Hi,
In this guide I will show you how to play the funnest champ in the league.
I know some people like to play gangplank but do bad with him and they will eventually stop playing him.

The power of gangplank comes from the fact that he can outfarm anyone else. He is not easy to play and not doing it right can make you useless.

Play him right and your enemies will fear the mighty pirate.

Lots of people rely purely on his ability to do big damage "if he crits". So they stack critical strike. I find this is the wrong way of playing him, as you will be relying only on chance. I'm not saying that Critical strike is bad but I'm saying there is a lot more to gangplank than that. Of course I will use critical strike but not as my main source of damage.

Edit:
With the new masteries, I find in offense too many good things for gangplank. gives him an incredible offensive power even if he build tanky.
That is why I go 24 points in offense.

6 points in defense will give him an extra 6 armor and magic resist. will help him in early laning.

The mana regeneration runes will give you good regeneration, and if you know how to manage your mana you won't need any mana item. I took the /lvl runes because they will equalized the flat ones at level 6.

The armor penetration will greatly increase your damage output. You get more damage from arpen than from crit strike, because armor pen apply on every attack and every parrrley, as for crit chance, you will be counting on luck.

Cooldown reduction: Is good for lower cooldowns on your smpells it might save your life or get you a kill.

HP Quintenessenses are for early survivability. Allow you to engage better in early lane battles especially that you have a good early damage
Other good Quints are the Movement speed. A fast gangplank is a deadly gangplank.
You can also take the armor pen.


Another way of doing runes are taking full Critical chance runes you will have approximately 25% crit at start. This is a lot of fun especially early game during the laning phase. But you will be missing some important utilities from other runes.

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Very good chase/escape spell.
The ++ combo is called "Nice try see you later"
You can get out of any situation and let you chase a wounded enemy for that famous headshot.

Ghost is used for travling. if you want to get somewhere fast (teamfight is happening without you or to protect a turret dont be afraid to use it




I like ignite for more damage and reduced healing. very usefull for getting kills.

Other good summoners:


Well flash is powerfull on anyone. So if you are a flash addict you can take it. Needs no explanation


For shutting down heavy AD champ. Situational.

Gangplank's basic attacks apply a poison for 3 seconds that deals 4 - 21 magic damage per second and slows the target by 7%. This can be stacked up to 3 times.

• The poison is powerful, not to be underestimated
• The slow will make you stick to your enemies very good for chasing
• The more you attack your enemy the more he is slowed (Up to 21%)
• Apply when you use

Gangplank takes aim and shoots an enemy with his pistol, dealing damage. If it kills it, he gains extra Gold. This ability can critically strike and applies on-hit effects.

Cooldown: 5 seconds.
Range: 625.
Cost: 40 / 45 / 50 / 55 / 60 mana.
Physical Damage: 20 / 45 / 70 / 95 / 120 (+1.0 per attack damage).
Extra Gold: 4 / 6 / 8 / 10 / 12 .

• Gangplank main ability and what makes him fun.
• Scales with Attack damage.
• This ability is a good nuke.
• It can crit and if it does the damage output will surprise you.
• Cannot be dodged and is unaffected by blinds.
• Apply on-hit-effects like
• Now apply
• Use it to chase or escape someone from distance(When the passive proc he will be slowed)
• This is why gangplank can outfarm anyone. DO not underetimate the extra gold it gives from a kill.
• Use it early game to last hit minions. Late game to nuke squishys.
• If you are comfortable with your mana harrass with it. Great harrasing tool especially since it apply the poison.
• When you are escaping someone make sure you hit him with it so he will be slowed

Gangplank consumes a large quantity of citrus fruit, which removes all crowd control effects on him and heals him.

Cost: 65 mana.
Cooldown: 30 / 27 / 24 / 21 / 18 seconds.
Heal: 80 / 150 / 220 / 290 / 360 (+1.0 per ability power).

• The best anti-CC ability.
• Very good heal. If you are sure you won't be stunned for the next 20 second use it as a heal.
• Can be used even to clear suppression from and
• Be smart when to use it. Don't waste it early and get killed.
• When you where young didn't your mom tell you "An apple a day keep the doctor away"? Gangplank proved it works with oranges

Passive: Gangplank's Attack damage is increased by 8 / 10 / 12 / 14 / 16 and his movement speed is increased by 3 / 4 / 5 / 6 / 7%.

Active: Gangplank fires into the air, disabling his passive boost but inspiring himself to gain 20 / 28 / 36 / 44 / 52 Attack Damage and 14 / 18 / 22 / 26 / 30 % Movement Speed, with nearby allied champions receiving half that amount, for 6 seconds.

Cooldown 25seconds
Cost 60mana
Range 575

• At level 5 = free BF sword and a lot of movement speed
• Great AOE support ability. It buffs your teams attack damage and movement speed
• Always use it in teamfights or when pushing a tower.
• Use it when you or your teammate is escaping a gank. The movement speed will get you out alive.

Gangplank signals his ship to fire upon target area for 7 seconds. Each cannonball deals damage. Enemies caught in the area of this ability are slowed for 1.25 seconds, duration refreshing if one stays in the area.

Magic Damage: 65 / 110 / 155 (+0.2 per ability power).
Slow: 15 / 20 / 25 %.
Cooldown: 120 seconds
Cost: 100 mana.
Range: Global.
Area of Effect: 575 (estimate).
Cannonball Area of Effect: 275.
Cannonballs: 25.

• AOE slow
• Can be used anywhere on the map
• Keep an eye on the map and use it to help teammates win small fights
• When you engage a 1v1 fight use it. The damage will help you and the slow is great in case you want to escape/chase
• Always use it in teamfights
• The cannonballs are random but you will hit 90% of times.
• Can be used to clear a huge minion wave in case you are sure you will not need it in the next 2 minutes.
• If a tower is unprotected and enemies are attacking it, use it. It will Damage them, slow them and clear minions around them making them vulnerable to tower hits. Great tower defender.
• You can use it if you are chasing someone for slowing him But dont waste it unless you are sure it will help.
• Paying attention to low health enemies on the map can land you a surprise kill.
• You can use it when pushing a tower, but be careful. If it hits an enemy champ you will attract tower aggro.
• Can be used to steal Buffs or Baron. It's actually funny when that happens.

I like to Start with for early game fights the big boost on attack damage and movement speed for all your team can lend you early kills

if there is no early game fights then you can start with to start your farming early
Max First as this is your main damage/Farming ability.

After the rework I found that the buff from is strong so I max it second

Get 1 point in for CC and an early heal

Get a point in whenever possible.

If you found yourself having trouble laning, or you are harassed too much get another point in for better laning.

>>>

I like to start with for early mobility advantage on my enemy since you are melee, Boots will help you get in range to last hit minions and get out quickly, also for an early chase/escape in case you had a small fight in your lane.


Another way of starting is with for longer and safer early laning. And gangplank need to stay in his lane for as much as possible.



If the enemy team has too much CC or magic damage. will get you out of any CC but has a long cooldown and does not give you magic resistance. So even with you still need to highly consider

You will be attacking a lot. So AS is a very good choice

Cooldown reduction works great on Gangplank for more Parrrley and cannonballs.


Getting an early Philosopher stone will make your laning phase 10 times easier. Great HP and Mana regen for staying in your lane and farming forever. Also the Gold /10 Helps your farming

If you like to have more early game damage this item Procs when you use . It will double the Bonus damage you get on it so it will hit stronger for great early game damage.
Can later be turned into





Now you should rush Infinity edge. This item is the best item on gangplank by far. Gives you incredible amount of damage output.
More attack damage, more critical strike chance, and your critical strikes will hit like a truck. What more do you want?
It's better to get first, but if you are forced to go back to base earlier get or if you can't afford a BF sword first



After Get

. This item gives you everything you need. Including an extra, slow movement speed, double damage proc. Great for everything.
If you decide to get get directly after for huge damage and anti-armor boost.



after you got your infinity edge If you want to build a get a . The Critical strike attack speed and movement speed are good for it's price.

Now you decide either you upgrade your to or you get other items first and upgrade it later.


Huge boost to your Critical strike, attack speed and movement speed.

A Good alternative to is


Armor penetration, Critical strike chance and cooldown reduction. The active is great also for more movement speed and and attack speed. If you decide to go with this get early for the gold regen

Do not get both and at this time. Get only one of them now, and if you want you can get the second after getting some other items first.


Gives you damage,a lot of health for more survivability and the on-hit-effect slow to chase. The slow also apply on .


One of the most under-used item. More armor for survivability and more criticical strike chance. The HP to damage conversion gives you a nice boost to your Attack damage. Works great with since frozen mallet gives you lots of HP.


Late Game item:


If the enemy team has too much armor. Get a last whisper and start laughing.





This item gives you the highest amount of attack damage making your auto-attack and your a lot stronger. The life steal is also good for staying in the fight and it apply on making you regenerate health every time you use parrrley





Having trouble with magic damage? Get . not only you are protected from casters but you have 1 more anti-CC bubble. No more stoping the pirate from his bounty.

Is great for countering a high physical damage team. the Burning passive gives you a boost to your damage (since you are melee) armor and HP for more defense. Also if you got the HP from sunfire cape will boost your attack damage even more.


Get and if you are losing or a little weaker than your enemies. They are great for a small comeback power.

This is the most important phase. It will make or break your game.

All you want to do in the early game is farm. Farm farm farm farm and farm.
Gangplank power is that he can outfarm anyone with the extra gold he get from .
A good farm early game will allow you to carry your team late game.
With your great early game damage you can take a solo lane easily.

Concentrate on last hitting minions. And use your to last hit minion every time it is up. Do not play very aggressively, sometimes being aggressive will pay out but lots of time you are just wasting minions.
Do not use it to harass the enemy, The early damage can be good if it crits, but farming with it is more important. And we all know that a pirate without gold is a fail one.

Of course if you engage in an early fight, you must do everything to try to win it.


Use this if you feel you are comfortable with your mana, and want to harass. it adds bonus damage to your and more movement speed for geting in and out quickly. But do not abuse it. Sometimes if your opponent get a little coky and over extend you can engage them with your great damage, speed and slow. You'll get an easy kill.


Is a very good Heal and cleanse. Helps you stay in the lane for longer.
Do not abuse it unless you have enough mana for it.
If your laning against a Hard CC (Stun) keep it to get out of that stun. A lot of times I make a mistake and use it for a heal and since the cooldown is a little long early my enemies will jump on me, stun me, and kill me without being able to do anything. So use it wisely.

When you are 6 keep an eye on the minimap, and if you see your teammates engaging in a small 2v2 or 1v1 fight use your to help them. It will turn the battle to your favor.

As said above this phase will make you or break you.
If you are having a problem farming (you are being zoned out or your lane opponents are sion/taric combo) Either ask for a lane swap or level some more levels to help you survive.

At this time you should at least have your level 2 boots and your Infinity edge.
If not you will have some trouble.
Your damage is now high so you can start playing aggressively.
Teamfights and pushes will start to happen.
Remember to when engaging and to for buffing your teammates.


When pushing a tower always use for that extra attack damge to your team.
Keep an eye for towers in danger and no one is there to protect them (either from a huge minion wave or an enemy champ ) and use your .

When there is nothing important happening find yourself a good minion wave and farm it. (It's never too late to farm)

This is when gangplank become the deadly pirate that he should be. And the fun begins.

At this stage you should have all the items you need to output a tremendous amount of damage.
Your will eat 2/3 of a squishy's HP.

Nothing more fun than seeing that big chunk of Red HP gone from someone and you know you can repeat it 2 seconds later. Give them the headshot of their lives.

You are now durable enough to escape almost any deadly situation. With your , and not only you remove any CC but you are moving too fast for them.

Also you will be able to stick to your target with your incredible movement speed and your slow

Your auto-attack will do high amount of damage at a fast rate. You can kill any squishy in a couple of right clicks and 1 or 2 .



Remember to achieve this level of power you must have a very good early and mid game. or else you will not be as effective as you should be.

• Always use in teamfights
• Always use

(Your enemies will be slowed by and take damage, your allies will be faster by and do more damage your chances of winning that fight just went up)

Do not go in first. Just run around and poke with your . When the tanks engage and the fight become a little messy, go in. Focus the squishy with your and autoattacks.
Keep an eye on your HP. When you feel that it's going down too much use and get out of the fight. But do not run away. Stay around using on anyone that you can reach. Use whenever it's up.

You are great for chasing and finishing low HP enemies that try to escape since you have more movement speed than them and you can headshot with your .

Note: I had some problems in uploading pictures, so i will do my best to describe without pictures for now, until I upload them. Sorry for that

After the changes Gangplank has become a very good jungler. Personally I prefer to Lane with gangplank but Jungleplank is very viable and powerful if your team needs one.




When you decide to jungle you will have a job to do, and you should do it. This apply on any jungler.
You can skip this section if you are experienced in jungling.

Always take smite no exeption

Some junglers do not need smite to clear the jungle. But what you should keep in mind that jungling is not only clearing the jungle from creeps. It has so much more.
Smite will allow you to:

• Faster clearing
• Counter Jungle
• Safer jungling (Protect you from counter-junglers)
• Make sure you get the last hit on Buffs, Dragon, Baron
• Steal the enemy buffs, Dragon, Baron
• Better push outside the jungle (fast kill on a minion especially the tank one)

It is a good idea to stand in the bush when fighting lizard or golem. That way your enemy can't surprise gank you unless they have a ward.
Try to use Smite to last hit unless you are sure you won't be disturbed.

Wards

Everyone should buy ward. But in low elo no one will (unless the few times where a support get one)
You are responsible of Dragon, Baron and buffs wards. keep them warded and you control the jungle).
The laners should buy their own wards to protect them from ganks, but if they don't and you have some change, get them one.

Get for Dragon and Baron to make sure you have full control over them.
Get for the buffs to know when the opposite jungler is getting them (especially if he is trying to steal yours. and you can go stop/steal it.

Buffs Timing

You must know when the buffs, dragon, baron will respawn. that way you can get them even before your enemy realize they are up.

The timings are:

• Blue/Red buff: 5 minutes
• Dragon : 6 minutes
• baron : 8 minutes

For example if you killed dragon at 21:15. Memorise (or easier you can write it in chat) that it will respawn at 27:15. so you write in the chat: Dragon: 27:15
in case you forget. you can Hold Z to see all the chat and scroll up to see the time.

Helping your lanes

If one of your lanes is having trouble, go help them.
Helping them consist of:

• Ganking : you help the lane kill their enemies.
• Protecting tower: In case they want to recall
• Summoner spell usage: if you can force the enemy to use their summoner spell, then you ally will have a better laning because a carry without his precious Flash or ghost can't farm/harrass peacefully.
• Even if you just appear from time to time, that way the enemy will know that you are nearby and will be afraid to lane too aggressively

Dragon and Baron
Controlling Dragon and Baron are very important. The gold you get from dragon and the buff from dragon helps you a lot in your road to wining.
So keep them warded, and try to kill them everytime possible.

Important: If the enemy team is killing them wait for your team to arrive before charging in. You'll end up giving them a kill, dragon and possibly a 5v4 push. So be smart when going in.

If your team is winning in teamfights, or some of the enemies are dead it is a good time to kill dragon/baron.
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Ok lets get into Gankplank



Masteries:
The 21/0/9 build works great (with one point in improved smite and extended buff duration)
Or you can even take the 15/0/15 (with 2 points in extended buff duration and 3 in movement speed) for better mana regen and ms at the cost of some damage output.

Runes:

Best runes for jungleplank are:

Red: 5 Armor penetration 4 attack speed
Yellow: 9 Armor
Blue: 9 Attack speed
Quints: 2 Armor penetration 1 attack speed

(you can even take the HP quints for safer but slower clearing)

Skill order

Same as above. Start with max first and get a point in at level 4

Items

Start with

Item order: --> --> --> --> RETURN TO YOUR NORMAL BUILD EXPLAINED ABOVE

Important:
At any time you return to base during the jungling phase:

• Make sure you have at least 1 HP pot
• Buy a ward even if you have to wait for 15 gold (but not more)

Route

I had some pictures ready for the route but there is some kind of problem with my connection and I'm not able to upload them for now. but will do it as soon as I can.



Make sure your team protects you.

Start at Wolves --> Wraith (smite the big one) --> double golems --> recall to base --> Blue Buff (Smite)--> wolves --> Wraith --> Red buff (smite) --> double golems --> GANK

You can spam everything because you will have blue buff.

Alternative route

Start with

Blue buff (ask for a leash and smite) --> wolves --> wraith --> red buff(smite) --> double golems --> GANK

I prefer the first route because it's safer and you have 2 items for the gank
The second one give you a faster gank.

Ganking

It is very easy to gank with Gankplank especially if you have the red buff in combination with your .

Look for an overextended lane. wait in the bushes for the right moment
Use --> hit him with (he is now slowed so you and your teammate can catch up --> auto attack and spam .

If you are level 6 use your behind him to slow his escape. Do not use it on top of him because you will be wasting half the range.

Do not use or unless you are sure you will get the kill.

If they Flash away don't be sad. A successfull gank is when you force them to use their summoner spell to escape not only to kill, remember that.

Use if they CC you or your HP is low.

Counter-Jungling

Gangplank is a good counter jungle because:

• He has a high early game damage
• High movement speed
• He has an unlimited slow. So they can't escape you in case you engage them and you can escape easily if they engage you. just hit him once and run
• Can't cc you coz of

How to counter jungle:

Start with

The ward is very important.
Move with your team and place the ward at the bush near their Wraith.
This ward let you catch the progress of your enemy jungler.

Start at your blue. Ask for a leash and smite it directly. You need to finish that camp fast.

Then move to the enemy double golems. Now you have to play it smart

1) If your enemy starts at Blue, you should see him get to wraith at this time. Finish the double golems and go to the bush near red. wait for the lizard to reach a little lower than half hp and engage him. if he stays to fight you should be able to kill him because you have bigger early damage than most of the junglers and the lizzard is also attacking him.
If he tries to run you can easily chase him with your slow.
If he flashes away finish his red lizard with some autoattacks and smite and run back to your jungle
Dont waste Ghost/Flash unless you will get the kill. keep them for escaping in case something goes wrong

2) If he starts at double golems you will see him go to the blue buff after he kills wraith.
You will have enough time to kill his red and return to your jungle.

Counter jungling is rewarding but risky since the enemy is closer to you than your allys so play it smart, and you have to completly understand your enemy jungler. Do not try to counter junglers like trundle or nunu. they are faster, they can get back to high HP fast, and you can't escape them.

Edit Soon changed to Soon (TM) because I have a lot of work during this period and i will not be able to work on videos.

Now that you learned how to be effective with Gangplank go grab the pirate and have the fun of your life.

Personally I think he he got a lot of love from RIOT and now is in a very good shape. So don't be afraid to try him.

Remember Pirates need gold and so does gangplank.

Any corrections, ideas, suggestions, feedback, criticism (good or bad) will be greatly appreciated.

Thank you for reading my guide
Regards
BigZ