Hi Guys,
my name is Atlascrower. Im from Germany and a Gangplank-Main. I play League since Bard got released in Season 5. I got Platin 5 (Winrate: 54/55%) with GP(Winrate 64%) in Season 7 and was satisfied. Today, i want to tell you some about my thoughts around Gangplank, the Saltwater Scourge.

So first, i want to talk with you about Gangplanks Pro´s and Con´s:

Pro´s +Insane Damage +Strong Slows +Global Ultimate +Free QSS with Remove Scurvy +Strong Lategame +Great Teamfight +Nice Waveclear/AoE with Powder Keg +Gets a lot of Money Con´s +No Gapcloser +No Hard-CC +Pretty Squishy +Weak Early +High Cooldowns: Remove Scurvy and Cannon Barrage +Hard-to-Master

As you can see, Gangplank may have the potential to get insane, carry Teamfights and the Game, but you need to play well for that. You will need some time to master GP and every Game again you need to get stronger by farming and surviving.

Flash is the best Summoner Spell in the Game, also it fits perfectly into Gangplank´s Kit, because he needs the Gapcloser.

You choose TP to have the Ability to splitpush later and minimize your lost farm after you recalled. The 8.14 TP-Nerf hurts, 6 Minutes Cooldown are hard.

Exhaust is the Way to Go vs very aggressive Lanes, like Wukong or Riven.

Main Path:

Kleptomancy: Its all about the Money. Kleptomancy gives 5 Gold, if GP uses an Autoattack after an Ability. Parrrley triggers Kleptomancy instant as an AA-Ability, perfect for GP. It also gives a lot of Items, which make Gangplanks Laning Phase more comfortable(Also Gold). The preseason-9-patch added the chance to trigger it twice after you used an ability! Sometimes its worth it.

Perfect Timing: Use this, if you play vs high-damage Champions like Riven or Wukong or Assassins like Talon or Zed. It is also a nice item in some other Matchups and has Outplay-Potential if their Jungler ganks you.

Magical Footwear: The Option, if you dont need to use Stopwatch/GA or dont want to buy Boots early. Choose it if your lane is comfortable.

Biscuit Delivery: Cookies if you want to get more Sustain for the Laning phase, the Health and especially the Mana-restore are very nice, and you get extra Mana with every cookie you ate (+the Clepto-Loot-Cookies).

Future's Market: To buy some Stuff when you lack of Gold? Yes, definetely nice. You get the Sheen-Powerspike very fast.

Cosmic Insight: You need that extra-CDR.


Main Path(Tankplank):

Grasp of the Undying: Procs with every Q, you get the Melee-Bonus, it deals some damage and heals you, very nice to survive.

Demolish: You deal extra-damage to turrets if you trigger it. You get easier gold from turrets due to the new Turret-Plating.

Font of Life: The other option to demolish, you can heal your teammates if you place your R well onto the enemies.

Bone Plating: Bone Plating will reduce so much Damage early, you are able to survive very well within the Laning-Phase.

Second Wind: Choose this one, if you play vs some ranged or DoT-Matchups, like Teemo, Quinn or Singed.

Overgrowth: You farm with GP anyway some time, so Overgrowth will scale well and increases your hp.


Second Path:

Manaflow Band: Your Q gives +25 Mana every 15 Seconds, it is much better to sustain early with Manaflow Band. It is easy to stack, you would poke with your Q anyway. The Regeneration is also nice for some Extra-Q´s/W´s.

Transcendence: It gives 10% CDR, thats the Goal to get 45% CDR with Trinity Force and Caulfield's Warhammer. It also gives some AD, if you have more CDR than you need, perfect.

Gathering Storm: Some scaling AD with a scaling Champion is pretty nice.

Scorch: If you want more Poke-Damage with your Q against some Enemies(Dont take this against Maokai, for example).

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Trial By Fire: Trial by Fire is a nice passive. It has a lot of True-Damage, refreshed by GP´s E. This Aa´s can hurt a lot, also on Turrets.

Cannon Barrage: Skill your Ultimate whenever you are able to.

Parrrley: You max your Q first to get the better Gold/Serpents-Generation, also your poke gets better.

Powder Keg: The Damage and Slow increases just insane with Skill points, thats why we max it second. We also need the lower Cooldown, to get more Barrels in less time. The Decay Rate of the Barrels is reduced at Level 7 and 13. Until you reached Lvl13, you can do very much with you Barrels in such a short Time!

Remove Scurvy: It is a nice Tool, but costs too much Mana. Also the Cooldown at Max-rank is very high with 14 seconds, thats why we max it last.

Start:

Sapphire Crystal: Sapphire Crystal increases your Lane-Comfort, you can use your Q much more, your W (expensive with 80 Mana-Cost) is more viable and Sheen costs just 700g.

Corrupting Potion: Corrupting Potion vs very hard matchups( Pantheon for example).

1.Recall:

Sheen: Sheen gives you a lot of Damage, especially with your Q, and 10%CDR, just godlike for GP.

Cull: The Gold-Item option. Pretty nice, you farm anyway most of the time.

Boots: Some Extra-Movement-Speed for GP.

Control Ward: Control Wards are nice, GP has no Gap-Closer. Vision can prevent you from the Death, if you recognize enemy Ganker/Roamer early.

Core-Items:

Trinity Force: Trinity is GP´s Core Item No1 and a great powerspike. It gives GP everything he needs and you can oneshot Caster-minions with 1 Q-Barrel, nice for your Gold/Serpents-Generation. The Extra-Duel power is very nice.

Caulfield's Warhammer: Warhammer gives extra 10%-CDR, nice to get 45% with Transcendence.

Boots:

Boots of Swiftness: Swiftness to get faster and the nice Slow-resistance. Important for Gangplank, because of his Gapcloser-Problem.

Ninja Tabi: Ninja-Tabis vs High-AD-Teams or a hard AD-AA-Lane( Wukong, Fiora).

Mercury's Treads: Mercs for tons of CC or an AP-Lane. It also prevents you of the dangerous Magic-Pen( Sorcerer's Shoes and Morellonomicon).

Following Items:

Youmuu's Ghostblade: Youmuus gives some damage with 55 AD and a bit Lethality, you can upgrade your Warhammer into this Item. Also, you get nice MS, important, because you have no Gapcloser.

Infinity Edge: IE gives insane AD and 25% Crit-Chance, you can Oneshot Melee-Minions with Barrel-Crits and deal insane Damage to your Enemies.

Zeal: Increase your Critical Strike Chance with this.

Essence Reaver: The Essence Reaver gives some AD, the CDR will be AD, too, due to Transcendence, and 25% Crit to increase your Ultimate Barrel-Crit-Damage! The Mana-restoring passive is a nice bonus, but not! essential.

Last Whisper: Last Whisper if they have some Tanks with much Armor or Malphite/ Rammus.

Duskblade of Draktharr: Duskblade if you dont want to build Crit, for a better midgame-Powerspike and the Lethality-Plank.

Last Items:

Statikk Shiv: Statikk gives Waveclear and more Damage to oneshot Squishys. Dont forget, the passive can crit.

Rapid Firecannon: The 2. Zeal-Item, if you want the better Crit-Chance, while you also buy Steraks/Malmortius. The Range-buff is also very nice.

Phantom Dancer: Phantom Dancer for extra-Duel-Power vs Dangerous-Enemies, if you dont want Steraks/Malmortius. The other Option for the 2. Zeal-Item.

Sterak's Gage: Steraks for a bunch of extra-Defense and more AD. Never build it with Maw or PD. It is still a nice Item, after the 8.12 Patch changed the Base-AD-Bonus to Bonus-AD.

Maw of Malmortius: Maw is better vs some AP-Assassins/Executes(Veigar-R, for example). It gives a Bunch of AD, too, and some CDR for Transcendence -> AD.

Situational:

Executioner's Calling: Use this to reduce heals, vs Swain or Vladimir, for Example.

Death's Dance: Take this for a bunch of AD, combined with some toughness and Regeneration(Strong with Barrels, but just 33% efficient). Take it if you dont want to buy Youmuus. You are able to heal much more because the damage of your passive and your Ultimate(Extremely strong in TF´s) are also sources of damage, since the last buff.

Guardian Angel: Use this vs AD-Assassins or Execute-Champions like Zed or Riven.

Adaptive Helm: Adaptive-Helm gives you Extra-Toughness vs a lot of AP-Champs, Ahri Brand or Teemo, for example.

Spirit Visage: It gives much health, increases your heal and you get tough vs AP-Champions.

Consumables:

Elixir of Wrath: The best Potion for Gangplank. Gives some AD and you can heal with physical Damage.

Control Ward: Everytime, buy Control Wards if possible, Vision is too important.

Tankplank-Specials:

Titanic Hydra: Has a nice Waveclear, gives some Damage (More if you got more Hp) and 400 Health, a nice choice.

Spear of Shojin: It gives more Offensive Stats as defensive ones, but should work on "Tankplank" still pretty nice.

Dead Man's Plate: It gives nice Armor and HP, raises your Splitpower because the movementspeed increases your roampotential and has a nice Damage-passive.

Randuin's Omen: It gives nice Armor and HP, reduces the Enemy-AS while you duel him(Nice against Adc´s or Yasuo) and reduces Critical-Strike-Damage.

Double-Barrel:

Place both Barrels, then Q the first one.

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Fast Double-Barrel:

Q the first barrel, then place the second. You need to Q on max range, otherwise it wont work.

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Triple-Barrel:

Place two Barrels, Q the first, then place the third.

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Flash-Triple-Barrel:

The hardest Barrel-Combo. If you need more range, place 2 Barrels far away, Q the first, flash directly after Q'ing and place the third one.

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Pentagram:

Just for Fun :)

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You priority should be set on farming, poking the enemy is just incidental. You just use your Q to poke the enemy to trigger Kleptomancy or Grasp of the Undying. It is only worth using Parrrley to kill minions, if you have skilled it with at least 3 points (just if you use Kleptomancy) or have to safe a minion last-hit. Your Barrels can keep Enemies on distance, sometimes you are able to last-hit a bunch of minions with your Q-Barrel.

After you got Sheen, your Lane will automatically become more comfortable, you are able to poke better and last hit better with your Q-E.

The Trinity Force gives a great Powerspike, you are able to duel Enemies pretty good and you can oneshot Caster-Minions with one Q-Barrel.

Gangplank has nice waveclear with his Powder Keg, thats why you can splitpush easy with him. While you split, you can support your Team with your Ultimate. If you want vision, you cant use your Barrels as wards anymore. Ask your Supp for wards towards you.

If you have a Frontline, GP can perform very well in Teamfights. Cannon Barrage is also a nice engage tool for TF´s. It can slow and zone Enemies hard, that makes it easier to engage the Enemy-Team to Ace them. Your Barrels make much AoE-Damage and can oneshot Squishys, thats very nice to carry the Teamfight as One-Man-Army. If you should get CC´d and/or All-In´d, just use Remove Scurvy. It would really help to have a frontline, a real Tank.

In my opinion, Gangplank is a better Teamfight-Champion as a Splitpush-Champion, but you can play both Styles. Especially if you reached Lvl 13, you won't miss in fights, your Barrels will be insanely useful due to the low charge timer.

So, this is the end, my fellow friend, i hope you enjoyed to read my Guide about Gangplank. It is my first Guide, so i appreciate your feedback.

Have a nice day at the Slaughterdocks, Captain!