Build Guide by Fatalend

Introduction

Welcome to my first League of Legends guide!

Renekton is an extremely powerful brawler archetype champion who can single handedly change games. I was inspired to create this build because I was seeing too many other builds which would go with straight carry items and neglect survivability. I even saw one build go as far as saying Renekton is squishy! While carry builds may work in low ELO games or against bad team compositions and give illusions that the build was "good", against better competition these carry Renektons will be killed in a matter of seconds.

It's time to clear up this misinformation. Like I said before, Renekton is a brawler, or otherwise known as a "tanky DPS" by some. Brawlers are champions which are difficult to kill, but also dish out a high amount of damage. Brawlers are NOT carries. While often times Renekton will get triple kills or better, it's not your job as a Renekton player to see how many Infinity Edges and Phantom Dancers you can stack. A dead Renekton is a useless Renekton! It's about finding a healthy balance between damage and survivability and utilizing Renekton's powerful skills of destruction, which is what my guide will aim to explain.

Updates

3/27/2011: After further testing, I believe Slice and Dice is a better skill to max second because of it's naturally high cooldown and how much it improves Renekton's farming ability. Ruthless Predator serves better as a one point wonder. I also wanted to emphasize how Mercury's Treads should be gotten most games even though Ionian Boots of Lucidity are ideal. I updated the guide to reflect these changes.

Also added a Skill Sequence section with specific details.

3/26/2011: Clarified certain parts of the guide and changed up item priorities and build examples. The build at the top of the page was changed to reflect what I feel is currently the most balanced Renekton build.

3/25/2011: Fixed typos and cleaned up parts of the guide. Added a Skill Combinations Section and an Important Stats Section.

3/24/2011: After doing further testing, I have made modifications to items, masteries, and runes.

Skill Summary

: Renekton has a unique resource system called Fury which is generated through his passive. Every time Renekton lands an attack, he gains 5 fury. If Renekton is below 50 health, he gains 50% more fury. There is a fury decay over time if Renekton is out of combat for more than 12 seconds. Initially, Renekton's abilities don't cost anything to use, but when Renekton acquires 50 fury, the next ability he uses will be empowered at the cost of 50 fury. At one time, Renekton can store up to 100 fury meaning you can chain 2 furious abilities together!

: Cull the Meek is Renekton's bread and butter ability and should be maxed as soon as possible. This is your Q ability which hits in an AOE circle around Renekton. For every target hit, Renekton gains 5 fury up to a maximum of 25. Renekton also gains a percentage of damage dealt back to his health. When renekton has 50 or more fury, the ability is empowered dealing more damage, and healing for a greater portion of damage dealt. This ability is great for casting on creepwaves or in the middle of a pack of enemy champions. It is also great for chasing down enemies who are just out of auto attack range. One important thing to note about Call of the Meek is damage done to enemy champions counts as 300% addition to potential lifesteal! Use this to your advantage. I have killed several enemy champions when I was low HP and they thought they could finish me off.

: Ruthless Predator is Renekton's W ability. Upon activation, Renekton's next attack will hit twice as well as stun the target for .75 seconds. When empowered with 50 or more fury, Renekton will strike 3 times and stun for 1.5 seconds. Ruthless Predator's first rank should be picked up at level 3 and used to harass enemy champions within range. This is a great ability to use to prevent enemy champions from running or for keeping them off of your team's DPS champions. One of the most important things to note about Ruthless Predator is that on hit procs, like The Black Cleaver, also apply per strike, so a furious strike of Ruthless Predator, which is 3 attacks, will apply ALL 3 stacks from The Black Cleaver! Ruthless Predator serves well as a 1 point wonder until late in the game.

: Renekton's E ability is extremely versatile and can be used to escape, catch enemy heroes, or to decimate a wave of creeps. When first used, Slice is a skill shot which causes Renekton to dash in the direction of activation. If Renekton makes contact with an enemy, it deals damage, and activates Dice which works the same as Slice. This basically allows Renekton to use his E ability twice in a row. When Renekton is empowered with 50 or more fury, the "dice" (2nd dash) portion of slice and dice will do additional damage as well as shred the enemy's armor for a few seconds. This ability is leveled second in order to get the cooldown lowered as well as boost the damage which will greatly improve Renekton's farming, chasing, and team fight capability, especially on a furious strike.

: Dominus is Renekton's Ultimate. Renekton, like his brother Nasus, is able to transform into his superior form and become godlike. While in this form, which lasts 15 seconds, Renekton deals magic damage per second to all surrounding enemy champions, gains a large amount of health, and gains 5 fury per second. This is a truly devastating ability which can be used to tower dive or absolutely decimate your opponents during a teamfight.

Skill Sequence

Renekton should get Cull the Meek at level one. This is Renekton's biggest source of Fury generation and Healing.

The second ability Renekton should get is Slice and Dice. This will unlock one of Renekton's harassment combos which will be discussed in the next section.

The third skill point Renekton gets should be placed into Ruthless Predator. This will unlock Renekton's most powerful lane harassment combo also discussed in the next section.

From this point forward, Renekton should follow a priority like this:

Dominus > Cull the Meek > Slice and Dice > Ruthless Predator

Dominus goes without saying. It should be prioritized the most because it's what keeps Renekton alive in team fights and helps him deal insane AOE damage.

Cull the Meek is the first of the 3 regular abilities that should be maxed out. It's Renekton's best farming ability, it scales the best with damage items, it generates Rage, it allows Renekton to gain health back. This versatility makes this Renekton's bread and butter ability.

Slice and Dice is maxed next because its initial Cooldown is 20 seconds, and it drops 2 seconds per rank. It also increases 30 damage per rank, and the ability can be used twice in a row making that a cool 60 damage per rank! This is a great farming ability, great for team fights, and great for chasing.

Ruthless Predator is maxed last for a few reasons. First of all, it is only a single target ability. It's base damage growth is 10 per level, meaning a non furious attack will add 20 damage and a furious attack will add 30 damage per level. Cull the Meek adds 30 damage in an AOE plus additional healing, while we figured out that Slice and Dice adds 60 damage per rank. Ruthless Predator does NOT increase stun length for each rank. The only major advantage to leveling Ruthless Predator is for a small damage increase and a small Cooldown Reduction. This is why Ruthless Predator is your one point wonder until end game!

As always, the specific skilling order can be found at the top of the guide.

Skill Combinations

Renekton's skill combinations revolve around using Slice and Dice to close the gap between you and your opponent.

During the laning phase, use Slice to get to your opponent, do a quick Cull the Meek, and then Dice back out. This is Renekton's harassment combo.

Slice and Dice > Cull the Meek > Slice and Dice

This can be enhanced by using Ruthless Predator when you get it at level three if you can get in melee range of the opponent.

Slice and Dice > Ruthless Predator > Cull the Meek > Slice and Dice

When Renekton is Chasing an opponent, it is important to note that when using Slice, you have 4 seconds after making contact with the enemy to use Dice. I typically delay my Dice until the enemy has covered a bit more ground.

Slice and Dice > Cull the Meek > Slice and Dice > Ruthless Predator

During Teamfights:

Dominus: Make sure to activate this!
Slice and Dice: Use this to close the gap in order to save your teammates, or to chase runners. Even use this as a furious ability to shred the armor of opposing team's tanks.
Ruthless Predator: Keep stunning the opponent who is the LARGEST threat to your team!
Cull the Meek: Spam this constantly to keep your health up as well as dish out serious AOE damage.

Runes

9x Greater Mark of Desolation Greater Marks of Desolation
9x Greater Glyphs of Shielding
9x Greater Seals of Evasion
3x Greater Quintessence of Desolation Greater Quintessences of Desolation

The Greater Mark of Desolation combined with Greater Quintessence of Desolation will help you dish out solid damage throughout the game with your auto attack AND abilities. This is the ONLY choice for Renekton in the Mark slots.

The Greater Glyph of Scaling Magic Resist and Greater Seal of Evasion are my choices to help mitigate damage. The dodge from Evasion seals combined with dodge masteries will help to completely avoid attacks from high damage auto attack champions, while Shielding Glyphs will help you with magic damage throughout the game.

One thing that is potentially variable is your Glyph slots. You can use Greater Glyph of Cooldown Reduction if you want to gain some extra Cooldown Reduction and get closer to the 40% cap. I choose to go a tankier route.

Masteries and Summoner Spells

Masteries:

For masteries, which are highlighted above, I recommend going 1/21/8

The defensive tree I feel is the most beneficial for Renekton. It gives a boost to life which allows us to take Armor Penetration Quintessences. Additional resists, armor, and dodge chance help Renekton survive laning and teamfights in addition to an extra 4% damage reduction on top. Nimbleness improves movement speed after dodges and allows you to escape or catch others.

Improved Ghost and Exhaust are chosen as I feel these are the two best summoner skills for Renekton, along with improved HP regeneration and experience gain.

See the top of this guide for mastery spec.

Summoner Spells:

: This is a must for Renekton and the most versatile summoner spell in the game. This can help you do a number of things including getting to team fights, catching enemies and running from enemies. As said before, we grab Improved Ghost in the Utility Tree to further its effectiveness.

: I've debated about which summoner spell is best in the second slot, but I finally settled on Exhaust. This is also extremely versatile and can be used to reduce the effectiveness of an auto attack champion in team fights, prevent an enemy from chasing, or allows you to catch an enemy who is trying to run away. With Improved Exhaust in the Offensive Tree, you will even gain some bonus armor penetration on the affected target.

: Ignite would be my third choice, and a summoner spell I will likely grab if no one else on my team does so. It does a nice amount of damage and can sometimes be the difference between winning and losing a fight. It also prevents the enemy from healing and should be used on heroes such as Vlad, Irelia, and Dr. Mundo.

: This is another great summoner spell which works in perfect harmony for moving around the map with Ghost. It allows you to defend towers with ease, get to team fights faster, or even push lanes faster.

: I personally will never use Flash on Renekton because he is not a squishy character, and his E ability can be used as an escape, but those with an extremely aggressive play style may like to add this to their lineup.

The remaining summoner spells are are inferior in every way for Renekton.

Important Stats for Renekton

Cooldown Reduction: I can't emphasize this enough. Cooldowns are the only thing preventing you from doing serious damage as Renekton has no costs on his abilities by default. Renekton gets most of his damage from his abilities and he is at his best when he hits the 40% Reduction Cap!

Attack Damage: This is an important stat for 2 reasons. It boosts Renekton's auto attack as well as his abilities. Renekton's abilities scale extremely well with damage!

Armor Penetration: This is another important DPS stat for Renekton as armor penetration works on his abilities which do physical damage! Make sure to have a solid amount.

Attack Speed: This is important because the faster Renekton attacks, the faster Renekton Generates Fury!

Health, Magic Resist, Armor: Renekton is a melee character who is in the heart of every battle, meaning survivability is of utmost importance to Renekton. In higher ELO games, A squishy melee champion is a dead melee champion.

A note on Critical Strike: Critical Strike is always a nice extra stat to have on Renekton, but it is never something you should strive for because it DOES NOT work with Renekton's abilities. Like I said before, Renekton is primarily an ability user first and an auto attacker second. If you get Critical Strike as a bi-product on certain items like Youmuu's Ghostblade, it is certainly not a bad thing though. Just don't do something crazy like stack avarice blades

Items

Core Build:

This is your core build which you should strive for every game. Doran's Shield is Renekton's most powerful starting item providing additional health, armor, and health regeneration in cases where he must sit back.

The boots are obviously situational. Ionian Boots of Lucidity are the ideal choice for Renekton, but at the same time, they are a LUXURY! Mercury's Treads should be gotten in games where the enemy team has several disables which will be most games! You will take a hit to your Cooldown Reduction, but an active Renekton is better than a stunned one! Remember, you can always chug Elixir of Brilliance to help reach the Cooldown Reduction cap.

Youmuu's Ghostblade is an amazing DPS item which is a key to Renekton, featuring Armor Penetration, Cooldown Reduction, Critical Strike Chance, and Attack Damage, as well as an amazing clickable effect for increased Movement Speed and Attack Speed. Don't forget to use the effect.

Spirit Visage is next, and provides great synergy with Cull the Meek, increasing your healing effects, and providing extra health and magic resist. A great item all around for Renekton and should always be gotten.

Finally Randuin's Omen is the final piece of your core. This item is crucial with Cooldown Reduction, Health, Armor, and a clickable effect which slows enemies and greatly reduces their movement and attack speeds. This will help you destroy champions in team fights and assist your own team.

There is no specific order in which to build your core, nor should you follow a specific order. You should learn how to react to what is going on in your lane. For example, let's say you are laning against a Vladimir:

Doran's Shield > Boots of Speed > Null-Magic Mantle > Long Sword > Long Sword > The Brutalizer > Kindlegem > Null-Magic Mantle > Spirit Visage > Mercury's Treads > Heart of Gold > Youmuu's Ghostblade > Randuin's Omen

This starts off early with Boots of Speed and Null-Magic Mantle to start building survivability for Vladimir abilities. Then start pouring on the damage with The Brutalizer. I find just The Brutalizer gives Renekton a solid amount of damage all the way into midgame if necessary. From there, grabbing the Kindlegem gives a boost to survivability and DPS by adding Cooldown Reduction. Following up by finishing Spirit Visage and Mercury's Treads will allow you to take peanuts for damage from Vladimir as you continue to harrass him. From there, Heart of Gold continues to give survivability and gold generation and the build continues from there.

This is just an example of something you can do. How much damage is Vladimir doing to you? Do you need more resists? Is he not doing much damage and you can start building damage? These are questions you need to ask yourself as there is no set order to build your core.

Situational Items:

For this section, Green text items will be ones I feel are great on Renekton, Yellow text items are viable for certain builds, Red color items I personally avoid and will explain why.

DPS Items:

: The attack speed will help with Fury generation, plus the high damage and single target armor penetration will allow you to destroy the opposing teams' carries and tanks alike. The coolest thing about The Black Cleaver is that it synergizes with Ruthless Predator meaning if you have over 50 fury and The Black Cleaver, Ruthless Predator will apply all 3 stacks to your target in one swoop!

: With 100 potential damage on the table, this item is amazing for Renekton, especially with his abilities scaling off of attack damage. The additional lifesteal helps Renekton stay out longer without returning to base. This is my personal second favorite DPS item to get on Renekton.

: A great item for Renekton which should be gotten late game if your health pool gets large (2.5k+). You will gain armor, a healthy chunk of attack damage, as well as some critical strike chance which will synergize with your ghostblade well

: A solid item for Renekton against teams that are stacking armor. If you are facing multiple champions that have armor between 150 and 200, consider getting a Last Whisper!

: This is a solid item to get if you need just a little bit more magic resist but want to keep pouring on the damage.

: A solid item for Renekton because of the support it gives the team, as well as the armor penetration which is always a great stat.

: The legendary Infinity Edge is a great item with amazing stats for just about any melee character in the game. It's so good, I can't quite put it in the red zone, but I just feel like there are other items more worth it than this, especially considering the cost. Never forget about this one though, especially if you have a lot of extra cash to spare.

: A situational DPS item that should only be gotten if there are a few champions on the opposing team with extreme amounts of health. Otherwise, Madred's is too expensive to get for Renekton.

: While this item provides good movement speed, critical strike, and attack speed, it does nothing to make Renekton's abilities stronger, which is why I never recommend getting Phantom Dancer

: This item is designed for chasing, and it is extremely expensive! While this item could be viable in certain situations, there is no point in grabbing this along with Randuin's Omen which is a far superior item for Renekton.

Survivability Items:

: One of the most popular survivability items in the game. Although it took a hit recently with the effect having a longer cooldown, it's still arguably the best magic resist item in the game with tons of effective HP against magic damage and the ability to negate spells such as stuns and disables.

: A great item for effective health against physical damage and a great passive which synergizes well with Renekton's ult.

: I love this item. The beautiful thing about it is because of the passive effect, the more HP you have the more effective this item is. With a Force of Nature, magic damage champions can forget about killing you, and every champion will have trouble keeping up with your ridiculous health regen. Late game, you will rarely have to return to town with a Force of Nature in your arsenal.

: A great 5th or 6th item to get! This will give you a second chance to bring the pain on your enemies as well as a nice chunk of Magic Resist and Armor.

: Provides a ton of armor, but doesn't provide any health and the affect only works on those who physically attack you. If the other team has 3 auto attackers, this is a great item to get.

: There certainly isn't wrong with this item, I just feel like there are other items more deserving of Renekton's slots than this. Anything that helps the team as a whole should always be considered.

: Not a fan of Warmog's on Renekton. The only time I would ever consider buying this is as a 6th item when I already have a good amount of resists.

Example Item Builds

High Damage Output + Medium Survivability:

In keeping with the brawler theme, this is the highest damage output Renekton to build which still has survivability. If your team has a tank like Shen or Rammus who are able to protect you, give this build a shot!. I doubt there will be many times to actually finish this build because of the cost of The Bloodthirster and The Black Cleaver, but even if you get part of the way there, this build will absolutely wreck. Renekton will shread enemies with powerful auto attacks, Slice and Dice, Cull the Meek, and Ruthless Predator. This build will hit the Cooldown Cap!

Medium Damage + High Survivability (Tank):

No tank? No problem! Run this build and you will be nearly impossible to take down and still have moderate damage output. Pop your ultimate during teamfights and keep enemies off of your team's main DPS by stunning them and Slice and Dice around. Don't forget to activate Randuin's Omen! Enemy DPS will wither under Dominus, Sunfire Cape, and Cull the Meek. Force of Nature will ensure that after the fight is over, you can push or do Baron instead of going back to base. This build will put you at 30% Cooldown Reduction without glyphs so drink an Elixer of Brilliance to hit the cap!

Balanced Build:

This is the most versatile build of the three and takes the best of both worlds. Youmuu's Ghostblade and The Black Cleaver provide me damage while Mercury's Treads, Spirit Visage, Randuin's Omen, and Banshee's Veil keep me and my team alive in the heat of battle. Renekton now is a true brawler... the perfect balance of damage and survivability!

Remember: The final 2 items are situational. This is just a guide. It is not meant to be fact. It's important to build your champions in a way that fit your playstyle and also to build in a way which counters the enemy team appropriately.