Renekton Build Guide by dBMachine

Introduction

Renekton is a champion that is often times underplayed and misunderstood. Sometimes even called weak by those who don't know better. Although he does have his quirks many seem to overlook his strengths and underestimate the sheer havoc he can create top lane. With the recent season 3 changes Renekton is actually stronger than ever.

Although, I don't claim to be a high ELO competitor I do feel I have played this game long enough to understand some of the key concepts needed to become successful with one of my favorite champions. Especially to someone who may be new to Renekton or even League of Legends in general. Right now, Renekton is thriving on the season 3 changes and he's even seen some recent tournament play. I'll try to show you how to use a champion with one of the deadliest laning phases in the game.

" Nasus cannot escape me forever!"

Pros / Cons

Pros:

-Devastating laning phase
-High burst damage
-No mana
-Good farmer
-Double-dash mobility
-Sustain
-Snowballs extremely hard

-Ridiculous cooldowns
-W Casting animation(self-stun)
-Vulnerable to long range and heavy poke
-Tends to push lane
-Late game damage fall off(not so bad with S3 changes)
-Some champs straight up outscale after laning phase

Runes and Masteries

For my Renekton rune page I take armor seals and AD reds and quints. I also run only 8 scaling magic resist blues plus 1 AD blue. Because of the way the system rounds the numbers, using 1 AD blue, worth .28 damage, will give you a total of 16 AD instead of 15. Though it might not sound like much that 1 AD is more significant early game than the tiny amount of magic resist you sacrifice at level 18.

You can also run full armor pen reds and quints which will help you scale into mid and late game. However, you will have a harder time last hitting in lane and you will do slightly less damage at the earliest stages of the game.

For my masteries I take 9/21/0. I dip into the offensive tree for the 8% armor ignore wile making sure to put 4 points into sorcery instead of fury to take the edge off his cooldowns. Renekton is a caster based champion after all so CDR is much more important than attack speed.

Survivability is also very important for Renekton so put a full 21 points into the defensive tree. Making sure to put points into Veteran's Scars, Unyielding, and Block to mitigate early lane harass. I also stick points into Tenacious because CC reduction is always good. I sacrifice one point from Resistance so I can put that into Defender. Which offers much more value for your single point.

Abilities

Reign of Anger - Whenever Renekton is below half health he will gain 50% extra fury from all sources. That includes his auto-attacks, his Q, his W, and his ult. This passive is not very flashy nor is it something you always need to be concious of. It only makes a difference once Renekton commits to a fight to the death.

Cull the Meek - This is Renekton's bread and butter skill. It deals AOE damage around him and heals for a percentage of damage done. Although the heal is capped to a limit it's still great for lane sustain and winning trades. Damage and heal are both significantly greater with fury. Max this first.

Ruthless Predator - This is Renekton's 1 point wonder. It's a single target nuke plus a stun. Unfortunately, the casting animation is so long that it also effectively stuns Renekton. He can usually only get off 1 auto attack wile his target is suppressed. Sometime's he's stunned even longer than his target if they have high tenacity. This is the trade off for a stun that also happens to be a highly damaging nuke. It's still great when you need to peel for your carry or burst someone down. Because of it's high ratios and fury mechanics you can max this last.

Slice and Dice - This is what makes Renekton's lane harass so effective. Using his E he can dash in, deal tons of damage, and as long as he hit a minion or enemy with his first dash then he can double dash back out. You rarely want to stand toe to toe trading auto attacks in lane. Renekton likes to jump in, blow his combo, and get out before his opponent can retaliate. If you spend fury on Dice, his second dash, it will provide massive amounts armor shred. You can, unfortunately, only store enough fury for 2 enraged skills so most of the time I spend it on my W and Q. But his armor shred provides tons of utility that would be extremely beneficial mid to late game. Don't be afraid to spend fury on slice and dice in the middle of a team fight! Max this second to AOE farm minions like a boss and for the armor shred utility.

Dominus - Although, it's essentially a weaker version of his brother's ult this allows him to 1v1 pretty much anyone at level 6. Renekton grows in size receiving a generous health boost and an AOE magic damaging aura. He also passively generates fury per second wile Dominus is activated. The health he receives from activating his ult is great for baiting people into diving you. They will think you're almost dead until you pop your ult and tear them a new one. I've been ganked top lane only to press R and walk away with a double kill. You can also tower dive very effectively with your ulti on. Never commit to a fight without popping your ult.

I take Q at level 1 because I feel the low cooldown, heal, and longer range are all very valuable things to have when it's your only skill in lane. If you're invading or planning on a lvl1 team fight then the stun and high damage from Ruthless Predator can earn you first blood. It's a good idea to avoid putting a point in any skill until you need it. That way all 3 are available to you at level 1. You can quickly choose which one you need by pressing ctrl + Q, W, or E.

I always take E at level 2 because you should always be cautious of an early gank and you need the escape. Take your last skill at 3 so you have your full combo available to you.

Items

The build order listed earlier in this guide is only an example of a build path that I might use in a game. You should never blindly follow any build. Instead, you should build your champion situationally based on your team's needs and the most dangerous threats from the opposition.

Starting items:

+ sight ward +

Lots of sustain, an AD boost when you need it, and a ward. Only downside is you're buying all consumables so make something happen with your advantage!

+

A good choice against an AD top. You get sustain, damage mitigation, and still do plenty of damage because of fury.

+

Boots of Speed and 3 pots is still an option.



Doran's Blade is still a good choice. Damage, less sustain, and a small batch of health. I don't recommend stacking these unless you're really behind.

First trip back:

sight ward

Renekton has a habit of pushing his lanes. Make sure to cover your *** and buy a ward. As long as you have enough notice you can escape most ganks with a Slice and Dice through the minions.



If you have the money for an early Giant's Belt just buy it. The name of the game in season 3 is health. An early giants belt can make it nearly impossible for your opponent to trade evenly with you.



Not enough money for Giant's Belt? That's fine. Make a judgement call and buy what you need and what you can afford. Start working towards a The Brutalizer with a Long Sword or go defensive with a Ruby Crystal or some resists.

Cloth Armor is also a very gold efficient item. It only costs 300 and you can sell it later for 210 gold if you don't want to build it into anything. That costs you 90 gold in the end. The same argument can be made for a Null-Magic Mantle, however, it's a little more expensive.

Boots:



Buy Ninja Tabi to counter AD and or Mercury's Treads to counter AP and CC.

Are you kicking *** and taking names? Are you going to force a 20 minute surrender? If so, you might as well purchase Ionian Boots of Lucidity. Renekton needs all the help can get for CDR. Although I recommend building tanky most of the time.

Core:



THIS is the item that Renekton has been waiting so long for. It has everything he wants. Health, CDR, AD, Armor Pen, and an armor reducing passive. The Black Cleaver also helps keep Renekton's damage relevant as you approach late game. If you can only build 1 damage item than this is it. This should be the first item you finish most of the time. This item has been nerfed since pre-season (6 cleaver build anyone?) but it is still great.

or

A tanky Renekton is a happy Renekton(or should I say furious?). Sunfire Cape gives you the health and armor you need and it's damaging aura stacks nicely on top Renekton's ult. If the enemy team is AP heavy than Spirit Visage is my go to MR item. It gives health and increases the healing from your Q. 20% CDR is also great.

or

Warmog's Armor + Spirit Visage combo will make you nearly unkillable because of your massive health and regen.

The slow from Frozen Mallet is also invaluable making it extremely hard for anyone to get away.



If you have both The Black Cleaver and Last Whisper you will deal insane damage even into the late game. However, I think a tanky Renekton is more viable than a glass cannon so I won't buy this item at the expensive of survivability. Because of that this is my luxury core item. I usually buy Last Whisper towards the end of a game when I feel I can squeeze it in.

Runner Ups: Wile I may not build these items every game they are still great for the croc. Some of them work fine as a direct replacement to the core build wile others are more of a situational pick.



The item is extremely efficient. You get all the defensive stats plus you're helping out the team. If no one has bought one yet than you might as well pick it up.



Sometimes you just want pure unadulterated attack damage and lots of it. The Bloodthirster is the item to do it. Ruthless Predator has very good AD ratios so it will become quite the nuke. It will also proc the life-steal.



Life is about second chances, right?



Health and armor. The attack speed slow also great against Blade of the Ruined King



I always wonder why nobody builds this item. Maybe because it's fairly new still? This is great against an AP heavy team with tons of CC. It's active removes all debuffs and gives a short move speed boost. Not to mention the MR and AD you get. Does Amumu make you sad? He doesn't make me sad! Not with this item. It's expensive but if you can swing it, it's great.



This is an item I like to build against Karthus or heavy AP burst. The AP shield can save your *** if you're trying to run wile Karthus pops his ult. Also, the AD gain per missing health is semi synergistic with Renekton's passive, though, I never buy this item for just that reason.



I'll be honest... I've never really built this item on Renekton but I like the concept. I feel like it could substantially improve Renekton's DPS wile his abilities are on cooldown in the middle of a team fight. Try it out and let me know how it goes.



I usually say mana is a wasted stat on Renekton but the CDR is very powerful. The armor and attack speed slow make this a very potent counter to Blade of the Ruined King.



Lots of armor for nice and cheap. The returned damage is also nice against auto-attack based champs.



OK, I don't really like this item. It's gold efficient under the right circumstances but I don't feel like it works very well for Renekton because crit is a wasted stat. Renekton deals damage mostly through his abilities and even though his W procs on-hit effects it will NOT proc crit. At 3000 health it gives about as much AD as a B. F. Sword. And if you're not going to use the crit then you might as well just buy a Chain Vest and a B. F. Sword. It costs the same and you can build those items into something more useful.

It does build out of a gp10 so it can become more cost efficient and Renekton does auto-attack sometimes to proc crit. Plus an argument can still be made given the current health meta we're experiencing. But is it really worth the hassle? I would rather build this item on someone like Olaf.

Laning, Combos, and Fury Management

You are Renekton. The Butcher of the Sands. The Ruthless Predator. You are so freaking mad, bro. You are one pissed off crocodile and you HATE Nasus! There's nothing you love better than releasing some fury on some 1 on 1 top lane action.

Renekton is a manaless lane bully so play aggressive. Every time your abilities are up you MUST apply pressure. Here are are my two most common combos.

Harass Combo: Slice and Dice -> Ruthless Predator -> auto attack -> Cull the Meek -> Slice and Dice back out to safety.

You can usually pull this off before the enemy can even land a single blow on you. Just be careful for retaliation wile your skills are on cooldown.

All-in/Chase-down Combo: Ruthless Predator -> Dominus + Ignite -> Slice and Dice -> auto attack -> Slice and Dice -> auto attack -> Cull the Meek

This combo is devastating. We're using every ability and summoner we have plus an auto attack in between skills to maximize damage. Open with an enraged Ruthless Predator and use the stun time to pop ulti and Ignite. It's fine if they start running at this point because we will chase them down with a couple volleys of Slice and Dice and auto attacks. Finish with an enraged Cull the Meek. You may now spam ctrl + 4 to laugh at your dead opponent.

You generate 10 fury when you use your W plus another 5 when you auto attack. So you technically only need 35 fury to begin your harass combo and still land an enraged Cull the Meek. Alternatively you could begin the combo with a basic Cull the Meek to generate aoe fury and then spend it on an enraged Ruthless Predator. You never have to wait until 50 fury to be aggressive.

You can maximize your damage by linking every ability with auto-attacks. All of your abilities are technically an auto-attack reset. So, when attacking use an ability the split second after your auto-attack lands and then follow it up with another auto. If you're good and if you can chain all your abilities with autos wile managing your fury then you can deal a ton of damage in a very short period of time.

Mid to Late Game

Does Renekton fall of late game? Yes and no. Wile his damage does level off as the game goes on his role changes even more.

Renekton's job early on is to dominate his lane and shut down whoever he's laning against. If he snowballs hard enough he can absolutely carry his team to a mid-game victory. Most of the time, however, he transitions into an offtank and he becomes the front-line for his team. He dives the enemy carry in a teamfight and he also protects and peels for his own.

A glass cannon Renekton just doesn't work. Outside of his ult, he is not tanky unless you build him that way. And he has so much more to offer his team if he could just stay ALIVE.

Lets pretend you do build him as a squishy assasin. He'll do more damage but he has a hard time "assasinating" in a team fight. After Renekton slices in he will cast his W which also stuns himself (remember?). He then immediately becomes focused by the rest of the team and will most likely die before he can even finish his combo. But even if he does survive there's a chance that his target survived too. But now Renekton is useless for the rest of the fight because he already blew his load and his cooldowns are way too high. There's no way he can jump back in the fight because he is too squishy to trade blows wile his abilities are down. There are champs that play the glass cannon role much better.

A tanky Renekton can dive the enemy carry, deal AOE damage to everyone, and stick around wile being a huge meat shield in-between the enemy assassin and your carry. You can then survive long enough for your abilities to come off cooldown and repeat it all over again. If you spend fury on any abilities it's still going to hurt anyways.

Farming

CS is just about the most important thing in the game. It's how you make your money and it's much more reliable than enemy champ kills. This is universal across the board for all champs. A good standard to aim for is 200 CS by the 20 minute mark. If you can get close to that you're golden. If you're pretty far off then don't worry. Just try to practise last hitting. Create a custom bot game and practise perfect CS. See how much you can get by 20 min.

Don't forget your lane mechanics either. If you kill the enemy champion in lane then you should push the minions as hard as you can into their tower before you leave to shop or gank another lane. By doing this you're taking the rest of your CS that's left in the lane and you're also robbing the enemy of even MORE CS and exp because the tower is going to take it all. You can snowball a lot harder this way.

Luckily, Renekton is adept at farming both minions AND champions. Given the AOE damage from his Q and his E he can clear a minion wave in seconds.

It becomes really easy once you get a couple items. As a fresh minion wave approaches walk up and auto-attack each of the 3 melee minions in front once. Slice forward then Q in the middle of the minion wave and dice through once again. W the remaining siege minion or any stragglers that were left behind. As long you have a couple items you should instakill most, if not all, of the minions.

Renekton is one of the best farmers in the game and you should really strive to hit that 200 CS benchmark.

Conclusion

If you've made it this far I thank you for reading!! The purpose of this guide is simply to express some of my thoughts and show my style of Renekton. I've gotten so sick of listening to people claim how how under-powered he is when they don't even know what it takes to play him. He's really not a difficult champ.

I'm sure there are plenty of other great Renekton guides out there so I appreciate you taking the time to read mine. This is my FIRST and ONLY guide so PLEASE leave comments about what you liked and what you didn't and I will try to adjust my guide accordingly. Thanks for reading!!

"Who's next on the chopping block?"