Thresh has been a top tier support since he was created, and is THE champion you must know to call yourself a support player. He can be played in many different ways and has an extremely high skill cap.

Exhaust + Flash
Use Exhaust between your CC's to keep enemies constantly crowd controlled. Flash is always necessary.

5/4/21 is a fairly abnormal support runepage the Gold,CDR and movement speed from the utility tree are very important. the early cdr and bonus damage from the offensive tree can be skipped out, but it inproves your kill potential in lane

I take the most efficient tank stats in every rune slot. Fairly straightforward. Many Thresh players take attack damage reds to make their flay empowered spells more effective,

(Passive) Damnation
Thresh's souls are extremely powerful. They give .75 Armor, .75 AP, and 1 Magic Dmg on his auto attack. This is (very roughly) 15 gold of armor, 16 gold of AP, and 40 gold of attack damage. This is deceptive since AP and AD are not worth their gold price on Thresh. I would estimate each Soul is worth a bit more than a last hit of a creep, and should be treated that way.


(Q) Death Sentence
Cooldown: 20/18/16/14/12 seconds
Get this at lvl 2 or 3 depending on the situation. Use this to catch people as you would any normal hook. It takes practice to be able to judge when you can press Q again to go in. If you do decide to go in with Q, you usually wait until after the 2nd snag to go in, but it is highly situational. Can also be used for escaping by grabbing onto neutral creeps.


(W) Dark Passage
Cooldown: 22/20.5/19/17.5/16 seconds
You generally want this at lvl 3,
1: For trading in lane, by laying it down on both of your feet.
2: Helping your ADC (or anyone else) avoid dying. Make sure you put it in front of them.
3: Pulling in someone to force a kill. Generally used to pull in your jungler for an incredibly strong gank. You should commonly flash forward well the person is in the air for even more distance.
4: Vision, checking bushes.


(E) Flay
Cooldown: 9 seconds
Useful for disengage and catching. Normal combo is E them backwards to set up for your Q. Is also useful for cancelling jumps onto your champion, such as from Zac or Jarvan.


(R) The Box
Cooldown: 150/140/130 seconds
This is used for the burst and the high slow. It is quite good in conjuction with your Flay, for Flaying them backwards puts them in perfect position to be immediately hit by your ult.

Face of the Mountain: Starting Relic Shield gives you and your lane partner the most regeneration during laning phase, and is ideal vs poke lanes.

Annie is very strong vs Thresh, due to her super long AA range and strong all in potential.

Thresh can constantly harass Blitz with his ranged auto attack, where as Blitz has no harassing abilities back. If Blitz decides to pull Thresh, Thresh should generally win the fight.

Caitlyn is quite annoying to force an engage upon as Thresh, due to her high range and bush control.

Sona: Thresh can force the battle, and he wins it.

Zyra is one of the strongest support vs Thresh. She outranges you, outharasses you, and wins all ins due to her plants if you manage to engage. however, if you can force the advantage againts her early while at full hp, you have a higher chance of winning this lane

Braum is a very difficult matchup for Thresh. He sits back throwing his Q's, if you ever land a hook on him he can mitigate the damage from the trade and jump out. If he lands a Q on you, especially post lvl 6, you are dead.

Morgana can safely harass you and throw Q's at you, well using her shield to block any hook you throw. She outscales and eventually wins.

Flay can interrupt many gap closers, such as Jarvan IV's Demacian Standard + Dragon Strike combo or Shyvana's ultimate. I recommend watching for these initiations and attempting to use your Flay to counter them as much as possible.

Dark Passage can be blocked by enemies if they stand directly on it, or by enemies placing wards upon the lantern. I recommend throwing the lantern in front of your retreating ally's, rather than right on top of them, so they have room to click it.

After you hit a Death Sentence, you have a short amount of time before clicking it to throw Dark Passage to an ally. They can click it and ride along with you on the death sentence pull!

Thresh is very good against champions without good all in, since he is able to force fights with his E and Q. So champions like Sona, Blitzcrank who can’t win an all in fight with Thresh during the early game are all good matchups vs him. Against these champions he should be constantly trying to fight. Use Dark Passage on you and your teammate before going into to harass to ensure you win the trades. Pay attention to the map, and if you are worried about a gank stand behind your ADC with your shield ready.

For Ganks:
Throw shield behind yourself to get a teammate into the fray. Well they are in the air, Flash forwards, and immediately Flay the enemys backwards into you. Drop your ult, and well they are extremely slowed, throw Q directly at them for a guaranteed catch. If they still have flash up, be patient with your Death Sentence and wait until after they use Flash before using it.

Move around the map attempting to make plays. I recommend going to your strongest lanes and trying to snowball them. You should have Boots of Mobility by this time. I often will be constantly moving between mid and bot lane, attempting to shield my teammates away from ganks, or make plays on the lanes myself.

Make sure to keep the map warded with your Sightstone. It got buffed in the newest patch, and now you can keep 3 wards up at a time with just the normal sightstone.

This is extremely situational depending on what is happening in the game, but you should be looking to control the map and initiate plays upon the enemy team / keep your team alive.

Generally you should be sticking with your team.

1: Initiator: Use your Death Sentence or Flash to get into the middle of their team and drop your ult.
2: Peeler: Stay close to your ADC and use all of your skills to peel any enemies trying to get onto him. Do not stand directly on top of him, as you want him to be able to use your shield as a jump.