Hi, I'm White Snow, currently a 970+ LP/top 14 NA peak Challenger Rengar and Rek'Sai Main, mostly in the top lane! Rengar is a very fun champion to play in the top lane due to aggressive trading patterns and adaptable playstyles. With decent matchups and great lane pressure, Rengar can be a very good addition to most teams! You can win nearly every matchup if played well and his many build paths make him very adaptable. These factors combined with his roam and snowballing potential makes it easy to impact or take over games, even from the top lane! If you ever want to check out live gameplay with the listed runes, build paths, and playstyles, check me out at my stream !! If there's any outdated information about the guide, or if you want to say hi, feel free to join my discord at https://discord.gg/WnVXDTQGFG !

PROOF of HIGHEST RANKED RENGAR

Rengar Top's Pros → Strong Laning Phase → Flexible Build Paths → Strong Roams → Strong Splitpush AND 5v5 → Extremely good survival tool in Battle Roar → High Snowball Potential

Rengar is a versatile lane bully pick in the top lane. His aggressive early playstyle not only makes him an extremely enjoyable pick to play, but also allows early opportunities to gain leads and snowball on roams and skirmishes. In the mid game, his flexible build paths allow him to play for teamfights as a tank or bruiser with Ravenous Hydra + Death's Dance builds, or to play for side lanes with modified duelling builds, or to embrace your inner sadist with the classic assassin playstyle. Overall, this is the pick for you if you enjoy an aggressive laning phase, a diverse playstyle that can change from game to game, and strong snowball potential!

Due to Rengar's kit, you will find yourself struggling if you fall far behind certain points depending the matchup. You'll have a harder time against champions that can zone you off bushes level one, a select few scaling champions with tools that can help counter you, and against heavy dive/gank pressure if you're unable to prep ferocity stacks in time. Dives are also difficult to set up against champions with basic cc tools due to your inability to have high mobility under turret. Also due to your lack of range and reliability on bushes, Rengar struggles with mid-late game sieges and fights without Thrill of the Hunt. This means that for you to properly join these fights, your team needs to take your positioning and r cooldown into consideration, which doesnt happen that much in unorganized play. Thankfully, the rework has helped a bit with starting fights outside of bushes, making this weakness a little better. So if you don't enjoy feeling vastly less useful outside of bushes or if you can't play from behind, Rengar might be a little more problematic for you.

Rengar Top's Cons → Struggles from Behind → Dependent on Bush Presence → Has Difficulty Setting Up Dives → Can not Siege → Has Trouble in Mid Lane Pushes → Can be Kited when Without Bushes → A little too many bugs...

INNATE: Rengar generates 1 Ferocity whenever he casts a basic ability or uses Savagery's first attack. Reaching 4 Ferocity renders his next basic ability empowered, granting an additional cast along with 30 / 40 / 50% (based on level) Movement speed icon.png bonus movement speed for 1.5 seconds at the cost of consuming all Ferocity. Reaching 4 Ferocity with Savagery or Bola Strike locks its empowered version from use for 0.1 seconds before and after casting it. All Ferocity is lost after being out of combat for 10 seconds. While in brush, Rengar basic attacks have massively increased range and cause him to dash leap to the target's location, attacking the target upon arrival and landing closer than his normal melee range. This effect lingers for 0.35 seconds upon exiting brush but is lost immediately if Rengarcasts Flash or Hexflash to do so. Reaching 0 Ferocity and leaping at any point afterwards generates 1 Ferocity. INNATE - BONETOOTH NECKLACE: Scoring a takedown against an enemy champion within 1.5 seconds of damaging them grants Rengara Trophy, once per unique champion and up to 5. An additional one is made available through the event The Hunt is On! Trophies grant 1% − 36% (based on trophies) bonus AD as bonus attack damage.

ACTIVE: Rengar's next two basic attacks within 3 seconds gain 40% bonus attack speed, with the first also having an uncancelable windup, gaining 25 bonus range and dealing bonus physical damage. This attack always critically strikes (not affected by critical strike damage) and its damage is increased by 0% − 66% (based on critical strike chance).

EMPOWERED ACTIVE: Savagery's bonus physical damage is modified and grants Rengar 50% − 101% (based on level) bonus attack speed for 5 seconds. Savagery resets Rengar's basic attack timer.

PASSIVE: Rengar stores 50% of the post-mitigation damage he has taken in the last 1.5 seconds as grey health on his health bar, increased to 100% of damage taken from monsters. ACTIVE: Rengar lets out a Battle Roar, dealing magic damage to nearby enemies and 65 − 130 (based on level) bonus magic damage to monsters, and healing himself for the amount of grey health.

EMPOWERED ACTIVE: Battle Roar's magic damage is modified and additionally cleanses Rengar of all crowd control.

ACTIVE: Rengar throws a bola in the target direction, dealing physical damage to the first enemy hit and slowing them for 1.75 seconds, as well as revealing them for 2 seconds and granting sight of a 150-unit radius around them for the same duration.

EMPOWERED ACTIVE: Bola Strike's physical damage is modified and roots its target for 1.75 seconds.

ACTIVE: Rengar activates his predatory instincts, revealing the nearest enemy champion in a large radius,in addition to granting sight of a 100-unit radius around them, and gaining bonus movement speed for a duration. After 2 seconds, he also becomes camouflaged and gains Unseen Predator for the remaining duration. His next basic attack within normal attack range against any enemy unit or with Unseen Predator against the nearest enemy champion deals 50% AD bonus physical damage and reduces the target's armor for 4 seconds. The nearest enemy champion to Rengar alerts all of their allies within 1200 range about his presence, and they can sense him at 1600 range. Attacking or casting abilities, other than Savagery, ends Thrill of the Hunt immediately. Enemy champions spotted by Thrill of the Hunt stay revealed within Rengar's reveal range while the stealth persists.

Precision

This is a standard rune page that is one size fits all - if you're not sure which runes to run, you can't go too wrong with these selections. Conqueror is an extremely good rune for Rengar, rewarding trades w/ a stacking system you can easily fill up with a single rotation of spells and a couple basic attacks. Other contenders for the main keystone spot includes Fleet Footwork, as the movespeed and sustain are useful for avoiding damage/poke in certain matchups, and Press the Attack for more aggressive earlier trading. These keystones synergize well with all types of playstyles with Rengar, ranging from his assassin playstyle ( Conqueror is better for this) to his bruiser playstyle, with even the option of going more or less full tank! Rengar's kit can thrive in both short and long trades and since he's able to effectively ustilise both runes and benefit from them in most situations, these make very useful keystones on him.

Out of all the runes in the top row of the precision tree, Absorb Life is more or less the best one for Rengar's laning phase, while Triumph is your option for a lane that looks easy to snowball in due to its high snowballing value. POM does not work on Rengar as he does not use Mana or Energy, so it's just not an option.

All three runes in the third row of the Precision tree are viable on Rengar and the one you want depends on each game. Legend: Alacrity is good for scaling up your attack speed for higher DPS in later stages of the game. However, is hard to take over Haste at the moment - as banking on just dps in Rengar's current state is difficult to rely on. Legend: Haste is just a general-case good rune for bruiser Rengar's w cds and assassin's rotation cooldowns - making it the new default. Legend: Bloodline after the nerfs has become much weaker, so alacrity has become my default alongside haste as bloodline gives way too little now. However, in games where you're playing for short fights and burst w/ assassin, bloodline is still the way to go.

Your main two options from the last row of the Precision tree are either Cut Down or Last Stand. For lane, Last stand is the better choice as you may constantly be doing trades at sub-50% HP, while Coup de Grace is usually better for the jungle, where you are constantly looking to burst people. Generally, if you're looking for burst damage, cut down is better - but last stand fits best for a bruiser/tank playstyle. The reason coup de grace is not in consideration is you usually don't have trouble dealing with people who are less than 50% help and are more likely to want to amplify your burst on higher hp targets.

Rengar's item choices shape his playstyle from game to game - but in its current iteration there is one main option that outshines the rest: Ravenous Hydra. I'll keep other more off-meta options covered below, but as of 14.15 Ravenous Hydra should be your default for maximum carry potential. Below are items grouped by general stats and their builds, and explanations for when you'd run each item.

Ravenous Hydra is going to be your completion item of choice when playing most matchups. It gives you waveclear for prio, infinite sustain for lane, and allows you to play around matchups that would otherwise just slowly starve you of resources and poke you down. The survivability and damage it gives is the perfect starting item for any bruiser build.

Profane Hydra is waveclear and a powerful additional bit of execute burst all in one while providing valueable AH. For top lane, rush this asap.

Hollow Radiance is your rush into every ap matchup or even ad matchups w/ low dmg threat/sticking power - you will oneshot waves w/ this item + dseal. Play around oneshotting waves when the enemy is in it to maximise damage output from this item, as the immolate doesn't ramp up like on sunfire nor do we stick enough to get full immolate value.

Iceborn Gauntlet is your armor alternative to first item, you'll have weaker waveclear but as long as you're sitting on bami's you're good. Complete Hollow Radiance 3rd if you're rushing this instead.

Riftmaker is what makes this build tick - converting the hp you'll be stacking into ap to allow you to have damage threat while still trading off your w cd so you can heal and do damage at the same time. Get this second when going tank almost always, unless your team is so fed that you don't need to go damage at all and just need to frontline.

Rengar has extremely flexible itemization options for any game. Due to this, you have options ranging from full tank items to some weirdly effective items such as zhonyas for your games! Below are items grouped by general stats, and explanations for when you'd run each item.

Black Cleaver Provides invaluable stats for bruiser rengar - Armor shred, Ability haste, AD, Movespeed to stick to targets. An extremely good second item for games into armor stackers, especially when your team has multiple AD threats..

Eclipse, while providing no hp, is a good splash when you're playing around short bursty fights in a side lane as the shield it provides can result in a lot of effective hp when used properly and provides some rare AH as well.

Death's Dance is your default survivability damage item that provides a lot of survivability in teamfights. Build this when you're able to get lots of resets for HP in fights and against AD heavy threats.

Maw of Malmortius gives a lot of good stats for a pretty cheap price tag. Good into heavy AP. Conflicts with Sterak's Gage. Serves the same purpose as Death's Dance and can be used accordingly to match diff dmg types.

Sterak's Gage is an extremely good lifeline item again into heavy cc due to its tenacity and good baseline stats for rengar. A good splash item when you need a bit of survivability. Conflicts with Maw of Malmortius.

Sundered Sky does not provide extra damage on rengar q, but is a decent splash item for additional healing in teamights if you need more damage..

Mortal Reminder this is our default armor pen item when going assassin - with Lord Dominik's Regards nerfs, Mortal is better in 90% of cases due to the prevalence of healing - but LDR is better when the enemy team is low on heals due to its additional 10 AD.

Good supplementary burst item to get in and out after oneshotting some targets, but provides no haste. Buy when you're having trouble disengaging after getting picks.

Voltaic Cyclosword is a great item for rengar, especially with Fleet Footwork, but is just barely not good enough to be a prio rush item. Splash this when going fleet if you just want a bit of extra damage and need no other utility.

Axiom Arc is a facilitating item to accelerate a snowball. If you find yourself getting kill after kill with ults, picking up an Axiom Arc can help make yourself an everpresent threat on the map. However, this is a luxury item - so make sure you're not sacrificing a more important item's utility such as Edge of Night's spell shield when it's needed.

Serpent's Fang is a situational anti-shield item that slots well into basically any build. Build this when vital carries have Immortal Shieldbow, or if you see an abundance of shielding on the enemy team. This can also counter items such as Gargoyle Stoneplate and Sterak's Gage, for example. A very good situational buy.

Edge of Night is a very useful lethality option against teams with denial abilities, or one-off abilities that you want to REALLY deny. Examples can include hooks like Rocket Grab, hard cc abilities like Light Binding, or denial abilities like Wild Growth or Whimsy.

Bloodthirster is a great item to pick up if you want just a little more survivability without sacrificing damage. Synergizes heavily with Ravenous Hydra. Very solid pickup as a last item option.

Zhonya's Hourglass is NOT a troll item - under the right circumstances. It can be used to keep yourself alive in matchups like Tryndamere or other divers when extremely behind, is very useful in any bruiser/tank build when soaking cooldowns as it lets you stall for a 2nd round of w casts, and provides valueable armor and Ability Hast. However, does not provide much damage, so do not buy when it will disrupt your tempo when ahead.

Thornmail is a good armor item for when you just want to tank and deny healing. However, it does not provide valueable Ability Haste, so do keep that in mind when deciding on an armor item - Frozen Heart is always a good second option.

Spirit Visage is a very good option as a standard MR item for any bruiser Rengar build. It synergizes well with Rengar's heal heavy playstyle, and provides valueable Ability Haste for your W. Very solid pick. Extremely good now, even over FON when building the bruiser healing build as it is amplifying a TON of healing.

Guardian Angel is a very good situational item for when you're ahead and fed - you can deny a potential shutdown or look for riskier plays near your team with this item. Do NOT buy when behind, will be worthless.

Randuin's Omen is really good for games against heavy autoattackers, especially crit users as it will also lower their crit damage heavily. Can be paired with Frozen Heart for major armor + attack speed reduction.

Frozen Heart is really good item for games against heavy autoattackers, especially on-hit users. Despite the wasted gold efficiency on mana, the raw armor + AH + attack speed slow is surprisingly useful. Pair with Randuin's Omen for maximum AS slow or any HP item so you can properly use the armor.

Jak'Sho, The Protean is a good final resist item, to just multiply all your other resists that you'll be stacking.

Dead Man's Plate is really good on paper for roaming around the map and chunking people with the momentum passive. Would work best with tank builds that need another armor slot.

Standard combo(From Bush):
(IF max ferocity) Empowered Savagery BEFORE leap -> leap -> Bola Strike in midair -> Battle Roar-> (optional)aa -> aa reset with Savagery -> Empowered Savagery, Empowered Battle Roar, or Empowered Bola Strike
Skip the optional aa if you want a faster combo.


But what if you don't have Max passive stacks? What do you do?
Step 1: Figure out how many stacks you need for passive. (aka 4-your current stacks)
if at 0: Go leap from a bush you dummy, you can do full combo from there or start stacking up again
if at 1: You basically have your bush stack already, you can just combo normally without the leap
if at 2: You only need 2 spellcasts, prioritise using q -> e -> w to stack up. Don't waste any cooldowns you might need later. It's fine to just q minions every 4 seconds to just get more stacks between trades.
if at 3: you're basically full stacks just q :D


E flash trick:
leap -> Bola Strike -> Flash (Can also be done w/o leap)



Flash Leap Gapclose:
leap -> Flash into bush -> Savagery from bush so no aa timer -> leap
Against mobility:
Remember to use Empowered Bola Strike to prevent champions from dashing away. This is especially useful against champions like Shaco with his Deceive

Enemy wards:
Enemy wards can be used as a free dash towards the enemy. If you have sweepter or control wards, and you know a ward is in a bush in leap range, do not hesitate to use it to close distance.


Vital Tips:
- Always have a plan for your next ferocity bar. Figure out how you're going to stack it, and have a plan for the followup ferocity ability. If you're figuring out how to use it mid fight, that time spent could mean the fight.
- Look for trades when the enemy goes for cs. They'll be down at least 1 auto/ability in that subsequent trade. Figure out the best trade pattern (long/short) and choose runes/play accordingly
- Always input a move command between each auto, or you'll find yourself getting kited out. Practice moving between autos, applicable to any champion.
- When leaping on someone with vital cooldowns up, (flash, zhonyas, etc.), it is usually a good idea to delay using your abilities, especially your ferocity, so you can make sure that they either don't waste your cooldowns with a zhonyas or flash, and so you have time to adjust to their play.

Laning Phase (Winning Matchup) With Rengar, one of the things I love the most about this pick is the super aggressive laning phase - in most matchups. In the case of a matchup you win, your gameplan is rather simple. Step 1: Stack up to 3/4 stacks of ferocity while trying to avoid taking a bad trade. To do this you can either just last hit minions with Savagery, or look for a leap with Unseen Predator into an aa-cancel with q on your lane opponent. The ideal timing for any trade with your lane opponent at this point is whenever they're preoccupied with csing, which will make it harder for them to trade back. Try to keep your minion wave slightly bigger/healthier than the enemy's wave, as you want a slow push to shove in with on the 3rd wave ideally. step 2: Once you're at 3/4 stacks, you have Empowered Savagery available to you, and you can feel free to look for a quick trade by using leap -> q/empowered q -> aa(optional) -> q -> as many aas as you want -> backing off. As you level up, you can start using your standard combo level 3+, and mitigating tradeback damage with your w after lvl 2. Once you have wave control, leap occasionally to keep your stacks up + last hit, while zoning the enemy laner off the wave by just sitting in bush. Force either the jungler to come and help them fix the wave state, in which case you should back off or fight the 1v2 (if you win), or force the laner to give up xp and gold as you can all in if they try to walk up to cs. If you're able to properly crash the wave, look to let it push back without letting it grow too big as your early waveclear is somewhat weak. once it's pushed to your side of the lane, you can look to freeze and assume complete control over the lane.

Laning Phase (Losing Matchup) Every now and then, and when you start learning the pick, you might find yourself falling behind due to ganks or misplays. You might also just be in a terrible matchup. Don't worry, as these situations are almost always easy to get out of. It feels terrible, but there are some key things you need to remember. First, you must not die simply for a little bit of cs. Focus on staying within XP range and keeping the wave from slow pushing, as this will let the enemy laner freeze the wave on you. In the event of an enemy freeze, you're going to need to have your jungler break that freeze. Look for roams when the enemy laner recalls at a convenient time, or look to outplay dives. Rengar has a surprisingly good time under turret, due to his ability to trade effectively with his Battle Roar. Even without a bush, you can supplement that first stack you need by hitting a minion with Savagery or Bola Strike as it comes into turret range, and preparing the rest of your combo as normal for when the enemy laner looks to dive/trade under turret for a near-guaranteed positive trade. The recent update to passive retention duration to 10 seconds helps a ton for a passive playstyle, as your e will have less than 10 seconds cd with some ability haste.