Gangplanks Ult Upgrades and the Silver Serpent Cost

I've seen it a lot on the boards and forums that the cost seems too high. I actually was in the same boat with Gangplanks rework originally (pun intended.) After playing a few more games and trying him out I think that I was wrong and would like to explain what I figured out works. First: Use your barrels to farm minions in lane, practice setting up the barrel on the caster minions while you are starting off and try to lower a couple down when you can. Not a huge increase but it helps. Focus on farming normally without trying to stack a lot of serpents early because you need damage.

Second: Build damage first. I always went straight for tri-force but I am more and more thinking that is a bad idea. Building damage makes your barrels do more so you can one shot minion waves with barrel and parley.

Third: Ravenous Hydra. If you really want to farm the SS then get this first. I rushed it my last game before anything else. What I found was not only that I got more serpents early --it procs on the barrel-- but also that I didn't have to focus as hard on farming. NOTE: I am not an expert at farming in any way. The game where I rushed Ravenous Hydra I had over 1000 silver serpents which bought two upgrades and the game was still over by 35 minutes. I had my first upgrade on ulti by 16 minutes.

While I understand that a champion needing an item to make his kit work better isn't ideal. I was having so much fun after I started this route. I understand also that I am likely not the first to figure this out, I just want to put it out there for anyone like me who hasn't yet. It makes his kit with explosive barrels a real blast (pun intended) to play.