My name is Mirskateer, and I was in in the division of Silver 2 last season. I haven't gotten around to playing my promos yet, mostly because I'm busy making mobafire guides! I enjoy playing all roles, but my favorites are jungle and support. Ever since I started playing League, I wanted to play Thresh because he was so cool. At that time, I didn't even know that he was one of the best supports in the game! I can now say that he is not only my favorite champion to play, I am confident in saying that I understand all of his kit and mechanics. As I love Thresh so much, this guide is going to be a little wordy. If you get bored easily or just do not have time, skip to the end where I will have a mini guide. However, if you want to truly master Thresh, read the whole guide. Enough of me talking, Let's get started on how to Thresh support!

Pros

Naturally Tanky
Great at peeling
Ranged Support
Scales well
Great initiation and escape potential
Lots of CC (Stuns and Slows)
Strong early game


Cons

Hard to master
Skillshot reliant
Long cooldowns early game

Sightstone is the only item on Thresh that is mandatory. You are the support, so it is your job to ward. In bronze, you can probably win all of your games just by warding the map. It also gives you some nice health early, helping you stay in lane. Try to buy some Vision Wards along the way, but buying Sightstone is a must!


face of the mountain is the item of choice if you do not have a tank on your team, for example if you have a Fiora going in the toplane. It synergizes well with your kit, giving you health, cooldown reduction, an active ability shielding your adc for extra peeling potential, and health regeneration, making you a better tank. To get it, start with the item Relic Shield, which also helps give your adc sustain in lane due its passive ability. Must I go on? Buy this!

Locket of the Iron Solari is usually the first major item I rush unless I am vs a very attack damage based composition such as a Zed mid and an Ashe support. (Yes, Ashe can support). It gets you some more cooldown reduction, some much needed magic resist, and 400 health (which is a lot early game), and some health regeneration. The health regeneration is especially useful early game if you buy a Rejuvenation Bead on your first back to base because Thresh has no sustain himself.

Mobility Boots are essential for a good Thresh player. If you are a beginner and will not be roaming or warding that much, I would advise Ninja Tabi to make you more tanky. If you are thinking of maining Thresh or are even playing him in any ranked game, Mobility Boots are needed. They allow you to ward around the map faster, make clutch lantern saves, and roam to other lanes to help carry games. People say that you cannot carry as a support, but with roaming you can. I will get to that later, though.

Randuin's Omen is the defensive item I will usually get focusing on armor when playing Thresh. I prefer it over Frozen Heart because at level 18, Thresh only has 2013 health. While Frozen Heart does offer 30 armor more, Randuin's Omen gives 500 health, and a much better passive and active ability.

Talisman of Ascension is a more greedy version of face of the mountain early game, but it scales much better. If you are on a team that scales very well, such as having a Vayne as your adc, I would highly encourage you to buy Talisman of Ascension. It gives you no flat health, but it does give you 10% cooldown reduction, 100% health and mana regeneration, 20 movement speed, and 2 gold for every 10 seconds. Its passive ability gives you 10 health every time you are near a minion killed by anyone besides you. That is great for you, but since you offer no sustain, it is not ideal on Thresh. Its active is what makes it viable on Thresh. It makes all allied champions near you (within 600 range) go 40% faster for 3 seconds. That is very helpful for engaging, escaping, or just getting to lane faster with its cooldown only being one minute.

Mikael's Blessing is the item on Thresh that will eliminate all of your mana problems. Also, get it if you If vs a lot of magic damage. It gives you almost as much magic resist as a Banshee's Veil, and many other nice stats. IF you type in chat (I'm out of mana; going back to base) after you buy this item, your are doing something wrong. It is a relatively cheap legendary item, costing only 2450 gold. It gives Thresh everything he needs to stay in lane: 40 magic resist, 100% mana regeneration, 10% cooldown reduction, a passive restoring 2% mana every five seconds, and an active removing all debuffs from a champion and 10% of their health. The active is more useful cast on yourself because most likely, your adc will not have much health, so the 10% is not that much. As Thresh builds tank usually, it will heal you more.

Frozen Mallet is an item on Thresh that I just started trying, and I believe that it is a great pick in certain situations. It gives a top of hp, along with a passive giving you even more CC! This item is great, allowing me to get a ton of hp without having to get a Warmog's Armor.

Items are a bit confusing on Thresh, but in the case of spells, there are only three viable spells.

Flash is always needed. Its uses are endless: escaping, longer range lantern saves, Flash Flays, Flash hooks ( Death Sentence ), etcetera. Get it!

Exhaust is the spell of choice if you want the choice to be versatile all game. It is great when ahead, adding extra cc to a combo, slowing down an adc to hook, Flay, or for your adc to cc, or even just Exhaust the enemy carry in a teamfight, slowing their attack speed and making them do less damage. It is also better late game than Ignite. It is also the choice of Mata (Samsung White's support)

Ignite is the spell that is played by more aggressive supports. Early game. If you are on a smurf account and want to carry hard, or just want some kills early to get your adc fed, Ignite is the spell for you. In the laning phase, it can destroy a carry after a Flay Death Sentence combo. It will get adcs angry sometimes because you "kill steal", but it is important to add that extra damage that changes a burned Flash into a kill. Madlife does always run Ignite and Flash; try it at least. If you like Exhaust more, it's ok. Just try Ignite at least one time.

Death Sentence is a linear skillshot interrupted by champions, minions, neutral monsters, and Yasuo's Wind Wall. If you hit an enemy or neutral monster, they are stunned for a brief while, and the cooldown is reduced by three seconds. If you recast the ability while the hook is still attached to an enemy, you are dragged to the target. Max this second for the cooldown reduction.

When you cast Dark Passage, Thresh throws out his lantern, giving himself and anyone near it a temporary shield. If an ally right clicks the lantern, they will be teleported to you. They are not untargetable during the voyage, so be careful how they get to you! If you go farther than 1000 units away from the lantern, it will disappear, but you will get a shield. You want to max it out last because since you are not building ability power, the shield will not get significantly larger, and the cooldown is still longer than you want it to be.

Flay is an ability that knocks enemies in whichever way you cast it. It is aoe, so it can knock multiple enemies away at once. After they are hit in one direction or another, it slows them. Passively, it makes your auto attacks do more damage the longer you wait in-between. This is very helpful in lane to poke because you will not be last hitting minions. As you get better with Thresh it should be used to harass in lane and also to set up easy Death Sentences because of the slow.

The Box is a pentagon of walls created around Thresh that lasts for a short while. If an enemy hits one of the walls, it is broken, and the enemy is slowed by 99 percent. 99 percent!!!! It is kind of op right now. If they hit another wall, the same thing happens. Theoretically, a champion could hit all five walls, making them slowed for about 6 seconds. Morgana's Dark Binding binds for about 2 seconds, and that is considered op! Unfortunately, the spell only quick casts because it is around you. For that reason, The Box is very hard to hit properly.

http://www.mobafire.com/league-of-legends/mastery-tree-planner#&tree1=0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0&tree2=2-0-2-0-1-3-0-1-1-2-1-2-1-0-0-0-0-0-0&tree3=0-3-1-1-2-0-1-3-0-1-0-1-1-0-0-0-0-0&v=2

Use this link to see my masteries for Thresh

I run the materies 0/16/14. I take defensive points in Block to help me sustain in lane, Enchanted Armor to help if the enemy apc gets fed. It's pretty much the same with the rest of the defensive masteries. Fleet of Foot and Scout are very important to get vision control and roam to other lanes.

The Lantern Gank

When your jungler is coming for a gank, you throw the lantern to them to use as a gap closer using Dark Passage. Placement is key because if you put it too close to yourself, your enemies will see it and run away. If executed correctly, you can get your jungler fed, along with your carry and yourself.

The Flash Flay

When there is an enemy out of range of your Flay and you are not confident hitting your Death Sentence, you should Flash Flay, and then hit a Death Sentence for additional cc. Even though this sounds easy, it takes a lot of practice.

Support Roaming

This is how you carry games with a support. It requires two things: Mobility Boots and winning your laning phase. Usually, after I get my adc some kills bot, I roam mid alone, or I bring my adc with me if they have some cc like a Jinx or a Varus. I tell my midlaner to let the enemy mid to push, and then I either hit a Death Sentence or Flay, and then immediately transition that into a The Box Flay combo. I will try to give the kill to whoever the hyper carry is on our team. For example, if my adc is Sivir but we have a Fizz mid, I will give it to our mid, because Sivir is not a hyper carry.

The Madlife

Do not expect to be able to do this right away. I played many games with Thresh before I even knew what a madlife was. A madlife is when you cast Death Sentence to where an enemy is going to Flash to, Arcane Shift to, or any other movement enhancing or gap closer ability like LeBlanc's Distortion. There is no way to learn this other than watching people doing it and practicing. When I hit a madlife, I am not thinking how many exact units a flash is; It is just habit. It will be a long time before you hit one, but once you do, they will keep coming. If you do not understand what a madlife is, here is madlife himself.

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Thresh is a support played in the bottom lane

face of the mountain, Mobility Boots Locket of the Iron Solari and Randuin's Omen are items that should be built on Thresh

Max e Flay then q Death Sentence then w Dark Passage and your r The Box whenever you can

0/16/14 masteries

Flash, Exhaust, and Ignite are the only viable summoner spells on Thresh in this current meta

Thank you for reading this guide. It took me quite a while to make. If you have any questions or comments about Thresh or this guide, ask or tell me so I can rectify my mistakes. Enjoy playing the chain warden!