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Gangplank Build Guide by

The Ultimate Masters Gangplank Guide and His Mythics [S11] (

Updated on

9.8

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219 15

633,655 Views

18 Comments

Gangplank Build Guide By Updated on

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Guide Discussion (18) More Gangplank Guides

Runes: Grasp of the Undying

1 2 3

Resolve

Grasp of the Undying

Demolish

Conditioning

Overgrowth

Sorcery

Manaflow Band

Transcendence

Bonus:

+9 Adaptive (5.4 AD or 9 AP)
+9 Adaptive (5.4 AD or 9 AP)
+6 Armor

Spells:

1 2 3

Standard

Flash

Teleport

Items

Best Game Starters

Other Game Starters

Our Precious

Boots

Situationals

Resistances

All Mythics

Stridebreaker Path

Core

Next Up

6-Slotted

Divine Sunderer Path

Core

Next Up

6-Slotted

Non-Crit

Core

Next Up

6-Slotted

Trinity Force Path

Core

Next Up

6-Slotted

Non-Crit

Core

Next Up

6-Slotted

Duskblade of Draktharr Path

Core

Next Up

6-Slotted

Eclipse Path

Core

Next Up

6-Slotted

Prowler's Claw Path

Core

Next Up

6-Slotted

Galeforce Path

Core

Next Up

6-Slotted

Night Harvester Path

Core

Next Up

6-Slotted

Luden's Tempest Path

Core

Next Up

6-Slotted

Liandry's Anguish Path

Core

Next up

6-Slotted

Ultimate Upgrade Order

Endgame Buffs

Ability Order Normal Path

1 2 3 4

Gangplank Passive Ability

Threats & Synergies

Threats

Synergies

Extreme Major Even Minor Tiny

Show All

None Low Ok Strong Ideal

Extreme Threats

Ideal Synergies

Olaf

Extreme

Dodge his axes at all costs. This pick isn't common, but when it's a good pick, he's very good. I'm just keeping it as Extreme Threat because whenever Olaf is picked it's because he's rly good.

Bard

Ideal

Amazing ult to help you prepare an annihilating combo on your foes!

Synergies

Ideal Strong Ok Low None

Bard

Ideal

Amazing ult to help you prepare an annihilating combo on your foes!

More Gangplank Counters

Champion Build Guide

IT IS I, SOCAIR

ALSO CALLED SOCCER BY SOME.

Masters(Peak) Gangplank Main. I used to stream on Twitch; switched to Youtube on Nov. 19, 2020. Be sure to check my channel out, it helps a lot and it's tons of fun when people join the chat!

I'm not an OTP GP anymore, so you'll see me playing lots of champions and even different games!

Support me here:

YT channel:
Subscribe to me here!

I speak both English and Spanish!

About IRL stuff, I'm a musician and writer, more specifically a composer, producer, singer, screenwriter and lately learning the novel format.

My Music:
Listen to my music here, I mainly write orchestra, but I also do jazz, pop, covers and such
Here I upload smaller pieces, like improvisations, remixes and WIPS!

Social Media:
Facebook Page
Twitter

Legacy (Twitch):
I don't stream here anymore but there's clips and stuff

PROS / CONS OF GANGPLANK

PROS:

Strong level 1
Amazing power spikes at levels 7 and 13
Super good team-fighting
Out-scales many champions
Tons of extra gold
AoE damage and crits
Global pressure
He's a lot of fun!
Monster wave clear
Melts towers down
Anti-diver
Hard to gank if you're good
Cleanses everything with Blood Oranges (Except knockups)
Many cool skins!
You can show off your superior GP skills to other players
You: "Hey, you know, I'm a Gangplank Main"
Her: "Do you have a Million Mastery Points on him?"
You: "Yes"
Her: [Wets Panties]
(My GF approves).

CONS:

Needs items
Relatively hard to master
Lots of hard matchups
No dashes SMH (Unless you get one of the Mythics with dashes... beta).
One of the hardest champs to be good at consistently in the game
Very easy to gank if you suck
You have to play League to play Gangplank FeelsBad
Your botlane feeds SMH again
Super underpowered as of Pre-Season 2021, we'll have to wait for buffs

HIS ABILITIES

Hover over the Icons to see what each ability does

You will want to abuse this ability as much as you can, as it will allow you to move insanely fast and it also deals tons of damage. During trades, always try to hit the enemy with before destroying the next .

This ability (As of the latest nerf to 's Q) costs a lot of mana in the early game, because of this, you will want to have a on your inventory, this way you will be able to spam it more carelessly.

Abuse , try to use Q on the enemy champion only when you can proc the Rune, otherwise it's kind of a waste of mana.

Remember to prioritize CS'ing in case you're having a hard time in lane, use it to kill minions instead of poking.

Eat the oranges and you'll be OK. Don't be too precocious, time it right, use it to avoid death, heal up in lane if you can and if it's not a waste of mana.

I would suggest not to use it when you get CC'd unless it's life threatening, since the long cooldown gives the opponent quite a big window. You can totally use it to cleanse a stun during lane phase though, specially in trades, this tip I just gave you applies mostly to ganks, or against champions with really low cooldowns on their CC, like, say, , in which case you will want to save your W to avoid death, not to cleanse her CC.

Also, in fights that you think will be long, it's better to use it only in THE LAST CC that the enemy applies to you, save the CD until that, otherwise you'll be caught with it on cooldown and with no way to escape.

The kegs, the most important part of 's kit. The health of the s will decay every 2 seconds from level 1 to 6, once you reach level 7, the decay rate drops to 1 second and at level 13, it will decay every 0.5 seconds. This means reaches a strong power spike at these levels. Learn how to use the barrels at each level.

Levels 1 to 6
At these levels you should put barrels on you and stay around them to zone the enemy and prevent dangerous trades, every time you place a barrel, hit it once so it decays faster. Placing barrels on bushes can be a good strategy too, depending on the situation.

Levels 7 to 12
These are the good levels, you can pretty much trade safely here unless you're behind. You will not need to hit the barrels once you place them to make them tick faster. At this point you should memorize how fast they tick and how to time your AA's or your to destroy them.

Levels 13+
This is the ultimate power spike, by now you should have decent items and damage. You should DEFINITELY know how to time your Q's and AA's at this point, I will explain how to get started with Ghost Barrel combos later in another section of this Guide.

's Ultimate, during lane, you should always look at the map to see if Ulting somewhere can make a difference. It does tons of damage, and sometimes you can even use it to clear huge waves.
The order of the Upgrades can be found in the "Items" section.

KEYSTONE CHOICES

Super basic and intuitive. After 4 seconds upon entering and continuing combat, your next basic attack becomes empowered and will deal more damage, heal you and grant you permanent bonus health. Your Q applies this, this is why this rune works so well with Gangplank. Mostly, you take this rune because of how squishy Gangplank is —he's got one of the lowest, if not the lowest HP scaling of any fighter—, and because some times the enemy TopLaner is just too scary to run anything else. However, some matchups do not require for you to have the sustain and the damage this rune offers, so there'll be more viable options below.

This rune has super good synergy with .

Although is almost always a good idea, some times you don't need the sustain or the late-game bonus health it provides. Some times the enemy team has such a squishy composition, or you have such high kill pressure by composition that you will love running this rune.

This rune works specially well with AP Gangplank, specially with .

Technically . You stack Adaptive Force as long as you keep fighting, up to a cap of 12 stacks, in which you start healing by 9%. Some people don't like this rune because everyone thinks GP is just about blowing up s (spoiler: they're wrong). But once you learn how to do more than just that, you realize it is actually pretty ok. If you're not looking for burst damage and instead you want to go for a DPS build or you're playing against a tankier enemy, in which case you'll probably have to fight for longer periods of time, this works well! Some times I even run it on Crit. Builds because idk, I just feel like it.

Specially good with , since it now works similar to the rune by stacking up to 30% more base AD; and Bruiser Builds.

I have yet to try this. I'll add a description if I find it viable after a bit of testing.

SECONDARY RUNES

RESOLVE TREE

Only good option here, also, it feels really nice to use it.

You'll be more resilient after a small amount of time, it's nice.

An option to . You will need this to survive some matchups.

As another option, you can pick this instead if you feel like you're gonna get poked hard, but I've almost never used it on GP so I'm not entirely sure of it's effectiveness.

Revitalize isn't going to make your W heal insane, in fact, the difference is not even noticeable, so, pick this instead, there's a big difference between having it and not having it, and you can easily notice the bonus health by min 20.

A bit of tenacity, if you want you can take this for clutch escapes.

DOMINATION TREE

Increases damage to champions with immobilizing effects.

Stacking AD per takedown.

Noticeably decreases your Ultimate's cooldown.

Another option instead of . More sustain for harder lanes.

Same as before, an option instead of . Offers you more sustain for harder lanes.

PRECISION TREE

Nothing to say here. 20+ Gold on kills and health regen to survive. Pair it with your 's Plunder (+7) and (+25) and we're getting 57+ gold per kill!

We got robbed from all the viable Attack Speed options. This will help us quite a bit!

The standard of the three.

As an option to if you're facing a tankier enemy.

Don't care about Attack Speed? Get this instead.

Increases your mana regeneration on hit and restores mana on takedown. Pair it with and for maximum effect.

SORCERY TREE

More mana sustain in lane and increased mana regen later on. Pairing it with for even more increased mana!

5+ Haste at LV5 and 5+ Haste at LV8 (10 Total). In addition, takedowns will reduce the remaining cooldowns of your basic abilities by 20%.

If you fight a burst-heavy AP user.

Just a nice early-trading option.

Adaptive Force for late game.

INSPIRATION TREE

Free Cookies! Actually pretty strong early.

With almost all the Movement Speed items gone, this is a good choice.

Instant restorations for clutch saves.

Just for the 10+ Haste on abilities and spells.

MYTHICS (Coming Soon)

Fighter Mythics

Coming Soon.

Assassin Mythics

Coming Soon.

ADC Mythics

Coming Soon.

Ability Power Mythics

Coming Soon.

ITEMIZATION (Coming Soon)

Coming Soon.

CRITICAL STRIKE ITEMS

Coming Soon.

AD ITEMS

Coming Soon.

RESISTANCE ITEMS

Coming Soon.

AP ITEMS

Coming Soon.

LANE (Needs Update)

Laning Phase against certain champions is explained in the "Threats" section, but these are some of the basics basics:

GENERAL:
- Never use triple combos, it is not worth it, since the cooldowns aren't exactly short, you're basically giving your enemy a wide window in which you can't zone them out or escape with barrels if need be.
- Always keep a up in the wave to zone the enemy, again, to do this you will need barrels up, and triple combos will leave you out of barrels.
- Always stay close to your to avoid all ins in the case of fighting heavy traders like , , , , etc...
- Be careful with your mana and use your properly.
- Always have a and/or a watching the river/s! And try to deep ward into the river or enemy jungle to track the Jungler and/or the Scuttler.
- Csing is very important at this point of the game, if you can't kill, don't try to force it!
- Watch lanes once you get !
- Prioritize safety over kills.

TOPLANE SPECIFICS:
- Use your bushes.
- Abuse your as much as possible, taking advantage of the abundance of melee matchups.
- At Level 1, when you reach the lane, instead of wasting your on the first Creep, try to trade with the enemy with it, you can out-trade almost anyone at this point.
This would be the order of events:
- - go away to CS the first 3 Minions, already created an advantage (Works against most melees, specially a without and )
- During the early stages of the Laning Phase, there's this very powerful thing you can do where you build up your wave, and when you have tons of minions, you crash the wave into the enemy tower and harass the enemy under it, timing the turret shots to Q them without getting hit and creating an insane hp advantage, as well as making them lose creeps and also creating an opportunity to dive, in order to do this, you need to be very aware of the enemy Jungler's position!

MIDLANE SPECIFICS:
- Safety above anything else.
- Use Kegs as bait and blow them up on them but don't go in just after, this is not the same as the Toplane, they're not melee.
- Don't try to abuse your on them, but do try and test them, who knows, they might actually suck at their champion.
- The midlane has the most ganking options, be mindful of this.
- The enemy will try to roam often, taking advantage of your early uselessness in this matter, call for mias all the time.

ITEMIZATION TIPS:
- Do not delay your Core Items if you're having a hard time, it will only give you an even harder time, just try to get and as quick as possible.
- Look at the Items tab above for options!

MIDGAME (Needs Update)

At mid game there are plenty of things you can do, but mainly you can rotate between these decisions:

- Split
- Shove/Farm side lanes then group
- Steal enemy camps if ahead
- Secure objectives with your team
- Group up if you have a hard initiator
- Keep splitting and shoving side lanes then grouping

These depend on the situation you find yourself in.

It is very important to try reaching level 13 at this point

Remember to decide which lane to push according to your status, if it's up, push the lane contrary to the objective you're aiming for, if it's down, push the lane closer to it.

This does not apply if you run /, in this case just push the lane closer to the objective.

ENDGAME (Needs Update)

Don't be a puss and FIGHT!

A single combo does the trick at this point, works better when you decide to go full aram with your teammates and siege the base.
A single ghost barrel on the enemy marksman/mage while sieging is cooler though.

The same works while defending, you are a pretty good anti-siege champion, the only way they could siege effectively against you is with .

WARDING (Needs Update)

-Control Wards are RED
-Warding Totems are YELLOW

Overall these are good Warding Spots.

TOPLANE:

BLUE SIDE

Note: Always put the control ward as deep as possible into the river, in the corner of the bush, to maximize vision.

RED SIDE

Always put an "Anti-Invade Ward" at the start of the game before you go to lane to help out your Jungler.

MIDLANE:

BLUE SIDE

Note: The reason to put the Control Wards in that place is to keep it hidden more efficiently while also providing good strategic vision.

RED SIDE

Note: Just an inverted version of the Blue Side.

TRICKS (Needs Update)

GHOST BARRELS

First off, enable the QuickCast option in the Hotkeys menu.

Note that you usually do not want to have EVERY single key on Quickcast, to only enable the desired keys into Quickcast, use this arrow below the specific key.

The easiest way to get started is, obviously at the Practice Tool, this is the way to learn and doing it:

Place a Powder Keg far from you, how far? Further than Q range, between Q range and E max range.
Use Parrrley on it from outside of Q range. This way Gangplank will walk into range to activate the ability.
As soon as the Parrrley animation starts, you put the next Powder Keg and that's it!
Repeat until learned.

EXAMPLE WITHOUT QUICKCAST

EXAMPLE WITH QUICKCAST

WAYS TO USE THE GHOST BARREL

TO THE SIDE, THE COMMON ONE
This is effective when used in the early levels in the Toplane, just put the first in a lane bush and wait for the enemy to go for a CS. Although I just rather go the normal way and put a barrel on me and blow it up with an AA when the enemy comes near.

TO EXTEND THE RANGE, THE HARD ONE
The enemy AD is escaping? He is close but just NOT QUITE close enough for you to do a normal combo? Do this.

WHEN YOU HAVE A BARREL CLOSE AND YOU NEED ONE ON YOU ASAP
When Riven-Stuff happens and you need a barrel on you ASAP but you put the barrel away from you thinking that the enemy would not just engage (Or maybe just to surprise).

MELTING TOWERS WITH TRIPLE PASSIVE COMBO

You are an amazing tower-melter, use your as much as possible when hitting a tower.

To do this, you try resetting the CD by blowing up Kegs, ideally you want to combine this trick by clearing up the upcoming enemy wave.

You want to combine these things with / so you take as much advantage of your resources as possible.

This is how to do the tripple passive combo:

Use your first Trial By Fire if it's already up, if it's not up, place a Powder Keg and hit the turret with Sheen.
If no minion wave is coming, you can reset your passive and hit the turret with it, if a minion wave IS coming, place a second Powder Keg.
Blow the Powder Keg and hit the turret IN BETWEEN the explosions, your Trial By Fire will reset just after you hit the turret and you will now have it up again.
Hit again with Trial By Fire.

Only use your to activate if you're safe from ganks or the enemy laner.

EXAMPLE

EXAMPLE WITH WAVE

YOU CAN APPLY THIS TO FIGHTS AS WELL, AS SEEN IN THE FOLLOWING CLIP OF ME DESTROYING A MORDEKAISER WITH A DOUBLE-PASSIVE COMBO/color]

ESCAPING KNOCKUPS AND OTHER W THINGS

You cannot use to remove knockups, but you can use it in the air and afterwards before you land to get away!

You can use to activate in a fight while taking advantage of the cleanse.

's heal has a small delay, learn this cast-time to know how to perfectly time the cleanse or to not die before you use it SMH.

(MORE TO COME)
...

Future Additions

Some day I will add Wave Management and Jungle Tracking sections in here, as well as Visual Support and different specific scenarios a Gangplank must know how to react to.

Have fun.

MATCHUP VIDS COMING SOON!