Build Guide by kAzEkiD

Introduction

What up everyone, my name is kAzE, and this is my Renekton Guide for competitive play. Renekton is hands down one of the most solid picks in the game. He is A GREAT laner, he's unbelievably hard to gank, extremely difficult to kill while his ulti is running, and does crazy amounts of damage, even with tank masteries/gear. Elementz has Renekton in tier 2 on his solo queue and draft mode 5v5 tier lists, and I believe that Ren is even BETTER in 3s than in 5s!

I plan on keeping this guide updated for as long as I keep playing this game, and I would appreciate constructive feedback so please comment!!

Here's a match history for a few ranked games:

This is a screen shot of my current ranked stats with Renekton. I will attempt to update this periodically, unless I suddenly start SUCKING with him :p

Keep in mind, these are stats from nearly all 3v3 games, and teams often surrender quite early, so the games are short. (I've only picked him in ranked 5s I think twice) For instance, a creep score of ~90 sounds lame, but I actually outcreep just about everyone except the absolute BEST farmers Singed, Mordekaiser, etc.
Lastly, I'm not gonna pretend that I am outrageously gosu, I really only recently started playing LoL, I was a fairly competitive SC2 Ladder player for awhile. So far, I've only played 80 or so ranked games. (Mostly 3v3) This of course means that I have not played at an amazingly high ELO. But, I would like to think that I'm pretty decent at this game, and I feel good enough about that to presume to guide YOU. And if you happen to be a ridiculously GODLY ladder player, please tell me how to make my guide better. Thanks.

Update History

THIS GUIDE
2/5/11: Version 1.0
2/6/11: Version 1.1 Fixed some typos and added a few things to the "How to Play" and "Items" sections.
2/7/11: Version 1.2 Added Slice and Dice TT Map, and The Bloodthirster to the items section, added Renekton patch changes, resized some icons
2/8/11 Version 1.25 Changed item build - get The Black Cleaver earlier, Youmuu's Ghostblade pushed till after Randuin's Omen
2/18/11: Version 1.3 Changed the name of the guide from "Renekton for Ranked 3s" to "Renekton: Lavish Brutality." I'm going to play him in 5v5 and then update this guide accordingly. Updated introduction section to reflect these changes.
2/20/11: Version 1.4 Added "Laning Matchups" section and changed the name of the guide to "Renekton: BAMF" because "lavish brutality" sounds kind of lame.
2/24/11: Version 1.5 Updated "Introduction section."

RENEKTON

League of Legends v1.0.0.111

* Fixed a bug where Slice and Dice would remember your order after casting, causing him to move toward previous locations

League of Legends v1.0.0.110

* Cull the Meek

o Cooldown changed to 8 seconds from 12/11/10/9/8
o Base damage increased to 60/90/120/150/180 from 40/70/100/130/160
o Attack Damage ratio increased to 0.8 from 0.6
o Healing reduced to 7.5% from 15% (Fury-enhanced heal unaffected)
o Champion healing increased to 4x from 3x

o Health per level increased to 87 from 82
o Base health increased to 513 from 508
o Armor per level increased to 3.8 from 3.2
o Base armor increased to 19 from 17.2

Pros/Cons

PROS:

• Ability to stay in the lane FOREVER with just a Doran's Shield
• Can effectively harass most champions
• Is great in either a solo lane or 2v2
• Does not use mana or health to activate his abilities
• Awesome chasing ability
• One of the best farmers out there
• Great damage potential
• Great AOE damage with his ulti and a Sunfire Cape
• Good escapist
• Practically unkillable late game if you follow this item build and farmed decently well
• Can effectively fill the role of a DPS or a tank, depending on the needs of your team
• Is a badass crocodile guy
• He is green, which is my favorite color for a number of reasons ;)

• Somewhat vulnerable to hard CC: Warwick, Malzahar -_-
• Other than Ruthless Predator, does not provide a significant amount of CC
• Difficult to solo against champions with great regen Warwick, etc.
• Needs to be aggressive early in order to use his fury
• Very dependent on his ulti Dominus. Be extremely careful if you are forced to fight without it.
• Can get nuked down quickly if you are caught unaware and cannot get your ulti off immediately. ( Warwick)
• His name is kind of hard to pronounce
• F*** YOU Warwick!!!

Renekton

Skills

Ren's passive deals with fury, his unique resource system. The more attacking you do, the more fury you generate, and when you are low health, you get really angry and start generating fury at twice the normal speed. When Ren gets 50 fury, each of his abilities will be boosted and have a greater effect than when you use them normally, but will consume 50 fury. Fury maxes out at 100. Use Cull the Meek on minions to really get Ren's fury going before fights. Possibly the best thing about Renekton is that he doesn't require the use of mana or health to use his abilities, so aim to get a lot of CDR for him.


This is your primary farming skill. It serves two purposes, to kill minions quickly, and to heal you. During team fights, use this when the enemy team is bunched up to get a pretty significant heal, especially if it's fury boosted. In addition, use this skill when being chased for a small heal. Believe it or not, this has saved my life quite a few times. In the most recent patch, this was the skill that probably got the biggest buff. The cooldown was reduced to a flat 8 seconds, and the damage was increased by 20 per level, and the scaling was improved from 0.6 to 0.8 damage per point of bonus damage. This skill coupled with a Sunfire Cape will make your creep score skyrocket. Grab 2 levels of this by level 5 and max it second.


This is Ren's nuke. It is basically a spammable nuke/stun that turns into a bigger nuke and a longer stun when boosted by fury. Even though his other skills were buffed by the recent patch, this is still the one you want to spend your fury on during team fights. Saving Ruthless Predator for when you have 50 fury is the most efficient way to dps with Renekton, so you should always be aware of your cooldowns and your fury. I always get this skill first, since it allows you to last hit creep at lvl 1 easily, and allows you to contribute in level 1 team fights. In addition, Slice and Dice-ing in and hitting a squishy with Ruthless Predator is a great way to initiate fights.


This skill is why you are an amazing chaser, amazing harrasser, and good gank escapist. Some guides I've seen out there will tell you to max this second, because it decreases the cooldown, but I think Cull the Meek is just too important for your farming and healing, so get a point in Slice and Dice at level 2 and max it last. However, never underestimate this skill's importance, and never waste it needlessly.

Here's a chart with some of the many wall jumps you can do using Slice and Dice

This is your ultimate, and it's a great one. All of your abilities gain increased range, you deal AOE magic damage to everyone near you, you generate 5 fury per second (10 if you are low), and you gain up to 600 health. While your ulti is up, you are an unstoppable wrecking machine, get as much damage done as you can. Get a point in this every time you can.

When to use it:

• Teamfights . . . but make sure the other team is committed to the fight. The last thing you want to happen is you popping Dominus and they run away with no losses.
• When you are getting ganked by 2 or more people. If you get locked down immediately and it looks like you are going to die, pop this and Ghost and try to run to the nearest wall you can Slice and Dice through.

• 1v1 fights. Unless you are going for first blood, or it looks like you might die, save your ulti for a larger battle.
• Chasing. Just don't do it . . . you want to have your ulti up when they are trying to kill you, not when they are running away.

Runes

Marks: Greater Mark of Desolation x9. Armor pen all the way, this is absolutely mandatory. You NEED this for DPS and farming. Your Cull the Meek is your staying power while laning, more armor pen = more healing.


Seals: x9. I go with dodge, but HP or armor could both work here.


Glyphs: x9. Flat CDR. MR could be viable here as well. Do NOT get CDR/lvl runes. You will get maxed CDR with these items.


Quints: Greater Quintessence of Desolation x3. Mandatory for the same reasons as above.

Masteries

Personally, I'm a fan of the defensive tree, so I'll go 1/21/8. Many people will tell you that Ren is an offensive character, and needs the 21 points in offense. I just think that many of the masteries in the offense tree are practically worthless compared to equal tier masteries in the defensive and utility trees.

In previous versions of this guide, I noted that masteries are a matter of preference, but come on, if you just take a quick look at the masteries in the offense tree vs the masteries in defense, its really not even close. The offense tree is really only good for crit champions. Renekton is not a crit champion, no matter how much you wish he was. Just go defense, you'll thank me later.

Summoner Spells

: In my opinion, the BEST summoner spell available. It can be used offensively and well as defensively to great effect, and has the potential to completely change the outcome of fights. A must have for any melee champion.


: This, in my opinion is the logical choice for your second summoner spell. Ren already has a short ranged flash in his Slice and Dice, so if you absolutely need to get through a wall, it should suffice. Ghost gives you the power to chase or escape depending on the situation, as well as get to fights before your team gets demolished.


: Normally, I would take this with just about any other character on TT. Having the ability to get through walls on that map is absolutely essential for surprise ganking, and more importantly, escaping. However, your Slice and Dice is able to accomplish this with a large number of the walls on the map, so you should take Ghost unless you just really suck at using Slice and Dice.


: I might take this over exhaust if the other team has Dr. Mundo or Warwick, but unless you already have mad slows on your team, exhaust is just a better choice. Plus, if you've been following this guide, why the f*** didn't you ban Warwick?

Items

Core items:


Later game:


Situational:


: Definitely my starting item of choice. It lets you do what Renekton does best: get away with harassing the other team constantly while taking little to no damage in return, and regenning the rest.


: There are 2 good choices for boots for Ren, although 80% of the time, I will go with these. Getting Ionian Boots of Lucidity allows you to skip Spirit Visage and still end up with max CDR.


: In my opinion, the best boots in the game. However, Renekton really needs that extra CDR, so unless you are facing a team with 3 AP champions, or just a team with a ******ed amount of CC, try to get Ionian Boots of Lucidity instead.


: This goes hand in hand with Mercury's Treads if you need the MR and CC reduction, take this after your Mercury's Treads for that CDR and extra MR. Otherwise, skip it. There are way better items for Renekton


: This item is an absolute must-have for Renekton. It only has stats that you want. Damage, CDR, and armor pen. ALWAYS get this after boots.


: Okay . . . honestly, this item is the reason I made this guide, because apparently, no other Renekton players know about it. This item is f***ing AMAZING for Renekton. I would say it is 100% required, same as Mordekaiser. The amount of survivability and increased farming and damage during fights you will do once you get this will convince you that you need it. Always get this after you finish The Brutalizer, grabbing the Giant's Belt first.



: Works great with Ruthless Predator, which will put up 2-3 stacks of the armor reduction debuff immediately. Increased attack speed for faster fury generation, and damage, the perfect late game offensive option for Renekton


: This item is pretty great . . increases the stats on your The Brutalizer and gives you a great active that increases your attack speed and move speed. Plus, your Ruthless Predator will instantly max out the buff. It's so cheap to get after you already have The Brutalizer, so it's really a no brainer.


: More survivability, another great active that will insure that you basically will never die. I prefer this item over Frozen Mallet because the slow is AOE, and has a decent range. Additionally, you get a bit more CDR. (This will max you at 40% if you have Ionian Boots of Lucidity and Youmuu's Ghostblade) Damage mitigation + HP will always be better for you than just HP, because you'll have plenty of HP when your ulti is up anyways. Randuin's Omen gives you 80 armor, 300 HP, debuffs people who hit you automatically, and lets you AOE slow/debuff people as an active. Frozen Mallet gives you . . . 700 HP and slows ppl when you hit them. Ehh . . its just not as good. Trust me, that 20 extra damage is not going to make that much of a difference. I could see a Phage being somewhat useful, but really, your teammates should have at least 1 slow . . . Take this over Frozen Mallet, and don't let some noob tell you that you're wrong.


: A good option when your teammates don't have any slows, but like I said before, Randuin's Omen is just a better option in my opinion. Many times with Renekton, you will be chasing your enemy, unable to auto-attack them, and the range on Randuin's Omen's active will allow you to catch them.

I'll usually grab this as my 6th item (Not including the Doran's Shield), since the rest of this build doesn't focus too heavily on MR, plus the extra move speed and regen is nice. I will grab this earlier if I'm facing a couple of major AP nukers. Get this instead of Randuin's Omen if you need MR at that point.


This is pretty useful if your team is having a hard time doing enough damage in fights, or if you are against a couple of bursty champions like Pantheon or Akali, and just need a bit more offense and healing during fights.

How to play

EARLY GAME (Laning): Try to grab the top lane as a soloer. I wouldn't recommend trying to 1v2 with Renekton if you are running a jungler. (Which you should be doing if you are playing ranked)

If you don't get a solo lane, it's OK, you can do just fine working with someone else, but you wont get as much money early on.

Start out trying to last hit with Ruthless Predator until you hit level 2. At this point, if your opponent is not a strong harasser, you should try to start pressuring him. Once you build up 50 fury, Slice over, hit him with Ruthless Predator and perhaps an auto attack and then Dice back. Once you get Cull the Meek, you can use that after your Ruthless Predator to do even more damage. Or alternatively, if you are sitting at around 30+ fury and feel like you have enough hp to take a couple of hits, slice over, Cull the Meek in the middle of some minions to hit 50 fury, THEN Ruthless Predator the enemy champion. This gives you the element of surprise, since he wont expect you to have 50 fury, but is also more risky. If you are successful, you will force your opponent to back off. If this happens, try to deny him experience, as this will put him further and further behind.

If you are unable to successfully harrass, don't worry, you will be able to stay in the lane for an extremely long time regardless of who you are laning against because of Cull the Meek. If you start getting low (less than 50%), build up 50 fury, Slice in to the middle of the enemy creep wave, hit Cull the Meek and Dice out. This is the best way to regain lost HP.

If you are unable to succesfully harrass, and you are also unable to heal yourself because you are getting absolutely dominated, and it's because of the match up rather than because you are a noob, try to switch lanes with someone, ask someone to help you gank them, or go jungle for a bit. Do not try to stay there if you cant do anything, you need to get as much experience and money as possible.

Use your fury to your advantage. If you have 50 fury, and move towards your opponent, he will have to back off to avoide a Slice and Dice + Ruthless Predator combo. Use the extra space to last hit minions or whatever else you want to do. Do not always immediately use your fury.

MID GAME (Ganking, Team Fights): Renekton is a great ganker. Take advantage of any opportunities to switch lanes without the opponent noticing and strike while they are unaware. The proper order to use your skills during an attack is similar to the harassing technique above. Use Slice and Dice to get next to your enemy, hit them with Ruthless Predator and then follow up with a Cull the Meek. Afterward, if they are still alive or are running, you use Dice to catch up to them and repeat the process. Prioritize Ruthless Predator over your other attacks, and use Slice and Dice intelligently, whether you need it to escape, to reposition yourself, or to catch a fleeing opponent.

LATE GAME (Team Fights Followed by Long Periods of Farming and Turtling): Remember to use Dominus if it looks like they are going to fight back. You never want to be stunned for 3 seconds and get pounded on while you dont have your ulti up. Always use your active items. Both Youmuu's Ghostblade and Randuin's Omen have short cooldowns, and will likely be up for every fight, so use them anytime you think it may be necessary. Always use your Youmuu's Ghostblade on turrets, and use your Randuin's Omen in every fight, because it really makes a difference.

Laning Matchups

I decided to add this new section which details the best and worst match ups for Renekton during the laning phase. This list will grow as I gain more experience against certain champions. This list also assumes that you are playing aggressively from the get go. This also doesn't really account for 2v2 situations. While Renekton is not bad 1v1 vs. Akali or Taric, it can be drastically different when those 2 are combined.

EASY

• Tryndamere
• Teemo
• Udyr
• Shen
• Jax
• Katarina
• Master Yi
• Shaco
• Miss Fortune
• Amumu
• Rammus
• Malphite
• Blitzcrank

• Akali
• Irelia
• Ezreal
• Twitch
• Olaf
• Tristana
• Janna
• Ryze
• Xin Zhao
• Ashe
• Singed
• Swain
• Twisted Fate
• Nasus

• Morgana
• Heimerdinger
• Sivir
• Corki
• Annie
• Gangplank
• Taric
• Nunu
• Cho'Gath
• Dr. Mundo
• Zilean
• Poppy
• Pantheon

• Garen
• Gragas
• Nidalee
• Kennen
• Vladimir
• Anivia
• Sion
• Mordekaiser
• LeBlanc

• Malzahar
• Warwick
• Kassadin
• Urgot

Summary

So, there it is, my first guide. Please comment and vote for it, I don't care if you think this is the worst build ever. I want to hear it, but don't flame me unless you've tried this build. I wouldn't have written it if it didn't work.

Aite, I'm out, See you on the fields of justice.

P.S. F*** Warwick