Counter Guide

How to Beat Gangplank

Matchup Guide · Evergreen · 3 Counter Picks

Gangplank spends nine minutes doing nothing to you, and then one barrel chain takes most of your health bar from outside your range.

The Gangplank matchup feels unfair because the punishment arrives all at once, from a distance you weren't playing around. He farms safely, he scales, and the fight happens on his schedule rather than yours. Where he lands on our solo queue tier list swings hard with who's playing him, and in the hands of someone who's put the hours in, the games go exactly like this. What makes it beatable is simple: he has no dash, no blink and no escape of any kind, and the barrels take a moment to arm.

Matchup Snapshot Gangplank, the Saltwater Scourge

Where You Meet HimTop Lane

Damage TypePhysical, with magic burn

Why He Is FrustratingHe farms from safety and deletes you from range

MobilityNone

Biggest ThreatPowder Keg [E]

Hardest CounterKayle

What a Counter Needs

A way to reach him, since he has no escape once you're actually there
Enough early aggression to matter before the barrels come online
Attention on the kegs themselves, because a keg killed early is a combo that never happens

Patch 26.18 Matchup Data

Who Beats Gangplank on Patch 26.18

Best Picks Into Gangplank

Kayle770 games56.1%
Trundle655 games54.8%
Cho'Gath1,127 games54.3%
Tryndamere1,448 games54.2%
Sion992 games54.1%

Picks Gangplank Beats

Pantheon813 games44.2%
Gnar891 games46.0%
Renekton1,321 games46.2%
Akali720 games46.7%

Win rates are for the champion listed, in the top lane against Gangplank. They come from Nerfplz's own ranked solo queue games on Patch 26.18, Silver and above, 55,053 Gangplank games in all. Only matchups that show up in at least 1% of those games are listed.

Gangplank Overview

Strengths: What Makes Him Dangerous

Powder Keg [E] costs no mana, chains between kegs, and spreads his full attack damage across everyone caught in the blast.
You can't starve him out of the lane. He last hits from 625 units and gets paid extra gold for doing it, so zoning a Gangplank off CS the way you'd zone any other top laner mostly doesn't work.
The setup you were counting on has an answer. Remove Scurvy [W] cleanses crowd control and heals, so the engage you saved for him isn't the engage you thought it was.
Cannon Barrage [R] is global. He changes fights he never walks to, and it slows everyone caught underneath.
Short trades cost more than they look like they should, because his auto attacks carry a burn (Trial by Fire [Passive] lights you up every few seconds, so it's basically a free extra hit).

Weaknesses: Where You Get In

He has no mobility at all. No dash, no blink, no movement ability. If you reach him, the conversation is over.
Kegs can die to a single hit. They have a visible arm-up window, and that window is the counterplay to the chain.
His early levels are weak. Before the barrels are online he loses most short trades outright as long as you stay away from his passive procs. He knows it too, which is why he'd rather farm with Parrrley [Q] than trade.
Mana. Parrrley [Q] spam without last hits drains him, and a Gangplank out of mana can't set up anything.
Remove Scurvy [W] is one cleanse on a 22 second cooldown (14 once it's maxed). A second source of crowd control lands on a champion with no answer left.

Countering Gangplank

Based on the strengths and weaknesses above, beating Gangplank comes down to champions who can accomplish at least one of the following:

Kill the keg first. One well timed basic attack removes it. Most Gangplank burst comes from a chain nobody attacked while it was arming.
Force the fight at levels 2 to 5. He's at his weakest before the barrel pattern is real, and it's the stretch of the lane most players spend farming.
Bring a second crowd control tool. Remove Scurvy [W] cleanses one thing. The second one lands on a melee champion with no escape.
Stand away from the kegs. Distance from Gangplank himself matters a lot less. The damage comes from the blast radius, and the radius is visible before it goes off.

If you're already locked into the matchup without any of those tools, these strategies still work:

Playing a Bad Gangplank Matchup

Track his mana rather than his health. A Gangplank who's been farming with Parrrley [Q] is often one bad trade away from having no answer at all.

Buy your boots before your damage component if the poke is landing. Most of the barrel damage is avoidable by movement, and move speed is what makes the movement work.

Assume there's one more barrel than the ones you can see. Good Gangplank players drop the last keg of a chain at the last moment (that's the double and triple barrel combo), so the blast lands somewhere you thought was safe.

Play for the mid game rather than the late game. Cannon Barrage [R] makes him relevant everywhere. Most champions can't out-scale him, so get ahead on the map before it matters.

Best Gangplank Counters

Gangplank needs space and he needs his barrels. Olaf takes the space, Mordekaiser takes the barrels, and Kayle waits until her range does both.

Kayle Outscales Him

Kayle's early lane is weak, and she knows it. Here it barely matters. Gangplank has no dash and no hard crowd control to turn a lead into a kill, and Celestial Blessing [W] heals back most of what Parrrley [Q] takes off her.

Divine Ascent [Passive] turns her ranged as she levels. Radiant Blast [Q] then reaches 900 units against Parrrley [Q]'s 625, and the lane is hers. Divine Judgment [R] makes her invulnerable too, which covers the moment a barrel chain finally goes off under her.

Olaf Runs Him Down

Undertow [Q] reaches 1000 units, shreds armor, slows, and resets its own cooldown if Olaf picks the axe back up, so he closes the gap for free, again and again. Against a champion with no dash and no blink, that decides the matchup.

Reckless Swing [E] then deals true damage, so any armor Gangplank buys does nothing about it, and Berserker Rage [Passive] gives Olaf more attack speed and lifesteal the lower he gets. He can cleanse one thing with Remove Scurvy [W]. He can't cleanse an Olaf.

Mordekaiser Takes the Barrels Away

Gangplank's damage lives in the kegs he's spread around the lane. Realm of Death [R] drags him somewhere they aren't. For seven seconds it's a melee duel against a champion who's stolen part of his stats, and Remove Scurvy [W] can't cleanse it, since the realm isn't crowd control.

In lane, Death's Grasp [E] pulls him off the back of his wave whenever he farms from distance. Indestructible [W] turns whatever he does land into a shield Mordekaiser can cash in for health. Gangplank hates that trade.

Itemizing Against Gangplank

Gangplank deals physical damage with a magic burn layered on, and his burst arrives all at once rather than over time:

Randuin's Omen is the standout here, because it cuts critical strike damage and that's what the barrel chain is built on. Plated Steelcaps handles the basic attacks in between, Bramble Vest applies grievous wounds to the Remove Scurvy [W] heal, and Death's Dance turns a keg chain that would have killed you into damage spread across the next few seconds.