Hello my name is Groggs. This is a build I've been trying out, I've had some good success with it so far. I figured I would share and hopefully get some feed back. Please don't complain to me that hes a support champion. I know hes a support champion and hes really good at it in the right hands. But he also has a great poke due to his Death Sentence passive. This increases the damage of his auto attack which allows him to last hit and harass with ease. I've found it very fun to play him top and rewarding when I win my lane. I just threw this guide together real quick as I'm still trying out more things in game. I plan on adding more to this soon so please wait before auto down voting a unfinished guide. Thanks.

Build Update 1/30/13
Changed sunfire cape to atma's impaler for more attack damage. Moved Warmogs earlier in the build for mid game sustain.

Pros Has a strong poke Can shield and pull Teammates to him Can block off escapes with his Ult Can pull enemy champions toward him with two different skills Very durable with souls and items

Cons Requires good farm to win lane Has long cooldowns Has low ap ratios Has a stigma of being a support only champion. Easy to gank before level six

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X9 - These runes are great for last hitting and trading early game hits. They also increase the passive of your Death Sentence

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X9 - I pick these runes to increase your early game tankyness. Plus thresh doesn't increase armor per level like other champions, he get them through souls. So untill you get some soul stacks these are a must.

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X9 - I get these runes to help with any early magic damage you may take.

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X3 - I get these runes for the same reason as Marks

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I take skills in this order to give the highest damage output while having your rank 1 shield at level four for utility.

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This passive lets you harvest souls from slain minions and champions which in return gives you bonus armor and ability power. Just be sure not to put yourself in a bad position when collecting souls. Sometimes its just better to let one or two go instead of taking heavy damage from harass. You can also throw your lantern on top of souls to collect them as well.

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This skill has two parts, a passive and an active. The passive scales off your current AD up to 200% plus the amount of souls you have collected as damage on your next auto attack. The passive charges up over time which is indicated through an icon above your skill bar. A red icon means your next auto attack will do the maximum amount of damage. When auto attacking continiously you only do damage by the number of souls collected plus a small percentage of your AD. This is what makes getting AD on thresh worthwhile. The active on this skill lets you throw your chain, if a target is hit you do magic damage and pull them to you a short distance twice. The AP ratio of the active is only 50% and it has a long cooldown. I would suggest you practice getting used to using the active because it has a short delay before casting.

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This Skill has a lot of utility. You can throw your lantern to shield yourself and/or nearby teammates. You can throw it to a near by teammate to help them escape or join in a fight. You can also use it to pick up souls if there in a tricky spot. But I wouldn't rely on this for gathering souls as it has a long cooldown and you may need it as a shield. If you throw it and walk out of its radius it will comeback to you applying its shield as well. The AP ratio on the skill is 40%.

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This Skill can be used two ways. It can be used as a knock back or a knock forward depending on the position of your cursor. If your cursor is in the direction of the target when you use this skill it will knock them back slowing them for 1.5sec. But if your cursor is behind you in the opposite direction it will knock them forward towards you slowing them for 1.5sec. It takes a little practice to master. This skill has a AP ratio of 40% and a 9 sec cooldown no matter what rank it is.

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This is your ultimate, when you cast it walls pop up around your champion with you inside. If a enemy champions runs into your wall they take a large amount of magic damage and a 99% slow for 2 sec. But when a wall is hit it disappears. After one wall is down the other walls only do half the damage and slow of the first one. This skill is great for blocking a jungle escape or just boxing someone in while you dps them. You can also use this skill in conjuction with your Death Sentence and Flay to push or pull them into one of your walls. This skill has a 100% AP ratio which is the best out of all your skills but it also has the longest cooldown.

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Starting Items

- This is the standard starting build. It gives you early movement speed to avoid skill shots and to get away from early ganks. The health potions are great for early sustain to help keep you in lane longer.


- This is another starting build you can use if you know your going to be up against a tough lane opponent. It will give you extra armor and more potions to help you stay in lane longer. Just be careful not to overextend your lane because you lack the movement speed to get away. Sell the Cloth Armor when its no longer needed.

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Core Build

sight ward I can't express how important these are it could make or break you winning your lane. Always try to get at least one on your first trip back! If you have the extra gold and your having trouble with your jungler getting spotted everytime he tries to gank, get a Vision Ward so you can clear there wards.

x2 - This is a great cheap all around item that gives a little boost to damage, sustain, and Health. Make sure to sell these when you run out of room. You can also skip these if you get fed early.

- This item is great because it gives you attack damage to increase your Q's passive, health for more tankyness, and a nice chance to proc a slow from your auto attacks.

- These boots give nice magic resist and tenacity to help you when your getting hit with crowd control.

- This item increase your attack speed which gives you more damage output from your auto attacks. It also gives a magic damage on hit boost to your Q's passive as well. And some magic resist.

Mid-End Game Items

- This item is pretty straight foward it gives you a 1000 health and restores 1.5% of you health every 5 seconds. what does this do for thresh. Well it puts his health around 4000 with the other health items in this build and you regen 85 health every 5 seconds. Which is a nice sustain for not having to do anything.

- This items gives you the most bang for your buck while still having some durability. The damage on this item is really nice because as you lose health you get more AD from its unique passive. It also gives you a decent amount of magic resist which puts your total around 150. The second passive of this item can save your life in a tough team fight. When you take magic damage that leaves you with less than 30% health you get a 400 health shield that blocks magic damage. This is big help when your trying to finish off or escape from an AP champion.

- This item makes the most use of your high health. With its passive it grants you 15 AD for every 1000 health. Which means at full build with over 4000 health you get 60+ AD. This item also gives a decent amount of armor and Crit chance. The crit is a little wasted since you have no other crit items. But it can give you a slight bump in your damage.

- This item is normally a mediocre item to get on most champions. But on Thresh it makes him shine. The attack damage scales nicely with his Q's passive giving him 60 magic damage plus the 30 attack damage on his first strike. The large increase in health lets you take a lot more hits and increases your Atma's Impaler damage. And last but not least the costant slow from auto attacks lets you kite melee and chase champions down.

Situational Items

- This is a great all around tank item. It gives armor, magic resist, and if you die you come back to life with 30% health. This will help a lot if your getting focused in team fights. But unfortunately the cooldown on the revive is long.

- This item adds the most AD and lifesteal you can get from one item. Because every kill you get minion or champion adds more AD and lifesteal. Up to 100AD and 18% lifesteal. The only down fall is if you die your bonus stats are cut in half making it so you have to kill more to charge it again. You can replace Maw of Malmortius or Atma's impaler with this item if you don't need the resistance.

- This item adds attack damage and armor pen to make you hit harder. I would only take this item if you got bloodthirster before it otherwise you are not doing enough physical damage to warrant it. Also make sure the enemy team is stacking resistances and your team needs you to build damage. Otherwise stick to defensive items.

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Adding attack damage/attack speed build to this soon.