Gangplank Build Guide by OppositeAmnesia

Hey! My name is OppositeAmnesia. I have been a Gangplank main for about 2 seasons now and playing him since before his rework (which is irrelevant but hey.) I feel that I have enough knowledge to make an extensive Gangplank guide, so here we are. I really hope this guide can help you to the best it can, and good luck on the rift.

Kleptomancy Gangplank's most infamous rune. Though it may not be in it's prime anymore, I feel like a good Kleptomancy player can win any lane if played correctly. You usually focus on poking down the enemy to get consumables and a strong gold lead. Better used against tanks and easy to poke down melee champs.

Grasp of the Undying At the moment, this is probably the best rune for Gangplank. It provides sustain and poke damage at the expense of not having as big of a gold lead early on. You will probably play more aggressive and taking more trades.

Fleet Footwork Probably the most underestimated rune on Gangplank. It heals a little bit less but gives you kiting potential. You can also heal off minions against a harassing laner.

Time Warp Tonic/Biscuit Delivery These go hand and hand, 100% of the time. You usually want to start corrupting potion for sustain and these add even more sustain.

Scorch/Manaflow Band You always take these with Kleptomancy in my opinion. This will give you more harass and mana for poke.

Manaflow Band/Transcendence You go Transcendence when you need the extra 10% cooldown reduction which is like, almost never.

Pros - Very Strong Late Game
Very Great Gold Income
Great Poke
Great Sustain
High Movement Speed

Cons - Very Weak Laning Phase
No Instant Mobility
Horrible When Behind
Can't Carry When Behind

You usually want to try to freeze the wave and avoid fighting them by engaging. You do better when playing counter active, and punishing them for their mistakes and fighting you in waves. Once you get Tri Force you can one shot caster minions with a Keg/Parrrley if you prock sheen, you can use this as poke as well and it will do a lot of damage since it ignores 40% of their armor. Try to play your early game the best you can. Trading 1 for 1 on GP is not worth it on GP, you shouldn't take the kill if you know you will die.

Teleport and Flash are the best summoner spells for Gangplank in the top lane. They offer him a way to stay in lane to get ahead in gold and a way to make up for his lack of mobility. When behind you want to use Teleport to not miss as much gold when you get shoved in after a death or recall, and when ahead you use it to keep ahead in lane.

Max Q/E/W in that order and level up R every time you can.

Gangplank has some very complex skill combos. Let's go though them.

The Double Barrel Combo - place one barrel down and then place another, shoot the first right after.

The Triple Barrel Combo - Place 2 barrels, shoot the first and while they are exploding place a third connecting to the second barrel.

The One Part Combo - Place a barrel down and go to the max range your Q will allow. Shoot the barrel and spam E where you want the barrel to go. It will be placed and combo with the first.

When to Pick Gangplank So, in ranked, when do we pick Gangplank? Well, starting out i would only pick him into Green to mid Yellow threat champions. You do very well against Garen, which is top tier at the moment. You should also pick him into Shen when you can. These matchups will guarantee a win in top as they can't really engage or fight you. But, if you are new to Gangplank and are not comfortable with the difficult matchups, I would stay away from picking into an Olaf, Yorick, or Darius. Darius isn't very hard but he takes practice to know how to kite and trade.


How to win in ranked In ranked you want to play very passive, but at the same time harass your laner as much as possible. Deny them farm while also freezing the lane and eventually crashing it into the enemy tower to recall.

When ahead you want to abuse your lead by being very aggressive to your opponent. Shove the wave using barrels and poke them under tower. make sure to ward up and keep one barrel under your feet to escape ganks. Out of laning phase you should still split and take towers, giving your team a gold lead. You should be at least 1 or 2 items above your laner if you do this.

When behind you want to sit behind casters and only last hit. Let them shove you in so your jungler can help and you can avoid trades. Out of lane you should split still, taking towers and trying to catch up in gold. If you are behind items, it won't stay like that for long if you do this properly.