I am a Thresh main from EUW server. I have been a Thresh player ever since the Champion is released back in Season 3 and have around 1.5 million mastery points collectively. I reached 1 million mastery point on my main back in 15/09/2019.

I have peaked in Master and planned to reach higher in the future; so I have written this guide for all Thresh or non-Thresh players about what I think about Thresh and my experience on this champion and hopefully will help you out. If there are any questions; feel free to stop by at my stream. (Don't stream regularly)

Thresh's unique play style instantly hooked me and made him one of my main. Starting from season 3 all the way till now; he has become my number 1 champion with the most games played. Except for season 3 but he was still top 3.
Thresh to me is a really well rounded champion, you have tools to engage onto enemies, lock down with CC and provide ways to escape the most impossible situation for other champions thanks to his Dark Passage.

You can fit Thresh into any team composition, depending on what you are building and how you play the champion. If your team is lacking in frontlines, he can be your front line with 1 or 2 defensive items like Gargoyle Stoneplate. Thresh is also an excellent peel support for your carries, babysitting them while they are dishing out damage for the team.

Pros

• Great Engage
• Great Peel
• High Amount of CC
• Excellent Roamer
• Grant Immobile Champion Escape
• Playmaker

Cons

• High Skill Ceiling
• Reliant on Skill Shots
• High Cooldown
• Reliant on ADC
• Less Effective When Behind

When Thresh is ahead in lane, he will control the flow of the lane enabling him to roam, obtain vision in river or in enemy jungle and zone enemy from minions which extends the lead further. However, when Thresh is behind. It becomes harder to make plays and harder to collect Damnation as minions dies.
Thresh does not gain armour per level and solely relies on Damnation passive to gain armour which will result in Thresh becoming less and less tanky over time.

Damnation (Passive)
Thresh does not gain additional armour per level like other champions, instead he needs to collect souls drops from minions, monsters and champions. Each soul increases 0.75 armour and ability power giving Thresh the ability to infinity stacking armour and ability power hence the later the game, the stronger he his. Make sure that you are actively collecting souls during the laning phase to maximise Thresh's passive. While collecting souls, do it while it is safe to do so. Your enemies can see the souls spawning too and will attempt to prevent you from collecting them, Thresh's Dark Passage can collect souls as well as Thresh himself but Dark Passage has a high cool down and using it to collect soul will make your immobile carries vulnerable to ganks.

Death Sentence (Q)
This is Thresh's main engage, gap closer and escape. When Death Sentence connects onto a target, you can pull yourself to the hooked target by reactivating the ability. Combine Death Sentence with Dark Passage to give one of your allies the easy gap closer, usually it would be for your Jungler who is coming in for a gank.

Keep in mind that Death Sentence requires 0.5 seconds wind up time before the ability is casted while channelling you are vulnerable. Make sure you don't over step in lane and give the enemy a chance to land skillshots likes Blitzcrank's Rocket Grab or Nami's Aqua Prison on you.

One thing to note is that Death Sentence can be used on jungle camps which means Thresh can navigate through the jungle by dashing to jungle camps with Death Sentence.

Dark passage (W)
Dark Passage is one of the most unique abilities in League. When ally uses the lantern it pulls then to Thresh, this can be used offensively or defensively. Offensively by throwing the lantern out for your jungler or carry offering gap close to the enemy or defensively by pulling your ally away from danger, this is usually done to prevent ganks. Lantern can be body blocked by wards, champions or minions; make sure to throw the lantern into an open area away from the minion wave to minus the chance of it getting blocked.

Dark Passage counts as terrain, you can use your lantern to block movement. Best example is the tiny gap between wall and tower. Your lantern can completely block it off and is impassable. Notable mentions of Dark Passage is that when you walk out of the zone, the lantern is instantly teleport to Thresh but if you go outside the zone because of re-active Death Sentence then the lantern will stay for another second before teleport to Thresh.


Flay (E)
Flay has a passive ability that would empower your next auto attack after a brief moment of not attacking. Use this to perform short trades with the enemy by auto attacking them once it is fully charged. (Flay icon will show different colours to indicate how much it is charged from base colour, light green, yellow and red) This scales with the amount of souls collected and attack damage which scales more based on skill level.

The active from Flay provides a knock up and slows the enemy. Ally Yasuo can cast Last Breath from the knock up. A well timed Flay can interrupt movement abilities like Leona's Zenith Blade, Tristana's Rocket Jump and Alistar's Headbutt. As well as movement abilities, channelling abilities too can be cancelled, Katarina's Death Lotus and Fiddlesticks's Crowstorm.

To make Death Sentence easier to land, start off your engage with Flay. The slow will make it almost impossible to dodge the following up hook.

The Box(R)
Trapping your enemy inside The Box forces them to either flash out or take the damage and slow as they try to escape. Offensively, you can box your enemy inside after reactivating Death Sentence or Flay enemy into the wall for damage and slow. Defensively, The Box is a great tool to use for zone off an area and disengage fights or ganks.

In this section, I will be covering what rune I take and in what situation that you might want to take other runes depending on the lane match up. The main tree for Thresh is Resolve and Inspiration. Taking defensive tanky runes to compensate Thresh's lack of armour per level and squishiness which enables him for early aggressive plays while inspiration provides utilities like cool down reduction.

Primary Tree - Resolve

Aftershock
Thresh is really squishy compared to other engage champions, as mentioned he does not gain armour per level and aftershock enables him to sustain damage early engagements. Thresh will take most of the aggro when engaged as he wants to be right on top of the enemies usually tanking both enemy laner's damage output. After 2.5 seconds, it deals damage to surrounding enemies.

Demolish
Demolish increases the siege capability throughout the game. During early game, each Demolish proc should grant you a tower plating gold which can help extend your gold lead.

Bone Plating
When you take damage, Bone Plating blocks the next 3 auto attacks or abilities from the same champion. At level 1 Bone Plating blocks 30 damage per damage taken within 1.5 seconds from the same champion, effectively Thresh becomes 120 damage more healthy at level 1. I would not recommend taking this against a heavy poke lane since Bone Plating only blocks damage for the next 3 damage within 1.5 seconds so this wouldn't be too useful as it has a 40 seconds cool down. Champions like Yuumi who can poke you consistently with Prowling Projectile.

Overgrowth
This rune provides extra health for Thresh as the lane phase goes on and once 120 minions dies near him; Thresh gains additional 3.5% maximum health added onto his health bar. More health is always nice and allows him to build armour/magic resistant. Extra health will increase the shield size of Locket of the Iron Solari and damage on Aftershock.

Secondary Tree - Inspiration

Biscuit Delivery
Thresh lacks self sustain and Biscuit Delivery will enable Thresh to sustain in lane longer. This is especially useful when against mage or poke lane.
Side note is that Thresh has high mana usage and Biscuit Delivery expands your mana cap by 50 per biscuit, you will get 150 extra mana. Even if you don't need it, selling them gives you the extra max mana and 5 gold each.

Cosmic Insight
Personally this used to be a must take for me but after the season 11 change it does not provide the extra 5% cooldown reduction, I been a bit more reluctant taking this rune as there are other runes that provides cooldown reduction. However, with shorter summoner spells cool down, this enables more Flash + Flay engage and more flashy montages... Or fail... Either way, it is nice to have a short cool down.
Cosmic Insight also gives you item haste too which is nice since it will allow you activate your items more often.

Optional Runes - Resolve

Guardian
While Aftershock makes Thresh himself tankier, Guardian will give shield to you and your carry. The only way to use this rune is by having an ally next to you, or ally that is shielded from your Dark Passage. The extra shielding allows the survivability for both you and your carry. Guardian is good to take when against hard engagements like Blitzcrank or major assassins like Zed where your carries will get heavily focused down.
Side note: The shield scales with bonus health built and from runes which makes Overgrowth worth while to take.

Font of Life
This is a good rune to take when against a heavy poke lane, it provides very little regeneration when your ally attacks champions that you slowed or immobilised. This rune will make trades more favourable for your carry as the rune will keep their health bar topped up a bit more in lane after each trade.

Second Wind
This rune is good against poke lanes where Bone Plating is useless since poke damage will keep Bone Plating on cool down most of the time. And Second Wind is like having Doran's Shield where it regains some health back after taking damage, this keeps Thresh more healthy for future engagements. Second Wind is really good against champions like Yuumi where the cool down between her Prowling Projectile will allow Thresh to regenerate the whole duration of Second Wind.

Unflinching
Unflinching provides slow resistance and tenacity when summoner spells are on cool down or within 10 seconds of using your summoner spells. The tenacity will stack with each other up to 32% when 1 is recently activated and the other is currently on cool down. This rune is useful when you flash engage and negate some of the CC effect from your enemy. And its especially powerful when against champions like Leona who is really CC heavy or Ashe who can slow you with her auto attacks.

Optional Runes - Inspiration

Perfect Timing
Perfect Timing is one of the most powerful runes for early tower dives and out plays. By having the ability to drop tower aggro makes tower diving a lot more forgiving. Most supports like Braum, Leona and Nautilus takes Perfect Timing because it builds into Gargoyle Stoneplate; it would be situational for Thresh to build Gargoyle Stoneplate like when the team is lacking front line.

Hextech Flashtraption
Hex-Flash allows users to cast Flash even during cool down by channelling 2.5 seconds while out of combat. This creates opportunities for flash engagement even when Flash is on cool down. When using Hex-Flash, it is important to deny bush vision from the enemy. Element of surprise is what you need for Hex-Flash. You can use this to reposition by lantern over small walls like in the dragon pit.

Optional Runes - Sorcery

Transcendence
With the new transcendence where it provides ability haste at level 5 and level 10. I started picking this up as a way to increase the amount of cooldown reduction I can fit in with my Thresh build. Also at level 11 after each take down it reduces the remaining cooldown of all basic ability.

WaterWalking
Water Walking enables a more aggressive roaming play style where you can roam to mid lane for ganks or just set up vision around river for objectives or just vision controls. As a small bonus, it Water Walking gives you adaptive AD/AP scales off your level.

Optional Runes - Inspiration

Glacial Augment
With Season 12 changes, you can now active Glacial Augment but applying CC to enemy. This creates a slow field around the target you CC which can be used as offensively or defensively. Enemy within the slow deals 15% less damage to your allies also.

Perfect Timing
One of the most broken rune that can make tower dive possible and save yourself from a tower dive. As the name suggests, using this at the perfect time you can turn a fight aroud. Alternative is Hextech Flashtraption which also works. Personally would not pick Magical Footwear since rushing boot for roaming or get back to lane is good.

Minion Dematerializer
This allows you to safely execute minions from afar or time it perfectly for a sneaky hook through a minion that is about to get executed. Alternatively you can pick up Biscuit Delivery if you are against heavy poke lane.

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Attack speed runes allows more auto attacks during trades or small skirmishes, in return; more auto attacks means you will utilize more Flay's passive damage with the amount of souls collected. This increases the output of your overall damage. Alternative will be additional ability haste which personally likes to stack as much cooldown reduction as I can. Due to the lack of armour Thresh possess early armour runes compensates that issue and armour into physical damage is always a nice pick up, reduces enemy damage output and make Thresh more durable during lane. Usually double armour rune pick up if the lane is heavy AD based which most of the time is; however, there has been mages taken to botlane in the past or mage supports like Vel'Koz or Xerath where is useful.

In this section, I will be covering the item listed above in the build. Explaining why each item is built and in what situation you should build specific items to compensate for what your team is lacking. Cool down reduction is Thresh's main focus while getting health, armour and magic resistant.


locket of the iron solari
Good item when against mixed damage source as it provides both armour and magic resistant but the main reason for this item is the shield. The shield scales with level and bonus health so it is better to build as a mid game item when there's level and health to increase the size of the shield. Against a champion like Karthus who can ult your whole team. It is a great item to counter that and negate some of its damage. Shielding for each champion might seem very little but it can shield the whole team during team fights and the damage it can negate becomes very high value. With the addition of Season 11, this item will also provide AoE armor and magic resist buff to your team which will enhance your team's tankyness.
For each legendary item the armor and magic resist get increased by 2.

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Shurelya's Reverie
A cheap movement speed item that will work like Turbo Chemtank but movement speed is granted for all allies near you (This includes your minions). This item provides a less defensive stats compared to other items like Locket of the Iron Solari so by building this item will make you more squishy overall. The extra boost of movement speed allows you to engage more aggressively without relying on your Death Sentence. Mythic bonus is extra ability haste which is also welcome for Thresh

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Turbo Chemtank
Turbo Chemtank offers a 100% defensive stats which makes Thresh incredibly tankier as a front line if your team lacks front line. This is similar to the retired Righteous Glory where you will get increased movement speed running towards enemy champion or tower and slows upon arrival. But this also offers a mini sun fire cape AoE damage zone around you which increases your damage output while being front liner. Any additional legendary item will increase your ability haste which what Thresh needs. This is a great alternative if you team lacks front line and need some extra durability to soak up damage.

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EvenShroud
Evenshroud is a great alternative mystic item choice, when you apply CC or receive CC, enemy around you takes extra damage. This is item will increase your team's output, it is a great option if survivability isn't as high priority where Locket of the Iron Solari would be a better choice.

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Zeke's Convergence
Zeke's Convergence gives Thresh's ally an additional damage for 8 seconds after Thresh immobilize an enemy. Thresh can easily utilise this item to due to his numerous crowd control abilities. Also this item gives Thresh the needed defensive stats and cool down reduction.

Knight's Vow
Knight's Vow provides health which is nice against AD teams, especially AD Assassins like Talon and Zed, their target will be your carry and Knight's Vow mitigates 15% of the damage your carry takes to yourself making them a harder target to burst. If your binded ally has less than 50% health you also gain 35% bonus movement speed walking towards them.

Redemption
Thresh does not have healing abilities and redemption compensates that. The area healer can turn a fight around while dealing damage to enemies who stay inside the area. Redemption's health works on minions too, you can use Redemption to heal your minions up as you siege the enemy. It is especially strong when near objective fights and thanks for the cast range, you can cut off fleeing enemies by zoning with Redemption. Side note: This can be casted when you are dead.

Abyssal Mask
During pre-season of season 12, this item no longer provide extra %dmg if you apply CC to enemies but it is still a great item when it comes to reducing enemy magic resistant while granting yourself magic resistant at the same time. Could be an option when your team is AP damage heavy or again heavy AP enemy team.

Gargoyle Stoneplate
Situational item when your team lacks front line and you need to take up the tank role for the team. Gargoyle Stoneplate allows Thresh sustain more damage while providing CC and slows in the front line. You can take Perfect Timing during the lobby too if you know your team needs a front line and make it easier to build Gargoyle Stoneplate.

Mikael's Crucible
Mikael's Blessing is useful when up against heavy CC match likes of Leona, Nautilus or Nami. This is usually a must get if you are against champions who can engage with CC like Leona's Solar Flare or Ashe's Enchanted Crystal Arrow. This item does give magic resistance and cool down reduction too which makes it decent against mages who have CC ability too likes of Cassiopeia's Petrifying Gaze and a more iconic match up would be against Morgana. This used to give you movement speed if you cleanse CC but now it heals instead.

Frozen Heart
Frozen Heart is a nice pick up against heavy AD team compositions and it provides 20% cool down reduction which works well in what Thresh needs. The unique passive from Frozen Heart slows nearby enemies attack speed, this is really effective who relies on auto attacking like Tryndamere. Side note is that Frozen Heart offers the highest armour out of all armour items in League.

Randuin's Omen
Another good item against AD composition. Provides a decent amount of armour while also offers health to make you more durable. The active from the item slows nearby enemies hindering the enemy's movement and provides a better kite for your team. Thresh's HP usually would be around 2k-3k so the passive should reduce 10 damage.

Boots of Mobility
Mobility Boots enables faster back to lane time and combining with Dark Passage you can help your lane partner get back into lane faster too. This is also an excellent choice of boots if you want to roam around to another lane or gain vision in an enemy jungle or river. In lane, you will outrun anyone who doesn't have boots of mobility while out of combat. This makes it easier to walk up to the enemy for trades or help the jungler gap close with your movement speed and Dark Passage. Side note is that you will be slower than other tier 2 boots during combat which is the downside of Mobility Boots.

Boots of Swiftness
Boots of Swiftness provides overall highest movement speed during combat and it reduces the effect of slowing spells. This is another great boot for roaming, not as fast as Mobility Boots but the bonus movement speed does not get reduced during combat which makes Boots of Swiftness easier to chase down an enemy by out running them. Since patch 10.5, Mobility Boots's price has increased by 100 gold making it cheaper to get Boots of Swiftness. Consider getting Boots of Swiftness if you do not have enough gold for Mobility Boots or if you are against champions which slow effects like Ashe and Cassiopeia.

Mercury's Treads
Perfect boot when against a heavy CC or AP team. Unique passive provides 30% tenacity which greatly reduces the duration of crowd control spells. While extra magic resistant if you are against mages in lane or overall enemy is AP heavy.

Plated Steelcaps
Contrast from Mercury's Treads, this boot will help you survive against heavy AD compositions while reducing 12% damage from auto attacks. It is a great boot to go for if the enemy is running a full AD team or the main threat is AD. Consider changing your boots from movement priorities to defensive.

Ionian Boots of Lucidity
This boot will speed up the progress of reaching maximum cooldown reduction cap. This also reduces the cooldown on your summoner spells like Flash which means more flashy plays for your highlight reels. By reducing the down time of your summoner spells, this allows you to be more aggressive and the advantage of having summoners back before the enemy does.

In this section, I will be going over how the early game laning phase should go. What to do in trades, all ins and set up for ganks.

Typical start for Thresh is Steel Shoulderguards and Health Potion. The extra AD from Steel Shoulderguards works well with how Thresh trades during laning and the extra AD also scales with Flay's passive.

Depending on the match up, if you are against melee supports like Leona. You should look to auto her as much as you can when she is going up for minions and wear her down. Auto attack -> Flay -> Auto attack is your basic trade pattern. You should keep in mind that Flay can cancel most of engagement spells like Leona's Zenith Blade (Refer back to skill section of this guide]] so it would be wise to keep Flay to negate any chances of engagement while you attempt to poke them. When against less aggressive champions like Soraka then you can be more aggressive with your Flay usage.

Upon arriving into lane, make sure you make the full use of your early aggression by help your carry push for an early level 2 all in, catch enemy off guard with an early level 2 all in usually would result in summoners burnt for the enemy or early first blood. Level 2 for botlane is 6 melee minions and 3 caster minions. Make sure you keep an eyes on the amount of minions taken during lane, start walking up as the 6th melee minion die and engage with Flay follow up with Death Sentence. The amount of CC this combo provides enough time to kill or burn Flash and Heal easily. Make sure to Ignite early before enemy use Heal since this reduces the amount of heal they receive with grievous wounds. Ignite's cool down is short! Don't be scared to use it!

Always get your boots first, movement speed for support is essential and most valuable, this allows you to get back to lane quicker and roam potential unexpected ganks and vision for your team. Items to rush after boots are cool down reduction, health and early armour. Kindlegem and Glacial Shroud is my main focus since they are both component of the main item I need on Thresh Knight's Vow and Zeke's Convergence.

Season 11 came, it is almost better every time to rush Mystic items.

Always buy control wards. Make sure your Tri-bush(blue side)/river bush(red side) is warded to prevent ganks.

Thresh can take multiple roles during mid game roams or late game team fights. Thresh can take upon the engage role by hooking out important targets or isolated targets and lamp allies in for a easy 1v2. Try not to go in every time you hit a hook and Thresh is relatively squishy and can be easily burst down. Or take the peel role if you team already have a good engage tool, peel for your carries and make it a harder time for the enemy to take out your carry. Flay can be used to denies alot of engages like dashes or jumps. Example is Jax's Leap Strike. Dark Passage is another great tool to bail out team mate who is out of position, stay back and peel off any assassins or bruisers.

Vision during mid - late game will mainly be focused on objectives and entrances so you limit the chances of getting flanked.

In short, Thresh is a fun champion to play as and you probably get satisfaction (for me at least) when you land a montage or game changing hook. A few points just to remember:

- Sometime it is better to hold onto your Death Sentence and not throwing it out when off cool down, this is because it can burn through your mana rather quickly and the pressure you provide when your hook is off cooldown is something enemy will take note of.

- It is okay to run ahead and throw lamp for your ally when getting ganked

- Your lamp can go further than your range indicator if you throw it into a wall, it will push itself through like wards

[27/05/2020] [10.10] - Guide completed.
[28/05/2020] [10.10] - Guide content lost, rewriting guide.
[05/06/2020] [10.11] - Rune section finished.
[09/06/2020] [10.11] - Items section finished.
[25/06/2020] [10.13] - Early game section added.
[03/07/2020] [10.13] - Guardian Rune movement speed removed.
[28/01/2021] [11.2] - New season, updated some items and runes.
[01/02/2021] [11.2] - Updated Mikael's Crucible
[02/02/2021] [11.2] - Mid - Late game section added and updated some items.
[09/10/2021] [11.20] - Updated guide after a long break
[19/11/2021] [11.23] - Updated item with Evenshroud
[15/01/2022] [12.10] - Updated items according to Season 12 changes