Talk:Gangplank/@comment-98.249.221.78-20121123172118

I'm trying to decide on whether I want to buy Gangplank or Pantheon for my top arsenal. I have other champions I want to buy first so I'll have time, but I was thinking about this choice today.

The main reason I'd want either of these champions, and the main reason I'd play either of them over Nunu, Irelia, Riven, etc., is because of their ability to poke, which really helps against quite a few top laners; however, the biggest difference in these champions that concerns me is the nature of their poke, i.e. Pantheon's Spear Shot NOT applying on-hit effects while Gangplank's Parrley does. Because Parrley applies on-hit, it can be rendered useless against Teemo's Blinding Dart, Jax's Counterstrike, and Pantheon's passive, where Spear Shot isn't bothered by any of these abilities. However, because Parrley applies on-hit effects, has a 1.0 total AD scaling, and can critically strike, Parrley can hit a lot harder than Spear Shot.

Poke aside, Pantheon and Gangplank also have different tools they can use in lane. The most obvious difference is Pantheon's passive, which lets him block auto-attacks and auto-attack-related abilities like Bladesurge, Parrley, Empower, Crippling Strike, etc. Pantheon also has hard CC, which Gangplank doesn't, and better trading potential with Heartseeker Strike combined with Black Cleaver. Gangplank's only main damaging ability is his Q, although he can amplify his damage with Raise Morale. He's also much harder to gank thanks to Remove Scurvy and his farming capability with Parrley, and he has team presence even during the laning phase because of his ultimate.

In teamfights, Pantheon doesn't really have a lot to offer unless he has already built Black Cleaver and some extra defense. What he'll most often be doing is dishing out a little magic damage with R, lowering armor with HSS, and focus a high-priority target on the other team. Gangplank, on the other hand, has less overall damage but a lot more utility to his team. His R applies an AoE slow and generally ends up doing much more magic damage than Skyfall, and the same ultimate can be saved to facilitate a retreat if necessary. Raise Morale works in a similar fashion, with the added bonus of amplifying everyone's AD (with a melee jungler and a carry, this can make something of a difference). Remove Scurvy lets Gangplank soak hard CC for his team, and Parrley can help in chasing down some unfortunate stragglers if the fight was favorable. Remove Scurvy in particular is very helpful for Gangplank, since it lets him survive against CC where Pantheon would be less fortunate.

Whew... well those are the arguments for either side. Thank you for reading if you read this far.