Sadistic and cunning, Thresh is a restless spirit who prides himself on tormenting mortals and breaking them with slow, excruciating inventiveness. His victims suffer far beyond the point of death, for Thresh wreaks agony upon their souls, imprisoning them in his lantern to torture for all eternity.
In an age history has all but forgotten, the man who would later be known as Thresh was once a member of an order devoted to gathering and protecting knowledge. The masters of this order tasked him with guarding a hidden underground vault filled with dangerous and corrupted magical artifacts. Thresh was incredibly strong-willed and methodical, which made him well-suited to such work.
The vault Thresh guarded was buried deep beneath the citadel at the center of an island chain and protected by runic sigils, arcane locks and potent wards. Spending such time in the presence of dark spells began to affect Thresh as the magic sought out his innate malice. For years the relics preyed on his insecurities, taunting him with his deepest fears and feeding his bitterness.
Thresh’s spite surfaced through wanton acts of cruelty, as his talent for exploiting vulnerability bloomed. He slowly tore pages out of a living book, binding it back together when it was all but spent. He scratched the glass of a mirror bound with the memory of an ancient mage until it was opaque, trapping the man in darkness, only to polish it anew and repeat. Just as a secret wants to be told, a spell wants nothing more than to be cast, and Thresh denied this each day. He would start to recite an incantation, then let the words trickle off his tongue, halting just before the last syllable.
He became exquisitely skilled at covering all evidence of his cruelty, such that no one in the order suspected he was anything other than a disciplined guard. The vault had grown so vast that no one knew its contents as completely as Thresh, and the lesser artifacts faded from the order’s memory, as did Thresh himself.
He resented that he had to hide his meticulous work. Everything under his watch was evil, or corrupted in some way - why shouldn’t he be free to do as he would?

The vault held many peculiar magical artifacts but no people, until one day when a chained man was dragged into the sunken catacombs. He was a warlock who had infused his body with raw sorcery, which gave him the power to regenerate his flesh, no matter how grievous the wound.
Thresh was delighted at his new ward - a being who could feel the full range of human suffering, but would not perish, a plaything he could torment for years to come. He started methodically separating the warlock’s skin from his flesh with a hook, and used his chains to lash and tear the open wound until it healed. He took to wearing the chains as he patrolled the vault, reveling in the warlock’s fear at the long, dragging sound of his approach.
With ample charges to torment in the vault, Thresh became even more distanced from the order above. He began to take his meals in his underground chamber lit by a single lantern, rarely emerging from the catacombs. His skin developed a pallid complexion from lack of sunlight, and his face became gaunt and hollow. Members of the order avoided him, and when a series of mysterious disappearances plagued the order, none thought to investigate Thresh’s lair.
When the disaster known as the Ruination struck, magical shockwaves claimed the lives of all who lived on the isles and transformed them into a state of undeath. While others screamed in anguish, Thresh reveled in the ruin. He rose from this cataclysm as a spectral abomination, but unlike many who have passed into the shadow world, Thresh did not lose his identity. Rather, his penchant for cruel torture and ability to discern weakness was only heightened.
He relished the chance to continue his cruelty without fear of reprisal, unfettered by the limits of mortality. As a wraith, Thresh could torment the living and the dead endlessly, delighting in their despair before claiming their soul for an eternity of suffering.
Thresh now seeks only particular victims: the most clever and resilient, and those with a strong will. His greatest joy comes from tormenting his victims until they lose any last glimmer of hope, before facing the inevitable hook of his chains.

Starting Items Health Potion X 3 Relic Shield Stealth Ward

Core Items Sightstone Face of the mountain Mobility Boots

Example Build 1 (Mixed Enemy Dmg Type) Ruby Sightstone Face of the mountain Mobility Boots/ Boots of Swiftness Locket of the Iron Solari Mikael's Blessing Randuin's Omen

Example Build 2 (Full AD enemy team) Ruby Sightstone Face of the mountain Mobility Boots/ Boots of Swiftness Frozen Heart Randuin's Omen Dead Man's Plate

Pros
+ Relatively tanky
+ One of the best saving spells in the game - Dark Passage
+ Provides huge crowd control in fights
+ Aggressive early game, when with strong early game ADC (Lucian,Varus...etc)
+ Efficient during the entire game, even if the lane was lost
+ Outplay potential is through the roof
+ Sets up great ganks in early game

- None of his 3 offensive spells are targetable, e.g. not garanteed CC
- Needs practice to master properly (Death Sentence can be easily dodged if cast in obvious line)

Playing against thresh:

1. When his lantern is on the ground - place a ward on it's center, so that when enemies try to pick it up, they end up hitting the wards and not being able to get pulled to Thresh.
2. Champions like Nautilus, Morgana, Braum, Tahm Kench are huge counters to Thresh.
3. Try to study him in the early laning phase to see if he is a straight line hook thrower or a Madlife follower(get to know the enemy)

When playing Thresh:

1. Hooks can work as terrain blockers - throwing the lantern in the narrow space between the enemy tower and the wall,next to it, you can block it so enemies can pass there.
2. Never throw lanterns directly on allies - easy for enemies to step on them and your ally will die
3. When you hooking an enemy and pulling yourself to them, don't use The Box immediately - enemies tend to flash in panic (not to waste your ult - has long CD early)
4. Use the lantern to scout bushes from safe distance
5. If with an aggressive ADC, you can help the farm for a fast reach of level 2. Then you can immediately use that powerspike, specially if you are playing with ignite.