• A support with tanky potential
• A powerful crowd controller
• A capable initiator

• A carry
• An AP nuker
• A one ghost army

Thresh's passive is one of the more unique passives in the game. Champions, large minions, and large neutral creeps (Blue Golem, Red Lizard, Small Golems, Big Wolf, Big Ghoul, Dragon, and Baron) will always drop a soul, which looks like a greenish orb. All other minions and creeps have a chance to drop a soul.

Souls are collected by moving within melee range of them or using Dark Passage (more on that later.) As souls add up, they provide Armor and AP with each soul you collect being worth .01 less than the previous one down to .5 per soul at 50 souls. Souls also increase the base passive damage from your Death Sentence by one each.

Thresh's Q attack is his bread and butter. As an active skill, it is a skillshot that hooks an enemy and slowly drags them toward Thresh while stunning them. By pressing Q a second time before the cast runs out, Thresh will dash to the enemy.

As a passive effect it adds magic damage to Thresh's auto-attacks with the minimum based on the number of souls he's collected, and the maximum adding in a % of his his AD based on how long it's been since his last attack. This does maximum damage after 10 seconds.

The most common use I've found for this skill is obviously snagging enemies and pulling them so your team can secure a kill. If the pull isn't going to be enough, you can get a little extra CC out of it by using the dash and then knocking them further back with your Flay. It also functions as a good stun to end a channeled spell (such as Kat's Death Lotus, Nunu's Absolute Zero, or Miss Fortune's Bullet Time) when your Flay is on CD.

Thresh's W is easily his most versatile skill. When used, Thresh will throw a lantern on the ground up to a certain distance away. The lantern lasts for 6 seconds and collects souls, provides sight, and gives shields to teammates in a small radius.

During that six seconds, there is a large radius in which Thresh can move without recalling the lamp. If he leaves this radius before 6 seconds is up, the lamp will jump to him and provide it's regular benefits in a radius around him until the 6 seconds is up. If a teammate right clicks the lantern while Thresh is in range, they and the lantern will be pulled to him.

While this can be used to collect souls, it's best not to use it just for that purpose unless you are being heavily zoned away from souls. It's better to miss a couple souls and have your shield (and mana) when you need it than to use it out of laziness and wish you had it later.

One of my favorite tricks with the lantern (if your lane mate knows how to use it) is to toss it at the base of a turret to help them dive. If timed right, they can dive in, the shield will protect them from a turret shot (maybe two at higher ranks), and they can right click it to fly to safety. Even if they don't make the kill, they will have survived. It can be used much the same way as a lifeline to rescue a teammate being chased without putting yourself in harm's way.

Thresh's E is your best friend in teamfights or trying to push lanes. It is Thresh's only form of AoE, and it is also a low cooldown knockaround. This skill causes Thresh to sweep all enemies (Champ/minion/creep) within the area of the skill in the direction of the mouse. This means if you click (or smartcast) with the mouse behind Thresh, anything in front of him will be pulled to him and anything behind him is pushed away. The opposite is true if the mouse is in front of him. Think of it as standing in the middle of a conveyor belt and picking the direction it moves.

While the range and movement of the skill is underwhelming at first, the low cooldown (just under 6 seconds with the build in this guide) will allow you to use it several times in a single teamfight. It is best used specifically for the knockaround as the damage is never impressive.

Use it to interrupt channeled spells (saves you from putting Death Sentence on cooldown and it's AoE). Use it to pull in an escaping group of enemies or push away pursuing enemies. The couple yards of movement may well be the difference between life and death. Use it in conjunction with Death Sentence to pull them that much closer (as previously mentioned). If nothing else, the AoE knockaround briefly interrupts the other team's abilities and attacks. An extra half second with no actions by the enemy could make or break that fight.

At last we reach Thresh's ultimate, The Box. With The Box, positioning and timing are critical. When cast, it creates a pentagonal box of spectral walls around Thresh which will damage and slow any champion passing through it (ignores minions and creeps.) After a wall is hit it breaks and any additional walls broken will cause slightly less damage and provide less slowing.

With this build it has a cooldown of about 85 seconds at max rank. Thats enough to have it ready for pretty much every teamfight. I find it's best used at the very beginning of a fight to mess with the other team if they initiate, or at the very end to prevent their escape or help your escape. If you use it in the middle of the battle, when people aren't moving so much, they may not run into it. You can help them run into it with a gentle push from Flay.

I like to use a 0/10/20 build as shown in the cheat sheet. The defensive masteries provide a small but very helpful boost to Thresh's early lane sustain. Please note that I took 3/3 in Resistance and only 1/3 in Hardiness . This is due to Thresh's passive and his lack of MR. Two or three minion waves should provide enough extra armor to outweigh the need for Hardiness .

In the Utility tree, Meditation improves sustain. Summoner's Insight and Mastermind improve the cooldowns of Ghost and Flash (my preferred summoner spells.) Artificer helps with cooldowns on items like Randuin's Omen or Shurelya's Battlesong. Greed , Wealth , and Pickpocket help earn you gold since you shouldn't be doing much last hitting or direct killing (Feed your carry!) Pickpocket can be replaced with Summoner's Wrath to further improve your Ghost if you don't feel the extra gold from it is worth the point.

My rune choices are pretty straightforward. I use flat HP Quints, flat armor seals, and flat MR glyphs for the early lane durability. The MPen marks boost early damage from skills and the passive on Death Sentence. I encourage people to adjust runes to suit their playstyle. These make up for me being slightly aggressive tendency to overextend.

My sugesstions are Flash and Ghost.

I generally choose these because Thresh is all about mobility and positioning. Much like my approach to runes, I find that everybody has preferred summoner spells as well. As an example I used to be horrible with flash so I never used it.

Teleport is useful for quick trips to and from base.
Exhaust synergize well with his skill set.
Ignite doesn't provide much synergy but can help against healing champs or in securing a kill.

Eleisa's Miracle - If you've had your Philosopher's stone for a while and you're level 15 or less, you can turn it into this instead of selling it. After three levels, it will become a permanent buff and free up that item slot.
Shurelya's Reverie - This is an alternative option for your Philosopher's stone which will give you some CDR as well as a move speed buff on active use. If you are not getting the Ionian Boots of Lucidity this is a good option.
Runic Bulwark - This is your best tank/support item and should be finished relatively early every game. It has the most magic resist of any one item and you will need it.
Banshee's Veil - This gives you more MR, as well as health and mana, plus a bubble that protects you from one ability every 25 seconds. This can save your life several times over.
Frozen Heart - This gives you a great armor boost and some mana, but the most important part of it is the passive 20% attack speed reduction on enemy champs around you. Against an AD heavy team, this will sway the direction of teamfights in your favor.
Randuin's Omen - This is a good alternative to the Frozen Heart which a great armor boost and a ton of health. It also has a similar passive but it only affects those who attack you.
Rylai's Crystal Scepter - This gives you a rather large amount of HP and some additional AP, but it also adds a slow effect to your abilities. This is very useful with Death Sentence as it makes it more difficult for them to run after being pulled.

Guardian Angel - The only thing more annoying than killing a very tanky character is having to do it twice. This hot little number gives you armor, MR, and a passive ressurection on a 5m cooldown.
Warmog's Armor - This is the single highest HP item in the game. I find that it's a good alternative to the Rylai's Crystal Scepter if your ability to stay alive is more of a problem than your CC.
Sunfire Cape - So here you are, a champ that specialises in keeping your friends close and your enemies closer, what better way to make use of that than burning them alive? With decent armor and HP, and a constant burning AoE, this is a great way to heat up the battle.
Spirit Visage - In one small and cost efficient item, we have health, MR, CDR, and a passive boost to all of your healing/regen. On Thresh, this is most effective in conjunction with the Warmog's Armor because of the hp regen passive on it.

As a support, it's your job to make sure that everyone else can do their job. In the case of babysitting a carry (this is your forte) it's your job to make sure they get kills and minions and deny the enemy the same. This means that if you think your partner can make the killing blow, avoid taking the kill even if you did all the work. When pushing, avoid last hitting minions. You can avoid accidentally attacking minions by staying on the move, clinging to the brush, or holding the 'H' key on your keyboard (shortcut for hold action). Use your Dark Passage to protect your partner from incoming nukes or help them escape a gank. Use Death Sentence, Flay, and The Box to help secure kills. Also take some time to wander through and collect souls as they drop.

To deny the enemy, you need to become familiar with zoning. If you need a crash course, check out Shurelia's Zoning Tutorial. If you can get past her voice, it's good information. For Thresh, if you can control the brush in your lane, the enemy will feel your presence and fear your Death Sentence. They'll feel much the same way about you that they feel about Blitzcrank with his Rocket Grab.

Putting up a sight ward in the river and the brush near your lane will help keep you and your partner alive through better map coverage. It will also help you control the brush better because you can harass the enemy champs out of their own brush if you can see them. Popping them with an autoattack every 10s will get you the full bonus from the passive on Death Sentence and net you some gold from Pickpocket . A good hit with that passive can scare a champ pretty good early to mid game.

If you're having trouble and getting pushed on, sometimes you can turn the tide while hugging by using Death Sentence and Flay to hold an enemy under your own turret until it kills them.

So you've done some great laning, secured a few kills, and sent your opposing laners packing. Now you have some time to kill. Why not help out your mid? Thresh's CC can secure kills on even the dodgiest champs if your aim is good. They don't even really need to be overextended. You can even yank them off their own turret iwth Death Sentence and Flay, protect yourself, your carry and your mid with Dark Passage and watch the enemy champ burn. If your opposing laners haven't returned yet, you can even get a few helpful hits in on the turret, but keep a watchful eye. You don't want to lose your lane because you had tunnel vision on another lane.

As a note when ganking, you're still a support. You're there to secure the kill for your carry and your mid. Don't need steal your mid's minion kills or push for them unless they want you to. They don't want to be overextended any more than the poor sap you just helped slaughter.

This is when you move from the minor league to the big league. Instead of securing kills for and protecting one person, you're now doing it for the whole team at one time. If you are the only tanky champ of the bunch, you may be called on to initiate. This is a delicate matter as you don't want to initiate where the other team will have the advantage, but if you avoid it too long, the enemy may jump you or a restless carry might initiate instead.

Some things to consider when initiating:

• Can I see all the members of the other team (near you or anywhere on the map)?
• Is there enough of my team here to win the fight?
• Is there room to help my team escape if this goes bad?
• Is there a carry or other major threat on their team that I can target with my initiation?
• What abilities will they likely break out with first and can I poke them into using them before I initiate?

Once the fight has started, you have to assess the situation and react quickly. If an enemy is performing an ability you can interrupt, you should probably use flay, but if your team doesn't seem to have the upper hand, you should probably Flay the enemy team away from yours. If somebody is running away and you have a clean shot, take aim with Death Sentence. If it's available and you don't need it for escape, you can use your Dark Passage to shield your entire team. This is handy if Flay and Death Sentence are unavailable and a big AoE is about to go off, like Absolute Zero.

Last you need to recognize when the fight is ending. If your team is winning, plan and position to prevent enemies from escaping. If your team is losing, you need to decide if you can hold the enemy long enough for your team to escape at the cost of your own life or would it serve better to escape with them? You may well be able to hold the enemy team then make a swift exit with Flash and Ghost in that order. That way you break free before you kick it into high gear.

While Thresh is not an amazing pusher, with decent soul farm and gear, he has enough armor and HP to tank multiple turrets and even champs. If your team is having trouble pushing a lane, thresh and a carry or two can backdoor fairly successfully without minions and Thresh can generally knock around an enemy champ or two without losing the focus of the turret. Thresh can also pull the attention of Baron or the Dragon to protect carries while they kill.

If you're sieged into your own base, his flay may not kill minion waves, but it can literally push them back to keep them off precious turrets.