Gangplank Top Guide - Solarbacca

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This League of Legends Season 10 Ultimate Gangplank guide is the only one that you will need in order to play him. This guide will include builds, combos, counters, synergies, keystones and runes. Gangplank is a saltwater scourge that preys upon the trade routes of the Twelve Seas. He ransacks temples and takes pride on playing with the Noxians, especially Swain. He may have been fallen by Miss Fortune and her crew once, but he is now determined to reclaim what is rightfully his and punish those against him. This guide was written by our team of it

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writers along with the help of Challenger player, Solarbacca, who is an expert in everything Gangplank. He is considered by many to be the best in the world at this champion and you can find him Streaming on Twitch and uploading

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Watch live video from solarbacca on www.twitch.tv

Why has this 17 Year Old Gangplank Player reached Top 50 Chal…

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Gangplank Overview Infographic We put together a Gangplank overview infographic that has the best builds, runes, strengths, weaknesses, combos, skill orders, counters, synergies and anything else that you need to quickly learn the basics of Gangplank. Make sure

to share with your friends and check back here to get the latest updates. We will be updating this infographic as h

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changes happen so check back often!

Who Is Solarbacca Solarbacca, real name Emmanuel, is 17 years old and currently plays on the NA server with the summoner names

Solarbacca, Gangplankqdmydad, lunarbacca, stezebomb, and not solarbacca. He has over 3000 games as Gangplank

and over 3.2 million mastery points on the champion. He has peaked at 812 LP in Challenger with a Win Rate of 76%.

He started playing in season 4 through a friend he met in Minecraft. He’d make Solarbacca play a few games vs beginner and intermediate bots, and then transfer to normal games. This lead to his love for a bunch of mechanically challenging champions. Later on in season 5 after the Gangplank rework he fell in love with the champion and has been maining him ever since.

Table Of Contents

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Why Play Gangplank Before we start on the Ultimate Guide for Gangplank we rst want to tell you why you should play him. His overall strengths and weaknesses are as follows:

Strengths Gangplank outranges most other bruisers in the top lane Powerful early trades Global ultimate Scales very well late game AoE Damage

AoE Damage

Weaknesses Very reliant on items Hard to master No dashes Lots of hard matchups Takes time to scale up

Gangplank Counters These champions give Gangplank a hard time in game due to having a kit that can stop him from doing what he wants to do. Here are some of the hardest counters and how you can try to overcome the challenges they bring.

Vladimir Vladimir is considered a counter because his Q has the same range as Gangplank's Q. Gangplank has a hard time

trading with him in lane because Vladimir has no problem trading Q's blow for blow in lane and will most likely ousustain your mana bar. He is also just as strong in team ghts as you and can kill you 1v1 with a few items. You have to play lane di erently than you normally would to beat Vladimir. Do this by going for extended trades against where you use your passive to keep auto-attacking him. To get into a scenario where you have closed the gap

between you and Vladimir. Look for trades where you can open up by hitting him with a barrel, slowing him and

giving you movespeed in the process to chase him down with autoattacks. Vladimir does not win extended trades vs Gangplank as long as he doesn't have enough damage to burst you down. It is crucial that you try to outtrade Vladimir early and build an executioner's calling.Â

Riven Riven is considered a counter because of her ability to gap close and get on top of you with her abilities. Her

combos can burst you down very quickly while she survives your constant Q harass by using her E shield to block the damage. Look to harass her early game with your Q, as the cooldown on your Q is much shorter than the

cooldown on her E, to gain an early advantage in lane. When she reaches level 3, focus on poking her with your

barrels and be cautious not to get too close. Keep some barrels up in defensive positions to give you a chance to

kite away from her should she try to go for a trade or all in you.

Lucian Lucian is considered a counter because he is a very mobile, ranged champion. He is an ADC that is very strong in the early game, which makes him great at punishing picks like Gangplank. Lucian's mobility makes it very hard to hit

your Powder Kegs on him, and his doubleshot passive allows him to destroy your barrels by hitting them twice very

quickly before you can. Outtrading Lucian's auto attacks are very di cult when you can only use your Q to counter.

He also has the ability to kite you and deal more damage in the early game. Avoid facing him early on and focus on scaling and getting as much farm as you can. Clear waves with your barrels and deal with him later in the game.

Gangplank Synergies These champions work well with Gangplank and should be considered being picked alongside him if possible. Here are some of the best synergies and how you can abuse them.

Sejuani Sejuani synergizes with Gangplank because her crowd control and hard engage ultimate allow Gangplank to easily follow up and hit crowd controlled enemies with his powder kegs and ultimate. Sejuani also provides rounds out

your teamcomp by being a frontline tank which Gangplank can’t provide to the team composition himself. Having a tank on the same team as Gangplank is very useful as tanks make ghts last long enough for him to get multiple

powder kegs o on the enemy. If Sejuani decides to gank your lane, Gangplanks Q even counts as a melee attack and stacks up a Permafrost stun on the enemy. Working together will limit the enemy team's opportunity to dive your backline.

Zac

Zac synergizes with Gangplank because, like Sejuani, his crowd control and engage makes great setup for Gangplank. With his E, Elastic Slingshot, he can surprise enemies with very long range engages and lock them up

giving GP the opportunity to line up his barrels to the target and burst them. His ultimate can also hold enemies down to a position where you cast your own ultimate for massive damage.

Nautilus Nautilus, and other hard engage supports like Leona, synergize with Gangplank because they can easily force ghts around bot lane. This is great for Gangplank because he can use his ultimate to follow up on their engage, even

from the other side of the map. This can secure assists and even kills for Gangplank and his team, and can turn

around ghts that your team otherwise would've lost. Gangplank still has to be careful when playing out the laning phase in case of a gank by the enemy jungler, but the utility he provides the rest of the map is very bene cial for the rest of your team. These hard engage supports also help him by setting up his abilities in team ghts, just like Sejuani and Zac.

Gangplank Summoner Spells Gangplank’s recommended Summoner Spells are Teleport and Flash like most top laners. This is because top lane is a very isolated lane and you often need TP to get back to lane or to assist your team. Flash is invaluable on almost every champion to make plays and escapes.

If you want to deal more damage to enemy champions with high health regeneration or have more kill pressure in lane, you can consider using Ignite and Flash. This can greatly transition around the map as their top lane will not be able to give pressure anymore, however this setup is much more punishing for you if you make a mistake and get forced out of lane, as you won’t have TP to get back quickly.

Gangplank Runes And Keystones Gangplank’s recommended runes are Resolve primary with Grasp of the Undying, Demolish, Bone plating, and

Revitalize with Biscuit Delivery and Time Warp Tonic as secondary in the Inspiration tree. This rune build provides Gangplank the necessary sustain for his HP and mana in lane. This sustain ultimately aids him in getting to his core

items faster and shredding enemies and turrets. Grasp of the Undying makes his Q poke in lane much more potent, as his Q procs on hit e ects and the Grasp proc is even stronger since it still counts as a melee hit even though his Q is a ranged ability.

Gangplank's Recommended Runes

If you are dealing with tanks and some bruisers that you can beat in extended ghts, you can consider using this rune setup instead. With Conqueror, Triumph, Bloodline and Last Stand on the Precision tree and Taste of Blood and Ravenous Hunter as your secondary runes, this build can also sustain you while doing more damage in extended

ghts where you can get Conquerer stacked up. Taste of Blood works great with how Gangplank can Q lane

opponents almost any time he wants for easy procs of the rune, and Ravenous Hunter gives him a bit more sustainability for his HP bar.

Gangplank's Secondary Runes

Both Rune Builds use +9 Adaptive Force on O ense and Flex, and +6 Armor on Defense for your stat runes.

Gangplank Builds Gangplank’s recommended items change depending on the situation, however, the following items will give you a good idea of what to build in di erent situations.

Starting Items S

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Start with Corrupting Potion as Gangplank needs more mana to continually harass with his Q in lane. The sustain from Corrupting Potion is invaluable to help you stay in lane longer, control the lane, and secure a solid first recall. Make sure you use your Corrupting Potion whenever you’re trading with your enemy to do a bit of bonus burn damage to them.

Core Items Trinity Force is core on Gangplank because he loves every stat that this item gives. The sheen passive is fantastic to increase the damage of his Q and barrels, and complements his trading patterns. Because of this, Sheen should be the first component of Trinity Force you purchase.

Essence Reaver is core on Gangplank because the item gives you 20% CDR, critical chance and AD. Essence Reaver and Trinity Force allows Gangplank to reach 40% CDR with just his first two items. This item also helps to sustain your mana, which is very important for GP as he casts tons of spells. His Q and barrels can also critically strike for massive damage, and the crit chance adds up with the other crit items that you will be building later.

Infinity Edge is core on Gangplank to give him more critical chance and increase the damage of his critical strikes. More crit damage is essential for GP when building for crit, because in addition to his auto attacks, his Q and E can also crit.

Note: Gangplank’s Cannon Barrage upgrades are covered in a seperate section further down in this guide.

Boots Buy Mercury’s Treads for the tenacity when the enemy team has a lot of crowd control or for the magic resistance when the enemy team is heavy on magic damage.

Use Ninja Tabi when playing against heavy AD champions that rely on autoattacks, like marksmen or melee carries such as Fiora or Tryndamere.

Offensive Situational Items If you want to have higher healing on your W while burning enemies with your abilities, you can build Liandry’s Torment. The AP on this item increases the healing on your W and the damage of your R. Because Gangplank opens most teamfights with his R, he gets plenty of time to stack up the 10% bonus damage on this item. The burn damage on Liandry’s also does more damage to movement-impaired enemies, which works great with the slows from his R and E. If you are vulnerable to being bursted down by your enemies, you can build Sterak’s Gage. The stats benefit Gangplank, but the main purpose of this item is the health and passive. The passive, Lifeline, grants you a shield equal to 75% of your bonus HP when you take a lot of damage at once, which can save you from burst damage. On activation, it also increases your size and gives you 30% tenacity for 8 seconds. Consider buying Sterak’s Gage when the rest of your build has other HP increasing items, which will make the shield

buying Sterak s Gage when the rest of your build has other HP increasing items, which will make the shield bigger.

A more offensive alternative to Sterak’s Gage is Phantom Dancer. This item gives more offensive stats with its crit chance and attack speed than Sterak’s Gage does, while filling a similar role to it. The attack speed is particularly useful to keep fighting when your abilities are down. Phantom Dancer has has a similar passive to Sterak’s Gage, giving you a shield when you drop below 30% HP. This shield is usually smaller than the shield that Sterak’s Gage gives and only scales off of levels, but can still save you in a pinch. Note: do not buy Sterak’s Gage and Phantom Dancer at the same time, because the cooldown on the Lifeline passive is shared between the two items, meaning that only one can go off.

Lord Dominik’s Regard and even Morellonomicon can be very useful items to pick up if you need the grevious wounds passive agaisnt enemy teams with a lot of healing.

Defensive Situational Items If you to protect yourself against heavy AD compositions, you can build Randuin’s Omen. This item gives you a lot of armor and health to deal with AD champions better. On top of the armor, it has a unique passive which reduces the damage of critical strikes against you. It has an active effect as well, which unleashes a wave around you that slows the movespeed of nearby enemies. This can be used offensively to chase down enemies and secure kills, or defensively to help you and your team run away from bad fights.

If magic damage mages are the biggest threat to you in game, you can build Spirit Visage. This item offers more health, magic resist and health regeneration to GP. It also increases the effectiveness of all healing on you by 30%, which works with your W. While the 10% cooldown reduction might go to waste if you already have Triforce and Essence Reaver for the maximum of 40% cooldown reduction, the other benefits of Spirit Visage still make this item worth building.

Full Build Example An example full build can consist of Trinity Force Mercury Treads Essence Reaver Infinity Edge Phantom Dancer Liandry’s Torment

Gangplank's Full Build Example

This is the most recommended build path for Gangplank to get the most out of his kit. With his three core items, he can blast through opponents in the mid game phase with ease. Of course, your boots will always vary depending on what is most needed in each game. Liandry’s Torment helps both defensively and offensively. The AP gives a nice boost to the healing on your W while the burn gives you even more damage overall. If you reach a full build in very late game situations, you can replace your boots with another recommended item, but don’t do this until you have the gold to buy the full item.

Gangplank's Abilities Passive - Trial By Fire

Gangplank's Passive - Trial by Fire

When active, Gangplank’s next basic attack deals true damage over time to the target and gives him a small

amount of movement speed. Trial By Fire is an e ective tool to burn enemies as well as escape them and chase

them down when needed. Whenever you destroy a powder keg, your passive is immediately refreshed. Abuse this to get your passive o as many times as possible in a ght.

Q - Parrrley

Gangplank's Q - Parrrley

On activation Gangplank res his pistol at the target doing physical damage and applying all on hit e ects This

On activation, Gangplank res his pistol at the target, doing physical damage and applying all on-hit e ects. This includes Spellblade from Sheen and Trinity Force, as well as Grasp of the Undying. Gangplank abuses this ability the

most in lane to constantly harass his lane opponent and stack up Grasp of the Undying. When forced to play defensively in lane, this ability can also be used to last hit minions. His Q can also be used to blow up his powder

kegs from range and amplify the damage done by them with his sheen procs. Every enemy; including monsters, minions, and champions last hit by his Q, grant Gangplank a small amount of bonus gold and Silver Serpents. This also applies to enemies killed by powder kegs that Gangplank explodes with his Q. Silver Serpents are a unique currency that only Gangplank can earn, which he spends on upgrades for his ultimate.

W - Remove Scurvy

Gangplank's W - Remove Scurvy

On activation, Remove Scurvy heals Gangplank for an increasing amount based on his missing health, and removes all crowd control a ecting him. Remove Scurvy is a very powerful skill to master and can help you to get out of sticky situations when mastered. This ability costs a lot of mana, so avoid using it just to sustain your HP whenever ibl

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possible. It also has a long cooldown that many opponents can take advantage of to kill you. Learn to dodge skills that are easy to avoid so that you can have your W up to cleanse abilities that aren’t so easy to dodge.

E - Powder Keg

Gangplank's E - Powder Keg

This ability is the most important skill in Gangplank’s kit Mastery over the positioning timing and decision making

This ability is the most important skill in Gangplank s kit. Mastery over the positioning, timing, and decision making around powder kegs makes the di erence between good and great Gangplank players. On activation, Gangplank places down a powder keg at the target location. These barrels start out with three health which gradually ticks down to one HP. The barrels’ rate of HP decay gets faster at level 7 and even faster at level 13. You can Q or

autoattack barrels to reduce their HP, however, enemies can also attack barrels to reduce their HP or destroy them.

When you hit a barrel on one HP it explodes, dealing damage in an area around it which is ampli ed by on hit e ects like Spellblade and can critically strike. Kegs with overlapping zones will connect, creating a chain that will

blow up every keg in the chain if you activate one of them. In the early levels, focus on putting kegs in defensive

positions to zone enemies and dissuade them from trading with you. Memorize how fast the barrels tick down so you can time it better than the enemy to get the last hit and explode them. When you reach the mid game, powder kegs will be your main source of damage, allowing you to do massive AoE damage and crits. Spend some time in Practice Tool getting the timing of the barrels down to master Gangplank.

R - Cannon Barrage

Gangplank's R - Cannon Barrage

On activation, Gangplank calls on a barrage of cannon re on the targeted area, damaging and slowing the enemies

in the area. The true strength of this ability lies in it’s global range. allowing you to re it o anywhere on the map.

Pay attention to the map and your team to assist your team in plays on the other side of the map. One good

Cannon Barrage can change the tide of a ght and the game, even if you’re on the other side of the map. This ability can be upgraded throughout the game by spending Silver Serpents on three di erent unique upgrades that only Gangplank can purchase.

Managing Silver Serpents And Ultimate Upgrades Throughout the game, always keep in mind that you need to earn Silver Serpents to purchase upgrades for your

ultimate. Any time Gangplank last hits a target with his Q, including any targets killed by kegs that he explodes with his Q, he earns Silver Serpents for every target killed. This unique currency is spent on upgrades for

Gangplanks ultimate. A good rule of thumb to use when farming Silver Serpents on minions is to only use your keg + Q combo when you can last hit three or more minions with a single keg. Otherwise it’s not worth it. Aim to have

your rst upgrade purchased by the 13-18 minute mark. Fire at Will increases the rate at which the cannons re from

your ultimate and should be the rst upgrade that you purchase as it gives the most consistent increase in damage.

Get Raise Morale second, which gives your team a large movement speed bu

while inside the range of the

ultimate. This is very helpful to engage and disengage ghts with your team. Death’s Daughter makes Cannon Barrage re a large, powerful cannon in the center of your ultimate after a short delay, doing a large amount of true

damage. Because of the inconsistency of this upgrade with how hard it is to actually hit the damage, get this upgrade last.

Ability Skill Order

Gangplank's Ability Skill Order

The skill order for Gangplank is R > Q > E > W. However, you can put a few extra points into W early if you’re getting beat in lane and need the extra healing to sustain a bit more. Q is your main source of damage early in the

game and putting points into it increases the damage and makes your poke and trading more potent. Your E, Powder Keg, is your next priority skill to max after Q. This will help you wave clear better and earn more Silver Serpents along the way. W, Remove Scurvy, should be maxed last. Levelling this ability isn’t a priority as you should

only need to use it to save yourself when necessary. Level up your ultimate whenever possible on levels 6, 11, and 16.

Gangplank Powerspikes A powerspike is a time when a champion reaches a level or builds an item that makes them a lot stronger than other champions in the game at that time. Gangplank powerspikes when he reaches level 3 and has unlocked all of

his abilities to take control of lane. He also spikes upon completing his Trinity Force, especially if he is able to complete it early. Gangplank spikes again when he nishes his three core items and starts moving towards the late

game. He also becomes much more powerful at level thirteen because the tick rate on his barrels becomes very fast, allowing him to get barrel combos o on enemies rapidly.

Gangplank Combos E+Q This combo is used to clear the wave in your lane at the early game phase. This is also your basic combo for 1 barrel in ghts which can be used in almost every situation.

Gangplank's E+Q Combo

E + AA This combo is another version of E + Q, but uses your auto attack to explode the keg instead of Q. Your auto attack

animation is much faster than your Q, which can prevent your enemy from destroying the barrel before you can blow it up.

Gangplank's E+AA Combo

E + Q + AA This combo is used when being chased by an enemy and you want the instant movement speed of the barrel while slowing the enemy chasing you.

Gangplank's E+Q+AA Combo

E + AA + E + Q(Farming Combo) This combo is a great way to clear the waves when you have 2 or more barrels available. Position your barrel in the

middle of a wave to hit every minion in the wave at the same time. Then, explode this barrel with an autoattack to soften up the minions. Immediately place down another barrel and explode this one with your Q to last hit every minion, earning extra gold and Silver Serpents because you last hit them with your Q. You may have to use some

autoattacks on the minions before you can nish them o with the second barrel depending on your items and the stage of the game.

Gangplank's E+AA+E+Q (Farming Combo)

E + Q + E(Phantom Barrel Combo) This combo is a faster variation of a normal E + E + Q combo. You can put down your second barrel while your Q is

travelling midair towards the rst barrel to surprise your enemies with an unexpected fast barrel. This combo takes some practice to get down, so go ahead and give it some time in practice tool.

Gangplank's E+Q+E (Phantom Barrel Combo)

E + E + AA This combo is used when you are sitting in a bush or in lane and you want to blast a barrel on the enemy out of

nowhere. Place your rst barrel in a bush and when it is ready, cast another one in front of the enemy and auto attack the rst. Keep in mind that enemies cannot see your barrels in brushes if they don’t have vision of them, which lets you set up a nice surprise for them.

Gangplank's E+E+AA Combo

E(Bush) + E + Q This combo is the same as the E + E + AA combo but you use your Q to blast the barrels instead of your auto attack.

Gangplank's E(Bush)+E+Q Combo

E + E + AA + Q This combo is similar to the one above. Use an auto attack while your barrel has two or more HP to quickly reduce it

down to one HP, then use your Q to last hit the barrel for more damage. This combo is important to use when you are below level 13, before the tick rate on your barrels gets faster.