Pros:
+High kill potential
+High CC
+Can save someone from an almost certain death
+Can zone well in laning phase
+Awesome Playmaker
+Pretty high damage for a support
+Can deny a lot of skills with his Flay
+Can make a lot of gank opportunities

Cons:
-Can only escape with his Death Sentence, otherwise he has no escapes and is therefore easy to kill if you CC him
-Can be easily punished if he misses his hook or positions wrong
-Doesn't have the strongest early game stats
- The Box is pretty hard to use, and so is most of his kit

* If you're facing a very aggressive bot lane/jungler, this is a good start to keep up the vision around bot lane.

* This is also a good start if your own bot lane champs have very high zone/kill potential, due to denying a lot of vision for your enemies.Since most supports start with an Ancient Coin, you can remove almost all wards, depending on what trinket the enemy adc chooses.

*If you have a strong jungler and you're facing a bot lane with little escape tools, you can easily set up ganks with these starting items.

* If you feel safe early due to facing a weak enemy jungler, or facing a non-lane dominant bot lane, this is a pretty good start. This is the fastest way to get a Nomad's Medallion.

* As soon as you got a Sightstone, you should sell your Stealth Ward for a Sweeping Lens.

*This start will give you as a support the most gold, but the other start can help you to get more kills.

* Nomad's Medallion is a good gold item. It gives you a lot of passive gold and if the laning phase is long, you will get a lot of extra gold from all the minions that dies in lane. It also builds to Talisman of Ascension, which is a great Engage/Disengage item, that also can help you as Thresh to make big plays.


* Boots will help you to roam a bit after laning phase and will probably make you survive a deep warding mission. Since you can make it faster to key warding places, it will become safer for you to ward. It will also help you a bit to catch up with enemies, so that you can hook them.


* Sightstone is pretty obvious. Since preseason started, you have been able to use 3 wards from a normal Sighstone at the same time, which makes it an even better item than before. Once you got a Sightstone, you will no longer have to buy a Stealth Ward, as long as you recall now and then.

*I doubt that you will be able to get more than 5 items in a normal-length game, but if you get 6 items, these are the ones you should have.

*When it comes to boots, it depends completely on how ahead you are and what kind of team you are facing. If you are up against a high-cc team, Mercury's Treads is a must for you. In fights you have to get your spells off, especially your ult. Therefor against high-cc teams I almost always get Mercury's Treads so i can be as effective as possible in fights.


*If the enemy team contains a lot of AD-Damage, I recommend you to build Ninja Tabi. It will help you to tank enough damage from bruisers or assassins so that you can keep your ADC alive as well. There is a chance that the enemies will focus you, so Ninja Tabi can make you survive long enough to hook a jungle camp or to bait your enemies.


* Mobility Boots should only be purchased if you're ahead, and if you're not facing a heavy-cc team. It allwos you to make more plays, but if you rush it early, chances are that you will be too weak to jump in if you would land Death Sentence. Consider your boots buy wisely. However I prefer the Mercury's Treads in most cases, mostly due to that in SoloQ a lot of teams are based off cc.


*As I mentioned earlier, Ruby Sightstone is not too efficient to upgrade until pretty late stages of the game.

*Once you are reaching the later stages of the game, where teamfights occurs, you must consider which of the other items that are worth buying.

Talisman of Ascension
*If your team is tanky enough, but needs some help to engage/disengage on/from the enemy team, then a Talisman of Ascension is a great buy.


*If your team is facing a lot of AoE damage, a Locket of the Iron Solari is great to keep up the defensive stats for your whole team, but this item is not too good to build against a team with the majority being assassins.
Not only does it give you and your team defensive stats, it also gives you Cooldown Reduction! It will help you with peeling in fights for your ADC as well.


*A Randuin's Omen is an item I really like to buy nowadays on Thresh. Since the arrival of the Stealth Ward, toplaners with no escapes(bruisers) has become more viable. This will often require more peeling with slows than before. Since Thresh already got an awesome ult to slow( The Box) enemies, he might not be in the biggest need to rush a Randuin's Omen, but it's definetely a good item after Locket of the Iron Solari or Spirit Visage. However if the enemy team has no AD champions in their frontline, there is no need to build this item.


* Spirit Visage is most commonly one of the later items I build. Since bruisers are more common now, we face more AD than AP, therefor it is not efficient to get it early, especially since this item is only for your own defensive stats, not your teammates. So I would recommend buying this items as one of the last items, only due to how little it does for your team.
If the enemy team is only AP-Damage in their frontline, a Locket of the Iron Solari is still a way better buy, since it gives 20 MR to your teammates and a shield which can block some AoE damage.
However if their AP champions tend to focus you or kill you often, Spirit Visage can be bought as the 5th item as well. But it's only worth to buy if you can't stay alive to protect your team.


*If the enemy team is only consisting of pure AD, then there is definetely no need to buy a Spirit Visage. I would then suggest a Sunfire Aegis as the 5th or 6th item depending on how much AoE damage the enemy team has.

* Flash and Exhaust is my most used combo. It helps you to make plays with the Flash, or escape with it. With Exhaust you scale better into the late game, and the spell will only get better and better. If the enemy team has a champion with high one target damage, this is a great option. It's also good if you're facing a very Basic Attack based champion in bot lane like Vayne. It's also really good if you want to fight the botlane 2v2, since it will make the enemy ADC deal way less damage. However you will not deal as much damage compared to if you're using ignite instead. Altrenatively, Exhaust works well as a second hand CC-spell to help out your team by slowing an enemy.


* Ignite will make you deal more damage than with an Exhaust, but it doesn't scale too well in to late game. An Ignite won't to as much against an assassin as an Exhaust would. However Ignite might secure you some early kills that would never had happened otherwise, so it might make you strong enough in the late game anyway.
If you're facing a botlane that is either easy to kill, or has an Ability based ADC like Ezreal, ignite is a better option for laning phase. Also if you're up against a team with more AoE damage, where the Exhaust is not too useful, Ignite might be equally effective, if you have grabbed kills earlier thanks to the ignite.

* Greater Seal of Armor Helps you out in lane against the enemy ADC

* Greater Mark of Attack Damage Stacks with your Flay and buffs your Basic Attacks even more

* Greater Glyph of Magic Resist Works good in lanes against a AP Support. It will also make you tankier in the teamfights against APs

* Greater Quintessence of Armor makes you even stronger against AD team comps. Can be swapped with Greater Quintessence of Health as well, but I prefer some extra armor over extra health.

*Since Thresh has a great playmaking kit, he also requires a lot of practice. One of the most challenging is his hook ( Death Sentence). The enemies will most likely try to dodge your hook, therefor you probably should try to predict where your enemy will dodge. However some enemies might not try to dodge, and therefor you only need to hook the enemy's walking path, but most people will try to dodge it. Note that some dodge techniques will differ depending on what ELO you're playing in.

A key part on Thresh is how to use your Dark Passage and Death Sentence during ganks. This will require some practice as well, but it can only get better and better. You don't want to give it out too early, nor too late. If you do it too early your enemies will most likely react in time, and if you do it too late they might make it to tower, or that your Dark Passage will be out of range for your jungler, without being seen.

His Flay can be used to deny a lot of spells, like Lee Sin's Sonic Wave/ Resonating Strike. Try to get a good timing defensively with this spell so you can save a Flash or two. Also you can use it to get your enemies closer to you, which might get you an extra attack. You definetely don't want to use it in the wrong direction so that you save your enemies!

*Try to place The Box in a place where the enemies has to walk through it in order to get to your ADC or AP Carry. During laning phase you want to make sure that you can get the one you want to kill in one of the walls to get the 99% slow off on them. Using Flay for this is a good way.

*I tend to try to poke the enemy ADC as much as possible, trying to punish him/her for taking minions. Since you have a defensive mastery page you can trade if you have your Flay passive up, which is one basically every basic attack. Often you only use one Basic Attack, the one where your Flay's passive is fully stacked.

*If you're facing a healing support, or a support with a shield that makes you lose on the trades, you should look to all-in one of them, or make them run out of mana. A healing support is most commonly squishy and has no Barrier. Therefor going all-in on the support is a pretty good idea early in the game. But later on the ADC will deal enough damage to kill you both, and therefor you have to focus the ADC for sure later on in laning phase. Against healing supports, Ignite is a very good choice, due to great kill potential and the denial of their heals.

*The best is to hook the enemy ADC, therefor you should try to trade when one of your Death Sentences connects, eventually going for a kill. If you get the enemy ADC low enough you can be able to zone him very hard. If you use the Ward Dominance start, this zoning will be fairly easy since you can check for ganks and deny a lot of vision for your enemies. It also gives you the potions to heal up from an equal trade with the enemies.

*Use your Dark Passage if you can in trades between your ADC and their ADC, it's always something!

*If your lane is getting pressured, you can always toss the lantern behind you and walk up to your enemies. They will most likely think that your jungler will gank and will probably back off a bit. This will relieve some pressure for you. Be aware that the enemy jungler might be close and that you might walk too far so that they can kill you. Also watch so your jungler doesn't want to gank within 20 seconds, so that you don't waste your Dark Passage when you can get a real gank.

*Peel as much as you can. You are a great peeler as Thresh. If the enemy has a good engage ability, try to Flay it if possible. You want to use your Flay in the right time.

*You can also start a teamfight with your Death Sentence. However I only recommend it if you get a hook off on one of their carries, and if your ADC can survive without you, they might need your help.

Thanks for reading this guide! Would appreciate a thumbs up if you liked it or if it helped you out!