On January 08 2013 09:49 Alaric wrote: ChrispySC does it since before it was used competitively.
#Swag.
But I stopped playing it since Season 3 came out - other AD mids like Khazix, Talon, Pantheon became more than viable with Black Cleaver so there wasn't much reason to play GP.
I'm gonna try it out a bit now - Statikk Shiv definitely seems like an awesome for him.
I was pretty impressed and wondering if anyone has experience with the GP mid? What should my item build, runes, and masteries be? Thanks!
I asked Chawwy on stream and he uses ad reds/quints, armor yellow and flat mr blue with one crit red i think
Do you know masteries? He went pretty well all damage (swifities, IE, Shiv, Manamune), so does he go defensive to shore up the squishiness or does he just go full kill?
Well his team was up 2k gold at the 4 minute mark. I'm not sure if GP won the game for his team or if he just got fed enough off free farm and getting in really great situations where his enemies were low enough to one shot. I remember GP's in S2 getting just as much damage with Triforce IE and then dying whenever squishies got tanky enough off levels or finally finishing a GA.
Shiv, Hydra, IE, IBG. Split push like a boss and then crit someone with Q for half their health, and get the nearby enemies for 1/4 of their health with your triple AoE procs. Not likely a good build unless you're getting fed, but fun nonetheless.
But seriously, Hydra/Shiv has such a nice build path for him and synergizes with his split push mentality. Getting Vamp/Avarice early feels really good on him, and you can build Avarice into Atma's if you need to get tankier.
I haven't played GP much this season, but it makes sense that he would excel in mid. He can farm/harass from range, he has sustain + cleanse built in to his kit, he doesn't have a glaring weakness against either APs or Assassins and he can get the farm he needs to get ahead from the safety of mid lane easier than he can anywhere else.
Personally I'm a fan of Atmas (followed by Mogs) more than I am Shiv for an Avarice build path. Ghostblade for repositioning or burning down objectives is underrated as well imo. IE is core of course.
Lack of strong roam and lack of strong waveclear seem like they could become problematic, though. What do you do when you're up against an Evelynn or TF that doesn't care at all about killing YOU - they just want to kill your teammates. How do you stop them/countershove/counterroam against them effectively?
On January 11 2013 08:45 Amarok wrote: I haven't played GP much this season, but it makes sense that he would excel in mid. He can farm/harass from range, he has sustain + cleanse built in to his kit, he doesn't have a glaring weakness against either APs or Assassins and he can get the farm he needs to get ahead from the safety of mid lane easier than he can anywhere else.
Personally I'm a fan of Atmas (followed by Mogs) more than I am Shiv for an Avarice build path. Ghostblade for repositioning or burning down objectives is underrated as well imo. IE is core of course.
ghostblade isn't really for repositioning, it's pretty much exclusively for chasing. Maybe a case could be made for escaping as well, tho by itself it's not much of an escape tool.
On January 11 2013 08:45 Amarok wrote: I haven't played GP much this season, but it makes sense that he would excel in mid. He can farm/harass from range, he has sustain + cleanse built in to his kit, he doesn't have a glaring weakness against either APs or Assassins and he can get the farm he needs to get ahead from the safety of mid lane easier than he can anywhere else.
Personally I'm a fan of Atmas (followed by Mogs) more than I am Shiv for an Avarice build path. Ghostblade for repositioning or burning down objectives is underrated as well imo. IE is core of course.
ghostblade isn't really for repositioning, it's pretty much exclusively for chasing. Maybe a case could be made for escaping as well, tho by itself it's not much of an escape tool.
I'd rather not have GB for chasing. You have a slow and sprint, and work with Phage/FM and IBG, so you have options when it comes to perma-slows. MS from Shiv/TF as well.
Besides, Alacrity Swiftness boots = only chasing power you'll ever need
Alright so I am sold on Gangplank being a very strong top laner again in s3.
I have been starting mp5 thingy, ward, 1 mana potion and 4 health potions. This lets me sit back and farm with Q while being safe early. I grab philo stone on my first back as GP needs early mp5 and he works really well with shurelias and he is a very safe laner so i do not mind getting gp5 on him.
I max W in most lanes, it is extremely mana efficient and a TON of health. Usually Q next for a stronger nuke. Against weaker laners Q max may be best but I really prefer W>Q>E.
Even going gp5 he supports ganks like a beast, he is Gangplank. Auto Q auto is 21% slow on top of whatever CC your jungler has and when you hit 6 you have a very powerful long range slow.
My build tends to evolve like this:
Philo-> Avarice, boots sometimes boots 2 next, Warmogs, Shurelias, Shiv (good for poking with his Q and for AoE farm)
I find these 3 items to be his "core" as you will. After this everything is situational. I have gone IBG, Triforce, Frozen Heart, Randuins ETC. Resists and CDR are his best stats after his core. E up time, W downtime and spam that Q.
I've recently bought gp and I instantly fell in love with his kit. I think he is really strong in the current top meta against almost every laner as you can choose to either level parrrley for stronger harass and better farm or orange for really strong sustain in hard lanes. Even in bad matchups you can stay back and q farm to avoid fights.
I've found an interesting guide Advocating rushing a bork if you dont fall behind early and even though it seems inferior to other similar items, its passive really helps making his poke significant in mid game before you are fully build.
I've been going either directly into bork or against very hard lanes (yorick) or heavy ap damage dealers I'd get a chalice first to spam w without going oom. After bork you can build Warmogs/Frozen Fist/Visage/Mallet depending on the enemies team composition. And later you get some crit item to make you even deadlier, I like to go either static shiv or Atmas if I need the armor.
For skills I usually max q first if its against an easy opponent like e.g. Volibear, Teemo, etc. , while I max w first against hard lanes like fiora, pantheon, darius or yorick. e is last obviously. Your ult is especially usefull early and mid game as it can turn around even 3v2s if you hit it really good.
And once you are fully build , you just demolish with bork, crit items and frozen fist slows. You can peel, kill squishies and have an ad and speed steroid for your whole team and an aoe slow.
I'm surprised I don't see more GP in arranged considering his ult is global. I think it's why Shen is so strong in arranged.
And I hope to one day see like a 5man commit top and bot at the same time where like karthus and soraka ult with an Ashe or Ez ult flying across the map to let the team pick up a few kills.
If you run GP with another bruiser bot and have the ad in a solo lane, you actually get a decent comp since now GP can get his important farm up a bit more than just in a solo lane
So the thing that I've recently found both incredibly interesting and incredibly frustrating about GP is that, well, he works with damn near every item in the game as long as it isn't pure AP. Now this is interesting because it means you have a million and one build paths and two games will rarely be the same. It's frustrating, though, because it also makes him a nightmare to "theorycraft" into an optimal build. You can be full tank, pure crit, pure AD, "bruiser style" (as malevolent as that term seems to be around here), or even aura support. You can use any number of mastery or rune setups with near equal efficiency in ways few other champions get to enjoy. You can focus on Q poking, sustained damage, peeling, or burst with good results all around.
Especially frustrating for me because I like to sit around and theorycraft champs when I'm not playing, and there really isn't one thing that you can centralize on GP with. Like with Riven, as long as you get BT/BC/GA in some combination at some point or another you're on the right track.
But right now I think I've centralized on the idea of a core of one or two "damage" item(s), supported by "bruisery-tank" (a completely nonsensical term) items around it. In S2, this would be easy. You get TF and then Metagolem that shit, or Fratmog's back when it was the rage. Nowadays, there are a double handful of choices for your "core", and even more for your "tankiness".
Core:
-Hydra: My personal favorite right now. Farming, AD, sustain, AoE to help your mediocre teamfights. The quick burst you can get from Auto-Q-Hydra-Auto can downright melt an opponent. However, it's not really a poke item unless you have more AD to back it up, so you rarely get those satisfying Q deathsplosions.
-TF: The old standby. I dislike it, though, favoring IBG as a personal preference. Still, it is the one-stop-shop for every stat GP wants and 2 passives that he can utilize like few other champs.
-BotRK: This item is supposedly broken but... eh. Unless they're all stacking pure health, it's not as much AD as other items, it isn't really helping you kill carries, and you already have a good slow on your passive (plus IBG or FMallet if you got one). I guess the nuke is nice, but I'm taking a pass on this one.
-Shiv/IE: IE can probably work fine on its own, but I don't think you can really run Shiv + tank items and expect to be relevant. This is the classic "wtf did he just crit me for half my health? dear God make him stop" combo, similar to TF+IE but significantly cheaper.
-BT: I suppose this works? But Hydra's active + passive helps out your AoE for pushing and farming (which GP likes a lot) for only 25 less AD and a similar pricepoint.
Tankiness:
-IBG: The best, in my opinion. Winning combination of Spellblade for your Q, CDR, and Armor. What's not to love?
-SV: One of two great MR items for him. The tankier version, I guess, if you love Oranges and are soaking your team's damage.
-Maw: The damage-y-er MR item. Nice in my book because you can grab a Hex in lane and feel better than sitting on just a Negatron. At least I do.
-FMallet/Warmog's + Atma's: I tried this old style for a bit, but I think it sucks. Atma's is too nerfed, straight health isn't as good on GP, and IBG is just as good of sticking power as FMallet if not better. Atma's is ok I guess if you go Shiv/IE for more critz.
-GA: Of course this item is good why the fuck do I have to spell it out
Other items that I couldn't really put in either category:
-Tear/Manamune/Muramananana: I'm not a fan. People fucking love this item. I mean yeah sure big mana pool, nice additional damage on autos/Q, decent amount of AD, sure I can get that. I just never felt like "Oh man if I had a Tear/Muramana my build would be off the hook!". Maybe I just suck.
-LW: I want to get this item all the time because fucking armor late in the game, but seriously I'm not going to buy it over a core damage item or risk my tankiness by getting it alongside one of them.
-Chalice: Like Tear but worst in my opinion. At least Tear is giving you some damage and a flat mana pool to spam in teamfights, Chalice is just like "Imma sit in your inventory to help you farm and then be fucking useless once mid/late game starts so you better sell me".
-Zephyr: who the fuck do you think you are get that shit out of here unless you rich as fuck
Anyway I think I personally like Hydra/IBG/(Maw or SV) as kind of my "Core to aim for". This lets you rush Hydra or get early Sheen in lanes you can bully, get Glacial in hard AD lanes, or get Hex/Nega in hard AP lanes, all while shooting for a balanced, powerful core that gives decent poke, sustained damage, and defense. I just personally prefer a balanced build like such, though I could imagine Shiv/Muramana or Shiv/IE as kind of a nice poke core if you're not playing with a teamfight team. Not to mention such a build would be much more damage than Hydra/IBG/SV. I just find myself playing more of a brawler role than a high damage role in most games due to my simpleminded playstyle. I fully expect plenty of people to work better with a squishy, crit/poke oriented build. Same reason I can't play assassins, I guess.
Mind you this is the rambling of a man who's running on about 5 hours of sleep in the past 4 days and has imbibed enough stomach/throat medicine and caffeine to cause serious medical problems in a small elephant.
I have a giant project that's going live tomorrow and took the time to babble about a champion what the fuck is wrong with me
On May 09 2013 00:45 Requizen wrote: So the thing that I've recently found both incredibly interesting and incredibly frustrating about GP is that, well, he works with damn near every item in the game as long as it isn't pure AP. Now this is interesting because it means you have a million and one build paths and two games will rarely be the same. It's frustrating, though, because it also makes him a nightmare to "theorycraft" into an optimal build. You can be full tank, pure crit, pure AD, "bruiser style" (as malevolent as that term seems to be around here), or even aura support. You can use any number of mastery or rune setups with near equal efficiency in ways few other champions get to enjoy. You can focus on Q poking, sustained damage, peeling, or burst with good results all around.
Especially frustrating for me because I like to sit around and theorycraft champs when I'm not playing, and there really isn't one thing that you can centralize on GP with. Like with Riven, as long as you get BT/BC/GA in some combination at some point or another you're on the right track.
But right now I think I've centralized on the idea of a core of one or two "damage" item(s), supported by "bruisery-tank" (a completely nonsensical term) items around it. In S2, this would be easy. You get TF and then Metagolem that shit, or Fratmog's back when it was the rage. Nowadays, there are a double handful of choices for your "core", and even more for your "tankiness".
Core:
-Hydra: My personal favorite right now. Farming, AD, sustain, AoE to help your mediocre teamfights. The quick burst you can get from Auto-Q-Hydra-Auto can downright melt an opponent. However, it's not really a poke item unless you have more AD to back it up, so you rarely get those satisfying Q deathsplosions.
-TF: The old standby. I dislike it, though, favoring IBG as a personal preference. Still, it is the one-stop-shop for every stat GP wants and 2 passives that he can utilize like few other champs.
-BotRK: This item is supposedly broken but... eh. Unless they're all stacking pure health, it's not as much AD as other items, it isn't really helping you kill carries, and you already have a good slow on your passive (plus IBG or FMallet if you got one). I guess the nuke is nice, but I'm taking a pass on this one.
-Shiv/IE: IE can probably work fine on its own, but I don't think you can really run Shiv + tank items and expect to be relevant. This is the classic "wtf did he just crit me for half my health? dear God make him stop" combo, similar to TF+IE but significantly cheaper.
-BT: I suppose this works? But Hydra's active + passive helps out your AoE for pushing and farming (which GP likes a lot) for only 25 less AD and a similar pricepoint.
Tankiness:
-IBG: The best, in my opinion. Winning combination of Spellblade for your Q, CDR, and Armor. What's not to love?
-SV: One of two great MR items for him. The tankier version, I guess, if you love Oranges and are soaking your team's damage.
-Maw: The damage-y-er MR item. Nice in my book because you can grab a Hex in lane and feel better than sitting on just a Negatron. At least I do.
-FMallet/Warmog's + Atma's: I tried this old style for a bit, but I think it sucks. Atma's is too nerfed, straight health isn't as good on GP, and IBG is just as good of sticking power as FMallet if not better. Atma's is ok I guess if you go Shiv/IE for more critz.
-GA: Of course this item is good why the fuck do I have to spell it out
Other items that I couldn't really put in either category:
-Tear/Manamune/Muramananana: I'm not a fan. People fucking love this item. I mean yeah sure big mana pool, nice additional damage on autos/Q, decent amount of AD, sure I can get that. I just never felt like "Oh man if I had a Tear/Muramana my build would be off the hook!". Maybe I just suck.
-LW: I want to get this item all the time because fucking armor late in the game, but seriously I'm not going to buy it over a core damage item or risk my tankiness by getting it alongside one of them.
-Chalice: Like Tear but worst in my opinion. At least Tear is giving you some damage and a flat mana pool to spam in teamfights, Chalice is just like "Imma sit in your inventory to help you farm and then be fucking useless once mid/late game starts so you better sell me".
-Zephyr: who the fuck do you think you are get that shit out of here unless you rich as fuck
Anyway I think I personally like Hydra/IBG/(Maw or SV) as kind of my "Core to aim for". This lets you rush Hydra or get early Sheen in lanes you can bully, get Glacial in hard AD lanes, or get Hex/Nega in hard AP lanes, all while shooting for a balanced, powerful core that gives decent poke, sustained damage, and defense. I just personally prefer a balanced build like such, though I could imagine Shiv/Muramana or Shiv/IE as kind of a nice poke core if you're not playing with a teamfight team. Not to mention such a build would be much more damage than Hydra/IBG/SV. I just find myself playing more of a brawler role than a high damage role in most games due to my simpleminded playstyle. I fully expect plenty of people to work better with a squishy, crit/poke oriented build. Same reason I can't play assassins, I guess.
Mind you this is the rambling of a man who's running on about 5 hours of sleep in the past 4 days and has imbibed enough stomach/throat medicine and caffeine to cause serious medical problems in a small elephant.
I have a giant project that's going live tomorrow and took the time to babble about a champion what the fuck is wrong with me
Hey, I play GP as my main champ (Mind that I'm a bronze 3 scrub) and personally I really like Botrk on him. HP stacking is still incredibly common especially on junglers (rushing kindle gem is pretty much a given now) and top laners, so you actually benefit alot from the active. It's biggest selling point is the slow though. You often just need those last 2 autos or that one parrley to get a kill but your oponent gets away due to you not having any gap closers. The botrk active effectively gives you just that, a point and click gapcloser or escape. You don't even need to use it on a tank, target the ADC or Midlaner if out of position and together with your passive slow they can't move an inch while you batter them down.
As for defensive items I prefer IBG aswell, it gives you perfect stats and the slow is really nice aswell. Sometimes we won games by me flash parrrleying someone with IBG and then my whole team jumped that guy for a win.
Also I think going critplank should not be used outside of normals. It worked a couple times when I was forced to go bot lane (lol) but my oponnents where just plain bad and couldn't deal with a bruiser. As Crit plank you just ask to get bursted in 2 seconds
I usually go for botrk or hydra if they got a squishy team. Next is either Spirit visage or IBG (maybe aegis?) You could get a giantsbelt item, but it kinda makes orange worse. If fed you can skip IBG for frozen mallet too.
Manamune is not worth it, as your mana pool is big enough lategame. I prefer chalice when in an ap lane, but I sell it later for Visage.
Lately I've jungled GP too, it's not as good as your FotM jungler, but atleast fun.
My goto build as jungler is Lizard elder Locket Aegis and IBG again. Works pretty well too, but you notice the damage falloff lategame.
On May 09 2013 01:28 Juicyfruit wrote: What about Spirit of the Lizard Elder?
Excellent as fuck for Jungleplank. Could work well on Pokeplank alongside Muramana, kind of jumping on the All Blue Ezreal build. But, like ABEz, Pokeplank is already not that great if you're not ahead by a fairly far margin. And GP has very few lanes where he's guaranteed to be ahead. On the other hand, it kind of makes you a pseudo-Irelia with super mixed damage. It's one of those big mid game "I have a lead and want to hold on to it and/or end right now" items, but GP is generally not going to be super ahead in the mid game.
@OmegaKnetus, I would prefer BorK more often if I was in a peeling role. It's a great item if you're fighting off the beefy bastards diving your carry, but if you're going for their squishy carries, it's much less useful. So yeah, depending on who you're spending most of your time on.
And yes, I feel like Critpank is just too cheesy. Funny, occasionally can RNG your way to a 3-0 lane, but I prefer stability over gimmicks, so I'm with you on that one.
Jungle GP is cool. You can pseudo-Shen and just farm then Ult for counterganks while making bank off of Parrrley, but he doesn't really fit in with the jungler meta. A lot of teams want the super-tanky, low item jungler like Jarvan/Zac/Hec/Naut/etc, whereas you're pretty low ganking power and need to farm up your items. Good if you can convince your top and support to play super tanky (Malph top + Leona supp is good) and then tell your team not to expect many ganks, but pulling that off in Solo Queue is a nightmare.
Honestly, I think I have the perfect GP build and I fail to see how it could be improved. Depending on how hard the lane is, you get a Philo. You either get 1 2 or 3 points into W depending on the difficulty of the lane, again. Then max Q. Rush a Trinity force, then get a shiv. After that, get an IE and a LW. 6th item can be defensive like GA or some lifesteal, maybe Hydra. I definitely think people overrate Hydra on GP. For summoner spells I like taking flash tp or flash exhaust, depending on if I have kill potential or not. (if I don't have it anyway, might as well just get TP and farm all game) The build is very expensive, so expect to farm for at least 30 minutes. People will often out-scale you in the early-mid game, but you're very strong under turret and you can just keep farming with Q. Use your ultimate like a Shen would (unless you can use it to kill your opponent in top) I've tried going tanky instead of this damage build many times, but honestly I just think it's worse. GP isn't meant to stand there poking people with a little stick, he's meant to Q squishies, poke and provide utility. If you really want to do tank GP, get a Trinity Force (you can get warden's mail if vs say Irelia before it) then finish your Randuin, then a Bulwark or a SV depending on how much magic damage they have and if somebody else is already getting an Aegis. Then get a Warmog and a FH. You don't really peel very well and you don't gain any bonuses to survivability (except oranges, but I think they're better used when playing damage) so I really think that the damage is superior, but I still go tanky when the situation needs it
In case you need an argument: You are even already getting a philo, which means you could just buy spirit stone instead, and then pay 1300 gold for a BF sword with 10% cdr and burn. That is like paying 1000 for a BF sword. How can you not want a BF sword for 1000 gold on gangplank? I think you will manage without the gold/10 when you have so much more immediate power, no?
EPT
