Hello and welcome to a tanky Rengar top lane guide. I'm Steamcario, a Diamond IV Rengar top lane main. I've mained Rengar since he was released and have used Rengar through all sorts of viability and styles of play. I decided to resurrect and revamp this guide as Rengar is finally a contested pick again but with an unusual style of play not seen since his Roar healed him for 15% of his health. Tank Rengar may seem odd but the name is a bit off as "Tank" Rengar generally only builds tank items early in the game before transitioning into more of a bruiser role later on. While bruiser rengar can't instagib anything, he's very difficult to kill and can place himself directly on the enemy backline and stick there for a long time. He's still a very effective split pusher and is even harder to stop and harder to duel than a full DPS rengar is. Even though Rengar has a rework on the way I decided to put this guide out as this style of play is exactly what Rengar's going to be reworked into, so if you pick up Rengar with this style of play you'll likely be able to carry the knowledge for a long time.

Rengar used to be able to triple Q in a number of ways, but they have now been patched out. Rengar can no longer triple Q, giving you all the more reason to focus on tankiness and sustained damage. this gets its own section because it's such a common question.

Pros Manaless Follows up on ganks extremely well Offensive and defensive steroids Great Pusher Very cost efficient unique item Immovable in lane

Cons Scaling into lategame is subpar Somewhat weak escapes pre 6 lengthy cooldowns early on Weak without ferocity Low Burst when built tank Has so sacrifice his burst/heal if he wants to have hard CC

In top lane, tank Rengar runs a seemingly uncommon setup that actually seems to be what almost everyone runs these days. Hybrid Penetration marks are a must for tank rengar's hybrid damage output for the first half of the game. Armor Seals are taken as they are pretty much standard. Quints are left up to preference. AP quints make Rengar trade better, Lifesteal gives him even more sustain, and AD Quints aid in CS and help rengar's sustained damage output. for Glyphs, take CDR if against an AD opponent and flat Magic Resist against an AP opponent. If you really want, Scaling MR is also an option against an AD opponent, but cooldown reduction is much more desired (especially after the Spirit Visage nerf).

This entire build is centered around maxing Battle Roar first, so you need to max it first to be effective. If maxing roar first isn't your thing, do not follow this build. What you max next is up to you, if you find yourself skirmishing more, max Q second. if you're having a tougher time in lane or are against a champion that counters autos like Jax, max E second. As always, take a point in your ultimate at 6,11,and 16.

Pretty much the best spell in the game and gives Rengar a quick mobility option when you aren't near a bush and don't want to/can't ult. This spell is good on every champion and should be taken every game on Rengar.
In solo top you'll usually have a very hard time securing any early kills without ignite. this is just a solid safe summoner spell pick that's also generally a must in top lane as most of your lane opponents will also have great in fight sustain.
A very solid spell on paper but way too easy for a high level player to work around. rengar doesn't really need the slow on this when he has his passive and bola.
A solid spell but there are just too many cases where Rengar's ult accomplishes the same thing ghost does on a much lower cooldown (especially late game). It's by no means bad on him (it helps rengar stick over the long term) so by all means take it if you prefer it over flash.
This spell has loads of potential on Rengar but it's really tricky to incorporate and usually requires you to be on a premade team for good coordination. If rengar brings teleport whenever he recalls post-6 he can lane gank with his ultimate and quickly teleport back top, winning other lanes for his team while not losing his tower. It also has great potential use late game if your team buys a lot of wards. Rengar is a very good split pusher and can dunk towers at near Nasus-like levels. Both of these tactics require good communication however so it's probably not the best to take this in solo queue as it does little to help you win your lane. if you know you can't win your lane however, it would probably be best to try to use teleport and make plays rather than get outscaled in a lane that's a lost cause

Heal Baiting is really strong in top lane and taking it along with ignite can and will ensure that you'll win any early engage. Taking heal however leaves you very vulnerable to ganks. Since most junglers already have very good reason to camp your lane, taking no escapes just incentivizes them to pitch a tent even more
Rengar just doesn't... need this. he doesn't really get focused and he doesn't have to channel anything.

Starting Items

The standard start on almost anyone in top lane really. It's generally either this or a doran's blade, and since this is a tank rengar build, doran's shield is what you're going to want to go for.
Good on an assassin rengar, but that's not what this build is for, take this when you're loaded out with a lot more damage.
don't do this, with rengar's passive you can have more lane mobility even if your opponent has tier 2 boots to your nothing. big waste of gold early in the game.

The Bonetooth Necklace

bonetooth necklace Rengar's signature item. Gives AD based on level and bonuses based on kills and assists achieved since buying; all at only 800 gold. 95% of the time you should be building this at SOME point in the game, however when you buy this item is extremely important. Never, ever rush bonetooth necklace. the bonuses it offers aren't very good early on and you won't really start to accumulate stacks until lane phase ends. It's generally best to build this around when teamfights start, as at that point it'll be extremely cost efficient and you'll be able to quickly build up stacks. Even if you're way behind, a bonetooth is ridiculously efficient once you hit the later levels as at level 18 it will give you almost a BF sword worth of AD at less than half of the price. Eventually however, when you've completed the rest of your build, you'll want to sell this for something better as there are many items that just offer more to Rengar. Overall Bonetooth is an extremely effective item from early-mid game all the way to late game and it's important to build it at some point in the game.

Boots

Get these against an AP lane, an AP heavy comp, or just a CC heavy comp. there's not great MR itemization on rengar outside of Spirit Visage so be sure to pick this up if you need the MR.

The more standard of the boot choices, these are cheap and help you tank the enemy team better than merc treads would. don't rush these against an AD lane though, always go for one big armor item first.
Something that's much better on assassin rengar, and even then I've always found these just aren't my style. I find it really hard on a tank rengar to pass up both ninja tabi or merc treads for these.

Core Items

Pretty much what every top laner rushes against AD. Gives you the defensive stats you need and gives you magic damage which is very powerful early on in the game. Once you finish this item you become very powerful and no one can really deal with you when you stack these defensive stats on top of your maxed roar stats.

Rengar's core MR item. Spectre's cowl lets rengar survive the lane phase against heavy harass mages like rumble and elise and builds into spirit visage which has balanced stats and also buffs rengar's self heal and gives him a large amount of cooldown redcution as well. This was a must build on old DPS rengar and is even more of a must build now.
In a practical scenario this generally gives rengar the best damage output over time assuming he's built tanky. on paper something like blade of the ruined king is better, but only if rengar is standing there able to smack whatever he's hitting. Trinity gives rengar mini bursts over time and generally speaking will give rengar the best overall damage when built tank. if you just don't like trinity force, that's fine as a lot of damage items have good synergy on rengar.

Offensive Items

Rengar has two auto resets and two AS steroids. meaning this item is very very good on Rengar on paper especially when the active is factored in. I personally save this for late game (I generally sell bonetooth for this late late game to have alongside triforce) but you can definitely get it sooner if that's your preference.
One reason people go for rengar is to split push. While this item is great for split pushing, W and Sunfire cape should be all you need to push extremely fast. however on a DPS oriented build this item is an absolute must for split pushing.
In my opinion the best item that builds out of a brutalizer on Rengar. if you're building damage on rengar, you need to be rushing brutalizer, and generally speaking this is better than the black cleaver for Rengar's sustained damage.
Every Rengar ever seems to rush this, and I can never understand why. without a ravenous hydra Rengar can't use the passive to a great extent and outside of that this item is just really expensive without giving a whole ton. This item is very strong however when along side a Hydra and a last whisper.
This is a DPS Rengar choice. Tank rengar doesn't have the item slots for enough damage items to want this.

Blade of the ruined king's more bursty cousin. Very good for using rengar's triple Q abuse case for insane damage when build alongside more damage items. In this build, blade is just generally more useful as tank rengar isn't blowing anything up with a triple Q.

Defensive Items

Very Good Secondary Armor item which is generally needed for the late game. CC active helps you stick to all the people you roared when you jumped in, or to help peel for your team. Really an item that gives great stats and utility for the late game. this is generally desirable late game unless the team is very AP heavy.
this is the defensive item you build when you just need to stop dying. Very good to help your team win that one last teamfight to finish off a victory or to win that big teamfight that turns the game around.
Build this if and only if you're facing an all AD comp, preferably one with a lot of auto attackers. Very niche item but very strong in its niche.

Passive - Unseen Predator

While in brush or stealthed, Rengar gains bonus attack range and his attacks cause him to leap at his target. This bonus lasts for ~0.5 second upon exiting brush or stealth. This will happen regardless of whether or not his target has sight of him, and has no internal cooldown.

Easily one of the better passives out there. Though it's situational, it gives rengar an on demand targeted gap closer with no cost or cooldown. This is very useful during lane phase as it allows you to zone a large area of the lane from the bush while still being able to farm using the leap. Unseen Predator also becomes an on demand gap closer when combined with Thrill of the Hunt, allowing you to jump onto someone whenever you need to out of stealth. Smart use of this passive especially in lane or when skirmishing is one of the things that makes a good Rengar.

Q - Savagery

Rengar's next basic attack deals 30 / 60 / 90 / 120 / 150 (+1.0 per attack damage) physical damage and grants him 30 / 35 / 40 / 45 / 50 % attack speed for 3 seconds.
Gives you a small damage boost and an attack speed buff useful but has a very short duration. on a low cooldown from level 1 so it's great for last hitting and generating ferocity quickly.

Empowered Savagery

Savagery deals bonus damage equal to 150% of Rengar's attack damage, and the Attack Speed bonus is doubled. Stacks with Savagery's Attack Speed Bonus.
This is the spell you'll see take staggering chunks of health off of people at early levels. This has a total AD scaling of 2.0 and gives you a rather large attack speed steroid for a short duration. This is what snowballing DPS Rengar's tend to max and numbers wise maxing this gives you the best DPS. however, all you get from maxing this is DPS. you go from a versatile champion to a linear one, which is why I've never liked maxing this no matter what style of rengar I'm playing.

W - Battle Roar

Rengar lets out a battle roar, dealing 50 / 80 / 110 / 140 / 170 (+0.8 per ability power) magic damage and gaining 15 / 22 / 29 / 36 / 43 armor and magic resist for 3 seconds.
This spell has been burned to the ground since Rengar's release but it's still what's making him strong today. Maxing it provides you with solid hybrid burst, a large heal, and tons of defensive stats whenever you trade with ferocity. Try to use the normal version of this spell at the start of an engagement to get the bonus defensive stats active.

Empowered Battle Roar

Battle Roar also heals Rengar for 20 + (10 × level) health, increased up to 100% based on rengar's missing health.
As stated before, trading with this makes rengar win almost every trade assuming W is maxed first. Try to wait to use the empowered version until you're not at full health so you don't waste the heal. Also if you can in a longer engage try to count out 3 seconds between your two Roar casts so you can be buffed up for as long as possible.

E - Bola Strike

Rengar throws a bola at his target, dealing 60 / 105 / 150 / 195 / 240 (+0.7 per bonus attack damage) physical damage and slowing them by 50 / 55 / 60 / 65 / 70 % for 2.5 seconds. The slow decays over the duration.
Extremely annoying lane harass if it's maxed first. Even though its range is short it allows you to effectively kite a good number of tops while generating ferocity due to its potent slow. It also functions as an aid in escaping and chasing and helps you stick to people which is extremely important for any melee.

Empowered Bola Strike

Bola Strike initially roots his target for 1 second. The slow is applied in full after the 1 second, and decays over the remaining 1.5 seconds. Crowd control reduction will reduce each duration separately.
Empowered Savagery and Empowered Battle Roar are extremely good, which doesn't leave a lot of situations to use this ability. however there are a number where it's extremely effective. when your jungler ganks using this combined with the normal version of it allows you to pretty much snare then perma slow your opponent, often leading to a kill. For the same reason it's very useful in escaping ganks. In lane it's best to use this followed up by the normal version to harass enemies under their tower when you're at full health. In teamfights if you're behind, you can opt for this instead of an empowered Savagery as the CC from this will be far more useful than the small amount of damage you'll bring if you're behind.

R - Thrill of the Hunt

Rengar activates his predatory instincts, stealthing and revealing all enemy Champions in a 2000 / 3000 / 4000 radius around him. He gains 20 / 25 / 30 % movement speed and generates 1 Ferocity per 0.75s while stealthed. Lasts 7 seconds or until he uses an ability.

It feels very good to use this ultimate. It brings no damage to the table, but proper use of this can put you at a large advantage in any situation. In lane it's mainly effective to secure kills when your opponent thinks you've left and punish your opponent for being greedy. This spell makes you nearly ungankable post-6 and helps you gank other lanes extremely well post-6. Later in the game this ability is on an extremely short cooldown and helps in giving your team map vision, which wins games. In teamfights ideally you'll want to use this to initiate as you'll be going in first as tank rengar.

There are a few things about tank rengar's lane phase that make it pretty easy and straightforward for the player.

1) you have free casting
2) it is very hard to trade with you
3) you have targetted ranged harass
4) you have lane wide mobility
5) you have good waveclear
6) you have good sustain
7) you easily follow up on ganks with your passive and are strong 2v2

Rengar does all of these things extremely well without many downsides. his escape early is weak but his sustain makes him very resilient if he does survive, leaving the main weaknesses as a lack of solo kill potential and a lack of all in power post 6. weaknesses that can easily be mitigated by forcing short trades often using rengar's passive. In general, you're going to almost always want to use empowered W when you have 5 ferocity (preferably to damage an enemy champion as well) and you're going to always want to use your E to harass your lane opponent as soon as it's off cooldown. Q is generally saved to aid in last hitting. Remember Rengar is rewarded for using his abilities as much as possible so don't be afraid to spam, just be mindful of your cooldowns and stay safe when you're on cooldown or have low ferocity. Also remember you don't have to keep spamming abilities once you have 5 ferocity, one of the scariest things to deal with is an enemy Rengar with 5 ferocity just hanging out in the lane bush, refusing to use his empowered ability already so his opponent won't have to play so scared.

Tank Rengar's powercurve in the lane phase is somewhat the opposite of what it is on DPS Rengar. Tank Rengar is very weak until level 3 or so and becomes strong at level 5. He dips a lot at level 6 as his ultimate doesn't give him any tangible strength. Rengar hits his powerspike for the game when he hits level 9-10 or so and when he completes his sunfire cape. From there it's steady descent until he's just kinda average late late game.

Also remember that rengar's ultimate is best used for roaming, so if your lane opponent is being a pansy you can always shove to their tower and disappear for awhile, either to gank or to clear jungle camps. just being MIA with your ultimate up will should make opponents in other lanes be afraid of you just showing up. If you can though, try to make an appearance in some sort of fights or skirmishes in mid game, as that's when Rengar peaks and it's these fights that truly end up deciding games. During midgame Rengar can generlly be disrespectful of enemy damage outputs and just jump in and roar away as with just a sunfire and a maxed W he's nigh unkillable mid game. Mid game is the time where you gotta make your Rengar pick count so get in there and get your hands dirty!

Tank Rengar pays for his early game strength by not scaling nearly as well as some of his top lane counterparts as he'll be truly lacking in the damage department without actually building it, leaving him to be less unkillable in the long run. As such it's important to be at least somewhat mindful about jumping into 5 people, as you definitely still can evaporate. Rengar late game works best when used as a secondary initiator, or when used to combo ults (Rengar + Shen, Rengar + Orianna). Once a teamfight has started, Rengar's really looking to single out something he can get hit sustained damage output onto. something like the ADC might often be no good as they'll have too much peel on them for you to get enough damage out to drop them, while focusing tanks is never wise if avoidable. In the end it's very important to assess each teamfight differently and decide on the fly what the best course of action is. Should I dive the ADC? Should I clean X enemy up? Should I peel this assassin? Rengar has a wide Range of tools and ends up being very balanced stat wise so unlike say zed who will always just dive someone, Rengar can do many things decently. Generally it will just take game experience to learn what to do in what scenario to teamfight effectively as a bruiser Rengar and not just tunnel vision one action. this swiss army knife role in teamfights is really the difficulty that acts as the counterbalance for rengar's fairly straightfoward lane phase.

Whatever you do in teamfights, it's important to never forget proper mechanics, so here's a short "checklist" of good mechanical Rengar habits to remind yourself of for teamfights and any engages really.

• Am I using my Qs right after autos when possible to take advantage of the auto reset?
• Am I staggering my Ws to lengthen the Armor/MR Buff?
• Am I avoiding using empowered W at full health?
• Am I staggering my Es to lengthen the CC?
• Am I animation canceling my autos?
• Am I using the bushes when chasing?
• Am I using item actives?

Apart from that, one thing I'll not is you do NOT have to worry about staggering Qs when using empowered Q as the attack speed bonuses of Q and empowered Qs will stack.

Disadvantage

Similar to olaf, true damage eats right through your roar, and she can just gapclose -> stun if you max E. Q is the only real max option against her and she can disengage you at any time with her stun and sustain until she has the items and levels to crush you. If you get a kill from an early gank a giant's belt can win you this lane but otherwise it's very difficult.
Sustains forever and will eventually outscale you. Rengar simply doesn't have the damage to kill Nasus early when built tank, consider a damage oriented build in this matchup. Regardless of your build, you need to bully and harass nasus whenever you can. Even sacrificing your CS to deny him more CS is a good trade due to how Rengar scales with levels and Nasus with farm.
Forces the extended trades he wants with his slow and eats right through your buffed stats with his true damage. Even an E max Rengar can't whittle olaf down through his lifesteal. You can't duel him when he ults so an olaf ult will usually force an ult or flash out of Rengar.

Neutral

Rengar has all the tools to do well against riven but for the most part Riven only has winning matchups, and skill matchups. this is a skill matchup. The key is to use your mobility to make riven waste as much of her damage/tankiness as possible on her dashes and then engage while she's on cooldown. once you're ahead you can keep her down as she lacks a heal like you do. be VERY mindful of her level 6 though as she can kill any champion in the game with it, always be prepared for her to turn on you even when you're ahead.
The most boring lane rengar can end up in. none of you can kill each other. he's more useful in early game with his ult and you're more useful in teamfights. when he ults away try to snare him at the very last second to prevent his teleport if you can, if you can't just push as much as you can while he's gone and try to take your tower. Late game you generally can't duel shen in the long run without lifesteal so keep that in mind.
Another skill based matchup, the key here is to try to bait out her Ws and avoid as much damage as you can until it's down before engaging. Always W when she's damaging you with hers as they have similar range. and always remember that simply not letting her auto during her W helps as autos extend her W duration. NEVER try to stand there and duel a Shyvana. Also although shyvana is an AD bruiser, you're going to want to rush spectre's cowl against her as she does mostly magic damage in lane. She has no innate sustain so if you can avoid getting pushed out early you'll outlast her.
Both you and zac lane in a very similar fashion with poke, AoE magic and high sustain. Rengar's sustain is uncontestable though giving you the advantage early on. However, it's important to be aggressive early because he can force you out post 6 by all inning you and will be much more valuable in teamfights than you. Win the lane early by harassing him heavily and denying him sustain by stepping on his chunks, or else you'll be eventually outscaled.

Advantage

You can trade back many of her Qs with your E and are tankier and have more sustain than her. Her shroud can't dodge your main form of damage and she can't get through your sustain early. All you need to do is bully her a lot pre 6 to get her shut down, otherwise she can all in you at level 6 and snowball the lane. It's especially important to not die in this lane as akali snowballs incredibly hard against melee champions without escapes, if she gets ahead she can start to deny you experience rather easily.

Smart trading makes this a fairly easy matchup. commit to engages by jumping right on him to avoid the more damaging part of his spin, for him to be able to win he has to force long trades, so trade near the bushes if possible, diesengaging by jumping to a creep when you want to get out. Darius is mana gated and has no sustain so provided you don't all in him you should be fine
this is somewhere in between advantage and neutral but I stuck it here mainly because of tank rengar's pushing power. Elise doesn't really have the mana pool to push rengar out with her ranged abilities, and rengar's maxed W makes him very beefy to elise's damage. Elise is also very difficult to farm with under her tower, Rengar can easily shove the wave and make her lose CS. Just stay behind creeps, early on you duel about even with her but all you need to do is push hard and you'll come out on top in the end.
As long as you get a W off before he silences you you'll win any trades against him. be sure to try to toss a bola at him regularly to keep his passive off and you'll force him to hide under tower for it and get denied in the process. Just be careful right once he hits 6, one late W on a silence can throw your lane.
Normally a hard matchup, but easy when you build tank and max W. Jax's hybrid damage tickles Rengar with his defensive stats and Jax cannot dodge rengar's roar. Just be mindful of your cooldowns and only be aggressive when you know you can win. avoid giving jax free trades while you're on cooldown and you win the lane.
Deal with him by forcing trades whenever your abilities are up, Tank Rengar beats almost all ranged champions by simply being too strong and having the gapclosers he has.
In this matchup it's very important to pay attention to if she's AP or AD. if she's AP you can play a little more passively and focus on engaging after she wastes spears and just play against her mana pool and outsustain her. if she's AD it's important to take the fight to her early and often or she'll bully you out. be wary of traps in the bushes and don't overcommit to fights post 6, as she can chase you through bushes and her low CDs in cougar form allow her to easily kill you if she gets the upper hand.


In lane, you really do what he does but better. his early burst isn't scary to you and you keep his sustain in check by tossing bolas at him and fueling yours. he can't afford to rush sunfire against your magic damage so once you complete yours you can crush him. Whatever you do, DO NOT GET BAITED BY RENEKTON ULTI.
Disgusting but Rengar can deal with him pretty well through not relying so much on Auto damage and hybrid tank stats for free to deal with teemo's hybrid early damage while having sustain. Early ganks are a bonus and are free kills for Rengar if teemo's not under his own tower. Teemo shrooms are cancer though later on, ugh.
Hard to picture an easier matchup, harass him at every opportunity and he can't deal with you. his itemization isn't as good and at no point can he really deal with you outside of (ironically) all inning you.
He simply does not have the mana pool to cut through your tankiness and sustain, just be wary of the fact that that he scales like a monster in teamfights and try to press your advantages accordingly
skill based, but rengar has a huge advantage. Yasuo can only win if he gets lots of free poke and is always allowed to trade with his shield up. Rengar can sustain through a lot of yasuo's poke with his heal and can ignore yasuo's mobility with his passive by jumping right on him to trade. Rengar's trading is strong enough to win trades even through yasuo's shield, but even so rengar can keep the shield down by throwing a bola to pop it. Yasuo does have wind wall to stop it but wind wall is on a much longer cooldown than bola. Take the fight to yasuo early and often (from the moment you get 5 ferocity the first time) and you will win the lane as he can't match your health sustain and he'll trade much weaker especially if you keep his shield down.

thanks to jhoi-jhoi's Guide to Making a Guide for general guide making things. If you want to make a guide it would be a good idea to check it out.

If you found this guide informative I'd encourage you to upvote it and tell others about so more can see it. If you have any idea for how to improve it, let me know, I'm very open to suggestions.

I also have made a solo-top warwick guide which can be found here and a stream which can be found here

Thanks for reading and be sure to comment and let me know what you think of this guide. Thanks!

-9/11/12 Guide Released!
-9/26/12 Guide Updated for changes to Rengar. Teemo and Kennen matchups added.
-12/29/13 Guide Revamped for Season 4! Massive changes in most sections!
-12/30/13 Darius , Zac, Nidalee, and Wukong matchups added
-12/31/13 Garen matchup added
-1/2/14 Yasuo matchup added
-1/4/14 Elise matchup added
-1/9/14 Akali matchup added
-1/15/14 Changes made as a result of Rengar nerfs in patch 4.1