Hello all, I want to begin this guide by thanking you for taking the time to read this. If you are, you are most likely looking to step up your game as Gangplank and I would like to throw my build up for discussion. I will say that this is hardly a stereotypical Gangplank build, but i have had A TON of success with it. I hope you enjoy it!! And if you are here to just troll guide creators on mobafire, please save it for another person :)

The reason that I chose this set rune page over any other is to cap out my damage with parley over the duration of the game. Armor pen marks and quints significantly boost damage output early and can also have a large effect late game. Flat health seals will give you that boost you need to go toe to toe with champions early game, which could lead to a kill or two, or to escape a close call gank situation. Finally, flat cooldown reduction glyphs will give you the opportunity to parley more often giving you an increase in damage output as well as an increase in gold income. I value these runes over flat crit or any other set only because it fits my play style and build. As you read on you will find it will be extremely easy to farm and damage output will be more consistent rather than praying for critical strikes.

I set my masteries at 21-0-9. These are all pretty self explanatory but the main question that I get is, "why go into archaic knowledge." I see that when I do not spec into it, gangplanks ultimate is just not as useful. The loss in damage output is noticeable if you skip over it. If there are any questions about any other talent, I would be more than happy to discuss them.

I begin the game with a mana crystal, a health potion, and a mana potion. Sheen is a MUST HAVE ITEM on Gangplank. This is beacuse the damage output on parley without a critical strike and a sheen proc is nearly equal to that of a critical strike without sheen. The sheen effect also activates and uses itself all in one parley. The damage is enough to send any enemy champion either to their grave or back to fountain. Proceed on to get cooldown reduction boots and phage. Continueing on to getting trinity force. Parley now has a chance to slow, and autoapplies sheen, as well as has a chance to crit more often. Everything you could possibly want in one skill is now in parley. Infinity edge will give that parley an extra burst of damage. The build I have then requires some defense with warmogs and continues on with atma's impaler. Damage output is through the roof with these five items and survivability is easy to maintain. The final item i have listed is bloodthirster only because lifeteal on all that parley and auto attack will up your survivablity. Crit chance is only 60% though at this point, so the last item is debateable. Executioner's calling has also been a favorite item of mine because of the crit and lifesteal hybrid. Let me know what you think!!

Parley is Gangplank's main damage skill which you pick up at level one and will have maxed out by level 9. I choose to get remove scurvy second so that I can get out of a tight situation if my lane opponent has a stun. I continue on to max out raise morale second. The passive move speed and extra damage is enough to get away from everyone and chase down and kill anyone. I have come to find that the removal of the deny system was a buff for Gangplank because now, you can use raise moral anywhere rather than when you are next to creeps. You pick up your ultimate whenever you can, this will help hold towers as a summoner fortify spell would, help get a few kills, or aid a teammate escape the clutches of the enemy.

Summoner spells are always debateable and are based on play style. I choose to use ghost and flash for a few different reasons. Although Gangplank is fast in terms of movespeed, many players play with ghost. I use ghost to get away from those players or to chase them down easy. I play flash to either get away from a champion that is stronger toe to toe than gangplank, such as tryndamere for example or to catch other players that have flash. Flashing away will give you the time to get an additional parley or two in or to catch a foe. You must remeber that Gangplank is just as strong from affar as he is up close.

I used to play exhaust, but took flash once by accident. I have never gone back to exhaust, and i won't, unless there is an abundance of attack damage carries in a ranked match.

I pick up my mana crystal and my potions and head to a solo lane whether it be mid or top. I level my skills as previously mentioned. Evaluating your oppenent and attempting to dominate lane control is key to an early win. The goal here is to farm the gold you need to get sheen and basic boots as quickly as possible. Farming with parley will help with that, but getting your oppenent off the creep wave is just as beneficial since you can then melee the creeps. Gangplank's damage tends to be underestimated, so make opponents pay for reckless behavior. By level 5 or 6, you should have your sheen ready for buy. Once you have sheen, damage comes easy. Parley the opponent when he is in range and he should drop anywhere from 3(squishy ad/ap carries)-6(hp rushing champs) parleys. Killing them with a suprise flash parley combo is common, but the main objective is to maintain farm domination. If you can farm and hinder their carry from farming, late game will be that much easier to win. Farm, gank, drop your ultimate to aid others and punish the tower if your opponent decides to roam alone. Early game with Gangplank is made a lot of fun with sheen, and the game only gets more enjoyable with time.

Late game is the same general farm and gank type strategy. Infinity edge and trinity force should already be snatched up. You begin teamfights using parley on enemies that are out of position and you continue to keep your distance until your tank initiates on a promising opportunity. Raise moral whenever you can and continueously parley as well as auto attack. Save remove scurvy for dire situations. That is what I call my "O **** button". Most carry heroes should fall over in about 3 seconds and most tanks should be singled out once their damage dealers are through. Team fighting is made easy with Gangplank because of his extreme damage output. If you don't believe me, try it out and see for yourself. I have a friend that loves to say, "I heard Q spell is hard." Mocking how easy it really is to kill enemies with this build.

I believe that many builds leave Gangplank with no early game lane prescence, but i have changed that with this build. Most builds also lack consistancy in damage and this build changes that too. Many pure critical strike builds also leave out a tool for survivability. This will force that Gangplank player to play defensive and keep his distance although he is very strong up close. There also tends to be a mid game point when a crit build gangplank needs to sit alone and farm Infinity edge. My build makes pirate a versatile champ in early game as well as mid game teamfights. You will never need to be out of the action. I have played MANY Gangplank games and i have experimented a lot with him. Overall i find this to be my favorite build to play and it is the most well rounded build.

The only downside is how expensive all the items are. I have never had a problem farming them quickly, but players who lack that farming skill while keeping an opponent backed off may have some problems getting the items that they need.

I hope you liked what I took the time to put together. I have a lot of fun playing this character, and I hope that I was able to make Gangplank gameplay more enjoyable for those who are either new to him or are just looking for something to try. I have had a lot of success and I look forward to playing against this strategy some time. Feel free to post any questions or comments!! :)