, you will almost always (provided the games goes beyond 30 minutes) be sold to make space for another more carry orientated item.

Youmuu's Ghostblade. Okay okay I know what you're thinking WTF man is this guide for Gangplank support or a super movement speed guide for Hecarim that you accidentally just put Gangplank everywhere?? Okay hold your horses Hecarim fanatics, this is just a mere coincidence, if Youmuu's Ghostblade didn't offer the movement speed active it will still be on this list regardless, the base stats and the passive flat Lethality are great on Gangplank and it's pretty damn cheap considering, the active effect of Youmuu's Ghostblade is simply another cherry on that fat cake of yours. This item will be pumping in the damage as you buy it.

In this build specifically Ionian Boots of Lucidity are a core item since I run Greater Glyph of Magic Resist as opposed to Greater Glyph of Cooldown Reduction or Greater Glyph of Scaling Cooldown Reduction and therefore the cooldown reduction that these boots offer are core to achieving the 45% cool down reduction on Gangplank.
This item may also be sold later the game goes on, if you are going with the crit build, Phantom Dancer does substitute some of the movement speed and also the Youmuu's Ghostblade Active which is on a relatively short cool down will make up for some of the lost movement speed.

I want to discuss the 2 main options in terms of build paths that are viable on Gangplank.
I will be discussing the 2 variations in terms of price and pros and cons for each. I will be showing the differences after the items that can be sold have been sold Spellthief's Edge, Sightstone, and Ionian Boots of Lucidity. Bare in mind that many of the Pros and Cons of both build orders may be similar to one another.

Pros of Lethality Blow up squishys High Early to Mid spike Good Synergy with (E) Reliable Damage The general rule which I have found is that Champions with good scaling AD abilities benefit the most from Lethality, the Lethality build as a whole synergises so well with Gangplank, especially his Powder Keg.

Cons of Lethality Less Attack speed Less Maximum damage Slightly More expensive Doesn't do as well late game It is no secret that Lethality does fall off late game more than the Critical Strike variation, while the consistent damage is more (no need to rely on chance form Critical Strike), the damage from a Critical Strike will obviously hit much harder.