I know Renekton was supposed to be this amazing physical caster who relies on lowered cds to do bursty yet sustained damage. I've been playing him for a while now and fury generation is not possible to sustain damage. Believe me, I'm as disappointed as anyone that this character did not pan out as we had hoped (as a character similar to Pantheon). But the character does make an interesting ww clone.

However, if we build this character like Warwick, this character has very good potential as a sturdy, mobile auto-attacker.

This is my guide for this kind of play.

Renekton has two potentially viable lifesteal abilities.

His first, cull the meek. Has inherent lifesteal potential based on a % of the damage you deal and additional lifesteal on champions or with enough fury.

This is going to be the main source of self healing early game. And will be a major part of this characters harass while laning.

His second is Ruthless Predator. Ruthless Predator applys on hit effects, including lifesteal, when used. It is a decent amount of burst as well, especially with fury.

Because both of these mechanics will get benefit from Bloodthirster, we are rushing this item as soon as possible.

Even with an auto-attack build, Renekton is not an easy champion to play and requires a lot of experience and skill to be effective.

Your ult has a low CD, use it. Don't save it more often than not using it early pans out in your favor. But since this is true make sure to initiate from bushes for team fights (otherwise they will run away and your ult is wasted). You can't cast your ult while stunned or silenced. So just pop it as you jump in...

Renekton is very gear and level dependent. Falling behind on levels or on gear will make you a liability to the team. Because of this, renekton needs to stay in his lane instead of ganking prior to team fights. If he does not, his output will drop to a point where he is not effective.

Renekton needs fury. Renekton is SEVERLY hampered if he does not have fury.

This means 5 things...

1) Renekton should not engage in team fights without fury.
2) Renekton needs to lane with a ranged champion or heavy harasser so that he can auto attack mobs to gain fury while laning
3) Do not waste fury on creeps around enemy players. (Its better to auto-attack creeps and waste ability cds than to waste fury.)
4) If you do not have fury and a team fight breaks out nearby its ok to pop your ult early to generate fury and miss out on some of the AoE magic damage.
5) Renekton needs attack speed to be effective...period.

Most important thing to remember: THIS RENEKTON IS NOT A TANK. Wait for your tank to initiate. Then wait for their dps to commit to a target. Then come charging out of the bushes from behind and wtf pwn a squishy. You have incredible flashing mobility if you utilize your surroundings. You can get to a squishy and stun it, and nearly kill it within a second or two. DO NOT- repeat- DO NOT present yourself as an easy focus target. You are not Tryndamere. Do not pretend to be or you will die.

Renekton is one of the trickiest characters in the game to pick skills for. The problem is that he drastically loses out on one thing if he focuses on the others.

Cull the Meek provides sustained damage, farming capability, and self healing. It is great for the early game, but its usefullness falls off drastically past mid game when the dps of enemies ramps up. It also is a great fury generator.

Ruthless Predator provides a stun, bursty damage, and applies on hit effects. It will be your main damage source (aside from auto-attack) and your CC.

Slice and dice is your mobility. Its the escape mechanic the character needs and also the initiation and chase mechanism that auto-attackers need to have. The ability also can do moderate amounts of AoE damage.

All of these things are very desirable for this champion and each level you put into them drastically lowers the cd and increases the damage and fury effect. So how does one prioritize these?

Well, obviously having one point in each is a good idea. So first 3 levels we do this. I start with slice and dice as you can harass at lvl 1 with it by slicing in and dicing out.

Level two I grab the stun. Now I slice in (with 50 fury), stun, dice out.

Level three grab culling. Slice in stun, cull, dice out. (make sure to use the fury on the stun as it is much better than the bonus of cull.)

Now I level up culling. I do this to better farm and to self heal. At this stage if you aren't getting harrassed and don't need the self healing, go for ruthless instead as it does considerably more damage to single targets. But this is rarely the case.

At level 6 I get my ult.

Now I start getting points into ruthless. This is you main damage source as it scales very well with AD. It also will apply the on hit effects and you will lifesteal off of it. I max level it by level 10.

I now shift to leveling slice and dice. I do this mostly for the cooldown reduction on the ability. I try to hit my opponent with it when I initiate with it but the damage at this point is pretty lacking so it is mostly an escape and chase mechanism. When fighting skill shot champions I try not to initiate with it. Instead I aim to dodge their first skill shot with it. If an enemy has a flash mechanic i try to not initiate with it so I can keep up with him as well.

My last two points go into Culling because by this point in the game the ability is only a fury generator and small AoE (you life steal more from auto-attacks once you get your Bloothirster stacked)

Exhaust: I use this to keep gank targets in melee range. I also use this defensively against one of their carries in a team fight.


Cleanse: You will be cc'd. You need to break it or they will focus you and you will die. If you can't attack you can't life steal and thats bad news for you...

90% of your damage with Ren will be physical. Why you would get anything besides Armor Pen marks and quints is beyond me.

Magic resist glyphs for survivability

Dodge seals to combo with nimbleness.

Getting offensive masteries will help your farm. You also have the ability to rush in, harass and rush out while laning. Getting offensive masteries will help you to harass more effectively.

Also, more damage is more life steal is more survivability.

Nimbleness, dodge, armor, and mr will help keep you alive while nimbleness will also give improved mobility for staying in melee range.

Renekton requires very specific itemization to be effective. This itemization will define how you play him.

Important stats for Renekton:

Armor Penetration- this is the highest ranking dps stat for Ren. Get yourself some...

Attack damage- Great for ability damage and auto attack damage.

Attack speed- Fury imbued attacks are 75% more effective than non-imbued attacks. You need AS to get added benefit from skills or your output is garbage. Additionally, your auto-attacks will gain you life and provide sustained dps between cd's

Life steal- your main survivability mechanic.

Other stats that are nice to have but not main stats:

Cool down reduction- helps get more use out of abilities

Magic Resis & Armor- gives more worth to the hp u have and steal.

I like to start out with a doran's blade and a healing potion. I prefer this over a doran's shield because the blade has more use later in the game. If you don't have an ideal partner however you may be forced into the shield because you won't be able to auto-attack creeps to get hp back.

I then get beserker's grieves. Getting boots early is key for harass. You need to be able to generate fury, slice in burn cds and dice out. To do this effectively you need to get in and out of attack range quickly taking as little harass as possible. Grieves gives the ability to resupply hp through life steal and regenerate fury more quickly. They are a significant dps increase which will also help with farming and winning lane fights.

I try to get a vampiric scepter when I go back for boots as well. This will greatly help you be able to survive and heal harass early on.

I then go for my B.F. Sword and turn it into a bloodthirster.

I then start working on a ghostblade. I chose ghostblade for several reasons. The armor pen and cdr is very nice for this champion, but the real winner is the activated AS+MS. Use this right after burning cd's on a player to boost movespeed and auto-attack faster.

Your damage potential has made you a marked man now. They will really want to kill you to take the stacks off your bloodthirster. Make sure to not initiate fights because you will be focused. Go after squishies and be quick about it.

To protect your bloodthirster and to make you a less tempting gank target build a GA. You probably still will be the focus target but now you have some additional survivability and a second life.

Now get a madrid's bloodrazor. Your Ruthless predator will proc this 3 times with a fury imbued attack. This is a major burst upgrade. Also, in combination with a bloodthirster, and ghostblade this is a considerable auto attack upgrade.

Last item is a second bloodthirster. The additional AD and life steal will do considerable things for your dps and survivability.