Hi! I am a (barely) master tier Rengar top otp and have played the champion since season 2. I felt like making a guide, so here we are.

I am somewhat lazy, so I expect the reader to know the basics of Rengar and enemy champions in the matchups-section. Then again, the guide is a work in progress and I aim to update it regularly, so it will probably get more comprehensive over time.

This guide focuses mostly on matchups, but I will also make a section of different things to keep in mind when playing Rengar throghout the game.

I will also make different chapters for assassin, bruiser and ap rengar. While bruiser and assassin function in pretty much the same way, ap rengar is a completely different beast and surprisingly viable due to splitpushing power and lane dominance.

Rengar is simply a fun champion to play. Top lane Rengar is different from jungle due to build diversity and the outplay potential it has during duels and enemy ganks. Don't get me wrong, Jungle Rengar is a lot stronger right now, and has historically been too for the most part. If you only want lp, do not bother playing Rengar top.

Still, I know that there are many who are at least interested in trying Rengar toplane, so I'll try to give y'all some tips for his matchups and gameplay in general.

Most matchups function the same. Try to get brush priority. When minions arrive, jump on them from the middle brush and pull them closer to the brush. If the enemy contests the wave, push it and stack your ferocity to 3 or 4 so that you are ready to fight them. If they are submissive as they often should be, only attack the minions when last hitting or keeping ferocity up so that you can crash the 3rd wave.

If you can crash the 3rd wave, you can either do a cheater recall which i rarely do, or you can invade the enemy jungle. This works from either side. Rengar beats pretty much any jungler lvl 3 if played correctly. With some luck, you can get a neat first blood and put the enemy jungler seriously behind.

Always evaluate whether you can duel the enemy laner lvl 1 or not. Champions such as olaf, darius, sett etc are tough and you won't have time to stack your ferocity during the fight. If that is the case, just let them have the bush and wave priority and wait until they crash the wave.

Rengar is pretty weak unless he gets ferocity stacks, so also respect champions such as ambessa, fiora and garen if you don't have an empowered ability ready.

Usually w lvl 2 is the better option if you can't straight up kill the enemy laner.

From lvl 3 onwards you can really start playing. Your trading will be obnoxious against many champions and you get the infamous triple q, which allows you to slap even the strongest duelists around. In short, triple q is done by having 4 ferocity when entering a brush, then pressing q so that it consumes your ferocity and leaping so that you are buffering 4q, you get the first stack from brush and then unload your kit so that you get to 4 ferocity again.

This is where Rengar's dueling power starts to diminish as many opponents unlock their much more impactful ultimates. You can still hang with them if you got ahead or play correctly, but champions such as darius or renekton will probably just manhandle you without even trying. If possible, roaming is always a good option. That is where your ult beats theirs.

Rengar is also a strong splitpusher. Not necessarily in the dueling aspect unless you go full crit, but his turret damage probably only loses to trundle. Fun fact, Ap rengar destroys them even quicker.

Teamfights are pretty straight forward. If possible, stack your ferocity before ulting and try to get the jump on an important target. Often this is the enemy mage or adc, but can also be a bruiser harassing your backline. The gameplan in teamfights doesn't really change whether you go assassin, bruiser or ap.

Later on splitpushing is a huge thing. Rengar clears waves and takes turrets down easily, but can often struggle against enemy toplaners on sidelane. If you can't burst them down, they will probably kill you. Going full crit usually fixes this, as there are not many toplaners who can beat a full crit rengar jumping on on them with triple q. The problem is that crit builds are expensive, and the build only really kicks in at 100% crit or 75% at the very least.

Usually your best bet is to push the side lane and if the enemy answers, rotate and force a fight with one of their players still being on the sidelane.

I will try to collect every small thing that I've learned about rengar here. Some of it isn't that useful, some of it is pretty basic and the rest is advanced, seriously helpful information.

So let's start with his ferocity. You want to always keep the stacks up if possible. It helps if you get caught, of get the chance to ult and kill someone. 4e is insanely strong if you land it on your target. You can keep ferocity stacks up by hitting pretty much anything. Use the plants in the jungle to your advantage, use your and the enemy jungle camps to keep them up, hit wards etc. There is no downside for keeping ferocity full at all times.

When preparing to jump on someone with ult, try to jump behind a wall or from fog of war. That way they get less time to react, because they can not see you starting the jump.

Rengar's leap has a 0,25 sec timer even after you exit the brush. This means that the more movement speed you have, the further you are able to leap. This is why triple q gives you essentially more range. Same goes with ghostblade etc. Rocketbelt also works for extending the leap. This same 0,25sec timer also works during ult. If you time it right, you can aa an enemy next to you (walk up to them. Don't jump) and instantly aa reset with q to jump to another enemy after the initial aa. This is tricky to pull off as you need to walk next to an enemy who will see you + the timing has to be correct.

If you get a good angle, you can jump to a minion and throw the bola mid air in a 90 degree angle toward the enemy laner for some poke. Not relevant that often, but its a cool trick.

With a full crit build, you can duel pretty much any champion in the game, so do not respect those fioras and gwens too much in the late game.

Since w heals 100% of damage taken from monsters, you can sometimes pull gromp/crugs during lane for a quick ww for some healing.

Your lvl 6 can be a strong powerspike and a dive-enabler. Stack up your ferocity and jump on them. Even if you die during the dive, they usually lose gold and xp as the wave crashes, so it ends up being a net positive for you.

Something that i also struggle with, is too much w usage. Do you really need to w the Jax e or can you simply wait the stun off and q him to death? Do you need some extra healing or is it better to snare the dude and run? These split-second decisions are what makes Rengar so intiguing to play. It all comes with experience.

Focus on your necklace stacks. They seriously boost your damage. When you get your tp, it is almost always a good idea to ult bot and tp back to your lane. In an ideal situation you get 2 kills and 2 necklace stacks. Maybe even a drake.