Since hacking was pretty much all we wanted to do as kids, allow us to guide you to life vicariously through League of Legends' own scourge of the high seas, Gangplank. Iconic for its ability to pull out of any sticky situation, as well as fragment entire teams for half their health, the Gangplank has a hard-to-navigate start to the game that proves to be extremely rewarding after 25 minutes.
Playing at the weak point
An unfortunate situation has arisen in both pro play and solo queue, where the top lane is pretty much ignored by both teams after five minutes of play. How do you deal with this? By playing one of the best duelists in the League and the safest laners.
Gangplank, the outlier that it is, doesn't really care about being too isolated. A pretty binary trading pattern of forcing Grab the Immortals and then Q-ing an enemy for a good chunk of health early in the game while knocking out the waves helps the Pirate King stay on top.
Unconventional use of W
Part of what makes Gangplank so good at being left alone - and escaping some slippery situations even Lissandra players with the most inventories would struggle - is his iconic W - Remove Scurvy. The ability immediately cleans up any negative effects of Gangplank, while providing a little healing.
The obvious uses for this ability include crowd control and the like, but you can also use it to suppress some particularly heinous ultimate abilities - Mordekaiser, Urgot, and Camille without worry in the world.
Global influence
Besides its innate scalability and security, the real reason Gangplank is so good at its isolated gameplay is that it can affect the map from any lane. Use your R - Cannon Barrage to clear waves if it looks like you're set up for a dive, check neutral targets like Baron Nashor and Dragon, or set up ganks by cutting an escape route.
Gangplank's utility is both unmatched and immense - almost as much as its category team combat damage.
