Thresh is a unique support tank champion with a ranged auto-attack who also possesses the only ability in the game that can directly manipulate ally movement; Dark Passage. His combination of high CC, range harassment, bulkiness and well-rounded kit have skyrocketed him into popularity, with good reason. He also has a unique passive mechanic that allows him to harvest souls to increase his stats, but more on that later. Souls OP

In this guide I will showcase an aggressive style of playing Thresh, the Chain Warden. I focus on lane dominance, torturing the enemy AD carry and support and forcing them to either leave the lane, losing a lot of farm, or picking up kills for my carry. Thresh works best with a duo partner or ranked team for more cooperative Dark Passage plays, but he still highly excels in solo queue, and is by far one of the most unique and fun supports to play.

This is a standard page for Thresh. Armor and Magic Resist runes are simply to mitigate damage from the enemy AD carry and support, while the Attack Damage marks and quint are used because they amplify his auto-attack harass the most in the laning phase.

0/15/15 gives Thresh additional early game tankiness and a bit of extra gold through utility. This page is preferable against lanes that are difficult to kill and you wish to mainly farm.

Maxing Flay offers far higher harass and damage for Thresh in lane with his auto-attack passive. Harassing champions every couple seconds hurts like hell early game, and later it isn't as noticeable, so I like to abuse it as much as I can early. Secondly, Flay's active is Thresh's AoE clear move and primary CC outside Death Sentence (an ability with CC that does NOT scale with ranks. Ranks only drop it's cooldown and raise it's damage), so maxing it allows him to CC people better, as help his carry push the lane harder after killing the enemies, or sending them back to base.

Passive: Damnation

Thresh's passive spawns souls of the dead for him to collect and gain AP and Armor. Cannon and Siege creeps will always drop one and its a lower chance on normal creeps. The offset to this is that he does not gain any armor per level like other champions. Being near many minion deaths can make Thresh very tanky, very fast. However, being zoned from souls can make him equally squishy, come mid game. One should not grab souls unless it is safe to do so.

Q: Death Sentence

Thresh's hook is one of his most powerful features. On hit, it technically stuns the target for it's duration and drags them toward you. Thresh can cancel this early by clicking Q again, causing him to dash to the target. It is strongly advised that you "tug" the enemy twice before re-activating the ability.

W: Dark Passage

This is the ability that makes Thresh a top tier support. The ability to save allies with it, create surprise ganks, and generally create a massive amount of shields for his team is borderline over-powered. Throwing the lantern also collects any nearby souls, so you can use it if you are getting zoned.

E: Flay

This ability doubles as Thresh's harassment move and secondary CC'ing ability. It amplifies his auto attacks to deal bonus magic damage based off his AD and collected souls. Thresh boasts very high damage, even while building supportive or tank items due to this abilities passive. The active portion will knock enemies near or towards you depending on which way it is cast. More on use of this ability later.

R: The Box

This ability summons a pentagonal box of walls. The walls are destroyed when an enemy walks through and deals massive damage and creates the most potent slow in the game.

Pros:

+ Very Strong Harass
+ Two Disruptions
+ Scales Outside Levels
+ Great Crowd Control Abilities
+ Very tanky mid to late game
+ Great Initiation Capabilities
+ Very easy to secure first blood with Death Sentence
+ Death Sentence is great for invading the enemy jungle
+ Dark Passage can save a teammate in nearly any situation

Cons:

- Death Sentence can be difficult to land
- Thresh lacks sustain with no heal
- Collecting souls can lead to you being heavily harassed by opponents
- Thresh relies on allies to follow up with his abilities
- Hard To Play
- Weaker Against High Range
- Weak Mid Game Without Souls
- No One Clicks The Lantern :(