Introduction

What delightful agony we shall inflict

- Thresh

Hello!

This is my first guide, and it is on my favourite champion, Thresh! I am an Australian player who, of course, plays on the Oceanic server!

Anyway, Thresh is a very strong Support and can do alot, ranging from slowing by 99% to saving someone on your team from their imminent death! He is also a strong initiator (especially in the laning phase) and can get your ADC many kills if one of the enemy bot laners is hooked. He does, however, have a very high skill cap.

I will try my best to explain this awesome champion to you! I hope you enjoy this guide!

Pros + High amount of CC + Good harass + Fantastic initiator + 2 channel-interrupting abilities + Amazing ally escape

Thresh is an awesome support with a lot of harass and all-in potential, even though he is a full tank. He brings a crazy amount of utility to bot lane, and works with many Marksmen of League of Legends.

---

Cons - Low mobility for himself - Slow auto attack charge (on Flay) - Hard to play - Weak against high range ( Caitlyn, Tristana, Lux, etc) - NO ONE TAKES THE LANTERN

Thresh does have his downsides, as listed here. He cannot move quickly without the use of Flash or Mobility Boots. He lacks against ADCs and Supports that outrange him, because it makes it much harder for Thresh to hook them with Death Sentence.

These runes are for a standard tanky support, expet for the AD Reds. If support isn't the only role you play, or if you only have 2 Rune pages, just stick with your normal AP/AD Runes. These Runes provide a lot of tankiness in the early game. Of course, opting out for normal damage runes will of course result in more damage, but you will be hurt more when trading, especially because you have little to no souls of Damnation. Gold Runes aren't that great, and Thresh's E Flay Passive scales off AD, so you have little bit extra poke.

With the introduction of the new Masteries for the pre-season, it is certain that Riot are trying to make certain Masteries for certain types of champions. For the supports with Shields or Heals (e.g. Soraka, Janna), they have created the "Cunning" tree, and should take Windspeakers Blessing. However, it is pretty clear that the META is Thunderlords Decree. It does alot of damage, but shouldn't be taken on every champion.

The 0/12/18 Masteries suggested are pretty much the standard "tank support" Masteries. They are identical for every other hooking/tanky Champion. The Keystone Mastery Courage of the Colussus is really good for tanks with CC, which is exactly what Thresh is. It gives you a quite decent shield when you hit an enemy champion with a hard CC ability, keeping you a little healthier for when you engage.

These two summoner spells are pretty much the only ones you need. Flash is used to make Flash hooks, save yourself, engage, Flash over a wall and W to save an ally, lots of things. You get the idea. Ignite is good for stopping lifesteal (e.g. Draven and just getting that damage you need in lane and in teamfights.

The summoners below are also viable, if your ADC wants you to take either of them. Exhaust is good for stopping attack speed, for example Jinx ( Switcheroo! Minigun and Get Excited!) and Twitch ( Rat-Ta-Tat-Tat), and high-damage AD carries that get screwed by movement-debilitating things, like Vayne and Draven for example.

This ability sequence is the best way to level up Thresh. This is just my opinion, though. Taking Flay first and using it in base allows you to do more damage on your auto attacks. Combined with the Bandit Mastery, you can get a bit of gold while poking their ADC. Taking Death Sentence second will allow you to hook early and put some very early pressure on your opponents. However, if they have a Blitzcrank for example, you might want to take Dark Passage second so that if they get hooked you can save the day. Always upgrade your Ultimate whenever you can (levels 6, 11 and 16). Now onto ability explanations.

(Passive) Damnation

No Cooldown

• Unlike every other champion in the game, Thresh does not gain armour per level. Instead, he gets it from his passive ( Damnation)
• He gets 0.75 Ability Power and bonus Armour per soul.
• Small minions and monsters will sometimes drop a soul, while champions and large monsters (like the Dragon will always drop a soul
• Try to collect as many souls as you can, but do not pick them up if you think you will be harassed
• Instead, you can throw out your W Dark Passage to pick up souls
• You have about 8 seconds before a soul disappears

(Q) Death Sentence

Cooldown: 20/18/16/14/12 seconds

• This makes Thresh the absolute beast that he is. Death Sentence has a mana cost of 80
• The cooldown of Death Sentence is reduced by 3 seconds if you hit an enemy with it
• Stuns for 1.5 seconds
• Deals 80/120/160/20/240 (+ 50% AP) Magic Damage
• After 0.5 seconds, Thresh can cast Death Leap to travel to the enemy hit
• Try to predict the enemy's movement. This can be difficult to do at first, but practice makes perfect
• If you are in Mid lane and there are enemies under tower, you generally don't need to predict movement, as most people just stand there
• This ability is very good for catching chasing enemies

(W) Dark Passage

Cooldown: 22/20.5/19/17.5/16 seconds

• When used, Thresh throws out his lantern and it shields Thresh and the first ally hit for 60/100/140/180/220(+ 1 per soul collected), and reveals the area around it. An ally can click the lantern to dash back to Thresh
• Costs 50 / 55 / 60 / 65 / 70 mana (based on ability rank)
• This ability is PERFECT for pulling an ally out of danger
• It can also be used to pull an ally into a lane to produce a very powerful gank
• Can be used to check brush and areas that are over walls
• Try to use this skill as much as you can
• If Dark Passage is used and you walk out of the range indicator, the lantern will return to Thresh
• If a teammate is in danger, throw the lantern in front of them so that enemies cannot block it

(E) Flay

Cooldown: 9 seconds

• This ability has a Passive and an Active:
  Passive: Thresh's auto attacks do more damage the more time you wait between auto attacks. In another way, Thresh "charges" up his auto attacks so that they do more magic damage
  Active: Thresh sweeps his chains to knock back and up enemies in the direction that Thresh has cast it in
• Deals 65/95/125/155/185(+ 40% AP) Magic Damage and slows by 20/25/30/35/40% for 1 second
• Costs 60 / 65 / 70 / 75 / 80 mana (based on ability rank)
• This is the ability that you use after you use Death Leap, in order to CC the enemy and pull them back more
• Also useful to be used first when in laning phase, because the slow makes it easier to hit Death Sentence
• This ability is very useful for stopping gap closers like Xin Zhao's Audacious Charge, and channels like Katarina's Death Lotus

(R) The Box

Cooldown: 150/140/130 seconds

• Thresh creates 5 walls in the shape of a Pentagon around him, dealing 250/400/550 (+ 100% AP) Magic Damage and slowing by 99% for 2 seconds if an enemy breaks a wall
• Once one wall is broken, the rest of the walls do no damage but apply half the slow for half the duration
• Costs 100 mana
• This ability has a 0.75 second delay, so you must be careful when you are using it on an enemy that is already moving
• This ability is very good for burst when you have hooked an enemy post-6 in laning phase
• Also helps to stop enemies getting away
• This is part of Thresh's best combo (see below)
• Use this in choke points to ensure that your team gets away when trying to escape
• The cast time makes it somewhat dangerous when being chased

This is the most basic combo for Thresh. It provides a good amount of CC. Optionally, you can Exhaust/ Ignite (depending on which one you took) the enemy if you think you can grab the kill. See what I did there? The second Death Sentence is to get you next to them of course. I thought it was worth noting that, just to make sure there was no confusion.

This combo is exactly the same as the one before, just with your Ultimate ability, The Box. Good for making sure that your enemies don't get away.

Once you get Mobility Boots, if your Mid laner isn't doing to well, it might be worth it to pay them a visit and try and hook their Mid laner. This will most likely end up in your Mid lane getting "back into the game". While you are off Bot lane, you should think about putting down some deep wards for your team.

Thresh, like I have said before, is one of the best initiators in League of Legends. If both teams are sitting around waiting for someone to do something, wait for a perfect hook opportunity on a High Value Target, like the ADC. Make sure you use your item Actives, like the Locket of the Iron Solari shield. This will ensure that you have a chance to win at the fight.

Because Thresh is a Support, you are the one who has to place wards. Warding is essential for supporting. It gives you objective control, map pressure, general map vision, etc. To a new-ish player to Support, warding may just seem like a chore and another thing to get abused for because they don't do it. However, it is not that hard to do if you know what you're doing. Below are pictures for good/common warding spots that should be used, but it's just my opinion. Note that there is a mix of Stealth Wards and Vision Wards. There are different pictures for starting top and bottom side.


For your information, the first photos is for the Bottom side start, and the second picture is for the Top side start.

When it comes to warding after laning phase, you want to ward deep into the enemies' jungle, with wards in brush and multiple path points.

LegendayxGamer - He helped me in a majority of ways. Big thanks to him.

And that's a wrap!

If you have any feedback or if I missed anything, feel free to post it in the comments.

If this guide helped you or you enjoyed it, please upvote this guide. It is my first one and I put a lot of effort into it.

If you want to watch pro players playing Thresh, then I recommend MadLife, Bunny FuFu and Aphromoo.

All videos are given credit to their creators.

Thank-you for reading!