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Gangplank Build Guide by zapandy1

Gangplank - Solo Top like a pro

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Spells:

Teleport

Ghost

Ranked #31 in
Top Lane

Win 47%

Get More Stats

Ability Order

Gangplank Passive Ability

Introduction

This is my first guide, I've played gangplank awhile and I've really gotten used to him. I always use guides so I thought I'd make one myself. This is a great guide for early lane sustainability and late game damage output. I really like this and use it all the time, I also hope you enjoy this and have fun and raise your ELO a bit with this guide. Don't follow the guide exactly all the time, if you have a few deaths and aren't doing too well get the frozen mallet first, or maybe get a banshees veil if there is heavy ap on the team. Change what you need and have fun. Since it's my first guide i'll appreciate lots of comments and votes, i prefer constructive constructive criticism and suggestions. I might add a hall of fame and i'll try to update as much as possible. Please keep reading and enjoy!

Hope you like the colors, i hope i didn't overdo them.

Pros/Cons

Pros

Has great sustainability
His auto attacks slow
can get out of any cc
great early game
global ultimate
he's a pirate with a gun

Cons

A bit squishy if you don't build tanky
If you oranges too early you're screwed
Uses tons of mana early and mid game
Needs a good early game or is screwed
Only has 1 ranged attack that sucks mid and late game
Has scurvy

Runes/Masteries

Runes

My runes and masteries consist of attack speed and critical strike damage and chance, gangplank is commonly played as a critical champion, thats why i chose these runes. Keep in mind these runes are for early game, not late game. It uses critical chance runes for great early game harassment and pushing in lane, with critical chance you can parrley lane repeatedly and force them out of lane or if you're lucky kill them. With the quints you can deal more damage with crits, and the attack speed is great for dueling, taking out turrets, and all ad champions, and since gp is ad its great for him. Critical chance combined with critical damage and attack speed is great for early harassing and solo lanes.

Masteries

The masteries are very straightforward, armor pen, to penetrate their armor, attack speed, for more attacks, that means more damage, more chances to crit, and more stacks of parrley, cooldown reduction to fire off more spells, like parrley for better harassing. Also more critical damage, and pretty much just lots of masteries to help deal more damage and in the defense tree, some defense, extremely straightforward and basic masteries.

Skills

This is one of my favorite skills. It has great harassing ability and can last hit minions for extra gold, its only problem is you have so many chances to use it but you'll run out of mana quick. So thats the main reason i start with philosophers stone. Parrley should be used to last hit minions whenever possible, and start using it to harass when you get avarice blade, the best thing about parrley is it can crit. It also puts the passive, Grog-Soaked Blade, on the target. I level it last because i use it as an initiator, you parrley a champion then chase with raise morale, your movement is increased and theirs is decreased. When you get in range you keep attacking putting more of your passive on. The increased gold per level isn't too much and its not worth leveling first. Its main use for me isn't damage but a slow and chance for a crit.

Remove Scurvy is one of the most fun and troll abilities in the game. It pisses so many people off and the heal can save your life during a dive. I max this second because of the exponential heal. When you're under cc you usually are taking damage, life the cc and heal a bit. Great for 1 on 1 fights and provides some of the most lane and jungle sustainability in the game. As you level it the heal gets greater and more effective. Heal in tight situations, its heals can also help when being dived, they think you're low and dive you, parrley for a slow, remove scurvy, and maybe raise morale for movement speed. Don't remove scurvy right away, wait till they activate their cc. Then you'll have tons of health and can deal damage to them while they're under the turret making an easy kill. It's also great for chasing, if they stun you you can remove scurvy to continue the chase.

It's pretty obvious why i max this first but i'll say anyway. It provides movement speed, combined with Grog-Soaked Blade raise morale makes gangplank one of the best chasers in the game. Raise Morale also effects nearby champions so he's great in a team fight, or if you're chasing with someone else it increases their movement speed also. I upgrade this first because of the amazing early game power it has. When you solo top it's great for harassing. Just hide in a brush, raise morale and charge in. You can easily 1v1 them with the extra damage from parrley and heal from remove scurvy. The attack speed also stacks up gangplanks passive, great for ganks, 1v1's, and first blood. He's one of the best early game duelists, 1v1 fights. If you play draft racing he's amazing for roaming. If you level this first it's almost certain you'll get a good early game.

Cannon Barrage is a very fun ultimate. It has many purposes. It's great early game but sucks a little bit late game. Early game you can prevent 1 or 2 man pushes by wiping out entire waves of minions. It is also an amazing spell for finishing off low health champions. Also, if your support Clairvoyance's a blue buff getting attacked, i've never done this before but you can ult the buff and steal it. If a champion is low health you can throw out your ult and kill them. Or help your team in a 1v1 fight and you're too far to help, or team fights to deal damage and slow them. The best part about Cannon Barrage is it's global, there are many long range ultimates like Pantheon's, Twisted Fate's, and Zigg's, but this ultimate is global! Insanely useful. It's also good for chasing because of its slow. Don't use it too early in the chase or they'll juke out of it, use it in a tight space where the only juke is too death. You can also use it to escape, it has a large radius, deals a small amount of damage, and slows. An amazing skill altogether.

Items

It gives some mana regen so you can parrley repeatedly and make sure you enough mana to escape ganks with oranges and raise morale. Mana is very important so make sure not to spam, philosophers stone isn't a blue buff, but it's very useful for mana. It also gives health regen fro lane sustainability.

Very useful item. Since parrley can crit 12% crit chance is amazing, as i said before, you can crit for great harass or if you're lucky a kill. If you start a fight with a crit you're bound to win, you are ahead in health, they get scared, run, you kill them on the move with gp's passive and raise morale.

Everybody likes merc treads! Escape from stuns early if you misuse your oranges, which happens all the time. Also some magic resist for durability.

Some extra health for tankplank and if you use ult on minions buffs yourself up. The main reason you get this is for atma's impaler. more health, more damage.

You deal 2% more damage of your max health on physical attacks. With warmogs it's amazing. That extra critical strike chance is also amazing for dealing more damage, more crits, more damage. Gangplank is critical strike based.

Extra attack damage is always good for a champion like gangplank. It also gives life steal for more survivability during fights, and if you get low in a team fight you can heal back up in jungle. The stacks also help because a gangplank at this point of the game is a devil not to be messed with, kill everyone, and get even more powerful.

The most important item for gangplank. It is amazing and a key item to this build. Once you get to this point it's gg. More critical strike chance, making you crit more than you don't. With infinity edge all critical strikes deal 50% more damage which is just AMAZING for a champion like gangplank. It also gives more ad making you deal even more damage, making you viable for taking out everyone! Not all at once, if you do you'll die. hehehuhehuhehehuhuhu.

Gives attack damage, movement speed on activation for escaping and chasing, and since you already have an avarice blade, why not finish it? Also gives some more critical strike chance which is always nice.

Situational Items

I originally had this item in the guide but i took it out for infinity edge. Frozen Mallets slow isn't needed because gangplanks passive already slows on basic attacks, but the extra slow can really make a diffirence. It does give great health and if you feel you need to build more tanky you can get frozen mallet for some extra health and damage, i would suggest either buying this before bloodthirster, after bloodthirster, or instead of youmuus ghostblade. Definitely buy this if you do not have a tank on your team.

This is always a great item for gangplank, almost like it's made for him. It gives an insane amount of critical chance and extra movement speed making it impossible for enemies to escape unless then burn a few summoner spells. It also gives crazy attack speed, which everyone loves. The problem is, it's a glass cannon item, meaning it gives no defense, its pure offensive. Never get this item early, it's more of a late game item. Only get phantom dancer late game when you feel you're tanky enough. It's best to sell youmuus for this. I only recommend phantom dancer for when you already have a tank on your team so you don't have to tank.

Trinity Force isn't a bad item, it gives attack damage, mana, attack speed, and has a great effect. It has a long description which is tedious to read, and costs way too much. If you get really fed you can consider buying this, but other items are much more efficient for gangplank.

Summoner Spells

Gangplank is sometimes played as a support because of his raise morale which also effects nearby teammates and his passive that slows. You can also use clairvoyance to select a location for your ultimate,other spells are much more effective and I do not suggest using clairvoyance.

Flash is always an option, you can escape and chase, since gangplank doesn't have a wall jump this is definitely a viable choice. I perfer other spells but if you want flash is always a great summoner spell that almost every champion can use effectively.

You can use clarity early game for great sustainability and pushing. You can completely dominate and harass, with a few ganks you can take out the tower quick. Problem is, it takes up a space of your spells so you'd be an easy target to gank with no escape options. Clarity is absolutely the worst late game spell in the entire game. You get more mana, a few blue buffs, and clarity is useless, never touched again.

A troll spell. Someone stuns you, oranges, someone else stuns you, cleanse, completely troll and pisses people off. With oranges it makes this spell almost useless so i recommend NOT to get it. It's useless and pathetic, redundant, and troll to get this on gangplank.

Oranges already have a heal, gangplank isn't much of an ad carry and other summoner spells would be better suited, it could be used but it is recommended not to use. You could tank with it but you probably shouldn't, oranges are a heal enough.

One of my personal favorites. I use it with gangplank because raise morale is a speed boost, but not much of a boost. Raise morale takes time to cast so ghost is better in tight situations. Ghost is good for chasing so you can catch up to them, and if they ghost you raise morale, and slow with passive. Ghost is the best chasing summoner spell so you can easily chase and deal as much damage as you need while chasing. All-around it's a great spell.

Definitely my favorite spell. Great for returning to lane quickly, and cutting someone off while a teammate is chasing. Provides extreme map mobility combined with ghost. Gp's ultimate is global, but its not nearly as powerful as gp himself. I get teleport most of the time while soloing a lane, and always with gangplank. Use ultimate to slow, teleport in and finish them off. Use it correctly, it has a high cool down and don't teleport near enemies that can kill you.