Thresh Build Guide by Bigfatsnoozy

Introduction

Hello! I see you have stumbled upon my first guide! My name is Bigfatsnoozy, and I'm here to help all Thresh players trying to get better. Currently, at the time I am writing this guide, I am Silver III, and working hard at improving. I hope you will consider this guide, as Thresh is my main support, and I am experienced at playing him.

If you see an error in this guide, please feel free to tell me in the comments, and I'll try to fix it as soon as possible!

Thanks again for reading, and I hope you enjoy!

Pros / Cons

Pros

+ Auto-Attack is ranged, and not a projectile. + Death Sentence is one of the best CC pulls in game. + The Box allows for easy kills and great team fights + Dark Passage makes slippery escapes easy + Great Poke with Flay

Because of Thresh's ranged auto-attack, he can easily poke the other ADC. Poking with Thresh is extremely useful and should not be overlooked, as Flay's passive can supply much more damage than other supports. Additionally, Thresh's auto-attack is not a projectile, allowing it to pierce right through a Yasuo Wind Wall. Thresh also has great level 1 and early game fight potential, especially, because a landed Death Sentence from Thresh will allow his whole team to get damage, or even kill the hooked victim.At level 6, Thresh gains a huge power spike with The Box. This ultimate applies a 99% (highest in game) slow to enemies that hit the edges. This allows for easy picking off with Thresh's Q+E+R combo, and strong team fights, and in a situation where your own team mate is in trouble, Dark Passage allows for an easy escape.

Cons

- Relies on a landed Death Sentence to initiate a fight. - Grabbing souls can put you in danger. - Have to be in the center of their team to land a good The Box - Death Sentence hit box is rather small. - Long cooldowns especially early-game. - Soul-ly (heh) reliant on souls.

As a Thresh player, you need to know your limits. In my early days as Thresh, I would just try to get the souls, as you need them because Thresh does not have scaling armor, and the majority of Thresh's AP needs to be gained by harvesting souls. Sometimes, getting souls can put you at risk of being killed, or damaged. If you really need a soul, you have to use your Dark Passage, giving the opponent an opportunity to engage, knowing your escape/disengage tool is on cool down. Next, for Thresh to be at his full damage and utility potential in team fights, Thresh has to be in the middle of the enemy team to land The Box, and a good Flay. Doing so will most likely lead you to be focused, and bursted down quickly. Additionally, Thresh's initiation ability, Death Sentence has a small hit box, making it relatively easy to dodge, especially in higher elos. Finally, when you do (and you will) miss your Q, or you need to burn your W for souls, Thresh is temporarily weakened because of his long cool downs.

Rune Explanations

• Greater Quintessence of Armor (3): As Thresh, especially in the bot lane, you must have armor to be able to stay in lane and continue harassing. Since their ADC will definitely build attack damage, armor is what you need to make their auto-attacks do minimal damage.
  
• Greater Mark of Armor (9): Again, armor is vital. Some Thresh players like to buy Attack Damage marks for more damage on your pokes. This is perfectly okay, but as a Thresh player I personally think more armor is the way to go. Take either depending on your play style.
  
• Greater Glyph of Scaling Magic Resist (9): As the game goes on, AP mids only get stronger. You want the scaling MR because your MR increases as their AP mid's power increases. By the end of the game, when the AP mids are at their strongest, you will have more MR than flat magic resist runes.
  
• Greater Seal of Health (9): Finally, the last addition to your tankiness adds a bit more health. Remember that you will most likely be in the middle of a fight, so you need to have the health to peel while you activate your box and flay.

Masteries Explanation

21 Utility 9 into Defense

M U S T H A V E

sp

M A S T E R I E S

// Take this mastery page, and you'll be your team's soul utility. Especially if you want to be more on the defensive side, you should take this mastery page as it uses 9 points in defense and 21 in utility (remember the 21,9 set up is the most efficient!). Some more aggressive Thresh players like to use more offensive masteries on Thresh, so you do more damage when you poke and/or in team fights. Again, this is perfectly fine. In my opinion, you really should not exactly follow masteries from guides. They should be set up according to your play style, and that will only come with practice and determination. Q: So, should I go defensive or offensive as Thresh? //It's truly all up to you to decide as a player. Masteries can be complicated when you first start making them. You probably used to or still do just fill up random spots, but as you get more experienced, you should be able to learn how you, and only you like to player, and you'll be able to adjust your mastery pages accordingly.

Skills Explanation

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Damnation: "Each soul permanently grants 0.75 armor and ability power." Damnation is super important for Thresh. Because Thresh has no scaling armor, collecting souls is everything to Thresh. Souls can be picked up only by Thresh himself via walking near the soul or throwing a Dark Passage near one.

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Death Sentence: "After a 0.5 second wind-up, Thresh throws out his scythe in a line and forms a tether with the first enemy hit, dealing magic damage and stunning it for 1.5 seconds." Death Sentence is not even debatably the key skill of Thresh. It is what makes Thresh who he is. If Thresh hits an enemy champion, the Death Sentence cool down is reduced, and Thresh has an opportunity to reactivate the skill, pulling Thresh towards the enemy.

• When the enemy support/adc goes to ward the river bush, it leaves them open and vulnerable to a Death Sentence.
• Use your Death Sentence to initiate team fights or catch people in a chase.
• Remember that Death Sentence stuns the enemy, making them unable to attack. Use this to your advantage!

Note: The Grab/Flash combo does not work with Thresh. Trust me don't try it!

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Dark Passage: "Thresh throws his lantern to the target location where it remains for up to 6 seconds. For the next 6 seconds, allies who come near the lantern (even while Thresh is holding it) gain a shield that absorbs damage for up to 4 seconds." If an ally right clicks on the lantern, they will take it and move to where Thresh is. Dark Passage is also useful for collecting souls that are out of range and/or risky to take otherwise.

• Dark Passage gives vision!
• Remember that only one person can take your lantern to you.
• You can throw your lantern into the river bush for your jungler to take it during a gank, or do it when there isn't a jungler there as a bluff!
• You can throw your lantern down, flash or Death Sentence to an enemy, which allows your ADC/partner to come with you to your enemy.
• Don't throw it on enemy minions if you want your team-mate to use it, they will attack the minion instead!

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Flay: "Thresh's basic attacks deal bonus magic damage on each hit. This value is equal to the total number of Souls collected, plus a percentage of his attack damage based on the amount of time since his last attack." This is an extremely important passive for Thresh, as it allows him to do tons of damage when he pokes the enemy ADC. Flay's active is "Thresh sweeps his chain in a broad line towards a target direction. Enemies hit take magic damage, are knocked in the same direction as the chains, and are slowed afterwards for 1.5 seconds. Cast forward to push; cast backward to pull." This active is great for chasing people down, or escaping from other enemies.

• It is best to wait between your pokes for maximum damage!
• A well positioned Flay can stop a variety of champions. For Example, a Leona E or a Lee Sin Q.
• It is important to master the Flay's directional habits.

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The Box: "After a 0.75 second delay, Thresh summons 5 spectral walls around him that last up to 5 seconds. Enemy champions that touch a wall take magic damage and are slowed by 99% for 2 seconds, but break the wall. Once one wall is broken, the remaining walls deal half damage and apply half the slow duration. An enemy can be affected by multiple walls." The Box is a great Team Fight skill, as it traps enemies in one area, allowing other champions to use strong AoE skills to burst down the enemy team.

• You're going to want to be in the middle of their team to get the most out of your Box!
• If the enemie(s) in your box won't move, give them a nice little Flay to a wall.
• Use your box to trap single enemies or easily burn their Flash.

Skill Sequence

Priorities:

Ability Sequence Explanation

> > >

You definitely want to start with your Death Sentence, to grab an early victim, or to aid in a Level 1 Team Fight. Next you want to max out your Flay as soon as possible for maximum damage on your laning poke. Then you max both Death Sentence and Dark Passage evenly, for sustain and aggression, while slightly prioritizing Death Sentence, for lower cooldowns.

Item Explanations

You definitely want these boots for the mobility and roaming power it gives you around the map. Say your bot lane is mia, and mid lane is being pushed hard. These boots will allow you to get to mid lane much faster. Your ADC won't be as fast as you, but that's okay because you will most likely have your handy-dandy Dark Passage to help him catch up. Additionally, Thresh is a very good initiator and tank for peeling, therefore you will probably want to be fast enough to keep in the front line while initiating a team fight.

Pretty much every support should get a Ruby Sightstone. It helps tremendously with having consistent ward coverage. Really, you'll never run out of wards. Also, the Ruby Sightstone gives Thresh some added Health to peel better for his ADC. I cannot stress enough how important vision is to the game. Ward coverage is everything because then you'll be able to see where your enemies are, and when they're there. You'll know when their jungler is ganking, taking dragon, counterjungling, or even taking their own camps if you like to place deep wards. On top of all that, Sightstone allows you to get rid of your previous Warding Totem, and replace it with a much more useful Sweeping Lens. Because you already have pretty much unlimited wards with your Ruby Sightstone, you don't need your Warding Totem. Sweeping Lens helps control the opposing team's vision, which again, is extremely important.

Need to run away, but your box and flay are down? No need to fear! Talisman of Ascension will allow you and your teammate to escape even easier, and chase down enemies quicker! Need to disengage quickly? This is why Talisman of Ascension is great on Thresh. In addition to the CDR, health regen, mana regen, and the added gold, Talisman of Ascension is a great mobility tool.

I personally love Twin Shadows, but depending on how you play, you can probably take a variety of different items instead, such as Zeke's herald, Mikael's Crucible, Aegis of the Legion, etc. However, I think Twin Shadows is useful because of it's active. If, for some reason you don't know where your enemy is, whether it be because you have no ward coverage or whatever, you can use Twin Shadow's active, and it will send two ghosts to your nearest enemies. Follow the ghosts, and you'll know where they are! And if the enemies are close enough, the ghosts will hit them and add a nice slow effect just in case you want to hunt them down for the kill.

This item is more for the armor. As said multiple times throughout this guide, you'll need to be tanky in order to take damage for our team in team fights or other sticky situations. Since you're most likely one of, if not he only initiator on your team, you will have to be tanky to be able to take focus from the middle (because you want to land your box and flay) enemy team long enough so your carries in the back can deal fatal damage. Frozen Mallet is perfect for helping you do this because of the +100 armor it gives you for taking less damage from their ADC.

This item is also great for being the tanky Thresh you'll need to be for your team. With added Health Regen, Magic Resist, and Health, Spirit Visage is every Tank's dream item.

Specific Item Choices

Armor

Damage

Zeke's Herald

Health

Magic Resist

NOTE: These are highly situational. Therefore, I do NOT recommend these items as your standard Thresh build.

So You're Up Against A Thresh?

/// So, you're up against a Thresh and you need to know how to counter him? Well, first of all, you have to remember his Flay passive. The longer he waits before poking you, the more damage he will do. When he does come up to poke you, try to stop him, and if you can't try to poke him back and even up the exchange. Next, try to dodge the hooks as well as you can. Death Sentence has a pretty small hit box, so if you are alert and watching out for hooks, you should be able to dodge it quite consistently. When you go to ward the river, keep in mind of Thresh's positioning, and try to make sure he doesn't grab you. Remember that Thresh is highly reliant on gathering souls, so try to deny them from him as best you can, almost guarding the souls. If you see him come up to try to get some, poke him while he's at it, and try to get maximum damage off. By doing so, Thresh will have less AP and Armor later in the game. A fun little tip I like to do when I play against a Thresh is if he throws a Dark Passage for a teammate to take, just stand on it. The team mate will be unable to take the lantern because right clicking will result in auto-attacking you! In team fights, if Thresh happens to get The Box around your whole team, have your tanks hit the walls first, so the carries can get out safely. If you have no tanks in The Box, don't be afraid to Flash out!

FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions)

Frequently Asked

Answers

Q: Why should I play Thresh?

// At the moment, Thresh is a top-tier support as he can turn the tides of a game just by landing a successful [{Death Sentence]]. If you are not playing competitively, Thresh is great fun! When you do land a hook on someone, it just feels nice and relieving. Thresh is a very versatile champion, and can easily can in and out of sticky situations. Definitely try him out, and I hope you have fun!

Q: I can't ever land my hooks! What do I do?

// I get this complaint from a lot of Thresh players. Thresh's [{Death Sentence]] is arguably one of the hardest skill shots to master. Consistent hits can only come with great practice. Remember to keep track of the enemies flashes. Anticipate where the enemy is going to go, and hook there. If you think they will flash away, hook where you think they'll flash. If they don't have a flash, try to hook in front of them slightly, or if you are playing with higher elo players, they might run back a little to dodge, so you can anticipate that and hook there. Really, you have to guess some times. Trust your gut!

Q: My teammate says my lantern doesn't work!

// Ask him if he is right-clicking. If he is, he has to be standing next to the lantern. If it still doesn't work, check to see if there are any enemy units on the lantern. If it still doesn't work it's either lag or he's lying :)

Q: Does Flash Grab or Blitz + Thresh Lantern combo work?

// Grabbing someone and then flash away does not bring them closer. In fact, it just extends your hook length. As for the ol' Blitzcrank grab+lantern click combo, that doesn't work either. It used to, but Riot patched it because y'know op.

Q: Does my Lantern really give vision?

// Yes, but it's a small radius.

Q: What happens when two Thresh's grab each other at the same time?

// You both pull each other to one another and kiss. No not the kiss part but that's basically it.

Q: Can an enemy walk into multiple sides of my box?

// Yes, if they're stupid enough to.

Q: What summoner spells should I take?

// You definitely want to take Flash, as it is useful for Death Sentence, Flay, Dark Passage, and The Box positioning. The second summoner spell is dependent on what your ADC takes/wants. If your ADC takes Exhaust, make sure to get Heal, because exhausting the same person twice does nothing :)

Credits

Thank you to my great League friends for helping me improve:

Sir AWEDuncan

Eleqtric

Schmake

Griffin1795

Xuenator

Aquanator

3r3ct3dpuss13

SupraFi

jayhot91

DRELETE

If I missed you, just tell me!


An additional thanks to my favorite pro supports <3:

Gleeb

Krepo

Aphromoo

Kiwikid

Mor

MadLife

LemonNation

BubbaDub


And.. Very Very big thanks to jholjhol for her guide on making a guide :)

For all of you who want to make a guide, go check it out here.

Thank You!

I really appreciate it that you took your time to read my guide. It is the first time I'm doing something like this, so I'd really be grateful if you could leave some feedback.

As I gain more knowledge (and I will), I will try my best to update this guide.


Once again, thank you so much for reading!

Happy Thresh playing!