How to win lane as Gangplank against Volibear · 54.13% win rate over 593 Emerald+ games · Updated 2026-07-27
| Stage | Favoured | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Level 1 | Even / skill | You are both weak at level 1, but his W bite out-sustains your auto poke in a short trade, so it is a coin-flip you should not start. |
| Level 2 | Volibear | Volibear hits his dive spike first: empowered-Q dash plus its stun lands before your kegs are online and he heals the trade with W bite. |
| Level 3 | Volibear | Still his window — your kegs have long cooldowns and low HP he free-hits to deny, and his Q-dash all-in beats you while you have no real waveclear. |
| Levels 4-5 | Gangplank | Second keg and Parrrley point let you Q-into-keg from outside his dash range, so a dashless Volibear eats the slow before he reaches you. |
| Level 6 | Even / skill | Level 6 is roughly even — his R leap disables a tower and shields the dive, but your Cannon Barrage zones it, so neither ult wins the straight duel outright. |
| First item | Gangplank | Sheen/Essence Reaver empowers Parrrley and your chained barrel burst starts melting him through his tank stats — force every trade here. |
| Two+ items | Gangplank | Chained keg detonations burst him faster than he scales, and W cleanses his only hard CC (the Q stun) — just avoid dying under his R-disabled tower. |
Volibear's early is genuinely scary for you here: at 2-3 his empowered Q (Thundering Smash) dashes in and stuns, and his W bite chunks plus heals him before a single Powder Keg is set. Your barrels have long cooldowns and low HP, so he can walk up and free-hit one to deny it. Don't place kegs aggressively where he can pop them by walking through, and don't step into Q-dash range to throw a Parrrley. Last-hit from the back, accept some poke, and respect that his W bite heals him so short trades go his way. Hold W (Remove Scurvy) for his Q stun, not for poke.
The full Gangplank vs Volibear report continues with the mid-game plan, the late-game and teamfight plan, every power spike to play around, and the win conditions for both sides — plus cooldown tracking and the live enemy-jungle tracker inside the app.
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Playing the other side? Volibear vs Gangplank guide →
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