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Gangplank Build Guide by Atlascrower

Top Oh Captain my Captain!

Top Oh Captain my Captain!

Updated on October 14, 2023
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League of Legends Build Guide Author Atlascrower Build Guide By Atlascrower 75 16 198,205 Views 25 Comments
75 16 198,205 Views 25 Comments League of Legends Build Guide Author Atlascrower Gangplank Build Guide By Atlascrower Updated on October 14, 2023
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Runes: Capitalism

1 2 3
Inspiration
First Strike
Magical Footwear
Biscuit Delivery
Cosmic Insight

Sorcery
Manaflow Band
Transcendence
Bonus:

+8 Ability Haste
+9 Adaptive (5.4 AD or 9 AP)
+6 Armor

Spells:

1 2 3
Common Set (Most games)
LoL Summoner Spell: Flash

Flash

LoL Summoner Spell: Teleport

Teleport

Threats & Synergies

Threats Synergies
Extreme Major Even Minor Tiny
Show All
None Low Ok Strong Ideal
Extreme Threats
Ideal Synergies
Synergies
Ideal Strong Ok Low None

Champion Build Guide

Oh Captain my Captain!

By Atlascrower
Introduction
Hi Guys,
my name is Atlascrower. I was a Gangplank-onetrick on EUW and still like him, although I lane-swapped. I play League since Bard got released in Season 5. Today, i want to tell you some about my thoughts around Gangplank, the Saltwater Scourge. We will start with a short summary in pros & cons, then get to raw data such as items & runes and end with actual gameplay information!
Pros / Cons
So first, i want to talk with you about Gangplanks Pro´s and Con´s:
Pro´s
+Very high Damage potential
+Strong Slows
+Global Ultimate
+Free QSS with Remove Scurvy
+Strong Lategame
+Great Teamfight (One man army potential)
+Nice Waveclear/AoE with Powder Keg
+Gets a lot of Money

Con´s
+No Gapcloser
+No Hard-CC
+Squishy
+Has to scale (weaker earlygame)
+High Cooldowns: Remove Scurvy and Cannon Barrage
+Hard-to-Master

As you can see, Gangplank may have the potential to get insane, carry teamfights and the game, but you need to play well for that. You will need some time to master GP. The path may be hard, but the reward is more than enough to learn him.
Summoner Spells


Flash is the best Summoner Spell in the Game, also it fits perfectly into Gangplank´s Kit, because he needs the Gapcloser.


You choose TP to have the Ability to splitpush later and minimize your lost farm after you recalled. It also enables you to push sidelanes and tp to important objectives if you need to.


You can also take Exhaust vs very aggressive Lanes, like Riven, but u usually dont pick it.


If you want to play really aggressive, take this, but tp outvalues ignite.
Runes
Main Path: Capitalistic CEO

First Strike: Its all about the Money. You get a nice amount of gold after you procc it and get to trade a bit. The increased damage is also worthy as you want to deal as much as you can. Parrrley or the barrels trigger it instantly as ranged abilities, perfect for GP against the usual toplaners.

Magical Footwear: Free tier 1 boots (in better) after 12 minutes, earlier if you get a solokill or assists with your ult. Also saves you some money as you dont have to buy them.

Biscuit Delivery: They give you some additional mana after usage additionaly to the hp & mana regeneration. Very good for you at the earlygame.

Future's Market: Buying some important items when you lack of gold? Yes, definetely nice. But dont overuse it, as you have to pay the dept.

Cosmic Insight: Lower cooldowns, especially on flash and teleport. Very good for you as you are immobile without flash.

Time Warp Tonic: Was a good option, kinda nerfed too hard. Only usable with the Corrupting Potion.

Main Path(Grasp-plank):

Grasp of the Undying: Procs with every Q, you get the Melee-Bonus stacking health, it deals some damage and heals you, very nice to survive and poke.

Demolish: You deal extra-damage to turrets if you trigger it, which also values in gold, if you destroy some plates.

Font of Life: The other option to demolish, you can heal your teammates if you place your R well onto the enemies, or later barrels in teamfights. Usually you go for demolish, its just an option.

Bone Plating: Bone Plating will reduce so much Damage early, you are able to survive better against burst combos within the Laning-Phase.

Second Wind: Choose this one, if you play vs some ranged or DoT-Matchups, like Teemo, or Singed.

Conditioning: For matchups with enemies which cant pressure you early, like tanks. Additional resistances are great.

Overgrowth: You farm with GP everytime, so Overgrowth will scale well and increase your max hp by a decent amount.


Second Path:

You either take the inspiration path with Biscuit Delivery and Magical Footwear/ Cosmic Insight or opt in for these 2 different secondary paths:

Sorcerer:

Manaflow Band: Your Q gives +25 Mana every cast while manaflow is up, it is much better to sustain early with Manaflow Band. It is easy to stack, you would poke with your Q anyway. The Regeneration is also nice for some Extra-Q´s/W´s.

Transcendence: It gives ability haste at level 5 & 8 + a little cooldown reset on kills at level 11.

Gathering Storm: Some scaling AD with a scaling Champion is pretty nice.

Scorch: If you want more Poke-Damage with your Q against some Enemies(Dont take this against Maokai, for example).

Domination:

Taste of Blood: Heal additionally when you poke.

Ultimate Hunter: More ults, more value as it is strong!
Skill Sequence
-> -> -> ->

Trial By Fire: Trial by Fire is a nice passive. It has a lot of True-Damage, refreshed by GP´s E. This Aa´s can hurt a lot, also on Turrets. A little speedbuff is nice for duels or escaping after a short burst. Scales well with AD and crit.

Cannon Barrage: Skill your Ultimate whenever you are able to.

Parrrley: You max your Q first to get the better Gold/Serpents-Generation and a cheaper manacost. Also, your poke gets better.

Powder Keg: The Damage, quantity and slow increases just insane with Skill points, thats why we max it second. We also need the lower cooldown, to get more Barrels in less time. The Decay Rate of the Barrels is reduced at Level 7 and 13. After you reached Lvl 13, you can do very much with you Barrels in such a short Time!

Remove Scurvy: It is a nice Tool, but costs too much Mana. Also the Cooldown at Max-rank is very high with 14 seconds, max it last. Its fine, because you heal a part of missing health, not only a flat amount.
Items
Start:

Corrupting Potion: Corrupting Potion as common start to sustain through the laning phase.

Doran's Blade: You can opt in to buy it when u think of dueling the enemy easy at the early levels (1,2)

Doran's Shield: An option if you dont want corrupting potion against Teemo or Singed.

1.Recall:

Sheen: Sheen gives you a lot of Damage, especially with your Q, just godlike for GP.

Cull: The Gold-Item option. Pretty nice, you farm anyway most of the time. Buy it when you have enough money apart from sheen. (Otherwise, long swords).

Control Ward: Control Wards are nice, as GP has no Gap-Closer. Vision can prevent you from dieing, if you recognize enemy Ganks/Roams early.

Core-Items:

Essence Reaver: Relatively cheap crit sheen item, oneshots waves with Q-E, good for your generation of gold & silver serpents, infinite mana while laning. Good first item.

Trinity Force: Trinity is a great powerspike when you dont want to get essence reaver. It gives GP everything he needs and you can oneshot Caster-minions with 1 Q-Barrel, again, nice for your Gold/Serpents-Generation. But only buy it when u need the extra-Duel power and health, as the build path after it falls off due to not having a crit mythic.

Boots:

Ionian Boots of Lucidity: CDR is one of the best stats for Gp, you usually want these boots.

Boots of Swiftness: Swiftness to get faster and use the nice slow-resistance. The usual option vs Gwen if you want to run from her.

Plated Steelcaps: Ninja-Tabis vs High-AD-Teams or a hard AD-AA-Lane ( Wukong, Riven).

Mercury's Treads: Mercs for tons of CC or an AP-heavy enemy team. Usually not needed often as you have your W spell.

Mythic Items:

Navori Flickerblade: A good mythic synergizing well with GP. Damage, cooldown, crit, everything you need. Extra spell damage scales well with your Q-E (AND R), and you get more spells on attacks (good utility)! Also, oneshots melee minions with Q-E crits.

Infinity Edge: IE gives huge AD, a Crit damage bonus and 20% Crit-Chance, you can Oneshot Melee-Minions with Barrel-Crits and deal insane Damage to your Enemies.

Following Items:

The Collector: Damage, crit, armorpen. Everything synergises well with your kit, with an execute on top (Also works with your ultimate). Very good.

Mortal Reminder/ Lord Dominik's Regards: The percentage armorpen crit items. Which one you need depends if you need wounds against enemy healing or not.

Bloodthirster: Huge amount of AD including the passive, makes an opener barrelcombo even stronger.

Situational:

Immortal Shieldbow: Defensively oriented Crit item which functions well against enemy burst, gives you a bit more time until you would die.

Maw of Malmortius: Maw is better vs some AP-Assassins/Executes(Veigar-R, for example). It gives a Bunch of AD, too, and some CDR.

Guardian Angel: Use this vs AD-Assassins or Execute-Champions like Zed or Riven.

Lethality:

Serpent's Fang: Against high shield value enemy compositions. Iverns, lulus etc. will have a harder time protecting against you.

Axiom Arc: More ults with successfull kills & catches, decent. Gives nice stats. But only buy it after collector (As the refund passive scales with lethality).

Edge of Night: Defensive oriented lethality item. The health reduces your Lord Dominiks passive value, though.

Consumables:

Elixir of Wrath: The best Potion for Gangplank. Gives some AD and you can heal with physical Damage.

Control Ward: Everytime before a big objective, buy Control Wards if possible, Vision is too important.


Note: You can easily SELL your boots to get a 6th item in the lategame! Dont exceed crit then, if you have it at 100% already.
Barrel Combos
Double-Barrel:

Place both Barrels, then Q the first one.


Fast Double-Barrel:

Q the first barrel, then place the second. You need to Q on max range, otherwise it wont work.


Triple-Barrel:

Place two Barrels, Q the first, then place the third.


Flash-Triple-Barrel:

The hardest Barrel-Combo. If you need more range, place 2 Barrels far away, Q the first, flash directly after Q'ing and place the third one.


Pentagram:

Just for Fun :)

Early-Game / Laning-Phase
You priority should be set on farming, but you are able to poke and harass your enemy solidly while doing it. You use your Q to poke the enemy to trigger First Strike or Grasp of the Undying. It is only worth using Parrrley to kill minions, if you have skilled it with at least 3 points or have to safe a minion last-hit. Your Barrels can keep enemies on distance, sometimes you are able to last-hit a bunch of minions with your Q-Barrel. GP isnt that weak early, but you have to know what you are doing to win and what kind of trades/duels you can take. If you get to autoattack an enemy when your passive is up, you highly increase the trade damage you deal to them!

After you've got Sheen, your Lane will automatically become more comfortable. You are able to poke better and last hit well with your Q-E.

The Essence Reaver/ Trinity Force gives a great Powerspike, you are able to duel Enemies pretty good and you can oneshot Caster-Minions with one Q-Barrel.
Mid-/Lategame
Gangplank has nice waveclear with his Powder Keg and his passive + sheen damages turrets respectively, thats why you can splitpush easy with him. While you split, you can support your Team with your Ultimate. Your barrels dont give vision though, so you need to cover the sidelane with wards.

GP can perform very well in teamfights. If you have a frontline, its even easier (as you are a damage dealer which wants to carry the fight with well placed barrel combos). Cannon Barrage is also a nice engage tool for TF´s. It can slow and zone enemies hard, that makes it easier to engage the opponents to Ace them. Your Barrels deal huge AoE-Damage and can oneshot Squishys, very nice to carry the Teamfight as One-Man-Army. If you should get CC´d and/or All-In´d, just use Remove Scurvy, but you have to time it well, depending on the enemy followup CC.

In my opinion, Gangplank is a better Teamfight-Champion as a Splitpush-Champion, but you can play both Styles. Especially if you reached Lvl 13, you dont want to be missing in fights, your Barrels will be insanely useful due to the low charge timer.
~Fin~
So, this is the end, my fellow friend, i hope you enjoyed to read my guide about Gangplank and have an easier time learning him with it.

Have a nice day at the Slaughterdocks, Captain!
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