Well.. how can I start this then.

I'll start from the basics I guess.

What I play him as: Solo Top.
What other people play him as: Solo Top, Jungle, Mid, AD Carry, Support (Apparently everything).
The most known roles played: Jungle, Support << (For real?).

What I build him as: High-crit Bruiser.
What other people build him as: High-crit carry, Farmplank, Off-Tank, Support << (Still, for real?).
The most known builds used: High-crit carry, Farmplank, Support.


What I have taken note of

Now, I have been spectating many Gangplank's over my journey of LoL, and playing him too. The most common thing I've seen in ranked play are these things:

Gangplank is supporting

• The inital problem with this is he is a carry, which makes him item-dependent. Also, he offers the team nothing more than a very small AD and MS steroid, and a weak global ult with 20% slow. His laning phase is probably the best part of it because he can poke with Parrrley, and an early game ult can be quite game changing, but once it gets into mid-game, he will drop off substantially.

Gangplank is jungling

• I don't like the idea of waiting to last hit the jungle with Parrrley, which can waste time therefore slow down his already slow jungle speed. His ganks consist of him running at the enemy and spamming Parrrley, this means his ganking is quite weak until he hits level 6. By then the enemy jungler will have out-performed him already. Gangplank's only other option is to counter-jungle (when I say that, I mean finding the other jungler and shooting him into the floor, because you will not be able to kill the jungle minions fast enough before you get found unless Smite is up.)

Badplank at Solo Top
You're probably wondering what goes wrong here, well it's all to do with the first few items you are buying my good fellow. There are a few ways people will build that I will list here:

Critplank

• Brawler's Gloves , Avarice Blade , Boots , Cloak of Agility

Ok, let's stop here and see what he's done. He has bought only crit items, this means his damage is highly unreliable because he has to hope on getting crits with Parrrley. He can be shutdown very easily if the opponent has any form of harass that can be sent back, plus if the opponent builds armor, this will automatically wreck him.

Farmplank

• Regrowth Pendant , Philosopher's Stone , Boots

I'm gonna stop it there, because what's already happened is that your lane will turn into a free farm for the opponent. You have regen, sure that'll help, with what, winning your lane? Definitely not. You have already ruined your chances of beating him by buying this since it will take too long to build any proper items, hence you will be pressed hard by the opponent, and a high chance of being ganked once you are pushed to your turret.


Runes
This is actually a LOT more important than some people may think, the runes you pick are crucial to your early game, and as you proceed.

• AD Marks and Quints
  This gives you very solid damage early game, but there is a flaw with this, and it is that the opponent can very easily build a simple Cloth Armor and it messes your Parrrley harass completely.
  
• MP or MP/5 Seals
  For those lovers of spamming your abilities every second they are on cooldown. This does not work, and it hurts your early survivability big time.
  
• Crit Seals
  Just no, please no. You are relying on the smallest amount of crit chance ever, and again it destroys your early game survivability.
  
• Cooldown Reduction Glyphs
  This would be something you think would work well with MP or MP/5 Seals. It makes sense. However, you will have absolutely no magic resist. This could possibly only work against an AP opponent early, but the huge problem is you will have NO magic resist, and eventually, the enemy AP will just wreck you.
  
• Crit Glyphs
  For the same reason explained with the Crit Seals, you are relying on a stat that is not reliable with your Runes.

Your Runes are very crucial to your early-game performance.


Final thoughts

I have spent ages and ages and ages trying to work this pirate out. I went back and forth between builds multiple times to see what works better than others, which runes perform better than others, playing Gangplank countless times, seeing what works better against other champions, what I should be weary of. Eventually, it got to the point where I now excel with him.

It has also gotten to the point where I am disappointed to see so many people that play Gangplank talk so poorly about him, crying for a buff, or playing a certain build style, rune steup, gameplay style then just hating him because it isn't working out how they hoped. Gangplank is a very underplayed champion now and those who do play him.. it's not what I was excited to spectate that ranked or that normal game for.

• This is not a rage post
• This is not a QQ post
• This is not a cry out for buffs post
• This is not a cry out for nerfs post

This is just me expressing my feelings on my main and favourite top-lane champion Gangplank.

If you read all this, you're a tough cookiee..