Pros: + Great Crowd Control abilities + Dark Passage can be used to both shield allies and collect souls in lane, whilst providing an easy escape and or ganker engage. + Flay's passive provides and early harass advantage over many other supports, and can be used to counter and prevent enemy engagement. + INFO Thresh is a great initiator and overall amazing asset to your team if he is played right. He provides amazing CC, the best escape in game for allies, and the ability to zone lanes without barely trying. He also excels as a tank later in the game and has no problem sustaining in lane.

Cons: - Is skill shot based. - Dark Passage can be hard to click for allies if minions or wards are in it's way. It is also hard to time in certain situations. - Flay has an unusual range and can be hard to place in stressful situations. - The Box has very little to no use if you miss time or are unable to combo a Flay or Death Sentence - INFO Overall I think the only downfall to Thresh is his need for flawless timing on all his abilities. He has to be played as if he were in the future to be perfected :D

Flash is a given here, it provides so many opportunities to initiate and engage with Thresh whilst providing it's ever useful escape. If Flash is timed right with either Dark Passage, Death Sentence or The Box, it can provide out of this world advantages for your team.

Ignite is my preference with Thresh and is always picked up on every team game I play, and most solo Q games. It can help secure kills early in lane whilst helping negate some of the effects of Barrier, and Health Potion. If you are not to sure about timing and or find your self accidentally stealing kills with Ignite I would suggest changing to our next in line...

Exhaust. This goes very well with Thresh as well. A Flay and Exhaust combo at the right time is sure to get you a kill in lane.

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DamnationThe only tip I can give you with this qwerky mechanic, is to make sure you collect those souls as much as possible, either by walking into them or throwing a Dark Passage down on top of them.

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Death Sentence is at first hard to time, but with a little practise can be mastered, allowing you to do some unbelievable things! The first thing I can tip you on is, you can't land every hook, that's just not going to happen. It's important not to be distressed or annoyed at missing a hook as this makes it harder to land the next, instead what I do is throw a few "DUMMY" hooks early game to get a vibe for the players. If you notice them stopping or walking back or even zigzagging, to avoid every hook you throw, note this and adjust your hook to land where they think they are going to be safe. Soon you will have a near natural timer and feel for the hook.

Also very important to note is that, when you start landing some amazing hooks, blind hooks etc, think about if you should reactivate it and engage or not. Sometime even if you do land an amazing hook, it's better to just let it go.

Death Sentence is an all round superstar ability, it can be used in many combos to increase effectiveness, with the most common being a Death Sentence, reactivated, and a nicely timed Flay. This combo can keep an enemy under control and able to take some serious damage for quite some time.

Death Sentence can also be used as an escape tool. If you find yourself in trouble, a hook to an enemy or neutral minion/monster, dragon, or baron (only if he's not going to kill you), and reactivated, will take you over the walls and away from enemies, this can also be combo-ed with Flash to jump back over the wall you just passed for an ultimate juke. It can also be combo-ed with Dark Passage to take a friend along the ride.

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Dark Passage is the most utile ability Thresh has. It allows for so much opportunity and does so much for you. In lane you should use this as much as possible without exhausting mana to shield your ADC from damage, and collect souls at the same time.

Dark Passage is great to get your allies out of sticky situations, and should be thrown down in most tough situations where you think your ally might need a hand getting away. One thing to note is, that you should think very carefully about where to throw your Lantern. If your ally is running quite fast and has a bit of health left, it is better to place Dark Passage slightly in front of their path, so they can make a smooth transition. Otherwise you may find it being blocked or unable to be clicked due to cluster. If you ally needs a quick shield or has been slowed, a direct throw onto them is probably best.

Dark Passage is very easily combo-ed. It can be thrown over walls, or thrown down before using Flash or Death Sentence to travel over walls and bring an ally with you. Make use of Dark Passage as much as possible by positioning your self in places where you ally will end up safest. It can also shield your whole team in team fights and prevent many deaths from across map ultimates.

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Flay's passive is very useful in the early game so try to use it to your advantage as much as possible. Harass enemy supports, and ADC's and use it to push for level 2 before the opposing team lane. At level 2 a Death Sentence and Flay combo, nicely placed is a near sure kill for your ADC.

Flay can be used to counter many opposing abilities and you will find it very useful in pushing off ganks. Use it to stop a Flash, push back enemies, or stop them from escaping.

Flay goes hand in hand with your ultimate, The Box. Use it to push enemies into the walls, slowing them down, and dealing massive damage.

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The Box is probably Thresh's hardest ability to place. Some might argue this, but I would strongly disagree. The reasons why The Box is so hard to place is due to it's very thin walls, and the fact it's centred around Thresh (meaning it will only drop around the position your are standing).

All this, plus it is virtually useless against tanks, especially those with a slow or dash. Perfect examples are Nasus and Vi.

This means placing The Box has to be very well timed and thought out. I suggest using The Box after a Death Sentence engagement, and then try to Flay the ADC or other squishy champions into a wall. This will highly damage and immobilise a high damage dealer, thus giving you an advantage in a team fight. I like to make sure my Flash is up before using The Box as it can be a very risky engagement.

The Box is also very easily dodged, as a quick Flash will free an enemy from it's walls. But this can be used to your advantage, as you can force enemies to flash into ambush areas, and secure a kill.

The best place and time to use this tricky ultimate is early in lane, what I like to do is let the enemy team push up to our tower, then land a Death Sentence quickly pop The Box and Flay them back into The Box wall, in the direction of our tower. This will almost certainly draw a kill or two, even if they exhaust flash as you will have plenty of time to chase them down, and either Flay or Death Sentence them back to you.

START/EARLY

Start with an:
[*] Ancient Coin
[*] Stealth Ward
[*] Health Potion
[*] Sweeping Lens

Alternatively you could start with a Stealth Ward and transition to the Sweeping Lens once you are able to pick-up the Sightstone. Some great advice given to me by Emoriam. I will let you decide on that one, as I still prefer the Sweeping Lens only because myself and my ADC have some great synergy.


Ancient Coin is a standard start, and I prefer this over any other support starters on Thresh as it allows him to focus on zoning and setting up kills for the ADC, whilst providing some sustain. It also builds into talisman of ascension which provides an easy escape or a catch with it's +40 Movement Speed Active in the mid/late games.

MID/LATE:

I prefer to rush a Sightstone as early as possible as it provides a nice health quality and vision to defend your lane and set up for objectives. It can also come in very handy to setup ganks, if you have a good Lee Sin jungler.

Mobility Boots are still the best option on Thresh. This provides an amazing opportunity to catch up to unwanted ganks and throw a Dark Passage - (LANTERN), or position yourself quickly for an easy gank, or even follow up on getaway kills. After the early lane phase, use these boots to your advantage to quickly run to an unsuspecting lane and make an easy gank.

Mikael's Blessing is one of the best items in the game to date. If you are able to time it's active to perfection you can completely turn around uninvited ganks, and bait kill after kill for any of your team mates. It can be a hard item to use at first but after some practise it really pays off. If you are really not good at micromanaging all these items, a Sunfire Aegis is a good substitute.

I then finish of the talisman of ascension, which grants that +40 Movement Speed Active and start building an Aegis of the Legion which will eventually build into a Locket of the Iron Solari, which is perfect for team fights, or to save lives and damage taken from ultis like, Jinx, Ezreal, Draven.

Finally I finish with a Frozen Heart, which grants some awesome Armor, and really helps slowing down the damage dealt by AD heavy champs and carries, with its passive.

BELOW IS AN IDEAL BUILD

Ok! So here's the most exciting part! Well not really, but a part I find a lot of people will disagree with me on ,as it might be outside of what you know as the 'meta'. But just remember the 'meta' can change, and I actually hope to change a few things about how Thresh and even most supports are played.

This assuming you are playing a 2 v 2 bot lane, but you could adjust accordingly.

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The first thing on the list is fairly standard, buy starting items, and help out in the jungle until 2:00 minutes. You should have Flay as your first ability. Start using the passive of flay to aggressively harass the enemy and poke for level 2. Once level 2, grab Death Sentence and start positioning yourself for a kill. Don't worry about using Sweeping Lens just yet as you want your enemy close to land a Death Sentence and Flay combo to secure first blood.

If you are able to get first blood, then you should go and place a Stealth Ward. Otherwise continue and start trying to zone. Zoning is very easy with Thresh as all you have to do is position yourself in a bush and use Sweeping Lens to remove their vision. You will notice one of two things, either they will get all scared and back off, or two, get very angst and come bounding into the bush like mad men! Either or is a good situation for you as if the enemy ADC gets too close and out of place, a nicely timed Death Sentence and Flay, topped with an Ignite is either going to exhaust their Flash or get a kill, which gives you even more zoning potential. I wouldn't worry about ganks too much, because to be honest, with flash and Dark Passage neither you or your ADC should be able to die.

Now once you are able to buy a Sightstone and Mobility Boots, things get very interesting. You should be able to quickly ward for your ADC, and now leave the lane and pick off a quick gank mid with your jungler, honestly if you can land a Death Sentence, you have basically secured a kill, or at least completely pushed their mid out of lane.

After mid I like to head top and also give them a hard time. Meanwhile checking up on your ADC, making sure they are playing passively and doing fine. If you are able to get a kill in mid or top, you should poke that lane as hard as you can and try to get it down.

I will usually rotate this method of ganking up until the end of laning phase. Most people don't expect to see a support up in their grill top lane so early so it really changes the dynamics of the game and helps your team flow.

After laning phase, it becomes crucial that you are able to initiate and engage for your team. You have so much CC available to you and it's best used as much as possible. Also remember to keep your team alive by throwing a Dark Passage when ever possible.


Some awesome combos to try on Thresh:

[*] Death Sentence an enemy and Dark Passage an ally to land directly on top, and secure a kill.

[*] Death Sentence a neutral camp or Dragon, and Flash back over the wall to secure a getaway, even add a Dark Passage to get an ally out with you.

[*] Flash and Dark Passage can be very useful.

[*] Flash and Death Sentence, if you land it, can really pay off, if not you'll just look like a fool.

I will let you think of all the other possible combos, and encourage you to practise them, as they really pay off at the right time.