Poppy runs around making plays not worrying about farming early for levels, so she'll be able to strike first where you can't. Also, her W is very annoying. Keep this in mind when planning your pathing. And when fighting. Don't ego jump into her. Be wary of walls and try to move in tandem with her as she'll try to position herself to smack you into a wall for stun.
Graves
Graves isn't difficult early (BE CAREFUL OF HIS INVADES, WARD YOUR OPPOSITE BUFF OR STARTING BUFF ENTRANCE). However, he can snowball early mishaps on your part very hard as he can go dmg items but still have a lot of armor with the grit passive of his E. Also he can negate jumps by tossing the most OP basic ability in the game, smokescreen, into bushes. Also, he's risky to invade as he can stack his grit while clearing (+ if he's taking fleet he'll remain full hp) so you'll end up fighting him when he has 100 armor lvl 3 or something crazy like that lol. Aim for counter ganks and generally trying to catch him off guard. Get yourself ahead through lanes and build last whisper item 3rd.
Fiddlesticks
Similar to Karthus, Fiddlesticks is a ticking time bomb with his mid-late teamfight threat. Make sure to invade WITH team (he can drain tank you with his camps in 1v1, avoid solo-invading unless he's low by trying to clear camps after a fight or you're fed) or countergank him early to shut him down in order to "make his fuse longer" so to speak. What I mean by this, make it as painful as possible for him to become a threat as a champion. Crossmatch your CS to his to try and approximate when he'll hit 6 (you hit lvl6 by 44-48 cs depending on if you have bonus xp from kills and such) because the next time he goes MIA while lvl5 he'll be ulting your laners. He has lots of angles to work with so definitely keep that in mind when pinging safety for your team. The longer he goes MIA before he's used ult the more looming of a threat his R can be. The game is never over vs Fiddlesticks unless you guys win a 5v5, be very careful engaging too far into the team giving fiddle super free ult angles. Always keep what he's trying to do on the forefront of your mind. Lastly, avoid doing/finishing baron/dragon with no vision behind the walls.
Olaf
Olaf can hunt you down with his chain slows off his Q's, but can also turn fights with his life steal. Be very careful when approaching this champion. Always check his items before jumping on him. He may be a lot squishier than he looks. Run lethal tempo and maybe ignite if you want to kill him.
Karthus
If he runs exhaust this matchup becomes hard. Karthus can afk farm to carry the game when you have to be proactive on the map. If you slip up he's only going to be clearing more, so he can quickly gain level leads. Be prepared to invade with your team if you have lane prio, otherwise make sure to secure objectives early so you have something to scale alongside by while he has his gazillion damage ultimate brewing up in 20 minutes. Becareful invading as if you 3 camp and run into his jungle he would be finishing his 5th game and going to his 6th if he's clearing well. Ping your team for a rlly good leash to make the invade in time.
Taliyah
Taliyah's early tempo with her passive will allow her to strike first while remaining a strong clear speed. The problem is if you jump at her, you'll be tanking a lot of damage and can be surprise one-shotted by her damage. Don't let her take control of the map too hard before you can do anything. Avoid full clearing, play for counter ganks based on what you think she'll gank early-game. Try and get a lvl1 ward with your team and avoid jumping into her as her rocks stun now and will stop you mid-air which will set yourself up to get one-shot into her combo.
Nunu & Willump
Simliar to Taliyah, all nunu wants to do is gank early. He can start snowball off vision, so by the time he's on vision his snowball is unavoidable. Be smart with understanding where he wants to gank first and try to be there to counter gank if you can after lvl3. Do not try to counter lvl2 ganks, they may or may not happen and acting too early can set you back really far. Ping back, get early wards and the like to counter those types of plays. These players like to run phase rush so try to play for root when you fight nunu as long as you're near bushes, otherwise combo for damage and hope for the best. Don't be scared to sit in his R if you have W up as you can doubleW full-hp heal (or only use W if he's tank) and you can try to run him down. Even if he builds tank, you'll do good dmg after last whisper item. However, keep in mind he might be trying to stall for his team if he's sitting there ulting.
Zac
Zac has a lot of innate CC and healing, make sure to dodge E+Q and secure executioners after 1st/2nd item. He heals more than you think. A huge part of his durability comes from how much he heals. Smite blobs if you forget to use it while fighting him as they're tankier than you think. He's an easy target early-game but if he gets ahead for free he's easily one of the most frustrating champions to play against.
Trundle
Trundle beats you in 1v1 unless your fed. Even if you have an item up on him, his R + Q stealing AD can make for some unexpected turns on his part. Tread carefully. Trundle will look to invade so definitely try for an early ward with your team if you can. A single early-game counter gank will make it hard for him to come back into the game, just be careful with his pillars as he can cancel your jump.
Rek'Sai
Rek'sai can be annoying as she can gank extremely early from really weird angles that can't always be warded to guard from. Make sure to pickup steelcaps and edge of night for her unburrow to consistently win 1v1's versus her. Keep in mind her tremor as she can see you in your ult pacing around and she can cancel your jump mid-air with unburrow. Also she typically builds EoN (which blocks your E, that alone is like 400 pre-mitigation dmg later), she goes DD/GA later on so make sure you have last whisper item somewhere in your build. 1v1's are pretty free if you're same hp and you have conq/lethal tempo but 2v2/3v3's are really hard if you're the one tanking the initial engage because you'll have to W>empW away if you can survive the combo instead of being able to fight back. Quick trick: her ult places her behind the direction you're facing, so you can turn around right before she pops up and flash in your intended direction to break distance.
Diana
Similar to karthus and fiddle, Diana is an AFK farming teamfight menace. It's pivotal to win fights versus her early to ensure a lead going into the rest of the game. Even if you win early, she can buy zhonya and be a problem later versus you, so never have your guard down in this matchup. Don't use W recklessly for empQ and wait for her QWE dmg considering that all some pretty quick if not R (preferably) if she has it up. Make sure you're paying attention to her item powerspikes on the scoreboard and again heal her ult burst with your W to turn fights. Overall chill matchup but can get ugly if you disrespect considering that you win early 1v1.
Wukong
Wukong R is very hard to work around as Rengar. Don't fight him on his ult+1st item powerspike as that's his strongest point in the game (typically uses that to snowball into BC purchase.. then he becomes thanos), but you can beat him after your 3-4 item spike for sure. Tread lightly in extended trades as his passive gives him tons of armor/stacked conq that you can forget about in the moment. Bola(E) reveal can be pretty annoying for Wukong though, this matchup is more of a can-you-play-rengar-intelligently check than a difficult skill matchup.
Udyr
This champion loves deadmans plate+frozen heart and can build super tanky as he's stacked with base stats. Make sure to secure last whisper item 3rd and play for root if your team is nearby. The problem is chasing him too far could mean he's leading you right into his team so don't greed to hard and ultimately play to kill his teammates over udyr. Careful with invades and don't underestimate his movement speed. As much as you want to farm, you can't let him afk farm as he's winning out of that handshake. Try to win early when he's not as tanky but still respect him and his doubleW, target other champs.
Bel'Veth
Her Q does tons of damage so understand how her directions work to position where she can't keep Q'ing you for free. Dodging W is all you need to do to win early and avoiding over-committing right away as it gives her a free E angle (E has damage reduction). Avoid fighting her in her ult if possible solo at least unless you're extremely fed. She has clear counterplay (dodging W) but if you make too many mistakes it's nearly impossible to win against her in 1v1. She will try to invade so check your raptors or ward entry points if you're starting blue. This would be an "extreme" matchup if she wasnt so dependent on W to kill you early.
Talon
This champion is a big deal ONLY if he runs ignite. Many talons run ignite because he has his build in mobility with his parkour E, so you won't be able to heal his damage. If he doesn't have ignite the matchup is pretty free in the 1v1 as you can heal all his damage, reveal him in R, and cancel his E mid-air if you land root. Be wary of his burst with passive as it scales really well with his powerspikes and can easily do 400-500+ damage on its own mid-late game. Get steelcaps! He farms really well too, so make sure you're on top of farming outside of gank and obj timers.
Zilean
Zilean R is a huge problem as he has built in GA on a 40 second cooldown during mid-game. Even if you jump in to root and back up he can catch you with is 90% slows and look for a stun with his double Q. GA/Zil R is a problem because it blows your combo which you could've otherwise used to finish a target. Time is everything in a teamfight and Zilean buys tons of it. Try to enter the teamfight late (so that you're not his focus and/or target) and go for jump angles that they'd expect least to catch zilean off guard which might trigger him to slip and ult himself or early ult his ally in which you can switch to zilean for easy him. I'd always go for a root unless you know you can burst him because he can cycle cooldowns quickly, so he can slow you down for a stun and get away.
Lissandra
This champions R is annoying as it's point and click lock down and does tons of damage which also doubles as a zhonya+heal if needed. She also has instant root that pairs well with after shock and an E that makes it hard to gank. If she walks up far enough for a gank hold your root for when she teleports over if not toss it right away so she's forced to take her E sooner than she would've liked. Also you can line up your E so it's in the direction of her E so it hits her no matter what. Edge of night is a must if you don't have frontline. Try to bait her ult in early fights with empW.
Kindred
You smash kindred early. However, she scales very well against what you want to do going into the mid-late game. If she understand how your R mark works when you ult, she can stick to your priority targets and function as a tryndamere ulti for her entire team. Also, she can go bruiser-esque and still do good damage with all her scaling passive whereas you need to keep building damage to keep up. Keep in mind her R is a 3 minute cooldown rank 1, so abuse that. Learn her R cdr based on lvl as she doesn't build ability haste so the cooldown will remain long throughout the game. Becareful being invaded yourself, if you ward for it and kindred invades your team can collapse making for a free win. Any lead on kindred early can almost guarantee a win if you don't throw later.
Lee Sin
Make sure you get steelcaps early to match the armor lee sin will stack. Otherwise make sure you play for heals on your W correctly and the rest is a matter of being a good jungler (securing objectives, ganking correctly, counterganking, etc.). If you can consistently dodge his Q's then you're pretty set after you get some armor and get some kills early. Careful with his kick as he can use his entire combo within kick CC and pull a 180 reverse one-shot on you.
Kha'Zix
You don't win this matchup outright. It's a matter of who secures their gold lead first. Both can win the matchup. Whoever can jump on the other target from a bush first wins. This is a skill matchup. Make sure to land E as the reveal acts against his R which is super nice. Careful if he W evolves because he can kite/slow you with that. If he builds armor and Q evolves he can easily out heal/win 1v1's if you're not already fed. If you counter gank the bug once early then it's pretty free but definitely stay on your toes.
Nocturne
Make sure to hold emp W for his fear. He gets bonus AD while sitting in his Q made by his shadow so dodging that can be huge. Try avoid throwing E into him because burning his spell shield gives him a huge attack speed steroid. If nocturne gets fed he doesn't shut you down too hard but he can force you to play defensively and forces you to make decisions faster with the lack of vision you'll have when he ults. Cool things to note are that you can empW cleanse his global blind over the map or leverage Edge of Night spell shield to cancel it out too. His scaling caps out (meaning he doesn't get considerably stronger) after 2-3 items, so you're only concern if you fall behind is winning teamfights.
Gragas
He can't outfarm you which is nice (compared to karthus, fiddle, udyr, etc.), but make sure you are wary of his E as it can cancel your jump and make for some annoying situations to deal with. Similar to poppy W, Gragas can pacify you if you jump in without care. Early invades can make it really hard for gragas to play the game, so definitely go for them if you have lane prio/stronger early game 2v2/3v3 and such. Also, if he lands his E it shortens the cooldown by 3 seconds when it lands, so after a couple items the CD will be around 4-5 seconds (3.5 if he's really stacking ability haste) which can be insanely hard to work around in longer teamfights when gragas is fed.
Xin Zhao
Make sure you buy armor early and play for heal when he uses his W. Try to play for counterganks/early fights b/c ignoring him early is going to open opportunities up for him to 1v9. Xin Zhao is pretty free if he doesn't get fed early, so he'll definitely look for early ganks making it easier for you to predict his pathing. Take objectives when the windows present themselves as Xin Zhao needs every ounce of strength to become a menace so squeeze his opportunities dry.
Zed
He can dodge your damage with his R which is insane. Be sure to get armor and to play for heals during fights. Thankfully in JG Zeds won't run ignite which makes your life a lot easier. Zed is slippery, so it can be better to play for root if your team is nearby to keep him from teleporting between shadows. Understand how his ult positioning works (similar to reksai except the position is determined right away as opposed to when she jumps out) as you can pull some cheeky roots right out of his R that he can't react to if timed well. Also keep in mind his W range is very long and he'll save the swap until you toss your empE so keep a tight hold on that ability until he's forced to swap so you can jump on his swap for root and kill. He's a very strong farmer so try to invade early if you have lane prio otherwise make sure you're not dropping too may camps yourself.
Viego
You can beat viego early, but he scales very very well off his powerspikes. Respect his damage and MAKE SURE to dodge his W, otherwise you will probably lose unless you're very fed. Don't let viego free-roam in fights as he wants to play a bit safe at the start of the fight to guarantee his first reset (which is all he needs to pop off) in fights. Careful with his invis as he can appear to run away then walk really close up and surprise you while your guard is down.
Master Yi
His meditate is really frustrating to play against as an assassin and he has a lot of burst tools and animation cancels to surprise you with damage. Avoid 1v1's if you're not already fed unless he's low and try to catch him in roots during teamfights (careful because he can Q-dodge your bola toss). It's all about the element of surprise with Yi because he can cancel your jump dmg by Q'ing you mid-air or using his W damage reduction. Otherwise matchup is quite chill as you can shut him down early through counter ganks or well-timed fights (don't invade unless he's low on vision lol, especially if he has HoB).
Hecarim
Hecarim with Conq can turn fights especially before you have last whisper item and he's outfarmed/outleveled you. He gets a lot of armor from his W, so don't mindlessly run in. He can also run phase rush and be really annoying to lock down and/or play for R fear in teamfights that can completely ruin your angles. It's very important to land E as hecarim gains bonus AD from his passive with his bonus movement speed. Rengar E is percentage slow and not flat rate so he can get completely screwed if you catch him with E right before he charges. With all that said, it's a scary matchup as he can outjungle/hard outscale you, but if you play well yourself you can also smash him into the ground.
Jax
A stronger warwick as he gets tons of free armor from his R and his E completely blocks your damage and stuns you. Play for root and make sure to pick up last whisper item. His clear isn't super fast early, so feel free to invade, but stay on your toes as he'll quickly shut you down if you take bad fights.
Lillia
Lillia is free-pickings early game but can become an insane threat later. She stacks armor very well and even if you fight her early can run away with her passive if you don't play for root. Make sure to keep tabs on her item spikes as her powerspikes change how you approach the 1v1 (watching for zhonya, etc.). Make sure to shut her down when the opportunity reveals itself and play for empW when she R's. Otherwise she'll have an easy time carrying.
Skarner
Skarner can solo cc you for eons. Even if he does physical damage, if they have 2 other ap champions or cc support, pick up mercs. Don't try to fight him as his builds are revolved around stacking hp and sustaining himself. Focus other targets if possible, otherwise play for root so your teammates can help clean up skarner. Respect his angles and make sure to ping his pathing for your teammates. His clear is quite fast, so don't invade him unless both mid and side lane have prio + you win potential 3v3. Keep awareness on support position (base > roam angles) as it's very hard to win against those grouped early fights. Overall, make sure you farm up, counter gank, and focus other targets.
Gwen
Gwen is one of the strongest scalers in the game, so you'll definitely need last whisper item to keep up with her damage and tankiness as she gets her item powerspikes. She almost always builds zhonya. You can't really stack MR against her because of how much R her damage does anyways and her Q's do true damage in the center. Most gwens run ghost and will run you down by slowing you with the first part of their R, so respect her engage range and make sure to punish her early when she's weakest to slow her scale down.
Janna
Fit EoN in your build as a well-practiced janna can make it really hard for you to play the game. Most of them are experienced completely concelling your combo w/ her Q then immediately slowed for all your movement speed. However, now that E has no channel time mid-air play for root assuming they have tornado to block you so you can catch them anyways. If you might get knock backed anyways by her R after all that but if you're near a bush it's still a kill angle. This is in regards to catching her. Make sure you respect her R threat if it's obvious you're jumping on the target she's peeling.
Pantheon
He can buy time with his E and lock you down with W which forces your empW if you can even get it in time in group fights. His Q has a long range so he can tap it for tons of damage on you if it's stacked outside of your auto range. Make sure to build steelcaps after 1st item and play for root when you jump him to bait his E and keep him from running. After some items he can do tons of damage, so you always want to respect panth unless you have bushes and nearby teammates to help.
Darius
Don't brainlessly fight into him as he'll easily smash you. Play for root as he'll use E to cancel your jump or at least break distance and kite for his Q to stack bleed. Buying edge of night allows you to play for empQ damage as it negates his fast E (cancels your jump). After 4-5 items he isn't really a problem and you'll want to be focusing other targets anyways. Careful taking bad fights because all it takes is one for him to break ahead.
Kayn
You win very hard versus Kayn early. Make sure to save your W for both parts of his Q dmg as that's his main source of damage and is on a decently-long cooldown early. This matchup changes when he gets form, so make sure you win early fights against him otherwise you will lose hard later on. Red kayn W is the main offender that you want to dodge and Blue kayn as a whole is super annoying as he can smite R you mid-air to dodge your combo. However if you get fed you can always stay on top of him. Careful taking fights you know you won't kill him with as he wants orbs. Make sure to buy antiheal if he goes bruiser items + red form. Keep in mind his ult lasts just long enough to stall out anti-heal proc so that he gets full heal upon exit. With that said, still want to pick up antiheal if he's building bruiser.
Warwick
Warwick can never win against you if you play fights correctly and respect his ult/passive. Don't go full burst unless you're extremely fed. Instead go in and play for root with emp E bcos he will use his damage reduction+fear ability right away. This way you can kite back then jump back into him when his E times out. You can also play for empW to cleanse his R. Typically want to take teamfights against him where you can blow his R or bait his E as mentioned above, so be careful trying to kill him alone as he gets 3x attack speed when fighting low vs you and such when you're using cooldowns to handle his other abilities.
Vi
You beat him 1v1 early if he has less hp, so don't take bad fights and you're fine. However, make sure to buy Edge of Night so she can't R you and lock you down for her team to collect your shutdown later. Her Q is a nuisance. If she locks you down her W shreds your armor by quite a lot. After last whisper item + EoN she's not the biggest threat unless she got fed early then there's not much you can do 1v1-wise. She is a "major" threat b/c her point and click R, Q knock back, and shields are very annoying. Winnable matchup but respect the opponent even if fed.
Elise
Make sure to cleanse or dodge her cacoon and buy mercs. If you can countergank or win a fight vs her early it's a free win. Rengar stores grey hp from past dmg to heal with empW for 1.5s, but her cacoon lvl1 lasts 1.6 seconds. Not being able to heal her entire burst can be a big deal especially if she's fed. However, dodge her cacoon and you'll be good.
Ekko
Ekko is weak early and only becomes a real threat if he gets fed. Outsmart him when you can and this guy is typically not a problem when it comes to carrying versus him. Play for root as he cant R when rooted and no matter what avoid his W. Sometimes you have to backup from his W and avoid fights or you can fight in and cleanse CC with empW but it's all relative to whether or not you have lethal dmg or if his team is nearby. Play smart and this guy shouldn't be a big problem. If he gets fed it's a matter of timing with your W to heal his entire dmg but buy mercs if he's turbo fed as he can straight 1 tap you from full hp. Quick tip: his damage is from his auto attacks, so steelcaps passive still blocks that damage despite it being AP.
Volibear
Volibear is a tank, don't focus too much on shutting him down. Prioritize getting lanes ahead and he won't be a problem. Careful tunnel visioning on him too much as he functions as an hp-super-soaker for his team but can also do damage (with his W healing) if you don't have a lot of it yourself to finish the fight quickly. Don't underestimate him his strengths but also take advantage of his mistakes as he falls off a cliff in terms of scaling if volibear griefs a fight. Do yourself a favor and google "volibear lol wiki" to read his W.
Rammus
This guy isn't much of a problem unless you ignore his taunt threat. Landing slows is huge because your E is percentage and not flat slow. Don't forget his R jump and be prepared to combo for empW to negate his taunt.
Morgana
You always win damage-wise if you're in her face but she forces you to play for empW before she tosses her Q out and can be a huge bait going in on her after she has R+Zhonya. Don't let her free roam scale for free and you're pretty set to scale.
Nidalee
She has to play really well against you as she needs max spears to bait your W into bursting you with her cougar form, but she already needs to be fed before that. She'll most likely play with her team against you as you can run her down in a 1v1 early. Despite that, this is still a skill matchup and set as "even." She has a ton of tempo from her free hops in cougar form, so she'll use that to go over walls for unwarded ganks, invade, and more.
Jarvan IV
You can heal his EQ and comfortably take fights from there. His job will be winning group fights in that case it's really important to dodge his damage combo (EQR). Don't mindlessly farm as he has really good gank angles to get himself ahead early and can force bad fights for you guys even if you're playing safe with his long EQ>R reach. Still a skill matchup and set as "even" because this is more of a who's-a-better-jungler-matchup.
Dr. Mundo
Not a threat after last whisper item, fight after serrated dirk and definitely take fights no matter what if he has less hp than you. Mundo wants to take it easy until he stacks HP and armor so step up and play aggressively with your team when you can. Of course make sure to build antiheal after 1st or 2nd item. Keep in mind mundo will wait until he gets low so he heals more from his ult (read his wiki page), but if you have antiheal it makes it harder for him to turn around on you guys.
Shaco
Unless you lose 5v5 lvl1, invade with your team into Shaco's raptors early as he always places a box there to guard invade. Shaco heavily relies on his boxes for his clear and has the fastest lvl3 in the game if he does it perfectly. If you can't break his boxes try and look for countergank and make sure to land E so he cant Q away. If E isn't up then immediately use scanner when you jump him as scanner is just big enough that when he Q's he's on the edge of the scanner range so you can trail him down.
Mordekaiser
Morde isn't a dominating jungler, but now that you can't cleanse his ult with your empW, he can be quite annoying. He can clear well, but not super fast. With that said, definitely go for early invades given you have lane prio. Be wary of his W as he'll save his passive stacks for the moment he gets low to turn. Try to enter fights late so you're not his ult target. If he ults someone then you one shot one of his teammates, it's a quick 4v3 which is nice for your team.
Amumu
If you win early the matchup is chill. However, if you don't, his 2Q's + R can CC you for an ungodly amount of time. Not to mention he has built in %dmg reduction on his E (read lol wiki), so he can get extremely tanky while doing great dmg. Try to fight him early if it's good before he stacks items, otherwise respect his threat and target others. Like some other champions (e.g., fiddle, karthus), don't full-send baron unless you can do it before they get there. He's great at going over the wall and locking your team down and turning a huge gold lead as a result. If respected and you play well, the matchup isn't the worst.
Sejuani
The matchup is low-stress, but because she functions as a supportive tank, her strength won't be in 1v1's but will be in the teamfight. With that said, you can't counter her out. Respect her Q as it can cancel your jump and be wary of her quickly stacking her E on you (read lol wiki). Not a bad matchup, but can get difficult if you have a bad comp compared to her.
Evelynn
This is a "winning" matchup. Try to invade if you have prio and respect her charm angles. Her W shreds %magic resist, so even if you stack MR, she can kill you. However, a bit of MR can help you not die fast so you have a window to heal her one shot. With that said, smart evelynns. The matchup isn't a "tiny" threat as she will try to avoid you, farm, get 6, and farm your teammates. Make sure to buy control wards to place in choke points as she has low attack speed, so when she takes time to clear them it really guts her surprise factor on that side of the map. Try to ult a little bit before the fight starts so you can hunt get vision on her.
Ivern
This is playable for Ivern because he can withhold his bushes so he doesn't ruin teamfights for his team versus you. However, not all Iverns, especially inexperienced, remember to hold bush and place it anyways for the enhanced autos he gets in trades. Be sure to get serpants fang sometime during the game if you guys don't already have a backline-threatening teamfight champ. Ivern can't afk farm well due to the soft-cap on his passive when taking camps, so take advantage of this by taking note of his structured pathing to predict ganks and take farm leads where you can. This matchup can get shaky late game as his shields can get massive for his carries. Always respect ivern and don't count him out until the game is over. For early, I would try to get a ward (somewhere at least) your opposite buff or entrance because iverns like to save their smite by marking their camps then walking to your buff to smite/steal it real quick before going back to claim his other camps.
Lulu
Lulu is similar to Janna in that you need to buy edge of night if they're experienced/good on their champion. They can completely pacify you with either exhaust or with just the abilities in your kit. Most supports have some sort of counterplay, but a good lulu will ensure there is none with polymorph (if you don't have EoN).
Milio
Don't ego his Q, it can ruin you the same way lulu or janna can. Check milio wiki, get used to the cooldown, and respect the Q by either not jumping on him, waiting for his Q, buying Edge of Night, or playing for roots (empE) instead knowing he will kick you back.
Zilean
Any enchanter does well with Rengar. Any frontline to engage for Rengar is good. As long as your support can "support" you more than the enemy support can to their jg is good enough. Focus on learning what supports bring to the table in teamfights and work around that. Also, Rengar is bad a tanking baron (unless you have fleet) so any support that can shield/heal or frontline tank to keep you healthy during baron is a huge bonus.
Use your team comp like pawns in a game of chess to accomplish your game plan to the best of your ability.
Ivern
Bushes 😎
Synergies
IdealStrongOkLowNone
Zilean
Any enchanter does well with Rengar. Any frontline to engage for Rengar is good. As long as your support can "support" you more than the enemy support can to their jg is good enough. Focus on learning what supports bring to the table in teamfights and work around that. Also, Rengar is bad a tanking baron (unless you have fleet) so any support that can shield/heal or frontline tank to keep you healthy during baron is a huge bonus.
Use your team comp like pawns in a game of chess to accomplish your game plan to the best of your ability.
I'd like to say that this portion will look bland because YOU ARE LEARNING!!! Learning is about the content and not the fancy flairs and icons. Sit down and get ready to digest information and critically think for yourself. With this in mind, I won't be adding any eye candy in between my chapters.
Without further ado, my name is Rege (short from Regedice) and I'm a Challenger Rengar main (no longer an OTP as of Season 13). As of 6/17/23 my peak is 1328 LP on my main acc. After recently getting Challenger without Rengar, I derusted on Rengar by otp'ing on a smurf to GM 700 lp with an 80% wr as seen in the header (90% wr to Masters, 72% wr to Chall). As a result, I figured it's about time I posted a guide. If you want to see more feel free to stop by my stream.
Anyways, it all began when I picked up Rengar in pre-season 9 upon his swim-q revert. I hit Challenger the first season I picked up Rengar. I've gotten Challenger every season since then. Before Rengar I was hard-stuck diamond 5 playing tryndamere+draven for 2 seasons straight, so don't think you're stuck forever!!
This guide isn't for just learning Rengar, but to master him. With that in mind, get comfortable with reading as studying the game is how you get better. Make sure to read all the notes for everything in the guide. The hard way is losing your mind playing 2k games to learn what you can read on the internet, so the choice is yours!
Rengar Abilities. It's mundane, but step one is learning EXACTLY how all the gears in Rengar function... your understanding of it all serves as the oil to Rengar as a machine.
One other thing I'd like to mention in this section is Rengars passive. You should almost never prioritize your passive, ever. It should never be a driving factor in how you play the game. You should always adhere to plays that make sense for the map/game-state. In otherwords, stick to proper macro than your passive. You'll usually kill everyone at least once anyways, so it's not something you should pay a ton of attention to in-game.
Timers and tempo for plays are finite, so you definitely don't want to miss an opening for another play because you spent time thinking to play for an aspect of your kit.
The only acceptable scenario is if the game is getting towards late game, the game is even, and you're at 4 stacks. At that point, getting the increase in AD might be what secures the win. With that said, majority of the time you shouldn't even be thinking about it. Your thought on your bonetooth stacks should stop at making sure you're on people as they die so you're getting stacks at all.
Rengar mechanics. There are only a couple of combos, but the key is mastering ferocity management. By this I mean with your purple stack, it can be easy to mis-combo and press the wrong empowered ability. Ferocity management is about keeping track of what combos you can get off with the ferocity and cooldowns optimally with the situation you're faced with. Don't button mash, there's a method to the madness that can be practiced with repetition and discipline.
Runes, matchups, and build
For runes, I leave descriptive notes under the mouse-over bits up top. Check those notes for details on the strengths of each page. Overall, I highly recommend going through the keystones and runes on every page so you thoroughly understand how they function and provide value.
I'd like to take this portion to go over Cosmic Insight as its value isn't immediately obvious. Looking at the haste lol wiki page, the +10 item haste is a 9.09% cooldown reduction and the +18 summoner spell haste is a 15.3%~ cooldown reductioon. Practically speaking, that's 45.76s off your flash as well as the nudge on your smite cooldown.
For build, here are a couple notes. For "last whisper item," I'm referring to Lord Dominik's Regards (LDR), Mortal Reminder (MR), and Serylda's Grudge. The meta shifts around to prefer one of those three, so referring them to last whisper item makes interpretation easy as this item spike is what helps you shred through armor early. However, I will say to not disrespect big healers (Zac, Aatrox, Soraka, etc.) and to make sure you buy MR for the antiheal.
As for item purchase timing, lets talk about the concept of "Item tempo." Item tempo as a concept is why Rengar feels weak late game or people think he "scales off." It's not that he's weaker, but everyone else is getting stronger. For example, full-item at 7 minutes feels much different in strength than completing your item at 12 minutes. It's because you're ahead of them! Rengar played properly usually results in being an item or two ahead on others, making you considerably ahead in damage + level (600g in stats per lvl). All of this to say that many of Leagues concepts relate back to one another, so critically think how they tie together to better understand the bigger picture.
Wrapping this section with situational items. Do NOT get in the habit of building Edge of Night every game as it's absolutely true that you'll get generally useful value from it. However, mainline Rengar build does so much damage that it's better to index into those item spikes so you vaporize the enemy. For example, Serpents Fang is only worth if they have ivern, 2+ enchanters, or your priority target has too much innate shields. Otherwise, you should spec into life steal late game so you outlive everything.
Team Composition
The more champions you have in front alongside with you the better. Rengar isn't frontline. He can be if you build bruiser, but it's better to have someone else in front. It's worst when you have 4 ranged champions leaving you as the only one to serve as any cover. A skill you should invest into is jumping in knowing you will get one shot so you can full heal or burn ults that pack a lot of CC with your empW. DO NOT IMPULSIVELY JUMP!!! I can't tell you how many games I've lost jumping in to burn cooldowns or for whatever then I die, give 1k shutdown, lose baron (long death timer for being up levels) then immediately turning the tides or losing the game... be patient! You're a hunter.
Something you want to keep in mind is that matchup difficulty changes with comp. For example, if you're playing against Fiddlesticks and you have tons of CC then he's not as hard to handle. Some matchups become impossibly hard if you have no frontline (e.g., Poppy, Wukong). With that in mind, keep comps in mind when thinking about matchup difficulty and how you adapt your early game in loading screen (and mid/late game when the time comes).
Moving on, utilize your dodges and try to avoid first pick if possible. The last thing you want is to be in a game where they have 5 champions that do well against Rengar, your comp sucks, AND your team is underperforming. THOSE games are unwinnable. Keep in mind these lobbies are uncommon (within the scope of 100 games) and you shouldn't automatically blame external stimuli——always look inwards at yourself to improve what you CAN do in each game. Rengar is a very flexible champion, so itemize and play around what holds the most value in exploding the nexus.
Early game
Rengar does camps faster when chained together (e.g. red, krugs, raptors rather than red, blue, gromp) because he can carry his ferocity over between camps. Because of this, you should begin your clear with the framework or intention to full clear, but at the drop of a hat be able to adapt to the game and skip camps to arrive at plays on time. Understand, manage, and optimize the concept of tempo and pathing around the map.
Full clear every game isn't a good idea, but at the same time you want to set yourself up for success. Play towards the lane that will net you and your team a net lead over the other team. In matchups where it's best to invade and your teammates have lane prio, skip your next camps and look for the invade. You want to help your teammates, but if you're sacrificing way too much, then ping your team to play safe. KS kills and play to get your powerspikes as soon as possible. Lastly, make sure you secure dragons over anything else IF you can and secure heralds/grubs for plates before 14 minutes. Even if you don't secure plates with grubs, it's really strong for sieging, splitting, and staying under tower for longer for more hits. Don't forget that T2 side towers give 700g.
Other things you can do is instead of invading you can start in their jungle or plan to walk in and clear it knowing your laners will have prio. This is called splitting the map. As for splitting the map, understand how you're affecting your lanes on the other side of the map by doing this and plan ahead for your pathing after your first clear. It's not like you can always go back into their jg the second time around to clear camps, so make sure you execute whatever pressure you planned for early on and to play around the leads you generate when doing so. You are changing the game when splitting the map, so play accordingly. Sometimes you should only stay for 2 camps and not 3 because you'll get rotated on, or they don't know you split the map and if he runs into you you lose the fight. Or all of a sudden there's no play on the side you split the map so you need to reclaim control on the other side of the jungle. Or you take their camps then cross through mid (in or out of fog of war based on urgency) to catch them stealing your camps and to balance the split map's resources.
If you're not used to splitting the map, then be ready to adapt your game. You can get away with not learning how to split the map, but others will do it to you, so you have to learn when it makes sense or when junglers can go for it. The biggest disservice to yourself is mindlessly full-clearing every game. Be intentional in how you play, question yourself in the name of optimization.
Mid game
Avoid dying at 20 minutes. Snowball leads are decided early but who wins the game is decided by baron. If you "die once then lose the game," it's your fault. It's hard to accept, but dying then losing meant you had all the gold/winning pieces on your team. If you're out of the picture, your team has nothing. The beauty of Rengar is you can consistently get all the winning pieces (turbo fed, 1k shutdown, etc.) so you can hard carry while being able to throw it away all at the same time. There is always something you could've done better when it comes to Rengar as opposed to say... tank junglers. Sucks being frontline for a poor performing backline lol.
As for macro, ensure you're prioritizing dragons, and if you can't, make plays on the other side of the map by securing grubs, towers, waves, ganks, and such. You'll reach a point of the game where you can split push quite well with tiamat waveclear, insane tower damage with last whisper item, and ult utilization to run away in worst case. HOWEVER, your ult being on cooldown means you can't fight to 100% outside of jungle. Your ult is very useful. You can use it to walk into dragon (in case they established control before your team) and pressure the enemy team into possible jump angles. Don't go for 1 for 1 unless the person you're bringing down is as valuable as you are. Be patient, don't jump on people with zhonya or champions with cooldowns up that can shut you down (unless you have edge of night). Lastly, DON'T IMPULSIVELY JUMP. Similar to lee sin-drome, it can be very tempting to take a jump just because you can, and despite you knowing it's a bad idea, you jump anyways then lose the game instantaneously (speaking from experience).
Staying in the zone at all times helps in-the-moment outplays like jumping to wards they just placed to gap close to make plays happen or jumping over walls in your ult. If you don't know what I mean, when you jump over a wall on Rengar, the enemy doesn't see you until you land on top of them, so they have much much less time to react compared to when they can see the full jump to do whatever (flash, zhonya, etc.)
During mid/late game split pushing can become a solid option. Effectively split pushing is about dragging pressure with an overall net gain (e.g., dying to 3 people but your team secures something else). Keep in mind the timing of you splitting, who you're dragging, positions on the map, etc. Use deductive reasoning to gather information on locations (e.g. if they use blue ward and they only have 1 blue ward on their team, then you know who's coming) to scope how long you can stay. The difference between you and a good splitter is staying on that thin line between overextending and splitting. Split pushing is an art. I used to main Tryndamere, so a ton of these soft skills are already built. Take the time to learn how to split properly.
Late game
A huge strength to rengar is that he has very strong 4/5-item powerspikes. As noted earlier, he doesn't get weaker it's simply that others catch up to him. With that said, you have to remain very vigilant and to rely on your team where possible.
If you have an engage comp, play with your team, otherwise play alone by securing positions in wide angles to ult at any moment or split on opposite sides of the map using ult to run away or to run to the teamfight. With blue pet, you'll be able to get to fights fairly quickly. Also, knowing how far you can traverse across the map during your entire ult is a skill in itself as ulting as soon as you can knowing you'll get there is a form of optimizing your tempo. Furthermore, the intel on positioning, their control wards, and what they're doing is all super utilizable info. Rank 3 ult lasts 20s, keep in mind no bonus movement speed gets you from base almost to krugs in that time. With late game movementspeed, 20s can let you diagonally cross 70-80% of the map.
In regards to killing people, you have to focus on their items. Because of GA, too much armor, and zhonya forces you to stress your options. Think outside of the box like forcing side lane pressure, join the fight late, etc. In other words, you want to avoid them (by killing someone else or splitting) or leverage your teammates to turn a positive into a negative. For example, you can jump on kindred, burn R, then root them (if you still have emp charge) and run away.
You need to be Tobey Maguire in Spiderman 2 during the train scene to carry on Rengar in general. Getting to late game usually is because you made a mistake along the way and because of that you're in a state of the game where you can't do everything you usually can, so figure out what you can do and execute. Your job isn't to be a jack of all trades, but to do what you can do. If you can drag their strongest player in side lane and get away alive, then do so. If you make a baron call then want to call off despite baron being 4k hp, call the play off. It's all about correctly making split second decisions.
Closing thoughts
This guide is more about giving you the philosophies, perspectives, and food for thought on how you should play Rengar rather than telling you exactly what you should do. There are many ways to win a game, so it's your call to decide which one is most optimal to win a certain game. Whether it be invading, full clearing, splitting in late game, risking a dragon play to ensure the game doesn't go late, etc. What makes a good Rengar player is not their build, because you can win with most setups/builds in the game. What makes a good Rengar player is their game IQ (ability to correctly determine the best course of action) and drive for absolutely correct play.
At the end of the day, the champion is moostly played by one tricks BECAUSE ferocity management takes a long time to "master." It's easy to learn how to lane gank, or learn how to counter gank, but it takes experience to know EXACTLY how you should execute on a particular teamfight with <1s to think. At the same time, most of the game takes place leading up to the teamfight, so study your macro as much as you do your micro.
If you have any more questions please ask me on stream. Furthermore, you can add me to dm at 'regedice' through discord. Another way is joining my discord and asking in general chat. If you'd like to book coaching you can reach out on discord or go on my metafy page to book a private session.
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