Gangplank is generally that really obnoxious AD carry that goes around shooting people with his pistol with a crit for 1200. But what about his other abilities? He can't be good for just shooting. Sure his Raise Morale does give him a very nice AD/MS boost and that really does compliment his ability as an AD carry, but this guide is to a more refined Gangplank. Orange heal 1k anyone?

Pretty much standard caster masteries here. 9 in offence for the 15% spell penetration and 3% cooldown reduction.

10% less time dead, mana regen, 1 more gold/10, buff duration (very good with blue), movement speed, cooldwon reduction, and summoner spell cooldown reduction

Marks: 9x Insight - mostly for your ultimate and the magic damage proc of Lichbane. Helps deal early game damage and get that kill with your ultimate up top.

Seals: 9x Clarity - Spam q to farm extra gold. Mana regen = more q = more gold

Glyphs: 9x Celerity - Cooldown reduction per level really helps your end game especially if you can't get the Golem Buff. Allows you to spam Q every 2 seconds or so for a constant Lichbane hit.

Quintessences: 3x Potency - Early game ability power. Not so useful early game, but it's a nice boost for after Rabadons and Remove Scurvy is a 1.0 ratio allowing for a slightly larger heal

Good for chasing, escaping, and combined with Raise Morale and Remove Scurvy , you're one hard pirate to take down.

Extra tick damage, good for an early first blood and synergizes well with your Grog Soaked Blade for excellent DOT damage.

Gangplank's attacks apply a poison that deals 4-21 damage each second and reduces movement speed by 7% (slow stacks up to 4 times). Lasts 3 seconds.



Excellent passive for Gangplank. Honestly not quite as useful for LichPlank, but being able to keep the enemy slowed just enough for you to get off that last q without having to pop your ult for a low HP target.






Gangplank shoots a target unit for 20/45/70/95/120 plus 100% of his attack damage as physical damage. Gangplank gains 4/6/8/10/12 extra gold if Parrrley deals a killing blow. This ability can crit, applies Grog-Soaked Blade and applies on hit effects.

Cooldown 5 seconds

Cost 40/45/50/55/60 mana

Range 625




Farming tool, Harassing tool, Low cooldown. 3 second cooldown with 40% Cooldown reduction allows you to really spam this skill out especially once you have Sheen or Lichbane, and this is the skill that hurts. Being a ranged hit, as well as activating Sheen/Lichbane and using the proc, you can harass like there's no tomorrow.

Outside of farming champions, last hitting creeps gives you a ridiculous amount of gold. At level 5 you're getting almost 2 creeps worth of gold for last hitting with Q which allows you to outfarm anyone in the game (unless that someone is Corki with 100cs over you)





Consumes a large quantity of citrus fruit which clears any crowd control effects on him and heals him for 80/150/220/290/360 (+100% of ability power) health.

Cooldown 22/21/20/19/18 seconds

Cost 65 mana



Pros: He eats an oranage, it heals you, it removes all cc on you, 100% ability power ratio.
Cons: Long cooldown, passive goes away.

This is one of the skills that is a clincher. Since you'll be getting Lichbane and there is no way that your Q will be up all of the time, you'll need an extra skill to activate Sheen or Lichbane with for that 300-500 nuke. As well as being used to activate your items, it heals you for a ridiculous amount and removes CC from you. Try to use this intelligently though. Don't spam it for a heal if you're in a lane with a Blitzcrank, Taric, or anyone else with a reliable stun unless you absolutely need that heal.

lvl 5 10.8 second cooldown with 40% cooldown reduction






Passive: Gangplank gains 8/10/12/14/16 Attack Damage and 3/4/5/6/7% Movement Speed.

Active: Gangplank fires his pistol into the air, disabling his passive boost but increasing his Attack Damage by 10/14/18/22/26 and Movement Speed by 7/9/11/13/15% and nearby allied champions' Attack Damage and Movement Speed by half that amount for 7 seconds.

Cooldown 25 seconds

Cost 50/55/60/65/70 mana




For Lichplank, this skill is really just a free Aegis of the Legion damage buff and a Janna movement buff for your team ever few seconds. It helps add a little bit of oomph to your auto attacks and your Q, but I max this last just because it's not completely necessary for you. Another skill used in activating Lichbane and Sheen






Signals Gangplank's ship to fire upon an area for 8 seconds. Each cannonball deals 75/120/165 (+20% of ability power) damage and slows enemy units 25% for 1.25 seconds.

Cooldown 120/115/110 seconds

Cost 100 mana

Range 20000




Use this skill in EVERY team fight. Use in 1v1 fights. But never waste it because it has a really long cooldown. Even at 40% cooldown reduction, lvl 3 Cannon Barrage has a 66 second cooldown. If you must use this to farm, make sure it's a tower that you must save and you're far away. If you have to pick between a tower and a team fight, ult in the team fight definitely.

Once you have 400-600 AP, this skill will really start to hurt anyone who stays in there too long. I've ulted down a Caitlyn at baron from full hp. Using this in a teamfight doing a constant 250 damage per ball really adds up especially if the other team is extremely magic bulky. Very good with Amumu, Galio, Leona, and anyone else with a reliable AOE disable because the damage adding up is so insane

I max Parrley first because of the small damage buff it gives and it's amazing ability of giving Gangplank the extra gold he needs to farm a lot really early on.

I max Remove Scurvy next to reduce the cooldown on it and increase the amount of healing done. 10.8 second cleanse + heal is pretty OP i'd say. With 400 AP You're healing as much as a Soraka (760 heal).

Raise Morale is last just because it brings very little to Lichplank. It's Cooldown is too long and doesn't decrease with level and he just doesn't need attack damage.

Level Cannon Barrage whenever you can obviously. This deals a massive amount of damage (in general) But you have to have a little bit of luck with the RNG to get kills. Great for clearing creep waves in other lanes (Only if absolutely necessary). Using this in team fights really adds a lot of damage especially when you have your big items (Rabadons + Void staff)

Start with and

This is extremely important because your actually uses a lot of mana after extended use. You can build into either or . Only get Tear of the Goddess if you are having mana problems or are forced back early.

The upgrade from Sapphire Crystal to Sheen is 860. Sapphire Crystal to Tear is 595.

After Sheen get picking up as necessary. Now you can either choose to rush or you can start working on either or . Pick up Deathcap if you're farming very well or getting fed. Either one is fine, but you need SOME ability power if you want Lichbane to be effective at all.

Sometime between completing BOTH Rabadons and Void Staff you'll want to complete your Lichbane. By now your Parrrley should start hitting for a decent nuke.

If you're getting a lot of time to farm, you might want to consider picking up Tear of the Goddess sometime after you have one of your core items and continue to make that into an Archangels Staff .

If you're having trouble surviving in team fights even with a 600+ heal then you might consider picking up Rylai's before Archangels.

Possible build order:

+ to start

Try to get and on your trip back (1410) or at least get Sheen (860)

Farm up, get kills/asssits with your ultimate and try to get or . Complete your boots sometime in here and proceed to either one of three items: or or .

Complete your core, then you can either invest in defensive items, or keep going straight AP.

This is where Gangplank is his weakest, but sometimes his most feared stage. When people see Gangplank, they will automatically think, Oh crap he's going to crit 500 on me. This is fine, because it's not going to be true. And you won't have to rely on a crit to do 500 damage.

Use the laning phase to farm as much as possible. Last hitting with Parrrley is a must, but try to conserve enough mana to get a kill or escape certain death from an untimely gank. Keep your lane warded around lvl 4, and farm it up.

Try to avoid getting put in a lane against a strong caster, but rather someone that you can either lane peacefully against, or one that you can't be denied too badly.

Stay in lane as long as possible, but if you push the lane take the opportunity to go back and buy and start working on those important core items.

If you have 860 gold and your lane is pushed GO BACK NOW! Sheen will increase the damage on your Parrrley now and last hitting will be easier, harassment will hurt more, and you will be stronger!

This is where Gangplank is starting to get strong. Hopefully you're finishing at least Rabadons and Lichbane, and your ultimate has landed you a kill or a couple assists. Parrrley is going to start doing a lot of damage at this point, and you should be using this to your advantage by pressuring the enemy with constant harass. Make sure to last hit, but try to deny the enemy as much as possible.

If your team is in a strong position and you're winning your lane, it's time to start forcing fights over dragon. If this starts to break out, have your tank go in and start the fight. Once everyone is grouped up, it's time to pop that ultimate and wreak havoc. If you have Lichbane, your Parrrley (Q) will really hurt. If not, Q will still do a good bit of damage, and your ultimate will make up for the damage that your Q is currently lacking. Pop that one level of Raise Morale you picked up earlier, run in and Q and dodge back out. You are not bulky, you are not the AD carry. ALWAYS REMEMBER THIS

Having map awareness during this stage is crucial. Ganks are going to start to happen more frequently especially if your team has lost a tower sometime during this stage. Keep farming and stay safe

It's late game, you have your big items now hopefully. It's time to bring the hurt. You should now be forcing team fights over baron and dragon and be controlling the game. Parrrley should be hurting like a truck now because of the AP from your core with Lichbane. If you can kill one or 2 of the enemy team through a team fight or just being out of position, press your advantage and start pushing a tower. Unfortunately, because Parrley uses up your Lichbane activation, you only have 2 spells that you can use (outside of your ultimate) to pop to lich down a tower. I would only recommend using Raise Morale because it boosts the entire team, while using Remove Scurvy increases the risk of you dying because you don't have that CC cleanse and the heal.

Don't do anything rash, just keep pressing your advantage and play safe.

Now is where the fun begins. If the team fight is an early fight over dragon, wait for the tank(s) to initiate and then pop your ultimate. The slow and damage will really add up especially if the enemy team is spread out inside of the AOE there's a higher chance to deal damage to SOMEONE. Pop Raise Morale so the rest of your team will receive the damage and movespeed steroid and Q the closest target. If you can pop Q on a squishy that's great, but do not put yourself in danger to hit someone in the back of their team.

Keep dodging in and out popping Q's whenever it's off cooldown. If need be use Raise Morale (again if it's off CD) and retreat if you must, the MS steroid will really aid the retreat. Team fights are very important. Make sure to place your ultimate in the optimal spot (within an Amumu ult or something of the sort)

Because of your high AP Cannon Barrage hurt like a truck and a half. You shouldn't lose a team fight if you fight on the grounds of this rowdy pirate.

Lichbane Gangplank is really really fun to play. Instead of the really random 800 crits on the tank with 200 armor and a Thornmail (where you take about 300 damage in return) You can hit the tank for 800 in magic damage with nearly no recoil at all. This build is really just for fun, but it's definitely worth a try.