~Landlubber's Guide to Gangplank~

Yo. First off, I would like to point out that YES, I do not play in high level matches. Most of my matches are solo queue, only one of them premade. My win-loss is okay, but not as good as it could be. And though it says I've left once, it's a giant lie. A storm cut my internet. So, now that all of the things you could possibly flame me for are out of the way, why not get to what you want to see/flame me for?

My guide to Gangplank.

There are many things I have learned as Gangplank. The first of which is that AP is a sucky build on him, and more than likely always will be. With that in mind, please don't stray too far from the item and rune/mastery builds for those of you who don't like to stick to the norm. If you're so intent about playing a champion differently, you might want to take a look at either Teemo or Tristana, both of whom can effectively use AP or DPS.

Secondly? You can afford to be a wee bit reckless. Only a wee bit mind you. With your heal and crowd control cancel, you can tower dive effictively, or even run into a group of 3 champions to Parrrley a weak opponent, netting yourself a kill. Just be sure you don't get too low, and that you have both Heal and Flash up. Ultimate could readily replace flash as well, it's just more difficult and less reliable.

Thirdly? ALWAYS be in team fights. Use Raise Morale in team fights, especially near DPS heroes. Ultimate when the enemy gets grouped together or is trying to fall back to base and Parrrley the HELL out of those guys.

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1. Runes

Runes. The ever important awesomeness of LoL. You need to remember that though you can forgo having these specially stacked just for Gangplank, you'll kill twice as easily and be worth a lot more in team fights with these runes, in my opinion.

First off, the red runes. The more offensive runes tend to be the strongest of this bunch. And just as well, seeing as you'll be stacking one of the most important things for Gangplank...Malice. You want Malice Runes on Gangplank, stacked as high as can go. Crits work with Parrrley, which as you'll soon find out, is your best skill and main damage dealer. Why, I just played a game as Gangplank where I dealt almost half of Anivia's life in damage at just level 2 or 3 of Parrrley with a nice crit. So, the more it happens, the better.

Yellow runes...the defensive ones of the lot. Though weaker in general from the more damaged based counter-parts, they too have a decent Malice rune. Once again, stack those as high as possible. With full Malice runes in both Marks and Seals, you hould have around a +13.5% chance to crit with each hit. Not bad, right? Of course, if you feel as though the crit was fine with just Marks, I would like to suggest Evasion seals.

Can you guess what we'll use for Glyphs? That's right, we'll be using...Focus! What? I threw you for a loop there? All right, remember when I told you that Parrrley is the main damage dealer? Well, with all the Parrrley shots you'll be spamming, we want a lower cooldown. Less time for Parrrley=more last hits, which in turns amounts to more gold. That means more money to spend on more +damage items resulting in an even BIGGER Parrrley shot. Which is what you want. A lot.

Quintessence is a bit more flexible, I guess. I prefer +Crit% chance here, but I feel Quints of Avarice wouldn't hurt too much either. The use of +crit damage runes are a personal choice, really. It depends on what part of the game you're building for.

+Crit% Chance is best for early game/Zoobi's build. Zoobi's only has 60%-ish crit with more damage than mine, so the runes fix up his focus on damage over crit a bit. Not to say that it isn't good, this just makes it better.

+Crit% Damage is best for late game/my build. I originally scorned +Crit Damage% Runes, as you can see throughout most of this thread and it's replies, but my build already has a natural 100% crit, not even counting masteries. It'd be a waste to go anything else, unless your plan is to drop a crit item (Executioner's, more than likely).
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2. Summoner Spells/Masteries

Spells are, for the large part, VERY important on Gangplank. He has no real chase skills, or escape skills. With that said, let me tell you what NOT to grab on Gangplank.

Heal: You already have one, if you're so low that you absolutely NEED another heal, there's a problem my friend. More than likely you aren't spamming Parrrley enough.

Teleport: I had originally thought this was a waste. For sure, it isn't necessary either. However, with Gang's low pushing power you NEED to be at a tower to push as quickly as possible, or it just won't work. That said, I now consider Teleport viable.

Boost: You already have a crowd control canceller, so effectively you would be wasting a spell slot so you could get half the benefit. Good job. =.=

With that having been said, let me touch on the more important spells for Gangplank. They are Exhaust and Flash. Alternatively Flash can be replaced with Ghost, but get Flash if you have it.

Exhaust: Self explanatory. Early on, especially with my build, you're a horrible chaser. And you suck at running too. Solution? Exhaust them. If there's only one champion, exhaust that sucker and run away. If they're running from you, exhaust and pop and Parrrley while running up to them. This can even be used offensively next to the tower for those more dangerous tower divers. Slow them with this to let the tower get a few more potshots, possibly netting you a kill. At level 6 or above, combine it with your ultimate to pretty much lock them in a deathfield next to a turret that wants their soul.

Flash: Self explanatory. It allows for positioning, chasing, escaping...it's out and out useful. Does it need to be explained?

Ignite: One of the newest summoner spells in LoL. I feel it needs some consideration for the pure fact that it, like Smite, can help you early game...a lot. When combined with your natural passive poison and a good Parrrley crit, it can be a huge help for getting "the lucky ones". If you do try this, please, DON'T IMPROVE IT. The main point in improving it, if not the only point (I can't remember if CD is lowered) is for the extra 10AP. What're you going to do with that? Heal for an extra 10?

Smite: One of my favorite farming skills! I had originally thought it best to drop it, but after a build provided by Zoobi, I've found it's completely viable. With liberal use of Smite and Parrrley, as well as +gold runes and items you can actually work up an Infinity and a Frost Mallet by the 30 minute mark.

For my masteries, I have 21/0/9. I put every point I can into crit and damage plus masteries. I upgrade Exhaust, and get one point of the 2nd tier magic skill so I can get the 3rd tier skill for magic penetration. In fact, max every 3rd tier skill. Put three into the left hand 4th and 5th tier offensive branches and take the ultimate mastery.

For the utility tree, grab one point of Good Hands and 3 of preserverence. Put 4 more into awareness and the last one into the +1 gold per/10 second skill. Ta-da! You've got 'em all.

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3. Gangplank's Skills.

[Q] Parrrley. Pirate shoots a target dealing magical damage, if he kills it he gain extra gold.

This is, by far, your best skill. At level one it deals 30 damage and 80% attack damage combined as a ranged attack on target opponent. Each kill with it gives you +3 gold at level one. By the time you hit level 5, it deals 150 plus 80% attack damage and gives +11 gold per kill. It's low mana, about 50 or so at level one and it only increases by 5 per level.

So, what to do with it? Take it. Every chance you get, take Parrrley. Even level 1. It may SOUND weak, but it's very strong, even late game. Don't actively attack creeps unless it's on cooldown, instead aim for low life creeps and use it to kill them every 5.6-ish seconds (depends on if you took the cd runes like I said.) Use it to harass enemies if they get too close to creeps. With your first item (Meki Pendant), it will be spammable, especially at level one.



[W] Remove Scurvy. Consumes a large quantity of citrus fruit which clears any crowd control effects on him and heals him.

The next best skill of Gangplank. This, like Parrrley, is cheap. It's cooldown is slightly on the high side, but it's no big deal. With this you can stay in the lane harrassing and last hitting two to three times as long as you could without it.



[E] Raise Moral. Passive: Gangplank's attack and movement speed is increased. Active: Gangplank kills and allied minion, inspiring nearby Champions to receive Raise Morale's Passive benefits for 10 seconds.

Originally, I had put that this skill is to be taken last. Nix that, it's better to alternate with Remove Scurvy, giving this precedence. This skill has been buffed! YES! Now, you always have the passive. If you set the skill off, the buff doubles on you. Nice, right? It's still not better than Parrrley though. >:O



[R] Cannon Barrage. Gangplank signals his ship to fire upon an area for 10 seconds. Each cannonball deals 160/220/280 damage and slows enemy units 40%/55%/70% for 1.25 seconds.

Alright. First off, it says ten seconds in the Abilities tab under his Champion info. In the game, it says eight seconds. Rather than take the optimistic route, we're heading the other way and will assume it last 8 seconds. It targets a pretty large area and drops random cannonballs. To me, it's about as useful as it sounds...just barely. It's a mapwide ultimate, but the unreliability makes it best for herding enemy champions, splitting enemy champions apart from each other, slowing the enemy and finishing someone running to base by placing it in their way, forcing them to run through it or die. If you get in a head on fight with a DPS or a tank, use this...but only if they seem to be doing fine or are capable of running from you when they get low with Powerball, or some other speed enhancer.

Edit: This has been buffed/nerfed! The damage has been lowered, but the AoE is less random and more focused on the middle. Hurray!



Skills in Order:
1.Parrrley
2.Remove Scurvy
3.Raise Morale
4.Parrrley
5.Parrrley
6.Cannon Barrage
7.Parrrley
8.Raise Morale
9.Parrrley
10.Remove Scurvy
11.Cannon Barrage
12.Raise Morale
13.Remove Scurvy
14.Raise Morale
15.Remove Scurvy
16.Cannon Barrage
17.Raise Morale
18.Remove Scurvy

Edit: Alright, so the skill build has been switched up a bit. The heal IS nice, but it does promote a reckless style that often results in death. I've been known to get a bit greedy myself with the normal fragile heroes, but with Gangplank I get ridiculously greedy. =.=

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4. Builds:

Zoobi's Build (+Gold/DPS)

Philosopher's Stone
Avarice (12% Crit)
Avarice (12% Crit)
Avarice (12% Crit)
Boots of Swiftness
Infinity's Edge (20% Crit)
(Sell Avarice x1)Frozen Mallet
(Sell Avarice x1)Atma's Impaler (18% Crit)

Final Crit Chance: (12%+20%+18%=50%+11.5%=61.5%)

This, is Zoobi's build. All credit goes to him. I really like this build, but it has one weak point...it's weak. Well, early on it is. Later on you'll be the DPS freak, but definitely not early. I find that after about the 2nd Avarice, my crit chance is decent enough to make Parrrley prove a decent threat. I'm undecided on his choice of Boots. Though they had been my preferred boots because of my lack of chasing ability, he gets chasing ability as his second real "main"item.

This is the build I recommend for most. Especially newer players who'll find it hard to last hit with Parrrley (if that's even possible...it being hard that is).

Tibbers' Build:

Philosopher's Stone
Avarice (12% Crit)
Avarice (12% Crit)
Berzerker's Boots
Infinity Edge (20% Crit)
Frozen Mallet
Executioner's Calling (15% Crit)
(Sell PStone) Phantom Dancer (30% Crit)

Final Crit Chance: (12%+12%+20%+15%+30%=89% + 11.5%=100%)

The damage isn't as high as Zoobi's, so I guess you could call mine the weak one now. But the crit percent is higher and the build is cheaper overall, I believe. I'll look into pricing a bit later. The crit damage is nice and high even with the non-attack focus early level. You hit at about 500-600 which is freaking awesome. Gotta love Riot for buffing our beloved Parrrley.

Edit: For those of you who doubt this build, please see the attached picture. Running off of my build, I managed a 49/13/13 game and I didn't have the Bloodthirster until way late game when I sold off my Executioner's for it. I feel the need topoint this out for those of you who are like "where's the damage Tibbers?!" I already had about 25-35 kills before I got that sucker.
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End Notes:

This guide is far from finished. I will continue to play Gangplank for a long time, as he is incredibly fun for me. I would also like to ensure that the general populace of LoL is ready for the ninja onslaught, so you won't look so bad when we kick your ass (is a ninja fan). That being said, this guide will continue to be updated and changed as Gangplank is changed and new item builds become viable. If anyone has an item build they would like to post in a reply for me to try out, I'll test and do some comparisons to see what, if anything, might need changing in my build.

ALSO! Many thanks to Teran for unknowingly helping me by providing me with a basic template for this guide.

Sheen needs to be on his item list. Every Parrrley gets the bonus damage instantly added to it.

That is true...but a quick question?

...what would it be adding? Sheen increases damage with your AP points, something this build completely avoids. So, to throw in a sheen you would be doing maybe...+25 damage with Parrrley? If it were AP heavy, with a Zhanya's or Sorceror's Boots, then yeah...but AP hardly helps Gangplank. Unless your plan is to go in a roundabout way and use Sheen and AP Items to increase Parrrley's damage while also messing with his heal and ultimate? But if you go that way, his Crit bonus sucks, and lifesteal is no longer viable. :/

Sheen increases off Attack Power. Lichbane does AP. Sheen makes it so Parrrley hits like a truck.

Are you positive? That seems kind of backwards that an item which evolves into Lich Bane like that would work the opposite way. I always assumed it ran of AP; I usually play tanks myself, so I never really need Sheen or Lich Bane. One second, let me check.

Wow, you're completely right. I'll have to do some more testing to determine where to throw this in. I'm thinking it would be best after Bloodthirster, but it's much cheaper too, so it may fit in before it as well.

Its a pretty good item to get early as it will just get better and better as you level. And for every item you get that adds attack power it then doubles it for Parrrley. On top of that, Parrrley can crit and then double the bonus damage from Sheen, If I'm understanding how it works correctly in combination with Parrrley.

Let's go over this real quick:

Sheen adds 100% of your base attack to your damage. So other +damage items wouldn't be doubled. They'd still be painful when put in there though.

I'll do a bit of testing, but I think it should rock.

I'd like to try out getting another big damage item instead of Frozen Mallet, but it's simply a great item and you'll want to have the same slowing effect that absolutely everyone else will have, every game T_T.

I'll post my item build I guess.

Chalice
Boots of Swiftness
Sheen
Phage
Frozen Mallet
Infinity Edge

Sheen is the cheapest item besides the Chalice and Boots and will actually be contributing the majority of your damage (early game). Buy it first for damage, even if it doesn't double your items it's still +118 (around there) end game, for 1260 gold. Notice how this build is actually pretty low cost compared to your's--yet crits for the same amount of damage (see runes below).

A lot of people overlook Sheen for Pirate, which is understandable since it, quite frankly, doesn't make a lot of sense. The best part is, Sheen proc's before the bullet is fired, so every Parrrley doubles your physical damage. Basically you're critting all of the time, and when you're 'actually' critting you're dealing triple damage, before you get more damage items. Which leads me to my next point.

Runes--I haven't tried crit chance runes out, perhaps I'll get around to that, but I definitely enjoy my +crit damage runes. A full set (filling every slot of every type) gives +55% crit damage. So... combine Sheen with this crit damage, +10% from masteries, and finally Infinity Edge, and your crits 1k by the end of the build. That's just one big damage item, meaning you get that health and slow from Phage while barely hampering your DPS at all, compared to a build without Sheen. That extra HP gives you between 2.5-2.7k health late game, which doesn't exactly make you 'tanky', but with your movement and Cure Scurvy you can get out of a lot of poorly coordinated ganks.

My build also differs from your's in champion abilities--I get just one rank of Cure Scurvy at the beginning of the game unless I'm being heavily harrassed. If you go Chalice instead of Meki Pendant, you can cast Cure Scurvy every time it's up and still spam Parrrley. The best part is you'll max out Raise Morale faster--this combined with Boots of Swiftness means almost every champion will have a tough time getting away from you. Sure, this isn't a huge deal as you're not too likely to be able to chase down without snares, but it means that if you decide you're going to use Parrrley on someone there is basically nothing they can do about it, you will catch them, especially if you are playing mind games with them at the creep line.

Also, I take different summoner spells--I can see your argument about 'Teleport' but I take it almost every game. Teleport combined with your ultimate means controlling multiple lanes, and always having the potential for some sort of presence somewhere on the map. Since I always have at least one rank in Cure Scurvy, tons of movements speed, and Phage/Mallet I don't worry about Exhaust/Ghost/Flash too much. Sure, they could be helpful, but Teleport is just more useful against the pushing meta-game right now, and there have only been 2 games out of 20 that I had any trouble getting kills.

My second spell is smite simply to give just a small edge in pushing, allowing me to jungle if I'm enroute to a different lane, or to grab Lizard/Golem buffs much more easily. With the talent it's not as much bonus gold as Parrrley, but the cooldown of Parrrley is high enough that you won't be last hitting every creep in a wave with it, ever.

Guess I'll just post a summary if people don't feel like reading all of that.

Stack +crit damage runes and offensive mastery.
Teleport + Ult (in conjunction or separately) give a large degree of presence to pirate, no matter where you are.
Sheen is godly on Pirate (see item build above)
Smite is a nice stack on Pirate to increase his natural farming a little more.

Skill Build (Take more ranks of Cure Scurvy earlier in the case of heavy harassment)
Parrrley
Cure Scurvy
Parrrley
Raise Morale
Parrrley
Barrage (whatever it's called)
Parrrley
Raise Morale
Parrrley
Raise Morale
Barrage
Raise Morale
Raise Morale
Cure Scurvy
Cure Scurvy
Barrage
Cure Scurvy
Cure Scurvy

So just mix up Cure Scurvy and Raise Morale as you see fit, depending on your situation.

Hmmm...sounds interesting. I have seen near 1k crits with my build already, so I focus more on how often they happen. I have ~15-20% extra crit chance with my runes and ~5-6% lowered cooldown. I'm actually kind of surprised those items can hit 1k crits. The only real damage items are Sheen and Infinity Edge. More than likely your runes are pulling some serious weight there, though I'm not too sure.

I prefer to gank with teammates, or to use strategy to keep them from running. Like waiting until they push a tower a bit too far and coming up behind them. Parrrley in, start whacking and when they try to run tower their tower, lay and ulti in front of and keep whacking and spamming Parrrley. That's normally enoguh for me; if not, I flash in, Parrrley one last time for the kill and run out using Scurvy.
I'll try out your build and try mixing it a bit with mine to see what happens. Thanks for your imput.

I just tried a game with Sheen. It didn't go so well. More or less thanks to the opponents, but my damage just wasn't high enough for Sheen. It's entirely possible that the construction of Sheen throws my build out of whack, causing items once delayed for later to be more viable early. In particular, I'm thinking Infinity Edge.

It has several cheaper and helpful items that it builds from, while Bloodthirster only gives you lifesteal until you manage to build up enough for BF Sword. So, I'm trying a P Stone, Sheen, Infinity build next. I'll be sure to post my findings soon.