Heya and welcome to my guide to Gangplank. I'm Sanun,a top laner who have played League Of Legends since season 1. Gangplank is one of my most played champions and started playing Gangplank around his release. I'm Diamond on multiple accounts on EUW and pretty known for my Gangplank top. I'm here to share you the secrets about Gangplank top and how to be a hyper-carry with him. This is one of my first guides so feedback is appreciated!

Pros:
+ Strong level 1
+ Outscales almost everyone
+ Unmatched AoE damage late game
+ Gets a ton of extra gold
+ Global pressure with his ultimate
+ Super fun to master
+ Insane waveclear


Cons:
- Squishy
- Needs items to be useful
- Hard to master
- Some very bad matchups
- Needs lots of farm
- Very low mobility
- One of the hardest champs in the game

Flash is one of the summoner spells that is available in League of Legends. Most of the time, everyone will have Flash as one of the two summoner spells they can equip before getting into a game as it is considered to be an important and must have spell because it grants you the ability to instantly switch your position to wherever your cursor is pointing at within a 425 units range, and this allows players to make creative plays as well as escaping from the brink of death.

Since season 4, there are almost no summoner spells in League of Legends that have a bigger impact than Teleport. Sure, Flash is a big deal and can change a team fight, but Teleport determines everything from which objectives you can take, to whether or not you can fight, to where each individual player can and should be standing on the map.

In fact, until patch 8.23, even just starting a Teleport then cancelling it could be enough to turn a fight, or save your team’s bot lane. But, after this most recent preseason patch, Teleport can no longer be cancelled. And that’s probably a good thing.

Now, when you want to impact the map with a teleport, you have to be absolutely sure it’s a good idea. No more faking teleports to get enemy teams to back off of a fight, or to bait teleport out of your opponent, if you start a teleport in season 9, you’re teleporting.

This is the kind of change that, rather than making one playstyle weaker, actually impacts the entire game itself. At the highest levels of the game, map movements will have to be more purposeful, while things like tower dives can be done with a little more confidence, knowing that the enemy team will have to either decide not to help the target of the dive, or commit everything to help them.

If you have kill-pressure, go for ignite. If not, just pick TP and farm up and be ready for dragon. You can still pull up a good teamfight TP if the opponents overextend a lot and you team has good CC. Ignite also falls off hard as the game goes, so you have to abuse it and snowball and close the game before its 'late'. Champions like Kled (which can use his ult to get into places/fights and have more map pressure AND can also kill ppl with ease). That means you can use your ult kinda like a weaker TP and go with ignite, therefore he's more forgiving with ignite than most top champions.

I only ever run two keystones, klepto and grasp. I would also take comet against something like pantheon, jayce, or quinn where I know that even getting in range to proc grasp or klepto would be detrimental, but I always ban pantheon and request a teammate to ban jayce, and quinn is almost never picked.
I take grasp into matchups where I can/need to fight and win early game and be tankier later on, stuff like Riven, Tryndamere, or Irelia. Grasp allows you to win otherwise losing lanes if you take klepto, and having that extra healing during skirmishes and 100 or so HP coming out of lane has saved my *** numerous times. I always take demolish, conditioning, and second wind for my primary tree runes, and for my secondary tree it is situational. If I need extra healing to actually fight and win lane, I take domination with ravenous hunter and taste of blood/cheap shot. If I just need to bully my opponent early but can get away without the extra healing, I go sorcery with transcendence and scorch/ultimate hat.
In all other matchups, I take klepto for the gold generation and consumables for an earlier mid/late game. I almost always go perfect timing, always go cosmic insight, and choose future's market or magical footwear based on whether I need to get early tier 2 boots or not. For my secondary tree, I almost always go sorcery with transcendence and scorch/ultimate hat.
RUNES TL;DR - grasp to win lane, klepto to go even and reach mid/late faster. Sorcery secondary if you can get away with it, else go domination for healing.

Every game, your build should be adaptive to what it is you need for that specific game in order to survive and kill your opponents. I'm not going to give you any cookie cutter builds, but I'll list off every viable item and what scenarios I would get them in.


Trinity Force - your first completed item over 90% of the time. Buy sheen first, then get phage for the extra survivability, movement speed, and damage - I never get stinger second unless I am feeling extremely ballsy.

Ninja Tabi/Mercury Treads - I buy my boots based on what type of damage I need to negate the most in the early game. I sometimes complete my boots before my Triforce, sometimes after, it just depends on when I need the resistances or not in the first 10-12 minutes.

Youmuu's Ghostblade - my second item in 85% of games, the early movement speed + armor penetration spike is extremely strong. I only don't get it second if I need to get a defensive item like Sterak's early on.

Sterak's Gage - a great defensive item that gives you a lot of damage as well by boosting your sheen empowered attacks. Your shield also scales really well if you choose to go grasp. I build this item third or fourth every game when I take grasp, and get it if I need it to survive burst damage if I take klepto.

Guardian Angel - another great defensive item, excellent for letting you play a bit riskier with the revive passive. I often get this item third after ghostblade with the reduced cost from perfect timing unless I need a different defensive item, since having the extra revive passive earlier in the game (around 20-25 minutes) is super underrated.

Infinity Edge - if you can get away with it, building IE gives you insane amounts of damage when you crit. I only build IE when I already have a zeal item to pair with it for 50% crit, and when I don't need a different defensive item, so I don't actually build IE often except for selling my boots for it late in the game. Do NOT sacrifice your build in order to fit an IE in there, if you are dying before getting your damage off there is no point.

Phantom Dancer - my go-to zeal item, great for making your dueling stronger and giving you a 30% chance to crit. I often get this item fourth or fifth in order to improve my split pushing and survivability when I go melee in fights, which I do often since I play a more ham bruiser style rather than a sit back and try to get barrel combo crit one shots. However, if you need a further defensive item for burst damage like visage, don't get PD.

Statikk Shiv - if I am building full damage GP and can afford more damage than survivability, I go shiv over PD. However, I often still prefer PD, so I rarely buy shiv unless building full crit.

Essence Reaver - I pretty much never get this item. I only get it if I have multiple tanks on my team and can afford to play one-shot GP, and even then I only get it as a final item by selling boots if I already have IE + a zeal item or two.

Last Whisper - Get a last whisper item if you are against a supertank and need to shred through them. 95% of the time I build a LW item I get mortal reminder, since having more HP from grasp/steraks makes LDR less effective - I only get LDR if I am going full damage and do not need the reduced healing passive. Also, if your team needs the grievous wounds against something like Maokai, gangplank is a great pick for building it and letting your ADC go LDR.

Spirit Visage - a great item choice for giving you extra healing and survivability against magic damage heavy comps. It also gives you 10% CDR to cap you out if you haven't taken Transcendence.

Adaptive Helm - great against high amounts of sustained magic damage, like if you are against a Rumble and another mage. I often get this item as early as second or third if I need it for a game, and if I don't buy it that early it is often because I don't need it for the game at all.

Duskblade of Draktharr - a great second lethality item if you are snowballing hard and want a ton of flat penetration for tearing everyone new ***es. I buy it third or fourth if I know the game won't last much longer, or I have a tank jungler and support to hide behind and a fairly squishy enemy comp to penetrate.
Titanic Hydra - gives you a ton of HP while also making you deal a lot of burst damage with an auto attack. I only build titanic if I am pairing it with another HP item like steraks, and if I am my team's frontline and have high damage carries to peel for.

Maw of Malmortius - If you need to survive high amounts of burst magic damage. I don't build this often since it doesn't give as much damage as steraks, and only build it if I am against a 3+ magic damage comp and am pretty much building full MR (merc treads, maw, spirit/adaptive).

Death's Dance - if you need extra healing and CDR to cap yourself if you don't take transcendence.

Edge of Night - if you are snowballing hard and want a third lethality item, or if you want a second item one and the spell shield would be useful.

Dead Man's Plate / Randuin's Omen - if you need a ton of armor/crit reduction and tabi + GA isn't enough.

Aatrox - Grasp, start corrupting potion. You need to bully him down lvl 1 and 2 before he can all-in you for decent chunks of your HP with his Q. Get an early executioner's calling, perhaps after sheen. He has a very strong lvl 6, so watch out for it.

Akali - Grasp, start mana crystal. Proc your grasp as much as you can early to bully her down and get tankier before she reaches lvl 6, and just survive and farm and look to help your team from there.

Camille - Grasp, start corrupting potion. Fight and bully and try to accrue a lead levels 1 and 2, as long as you get ahead the first few levels you should be able to fight her and at least go even from then on.

Cassiopeia - Klepto, start mana crystal. Rush tier 2 boots to try to dodge her Q, get an early adaptive helm.

Cho'Gath - Klepto, start ancient coin. Q him as much as possible, and try not to push the lane, since he is extremely good at setting up ganks if he lands his Q. If you need to, you can orange the knockup and instantly flash, similar as to how you can do it with a Lee Sin kick, to avoid a gank.

Darius - If you are confident with your ability to Q him and instantly step back to avoid getting pulled in, go klepto and start coin. If not, you can take arcane comet with mana crystal and sit back and just try to farm up. Always rush tier 2 boots over everything, even sheen, since if you are slower than him you are dead.

Diana - Grasp, corrupting, bully her early before her lvl 6 spike. Get a steraks/maw to help with her burst.

Dr. Mundo - Klepto, start coin. Q him 24/7, stay behind minions to avoid his cleavers. If you see a mundo one trick taking press the attack, do not under any circumstance try to take any autoattack trades with him, he will rip you to shreds and it is difficult to run if he chains his cleavers.

Ekko - Klepto, coin, Q farm him. Keep track of his ult shadow thing after lvl 6, his ult does tons of damage. Orange his Q when it initially slows you so that you can easily walk out of the second part early game.

Fiora - Grasp, start corrupting. You dump on her the first few levels by playing aggressive, abuse it and get ahead early.

Fizz - Grasp, start corrupting, bully him early. Get early magic resist to help with his burst.

Galio - Klepto, coin, Q farm him. W his taunt, don't be afraid to fight him, but be careful of how well he sets up ganks.

Gangplank - stop playing blind pick.

Garen - Klepto, coin, 24/7 Q farmfest. Use your barrels to kite him and keep him off of you. He can cleanse the slow with his Q, so always have another barrel ready in the far back bush to slow him again.

Gnar - Grasp, start mana crystal. Just Q him when you get the chance the first few levels, once he gets a few more points in his Q and has his W and E do not try to take trades with him, you will lose.

Gragas - Klepto, coin, Q farm him. Early tier 2 boots and try to bait his E to juke it. He sets up ganks extremely well post 6, so watch out for that.

Heimerdinger - Klepto, start mana crystal. Rushing a sheen as fast as possible is crucial, since your sheen proc Qs instantly kill his turrets. Just try to farm up, he will constantly shove you in to turret.

Illaoi - Klepto, start coin. Rush tier 2 boots after sheen in order to help with juking her E. Obviously, never try to fight her when she ults or hits her E on you.

Irelia - Grasp, start mana crystal. Bully her down and get tanky before her lvl 6 spike, where she can kill you if you are not careful.

Jarvan IV - Grasp, start corrupting. Fight him early and proc your grasp. Rush steraks after getting sheen (sheen > jaurim's > steraks > phage > triforce) to help with his high lvl 6 burst combo.

Jax - Grasp, start mana crystal. Similar to Irelia, bully down early and don't fall behind, once you fall behind this lane is done, you might as well FF.

Jayce - Take comet with secondary tree resolve with second wind and iron skin. If you can escape lane without dying you are in good shape.

Karma - Klepto, start mana crystal. Stay behind minions, avoid being hit by empowered Qs at all cost, they HURT.

Kayle - Klepto, start mana crystal. Let yourself get shoved in and just farm.

Kennen - Grasp, start mana crystal. Proc your grasp early, stay behind minions to avoid his Q.

Kled - Grasp, start corrupting. Bully and fight lvl 1 before his lvl 2 spike, get an HP lead and don't underestimate his lvl 2-3 all-in.

Malphite - Klepto, start coin. Rush some sort of magic resist, at least a null-magic mantle, since every time you Q him he will Q you. He will run out of mana faster than you, just keep trading Q's until this happens and force him to back.

Maokai - Klepto, start coin. Maokai can beat you once he gets a few levels by playing aggressive, just Q farm him early then just stay back and farm, and try to be useful in teamfights.

Nasus - Klepto, start coin. Q him until the end of time, use your barrels to kite him and keep him off of you. His all-in with reduced cd Q's from his ult is extremely strong, don't try to take extended trades after lvl 6.

Nautilus - Klepto, start coin. Q him early. He becomes very strong at lvl 6, just stay back and farm minions after that.

Olaf - Grasp, start corrupting. You need your lvl 2 in order to fight him, in order to keep him from chaining axes and using his attack speed passive to destroy you.

Ornn - Klepto, start coin. Just Q farm him and don't stand near his Q so that he can E knock you up.

Pantheon - Just dodge. Honestly. If you really want to try, take comet with resolve, similar to Jayce, and just try to get 20 farm by 10 minutes.

Poppy - Klepto, coin, Q farm fest. Don't let yourself get charged into a wall.
Quinn - Comet with resolve, similar to Pantheon where she dumps on you then roams. Also recommend dodging.

Renekton - Grasp with corrupting, rush steraks after sheen. Fight him early before he gets all of his abilities, proc your grasp as much as you can.

Rengar - Dodge. Just hope that there are no Rengar top players online when you queue, this matchup is horrible. If you need to, take klepto and mana crystal, and sit your *** far back and Q him if you get the chance. Emphasis on if.

Riven - Grasp with corrupting, rush steraks after sheen. If she tries to fight you lvl 1-3, you will win the trade with corrupting. Do not, I repeat, do not even try to fight her after lvl 6 until you have Tabis + Steraks finished. She will one combo you.

Rumble - Klepto, start mana crystal. Rush Spectre's Cowl after sheen, get Adaptive Helm after Triforce if you feel that you still need more defensive stats against him.

Shen - Klepto, coin, Q farm paradise.

Singed - Klepto, start mana crystal or coin, your choice. If a lane singed, just Q farm him with klepto. If a proxy singed, proc your klepto a few times while he goes back to proxy, and call your jungler up for free kills.

Sion - Klepto, start coin. Stay the **** away from bushes unless you have vision of him not in said bush. Q farm up and I recommend getting steraks after triforce to deal with his damage if you need to.

Swain - Grasp, start mana crystal. Just try to farm, he does a lot of damage and heals a lot. Get an early executioner's and ask for some jungle pressure to help out with getting out of this lane.

Tahm Kench - Klepto, grasp, Q farm fest. Orange his tongue slow so he can't get on you to eat you.

Teemo - Grasp, start corrupting, just try to farm up. Proc your grasp if you get the chance, but do not fight him under any circumstance. Also, get the upgraded red trinket at lvl 9 to help clear out his shrooms.

Trundle - Klepto, coin, Q farm up. Always have a barrel behind you ready to kite him if he pillars you.

Tryndamere - Grasp, corrupting, dump on him levels 1-5 and try to bait out his ult then kite back with a barrel at lvl 6. If his ult is down, he is useless before 3-4 items. Try to group with your team and win 4v5 before his splitpushing becomes too strong late game.

Urgot - Grasp, corrupting. Proc grasp when you can, and watch out for his all-in. Save your W for the second part of his ult, do not W early, you will die.

Vladimir - Grasp, mana crystal. Just farm up and try to proc grasp when you can, his tower diving and all-ins at lvl 6 become very strong. His jungler will probably come to dive you, keep your jungle warded if blue side and tribush if red side to try to avoid the dives and ask your jungler to try to counter if he is nearby when you see their jungler coming.

Volibear - Klepto, coin, Q farm him. If he all-ins you, he will win every time, so just kite back with barrels.

Wukong - Grasp, corrupting, fight and bully him lvl 1 before his lvl 2 spike. Do not underestimate his damage once he gets duskblade, even if you won early and are up a kill or two or a decent amount of farm. Rush tabi's after sheen + phage, and an early steraks is useful.

Yasuo - Grasp, corrupting, dump on him. No mercy. Oranging his knockup right when it hits you makes it so he can't ult you, or sometimes if you want to bait him in don't orange the knockup and orange his ult instead so he is on top of you and you can damage him.

Yorick - Klepto, coin, Q farm him. Early tier 2 boots are helpful for dodging his E and avoiding getting trapped in his W. Early attack speed helps taking out his W, I like to buy zeal after Triforce then go my other items, finishing the zeal into PD third or fourth.


That's pretty much every champion that's ever taken top lane, if you are against something else it's extremely cheesy and I don't have enough experience against the matchups.

TL;DR - against a tank take klepto and Q farm them, against bruisers take grasp and beat them early, against damage bullies dodge.

Don't start mana crystal unless it's an easy matchup. Experienced GP players can start mana crystal, but in general I would start corrupting potion. You can do mana crystal after you get more experience.

Get the free biscuit rune. It's your free insurance policy for early game.

The early game objective to winning lane is to zone the enemy out of the minion wave. As someone else said: "The threat of the barrels is what gives you the advantage." Not actually landing the barrels. Landing the barrels is a bonus. It can be hard to land barrels in the laning phase since the enemy will naturally be aware of your barrel locations. If you miss a barrel combo, and you don't have any more charges left, you LOSE ALL PRESSURE and the enemy walks forward to take control of the wave.

Of course from lvl 2-3 you are probably just Q'ing the enemy because that's all GP can do. At level 4 and if your matchup is decent, you should NOT stand behind your own minions, on your side, and continue to Q / barrel the enemy. That doesn't do anything other than spend mana or hard push your lane. You may even miss your barrels. Assert dominance, place a barrel to zone, and give him a choice... cs or a barrel to the face. Yes, you may push the lane a bit, but you also took a trade in your favor.

If you do initiate a trade, I would not fight for a long time. GP with no items isn't that strong after his initial combo + AA.

Currently, GP has lots of bad matchups. I'm perfectly ok with simply farming, and not trying to chunk the enemy down to 30% HP. Since GP has a global ult I can usually get some free assists during laning phase.

It all comes with experience. Here are some generic combos for teamfights:

Triple barrel combo is a big risk big reward. If you can reach the backline (mid laner and adc), then go for it. If you miss, you will have to wait over ten seconds (level 13 and 45% cdr) to have barrels up again and by that time, most likely you will have lost the teamfight because you couldn't do anything. If you do land it on the backline, 99% of the time you will win the teamfight.

I tend to stick with double barrel combos because it's easier to land on multiple targets from a safe position, and if I miss, I still get more chances to deal damage. If you can't seem to land your Q in time then perhaps try meleeing it.

Placing barrels on top of enemies works (level 13) but you have to go really close to their backline and that is a risky play. Typically if you land a double barrel or triple barrel beforehand for the slow, it's easier to follow up and land a single barrel. In higher elo, however, I have noticed people focusing barrels more, so if I miss three barrels back to back (which is common if enemy projectile is fast i.e. caitlyn auto), then I will be useless for the teamfight.

Some things to keep in mind lategame:

enemies will have enough damage to one shot you so position safely (near the back) and be the dps machine you are

Try to live for the entire teamfight so you can do as much damage as possible

If you die early on in the fight late game, most likely you will lose the teamfight

In the end, you really need to have plenty of experience as GP and just know when to use what combo. Gangplank is one of those champions that you can always improve on.

This is the end of my guide, I hope you enjoyed it and learned a lot about our Saltwater Scourge Gangplank. If you have any questions or want to watch some educational high elo content, then be sure to follow my stream on https://www.twitch.tv/Sanun
Here I will be streaming a lot in the near future.
GL HF with Gangplank!
Thank you for reading my guide! if you have any feedback or questions feel free to comment. Upvotes are heavily appreciated!