Table of Contents

  • About Me
  • Runes
    • Grasp Rune Page.
    • First Strike Rune Page!
    • I take this every Rune Page:
  • Summoner Spells
  • Skill Path
  • Item Builds
  • Matchups and Synergies
  • Combos
  • Tips and Tricks

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Gangplank Toplane Season 12



Godlyysek

January 1st, 1 ⸱ 33 min read

About Me

Hi, my name is Godlyysek and I've been playing Gangplank for about a year now.

I mainly play on the EUNE server (IGN: TheGodlyGodSVK) where I was Plat III last season and plan to hit Diamond this season using only GP. I am a top lane main and have been for about 5 seasons now. I have 500k mastery points on GP as of today.

I have used many resources to learn this champion and I'll try to combine everything I've learned into this guide.

About Gangplank:

Gangplank is a very hard champion to master. He has a very high skill floor which a lot of people will not like. However, if you are willing to put in the games, then GP becomes incredibly fun and rewarding.

I also have a twitch channel where I occasionally stream. You can check it out below if you'd want to! :)

Runes

There are 2 most used keystones for Gangplank - Grasp of the Undying and First Strike.

At the beginning of the guide there is a rune page that is, in my humble opinion, the best for Gangplank for intermediate and experienced players. It is riskier but also more rewarding.

If you are starting out with Gangplank, I highly recommend using Grasp as it is a safer and tankier option of the two. Below is a setup that I would recommend using. And don't worry, you won't lose out on those juicy one shots with these runes.

The runes below are the ones I would take most of the time but I explained below every various options you have depending on matchups.

  • Grasp



Grasp Rune Page.

Here, you have a few options depending on matchups. You take

Bone Plating
against very burst-heavy matchups like Riven, Irelia or Camille. And
Second Wind
against poke matchups like Gnar, Vayne, Singed or against any ranged matchup.

Note: Never take Bone plating against a ranged matchup because they can just remove it with one auto attack.

You can also take

Revitalize
against matchups where you will trade a lot.

In the secondary tree you can take

Magical Footwear
if you prefer that over either of the other 2 options or you can take
Biscuit Delivery
if you are against a heavy poke matchup.



Cosmic Insight
is good if you want to trade and force duels a lot and want your summoner spells off-cooldown more. (I only recommend taking this if you are running ignite). (Usually take this against matchups where you are confident you can snowball)



  • First Strike

First Strike Rune Page!

In the primary tree you have the option of taking either

Magical Footwear
which I would take most of the time and
Perfect Timing
which I would take against any matchup that can easily dive you or you can cancel their ult with it (
Yone
,
Kayle
).

Secondly, you can again take

Biscuit Delivery
against any poke heavy matchup!

Lastly in the primary tree there is the option of taking

Cosmic Insight
for more frequent duel opprotunities. (Usually take this against matchups where you are confident you can snowball).

Now for the secondary tree:

You can take

Manaflow Band
you plan on playing with Manamune.



Transcendence
is in my opinion the best selection in the second row, however,
Absolute Focus
is not to be underestimated. I just think the CDR is way too good to pass up so I always take this rune.

Lastly, there is

Scorch
to have a little bit more lane bullying potential but I don't think it's worth dropping
Gathering Storm
for.

I take this every Rune Page:

Adaptive + Adaptive + Armor / Magic Resist ( Depending on matchup damage type )

This guide is aimed at beginner - Intermediate Gangplank players which is why I won't include the

Unsealed Spellbook
,
Dark Harvest
as well as other pages.

Summoner Spells

Take

Flash
every game!

Then, you have the option of running either

Ignite
,
Teleport
or
Exhaust
.

I take

Ignite
into every matchup besides ones that I simply can't kill (Tanks or unfavourable matchups which i will talk about later).

I also like running

Ignite
most of the time because sometimes you will get lane opponents that have some kind of healing in their kit -
Aatrox
,
Fiora
,
Irelia
...

Take

Teleport
into every matchup where you don't think you have any kill pressure on your lane opponent.

Lastly, take

Exhaust
into matchups where you will most likely lose an all-in. This includes
Riven
,
Akshan
or sometimes
Irelia
. This also includes any matchup that you have experience in getting one shot or all-inned frequently in.

    Skill Path

    You have 2 options here, both being pretty much identical, it's only about what you put your point into on level 3.

    Start Q , level 2 put point in E and then by level 3 you will have figured out if you are either:

    a) having lane priority and slow pushing into the enemy, in which case take another point in Q for more poke as they can not engage on you with a big wave.

    b) the lane is even or you are being pushed into, in which case you take W on level 3 for better trading and sustain.

    

    • QEQ

    Gangplank

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    • QEW

    Gangplank

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    Item Builds

    There are 3 most popular Mythics to run on Gangplank - Triforce, Prowler and Duskblade.

    I will be showing you the Triforce and Prowler in this guide. Now, I wanna explain the strengths and weaknesses of these 2 builds.

    Trinity Force
    is a great consistent option in my opinion, I recently started taking in every single game and I've been having great success. It is also a mythic item which means you will get your power spike a little bit eariler but you will do less damage than with the
    Prowler's Claw
    when you compare both builds.

    

    Trinity Force
    also has a more versatile build path where you have lots of different choices for items you can buy.
    Prowler's Claw
    is known as the one shot build and it usually relies on doing big crits because it has almost no utility. It is very fun, however. I recommend you start off with the Triforce build if you are a beginner as it gives you more health and attack speed which means you will get out timed on your barrels a lot less.

    Starting Items

    • Start

    

    

    Corrupting Potion
    is the best start in pretty much every game.
    Tear of the Goddess
    is a good start but it will punish bad trades as you won't have the extra damage and the sustain.

    Always buy

    Sheen
    first!

    If you have around a 1,000 gold when you recall, you can buy

    Boots
    /
    Long Sword
    with your
    Sheen
    .

    If you are forced to recall and don't have enough for a Sheen, buy a

    Doran's Blade
    if you're ahead,
    Doran's Shield
    if you're getting poked down or
    Cull
    if you want to farm.

    Triforce Build

    • Core

    So, first item is always Triforce. I usually build Sheen -> Hearthbound Axe -> Kindlegem.

    Second item depends on the matchup. If my lane opponent or the enemy team has a lot of healing, I take

    Mortal Reminder
    , if I am facing a tank, I go for
    Lord Dominik's Regards
    , if it's a shield heavy team I would go for
    Serpent's Fang
    .

    If it's none of those, I'd go for The Collector. Next item depends on their team.

    I will explain what situation every item is good for:

    

    The Collector
    : If the enemy doesn't have a lot of tanks. I would avoid this item if the enemy had 3 tanky champions above 3,000 health.

    

    Mortal Reminder
    : If the enemy team has an annoying amount of healing. I would buy this anytime there is at least 1 healing champion (Aatrox, Yone, Vlad, ...), unless they are very behind.

    

    Lord Dominik's Regards
    : If the enemy team is tanky, or if I'm laning against a tank I'd buy this as a 2nd item.

    

    Infinity Edge
    : Just a crit damage amplification item. Avoid this if you are below 40% crit. I personally buy this whenever im at 40% or 60%.

    

    Youmuu's Ghostblade
    : Great and relatively cheap lethality item that gives you a really good amount of movement speed. Combined with Mortal Reminder's 7% extra speed can easily replace your boots. I usually only buy this earlier if I the enemy team doesn't have any significant healing or shielding. However I always buy this as my last item that replaces my boots.

    

    Death's Dance
    : This is now a great item for Gangplank since it works for magic damage as well now. I recommend buying this against burst-heavy teams where you find yourself getting one-shot in teamfights.

    

    Sterak's Gage
    : Speaking of getting one-shot, this is another great anti burst item. You can also buy this alongside Death's Dance if you really need it but that'd be an overkill in my opinion. This is a tankier version of Death's Dance that does less damage. It is also 200 gold cheaper. Buy this if you wanna be a bit more tanky. You won't lose out on that much damage against Death's Dance but i think it's just better to buy DD as it is quite strong this patch.

    

    Serpent's Fang
    : Buy this if the enemy team has a lot of shields. I would personally buy this as like my 4th or 5th item if the enemy team has something like a Lulu or a Janna, however, if they have more shields than that, maybe like an Ivern, I'd buy this as my second item if possible.

    

    Manamune
    : I don't like buying this as I will not hit my 80% crit chance with this and honestly 60% really doesn't feel that great. I would only buy this if I was going for
    Immortal Shieldbow
    . This item provides great damage but it offers no crit.

    Don't worry about trying new things! That's the beauty of GP, you can find something that suits your playstyle!

    Prowler's Build

    • Core

    This build order is kinda non-flexible but you can always replace Lord Dom's with Mortal Reminder and you can take Manamune or Death's Dance if needed.

    Boots

    

    Ionian Boots of Lucidity
    are the most common buy, they offer a very satisfying amount of ability haste but they offer no survivability. I always build these when I don't think any of the enemies specifically is a big threat.

    

    Plated Steelcaps
    are a great choice against an AD oriented team or a team with auto attacking champions, for example, I'd buy this against a Kayle. People usually only look at the Armor part of the boots and dont realize it's great against most auto attack based champions.

    

    Mercury's Treads
    are the go-to option against either AP heavy teams ( I'd also go this if they had a combination of AP top and AP jungle ) or teams with a lot of CC.

    

    Boots of Swiftness
    are really great but the only thing they give you is more movement speed which is really nice but you have to be very confident in your ability. You will have a longer recharge time on barrels as well as less defensive stats so be careful. I love these boots especially with the Triforce build because you can hit absolutely insane movespeeds if you take
    Magical Footwear
    as well.

    Matchups and Synergies

    • Matchups

    Combos

    There are multiple combos you can do on Gangplank, most of them take lots of practice to perfect and do consistently. It will take a lot of time and effort to learn them. Some of them however are relatively easy to pick up and implement into your games.

    Let's start with the easier ones and we'll move up to the harder ones.

    Double Barrel

    This is the most basic and most important GP combo to learn. It requires no precise timings of barrel placement or anything.

    Or with a Q :

    

    The double barrel combo is simply having one barrel tick down to 1 health (or attacking it so it reaches 1 health quicker) and then placing another barrel near it so they connect and then you can auto attack or Q the first barrel and it will explode both barrels.

    Triple Barrel Combo

    

    The triple barrel combo is a little harder to explain. You have to place 2 barrels that are connected, then Q the first barrel and as soon as you Q, you have to place another barrel after the second one and it will explode as well. You can do this for any number of barrels you want (even 2, but that one is hard and i'll show that one in a bit), here is an example of a 4 barrel combo, which is really never used in game as the 2 barrel and 3 barrel combos are more than enough.

    Notice how the target dummy only took damage once even though it was hit with 2 barrels, a single chain of barrels can only do damage once to any single enemy.

    Triple Barrel with Autoattack

    This combo is much harder than a simple triple barrel as it requires much more precise timings. I personally don't ever use this combo as it just feels too inconsistent for me. It's all about timing that third barrel but it's satisfying when you hit it.

    Now for the most satisfying combo to hit on GP..

    One Part Combo

    This combo is very hard to master and takes a lot of practice to even get it somewhat consistently. I can't do it half the time honestly. I had to take this video twice!

    So how this combo works is you place a barrel and when it ticks down to 1 health, you Q it as usual but as you cast your Q, you have to instantly place a barrel within your E range white the Q is travelling. Feel free to slow down the video to see in better! This is incredibly hard to perform and will take practice. Just hop into practice range and try it for yourself! I also recommend trying this when you go into a side lane to pick up a wave to practice this. It will give you a more real environment to do it. And, of course, on your lane opponents. But this will sometimes force you to play safe as you wasted your barrels if you mess it up. I also recommend placing a barrel in a top bush closest to your opponent on level 2 as soon as you get your E. That way you can use this combo and they won't expect it.

    Passive Reset

    Breaking a barrel will reset your passive cooldown. You can use this to your advantage by including one part combos in your trading pattern like this:

    You can proc passive 3 times in a single trade using this combo. You auto attack first with passive and then one part from the bush. While the first barrel is exploding you can throw in an auto attack and then the second barrel explodes and you auto once more. Voila, you just used passive 3 times. This will delete almost anyone. Use this especially against tanks as there is no other way to beat them really. This was done on level 13 with no items so with Triforce attack speed its even smoother.

    

    Tips and Tricks

    • Always keep placing Barrels. Make this a habit. Whenever you trade and use a barrel, place down another one right after. Make sure to keep popping the passives. If you are getting all-inned, pop a barrel, start running and place a barrel on your way and make sure you maximize the passive uptime and barrel damage.
    • If you are using
      Grasp of the Undying
      , make sure to keep auto attacking minions whenever it's about to expire to keep it up at all times and use it whenever it's ready.
    • Ult upgrades are as follows : Fire at Will -> Raise Morale -> Death's Daughter.
    • Most of the time you are looking to hit the wave first, start a slow push and get a Sheen after crashing the cannon wave.
    • 
      Trial by Fire
      also works on towers, so whenever you are pushing the tower, place 2 Barrels down and Q the first one and as it's exploding you auto attack the tower twice for 2 additional passive procs for very quick turret damage.
    • You can also Flash to extend the range of your barrels. This is especially useful when using the triple barrel combo as you can flash right after you Q the first one and place your third barrel down further.
    • It is very important for GP to go side laning to hit level 13 ASAP. It is his biggest power spike and he can single-handedly win team fights just by being level 13 earlier.
    • GP is a great split pusher thanks to his ability to 1v2 well and having a global ultimate.
    • ALWAYS auto attack your barrel after placing it (after you bought sheen). It will store the sheen proc and you can Q the enemy for one sheen proc and then barrel them for the one that was stored.

    

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    AUTHOR
    Godlyysek

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