I am a Thresh main and have been playing him at a high-gold elo. Although that doesn't sound remarkable, I play with 190ms and still perform well with Thresh which shows you that you don't have an excuse for not being able to play Thresh. I also start with Relic Shield and I haven't seen any other guides for this start so I figured I would make one :)

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Now at first glance you may think I am just being weird and trying to be different, but I convinced that Thresh works better with a Relic Shield. Thresh has really good AP scalings on both Q and R and even his E doesn't scale badly. Both of these abilities are key abilities for you're hard engage and kill setups. Being able to do more damage level 2 because of the increased damage on you're Q and having more damage on your R at level six can help you get kills were you normally wouldn't. It gives you more BURST damage as appose to sustained damage and can be the difference between an ADC flash + healing away and surviving or them dying (or even better burning both summoner spells and still dying!).

CDR is by far the most important stat on Thresh. Being tanky or doing damage doesn't help if you don't hit you're abilities. With the inbuilt 3 second deduction on you're Q cooldown if you hit ANY target (Minions and monsters included) you can really start cc locking people as long as you continue hitting you're Q's. It is obviously easier said then done but, wherever possible, try and throw your hook that even if you miss the champion you were aiming for you still hit a minion and get the cooldown deduction on you're ability.

Early game you will just try and abuse you're high kill pressure. Trying to get level 2 first is always a great idea since it will always guarantee summoner spells being burned and a high majority of the times, first blood. Look for engages wherever you can or try to position behind you're ADC if W is up and you don't have any vision. You can try and look for early roams once you have boots or if you're ADC backs and you have no reason to back at that time.

Mid game if when Thresh really starts to shine if you are ahead and consistently hitting you're Q's. With you're high CDR you can constantly ensure you're team gets kills by getting picks or catching people out who don't expect the low cooldown of your Q. Try to secure as much objectives as possible with you're team and don't be too scared of leaving you're ADC when you know jungle is topside and you got them an early lead.

Late game you stay strong as long as you keep landing you're hooks(starting to see a pattern?) You have excellent CC and pick potential and also incredible peel for you're ADC. You can get teamates who recalled quickly back into the fight with you're W and help bait out cooldowns from the enemy team by pulling an ally out of danger with W.

All this being said and done at the end of the day it comes down to landing you're hooks and being at the right place at the right time . Keep on playing Thresh and getting familiar with his kit and you can start hitting those insane flash prediction hooks since you don't have to focus on you're own abilities anymore.

I hope you guys find this guide useful and if you do please consider subscribing to my YouTube channel and supporting me. Hopefully you guys enjoy Thresh just as much as I do and remember, you can't force you're ADC to take lantern (sadly) <3