Howdy, Uncle Jimbo again with another semi-serious guide.
Feel free to leave any comments about something stupid I've said in here, or something I might have missed.
Good luck!

Gangplank is one of few champions who have a powered-up on-hit ability which can crit. This makes Gangplank crit for upwards of 1000 damage without even having full items. Others I can think of at the moment are Nasus and Blitzcrank, but they just don't seem to work as good with this, perhaps because Parrrley is ranged. I'm not sure.

Anyway, building pure crit on Gangplank allows you to melt people down so fast lategame it's legitimately scary. Plus, it's a lot of fun.

Pros Chance of really great early game with annoying crits Absolutely terrifying mid-lategame( Vayne-tier) Can basically go in any lane, maybe even jungle Obscenely high damage Very high crit chance Very fun

Cons Very squishy, especially early game People will probably report you for trollbuilding if you don't do well Gets focused when doing well Not very much build versatility; 3 core items, boots, and an Avarice Blade upgrade leave only one optional slot

- For increased flat critical chance, improving the damage output of the entire build at all stages of the game.

- Essential armor, prevents you from getting oneshotted early in the game, helps you enter mid-lategame.

- Gangplank has personal scaling magic resist, so having a bit more flat MR early game helps his early game survivability vs. magical opponents and ganks a lot.

- For increased flat critical chance, to improve damage output at all levels.

I go mainly into the Offense tree, since this is a heavily offensive build, making sure to take Lethality for crit damage and Frenzy for a good damage boost when critting. Sunder and Weapon Expertise help a lot for damage too, especially since we can't really stack armor pen with this build.

In the defensive tree, I take the obvious Hardiness and Veteran's Scars , picking up the required points along the way. That extra point can go into Resistance for just a little bit more survivability.

Recommended

- Gives you the capability to kill fleeing enemies, and a small AD and AP buff while it's on cooldown.

- Escape, gap close, etc.

Also Useful

- Good to have in many situations, especially if your support didn't take it. Locks down a target for an easy kill or a disruption of DPS during a teamfight.

- gotta go fast

- Good for if you go top and need to farm a lot. Alternatively, if your team doesn't have much ganking power, you might be able to help out with this spell.

- I suppose jungling could work with Critplank, due to crits giving fast clears. Might be worth a try.

Not so hot

- No.

- No.

- Leave it to the support.

- Remove Scurvy

- Remove Scurvy

- Gangplank's attacks apply a 7% slow and magical damage-over-time effect on hit that can stack up to three times.

Gangplank's passive is a good source of ongoing damage in a fight, as well as a powerful CC. Gangplank can be an excellent chaser using this passive wisely, making it very hard for anyone to get away from him. Also, it's an extra bit of damage to factor in.

- Gangplank fires a shot from his pistol at a targeted enemy, acting as a basic attack with a small damage boost. Killing an enemy with the shot itself gives Gangplank extra gold and refunds half the mana cost.

This is my favorite ability in League of Legends. What's great about it is that it acts as a basic attack, meaning it can apply any and all on-hit effects, such as critical hits, lifesteal, Sheen, and Grog Soaked Blade. Also, it gives a great amount of extra gold when you kill something with it, making Gangplank an excellent farmer (especially with Avarice Blade) and a great lategame carry. The bonus damage on it can crit, which is why Critplank works. The 120 bonus damage at level 5, critting with an Infinity Edge, means 300 extra damage on crit compared to a regular basic attack.

I take this ability and max it first because it's Gangplank's main source of damage and farming.

- Gangplank eats an orange, healing him and instantly removing all CC and disables on him.

Gangplank is really fantastic in all areas. With this ability, you can keep your health up in lane if you have blue buff, or you can escape ganks and stuns and such instantly. It removes any kind of CC, from slows to silences to stuns to whatever you can think of, even suppression.

I take this early on for escape, but I don't level it until lategame. The heal isn't really worth the leveling, unless you build AP.

- Gangplank passively increases his own Attack Damage and movement speed. He can also fire a shot into the air to double his buff and give this double buff to surrounding allies.

This is another way Gangplank can escape from a bad situation. Likewise, he can use it to initiate a teamfight, giving his team a slight edge over the other. It gives him, and on use, everyone around him, bonus movement speed and attack damage, allowing a lot more teamfight utility, as well as escape, or kiting, or fighting, etc. It's a great buff for all occasions. Also, it passively gives Gangplank so much movement speed he hardly needs to buy level 2 boots at all. Counting in this passive, Gangplank has the highest base movement speed of anyone, except probably Teemo with Move Quick.

I take this at level two and level it to max after Parrrley, because it's Gangplank's secondary source of damage AND escape, as well as initiation.


- Gangplank targets an area on the map and sends cannonballs down on it. The area itself slows, but the damaging cannonballs fall in random spots.

Some people don't like this ult because it's unreliable for damage. It's true that against one enemy, you probably won't hit very many times, if at all. However, it's a global area-of-effect slow, and in a teamfight, calling it in the middle of the enemy team will basically guarantee a good amount of damage, while slowing the enemy team for your team to get a big edge over them. This ultimate makes Gangplank a fair initiator, while still also being a lategame carry, while STILL being somewhat tanky. Gangplank may not necessarily excel at any one thing, but he does well at a lot of things at once, and in my opinion, that's what makes him so fearsome.

Generally, with Gangplank, you farm and do damage using Parrrley, escape using Remove Scurvy, initiate or escape with Raise Morale, and initiate or farm with Cannon Barrage. When I go into a big teamfight, I usually buff my team with Raise Morale while debuffing the enemy team with Cannon Barrage. This makes for a big edge over the enemy for a decent amount of time. Played right, you can steamroll the enemy team before they knew what hit them.

Obviously, this build is centered around crit chance. Therefore, most of the items I take have crit chance on them.

Starting Item Options

- All-important crit chance, and builds into the Avarice Blade, which is a great source of gold income.

- Less crits, but higher crits. Can build into the Phage for your Trinity Force later.

- If you're against an enemy who has a lot of power in skillshots or delayed ground target abilities, boots might be a good option.

- Regardless of what you take, you gotta have some health potions for sustain.

Early Game Items

- All-important crit, increased gold-gain for this high-priced build, and builds into one of three kick-*** items lategame. Basically a core item.

- Gotta get boots eventually, just so you can run faster.

- Great damage boost early game, builds into Trinity Force a little later.

Midgame Items

- Absolutely core on Critplank due to the crit chance and crit damage. Incredibly massive damage boost.

- Gives Gangplank everything he could ever want; crit, attack speed, AD, AP, health, mana, movement speed, slow on-hit, and Sheen, GLORIOUS Sheen. Take every game, as any Gangplank. Seriously. Once you have this and Infinity Edge, your Parrrley crits should be doing upwards of 900 damage.

- Second-level boots are always important, but Gangplank doesn't need them as much as others because of the passive on Raise Morale. I take them later because I still move faster than everyone else without them.

- Crit, attack speed, movement speed. What more could you want?

Offensive Last-Item Options

- Allows your crits to splash and deal ridiculous damage in an area. Allows more teamfight utility, pushing and farming utility, and survivability with the lifesteal.

- Huge, pure damage. Also gives some lifesteal, but the important thing here is the 100 AD which translates to roughly a 260 damage boost on crit.

- If you think you need more attack speed past the Trinity Force and Phantom Dancer, by all means pick up a BORK. Gives a pretty great damage buff with its passive, and good utility with its active.

- Good hybrid of defense and offense. Gives a massive damage boost, as well as some MR and one of the best actives in the game, but personally I prefer to use Remove Scurvy as my get-out-of-jail-free card. Highly preferential.

- Good armor pen and a bit of health, CDR, and AD. However, you'll probably be killing people so fast, you won't be able to stack the passive in the first place.

- Incredible damage boost, giving more armor pen than Black Cleaver even on the first hit. However, has less AD and no health or CDR.

- Gives AD, attack speed, movement speed, and Tenacity. Good item, but there are probably better choices.

Defensive Last-Item Options

- BIG HEALTH. Makes you pretty tanky, as well as giving you a good amount of AD if you take Atma's Impaler later.

- Lots of health and armor. Probably one of the best defensive items in the game as a single item. Makes you much harder to kill.

- Great item on a lot of champs. Gives you some health and MR, some CDR, and makes your Remove Scurvy heal 20% more. Good option against magic and CC heavy teams.

- Great defensive stats for you and your team, but the top, jungler, or support should usually take this. If they decided not to, you might as well be the one to pick it up.

- As earlier, this item is a good hybrid. It gives a ton of MR, as well as that Cleanse-esque active. However, keep in mind you have Remove Scurvy.

- Good if you're doing well and getting focused, but you need to be in the fight because the rest of your team can't do it by themselves.

Avarice builds

- Gives 20 armor pen (*20 ARMOR PEN*) and some AD and a great active for "kill everything" mode. Great option, I'd take it in 90% of games.

- More attack speed and movement speed, as well as that critting chain lightning passive. However, that magic damage kinda falls off really fast, due to not having any magic penetration. By the time you get this item, the passive will be somewhat useless, but the other stats are fine.

- Gives some armor, and a passive that'll give you a good amount of AD if you build a bunch of health.

At level 5, Parrrley does 120 extra damage over an autoattack.
When Gangplank is level 18, he has 108 base AD. Trinity Force causes Parrrley to deal an extra 200% of this, 216 damage.

120 bonus from Parrrley + 108 base AD + 100 from Infinity Edge and Trinity Force = 328 damage base on Parrrley. Multiplying this by 2.5 gives you 820 damage. Then, you add the Sheen proc of 216 damage, resulting in a grand total of 1036 damage on a Parrrley crit at level 18 with an Infinity Edge and Trinity Force.

This is assuming you have no runes or masteries, and no other items, of course.

Literally just spam your Parrrley at people to knock them to really low health really fast with crits.
Either that, or focus them entirely on last-hitting and make a bunch of gold.

The trick is to find a comfortable medium between the two.

Again, go ahead and leave a comment if you have something to say about the build. This build is a lot of fun, but be careful you don't get reported for trollbuilding or something.