Hello everybody, I am DukeOfSussex. Whilst I admit I've only been playing LoL since early season 3, I have quickly adopted Thresh and he is easily my favourite champion. So please, don't be put off by my somewhat lack of experience in League, or with writing guides, trust in my writing skills and hopefully you'll learn a thing or two.

With tons of utility and megatons of damage, Thresh is by far the strongest support in the game (ignore the Leona fanboys). His passive to collect souls gives him plenty of armor and AP; his Flay passive gives him tons of on-hit damage; and his hook/flay combo enables him to deny anyone from escaping the whip (there's also a 99% slow ability but hey let's not go crazy). Sounds fun right?

With season 4 started, I default to Thresh whenever I choose to play support as he is still the strongest even with all the buffs to the weaker supports. Of course, a good Thresh is well suited with a good ADC, an outrageous Thresh can easily carry their below average ADC. As a result my stats are looking pretty good with season 4 Thresh currently - once I get larger numbers I may post a cheeky screenshot. (Equally you can look me up of LoLKing if you're interested)

Depending on how much attention this guide gets once it's complete, I may or may not make it look pretty. We'll see.

I run generic support masteries on Thresh, they're nothing specially designed for him.

0/21/9 - the ones listed above give a great amount of defense which is very handy on Thresh considering how aggressive you should be. With these masteries being run you should be poking down the ADC (or support if they're a squishy like Sona) every time your Flay passive gets to a decent level. The Utility masteries that have been leveled this way give you a lot of mana sustain meaning if you do miss the occasional Death Sentence, it's no big deal in terms of mana loss.

0/9/21 - This is for the kind of support who's a bit more passive and wants to gain a bonus over their lane opponents over time and through farming rather than through aggression and kills. Not the way I tend to play but I know that some people prefer the more relaxed, farm 'em up style. The extra gold you can get through running 21 in Utility can give you an advantage early on with an additional ward and core items being afforded earlier on.

21/0/9 - This is for the crazy 'Kill Secure' supports who want to go all in every time they land a hook, whether you're receiving a gank or being ganked, they just want to fight. (Just play top or mid please). However, if you manage to play this style whilst securing your Carry the kills, then by all means go for it, just remember that your Carry is squishy. Focus on your own guy over theirs.

Of course these are all through my own experience and knowledge, if you feel like you have a winning combo of masteries tell me what you run on the discussion page of this guide.

For runes I choose to run 'standard AD' runes:
Attack Damage marks - this is for the early poking you should be looking to do as Thresh
Armor seals - you're against the player of their team who has the role of 'Attack Damage Carry', armor is always useful against that sort of thing
Scaling MR glyphs - no guarantee that you'll be against any AP on botlane, therefore we use scaling so that we have effective MR late game during team fights where AP champs are more likely to appear
But with these runes I like to run Gold income quints as there's no farming going on (hopefully not anyway), AND we don't have the additional gold income masteries on due to the extra defense - these make up for a lot of gold lost on choosing to run those.

Alternate runes that are viable to run on Thresh support include:
AD quints as well as AD marks (instead of gold quints - which are not as useful when you choose 0/9/21) - This is a good choice if you choose to fight and poke often and you're not so focused on getting a passive gold income.
AP glyphs instead of scaling MR - This is a more unorthodox choice of glyphs as the passive AP you gain through souls will quickly over shadow this slight boost. Additionally, Thresh's scaling with AP isn't great and that's why there are not many AP Threshes about.
Gold income seals AND quints - This is fine for a support to run, but you will be missing out on some vital early game armor - yes, he does collect armor with his souls, but it's not very effective early game (the time when ADCs look to start collecting kills)

Of course these are all through my own experience and knowledge, if you feel like you have a winning combo of runes tell me what you run on the discussion page of this guide.

Current meta defcries that the bot lane support battle with usually be between Thresh and Leona. Thresh is the champion that makes me opt. for support even when first pick purely because of the plays you can make, and the success that will follow if you master the hook and lantern. When it comes to Thresh vs. Leona, Thresh wins (again, ignore the Leona fanboys) - to beat Leona, simply sit with your ADC early game; notice when Leona activates her shield (this is the key thing to look out for as this is the sign that she will be engaging shortly); and then Flay her away as she engages with Zenith Blade (the sword she throws at you to leap). As the hardest support to play against, if you can shut down Leona, you can beat anyone.

Thresh is the strongest support pick in ranked currently - not only because he can get his ADC fed early - but also because he's very useful late game, as he becomes the main initiator and if built for it, can be the front line tank. Thresh's utility combined with his late game build's CDR means no one can escape the hook - assuming you can land it. PLEASE FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, GET GOOD WITH AT LANDING THE HOOK BEFORE TAKING THRESH TO RANKED PLAY.