First off, and this what people will notice first, this Ren has ignite and exhaust. While there are those who will say that not running an escape is a bad idea, it should be considered that Ren has slice/dice- each of which move Ren about the same distance as a flash. This ability has around a 10 second CD at max level with CDR. With that in mind, Ren has an excellent escape built into the champion and it only needs to be utilized properly. Instead of taking another escape, we build on Ren's weaknesses.

Ren has a great tool kit to get a hold of a mage or ad carry and be disruptive. He does, however, lack tools necessary to have an edge against many fighters.

Many fighters have the ability to self heal generously, either through healing abilities or life stealing. Ren's Cull the Meek does net some life on use, but it is a small amount on a cd, and hence he can not allow his opponent to self heal. The best solution to this, is to be very aggressive in the lane. Being aggressive means that mana users will spend their mana more rapidly than they are able to regen it and life-stealers won't be able to hit creeps without being hit back by you, netting them no life gain.

Being aggressive is often grounds for picking a fight. And a fight early on is exactly what Ren is setup to handle.

Ren is already able to get into or out of a fight because of his tool kit. These summoner skills allow him to win the fight once he is there.

The second key to successful Ren is the Phage/ Frozen Mallet. Ren is a very good initiator/ganker. He is able to close on a target rapidly using slice/dice. Because of this, he is often able to close and get into melee range. The mallet allows the rest of his team to catch up to the target and for you to stay on the target as it limps away.

Phage/Frozen mallet is a core item for Renekton, no question!

The third key is Quicksilver Sash get one and learn when to use it and Ren becomes truly formidable. Cleanse away exhaust and ignite, channeled ults, and targeted CCs and find Ren's true power of being really hard to shut down.

With this build(s), I boast a 82% win percentage in ranked games for season 2. I use the same build(s) both in 5s and in 3s with little variance from game to game.

Pros:

Can stay in or out of melee well with his tool kit allowing guerrilla tactics in the lane.
Inherently sturdy
Good mobility
High damage ult with defensive component
Can prime RP to mitigate silence
Can put out impressive early damage with fury system
Double dash allows to safely build without an escape
Double dash allows to reach the squishies in the back
Dash allows to avoid skill shots and hop walls to escape or ambush
Scales really well with CDR and Armor Penetration

Cons:

Limited range
Vulnerable to interrupt (silence can be devastating)
Lower sustained damage than most fighters early game
Relies on fury to deal heavy damage and decays fury out of combat
Doesn't scale well with crit, attack speed, or life steal
Needs to survive for the ult's duration to get full benefit of the ult
Ren's mobility ability, health regen, and harass tool push the lane

Perks of this build:

QSS cleanses taunts, stuns, and silences to allow Ren to be effective
High amounts of AD and defensive stats
Ghostblade adds mobility and sustained damage for when cds are down or when closing on opponents
Sunfire cloak provides a nice armor boost, needed health boost, and 35 damage per second in aoe.

Renekton is a very powerful, and under-rated fighter.

He is constantly overlooked as a top tier champion, largely because most players do not know how to build him effectively.

Renekton's tool kit allows him to be an excellent assassin, strong fighter, and powerful initiator. All this on top of being a strong duelist OR dual lane partner.

Ren is an effective solo target dps and also has great potential as an AoE damage source in a team fight. He passively deals damage with his ULT providing him with extra assist gold during team engagements. Ren is also an excellent farmer.

Ren has a fairly strong early game, yet scales decently into the late game.

For all these reasons, Ren is a solid pick for a team's fighter.

Exhaust is for anyone who you need to slow at range, an armor shred, a mr shred, and heavy damage debuff. This is by far the best summoner for Ren as it does so much for a decently long time. Exhaust will help ren control the battlefield more readily and give him an edge against his opponent in the lane phase.

Ignite is a very handy tool for Ren. Since ren largely lacks self healing of his own (due to the nerf to cull months ago). Being able to constrain his opponent's self-healing in a duel is highly beneficial. Ren also lacks any type of mid/long range finishing ability. This makes finishing opponents near turrets difficult, especially prior to buying a phage. Ignite will serve to act as a bursting tool, a heal limiting utility tool, and finally a long range finisher.

Many players claim that Ren needs flash. However, I find that investing in boots in the early game and then quickly investing into the on hit slow of phage/FM, you eliminate this need by being able to catch an keep most mages, while being able to kite most melee. In team fights, slice/dice in combination with a Ren's ult, defensive stating, and a QSS makes Ren both slippery and sturdy, making him an undesirable focus target. Due to Ren's inability to self heal and return to a fight, like some other fighters, it's important for Ren to be able to get into a fight and stay in (win). Hence we focus on combat oriented summoner skills instead of the utility/mobility of a summoner skills such as flash or ghost.

Flash is also a solid summoner skill for Ren. I would suggest running flash when you know you are going to be fighting some kind of mage early on in the lane.

Flash will help ren dodge skill shots and close on opponents that normally he couldn't. I take flash on match ups where exhaust will do me little good.

In a ranked match, do your best to counter your opponent in your lane.

I go offense defense 19/11/0 for Ren.

With the new masteries, offense highly benefits Ren. Picking up the extra armor penetration, not only helps Ren's basic attacks and bonus damage from attack damage, but also the base damage of his abilities. For this reason, armor penetration provides Ren (and other physical casters) more benefit than any other type of champion.

Hence we go for [weapon expertise] in the offense tree. To buff our summoner skills we also grab [summoner's wrath]. [Brute Force] being the obvious filler to get to second tier offense tree and [Alacrity] to unlock [weapon expertise]. We then grab the physical damage oriented abilities on down the tree until we unlock [Sunder].

We then venture into the defense tree to make Ren more tanky in the lane, to give him more lane presence.

We grab as much free armor (especially useful early on), MR, and health/hp regen (also very useful early on) as possible with the remaining points. If you know you'll be up against magic damage early on, take 4 points of MR and 1 point of armor instead.

Renekton's main harass and self repair is still his cull the meek. The ability also scales well with AD and has a low CD.

For these reasons it is and should be the skill leveled first without question.

I grab slice/dice second level because often I begin to harass enemy champions at this point.
If against a champion that can heavily punish harassers, wait til lvl 3 so that you have all your skills to harass with.

At level 3 I get RP.

I then max cull the meek as much as possible while increasing damage and the lifesteal component as well. Cull is a great ability to generate fury, and steal some health. It also resets Ren's swing timer.

Keep your ult max level possible (of course).

Level slice/dice second. The damage scaling on this ability is higher than RP since it can be used twice. The lowering of this ability's CD is essential to chasing, and escaping since you don't have flash. In addition it allows Ren to consistently reposition himself in fights to dodge skill shots and stay in the target's melee range/ kite his attacker (very useful against many fighters).

Armor Pen Marks and Quints will greatly improve you damage dealing capability. They are a necessity. Many guides suggest AD runes over armor pen runes. The two start off about equal (a very slight edge to AD at level 1 and 2) but the armor pen are strictly better for Ren level 3 and beyond. This is true because Armor Pen will actually increase the effective base damage dealt by his abilities. At level 1 and 2, prior to getting his full kit. Auto Attacks are the bulk of Rens damage. Shortly after, however, the AAs will merely be a filler and while AD will be applied in Ren's ratios for his abilities, it is applied in a sub 1 ratio and the AD will have no effect on the base damage of his skills (which scale well and level with Ren).

I grab MR/level glyphs, these will compliment the large health pool you get and protect you against mages and %damage.

I run armor seals instead of armor/level seals for 2 reasons. First off, having high armor value at the start gives you an edge against the fighter you are usually paired against in the lane. Secondly, the purchase of a [chain vest] is early in the build which will buff your armor just as the flat armor runes begin to fall behind their /level counterparts.

IF you are up against magic damage, it is a good idea to have a second set of runes with flat MR glyphs and hp regen seals and use this instead. I would recommend leaving the other runes as they are.

I usually begin the game with boots, and 3 hp potions. The boots will help you harass effectively (see play style for explanation). The potions will give Ren additional lane presence. If I plan on farming and ignoring my opponent, which is a better strategy against some of the very resilient top laners, then I get a regrowth pendent.

I prefer to have the boots over the cloth armor route, usually, because Ren is more of a skill chainer harass than a sustained fighter threat compared to most fighter rivals. For this reason, it is important to be able to get in, blow CDs and get out before the opponent can land too many counter blows. The boots help Ren get distance on his target while his CDs refresh, effectively mitigating more damage than the extra armor would. Ren also needs fury to truly harass effectively, and to get fury he must hit creeps. While pushing the lane for fury is a bad idea, last hitting for it is often enough to push the creep wave along. Also, Ren's harass [Cull the meek] devastates creep waves...you will often push your wave through harassing your opponents. Boots will help Ren escape the jungler's gank even when pushed towards the enemy turret.

I first build a [the brutalizer]. This item is the highest damage/gold item available to Ren. Buffing damage, armor penetration, and CDR in one affordable package without any of the lesser stats. This is an essential early build item because without it, it is hard to keep life stealers from farming. Tryndamere will simply wail on creeps and regen hp if you can't punish him enough for ignoring you. The dps increase you'll see may surprise you once this item is purchased, unless they are very experienced and observant, it will surprise your laning opponent as well.

Your second purchase will be to upgrade those boots into Ionian Boots of Lucidity. The CDR and buff to movement speed will further your damage dealing potential, survivability, and utility.

I next build a Phage. The Phage keeps mages close and fighters far while providing damage and health. Phage combo's well with [ruthless predator] as each RP strike has a chance to proc the slow. The idea is to basically further improve your mobility advantage over your opponent in order to better range yourself according to the best strategy against your particular opponent.

I next buff Ren's health with a Giant's Belt.

Now that your hp has been buffed, it is helpful to gain another offensive tool. Upgrading [the brutalizer] into a [Youmuu's Ghostblade] improves the beneficial stats [the brutalizer] already had, while also providing Ren with an excellent assassin's tool in the active. This will allow Ren to catch/escape his opponent more readily and gives an AS buff to fill the duration between his CD refreshes.

Now that I have a good amount of health from the Giant's Belt, I purchase a Atma's Impaler. The atma's will provide as much damage as a B. F. Sword for just slightly more while also providing armor and crit chance. This makes it a substantially stronger item overall.

My next purchase is a [negatron cloak]. This item will buff Ren's lacking MR and eventually lead into a [Quicksilver Sash]. QSS is a core item for Ren, as I will now explain.

The greatest draw back of Ren, is his lack of anti-cc. Most other fighters have some sort of anti-CC mechanic or survival mechanic which allows them to be effective. Ren, however, lacks any of the sort apart from a light hp increase with his ult and light heal from his [Cull of the meek]. These pale in comparison to a spell shield, CC invulnerability, invisibility or heavy lifesteal like the slew of other fighters have.

Because of this drawback, a QSS is the preferred MR item for Ren. It allows Ren to quickly cleanse a targeted CC so that skill shot a CC chain can be dodged. This makes a focused burst on Ren much more difficult provided that you can react fast enough. The QSS is also helpful as it cleanses exhaust and ignite from the player as well as pending effects such as Zil's bombs, or damage over time effects.

A large drawback to Ren is that he can not deal damage or activate his ult while silenced. The QSS can remove silence, stuns, and even suppression to allow Ren to be effective.

This item also works well with the [Frozen Mallet]/ Phage as your target will try to CC you long enough for the FM debuff to pass and try to then kite you. Being able to cleanse that CC means disallowing the FM debuff to ever fade and often leads to a otherwise lose kill, or worse, a death.

My next move is to upgrade the phage into a Frozen Mallet. The mallet will provide consistent and brutal slows for Ren and his team. The item also further buff's Ren's health providing additional AD due to Atma's. The real winner is the 40% slowing effect however. This final purchase can be the one that wins the game.

Note: I will move the mallet up in build order if I see champions like teemo, or nidalee constantly in our jungle and escaping. This item will nearly always net a kill on an over extended scout as long as you are able to melee it one time.

My last build item is almost always Black Cleaver. This item is great for Ren as he has inherent flat armor pen in his kit, plus the ghostblade, plus runes already. The addition of the BC shreds most non-tank's armor entirely allowing ren to hit most for true damage. At that point his lack of AD scaling matters very little because the base damages of his skills will kill most carries in a single rotation.

The AS on the item also speeds up your attack animation so that auto attacks between skills can be performed more quickly.

Ren is a physical caster/fighter. That means Ren is more concentrated on stats like armor pen, CDR, and attack damage that stats like attack speed, or critical.

All of Ren's abilities reset his swing timer. That means to play Ren at max dps you need to stagger Auto Attacks and Abilities.

Slice/Dice's CD begins to reset once slice is used. That means, in order to maximize dps you should slice first, then use Cull, then use RP, then use dice.

Ren's ult is best used early rather than late. Since Ren's ult generates fury, its better to pop it prior to being in the fight to generate enough fury so that your first or second ability will be fury charged. The small amount of AoE damage lost is usually less considerable than the damage mitigated by killing the first target that much faster. Also, Ren cannot activate his ult while CC'd and hence its a common strategy to burst ren in chained CC to keep him from being able to activate it. (QSS will also help protect you from this.)

More to come soon!

This section will cover strategies to be used against each common top lane opponent. I'll go through each popular top lane enemy and show you how to combat each of their kits with yours.

Mages:

I put all mages together as you won't see them very often top lane, but it does happen from time to time. IF you know you will be fighting a mage on top there are a few things that you can do to give yourself an edge.

First off, drop 4 armor for 4 magic resist in your masteries.

Secondly, have a second rune page with flat MR glyph and hp regen seals.

Third, start with a nullmage mantle and 2 potions. This with the flat MR seals provide 75 MR at lvl 1 for a solid 43% magic damage reduction. This along with the additional effective heal that hp regen from the potions and seals provides will let you survive and nearly ignore most mages. If it is a mana user mage, try to bait some harass out of them to drain their mp, do this carefully so that the jungler has no opportunity to pick you off.

Note: Brand Swain Ahri Annie and Vladimir are mages. I don't consider any champion without a targeted ranged harass and tool kit intended for burst damage a mage.

Akali:

Akali has a very slow start but her damage and mobility greatly improve at level 6. Because she is inherently weak at the begining of the game, we want to be aggressive with her.

Akali's main harass tool is Mark of the Assassin. This ability does relatively little damage at range but if she melee's you while the mark debuff remains on you, she hits you for a substantial amount. Akali also has inherent life steal. We want bush control against Akali to keep her from constantly hitting us with mark. If she chooses to hit a creep with a mark for a last hit, go in and abuse her, but try to do as little damage to creeps as possible. If she saves her mark for you, make her choose between getting last hits or trying to retaliate. If she tries to retaliate don't get in melee range, hit her with cull and back out. If she tries to last hit then use cull and rp and then slice out. Try and get as much CS advantage on her as possible prior to level 6. If you can kill her early, great, if not make sure to keep your summoner skills available for level 6 as she will probably get aggressive with you there. If you can, engage her away from your creeps as she can ult to them to get away or to chase you and can life steal from them with her Crescent Slash. Invest into a pink ward and be quick with it if you get an opportunity to kill her. If you don't have a pink ward but have her close to death, remember you don't need to see her to hit her with cull, slice/dice, or your AoE from your ult. Ordinarily, you don't want to fight her in her cloud. Wait for it to end if you want to pick a fight as it gives her the advantage of extra defensive stats and time for cd's to refresh.

I normally will take Boots against Akali. They will help you not get counter harassed with a melee attack from Mark of the Assassin while still being able to run back and forth between harass, bushes, and last hits.

Blitzcrank:

This is an uncommon top pick, but I've seen a few. Most will start with a regrowth pendent. If this is the case, between his inherent tankiness, his passive, his item, his mobility, and his CCs, he isn't worth your time harassing. Simply free farm and if he forces an engagement, you'll be able to win easily. But don't take any unneeded risk to harass him. Try not to extend yourself and keep slice/dice for dodging his Rocket Grab. Most times they will want to setup ganks with Blitz top lane because of his obnoxious amount of CC. Play conservatively. If you are doing a draft mode, consider getting Flash against blitz as you will want to farm but ganks are more dangerous. Out farm and avoid ganks and you'll be better help for your team than he will be in a team fight. Remember to buy wards especially against a blitz to more easily avoid ganks. You'll want Boots against blitz to help you avoid being ganked.

Cho'Gath:

Cho is a somewhat popular top lane pick that features tankiness and burst damage. The problem with Cho is his weak start. We want to take advantage of this weakness. We can get early game dominance against Cho as long as we avoid Rupture. We can't fully rely on slice/dice for this however because Feral Scream has a substantial silence associated. Hence we purchase Boots and learn how to simply walk out of rupture's graphic. Keep Cho from last hitting and you'll have him out of life and mana in no time. I'd classify Ren as a hard counter to Cho because of his sustained mobility and damage in the early game.

Dr. Mundo:

How here is a guy you don't see much any more. Mundo, has an amazing harass tool in Infected Bonesaw but we can hide from it by standing behind creeps. Although he is usually tanky to begin with, he lacks hp recovery prior to obtaining his ultimate Maximum Dosage because his skills will cost him hp. We can greatly improve his hp loss by being able to bait cleaver throws and dodge them successfully. If the cleaver misses all enemies, no hp is refunded and you can literally make a mundo harass himself. Concentrate on farming and dodging his skill shot unless he over extends. Ignite is your friend in countering Maximum Dosage if he presses the issue at level 6. Harass him in the creeps and you can often force mundo to resort to last hitting with his cleaver. This is what we want as it still costs him health and is unreliable. Boots of Swiftness will help you dodge his cleavers.

Galio:

You won't see many galios against you. Mainly because he is a hard counter to mages and a lack luster tank against AD. Galio does have a nasty harass arsenal though. We want to focus on dodging Galio's spells while till being aggressive and last hitting. A good way to do this is to wait until he does use a spell and charge him, both dodging the skill shot and initiating on him in one movement. We want galio to burn all his mana quickly. Once we've done this, we've won the lane.

Garen:

Garen is a monster early on! Do not pick a fight with him if you can help it! Garen's passive health regen gives him a huge advantage in the lane, especially since you have no true "ranged" abilities to interrupt it. Play passively against Garen farming diligently. Last hit, last hit, last hit! Try to keep a good escape route open so that he can't spin on your face. If he goes in for Decisive Strike try and get away from him for as long as possible so he burns his move speed buff. Prime your Ruthless Predator before he reaches you, if he's going to, cull him for some harass and life steal and then hit him back stunning him as he silences you. This will keep him from spinning on you for as long. As soon as silence fades, use slice to get out of his Judgment's range. While Garen has distinct advantages over Ren early on, these advantages quickly are overcome around level 10. At which point your champion should be stronger than his, provided equal level and farm.

Gangplank:

GP is a formidable foe who drastically out ranges you with his Parrrley ability. The ability also can crit and applies on-hit effects. This makes him a formidable foe. The good news is that he is a mana user while you are not. He also lacks in the self repairing department. Because of this, we can play the game of, you hit me once with Parrrley as I dive your face and use slice, cull, rp, and dice on my way out. Then I wait for my cd's to fresh and we do it again. Especially do this if he uses the Parrrley to last hit a creep for bonus gold. By doing this, one of two things will happen. 1) GP gets out harassed or 2) GP goes oom. In either case you win. We want to take as little damage as possible at levels 1-3 to get this to work. Stay in your bush or out of his range. If he decides he really wants to fight you in a melee skirmish early on, remember your exhaust- this will shut him down.


Irelia:

This is a champion with a slow start, that only becomes better with time and farm. Since this is true, we try to harass and zone her as much as possible. Be aware of her stun and avoid taking turret hits. Also buy wards to prevent from being ganked. If you do this, you should have no problems with this opponent.

Jarvan IV:

J4 really doesn't see much play these days since champions like Skarner and Warwick have similar ults that are more reliable. But here's some tips anyway.

Jarvan relies on Dragon Strike and Martial Cadence primarily for harass. There is a nice dead zone out of Cull the Meek range that Dragon Strike can hit you at. He's going to want to play guerrilla tactics with you by poking you with Dragon Strike as his mana allows and land those free nukes of Martial Cadence on you when you try to last hit. You can avoid those nukes by carefully last hitting with Cull the Meek only hitting your intended target through positioning. Use slice/dice to avoid his knock up combo with Damacian standard if needed. If you can bait this combo and avoid it, do so regularly as it will drain his mana quickly. Mainly harass with cull and trade rp hits for [[Martial Cadence if he does happen to hit you. Once his mana is low, switch to being very aggressive with J4. They will often start with regrowth pendents which makes harassing them difficult at times. It's best to focus on farming until he is oom and you can safely lay on the damage without allowing him time to regen. Be mindful of his ult when he hits 6. It's a powerful nuke early on, save slice/dice to escape if you don't want a fight.

Jax:

What Jax lacks in the ability to self repair, he has made up for in potentially insane damage
from cheesy kit mechanics. There are some things you need to learn about Jax before fighting one. The first thing you need to identify is his Counter Strike graphic. When you see this graphic on Jax, do not auto attack him. You will literally be hitting yourself if you do.

Also be aware that Jax's Empower has a much shorter cd than anything you have. That, and counter strike, makes going toe to toe with him difficult. The good news is that Jax has no staying power in his kit. Drag the fight on, harass him with Cull the Meek and if he Leap Strikes to you, follow it up with a rp. Then slice/dice out, and await your cd's to refresh. If you can, stay out of leap strike's range until all your cds refresh.

Keep an eye out for the counter strike graphic. If you see it, get out of leap strike range or vision immediately. Once the ability is used then you can harass him freely as it has a long cd.

What Jax ideally wants to do is use your creeps against you. If he hits you with a melee attack the creeps will start hitting him, he'll then pursue you with Counter Strike active and nuke you hard because of all the dodged attacks followed up with leap strike and empower. Don't let him set this up on you by last hitting with cull. If he leap strikes to you, rp him, slice through him and dice out of range before the stun goes off.

Katarina

Kat is very similar to Jax in that she has high damage but low staying power and will likely try to use your creeps against you.

Kat does have a substantial range advantage on you with [bouncing blade], especially with the addition of Killer Instinct.

However, Kat doesn't have defensive staying power.

Get some chunks out of her early and don't stand near your creeps. It's best if you can get into a bush away from your creeps, but still in experience range. Don't worry if you miss a few last hits because of this. She will have to choose between saving her blade for last hitting or harassing, not both. Once the ability is spent on last hitting, you can last hit to. If she Shunpos you, make her pay with your whole tool kit. Then when [[bouncing blade] is near refresh, get back to your hidey hole and reset. It's very important to not feed the Kat! Don't be too aggressive with her either because she is really slippery. If you know you are against a Kat, consider a regrowth pendent to begin and consider picking up the flash summoner skill in trade with exhaust as it will treat you a lot better against a good Kat.

Kennen:

Kennen is a very strong champion right now. He has decent harass, good mobility and excellent team utility in his ult.

But in the lane, you should get the better of him. Use brush to avoid his auto attacks and dodge his Thundering Shuriken (creeps will block this as well). Keep an eye on the number of debuffs you have. If he lands an auto attack that procs a debuff then fall back until it fades. If his shuriken is on CD then you can have your way with him. If not, farm and wait for it and then avoid it.

Aggressive if you have slice/dice and he doesn't have shuriken
Passive if you have no slice/dice or if you have a pending debuff from an auto attack and he has his kit ready.

Malphite:

Having a Malphite lane in your lane means you should have about every last hit available until level 6. Get yourself a regrowth pendent and you can nearly ignore him. If he presses the issue, use creeps against him and save slice/dice for when he uses Ground Slam. Doing this allows you to auto attack, slice, auto attack, dice, auto attack having your swing time reset with each ability. This will largely negate the attack speed debuff of his ground slam. If you can, try to bait a ground slam miss with max range culls.

Most malphites will start with cloth armor and 5 potions. This along with his passive shield just makes him not worth you time for the most part. Use cull on him to self heal when possible and last hit, last hit, last hit. If you are worried about the jungler ganking you, you can often bait him into ground slamming minions and pushing his lane so you can be closer to your turret.

Maokai:

Maokai has a strong offensive early game that trickles off and he eventually becomes a tank. Maokai has the ability to self heal substantially, especially against ability spammers like ren. For this reason, we want to mainly focus on creeps against him. If he wants to fight you, make him do it in your creeps. That way he'll push the lane with all his aoe and they'll hit him for you. Using brush to keep him guessing where to aim his skill shots and using slice/dice to avoid the saproling's explosions will greatly decrease his damage output. Getting a regrowth pendent against Maokai will help you be able to ignore some of his harass and allow you to better farm.

Olaf:

There was a surge of Olafs right after they tuned him a few patches back and since then I've hardly seen him. But Olaf is a decent top laner worth mentioning.

Olaf's starting item is always a topic of debate. Some take armor and potions, others a regrowth pendent, other yet a doran's shield or blade. Treat Olaf accordingly to the item he has. Personally, I like having boots against him because you can steer clear of Reckless Swing by avoiding melee range as long as you have them. You can harass him with cull, if he is relying on life steal to self repair make sure to feed him a steady stream of harass.

Trading on blow of Undertow for one Cull the Meek is worth while as it drains his mana and you will self repair. Make sure to have slice/dice ready if he runs at you to avoid the rest of his melee tool kit and make sure to cull at max range to give you some breathing room.

Pantheon:

Pantheon can be a brutal opponent if not treated correctly. Spear Shot does a ton of damage at range with a low CD and costs little for mana. A pantheon is happy if he can feed you a steady stream of spears without recourse. Pantheon, however, does stop laughing if you can get a hold of him and can manage to stay out of Tough It Out as he will drop like a stone once you break his aegis. The trick to beating panth is to take as little abuse until level 3 as possible. Once you have your full tool kit, you can win, until then advantage panth. Once you have level 3, you can get to pantheon with slice and hit him with cull, rp and then dice through him to avoid a portion of vicious strikes. If you have exhaust, use it before he uses his abilities as it will devastate his damage, if you declaw him, he will topple over shortly after because of lack of sustaining power even if he doesn't go right on the spot.

Riven:

Riven functions very similarly to ren. She is a skill based fighter who mixes auto attacks in with abilities to optimize damage output.

Cull the meek is a great harass tool against riven. You can harass with it at max range and if she chooses to pursue you, you can use slice/dice to keep her properly distanced and keep the cull train rolling while kiting her. Every time she does hit melee range, you can RP and then continue to kite her while your cds refresh.

At low levels Broken Wings gives her 3 abilities to your 1. Don't test your luck with her until you've got your full kit. Last hit and harass from max range.

Shen:

Farm! Farm! Farm! Try to avoid his harass, but killing a Shen is hard... Use brush to hide from harass and last hit everything. You can usually get by with boots and actually push the lane against Shen, as long as you have a ward and they don't have a too frightening jungler. Avoid getting close to Shen near turrets.

Singed:

Singed is going to farm...a lot. try to avoid the I push the lane to you and you push it back game with him. If he wants to derp with his poison and push, make him expose himself on your end to do it. Taking a Singed alone can be a challenge. Harass when you can but don't get flung if you can help it. Last hit last hit last hit! Call for a gank if he pushes to your turret.

Sion:

Sion is a 1 trick pony. Stun, shield, boom. What most players don't realize is that he doesn't have ANYTHING left once he has used his shield/stun combo. If you see his shield on, get to a bush until it goes away. Then make him use his stun to keep distance. Keep doing it until he runs out of mana. If you split up his abilities like that, you break his combo. If he does combo you effectively and you have enough hp to survive a couple auto attacks, jump on him and nuke him back...he has nothing left. Don't try to break his shield...you won't you'll waste your skills for nothing and get popped with a nuke for a reward. Make Sion be the aggressor while you react to him. React accordingly and he is a cakewalk.

Skarner:

Skarner rarely sees top lane, since he is a good ganker/jungler. But if you have him, be glad. He's an easy lane opponent. Harass him constantly with cull, be aggressive and don't allow him any last hits with being smacked for it. Eventually, he'll run out of mana or hp and will have to b. If you can push to the turret while he is gone, do so. If you cannot , just keep farming, b when he does if your low and keep and eye out for ganks, especially if he is level 6. A QSS will ruin Skarners day...oh look its already in you main build...right after all that armor...

Talon:

I would consider Ren a pretty strong counter for Talon. Talon is very fragile at low levels and some good harass will really stick to him. slice/dice counters his ranged slow pretty well while you can prep rp prior to his cutthroat which will completely negate the silence if you can pull it off. Be aggressive, yet controlled, against him and he will run out of mana and hp similar to other mana user fighters.

Exhaust > Talon as he has no answer for it other than to ult and tuck tail and run. Even then the 35% slow will mitigate the 40% speed buff. Guess his escape route and murder him.

Tryndaqueer:

Trynd is another of those fighters who start out slow without and range but can get out of hand in a hurry if left to farm. Keep Trynd off creeps and you win the lane. Most trynds will go for life steal and armor Wriggle's Lantern early on. To counter their farming, you need to rush The Brutalizer. Otherwise tryn is simply going to out heal your harass.

Phage is also very helpful against him as with it you can cull harass and if he [[spinning slash]s to you, you can RP and slice/dice away from him.

Don't fight him if he has a mocking shout debuff on you. Make him use it to debuff you cull while you face him. Then wait for it to fade and get back to harassing. If he spinning slashed to you after he puts the debuff on, then slice away to the nearest bush.

Exhaust is best used on him once he has a full fury bar.

Ignite him after his ult has gone on for 3 seconds and without support he will die.

Vlad:

Vlad is a decent counter pick to Ren. You need to really out play him early on to keep him down or else he will get too resilient to fight at all.

You have to build offensive against Vlad if you want any chance at all and you must run ignite. Running flash is also very helpful.

Prior to level 6 you have a nice advantage on vlad. He doesn't deal tons of damage and he isn't especially mobile either. He'll most likely have boots and you'll need boots as well to keep up with him.

Keep him from farming the best you can. Zoning him is hard because of his range so it's mostly a waste of effort and unbeneficial risk. Be mindful of being ganked. A good jungler will aide a Vlad early because they know how strong he becomes if he gets a good start.

Once Vlad has a Hextech Revolver life gets tough in your lane. You will need to kill vlad in 2 waves from full hp max in order to keep him from just regening his entire life bar.

The best way to do this is to rush a brutalizer and cdr boots. You need slice/dice to fight vlad or he's just going to kite you. You need to not let him harass you at all before you engage because you will need all your hp to force a kill and win. Wait for him to get close enough to hit you with q and then slice to him. He will usually immediately pool to once you hit melee range. I will usually try to Cull the Meek him before he does to get the cd to refresh faster and usually that will be my killing blow. Once he comes out of pool immediately ignite him to prevent his self healing, dice on him and hit him with ruthless predator. (Do not try to ruthless predator him before he pools because there is a stupid glitch where even though you melee him and he should be stunned, he pools instead and isn't stunned and doesn't take damage but your RP is still spent and the cd in down.) Have your ult rolling the entire time as you'll need the fury bonus to help burst and the aoe will still affect vlad while pooled. cull him a second time if your cd is up in time for a second swing. If he is dead, gj! If not get to a bush and fast to not allow him to get any extra spells on you. He will star regening his hp quickly by hitting minions. You need to get back on him quickly or give up entirely. Once your cull and rp are off cd (your slice/dice most likely won't be) step out of the bush, flash into melee, cull- auto attack- rp and he should be dead if you had any chance to win this to begin with.

In all reality, you should just have your AP carry switch you once vlad gets a revolver and go take mid because an ap carry will have much more luck bursting down vlad that you will. And you will have an easier time with any other champ besides vlad in this stage of the game.


Wukong:

Wukong can pump out some substantial damage in the lane phase, but similarly to a mage, his damage is based on skills and his skills cost mana. Force him to burn mana quickly once you hit level 3 by being aggressive with him. This will make him use mana on Warrior Trickster in addition to his damaging skills. Keep track of him and don't waste skills or abilities on decoys. Even if you can't see Wukong, he appears right next to his decoy so you can still hit him with cull, your ult, and even slice/dice.

If you have him on the run you can use his decoy as a slice target and dice to him once he reappears.

There is an inherent misconception within this game that people say that Warmog's is good while Sunfire Cloak is not as good. I think this is mainly due to people's attraction to large numbers rather than doing math, but let's take a look.

Let's assume a 12 second fight erupts and you stick on one target and he dies at the 12 second mark.

A warmog's armor provides 1270 health and 40 hp regen/ 5 seconds when fully stacked.
The item costs 3000 gold

A Sunfire Cloak provides 450 health, 45 armor and 35 damage per second in AOE.

Let's look at what the warmog's armor gives first:

Ren has 2k hp base, plus a phage (225 bonus), plus his ult (+600), plus his hp from masteries 138, plus 48 from regen assuming hit in first second of fight and you survive. You also will also steal about 1k in hp through 2 Cull the Meek and the life steal provided by Vampirism . That means even though your hp bar says 3k you actually have more like 4k in effective health.

Adding 1235 hp to his total adds about 23.6% extra hp. If you have an atma's impaler, this item will also provide 24.7 AD. But that's all the warmogs will add. Just hp and hp regen (whihc is next to nothing in a team fight). Some would argue that this item would add damage by giving staying power but while it is true, it is no more true than with the sunfire cloak.

Let's take a look:

The cloak gives 450 hp and 45 armor. The item will also provide 9 AD if you have an Atma's.

That's about a 10% hp bonus. Plus about 20% less physical damage taken. That means you are taking 40%ish physical damage instead of 60%ish physical damage. In all actuality that means you have 33% more health against physical damage. Given only about half the damage that comes your way will be physical and some may even be true. But overall this will provide you about 10% additional damage mitigation. so 10% more hp plus 10% mitigation is 20% more sustaining power. That's right on par with warmog's 23% with the added benefit of the passive and lower cost.

A typical AD carry will have about 3k hp after life steal, shields, and heals (this is just an average as it could vary substantially especially with life steal if left uninterrupted!). If you stay on your target the entire fight that means the cloak will deal 420-minus magic resistance mitigation damage to your focus target. Assuming about 40% mitigation which is typical for a mage or ad carry you end up doing about 8.5% their functional hp with the cloak's passive.

Looking at the pros and cons of these 2 items:

Warmogs:
Pros:
Better defensively against magic and true damage.
Gives more AD if atma's is purchased

Cons:
Needs to be stacked
400g more expensive

Sunfire Cloak:
Pros:
Deals damage in AoE
Better defensively against physical damage
Cheaper

Cons:
Not as good defensively against magic and true damage
No hp regen against harass

I'll use both of these items switching back an forth between which ever one is better against my match up.

I go sunfire cloak usually because the top and jungler will usually be AD as well as the AD carry.

In order to have a successful early game, Ren needs to gauge his opponent(s). Consider the enemy's early game damage dealing capability, how well their jungle can gank, how much CC the enemy has (a major killer of Rens) also check their summoner skills. exhaust runners will be more passive in the lane, igniters more aggressive.

Very few champions will run both ignite and exhaust, be especially careful when this is the case, as they (just as you) are looking for an early lane advantage and ultimately first blood.

Also look at their starting items. The meta is currently [cloth armor] and potions. This gives them strong sustaining and decent survival but they still have limited mobility and are relying on self healing for their lane presence.

If this is the case, you should be able to harass them effectively- be closing distance and then retreating after burning skills. If the fighter is one that can catch you after you slice/dice out, then harass only with cull. Then bait their lung and hit them with RP, then slice/dice out after their CC/lung is spent.

Make sure to control the bushes in a duel. Bush advantage is the key to winning the lane. It makes ganking you more difficult, and getting the drop and then retreating quickly possible.

Expect to be ganked. While you want to win the lane, if the opponent initiates a duel with you that seems too good to be true...chances are the jungler is near. Don't get baited into using slice/dice for damage, just to not have it as their jungler roles out at you.

Be aggressive, but play smart. While some champions, [Garen] is a good example, are substantially stronger than ren in the early levels, most are on par or disadvantaged against him. It's important to know which match ups are in your favor, and which are better to play passive. Ren is typically, slightly weaker at level 1 and 2 and at 3 has an advantage inherently. That being said, you can't utilize this advantage if you lost too many resources in the first levels. Know these match ups and miss out on a few last hits in the first levels in order to win the lane ultimately.

On the other hand, if the enemy starts slow and ramps towards being invincible ( [Nasus] comes to mind) Keep him under farmed and under leveled by feeding him a constant stream of harassment. Try to do so without pushing the lane.

When to use which strategy:

There are two strategies you want to use. One against fighters, the other against mages.

Against fighters, you want to get in, burn cds and get out as quick as can be. If the enemy doesn't have any ranged abilities, you can use [cull the meek] to poke him with out retaliation as well, but this is uncommon. If they are life stealers you need to keep harass up as much as possible to keep them from mitigating harass. If you can, you should set the pace of the engagement (you're faster because of the boots, so you can do that!). Only fight if you have all your CDs. Then get out and let them refresh.

Against mages, you want to get in and stay in. Only retreat after your cds are burned and they escape you. Don't force the issue unless you can stay in melee range. Make sure to utilize bushes and dodge skill shots. This is easier with boots.

If the enemy life steals more than you can harass, resort to farming and avoid exchanging harassment as much as possible. If this is the case you find yourself in, purchase potions and keep farming. Call for help from your jungler for a gank. Do not allow them to free farm!

This is the build that I've had a lot of success with playing Renekton.
I hope you enjoy the build.

Comment/Questions below.

Thank you for reading!

Be sure to check out my other guides!