Pros + No Mana + High burst Damage + Cool Ulti + Can Roam From Lane Easily

SPACESPACE

SPACE

SPACESPACE

Cons - passive easily countered - hard to close gaps outside of bush

greater mark of desolation - Well, reason being, you're a solo top champ (at least for this guide) and the ArPen early on helps you deal damage to that other guy in your lane and it keeps it up so you do more damage to the carries and such later on too
Greater Seal of Armor - So, as most top champs are AD based this is great because you can be fairly sure the enemy has the same Arpen runes as you and this just helps a lot to lower the damage, funnily enough he probably has these runes too ;P
Greater Glyph of Scaling Magic Resist - As your lane is probably against an AD and these give higher MR later in game, these are more worthwhile than flat MR runes as by the time you break into teamfights and come across magic attacks you should have higher MR than the flat runes would give
Greater Quintessence of Attack Damage - Reason behind these, it helps last hit creeps so you can be a little lazier, but it also gives that bit extra damage early game to help secure kills when your jungler comes up for ganks, they aren't worth much late game, but early game they can be devastating

Now, there are also a lot of other runes in the game which could be viable alternatives, for example taking Greater Quintessence of Movement Speed can be great on Rengar as it gives him incredible chase capability, or taking Greater Mark of Attack Speed for the bonus attack speed which stacks fairly well with his Savagery

Well, reason being, it gives you the ability to be a high damage champ and finish off those low health enemies with ease using your Thrill of the Hunt and Savagery combo, the bonus 1.5% damage and bonus 6% to low health enemies really gives you the ability to make sure no one escapes on low health

As I said at the start, I would explain why I take a lot of Cooldown Reduction items, well this is because they are insanely useful on Rengar and a lot of people seem to have overlooked this, having the 35% cooldown granted by these items really means you can spam those abilities and Rengar gets a lot of damage, but also a lot of damage boosts from them which is why I build that CDR.

Along with that, taking Youmuu's Ghostblade gives additional ArPen and an active speed boost and attack speed boost with only a 60 second cooldown, meaning you can chase enemies and make sure they don't escape.

But, just as a quick overview heres a comparative on his abilities with an without the CDR these items give:

Savagery 6 seconds without - 3.9 seconds with
Battle Roar 11 seconds without - 7.15 with
Bola Strike 8 seconds without - 5.2 with
Thrill of the Hunt 50 seconds without - 32.5 with

This huge drop on his ulti and other abilities means you can triple cast Q if you hit 5 stacks allowing massive damage, you can keep the bonus 60 defence up almost permanently through a fight if you hit 5 stacks and it heals you for 15% of your health, and the ulti combined with a stacked bonetooth means you only ever have to spend 22 seconds at a time out of stealth, and the bonus move speed it grants means you can always chase down enemies and dive on the enemy carry every teamfight.

Well, with the small cooldowns it means you can use Battle Roar a lot, and that grants a bonus 60 Magic Resist which happily takes you up to around 170 MR which is a fair amount and with the huge damage you do the 3 seconds it lasts should be enough to give you a huge edge in the fight and mean you can win.

Frozen Mallet - Can be a good trade for Warmog's Armor gives good HP and provides you with a slow to stop enemies from ever escaping


Banshee's Veil - Can be a great item if the enemy team is tearing you up with magic damage, gives bonus health and a shield along with the MR so a great item all round really.


Maw of Malmortius - Can b a great item again against an AP carry as it provides a shield and magic resist and could be traded with bonetooth necklace to still provide your damage without dropping health, though it does sacrifice move speed the ghostblade you have should make up for it along with summoner spells and your ulti.


Trinity Force - While this can be a great item due to the speed boost and the proc of 150% AD and the slow chance, it can also be a downfall of Rengar I've seen a lot of people trying to build this who get destroyed in game due to the large cost and relatively low boosts till the item is finished, so its a viable item for sure, but only with players capable of holding their own very well.

Well, with Rengar his main damage comes from his Savagery ability, and he gets a major boost from his Battle Roar to his defence capability, which is why I feel Q and W are the most important, his E lasts 2.5 seconds at all ranks and the slow only goes up by 5% per rank and already starts at 50% so from the start its powerful enough I find.

Summoner spells was one of the most difficult things for me to decide on, and I'm still not 100% sure if the two selected are the best.

The Kill Secure Spells -

Ignite
This can be an incredible spell and secure the kill on low health enemies, which is crucial for the bonetooth necklace to reach its potential and provide you some major bonuses, and thats really why I take this spell.


Exhaust
Exhaust is a viable replacement for Ignite as it can give you a major edge in the fights at top and slow the enemy on ganks stopping him from getting away and getting you the kills.

The Chase / Escape Spells -

Flash
This a great spell for getting away, and on Rengar as a solo top this spell gains a lot, if the enemy jungler comes for a gank, you can often run into top bush, pounce a creep the other side of them as they approach and Flash away making sure they can hit you, and it can also be good for chasing down if there are no bushes nearby.


Ghost
A great alternative to flash, allowing you to easily run away through your creep or pull the same trick as Flash and run away with the bonus move speed, possibly better for chasing down enemies but with the slow you have its not always needed and Flash just seems more versatile

If you use this guide and have some good games feel free to take a pic and send me a message and ill get back to you about getting it put up here =D

The purpose of this section waaaaay down at the bottom is mainly just to give some advice on how to counter certain champions, and the reason its at the bottom is because it probably wont ever list all the champions or be totally finished, but it seemed like it could be useful to have =P

In no particular order (I lied, its in the order I come across these champs enough to work out how to counter them)

Teemo

So, countering this guy, now this is one of the most annoying people to play against at top in my opinion because those first few levels are brutal, but he stays squishy the whole time and dies fast, he counters Rengar fairly well though with those shrooms as he can force you out of bush, so counter his shrooms, take a Vision Ward and clear out the bush, but make sure to attack from outside as if you enter the bush an attack them, you'll leap onto the shroom =P. with the bush clear build up savagery and leap on teemo with your Q, you should be able to use a QEQ combo and maybe get a W in for some extra damage.

One big advantage you have over teemo is that you can poke him, fall back, build up ferocity and W to heal whereas he'll be burning through pots, with the healp of the jungler when you have 5 ferocity Teemo stands no chance and will go down easily ;P

Gangplank

Countering this guy is fairly easy I've found, just keep jumping at hitting him with your Q, he'll either go for attacking back with Parrrley or just trying to heal up with Remove Scurvy either way he'll drain his mana fast and you can keep your health up with empowered battle roar the lack of having mana really gives you lane control over Gangplank though he's not as squishy as some champs and will often have an Exhaust try and get your jungler to come an gank once he's used that on you with your pokes and an empowered savagery strike and jungler damage should get you the kill or at least force him out of lane

Rengar

Countering youself, now this ones a little odd but with the surge of Rengar players right now I've been against him a few times, one thing ive found is most people either build for Frozen Mallet or bloodthister first, which actually gives you an edge, as these items will put them behind on damage essentially compared to the The Brutalizer bonetooth necklace combo you would have, you probably will be reliant on ganks to kill him however and the same goes for him, so make sure your jungler comes top a few times early to secure you a kill, and once that's done you should dominate the lane, try to stay in bush as much as possible and jump out to kill creep, this gives you the advantage of him having to come near bush to hit you, and means you can avoid ganks easier.

What about if he stays in the bush you ask? Simple, buy a ward and put it in his side of the bushes, with vision you can jump into his side and still get the hits before falling back to your side, he can pounce too though so this is risk as he can poke back just as much, but your higher damage (hopefully) should still give you the edge, and lower cooldowns mean you can poke a lot more than he can.

Since Rengar came out he's quickly become one of my fave two champs, the other being good ole Renekton and I honestly feel this guy is one of the coolest solo top champs available to play and when used right has real lane dominance.