The 3 Why's

Why though?

The first question most of you will probably have is, "Why would you play Thresh Top?" The answer to that is really simple. I, and hopefully you, love Thresh.

Playing a champion in a lane they weren't specifically designed for is extremely fun and rewarding if it actually works. . . And Thresh Top DEFINITELY works!!!

So why am I reading this?

I made this guide, because I know just how fun it is to play Thresh Top. The issue is there isn't really any guide for this. . .

I hope that after reading this entire guide you will be able to go play Thresh in Toplane and prove every single team member who said you were "trolling" in champ select wrong.

So why does it work?

The main reason this build is viable is because of the unique mechanic in League called Energized. This is a passive effect that stacks up as you move and auto attack and when you reach 100% charge, your next auto attack will do something extra. Items that have these effects are Stormrazor, Rapid Firecannon and Statikk Shiv but more on these in the "Itemization" section.

There is also one keystone rune called Fleet Footwork that has the Energized passive and is the primary choice within this build, but more information will be given in the "Runes" section of the guide.

Pro's and Con's

PROS + Really fun to play. + Very rewarding. + Can win in almost any matchup. + Tilts opponents. + Satisfying to get kills with. + Funny to see Thresh 2 tapping ADC's. I know it might sound mean but killing somehow in two auto attacks as Thresh and then reading their "WTF WAS THAT!" in chat is one of the main reason I enjoy playing this. No one expects Thresh to do so much damage and it catches people off guard. As soon as you get your Stormrazor and Rapid Firecannon the fun really starts. Playing Thresh Top and actually winning the game while doing it is just so much more rewarding then playing a dedicated toplaner and winning.

CONS - Hard to play. - If you fall behind you are kinda screwed. - You can't play Thresh like you normally would. - Your team is going to flame you. - Your jungler will most likely ignore your lane. - Must have game knowledge to perform really well. You aren't going to start playing Thresh Top and win all your games and never loose lane. It is difficult to play against stuff like Darius or Gnar and you are going to have to be a lot better then your opponent in order to win. Apart from some specific matchups ( Nasus for example,) your opponent usually has an advantage in lane. BUT that is not always a bad thing. Until you get your Stormrazor people being overly cocky and over extending is one of the main ways your are going to be getting kills during laning phase.

Keystones

The two keystones I recommend when going AD Thresh would be Fleet Footwork or Press the Attack. Although both of these are options, usually the keystone that will work the best is going to be Fleet Footwork.

The reason Fleet Footwork is your go to keystone is because it shares the Energized unique passive that two of your core items also have ( Stormrazor and Rapid Firecannon ). One of the main reasons why you can win lane is because you can poke the opponent out of lane, but for this you also need sustain so that YOU don't get poked out. Fleet Footwork gives you health on an Energized auto attack (since Thresh is classified as a ranged champion he only gets half of the healing when auto attacking a minion while Energized.) This helps with sustain in lane, which means you don't have to use gold on items such as Vampiric Scepter and can get your core items as soon as possible.

When playing against a really easy lane opponent (look at the "Matchups" section of the guide for more information) you can opt to go for Press the Attack instead. This gives you more kill pressure in lane at the cost of some sustain so when you do decide to go Press the Attack be sure to take Ignite instead of Teleport (more info will be given in the "Spells and Abilities" section of the guide). The reason for taking Press the Attack over Electrocute is quite simple. Since you build attack speed when using this build Press the Attack will allow you to do more damage then Electrocute, because it will proc on ANY damage you deal after the initial three auto attacks.

Secondary Runes

Since we are using the Precision tree regardless of what keystone we take our next three rune slots are : Heroism, Legend, Combat.

Heroism:
In the Heroism rune slot you will be taking Triumph. When playing Thresh Top you really need your items as fast as possible and the extra gold you receive on kills when using Triumph helps you achieve this. During this build we don't get Lifesteal items until late game which means while in a fight we don't have much sustain. The 12% missing health restore on Triumph can be the difference between you getting a kill on an opponent or simply trading with them.

Legend:
In the Legend rune slot you take Legend: Bloodline, for exactly the same reason as the one mentioned in the last part of the Triumph explanation. While using Fleet Footwork you have great sustain during laning phase, but when it comes to fights you don't really have any Lifesteal while fighting someone. Legend: Bloodline will give you some extra sustain during fights from the start of the game and gradually more and more throughout the course of the game.

Combat:
In the Combat rune slot you take Coup de Grace. You don't want to be fighting when low on health so Last Stand doesn't help at all and the extra damage from Cut Down isn't as useful as the damage from Coup de Grace. So there is not really a specific reason for taking Coup de Grace, but you take it simply because it is your best option out of the three.

Stat Runes

The only thing remaining for your Rune Page are your three stat runes, namely: Offence, Flex, Defense.

Offence
In this slot you take attack speed since it well help you farm and the extra attack speed will help you with damage output in early game.
Flex
In this slot you will take adaptive damage(when playing Thresh this means 5.4 extra AD). Yet again it helps with farming and damage output early.
Defense
In this slot you either take Armor or Magic Resist depending on your lane opponent. If playing against an AD champion in toplane take Armor and when playing against an AP champion in toplane take Magic Resist.

SUMMONER SPELLS - FLASH: This is the one summoner spell you will ALWAYS take when playing Thresh Top. The amount of uses Flash has is insane and it can help you not only get away and escape, but also help to secure kills. Using Flash gives you a lot more playmaking potential. Thresh doesn't have any free moving mobility (only form of mobility is the recast of Death Sentence so playing Flash is a must. IGNITE: The only time you can consider taking Ignite over Teleport is if you are playing against an opponent you can easily stomp in lane, such as Nasus. In general Teleport is going to be better, but taking Ignite into your easier lanes can help you get kills early and snowball the game out of toplane. TELEPORT: When playing almost any Toplaner you will want to take Teleport and Thresh is the same. You can use Teleport to help teammates take objectives and also use it to get back in lane without loosing too much farm and experience from minions. Learn when to use Teleport and when to rather save it for a future use as it has a pretty long cooldown for a summoner spell (6 minutes).

How do I play Thresh Top against specific champions?

I have tried my best to put every single champion you might play against in the "Threats" part of this guide. Learning how to play Thresh Top isn't going to be enough to make you dominate your lane. . . You are going to have to learn how to play a specific matchup. The champions in the "Threats" part of the guide are classified as follows with 5 being the most difficult :

5 :

The champions placed as an "Extreme" threat are champions who you are going to have to play against multiple times before being able to win the lane. Champions like Darius and Gnar are generally going to be winning this lane unless you play it perfectly. Don't get discouraged though, just because you loose lane doesn't mean you will loose the game and there are only 4 champions in this category.

4 :

All of the champions placed as a "Major" threat have an advantage when facing you in lane. These can be for various reasons, but winning this lane is definitely not impossible. Pay very close attention to mistakes when facing a Riven or Tryndamere and force them to play towards YOUR strengths.

3 :

All of the champions place under "Even" are champions who you are quite even with in lane and if you play Thresh Top correctly you should be able to win this matchup. When you get a lead against champions like Mordekaiser or Vladimir be sure to push your lead and try to win your lane as fast as possible. This doesn't mean you should play carelessly...

2 :

The champions placed as a "Minor" threat aren't threats at all. These are champions who you have a distinct advantage against like Sion can cancelling out his Q or Teemo who's blind doesn't deter you as much as other champions. You should win these lanes almost every time.

1 :

The three champions under the threat level "Tiny" are lanes you can not loose unless you are lagging or playing in a 1v2. These champions are Nasus, Urgot, Malphite. You have a major advantage against all three these champions and these are the most fun lanes to play in since you can get really fed.

Summary :

A lot of champions fit into the same niche. . .Champions like Jax and Pantheon both want to get up in your face and only have 1 gap closer. I can't include every single champion and you might face something like Taric Top. By reading this entire guide you should be well enough informed to be able to improvise, beat them in lane and show them just how viable Thresh Top is. (if you have any questions about a matchup not on the list or way a champion is placed where it is feel free to ask.)

What will I cover in this section?

In this section I will cover what Items you want to take when playing Thresh Top and some reasons behind the build path. There are other build routes you can follow, but out of all my testing using this AD Energized Build has worked best.

Core items!

Infinity Edge

Rapid Firecannon

Stormrazor

These are your three core items when playing this build. The order you want to build them is: Stormrazor --> Rapid Firecannon --> Infinity Edge. The reason you want to build Stormrazor is because it has more utility then Infinity Edge (since it has a 75% slow for 0.5 seconds) and gives bonus AD which is crucial for your early game, but Rapid Firecannon lacks bonus AD. Your second item will be Rapid Firecannon since it gives you extended range on your Energized auto attack. This will help you get an auto attack off while your Flay passive is fully stacked, without having to forfeit farm in the process. With these two items you will already be doing a ton of damage, but your main damage spike comes with your third item, Infinity Edge. The extra AD this item gives will boost your damage by and insane amount since it not only lets your base attack do more damage, but also increases the extra damage on your Flay passive. It gives you 80 AD which means your passive on your Flay also gains an extra 160 damage, which effectively increases your first auto attack's damage by 240!!!.

Starter Items.

You have four possible items which you will start the game with. These items are: Doran's Blade, Doran's Shield, Cull and Corrupting Potion. Each of these are viable starting items within the right conditions so let me explain each one and when you want to be using them.

Doran's Blade: You will be starting with this item for the majority of your games. The extra AD it gives can help you secure kills in early game and the bit of lifesteal helps with sustain during the laning phase. This should be your go to starting items.

Doran's Shield: If you DON'T start with a Doran's Blade you will mostly then be starting with a Doran's Shield. Against any champion that is going to try and poke you out of lane or can get return damage on you when you go to auto attack, take Doran's Shield the extra sustain mitigates poke and makes you more tanky.

Cull: You will very seldom start with a Cull. It is a weird item by default and the only matchup I have played so far in which I recommend you take it is against Malphite and Kayle.

Corrupting Potion: When you play in a HEAVY poke lane, and I'm not talking about Teemo. . .I'm talking about Kennen or something weird like Caitlyn top, then you want to start with a Corrupting Potion so that you can stay in lane long enough to actually farm a little bit.

Finishing your build.

After getting your Stormrazor and Rapid Firecannon I recommend building boots. You have three options for them Mercury's Treads, Ninja Tabi or Berserker's Greaves.
Usually you should go with tank boots, so either Mercury's Treads or Ninja Tabi depending on the damage type of the enemy team.
If you have a lead you can go Berserker's Greaves so that you can do more damage during longer fights.

After getting your boots you want to get your last core item, Infinity Edge. At this point in the game you are really strong. High amount of burst damage and if you get it early enough you can even oneshot the enemy ADC!

Your build should now be something similar to:
Stormrazor -> Rapid Firecannon -> Ninja Tabi -> Infinity Edge

Which means you have 2 item slots left and a ton of options. . .
You are going to have to determine what will be best depending on the situation and what state the game is in. If you have a massive lead going with Statikk Shiv as a 5th item will boost your damage tremendously, give you wave clear and also give you 100% crit chance. If you are not so far ahead in the game and want 100% crit chance then get a Phantom Dancer.

If you want more raw damage and extra sustain during fights go with a Bloodthirster. If you want total damage and the potential to oneshot someone take a Duskblade of Draktharr. I didn't put this in the item part of the build guide, because I don't recommend it (but it is reeeaaally fun so try it in a normal, but don't blame me if you start feeding).

If you want more tanky stats like armor or magic resist you have option like Dead Man's Plate and Maw of Malmortius. The new Death's Dance is also a really good option now that they changed it to have both armor and magic resist while also giving AD and lifesteal.

If the enemy team consists of a bunch of tanks building armor then taking a Lord Dominik's Regards will help you do some damage and an item like Mortal Reminder can stop champions like Vladimir and Olaf from sustaining throughout an entire team fight.

Why make a seperate section for this?

When playing any champion getting a gank will help you a lot in lane. The problem when playing Thresh Top is your teammates assume you are trolling and the jungler just ignores your lane completely BUT ganking Thresh in top gives you a higher chance of getting a kill then any other toplaner.

Thresh has insane amount of lockdown between his Q Death Sentence and his E Flay. This is very important when playing with a jungler such as Master Yi since he doesn't have any CC of his own. That is why I recommend this :

If you want to play Thresh Top and try to perform really well with it. . .Get yourself a duo to play jungle for you. In this way you ensure that your jungler doesn't ignore your lane (well hopefully) and can easily win you an entire lane before champion select has even begun.

This is by no means required for you to win lane and I'm not saying your jungler is ALWAYS going to ignore your lane. I just recommend it since it really does help a lot especially while you are learning how to play the laning phase as Thresh in top. Speaking of, let's move on to the next section. . .

What is my goal during laning phase?

Your main goal during laning phase is to stay alive and get as much farm as possible. You are really reliant on Stormrazor and Rapid Firecannon for damage and kill potential so getting them as soon as possible is your first priority.

The main way you are going to be able to get a kill during your early laning phase is through an opponent overextending and you punishing them for it. Between your Death Sentence and Flay you can almost guarantee that your opponent will take two turret shots if they come too close.

How do I actually play during laning phase?

The playstyle you are going to want to use is a hit-and-run sort of playstyle. You want to try and auto your opponent as much as possible when you are Energized, but DON'T miss farm in order to poke them. Farming is still your number one priority. Auto attack your opponent and then walk into a brush to drop minion aggro and reduce the amount of return damage you take. If you have a level lead don't be scared of pushing your opponent.

Tips and Tricks while in lane?

Collecting souls is a large part of playing Thresh and even more so when playing him with an AD attack speed build. The passive on your Flay bonus damage starts at the amount of souls collected. So every soul you collect increases your damage output! Simple tip which some people don't know about is that you can use Dark Passage to collect souls from a distance. Simply throw your lantern between some souls and they will be sucked in granting you an extra soul.

Your Flay when cast backwards is INSTANT, and I mean that in the literal sense. As soon as you cast E your flay begins on the edge and catching someone there will make them take damage before they can react. During lane you can use a quick combo consisting of Auto -> Flay -> Auto. This deals more damage then people expect and you can get it off really quick.

Don't forget Dark Passage also applies a shield to you and using it while in a trade can help you win the trade by reducing the amount of damage you take to your HP bar. The shield size also scales with souls so be sure to collect them as much as possible.

Something a lot of people also don't know is that Dark Passage gives vision around the lantern itself. Use this to scout out brushes before you face check a Darius and get killed.

When am I at my strongest?

As soon as you get your Stormrazor you are already a threat to any melee champion. When you get your Rapid Firecannon this threat is increased against melee champions and you can also kill ranged champions quite easily. Infinity Edge only boosts your damage even more, thus:

You are your strongest during mid game. At this point in the game most people won't be tanky enough and they will underestimate the amount of damage you do causing them to be overly cocky and die because of it.

Late game you are also strong since your charged auto starts doing a stupid amount of damage. You can easily damage an ADC to half HP with a single charged auto. Stick to your team and try to use your Energized auto attack as soon as it is up.

Thank you for reading this guide!

Thank you if you stuck around till the very end and read everything I put into this guide. These build guides take a lot more effort then I thought they do. If you find this guide helpful please upvote the build so that more people see it!

Hope you enjoy!

I really hope you enjoy playing Thresh Top as much as I did and that you have success with it in the process. This is one of the most rewarding roles for Thresh and you feel great when you beat a Darius in lane.

Check out my YouTube!!!

Please consider going to my YouTube channel(Link down below) and subscribing if you enjoy Thresh related content.
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCPQMXugFgLxEHYfeDol1F2A?view_as=subscriber
I uploaded a Thresh Top montage just after publishing this guide so go check it out if you have doubts or want to see AD Thresh in action!