Hello!

My name is Admiral, or TiredOfLeague in game (ironic, I know) and I've been constantly playing Thresh for the last year to the point where I feel pretty comfortable with him. As of this writing I have 140k xp on Thresh and have finally achieved mastery level 7. That said, I am by no means a master of his kit. This guide is for those of you who are just getting started with Thresh and need a build that works well and perhaps a few tips or tricks that will make your laning life easier.

Enjoy :)

Thresh is a support champion who specializes in crowd control (like Nautilus). He is not an ADC or a AP midlaner and certainly not a jungler. Although you can try to play Thresh that way, most of the time it won't work that well or may even be a complete disaster. Why? Because of the nature of his kit. [/columns]

Thresh has naturally low damage both from his autos and all of his abilities with the exception of his Flay's active and The Box (100% AP scaling). He's also bad at engaging and farms cs rather slowly (low damage, lack of burst ability to reliably kill multiple minions at once, i.e. Veigar's Dark Matter) until later in the game. The biggest issue with Thresh AP or Thresh ADC is that it often leads to you being squishy (lack of HP/tank items) meaning that you can be popped by enemies who have more mobility and sustained damage than you do, especially if you fail to successfully engage with your hook (Thresh cannot auto attack while his hook is active). Because of this, laning with Thresh in any capacity other than support can be very difficult and is something I would not recommend attempting early on.

Here's Thresh's strengths and weaknesses as a support:

Pros: -Extremely good at engaging/disengaging with his Death Sentence and Dark Passage -Can lock down enemies for long periods of time in teamfights with The Box -Gets a lot of natural tankiness (armor) from his passive -Great at rescue missions with Dark Passage -Can fight and farm well under tower -Cannot be burst down by assassins -Extremely mobile in the jungle (hooking monsters with Death Sentence -Can set up favorable teamfights/engages if played well -Potentially high survivability while absorbing a ton of damage -One of the best crowd control champions in the game

Cons: -Almost no damage -Is destroyed by high damage, auto attack based champions like Jax and Master Yi relatively easily -Long cool-downs on most spells, especially The Box -Hooks can be very easy to miss due to 0.5 second 'wind up' time before cast -Passive does not provide MR leaving him vulnerable to getting burst by mages (like Syndra) -Punished very hard for missing hooks/ Flay -Requires a ton of communication with ADC & Jungle to be successful -Difficult to master

Your passive provides a soul every few minions, most times for jungle camps, and at least one soul for killing enemies, dragon, or baron. Each soul gives you 0.75 AP and armor. The more souls you have the stronger you are. To be tanky enough to peel for your carry you need to be collecting souls 24/7, especially since your items don't provide you with a whole lot of armor.

1:30 - 5:00 min need 10-20 souls
5:00 - 10:00 min need 30-50 souls
10:00 - 15:00 min need 50-70 souls
15:00 - 20:00 min need 70-80 souls
20:00 - 25:00 min need 80-100 souls

Try to keep collecting souls at this pace for the rest of the game. At 40 minutes, the longest most games usually go, you should have about 145-160 souls (that translates into 109-120 bonus armor and AP). It's OK if you fall slightly behind this goal, but try not to fall too far behind otherwise you'll just make things hard on yourself. Throw your Dark Passage if you're being denied a lot of souls by enemies or if you can't get there in time to collect them.

This is easiest to achieve if you spend most of your time in-lane, where the minions are, rather than wandering around the map and ganking (although you will need to do this more late-game in order to ward effectively).

Runes, runes, runes. As a support you'll need to constantly peel for your ADC so getting the right runes to boost your damage and resistances at the start is key. Here are the runes I prefer on Thresh and the exact stats they provide:

The goal with these runes is to give Thresh just enough damage mixed with MR, health, and armor so he can effectively peel for the ADC.

I went for armor and damage at the start for several reasons: 1) the attack speed boost you get, even from +9% attack speed, is minimal at roughly ~0.06 attack speed (or 0.68 at level 1) which isn't nearly enough of a difference to consider getting it, 2) Thresh has some of the weakest auto-attacks in the game (although still not as bad as Karthus) so getting a good 9 AD early on is crucial to killing single targets when you and your ADC go in, and 3) the added tankiness you get from Greater Quintessence of Armor is far more valuable than the small attack speed boost you get from Greater Quintessence of Attack Speed

A word on CDR runes: You don't need them. Do not, under any circumstances, buy CDR runes. "No, no, no!" as Dobby the House Elf says. Yes, it is possible to get 20% CDR by going full CDR in your runes page but I really don't recommend it. It only knocks the cooldown on your level 1 Q down by 4 seconds, which isn't bad, but you're still on a 16 second cooldown unless you land your hook (in that case it becomes a little more worth it, but still... 13 seconds), gives you no advantage whatsoever in mid to late game where you would have gotten the same CDR from items, and actually puts you at a disadvantage because you've sacrificed any possible resistances, health, or damage for a early game advantage that may or may not pay dividends.

You could go with 5% CDR runes instead but that's almost worthless as it lowers the cooldown of your hook by 1 second (although, arguably, it will become more useful later on - 45% CDR - but you can get that by tweaking your masteries). Generally speaking, do not build CDR runes. You can get the same thing from items (like Redemption and Frozen Heart) without sacrificing the added tankiness and bonus damage that you get from Greater Mark of Attack Damage and Greater Seal of Health (etc.).

These are the masteries I like to use on Thresh:

You want to get masteries on Thresh that will co-opt what you have in the runes. It will only make them more effective and get you off to a stronger start in game. In this guide I have a mix of attack damage, attack speed, and tank in my runes so that's what I have in my masteries.

Here's a more detailed explanation of why I got certain masteries and what they offer to Thresh:

Wanderer : 5 points in Wanderer gives you 10 more movement speed out of combat (345 total, without boots), and in order to effectively peel for your carry, set up ganks, or engages you need to be mobile (while relying on your Flash as little as possible), and Wanderer helps with that.



Secret Stash : Getting this mastery is pretty self explanatory. It makes your potions, specifically health potions, last longer which boosts your sustain and carry/tanking potential in lane.



Dangerous Game : I like Dangerous Game because it massively boosts your in-lane sustain and usefulness by refunding 5% of missing health and mana after getting kills or assists. This mastery = great for teamfights. I cannot emphasize that enough. You need to constantly throw hooks or flay enemies while using your actives to keep your teammates alive/secure kills in teamfights. You can't peel for the ADC if you're oom can you? The mana regen from this mastery is a godsend.



Courage of the Colossus : the shield you get from this mastery can be pretty damn huge late in the game and may even save your life at some point. This mastery will only help with your tankiness and is worth getting.

When building for Thresh the general idea is that you want to get items that strengthen the various aspects of your kit:

-40% CDR (45% depending on your runes/masteries) so you can land more hooks. In this build: Adaptive Helm, Ionian Boots of Lucidity, Redemption, and Face of the mountain
-Plenty of health (2500 HP+) so you can engage and disengage via Death Sentence or flash Flay without instantly dying. In this build: Ruby Sightstone, Redemption, Face of the mountain, and Adaptive Helm. Gargoyle Stoneplate's active also provides a ton of bonus HP in teamfights, if you use it correctly.
-Armor and magic resist for the same reason. In this build: Gargoyle Stoneplate, Adaptive Helm, Face of the Mountain
-Active (or passive) shields and other boosts for your teammates to increase your teamfighting and peeling potential. In this build: Face of the mountain, Redemption, and Gargoyle Stoneplate (although this does not affect teammates it allows you to tank so much damage for your ADC).
-Items that crowd control enemies, goes with teamfighting/peeling potential. In this build: Face of the Mountain (the movement speed boost)

Build totals:

+40 armor, 95 magic resistance, 1550 health, 40% CDR, 20% CDR on item actives

Naturally, this build does not work for all situations. Sometimes you need to mix things up a bit because of the enemy team's comp.

For example, if the enemy team has 4 or more autoattack-based AD champions like [Fiora], [Kalista], Master Yi, Varus, or Jax you're going to want to go for as much armor as possible. Specifically, ditch the Ionian Boots of Lucidity and go for Ninja Tabi. Why Ninja Tabi? Because it gives you 30 armor and blocks 12% of damage from autoattacks. Also consider replacing one of the core items (not Gargoyle Stoneplate) with Frozen Heart.

Items to buy:

still a great item on Thresh and the go-to item if you're the only tank on the team and you have a lot of squishes to peel for. The shield you get from this items passive is invaluable, even if its tank stats are nowhere near as good as what you get from Gargoyle Stoneplate's passive + active combo and Adaptive Helm.

you need this item if you're against a Malzahar or a heavy cc team. It also gives some good MR and synchronizes nicely with Mercury's Treads

another useful item which you may want to get if trading in 20% CDR from Iceborn Gauntlet for the ridiculous tanking stats (and the 10% CDR) from this looks like a good choice. If you're the only tank on the team you'll need this item, and especially against an AP comp

provides plenty of health which adds to your survivability. Good item to get if you're fed or are the only tank. Also works extremely well with Gargoyle Stoneplate.

this is a fantastic item on Thresh, when you need it. You don't want to get Randuin's, especially after its big HP nerf, if you're not against a team with at least one AD crit based champion (like Draven or Master Yi) that's fed or 3+ crit based champions. The -20% crit strike chance is so worth it.

these are both fun items but not really necessary unless (as mentioned in the note) your team is behind and you need some extra tanking stats + pushing power to even the score.

this is possibly a better item than Iceborn Gauntlet but I'm not sure. It gives you equal CDR (20%) and considerably more armor but without the bonus damage or slow. Purely a defensive item and a strong one (also synergizes extremely well with Ninja Tabi due to the autoattack slow it provides).

one of the many items that got massively changed, Abyssal is now a solid choice on Thresh. It gives you some good health, CDR, and quite a bit of MR. The downside is that it doesn't provide any armor, has no crowd control active/passive, and doesn't provide a shield (or give you a ridiculous HP boost like Gargoyle Stoneplate. However, due to its passive, I'd strongly recommend building this and Mercury's Treads against an AP heavy team.

Items to avoid:

Talisman of Ascension good item for chasing down enemies (its active) but not much else. Redemption, Locket of the Iron Solari, and Face of the Mountain provide the rest of its stats and more.

I've seen some builds with this item so I want to set the record straight. This item sucks. Yes it makes you very speedy out of combat but you can get the same effect with Mobility Boots and you can get more health stats + armor with Abyssal Mask and Randuin's Omen instead. The nerf to Randuin's Omen HP nerf hasn't made this item any more worth it either as it also got an HP nerf, provides the same armor, and offers no protection against crits that Randuin's Omen does.

garbage item on Thresh. Tank stats are mediocre at best and the damage to champions post-update is pathetic. Sunfire Aegis is best used for shoving lane, and since you're not Garen that's not what you do.

after the patch, this item is very poor on tanks including Thresh. You get no health, no health or mana regeneration, and a bunch of AP you don't need. You do get some nice CDR from it but you can get that from items that work far better with Thresh's kit like Warmog's Armor or Redemption. Don't buy this

Thanks for reading & enjoy! :D