Hello, I'm Klementinek and I'd like to introduce you my Thresh guide. This is my first guide ever, I hope you will learn at least something.
Im a Thresh main and this guide is showing you my opinion on playing Thresh and my playstyle.
If you leave some votes or review on this guide, I'd be glad.
Thanks for visiting my guide and enjoy.

I think Flash is clearly unreplaceable.

Ignite is my favorite summ. It helps me in agressive gameplay and improves burst. Ignite "reduces" heal and ignited player is visible which can sometimes help. I usually pick Ignite.

Exhaust is not my favorite summoner spell on Thresh. I like to play Thresh agressive and I usually pick Ignite. Exhaust can be useful if there are some assasins in enemy team such as Tryndamere or Kayn. Exhaust also works against Tahm Kench

There are two possibilities of masteries you are going for. I strongly recommend you going for Thunderlord's Decree , because then you can also choose Intelligence so you can go for 45% CDR, which is very useful. Also, Thunderlord's Decree does some little bonus dmg to enemies and it can help you a lot.
You can also go for Courage of the Colossus . In this case, choose also Swiftness , so you recieve slow resist. Courage of the Colossus maybe gives you nice shield when you do some CC to enemies, but I don't prefer choosing this key mastery. It's CD 45-30s is pretty big and shield is not that huge. Maybe it can help you in the laning phase, but I can't recommend you this key mastery.

Pros + Ranged Champion + Amazing CC + Extremely powerful if mastered + Perfect zoning with The Box + Amazing ability kit + Playstyle flexible (he can be both agressive and passive)

Cons - Squishy in early game - Difficult to master - Easy to fail - Difficult to land hooks - Absolutely useless roaming

Damnation Thresh's passive is Damnation. It's not very gamebreaking. Stacking AP is useless for you, but stacking armor is great, isn't it? Yes, it is. However, Thresh doesn't get any armor per level. In late game it doesn't make a problem to have over 100 souls, so you get more than 75 armor, which is a nice number.
Death sentence is first demonstration of Thresh's utility. You can go for some sick plays with your Death Sentence. But this spell isn't absolutely perfect. It has kind of a big delay, so people can dodge it. However, hook is obviously a very useful spell. By Death Sentence you can cancel some jumps such as Tristana's Rocket Jump, but it is much easier with Flay.
TIP: You can use your Q to hook on minions, jungle monsters, dragon or baron.
This might help you escape.
Dark passage is another amazing utility spell. By your Dark Passage you can move your teammates, shield them or collect souls. However, Dark Passage isn't perfect, too. If enemies stand on your Dark Passage, your teammates can't use it. In trades, it's up to you if you use it as a little shield or save it for escape. Both is pretty effective. It's up to you. Dark Passage also gives you vision, so you can spot enemies killing for example baron.
TIP: If you are alone somewhere and enemies are coming, you can throw Dark Passage behind you or over the wall. This makes enemies think that your allies are near and maybe they will stop hunting you.
Flay Flay's passive gives you nice AA dmg boost so you can poke. But this isn't that good, because Thresh's range is small and enemies will usually poke you back. But this passive can help you with farming with relic shield.
Active effect of Flay is much more useful. It can easily cancel jumps such as Tristana's Rocket Jump or Lee sin's Resonating Strike. You can also force enemies into your ult with Flay or just slow them down a little while running away.
The box
The Box is pretty powerful. Does 99% slow and a lot of dmg, which is prety useful to zone enemies. Perfect for engaging or even for peeling.
Unfortunately, enemies use your ult in their favor. If they have low HP, they just step in wall of your ult and suicide. But this means that you get the kill. Basicly casting ult makes enemies opportunity to give you the kill instead of giving it to your adc or whoever else.
TIP: Forcing in the ult: When you hook somebody, you can immediately use ult,
so your hook forces them in your ult. If they are too far and hook doesn't force them in your ult, you can also use E. If they are not really far, you will force them in your ult and it is guaranteed that they hit the wall.
If you hook to them and ult them so they are in the middle of your ult, they usually flash away.

Game starts in champion select. But champion select is also pretty important for future game evolution. You should decide what champion to pick, what summoners are the best to pick or sometimes even a little change in runes or masteries can help to win the game. You can't always go for your favorite pick, for example always pick Thresh. If there is something like Lulu or Brand support, you shouldn't go for Thresh, because Thresh almost doesn't have chance against these supports.
When champion select ends, you get into the loading screen. When you are in the loading screen, try to think about some kind of a winning strategy. You should have a plan how to win. For example: "I will build early 45% CDR and try to hook them all" or "I will go full tanky and be in the frontline". That's a strategy and this can help you win. Also analyze enemy team, so you can get the most effective build against enemies.

Thresh is in synergy with every ADC in my opinion. Maybe your peel is not as good as janna's, but every adc can play with you. Kalista has nice synergy with you, because your autoattacks are ranged so you can easily proc her W passive.
But as I said, you don't have problem to play with any adc with Thresh.
But there might be some adc you don't want to play against. You don't want to play against adcs having some kind of escape such as Lucian. You really hate Ezreal, because his escape has huge range. Maybe this allows you to go for some sick plays but that's not your priority I guess :D Draven is also a powerful enemy, because when you hook he can boost his speed with W so he easily dodges and his dmg is insane and you are quite squishy in early game. Miss Fortune the same.
But you wanna meet adcs without escape such as Varus, Jhin or Ashe, because they are an easy target for your CC.

I think most of players would ask me.. Is it possible to carry the game as a Thresh support? Yes, it is. You can't usually carry the game as Janna or Nami, you can only peel. But Thresh is a carry support. Thresh is the playmaker. Thresh definitely can carry and Thresh's carry potential is comparable to every other champion's carry potential. Landing good hooks is definitely amazing carry for your team.

Laning phase is extremely important for future game evolution. You should find your favorite playstyle with Thresh. As I have already mentioned, Thresh is flexible. What does it mean?
It means that you can play both passive and agressive with Thresh. If you like being agressive,
pick that ignite and go for some agressive gameplay. Be careful not to waste your hooks.
When you don't have your hook, enemies will be able to do whatever they want, because you can't deffend yourself. Use your hook only when your chances to hook enemy are fine. Don't go for some crazy attempts.
Do you like playing passive? That's fine, play passive. But it is not that easy as it sounds. Many supports make some mistakes when they play passive. For example, they don't use relic shield stacks (if you buy relic shield). Always use relic shield stacks, because it earns you more gold. Don't keep it for healing, the CD on relic shield is small. Just keep lasthiting as often as you can!. Also, don't be too passive. You can't just keep standing in the lane bush and let your adc alone. You must always be next to your adc.
Enemies need to know, that your adc isn't alone and they need to know that you are always ready to protect your adc.

In the laning phase, be careful of collecting souls. By watching souls enemies can easily predict your next movement - to pick up the soul. Always make yourself sure that picking up that soul is safe and won't make you some serious trouble. 1 soul is definitely not worth it. But if it is possible, collect as many souls as possible.

This topic is a little advanced, but nothing difficult. In the laning phase,
you must be good at "working with minions", especially before recalling. But let's talk about recalling first.
You should recall at the same time as your adc, so you or your adc are not alone in lane,
which is pretty nonsense. You should listen to you adc, because your recall time is based on adc's gold ammount, not yours. It means, that maybe if you have a lot of gold and want to recall, but your adc needs more gold, you must stay in the lane with your adc and wait until your adc has enough gold and then recall. Obviously recall when you have low hp.. in this case you can leave your adc alone even if it is not comfortable for adc, but let's say that you are usually forced in this situation to recall earlier, so your adc must handle being alone for a while. Don't overstay.
OK, so when you and your adc decide to leave botlane.. when? Immediately when you have enough gold? No. It's also dependent on minions. When you leave botlane, minion wave must be pushed, at least a little. You can't leave the lane when enemy minion wave is coming under the turret, because you will lose all those last hits and enemies might push your turret. It's perfect when you push your minion wave under enemy turret before leaving the lane.
Example: If there is a trade on bot lane and you (support) are the only survivor, before leaving push your minion wave under enemy turret (if possible and save)
so enemy bot lane loses that minion wave. Then go back.
Freezing is the opposite of pushing. There are more types of freezing.
Generally it means that you control the movement of enemy minion wave, so enemy wave doesn't move too much. For example, you don't hit enemy minions unless their hp is low enough to last hit, so you don't move closer to enemy turret, because enemy minions die slowly and your minions don't usually push under enemy turret. People usually do this when they are afraid of jungler or wanna be hidden under allied turret.
A different kind of freezing is useful when your minion wave dies and enemy minion wave wants to move under the turret. So you tank enemy minions and wait until your minion wave or adc comes to stop them/kill them. You tank enemy minions so they don't move under your turret. If they move under turret, it is much more difficult to last hit.

Thresh is not a good roamer at all. It's because of his passive - Damnation. When you go roaming, you usually wait in midlane bush for the best time to gank. But the problem is that when you wait, minions are dying and this spawns souls from your passive. If enemy midlaner is attentive, he notices it and falls back because souls show that you are near.. So the only way to roam is to gank immediately when you come to mid, but you can't usually do that and you always want to wait for the best opportunity to go in.

As a support role, you should place ward around the map. In the laning phase,
place wards in bushes near botlane such as tribush or river bush to spot jungler coming.


It would be amazing if you could TIP me, because I don't know how to make this picture bigger :(
TIP: In this picture, you can see tribush and river bush marked by numbers 1 and 2. I'd like to tell you something about warding these bushes. If you start in the southern base, it is usually not needed to place a vision ward in bush number 1 (=tribush). It's because if enemy jungler wanted to come from that bush, he would have to go all the way around dragon pit, which is a risky way for him and he never goes for it. He almost always comes from river, so only 1 vision ward in bush number 2 is enough. Always place just a pink ward in bush number 1 (=tribush), so enemies can't ward it.
If you start in the northern base, it is not worth it placing a pink ward in bush number 2. It's because that pink ward will probably be spotted by enemies soon and destroyed, so you only waste your gold. Better place there a normal vision ward. It is nice to ward tribush too, but enemies usually have there a pink ward.

Later in the game, try to place wards around your team so you spot enemies flanking. Don't forgete of purchasing pink wards. Warding enemy jungle, especially in early game, is extremely useful and doesn't have to be risky.
If you know where enemy players are, you can try go warding, if your adc doesn't need you.

Understanding item build is basic knowledge of your gameplay, but can be a little difficult. Especially in low elo, people do many mistakes around their build. Maybe you can get fed, but if your build is wrong, you won't use your advantage correctly.

Core item. Go for it very soon in the game. As soon as you buy Sightstone buy Sweeping Lens. Upgrade to Ruby Sightstone somewhen in midgame, when you start missing 1 additional ward.
face of the mountainI'm not into this item. I can't see the reason to build it. Shield is not that effective, also pretty easy to miss this shield or use it too late. As my shield item I use Locket of the Iron Solari. If i sometimes build Relic Shield, I always go for eye of the equinox, so it saves me one slot in my inventory (sightstone and support item in eye of the equinox) so I can have one more item.

eye of the equinox As I have already mentioned, I build this item instead of face of the mountain, because it saves me one slot in my inventory.

talisman of ascension I really love this support item. Gives me nice stats, but most importantly, the active effect is an amazing 40% speed boost for 3 seconds with a huge range. I build it quite early in the game because of the active effect.

Next core item, gives 30 armor and 60 magic resist which is pretty powerful. You can also use the active effect, that gives you and your allies very nice shield.

Very important item in this support meta. You can use Redemption even if you are dead, so you can help your team even if you die. Range of the active effect is also amazing, healing is super and it also damages enemies. If you get lucky, you can also steal dragon or baron with it. Active effect of Redemption also gives vision, so you can spot enemies if they do baron or dragon for example.

This item is just fine, nothing amazing, nothing bad. I sometimes omit this item and build something different, but it depends on game situation.

I think most useful boots, it gives 10% CDR so you can get 45% CDR early. And also - summoner spells CD reduction? Thank you very much.

If there is strong AD against me, first item i finish is Frozen Heart. That's because it gives me 20% CDR, so instead of Ionian Boots of Lucidity I build Ninja Tabi so I have even more armor. Otherwise, 90 armor is a nice value and 400 mana too, but Thresh has enough mana in mid or late game.

If needed, build them. But you need next item with 10% CDR so you dont lose CDR from Ionian Boots of Lucidity!

Many Thresh players keep going for Mobility Boots, but I can't really see the reason. They give you amazing mobility when out of combat, good for roaming.. But how often do you go for roaming? Ask this question yourself. In my opinion most supports just stay in lane most of the time and don't usually need mobility when out of combat. If you want them and they fit your playstyle, go for Mobility Boots. But I think that they are useless for most of Thresh players.

No.

Not in this meta. Speed boost got nerfed and stats of this item are not very good. I never go for it. In my opinion this item is out of meta at the moment.

Against full AD team I build Thornmail instead of Locket of the Iron Solari. Thornmail works, it is a fine item against heavy AD.

Fine item, if you want it, build it. It's up to you.

A little out of meta now. I never go for this item. It doesn't have anything extraordinary.. nah.

Fine item against heavy critical dmg, it is very situational, but possible. I kinda like this item, but I don't usually build it. But if needed, it helps. Randuin's Omen also has slow on active effect, which can be useful both for engaging or peeling for your adc.

If you wanna go for tanky Thresh, you can build Warmog's Armor, this item definitely works.

Fine MR item, also gives you HP and CDR. Im fine with it, but I hardly ever build this item.

I dont build this one, but it is a fine item that you can build if you want.

I don't build this item because of two reasons. First, item stats aren't amazing and second, landing this item's active effect correctly is extremely difficult, so I usually miss it or don't use it on time. Especially in teamfights it is impossible for me to keep an eye on other teammates and wait for the right time to use Mikael's Blessing, because I'm bad. If you can do this, definitely go for Mikael's Blessing.

Fine item, but I don't find it very important to build. It can definitely work, but I can't very imagine situation when I would've bought this item.

With Thresh you can basicly do whatever needed. You can decide to be in the backline and deffend your adc or mage or you can engage and hunt enemy damagers. In teamfights,
always keep an eye on your items and their active effects, for example Redemption, Locket of the Iron Solari or talisman of ascension. You should adapt your item build to your teamfighting playstyle - agressive/passive. If agressive, get a little more tanky, if passive, build as many utility items as possible to support your team. Your key ability for teamfighting is your ult - The Box, because The Box does an amazing job in zoning.
But most importantly, Thresh can perfectly start a teamfight by landing a hook. If your chances to win a teamfight are 50:50 it's pretty dumb to start a teamfight by hooking enemy tank, but if you hook enemy mage, assasin or adc, that's the best time to start a teamfight and you will usually win because you kill their damager.
If you have some kind of an advantage such as elder dragon buff or 5v4, you can start a teamfight by hooking enemy tank, too. But start a teamfight by hooking enemy tank only when you really wanna engage and really wanna go for a teamfight.
TIPS: You can use Oracle Lens to detect enemy invisible champions.
For example Shaco, Rengar or Kha'Zix and many more. You can also use a pink ward to spot them.
Save Flay to cancel some important enemy abilities, for example Warwick's or Miss Fortune's R.

Thank you very much for reading this guide. I would be really happy if you could rate or comment this guide to tell me what you think about it. I hope you learnt something new and I hope you liked this guide^^
Good luck as Thresh!