Hello all, I'm new to making guides on Mobafire but to the best of my knowledge Rengar has been the most underestimated champion added to the league in a long time. With even a few pro players saying he's rubbish. I disagree. Rengar was designed with timing in mind and requires a good map awareness to play well, far more so than other champions. In my guide I will focus more on how to use Rengar in an optimal way.

Pros

-In the jungle, his ganks are versatile.
-Can dominate and control certain lanes like no other.
-Can build tanky yet do massive amounts of damage.
-High lane sustain.
-Can shred and zone carries very well in team fights with his ult as well as escape with it.

Cons

-Is shut down hard by shields and hard CC. Easily counterpicked by champions such as Lee Sin & Riven.
-He is not the most tanky without building into it, making you prioritize early defense unless of course you can time your W.

Some say that he is a far more viable top lane than a Jungler. This is a misconception. Here I will give a brief summary of how to jungle with Rengar effectively. Here are my recommendations and things I have found to make him just as good as higher tier Junglers.

Runes
Viable rune setups include;
Attack speed, Armor Pen, CDR/Tank (Health or full armor) But I recommend using the laning setup, or as I would like to call it the Ezreal/Lee Sin page. Full AD, quints and marks with armor seals and MR/CDR for your blues. I run MR because bruisers need to stay alive longer, and that extra magic resist helps in the end, especially when ganking a magic damage dealing lane.

Jungle Route
Start Wraiths then head to Red. Once you've picked up red buff, scan the lanes. If none are gankable, move to wolves, then Golems to use your smite, head back to pick up shoes and a couple potions and if no lanes are gankable, give blue buff to the nearest applicable recipient and recycle the route.

Ganks
Rengar, much like Lee Sin and Riven is a very gank, assist and kill reliant champion in the jungle. Meaning you simply cannot /AFK farm to achieve the same effectiveness late game. Here are my recommendations for successful ganks.

Set up your Ferocity and manage it. Spy lanes that may be gankable long before you ever get there, you have to have a keen eye and make sure your Ferocity is ready for ganking. Next is the decision of what to use your Ferocity for.

If you are ganking a lane with CC, or perhaps a stun you may consider setting up for a double Savagery gank, given that you can rely on your lane to land their CC. A double ferocity gank can drain at least half of the less tanky champions even at level 2. Your Bola can still manage to slow and you can output more damage. I recommend focusing on lanes with more CC to gank -as- Rengar to make your ganks more deadly, enabling you to dish out more damage. However...

If you can't rely on your lane's CC, make sure you have 5 Ferocity before you gank for an immediate snare on your Bola Strike, the root is a key tool in performing ganks, not to mention the fact that you can drop yet another Bola Strike for an added slow as the snare ends. The reason why I recommend either Ghost or Exhaust in the jungle is because Rengar needs to keep on his target to maximize his Q's attack speed boost, which stacks when doubled up. This being said, never forget to maximize the potential of Bola Strike on a target.


Explanation

Why/why nots.
Recommended:
Ghost
Ghost is a favorite of mine for many champions in the jungle. It can help you close in on a target faster and help chase to pick up a kill on a more slippery champion. (Have you tried to catch a Teemo!?) It, used with his ultimate can help you close a -large- distance in a very short amount of time without ever having to pick up Boots of Mobility.

Exhaust
Do you like First Blood? I sure do. Exhaust, on a level two gank can be the turning point, just wait until their flash is used, if they aren't too close to the turret and watch them cry as you pound them senselessly with your friends. Rengar can do this setup because of his escape, though he has no wall jumps, his seven second stealth enables him to get in and get out in most situations without need for flash or ghost.

Maybe:
Flash
The summoner that goes with everyone. Very self explanatory, though with Rengar it's important to keep in mind that while in your ultimate you can still use flash to close in for a kill, or escape even faster. This is the only reason why I put flash here, because I have seen it work and have used it myself while top laning to good effect from time to time.

In lane, of course, the bush is your friend and should be -your- area. If you are playing Rengar correctly you should seldom leave the brush unless you have already began to dominate and scare off your enemies. Here are some tips to optimize your harass;

When in lane and sitting in your brush, as well as around the map remember that when you queue your Q for use on your next auto attack -or- leap it will apply the extra damage. So, when you are last hitting and want to build up Ferocity, use your Q on the minions and hop out of your brush, only to return into it to build fury.

Good skill orders to remember:
Hard engage: When at 2 fury, begin by jumping onto the enemy with Q(Savagery), pressing W(Battle Roar) immediately afterward, dropping E(Bola Strike) and then finishing with a Ferocity charged Q for massive damage, as well as giving you the opportunity to strike a few more times because of the slow from Bola Strike.

Intricate harass:
When at a slight disadvantage and enemy stuns are either down or non existent, hit your Savagery from the brush at 3 Ferocity, immediately follow up with a Bola Strike and hit your Battle Roar. Getting extra points in Battle Roar early acts the same as getting Safeguard on Lee Sin, to truly go toe to toe against most top lane bruisers you need that extra defense to come out on top.

Now down to the real tough part, why he gets countered and what to do if it happens to you.

Rengar is not a passive champion, thus, when he is shut down he can quickly run out of options. When you are fighting a champion with hard CC it's important to recognize that you simply can not win toe to toe trades, making it important to bait important skills and outlast them until you can turn your damage on them. Keeping yourself ready at either 2 fury or 4 fury using your abilities on minions when safe is a key component as well. When at 4 fury, you can strike with Savagery twice in a row, which makes for a devastating blow, keeping you, at any moment ready to dish out massive damage. This could turn off the idea of attacking you directly for some opponents, Rengar has a hard time pushing if you don't want to push, giving you the edge on lane control in top lanes. Simply letting your lane get pushed in against harder counters is another very viable option. I also recommend getting (Avarice Blade) Or (Heart of Gold) in these situations, as Rengar -loves- money and to take a passive stance reduces farm. Never in -any- circumstance should you level Bola Strike. Even if it means you lose some farm.

The core build for Rengar as I play him is Infinity Edge, Frozen Mallet and Atma's Impaler. Though, items to pick up instead of Bonetooth Necklace and Yoomuu's Ghostblade could look a little something like this.

I will go through each item and explain why I have chosen them, then talk about the other items to potentially pick up.

-MUST- Haves

Infinity Edge
Rengar's Savagery can critical strike, meaning that late game Infinity Edge will make it so your damage never falls off. Incredibly high damage, positioning and focusing on carries with this build can shred the competition near immediately, while the bonus from your W late game can prevent you from feeling the loss of building more tank stats.

Atma's Impaler
Atma's Impaler gives both critical strike and armor, stacking very well with going head to head with AD carries as well as other bruisers, on top of it all giving you a decent amount of damage after your Frozen Mallet acquisition. A must grab in conjunction with Infinity Edge.

Frozen Mallet
Your enemies will never escape and you get that extra bit of tankiness to your build. A requirement with Atma's as well as to stay alive, it is important to finish this first as your first -large- item finish.

Optional Items

Recommended:

Yoomuu's Ghostblade
Crit, armor pen, cdr and an active that enables you to move faster and attack faster for a period of time. It was like this item was -made- for Rengar, though if you pick this up, you will be sacrificing a bit of potential tankiness. Pick up at your discretion, if needed added durability you can forsake this item in your build.

Bonetooth Necklace
Because this item stacks with both assists and kills, as well as gives you a massive amount of bonuses late game, plus the sheer amount of damage it adds it's almost a no brainer to pick up. Even in the jungle. Though, once again -this- item forsakes a bit of tankiness, so according to playstyle you may want to drop it for Doran's Blade x2 as your first buy in lane, or start to build for a Wriggles in the jungle.

Potential Acquisitions

In lane:

Maw of Malmortius (Over Ghostblade)
Self explanatory, truly. Extra MR plus the bonus of having added stats while losing life, not to mention that shield. It's saved me many times. Though it's not my favorite, there is definite merit in building this over Ghostblade. Picking up Hexdrinker over Brutalizer is also a very small leap in price, making it an ideal replacement for durability in the build phasing.

Warmogs
Another slightly more expensive pick than Ghostblade, it's a good pick for the added tank as well as the stacking with Atma's Impaler. It is an incredibly viable pick and an overall good item with this build.


Cheap Alternatives to Try

Cloak and Dagger
With Ninja Tabi, this mostly unused item can be great. Added crit, attack speed and 35 tenacity will make it so you won't miss your Merc Treads.

Executioner's Calling
A favorite while fighting high heal champions such as Soraka or Vlad. Gives crit and healing reduction for a very meager price.



And finally, to explain the use for Trinity Force.

With Trinity Force, I feel it is useless on this champion unless you really want mobility in the Jungle. Your Q is basically an empowered Sheen proc to begin with and going out of your way to build mana and ability power is a waste of money and time. Sure, you get a handfull of useful things but would you rather get an extra 150% of -base- damage or would you rather be dealing 1.5k crits by the end of the game? You decide.

Rengar is an incredibly underestimated champion, by pros and players alike. Though he is popular, for obvious reasons he is played very poorly by the majority of players and this gives this high skill cap champion a relatively bad name. Keep your orders in mind, and most of all have fun out on the Rift.

Any comments, suggestions and feedback is appreciated!

-WIP-