Hi everyone, this is my first mobafire guide on a champ that we all know, love, and think we are experts on playing, Rene. This guide is not by any means the one and only way to play Ren, its just the way I like to play him and its usually pretty dominating. This is a Solo top build, that can also work in the jungle. My whole play style with Ren focuses on shutting down your opposition early game so that they are much less of a threat late game, and then after lane phase being a big threat to the enemy team because even as a tank Ren has huge aoe dmg and a good stun on a low CD.

As with all reasonable people, I'm really looking forward to some constructive criticism on my build/guide and if your going to bash it I don't mind, all I ask is that you give it a try first, then fling all the s*** you want.

Pros

Ren has great early lane dmg and can really dominate a lane against the right oponent

Ren has great aoe and disruption in a team fight

Ren can make a great tank and even if he doesnt draw the other teams fire he can clean up really well

Cons

Ren is a very situational champ, he can be shut down easily by ranged characters, or champs with a low cd ranged move.

With the runes i have listed Ren will have lots of armor early but low MR, so be flexible if you have an enemy that does AP dmg.

Some champs counter Ren and even without farm pose a big threat in team fights

So I'm sure many people are looking at the runes and thinking wtf mate? Well I've tried alot of different runes with Ren and I really just like these the best for my play style. But for those who like an explanation i'll break it down a little

AD Marks, I go AD over ArmPen simply because Ren's abilities scale off of AD and this is lets you hit alot harder with everything early game.

Armor Seals, pretty standard in my opinion for a top lane

flat CDR Glyph's, these can be replaced with MR or scaling CDR but I like the flat ones because at level 18 it doesnt make as huge a difference as it does early game.

Health quints, so I like health quints because they give that extra bit of meat that makes Ren scarier early game.

With this Mastery setup Ren comes out of the gate with more health, armor and MR as well as some dmg and cdr. The main reason for these masteries tho is the fact that Ren is a scary *** tank.

So this build really focuses on getting armor and health asap with enough dmg that Ren still maintains his status as a threat. I'm not going to go in depth about the items right now, but after people post some responses to them I will, the main part of the build is wiggles, boots, mallet, and GA anything after that is purely situational

I like to max cull the weak first because its Ren's main farm and sustain as well as good AoE, Slice and Dice is next over Ruthless Pred. because the armor debuff that can be applied to multiple targets is just too good when your in any early fight. Ruthless Predator is important and you can max it before slice and dice, but with the build I have here, the chasing and escape power of SnD is much better. And of course take Ren's amazing ult whenever possible.

So for the summoner spells I love flash with flash and SnD almost no one can catch you when trying to gank or otherwise, and it makes it much harder for champs to get away. Most people will question heal and take something else, but when you think about it Ren is not the tankiest character right off the bat, nor does he have great sustain right away, so flash is great to stay alive early lane, not to mention in combination with Ren's ult you can jump to almost full health, which makes baiting kills for your team much less dangerous, and it will also help you stay in the fight as the tank when you initiate and take the first round of dmg in a team fight.

So this is where most people will hopefully find this guide useful. (fingers crossed)

As Ren you have an early advantage over most opponents when it comes to dmg and armor, as such as soon as your opponent shows his face you should bash it in as hard as possible, dont be afraid to pop a pot after the first engagement, the important thing is to dominate your enemy early and keep them out of xp and last hit range. Now with Ren's skills there is a careful balance of harassing the poop out of your enemy and pushing the lane, the key to this is to actively engage your enemy, dont let him get anywhere near the creeps, run at him use HnS and Ruth Pred on him whenever possibly, while still trying to last hit, which isnt as hard as it sounds, if this is done right you'll burn all of your enemies pots and cripple his creep score if not his level.

two important notes about this strategy are that you will draw the enemies jungle to you as most of the time you will be at your enemies tower, thats why wiggles is an important item in this build, it'll save you deaths and money if you make sure to drop that ward in the bush. Secondly if you find you cant get the upper hand right off the bat have your jungle gank your lane and make the enemy more cautious about engaging.

So if everything goes well with your lane phase you should have you enemy crippled for most of the game, as well as a few kills if the opportunity arises. At this point I usually like to have frozen mallet built which will give you a great slow and enough health to let you tank to a degree. With that in mind after you drop your lanes first tower its time to look at your teams situation and decide where your needed, either continue to cripple top lane and push, make sure to put out lots of wards if you do this, or start roaming and helping your team.

As the lane phase ends its important to stay with your team, yes you can take some champs alone, but Ren is most at home in the middle of the enemy team drawing fire as your allies kick some butt. Remember to use your wriggles to ward whenever possible, it helps the whole team when there are wards out, and everyone should help, not just the support. As you get into more and more team fights you'll really want to finish Guardian Angel as soon as possible, because with it Ren's Ult and Heal you'll be able to stay in a fight for an absurd amount of time, and the dmg and stun's Ren dishes out really add up.

After you get guardian angel this build is pretty flexible, if your carrying you can go straight for a BT, if you want more dmg and some mr get a maw, if you still find your dead after a fight a sunfire cape will really help, the order is left to your discretion as a player.

The main point of Ren late game is to start the fight if your the best suited for it, and when the spells start flying to chomp down on the biggest threat the enemy team has and to give them a good death roll. You'll be surprised how many people will turn from a fight and run when a Ren comes chraging through their team at them, and that wins your team fights.

So lets say you get thrown a curve ball with the lanes and you get stuck with say a rumble, vlad or kennen, all champs that do AP dmg, if that happens forget the build order I have listed and get some health and mr as soon as possible, with Ren I find that a spirit visage and a hexdrinker can help Ren cope with any ap champ with a good harass skill, other than that it's all about the your skill at getting in landing a solid hit and bugging out.

Alright guys, this is my guide, I plan to update it and change it as I get feedback and good criticism. If you wanna bash it feel free, I got thick skin and don't really care. But I would really like some feedback on how the build and guide can be improved, hope you enjoy and get to have a good time playing Ren because of my guide.