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Making Niche Picks Work: Gangplank the Saltwater Scourge
Hello and welcome to my guide on Gangplank, the Saltwater Scourge. I play Gangplank exclusively in the top lane as a bruiser/fighter but Gangplank can fill many different roles. Gangplank excels early to mid game as a fighter, and has a ton of all-in potential through the use of his passive, insane Q damage and the highest base health in the game.
Summoner Spells
I use standard flash and ignite for almost all matchups, only taking teleport if I have no kill potential on my lane.
Runes
The runes that I use are fairly standard aggressive toplane runes, not much explanation is needed. The physical damage and armor pen give great damage early game, the armor helps survive laning phase, and the magic resist per level is so that you don't have to itemize heavily for magic resist late game.
Masteries
The masteries that I use for Gangplank are fairly aggressive, but still helps you survive the early game with eleven points in defense. These masteries are fairly standard, and the Dangerous Game and the Feast talent give you some extra sustain early game.
Abilities
Gangplank's passive is Grog Soaked Blade, which reads "Gangplank's basic attacks apply a poison debuff for 3 seconds that can stack up to 3 times. Each stack deals 3 + (Gangplank's level) magic damage per second and slows the target by 7%".
This is an extremely offensive passive which allows Gangplank to have such a deadly level 1 all in with an auto attack, Parrrley, auto auto combo. This is Gangplank's bread and butter and is what makes him such a force to deal with top. If you can use this passive effectively you will be able to force a flash at the least or be able to pick up an easy early kill.
The next spell that I will be talking about is Parrrley, which is an active ability that "shoots a target enemy with his pistol, dealing physical damage. This ability can critically strike and applies on-hit effects, including Grog Soaked Blade. If the unit is killed with this ability, Gangplank gains extra gold and refunds half the mana cost".
Now the main assumption of many greenhorns and landlubbers is that this should be used to harass the enemy every time it's off cooldown, as it can critically strike and applies your amazing passive. However, this spell is actually incredibly mana consuming early game and the main use of it early game will either be a level one all in, or to just use it to farm passively. Because of the bonus gold and mana refund Gangplank is able to farm much more effectively, and can gain a significant gold advantage if you are able to last hit properly. This spell should be leveled up at level one, and then not touched until Remove Scurvy is at least level three. This is because Remove Scurvy's cooldown scales with level, and Parrrley's does not.
Remove Scurvy is Gangplank's W move, and is a lower cost and lower cooldown Quick Silver Sash. This ability reads "ACTIVE: Gangplank eats a large amount of citrus fruit, instantly removing all crowd control effects and healing himself".
This ability is my one of my favourite in the game and by the end of your first game it will be yours too, because it gives you an insane amount of sustain in lane early to mid game, and also works as a pseudo escape as it removes all cc. This spell is one of the main reasons for Gangplank's strong presence in the top lane, and the only downside is the long cooldown (22/21/20/19/18 seconds), but if you can properly manage your mana and pick smart fights that will be more than enough to conquer the seven seas as well as top lane!
Raise Morale is Gangplank's E ability, and is a steroid. This ability has both a passive and an active, both of which are incredible for the mana cost. The passive increases both Gangplank's movement speed and attack damage, and the active reads "Gangplank fires into the air, disabling his passive boost but inspiring himself to gain additional attack damage and movement speed for 7 seconds, with allied champions within range receiving half that amount."
At level 5, Raise Morale gives 16 attack damage, and the active adds an extra 40 attack damage, which for 70 mana is more damage than a BF sword gives. Not including the movement speed passive and active, which adds 27% at level 5, this spell gives more than 1550 gold worth of stats, which allows Gangplank to successfully transition into mid and lategame. Because of this ability, Gangplank can either build tanky and still be a threat to anyone he fights, or build for critical strike and one shot whoever he reaches, while still providing a devastating damage buff to all allies within 600 range.
Gangplank's final ability, Cannon Barrage, is one of the last global ultimate in the game, and is great for assist gold early on. Cannon Barrage is when "Gangplank signals his ship to fire a cannonball barrage upon a target 600-radius area for 6 seconds, granting vision of the area and slowing enemies inside it by 25%. 25 cannonballs randomly drop over the duration, each one dealing magic damage to enemies within a radius of 150".
Early game this can be great for dueling if the randomness of the cannonballs are on your side, but there is also a possibility that every ball misses, and it's a waste of an ultimate. This is one of the main reasons that Gangplank isn't a common pick in the top lane, as it can possibly deal zero damage. If you are in a position in which you don't think you will be fighting your enemy laner you can use Cannon Barrage off cooldown to get assists, to put you further ahead. Cannon Barrage paired with your early Avarice Blade can also net you a lot of extra gold if your other lanes don't mind sharing creeps with you, which will give you that early lead that all great captains want.
Item Build
The item build that I use is an extremely aggressive build, which is mainly focused on one shotting enemy marksmen late game, but with the ability to switch to a tanky pirate and still deal tons of damage.
I hope that with this guide you are able to dominate the seven seas, and defeat the enemy top laners with your non meta toplane picks!
-Exile
Article Image by: Gunpar