Welcome to my jungle Gangplank guide. Gangplank has recently been changed to have a passive stacking slow rather than a healing reduction, on top of that, parrrley also applies that slow. Additionally, the poison has been slightly buffed in dps but has had a reduction in it's time. Both of these changes ave had a positive effect into making Gangplank a good jungler.

The poison buff means more dmg during jungling, and the slow makes gangplank capable of ganking. His high damage with parrrley coupled with red buff and passive slow allows him to gank even if he does not have a hard CC like a stun or knock up. Since we also don't have a gap closer like many other melee dps (who are also usually tanky dps, which gangplank is not), we have raise morale for that necessary speed buff.

Read the guide for maximum potential!

If you wants pics, please comment.

I'm an avid player, so here you see my history in the course of a few hours as an example:

Pros:

Great Damage
Built in cleanse
Amazing move speed
Movement speed buff for team that's on a pretty big range.
Manly laugh included with ult
It's a pirate

Cons:

Squishy
An AD carry but at melee range, so squishy + melee don't mix well
He is not realy an anti carry/tanky dps because he doesn't have cc or gap closers like xin zhao, pantheon, or jarvan.

July 9, 2011- Updated jungling with a leash guide. GP's nerf wasn't too bad, but I wanted to add in a leash that you should always get for best results in your jungle while your lanes lose virtually nothing.
July 7, 2011 - Mastery: Moved a point from alacrity (1% atk speed) to Archaic Knowledge (15% spell pen) since grog soaked blade is magic damage.

I like to play many champs, so I try to make these runes as friendly as possible across many champions.

Marks

Greater Mark of DesolationGreater Quintessence of Desolation
I go for these runes because ArP isn't readily available in our items, these work will all AD champs, and armor pen can indeed push someone into the negatives, taking MORE than true damage.

Crit runes/Crit dmg runes are also a good choice for GP, but those are only useful for some champs so I decided to exclude it. Variations of atk speed could potentially be better for early jungling, but if you follow the guide, you shouldn't have trouble.

Glyphs

These are very helpful across the board. More , early jungling , and .


I prefer because focus is not surpassed by until lvl 14.

= 0.65
= 0.05 per lvl 0.9 at lvl 18
Celerity will equal Focus at 0.65/0.05 = lvl 13.

Now, as a jungler, the early game has you ganking, so where is your position as a jungler most important? The early game, which clearly .65 flat will help more.

Seals

Helps with our defenses in the jungle and is superior to dodge. Too lazy to math this time but an easy google will prove it. I prefer armor/MR to HP in general because the effective health provided is superior to the actual health provided by HP, at least until you hit really high resistances where you face harsh diminishing returns. I usually am a bit above 100 armor/MR for 50% reduction.

If you don't have these seals, I found that it did not matter. I used to have HP and mp5 seals and I still finished my jungle. I would not skimp on the glyphs or marks however.

21/0/9 because you are first and foremost a damage dealer.

CDR over attack speed since you want a good amount of CDR without the need for items. As noted by a commenter, also take archaic knowledge since grog-soaked blade is magic damage, plus you can get some lucky cannon barrages sometimes.

Good hands over Perseverance since you have negligible regen [really only Mundo would have the regen for this to be worth it]. Not convinced? 3/3 you have 4% bonus regen. ~18 health regen without items at lvl 18. 4% of that would be 18*.04= .72 rounded up so 1 bonus health regen per five seconds. Amazing. Don't be cocky/stupid HUEHUEHUE I'm not going to die, why should i take this noob mastery?! **** happens and it will be more beneficial going back into the battle faster than having negligible regen that won't affect you in a team fight.

For jungling, we start with since it gives us the most damage. We follow it with for more damage. At lvl 3, we want a point in to help with early jungling and to remove CC.

After that

>> >> >>

Why?

Max first because it is our main nuke, followed by for extra movement and damage that goes well with . I only put 1 point early in to help with early jungling and to remove CC.

Start

This is a standard jungler buy, cloth armor and 5 health pots, and is necessary if you want to take my jungle route detailed below.

First Recall

OR
If a lane is pushed, boots for gank, if not, long sword to clear jungle faster.

When affordable

->

Time for some better shoes

Tends to be my first choice. We can only eat oranges every once in a while and it's important to be able to escape or chase + have MR.

For heavy AD team
Ionian Boot's of Lucidity
If it is an average team without important CC, I'd go with these for damage.


This is a great item for GP because like Ezreal, the spell will proc sheen and will also use it up. This provides a good amount of extra damage to .

*Note, if you have any problems surviving, look at the next section for what item to buy next. Please don't be stupid and try to continue buying damage when you are feeding.

, starting with B.F. sword.
Best AD item in general, and really beefs up crit


Start over because I want crit and movement speed, and we already have slows.

So our core consists of, .

What I like to do often is to build defenses at some point in the game, MR being a higher priority, but the combo that works well is and . I usually buy the defensive parts first, negatron cloak then chain vest, then proceeding to build Banshee's and then Atma's.

However, these are not core items for a reason, games are different and builds should vary a bit too.

AD champs giving you problems? , or if against more balanced team.

How about AP or CC champs? . Alternatively, can be used, as it is a cheaper item and + = Never be stopped. I like it especially against Morde, making his typical ult + ignite useless.

Aren't getting focused? Then take advantage and build more damage.

with either or as the first buy, depending on how much money you have at the time. I tend to focus on building the crit because is our main spell that we want to empower.

is a great item if they wise up and get some armor. I would build this only if more than just the tank is building armor. Squishies are our most important targets and they don't tend to build armor.

is a strong item, though not part of my core since I focus on getting strong while still being able to do insane damage at melee range. It just doesn't add as much as the core items.

Bye Wriggles

If the game has dragged on this long, get a to replace and buy yourself all the elixirs.

because smite. You're a jungler.

is just too good of a spell. Until they change it, it's pretty much a must have for escaping or chasing. One thing I like to use it for is using it as a gap closer so you can melee for slows. Of course, only use it when you are certain of the kill. I also tend to use to get close enough for a killshot with .

Nothing else is really plausible because flash is just too OP.

- Nope, + Pd/triforce + passive slow = no one escapes unless you have ghost and he flashed over a wall.

Everything else - same idea, trumps it. While many have their uses, only counters .

Take first and head to the wolf camp.

Kill the big wolf in the camp when it spawns and pot, then wait for blue golem and get a leash.

Leash method: Pop and have your mid lane do the initial leash by hitting it with one attack/spell. Have top/bot attack the blue golem a few times, usually 3-4 hits. This method assures mid is back in time before their first minion is killed by the other minions so they don't lose exp, likewise for top/bot except they have more time since top is a further distance for the minions to travel.

Use smite when the golem has ~450 hp or immediately when your leasher is out of exp range. If i'm pretty sure that there will be no steal attempts, I use it immediately most of the time since I try to last hit with parrrley for the bonus gold (smite mastery gives 5g regardless of kill).

When you kill blue golem, you will get to lvl 2. Take and use it to damage/last hit mobs, try to calculate and don't wait too long to use parrrley just to last hit, also use it immediately after a melee swing so not override one of your swings. Kill the remaining creeps in that camp and the wolf camp. You can let your passive kill the monsters if they are low enough and is on CD. Good timing with this will make it so you don't waste hits.

Move on to wraiths, pop and use to kill the blue wraith first then finish the camp, pick up and eat immediately.

From there, you will have 1-2 pots left and smite should be up or near it. Go on to take red, and if you can, the mini golems. If you think you can't take red, take mini golems and minimize the health pot use, you can probably finish it with 1 pot left.

When you recall, buy some boots. If you only took mini golems, it is a good idea to buy 1-2 pots to finish off red and start ganking with high hp. From here, you should begin ganking, you will be level 4, or 3 if you didn't finish the golems before. If no lane is pushed/gankable, continue regular jungle patterns.

From there, buy madred's/wriggles, and continue jungling and ganking, nothing specific here.

Gangplank is a great jungler because of his passive damage and . Combined with health pots + blue buff, he is able to keep up his HP decently with his damage viaa for healing.

As for ganking, he is pretty decent at it as he deals a ton of damage and has either his passive slow or his red buff, and after lvl 6, an additional dmg/slow with his ult. also provides movespeed to the laner.

Gangplank is sort of a glass cannon but has decent survivability with + his movespeed. It's fun going in and shooting a and seeing half of the enemy's HP bar disappear.

In team fights, GP should just shoot parrleys until the tank initiates. You want to of course aim for the AP/AD carries or other viable squishies, but be cautious in doing so. Do not get caught in the middle and suddenly be focus fired by the whole team; you are not tanky dps. Sure, you can go warmog and atma's, but those are not cost effective items. As GP is a straight damage dealer, it would be better to just build damage items and build armor/mr that increases effective health better than a warmog can do.