Thresh LoL Guide: How To Play This Champion | RiftFeed
Everything you need to know about the Chain Warden

Thresh LoL Guide: How To Play This Champion

Guides 13-07-2023 16:49
Legends of Runeterra Thresh
Become the best support with the beginners guide for Thresh |©Riot Games

League of Legends has over 160 playable champions, so it's quite hard for beginners and rookies to find a champion, that fits their play style. If you like the support role, Thresh might be your perfect champion, since he offers a lot of different play styles and useful abilities.  In this Guide, we will give you a quick overview about him.

Thresh: Beginners Guide

In the current meta, Thresh is one of the best supports in the game. He offers everything, that an ADC could ask for. He can engage, peel, tank and even rescue allies with his wide variety of abilities. The phrase, "Easy to learn, hard to master" fits him perfectly. So let's start with his abilities.

Thresh's Abilities

For beginners, it's very important to understand the abilities of Thresh and how to use them correctly.

  • Passive: Damnation:  Minions, jungle monsters, champions and epic jungle monster are dropping souls once they're defeated. You can gather these souls to increase your Armor and Ability Power.
  • Q: Death Sentence: Thresh throws his chain in a straight line and hooks the first target it hits. This will move the targets in your direction and deals damage. You can also reactivate your Q to pull yourself over to the enemy.
  • W: Dark Passage: Thresh throws his lantern. Allies can use the lantern to get to Thresh. The lantern also offers a shield for every ally, that scales with the gathered souls. You can also gather souls, just throw the lantern directly onto them.
  • E: Flay: Thresh flays his chain into the chosen direction. This inflicts damage and knocks enemies into your direction or away from you. The E also got a passive that channels one stronger auto attack.  With the E you can even flay away champions midair, like Zac.
  • R: The Box: Thresh forms a pentagram of shadow-walls around him. These walls inflict damage and will slow your opponents. 

So, there you have it, all the abilities of Thresh. Let's continue with the recommended Runes and Items.

Recommended Items and Runes

Thresh is a very versatile champion, that can be played in a lot of different ways. So there are multiple fitting runes and item builds. Some of them are fitting for a more aggressive play style, some are better for tank duty.

Since you're most likely going to play Thresh on the support position, we advise you to start the game with the Relic Shield. This item offers you some much needed tankiness in the early game and allow you to share minions with your ADC. 

This way you can gather some gold and souls to help you over the duration of the early game. More advanced players can use the Relic Shield to kill a minion and use the now free space to land a hook onto an enemy.

As a Thresh main myself, I like to play Thresh with the Steel Shoulderguards. This item gives you some attack damage, very nice for trading in early game. Stronger auto attacks are always useful.

Other recommended items are:

  • Knight's Vow: This item offers you more tankiness, and you can connect it with an ally. You will receive some heals, when your connected partner is dealing damage.
  • Redemption: Redemption offers additional tank stats and gives you the ability to heal teammates over a long distance. It's especially useful in team fights, since it heals everyone in a certain radius.
  • Dead Man's Plate: This item is useful in many different ways. It offers tank stats, it's building up movement speed and gives you a stronger auto, that channels up over time.

The runes for Thresh are very easy to choose. Just o with the Resolve-Tree to enhance your tankiness and to be prepared for most ingame situations. The second tree is a little bit harder to choose and depends on your own ideas and play style.

Personal tip: I like to play Thresh with the Zombie Ward rune. It offers you the opportunity to build up more vision on the map, by destroying enemy ward. And vision is always useful

Recommended Runes

  • Aftershock: Gives you additional resistances and deals damage to enemies after you stunned them. And Thresh got a lot of them in his ability kit.
  • Front of Life: Offer healing to your allies, when they damage stunned or slowed enemies.
  • Unflinching: Gives you additional tenacity and slow reduction. A useful rune in nearly every matchup

Thresh: The Play Style

Pulsefire Thresh
Thresh can be played in a lot of different ways |©Riot Games

As previously mentioned, Thresh is a versatile champion capable of being played in various ways. While he is commonly seen as a support on the bot lane, renowned for his lethal hooks, Thresh can also provide protection and peel for his lane partner using his abilities. 

Thresh possesses a passive ability, called Damnation, which allows him to collect soul fragments that increase his armor and ability power. It is crucial to be aware of this mechanic and try to gather as many souls as possible. This unique feature enables Thresh to continuously scale throughout the game.

One of Thresh's key abilities is his Q, Death Sentence, commonly referred to as THE HOOK.
It serves as the cornerstone of Thresh's kit. By utilizing his chain, you can hook enemies and draw them closer to you. 

Additionally, you have the option to reactivate the ability and pull yourself towards the hooked enemy. Timing plays an important role in executing this play. Therefore, it is essential to loom out for opportunities or openings between minions to effectively land your hooks.

Thresh's W ability, known as Dark Passage, holds significant importance as the second most crucial ability in his kit. By throwing the lantern, you have the ability to save allies from dangerous situations or aid your jungler during a gank in your lane. 

However, it is crucial to remind your teammates to TAKE THE LANTERN! Furthermore, the lantern provides a shield to allied champions, and the strength of the shield scales with the number of soul fragments you have collected.

Flay, Thresh's E ability, serves as your primary crowd control tool. With this ability, you can either pull enemies towards you or knock them back. It should be utilized for engaging or peeling purposes. The typical combo involves hooking the enemy, pulling yourself closer, and then flaying them towards your allies. 

Moreover, you can employ it to interrupt the enemy jungler's gank attempt in your lane. For instance, it is possible to flay Zac back while he is in midair.

Thresh's ulti, The Box, is just as versatile as the whole champion. You can use it to strengthen your engage and crowd control or to build up a slowing wall to peel for your team.

So, with these simple tips and explanations, you should have a stable foundation for your Thresh gameplay. Good luck in the game !

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Henning Paul

Henning studied Journalism, having worked for multiple media outlets before finding his way to Riftfeed and EarlyGame where he let his passion for League of Legends esports take hold. He's been playing League of Legends, as well as other games...