Are you tired of getting pushed around? Do you want to be a man? Do you identify with Bill the Butcher? Then Renekton is the champ for you. Not only does he dominate enemy teams while being aggravatingly difficult to take down, you're obligated to say things like "This is a kill" and "Whoopsy Daisy" every time you slay somebody.

Playing more and more of this champ has shown me that the all-out offensive method is really sub-par. Conversely, I've had a lot of success with my tank build, which has led me to the conclusion that a DPS Renekton cannot be viable without bulking up somewhat.

Runes

Not a lot that's too surprising here.
Greater Mark of Desolation
These give you the standard ArPen basically mandated by Physical DPS champs

Greater Seal of Evasion
Dodge runes for survivability and the increased chance to proc Nimbleness

Greater Glyph of Cooldown Reduction
Since the only cost on Renekton's abilities is really their cooldowns, these runes mitigate that cost. You could opt for Glyphs of Celerity (the per level version) but they only outclass Focus glyphs at something like level 13, which is pretty deep in the game. However, at level 18, with Celerity glyphs you'll have just over 8% CDR rather than under 6%.

Greater Quintessence of Health
These provide you with the early HP and survivability you won't be getting from your items.

Rune alternatives:
Greater Glyph of Scaling Magic Resist
These would also be immensely useful
Quintessence of Desolation
More damage never hurt anybody (except your opponents, of course)

Masteries

Nothing too surprising here, either. I sacrifice the 3 points in Lethality in order to max out Sorcery and Offensive Mastery.

This is not a crit build, so the extra crit damage is far less useful to us than the reduced cool downs from Sorcery, and the increased healing (via increased damage from Cull the Meek) provided by Offensive Mastery.

I like Exhaust for the most part on any and all melee DPS champs. It gives you what you need to stay on top of opponents to get the kill. Additionally it allows you to more easily 1v1 opposing melee champs and with Cripple gives you a nice DPS boost.

Perhaps the most well-rounded spell in the game. It lets you span the map for defense or set up ganks with ease. It excels during the chase whether you be the chaser or the chasee.

Flash
This doesn't seem as necessary to me being that Slice and Dice already provides you with a similar effect, but there's no denying that this spell is very good
Ignite
Another good spell. It'll help you get some nice early-game kills, and will allow you to out-lifesteal champs like Mr. Yi and Akali later on in the game.
Cleanse
You know what it does. An incredibly useful spell. I'd probably drop Ghost if I were picking this up ( Slice and Dice is a capable escape mechanism)

This is your main damage dealer and also your most important skill for staying alive. It can allow you to engage in various 1v2's, 1v3's, 2v4's, etc. depending on how fed you are. During team fights, pay attention to both your HP Bar and your Fury Bar at the same time as the CD of this ability, avoid using other skills when you have Fury stored up and this skill is about to come off of CD. I feel this is your most important ability, so I max it out first.

This is a reliable, spammable stun. When chasing or initiating minor fights, make sure to spend you Fury on this skill so that your stun lasts for a maximum duration. During team fights, use it to neuter the big DPS champs on the other team--I always like to spread my stuns around during team fights. I grab a point in it immediately to help nab First Blood. Ultimately, I max it out second, but I don't start putting any more points in it until I have some AD being as I feel this is the skill that relies on that stat the most for its damage output.

This is a useful spell for ganking, initiating, harassing, escaping, juking. Get a feel for what walls you can Slice through. This is another good skill to spam during a team fight, as you can easily damage all 5 of the opposing players at least once, if not twice. If they've built up a lot of armor, be sure to expend your Fury on this skill. Alternatively, if your team is mostly physical-damage-based, using this skill when you have the Fury can make a world of difference in a team fight as you'll reduce the armor of all opposing champs. I grab a couple points early on because its damage is less AD-based, and then max it you last once I've begun to get my items.

Not a lot to say about this skill other than that it makes you a monstrosity. It's on a low cooldown, so don't be shy about popping this ability whenever you think you might need it. Make sure not to activate it until your tank has already initiated a fight as it will often make you a focus-target.

These will be re-evaluated as I further test the changed build

As of now I'll just give truncated summaries of the six items I display at the top of the guide, until I am able to play enough games that last long enough to reach the full build.

Youmuu's Ghostblade - After playing many games without rushing this item, and then trying it out for the first time, I see how vitally important it is to have early on in the game. The CDR makes a world of difference, and while the AD isn't staggering it's plenty to get you on your way. Furthermore, its active will allow you to finish off opponents that would otherwise have escaped, and also build up Fury much more easily.

Randuin's Omen - More CDR, some HP and Health Regen, and a bonz-load of Armor. Given a magic-intensive opposing team you may need to swap this out for a Magic Resist item like Force of Nature, which you may or may not want/need to buy this early in the game.

Pay attention also when building these items to what role you are filling in the laning phase. If you are the main DPS, rush Youmuu's. If you're laning with a more devastating carry, grab The Brutalizer and then rush Randuin's. Or it might even make sense to get The Brutalizer and Warden's Mail, and then finish Youmuu's.

Atma's Impaler - May be one of Renekton's best items. In another guide on here (citation inc), it was pointed out that your ultimate will increase the AD bonus from this item further. Plus, it'll give you some more armor, which combined with Randuin's, will allow you to tower-dive and tank towers more easily.

Warmog's Armor - I knew with Atma's I needed more HP to really take advantage of the item's passive, and looking at my options I figured it was really between Warmog's or Frozen Mallet. At first, The Mallet appears to be the better option. When you crunch the numbers, the eventual 1370 HP bonus of Warmog's will yield about 27 AD, and Frozen Mallet will get you a total of 34 AD. But, in my opinion, I'll take the hit of 7 damage to get almost double the HP and grab myself a hearty dose of Health Regen. Missing the slow is a bummer, but you have exhaust and the Lizard Buff to help you out.

Black Cleaver - This is a great capstone to this build. You don't have frightening AD, so this gives you some. You don't have impressive AS, so this gives you some. You need to more effectively counter opposing Armor, so this provides a mean debuff that does exactly that.

Shoes

I almost always wait until after I have my Stark's Fervor to finish out my boots because all 4 of the above options are viable for this champ. Generally by that time it's evident what I am dealing with the most:


I am chasing alot, having trouble staying in range for Cull the Meek/Dominus -->
I am spamming my abilities, but can't seem to spam them enough -->
I am getting burned by enemy crowd control -->
I am getting ruined by physical carries -->

Remember that it's a simple thing to sell your current boots and buy new ones depending on the flow of the game. You're not stuck with your initial choice the entire game.

Some alternative items

A worthwhile replacement for either Warmog's or Randuin's. Strong bonuses to HP and Armor, and a good passive that syncs up well with Dominus

Defensive Items

If you find yourself up against somebody like Veigar or Ryze that can simply nuke away your health in one spell rotation, then Magic Resist is an absolute must for you. Unfortunately, there are very few Magic Resist items that are any good for physical melee champs.

Hexdrinker is a personal favorite of mine, and can allow you to take the full brunt of a spell rotation and escape (not unscathed, but alive at least), perhaps getting the opponent to burn his/her ultimate so that the next team fight, they won't have it.

Banshee's Veil is less ideal being as you're spending gold on mana you're never going to use. Furthermore, I find the spell shield isn't all that useful anyway, as it's incredibly easy to dissolve with a trash spell, leaving you vulnerable for the big nukes (and any team with any amount of coordination will do just that, I might add).

Thornmail: sprout some spikes and say, "Hands off" to any and all fed physical carries on the other team.

Guardian Angel is an item I was never too crazy about because if the opposing team is fed, the life you respawn with will do you little good (unless you're able to Flash away and then Slice and Dice to safety ASAP). However, Renekton may be one of the champs best suited to using the item. If they had difficulty taking you down, and are all badly damaged themselves, you can respawn and cast Cull the Meek, which will steal enough health to get you back into top fighting condition, at which point you can decide if you want a multi-kill or need to Slice and Dice back to base.

Offensive Items

As of today, I'm hesitant to suggest that you drop any of the defensive items I've listed in the core items in favor of more firepower. However, as I continue to work with this build and see the strengths and weakness of the build and the items within it, I will provide more elucidating explanations of alternative offensive items. For now, here is a picture of some of them:

Off to a good start

The Shield can be used in both defensive and offensive situations, often allowing you to outlast an opponent's barrage and snag an early kill.

Doran's Blade provides similar bonuses, but aimed for the use of a more aggressive player.


In choosing your starting skill, you again must look at your own personal playstyle. If you're aggressive, it's extremely useful to have your stun ready for action. Combining this with more CC from your lane partner can almost always net you First Blood.

If you play defensively, Cull the Meek is a useful way to begin farming early, prevent enemy creep waves from reaching the tower, and recover from early skirmishes that have gone awry.

Early-Game

This is pretty straight-forward. Renekton is one of those convenient champs that is capable of taking some early-game kills (if your opponents make some mistakes), but is also capable of out-farming opponents and progressing his build further even without getting any kills.

He's also an incredibly fun champ to harass with, and can wear away opponents with this combo:

Dash in (hopefully this will build up some fury), Cull the Meek, and dash back out. Watch out for enemy CC, as you'll be stuck in the midst of the fray because there is a short CD between Slice and Dice.

You can turn your harassment lethal if your lane partner is ready, and an opponent has overextended just a little too much:


One last note: First Blood is very nice, but it's not the end-all be-all of the game. If you try to hard for it, you'll probably just end up dead. If your opening volley doesn't bring an opponent down, don't get overly excited and chase too hard. Somebody else may get FB, and that's okay. You only need something like 15 minion kills to get you the equivalent amount of gold, which should be no sweat for a farmer like you.

Mid-Game

Start roaming and ganking or trying to find mis-matched 1v1's. You are a capable jungler, so try and get your team to nab Dragon as early as possible, and go into the jungle and start picking up the red buff as often as you can. When it's quiet in your lane, help other lanes that are struggling or start pushing your opponents' tower down in your lane. If kills are difficult to come by, just farm farm farm and you should stay on par with even the most fed of your enemies.

Late-Game

Move with your team as a unit. If at least 4 of you are in an abandoned lane, you could very well knock down a tower. Check the opposing golem and lizard camps with your team for potential ganks. Group up in mid and call the other team out for some team-fights. Above all else, push like crazy and build up creep-waves to thin the other team out.

During team fights your job is not to tank and not to off-tank. Let somebody else initiate. Then, Slice and Dice through the opposing team to build up Fury, Cull the Meek to heal back any damage you've already taken, activate Dominus to put the pressure on, and use Ruthless Predator to stun the biggest opposing threat. From there, use your abilities as they come off of cooldown. Spam your stun so that they can't coordinate their action, use your heal whenever your in trouble (it should grant you a fair amount of health if you hit all 5 of them), and Slice and Dice to remain difficult to target and deal more group damage.

Something to keep in mind is that with the Fury system you can't reactively button-mash your abilities as they become available. If you burn all your Fury on Ruthless Predator just before Cull the Meek comes off of cooldown, you may not be able to heal big enough, or, waiting for more Fury to accumulate, may not be able to heal fast enough to stay alive.

I haven't been seeing very many Renekton tanks, which, while it doesn't surprise me, I feel is a true shame. He's actually quite good at it (every bit as capable as Nasus at fulfilling the role). You have some hard CC (your stun), you have a self-heal, and your ultimate gives you a big HP boost (among other things) and generally lasts the length of a team-fight. But remember that you can also fill the roles of melee DPS and jungler as well, so don't spec out for tanking if your teammates selected Malphite and Rammus.

Runes and Masteries

We have a pretty standard tank mastery sequence here. I got some CDR because you are perhaps even more dependent on your abilities as a tank than as a DPS. A point in Offensive Mastery again helps you heal more with Cull the Meek.

Greater Mark of Attack Speed: These will be instrumental in helping you build up your Fury.

Greater Seal of Evasion: Reduces the damage to you by a percentage.

Greater Glyph of Scaling Magic Resist: You need as much magic resist as you can get because magic resist items really aren't all that good.

Greater Quintessence of Health: Makes you live longer early on in the game.

Summoner Spells

These are the ones I would use:
Exhaust - Chasing, early kills, weakens a fed physical carry

Ghost - Useful for escaping, baiting, and chasing

Cleanse - Allows you to initiate team-fights fearlessly, knowing that you can cast off their CC and utilize your abilities, basically preventing your death and altering the course of the fight, if not the game.

Ignite - If they have a healer, it's beneficial to cast this on the opposing main carry so that they can't simply be healed back to full after your team invests all their skills in trying to kill them.

Teleport - You are a capable tower defender. Difficult to kill, but able to clear out creep-waves easily as well. Being able to teleport to endangered towers can mean the difference between a win and a loss.

Abilities From the Tanking Perspective

Your skill priority is a little different in this realm than that of the DPS'r. Because you have a basically non-existent AD, you want to try and get the skills are less dependent on that stat for damage. Thus you prioritize accordingly:

1. Dominus - Like most champs, Renekton's main priority is his ultimate

2. Cull the Meek - This is important for survivability

3. Slice and Dice - Not only is less dependent on AD, but deals group damage (which is important for tanking as Renekton)

4. Ruthless Predator - I'm not sure the stun duration increases with level, so one point in this should be sufficient until the end of the game. Once you have Atma's Impaler, you may want to re-prioritize this skill.

As a tank, you need to save Dominus for team-fights, so don't blow it in a 1v1 confrontation (you very well may not have the DPS to finish them off before they flee). Other than that, the way you use your abilities is much the same. Pay attention to who is the biggest threat and use your stun on them.

Items

This is a pretty standard tank/off-tank build:
The Sunfire Cape melds with Dominus perfectly.

Warmog's Armor synergizes great with both Force of Nature and Atma's Impaler.

Force of Nature is a must, being as it's the best MR item in the game.

Atma's Impaler is crucial for your viability as a pusher. Without it your AD is nonexistant, and you can't knock down towers really without a teammate.

Randuin's Omen is just a great tank item.

Swing Items

Either of these could be exchanged for any of the following items (or any items partial to your playstyle):

Given a physical team

Thormail ruins opposing physical carries.

Wriggle's Lantern provides a little bit of lifesteal (which you may have guessed I am partial to) as well as some AD and Armor. Being able to place wards is also immensely beneficial, especially given situations with enemy junglers.

Given a Magic team:

The Aegis is just an all-around great item that benefits your team a great deal. If you like it, never second-guess buying it.

Guardian Angel: you know what it does.

Banshee's Veil is okay, but (maybe because I'm a cheapskate) I just don't like spending gold on mana I'm not going to use.

Tank Gameplay

Early-Game

Early on you can play Renekton exactly the way you would in a DPS build. This is actually a good idea because this is where you'll be most capable of scoring kills. Later on in the game, you'll load up on assists, but will lack the raw damage to get last hits (though the double-DoT of Dominus and a Sunfire Aegis can steal you quite a few).

Mid-Game

Bulk up. If you already have your Warmog's Armor spend a fair amount of time farming up your stacks. Drift into any lane where your teammates are being pushed up against their tower. If you can stun and then act as a big, distracting meat shield, the carries should be able to score a kill and the three (or two) of you can push a tower down. Just pay attention to which teammates are getting burned and go to them to offer protection.

Late-Game

Team-fights:
Your role in a team-fight is much different as a tank than as a DPS (perhaps needless to say). Where in a DPS build you could not initiate and you had to prioritize your skills according with your Fury, and you had to selectively pick out certain focus targets, in a tank build you have much less to think about. Your goal is essentially to cause mass-chaos while your carries reel in the kills.
When your team is ready, charge in and throw up Dominus and then stun the scariest DPS or CC with Ruthless Predator. Generally, you'll need some HP back after the initial barrage, so cast Cull the Meek. From here on out, spam Slice and Dice (making sure to hit as many opponents as possible), your stun, and your heal as often as possible.

The basic idea as a Renekton tank is to erode away enemy HP. You'll have a fairly frightening DoT output from the combination of Dominus and your Sunfire Aegis. Mount that on top of an almost incessant stream of group damage from Cull the Meek and Slice and Dice and your big-burst carries should have no trouble nabbing double- and triple-kills. The other nice thing about this DPS output is that you oftentimes become the target of the other team, which is exactly what your team needs out of a tank.

Don't be afraid to die if it means that your team will clean up and can ace or near-ace your opponents. But make sure you don't die right out of the gate because your team will get wiped. In that regard, you do need to watch your Fury somewhat and make sure that you use Cull the Meek when you're infuriated to get the most out of your heals.

Always be wary of especially painful stuns and silences like those of Annie or Kassadin. These can prevent you from utilizing your ultimate and your heal, which will almost certainly put you out of commission (if they don't simply kill you).

Other than that, as the game wears on, farm to get fed and push wherever and whenever possible. You may need to use Dominus when attacking towers to do any real damage (if you don't have Atma's). That's all right, if it means taking out a tower, or nearly doing so, it'll be worth it. Just coordinate your team so that they don't initiate anything too serious while your ultimate is on CD.

Have yet to try out Renekton as a jungler. I assume it works, but I can't say. This is the build I am planning to test:

Thanks for reading my guide, and I hope it has been helpful.

I greatly appreciate all feedback, especially thoughtful, specific criticism. So if you down-vote, please comment to elaborate on what you feel is weak in the build so that I can improve it.

If you up-vote, thanks for the support! I greatly appreciate it.