So, I've decided to commit myself to playing almost exclusively heroes that you don't see very often. Like, as you probably know, Hecarim. But there's more than just the choice of hero, it's also the placement. Which brings me to this article regarding the now-forgotten pirate, Gangplank. Unfortunately, due to his poor harass versus top laners like Irelia and Warwick, coupled with his poor jungling speeds, he's fallen out of flavor and is a very rare sight these days.
Unless you're playing with me. A lot of the time, I'll pick Gangplank and shove him bottom with everybody's favorite battery, Soraka. Running Attack Damage and Critical Strike runes, you'd be surprised at how much damage can randomly come out of that little pistol. A long time ago, back before so many standards were set in the League, you'd see Gangplank running around with what was essentially the same build as an AD carry. Infinity Edge. Phantom Dancers. The occasional Trinity Force. And back then, before a few tweaks to his stats and abilities, and before new heroes came out and a lot of power creep, it wasn't uncommon to see a single Parrley! crit force you all the way back to base, or possibly death.
Well that's how I build him now. At bottom lane with a good Soraka support, the man is nigh-impossible to gank with his magical oranges. The harass from Parrley! often is enough to send back a non-sustain lane like Janna/Ashe in a few shots, less if you manage to land a couple of crits. Not to mention the additional gold from last-hitting with the pistol shot, which allow him to accelerate into builds much faster than most characters. And the global presence he gets at level 6, with the ability to slow in a massive area at any point on the map makes him very valuable.
Now there's a downside with this sort of choice, the fact that lategame, you'll lack a proper AD carry. But instead, with a similar build to the one outlined above, every 4-6 seconds you'll get a burst of around 800-1k+ damage on a crit. That's a lot. And sometimes this sort of damage comes out around the 30-35 minute mark. Not to mention with a bit of lifesteal, Gankplank can easily go toe-to-toe with the toughest bruisers and come out alive, simply through sheer damage output. If he gets in trouble, just nom those oranges and run away, because there's few heroes that can catch the pirate. You give up constant ranged damage for an extremely powerful poke, and an extremely strong duelist. Sometimes that trade-off isn't worth it. In my experience, a lot of the time it is.
So if you're looking to change things up a little and have a good duo-queue partner, give it a try. If people want I'll make up a build for him and post it, but it's fairly easy to figure out. You might just find that the good Captain isn't as mediocre as everyone thinks.
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