I expect this to take several weeks to complete and this is only the beginning, if you have feedback or comments let me know!

I don't have all the answers and would still be considered new to LoL, with that said comments and feedback would be greatly appreciated to help keep this guide as accurate as possible. With that said, I also have a guide in progress that is a simplified version of this one for people who understand the basics but don't like reading as much.

Link here:

Enjoy :)

Hello! My name is Jay or TheGreatSpook and am currently high plat to low diamond on the NA servers. I started playing league in April 2016 (Starting rank bronze 3) as an alternative to CSGO which became stale after 2000+ hours. I had never played any other MOBA and learning this game has been a very fun experience. When i was bronze in April, I took up playing Veigar and playing him really made me love the game. Hitting R to kill anyone I please was just too much fun. He taught me the basic of csing and map control given how immobile he is.

The funny thing is that I really hated playing support at first. But when I would play with my friends in 5 mans, I was usually forced into the role. Over time I decided to make this curse a reason to climb. So in a few short months I have succeeded all my previous friends in rank and am hoping to close out my first season as diamond V. This guide is a reflection of my personal play style and how I feel is the best way to win lane and effectively use all the pressure that Thresh can provide.

Link to Progress: http://imgur.com/a/hSm3l

Thresh has a kit filled with utility. Here, we'll run through his abilities and explain how they can be used offensively for damage and engage, or passively for peel and escaping.

Below are lengthy explanations of each ability and following each is a video which shows everything needed to understand each skill.

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Damnation (Passive): Thresh is incredibly unique because of how he gains defensive stats, more specifically his armor. Thresh starts with a very low base armor level and does not gain armor per level like every other champion. Instead you rely on collecting souls, buying items, and using different rune combinations.

Thresh can harvest the souls of enemies that die near him, permanently granting him 0.75 Armor and Ability Power per soul.

Souls always drop from large minions (Cannons) and occasionally from small minions (Casters and Melee Minions). They also drop upon the death of champions and large monsters which include:

Dragons

Baron

Scuttle Crab

Jungle Camps

A soul will only drop if the enemy unit dies within 1900 range of Thresh. Souls are visible to allies, and only become visible to enemies if the enemy team has vision of Thresh. Souls disappear if not picked up after 8 seconds.

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Death Sentence (Q): This is the ability that truly shapes Thresh and is the most influential part of his kit.

Thresh binds an enemy in chains and pulls them toward him. Activating this ability a second time pulls Thresh to the enemy.

You throw your hook in a straight line dealing magic damage, after it impacts any entity on the map you stun it briefly. This does not include placed items like wards but champion abilities can be snared, examples would be Zyra's plants or Shacos spooky boxes. Champions that have spell shields like Sivir and Morgana , when active, are not stunned but can still be manipulated by your other spells after the shield is disabled or depleted. Upon hitting an enemy, Death Sentence's current cooldown is reduced by 3 seconds.
Reactivating this ability pulls Thresh to his target, using your other abilities you can increase the amount of cc on a given target which can allow you to do some pretty unique things. Details and examples of this are included in the Advanced Thresh Mechanics tab.

Deals 80/120/160/200/240 (+50% Ability Power) Magic Damage

Cost: 80 Mana
Range: 1075

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Dark Passage (W): This ability has many uses, the most common are getting your teammates out of sticky situations and using it as a shield which gets stronger as the game goes on.

Thresh throws out a lantern that shields nearby allied Champions from damage. Allies can click the lantern to dash to Thresh.

Your lantern is an incredibly unique tool for peeling. After throwing it a maximum of 950 units, allies can use it as a shield or to be pulled to Thresh's current location. This combined with flash can make for some beautiful saves, escapes, and engages. It also gets stronger based on the amount of souls you have collected.

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If an enemy is standing on the lantern or it is covered and cannot be directly clicked on, allies cannot travel to you so make sure you throw it in an accessible area.

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The Lanterns shield lasts 4 seconds and absorbs up to 60/100/140/180/220 (+0) damage done to Thresh and one ally if they come near it. The shield amount scales with the number of souls Thresh has collected.

Cost: 50/55/60/65/70 Mana
Range: 950

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Flay (E): This ability can be used for starting or stopping a fight and can cancel channeling abilities like Fiddlesticks or Miss Fortunes ultimate. You can direct the direction of the flay based on which direction your mouse is pointing in relation to Thresh (Behind flays towards you and vice versa), quick cast is recommended but not required by me to use this effectively. When not attacking, you slowly charge up your next auto attack to deal additional damage, more info on this below.

Thresh sweeps his chain, knocking all enemies hit in the direction of the blow.

With this tool, you can actively decide when to start and stop fights, with proper runes and masteries, you can get this ability off every 5-7 seconds. It can also be used to push away enemies that are mid dash or cancel their dash and pull them towards you if they're trying to escape, Alistar's headbutt and Riven's dashes for example. Champions that have spell shields like Sivir and Morgana , when active, negate the effects are immune to disruption.

Active: Deals 65/95/125/155/185 (+40% Ability Power) Magic Damage in a line beginning behind Thresh. Enemies hit are pushed in the direction of the swing, then slowed by 20/25/30/35/40% for 1 second. Cast forward to push; cast backward to pull.

Passive: Thresh's basic attacks deals additional magic damage, which builds up while not attacking (total souls collected plus up to 80/110/140/170/200% total Attack Damage).

Cost: 60/65/70/75/80 Mana
Range: 500

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The Box (R): Thresh has an ultimate that is dual purpose and when used correctly can provide several crucial seconds of peel or lock down. It can also be used to slow an enemy so that you can land the other parts of your kit and thus chain your abilities to disable an attacker for what can seem like an eternity.

A prison of walls that slow and deal damage if broken.

Thresh summons five walls around himself that when broken slow an enemy by 99% for two seconds. Once one of the walls is broken, the others do no damage and the slow is reduced to 50%. An enemy cannot be affected by multiple walls simultaneously. With this ability your goal is to drop the walls when the enemy is near the center, after they're hooked, when you're engaging and flay them into it, or as an escape tool to slow any advancing enemies. Champions like Olaf who have an ult that negates cc will simply break the wall without being slowed but will still be damaged. Champions that have spell shields like Sivir and Morgana , when active, can walk through the walls without being slowed and avoid taking damage. Banshees Veil has this same effect.

Deals 250/400/550 (+100% Ability Power) Magic Damage and champions that break the wall are slowed by 99% for 2 seconds, but break the wall.

Cost: 100 Mana
Range: 450

There are two rune pages I recommend, one for offensive and one for defensive lanes. If you're against a poke lane where your main objective is farming, use the first rune page. If you're against passive laners who are looking to farm, I would use the second rune page to be aggressive and look to get kills or deny farm. More information on this is in the Match Ups tab.




Thunderlords with your full combo and ignite can do more than half an enemy ADC's health once you get your ultimate.

Personally, I don't feel runes are the most important thing in the world and they depend on how you play. Below are two examples of rune pages that I use depending on the team compositions. Adjust them to how you play :)

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These can be adjusted to your own preference, but the safest runes are:


This gives you early tankiness that Thresh lacks because of his passive which is explained more in the champion information section. The AD also works with your passive and allows for Thresh to have a ton of early poke damage.

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If you are more experienced with Thresh, I recommend these runes for a more aggressive play style in lane


These runes with the right build can let you have 15% CDR reduction level 1, decent tank stats, good early MR and in the items section I discuss how you can rush 45% CDR to become a hook throwing monster.

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Your rune pages can be your own creation, these are just outlines and examples for what I would recommend, the second page is my personal favorite and I feel is the best for an aggressive early game and strong mid to late game.

Typically, you will leash the Krugs or Gromp to your jungler. About 10 seconds before the camp spawns, put a point into Flay (E), by the time the camp spawns, the passive will be charged and your leash becomes slightly stronger. If you have a squishy jungler and they are looking to invade or you feel extra nice, you can tank two or three hits for him. But beware, you have limited sustain and should not look to do this often because reneging that health will take a while and limit how aggressive you can be in lane.