Gangplank: The Pirate of Versatility

Gangplank has traditionally been played as a top lane bruiser but due to a series of nerfs, mastery changes and an increase in counters he has fallen out of favor. Luckily for Gangplank, he can fill more than one role. He can be a decent jungler, but can also fill the role of support, and can even play mid as a counter pick. Gangplank may not be viable as support or the mid role in tournament play, but for solo queue and when played well, he is something different that might catch the enemies off guard.

Let’s take a look at some advantages and disadvantages he has in the roles of support and mid.

Support Gangplank (Supportplank):

 

Why is he strong?

Gangplank in a support role is most similar to Nunu. Gangplank has strong poke with his Parrrley and with it he has the ability to zone the enemy AD out of gold and experience. This puts you and your lane partner in the lead, helping to snowball you to victory. With utility masteries and an early Philosopher Stone, Gangplank will have the mana to constantly harass. Parrrley, if leveled up early, can do significant damage to the squishy carry and force him to miss CS or go back to base.

Like Nunu, he also has a strong buff, but instead of attack speed his Raise Morale adds straight attack damage. Raise Morale has an advantage because it is applied to everyone nearby. So when your jungler comes in for a gank, pop Raise Morale and everyone’s damage and speed is increased. This is of course even more beneficial when it comes to team fighting. It provides a means to catch up, escape, and it could be the extra damage to come out victorious in the team fight. Coupled with a Shurulia’s Reverie, your team can almost always be guaranteed an initiate if you so choose.

As far as supporting in lane ganks, it’s important to remember Gangplanks passive, Grog Soaked Blade, and his ultimate, Cannon Barrage. Both are powerful when it comes to securing kills and supporting your team. The passive stacking slow from his Q and melee could be the extra needed to get a kill when your jungler comes in. Naturally his passive is a benefit in team fights as well – being able to slow down an enemy carry or keeping a bruiser off your own. His ultimate is even more powerful because it’s an area of effect slow with a global cast range.  This is where Gangplank shines, and part of what makes him a unique and valuable support. He can help any lane and anywhere on the map with a decent amount of damage and a powerful slow.

Gangplank has the advantage of good scaling into late game, more so than other supports. His attack speed is solid and with his passive Raise Morale he does a fair amount of damage. He becomes a real deterrent to enemies chasing your carries with his slows and his damage. With the usual support items he also becomes a good off-tank, soaking up damage.

Negatives:

Gangplank in a support role (when played well) can be a different yet strong option. But that’s not to say he does not have flaws. The biggest one is that he does not have any sustain for his partner, and not much for himself outside of his Remove Scurvy which has a long cool down and is usually saved to remove debuffs. This puts him at a disadvantage to strong sustain champions like Soraka. Gangplank is also melee which hurts him because it is more of a challenge to get full stacks on his passive. He also lacks any form of hard crowd control. Alistar has his Headbutt Pulverize combo, Taric has a stun, and Blitzcrank has his hooks, knock-up and silence. Gangplank lacks these which make lane kills a little harder, and will rely on other champions to have crowd control when it comes to team fights.

Gangplank Mid:

 

Why is he strong?

Gangplank mid when still built as a bruiser can be a surprise to the enemy team and something they are not familiar with. Take advantage of this and exploit the flaws that may occur from them simply being inexperienced against Gangplank. It would be best to have an AP top lane like Vladamir or Kennen. With luck the enemy mid will choose runes and masteries to counter them and not you. Usually this means they will have high magic resist instead of physical.

This is where you are at an advantage. Gangplank’s Parrrley is all physical and if maxed first does quite a bit of damage to AP champions. The enemy will be forced to buy armor items instead of damage or continue to suffer harassment from your Q. This is your biggest asset and what can make Gangplank an excellent counter pick to strong mid characters like Morgana. Your Parrrley’s damage is completely unaffected by her Black Shield, which is one of the main reasons she is so strong in lane. Other champions like Kassadin thrive off of magic resist, and you provide a physical counter to that.

His Parrrley has recently gotten a buff and now restores mana with a killing blow. This dramatically increases his ability to farm safely and from a distance to avoid enemy damage. Against Morgana or Kassadin, you can remain safe and farm as needed, and harass when you see fit. It’s also important to remember that Parrrley procs on hit effects like Sheen or Executioner’s Calling, both strong items for Gangplank. Executioner’s Calling is not a very popular item, but with a Gangplank mid it can be dangerous. Its passive provides extra damage from your Q, coupled with Gangplank’s passive resulting in a solid amount hurt.

Other items that are beneficial are Chalice of Harmony for the magic resist and mana regen. The ability power doesn’t help too much, but the regen is vital to constantly harassing the enemy. Hexdrinker into a Maw of Malmortius is almost required. It gives attack damage, magic resist and a shield that could save you a death.

Negatives:

Certainly Gangplank middle is not always the best choice. It definitively can be used as a strong counter to certain champions or for the element of surprise, but he does have his negatives. First he is melee, meaning to get CS outside of using Parrrley you may have to take some damage. Against a character like Ryze or Ahri, that could end very poorly for you. That’s another negative he has – against many mid champions he simply cannot deal out as much damage as they can. This can result in a lot of bad trades. You have to get ahead early with Gangplank and shut down the enemy as much as possible because trading is harder. Last his Remove Scurvy is a great ability, but it is his sustain as well as his way to break free from CC. Both are extremely useful, but the ability has a long cool down and costs a fair amount of mana.

 

Skip top lane and try these roles out on the mighty pirate. It's something different and could turn into a huge benefit for your team. He's not without faults, but he has a lot to offer in the middle lane and supporting that other champions just can't do.

 

Thanks for reading and feel free to ask questions or comment below.