The Chain Warden is currently my favorite champion in the game. Relying on mind games and quick reaction timing, Thresh is a complete monster to play against, but even more of a difficult champion to master. But with his great disengage, poke, CC, and peel, Thresh is a strong champion to play in the bot lane

Let's go over Thresh's abilities in a way that makes them sound easier to understand:


Damnation is Thresh's Passive. This has two important parts. The first thing to note is that Thresh doesn't gain armor per level like other Champions. Instead, he gets souls from all large monsters and champions when they die, and any small monster of minion has a 66% chance of dropping one when they die (note that the 66% chance will change depending on how ell you're collecting your souls). If you are able to get near them within 8 seconds, they will give you an armor and ability power boost. And don't worry if you're hiding in a bush: Enemies won't see your souls drop, or see you collect your souls, as long as they don't have vision of thresh.


Upon using Death Sentence, Thresh will wind up his hook, and throw a skill shot in whatever direction the ability was cast. If it connects with an enemy champion, it's cooldown will be reduced, and the enemy will be pulled towards him a little bit twice. Thresh can move while he's pulling, and the enemy will move to wherever he is at the time, not wherever he casted from. He can also reactivate the ability after one second to pull himself towards an enemy champion. If it hits a minion or monster, the only difference is that Thresh can pull himself towards them as soon as the hook lands. Also, Thresh will wind up the death sentence wherever he's facing, not wherever he'll throw the hook, so don't worry about being too predictable

This ability will make an enemy unit completely immobile for 2 seconds, which is crazy strong. The lockdown will most likely force them to use a potion, burn a flash, or just die early on. It can also be used to retreat, since not only can you pull yourself to safety, but your completely mobile while the hook is on an opponent. It's also fun to hit a hook when an enemy is tower diving you. They won't expect all the damage of the turret + your ADC.


Dark Passage is a really interesting ability. When used, Thresh will throw his lantern to the indicated point of interest (within a certain range of him, of course), granting an ally touching it a small shield. Thresh can also gain a shield by walking too far away from his lantern. However, if an ally right-clicks the lantern, They will quickly jump to thresh, granting them both a small shield. This jump ignores any terrain that would normally stop someone from just going through. However, they won't be able to jump to you if you leave a certain range (which will be indicated once the lantern is on the feild), if an enemy's body is blocking the lantern sprite, or if someone has already used the lantern.

This is the ability that will separate the okay Thresh players from the great thresh players. It can get your allies out of seemingly awful situations, that would otherwise spell certain doom. It can also be used to help your ADC return to lane slightly quicker, reposition your tanks to the front line in team fights, or get your jungle in to gank a bit faster (as long as you're slightly sneaky about where you throw the lantern. They're gonna know what's comming if you blatantly throw it into the fog of war).


Flay has a passive and an active ability. Passively, thresh's auto attack will apply bonus magic damage to an enemy, which becomes stronger the more Thresh waits in between attacks (The strongest point being after 10 seconds). When you activate it, thresh whips his chain forward, pushing enemies facing directly in front of, or behind of, where Thresh is standing, in whatever direction Thresh is facing. It also slows a target, and knocks them up for a brief amount of time. And don't worry: the passive still applies when the ability is on cooldown.

Flay is essencial to Thresh's poke. This will make his already long auto attack's much stronger. On top of it, it can save you from lots of bad situations. If Thresh is tagged with a gap closer that doesn't disable his abilities or movement (E.G. Lee Sin's Q when re-activated), Flay will knock them out of their move before it can hit you. While this requires amazing reaction time, it can really mess up someone's plan of diving you.


The Box is Thresh's ultimate ability. When activated, Thresh will summon 5 spectral walls around him and his allies. If an enemy touches one of these walls, they will take a good amount of damage and get a 99% slow for 2 seconds. However, the wall touched will break, letting any enemies walk through it. Any enemy champions that touch any other walls after the first one is broken will only have a 99% slow for one second.

Use this in team fights in lane for the slow, or in the jungle to seal of routes that enemies may come in to help their allies from. If you can catch an ADC out of position with an ally, then they throwing the box around them will force a flash or a kill in most scenario's.

Thresh has some really nice combo's that will help secure kills for your Allies. The first one all thresh players should know is what I call a Box Sentence

Hit your Q, then after you pull the enemy champion as far as you can towards you, reactive the ability. When you're in range, E so that the enemy will be pulled toward you. Really good Thresh players will be able to maximize the lock down by pulling themselves in the last few frames of the attack, in which you can pull yourself towards the enemy, but they can move (it sounds odd, but it's a thing). After that, throw up the box and watch your ADC score a kill.


Also, if you want to burn someone's flash and THEN score a kill, all you have to do is E them into a group of your allies, then Q in whatever direction you think they'll flash. It takes some prediction, but your enemy will be down a summoner spell and missing out on gold, experience, etc.


For people with really good timing, you can lantern almost as soon as you hit Q. This will help you with getting a roam or a bank, as your enemy will be locked down while your ally will be getting in even quicker.

Finally, the ultimate one. This is very difficult, and I can only sometimes pull it off, but none the less, I'll explain it. You set up your Box Sentence, but only use the Q+Ult. Then, flay your enemy into one of the walls of the box, getting off some damage and the slow. Exhaust your enemy, and lantern to any allies nearby to get the glorious kill. It can be hard to pull off, but it works

In lane, Thresh is a poking bully who excels at position manipulation. Remember it's okay to take CS as long as your relic shield is up. That will give both you and your ally some gold for your CS, and a heal. Although if you really want the heal, make sure you hit the CS on a cannon minion, to make the heal count. Keep the river warded, because while thresh has lots of slows, stuns, and knock ups, he doesn't have a reliable method of getting himself out of trouble. If you see your enemy jungler or mid-laner coming in to try and get you, try to fake them out with a hook wind up facing their ADC, aimed at the champion who want's to get you. Remember to collect your souls, too. Those will help thresh become even tankier. If your going way far out of position for one, don't bother: another will spawn in a little bit. Whenever you can, AA the enemy for that flay boosted power. If their support is squishy like Annie or Soraka, you shouldn't have too much trouble getting them low. Just keep poking and landing your Q's, and you should be fine.

Team fights happen drastically different if Thresh's team is winning or loosing. If your winning, Take the front line and tank any hits the enemy with throw your way. You'll have an easier time setting up your box this way, and you can also get your flay off easier. If Thresh's team isn't doing very well, make sure you're only in front of your ADC. Enemies will have a harder time seeing your Q's if their focused on your Tanks and Mages, and if the going gets rough, throw down a lantern and run. And remember, your hook can be used defensively as long as your team understands what your trying to do with it. It's hard to do in chat, but try to find some way to say "I'm gonna hook, but keep running". Maybe a danger smart ping or something of the sort

Thresh, while a good champion, has lots of difficult matchups. His least favorite being against Nami, due to her bubble, Braum because of his ability to out-poke Thresh, Lulu because of her better power and lockdown, and Janna, due to her incredible disengage. His matches with Nautilus and Leona are fairly back and forth, and really end up being a test of skill. And, as mentioned before, he has pretty good matchup agains Annie, Soraka, and the two Zilean mains out there

Alright, that was long. Let's take a more simple look at what we just explained
-Thresh is a support who uses his poke and ability to manipulate positioning to lock down targets
-Thresh likes to build tanky so that he can sucsesfully take hits, as he can (in theory) gain armor throughout the whole match
-Thresh also needs to establish vision so he can know when to back off
-Thresh has lots of bad matchups, so be careful when you pick him