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Thresh is the most dynamic playmaker in the game. Every season he is one of the Top 10 supports regardless of the meta.

Thresh is not usually a high priority ban, so you will get to play him 80% of the time.

The most overloaded kit on League? Well, let's break it down:

Thresh has 3 forms of CC. Q, E, & R with R being the strongest slow in the game at 99%.

Thresh is a ranged support with bonus damage applied via the passive on his E (flay) ability. This scales throughout the game as Thresh collects souls and passively increases his AP damage and Armor.

Thresh Hook: Death Sentence (Q) landing on an enemy will stun them in place and allow you to reactivate Q to pull yourself to them. This also works on minions, monsters, and neutral camps which leads to an infinite way of great escapes or to close gaps.

Thresh lantern provides utility in many forms. It gives a shield, acts as an escape route to save a teammate or to assist in spicy dragon/baron steals. It also provides vision in bushes and areas when you may not have a ward available. The lantern can also be used to set up ganks from teammates, or my personal favorite: toss the lantern out as a bluff to make the enemy think you are about to lantern someone in, and they back off.

Flay. E. This can be used for engage, disengage, or if you have a teammate that can benefit from displacement (Yasuo), it can be used to set up a teammates ability. A good flay can lead to a high percentage hook landing (E,Q), and a good hook can lead to an extended CC combo with flay. (Q,Q,E)

The Box. A huge cage with walls that cause AP damage and a 99% slow. There are many ways to play into the walls, but most of the time the enemy will run into them while trying to flee. If they decide to stand in the box, you can (E) flay them into the wall for the damage and slow, then hook them while they can't move. Add that with a lantern for a distant teammate to come flying in while providing you both with a shield, and it's a free ride to the Shadow Isles for the opponent.

Playing Thresh is more than just landing a hook. Thresh is a playmaker. You need to always be thinking about how to make a play.

Thresh's kit is full of everything you need to make those spicy Youtube montages, you just have to be smart.

Almost everything on Thresh is skillshot reliant, so learning Thresh is a fairly high curve. A Thresh master can make you rage quit. If you can master Thresh, you give your team a very high chance of winning.

Things to take into consideration:

Engage Hooks vs Zoning Hooks - sometimes you don't want to land the hook. You want to see what their movement habits are. Do they move up, down, stand still, etc. This will help you better predict their movements when it's time to engage. Also zoning hooks can be used just to get inside the head of the opponent. The last thing they want to do is get hooked, so the "warning shot" can keep them at bay.

Lantern Placement - Try to lead your lantern in the direction your teammate is running. throwing it behind them or even too far in front can get them killed. Also be aware that in higher ranked games, the enemy is smart. You need to make sure the lantern is not in range for them to place a ward on top of it. This little trick makes it nearly impossible for your teammate to take the lantern since it will click on the ward instead of the lantern beneath it. Another thing to keep in mind is your teammates can TP to your lantern. A well placed lantern in a teamfight can allow your teammate to come in unexpectedly.

Flay is omnidirectional. Because of this, sometimes it is easy to whiff your flay. Flay can be used to push forward by moving the mouse forward while pressing E, or it can "rake" them backwards. It can be cast in any direction, so precision is key.

Here are some general common combos while playing Thresh:

Q,Q,E,R - (hook, pull, flay, ult)

E,Q,Q,R - (flay (backwards rake), hook, pull, ult)

Peel for teammates using flay or hook


Setting up an engage:

Begin walking forward.

When in range flay enemy while simultaneously tossing lantern to your teammate.

Immediately hook after flay. Your teammate taking the lantern will come flying in, lantern will provide shields for you and your teammate. Enemy will be CC'd from the hook allowing your teammate to deliver free damage.

Tips:

If you miss your flay, back out and wait for cooldown.

If you attempt to engage with a hook and miss, you still have your flay up...E if in range....or flash E and start your engage.

Sometimes the best answer after missing a hook is to wait until it is up again and save for full combo. Missing a hook isn't the end of the world, but if you start your engage with flay, and miss your flay, you need to back off and wait for cooldowns. Try to have as many of your resources available to you as possible when it's time to engage.

As Thresh it is very important to roam.

Place aggressive wards that give you the most information, and not just generic bush wards. Aggressive wards will help everyone.

Only roam when your ADC has no chance of being dove or killed. How do you know when that is? For that, you will need to understand wave management, and unfortunately this is NOT a wave management guide.

Common sense times to roam are times when your ADC is backing, or walking back to lane. After the first back, its pretty common to roam mid and look for a gank, but this is also a good time to ward the enemy jungle. Do as much on the map as you can before your ADC gets back to lane. Be productive, don't just stand in the lane and wait.

If your ADC is in a safe spot, get wards on objectives. If your jungler is bot side, follow him for an invade to help take objectives in the enemy jungle or secure priority for dragons.

Most of this is common sense and a lot of times your teammates will ping when they need you. Don't let that get you lazy though. Keep your eyes on the map and always be aware. Ping your team to any possible threats or if one of your wards spots valuable information.

There are plenty of higher ranked Thresh players and better builds.

This is a build that works for my playstyle and keeps me safe in lane. If after reading this guide, you still don't like the runes, then find something that works for you. The thing with Thresh is, you can pretty much build him any way you want, and as long as you land your skillshots and play smart, you are going to be fine.

If you want more options and opinions on Thresh, I suggest you guys check out Takitsu, NYC_Thresh, and BunnyFuFuu as they are GREAT THRESH PLAYERS and all have their own unique playstyle with a lot to offer!