Hi everyone, I'm Deathshandx and I am a support main. I find support very fun to play, and it is probably one of the most fun and important roles in the game. Many people don't really believe that support takes skill, however to be a really good support it does take skill. When it comes to being a good support, you need to keep in mind that you're there to make plays, win team fights, and to help your teammates get kills.

Thresh is probably my main support at the moment, and he's the character I have the highest win rate in ranked with. Thresh is a very fun support, and he can be amazing in games if you're good with him. He has been my main support ever since I bought him, and I am just absolutely in love with his play style and his abilities. He is just so naturally tanky, and that allows him to engage in fights and soak up all the damage while CCing his enemies and keeping his teammates from dying. In my guide I'm going to give an in-depth explanation on Thresh, and exactly how to master him. I will explain multiple options for his build paths, and his item paths.


*Image credit to Peterbaumann*

I thought I would make a quick, small section before I get into the guide on Thresh. This is because someone whom is reading this may be new to the support role and might be a bit confused on what exactly you need to do. Here I'm going to break down the basics on support, and what exactly you need to be doing while playing a support character.

What is a support?

Basically as a support, you are going to be keeping your teammates alive when in team fights, and you're going to be responsible for 90% of the vision on the map. As a support, it is expected of you to be constantly keeping vision on important objectives, such as Baron and Dragon. You really can't expect most of your teammates to ward, as they are going to be in the mentality that "they're the support, they should be warding". Even as stupid as it seems that they would think that, some players really do.

Being the support, you're going to want to try to keep your AD carry alive while in lane phase. To do this, you're going to have to ward around your lane to prevent the enemy jungle from ganking you. You will also have to try and protect your AD carry while in trades, meaning that if you have a heal spell you will most likely have to use it on them, while CCing the enemies.

Even though support can be difficult to learn and to play at first, I honestly believe that learning it is really worth it. There's no feeling better than making sure your team wins and that your carry gets fed. A support is such a big help to their team, and the satisfaction of picking off lone enemies who happened to walk over your ward really makes you feel accomplished. Good luck and have fun on learning to support! :)

Thresh is probably a strong teamfight based support, so if your team composition is for teamfights, Thresh would be a good choice. This is because he can initiate fights with his Death Sentence as well as shield his teammates with his Dark Passage, while his ultimate The Box acts as a CC ability. Thresh does well in a poke team as well, seeing as he can use his Death Sentence to lock down a target for his teammates, however, there are better options for poke teams such as Nidalee. Overall, I personally think that Thresh is the best in teamfight based teams, however you can pick him on any type of team composition.

Which build should I pick?

As Thresh there are generally two ways to build him, aggressive and passive. Picking which way you should build him in your game depends on your team composition and the enemy team composition. Generally, you want to make your decision based on the following things:

What type of team composition do they have?

Keep in mind to look at the enemy team composition as well.

If they have a high damage based team, with people such as Jax, Yasuo, and a strong AD carry such as Lucian, you would want to go for the tank path instead. This is because you'll most likely need two tanks on your team with these types of compositions, meaning you'll have to be the second one.

If they have a poke composition, such as Nidalee, Jinx and Ziggs, you would want to go for the utility and team fight based build. This is because you'll need the items from the utility set to be able to win against a poke composition. With the items you buy in the utility build, you'll be able to keep your team alive when they're poking you down.

What type of team composition do we have?

Your team composition also comes into play here, and trying to decide on what exactly to go that matches with your team composition can be difficult.

If your team has a very strong tank, such as Trundle, Renekton, Shyvana, or Nasus. Then you should probably avoid going the tank build on Thresh, just because of the fact that those three that I listed are super tanks and can probably allow your team to get away with them being the only tank on the team. You would be better off going for the utility build with this team composition.

If your team has a strong poke based composition and no tank, you would probably be better off going for the tank build and avoid the utility build. If your team is poke based and you need to all in the enemies after poking them down, you should try to tank the damage for your squishy team.

Pros

Amazing CC.
Great Teamfight Potential.
Natural Tankiness.
Makes amazing plays.
Difficult to take down with full build.
Brings great utility.

Cons

Can get punished if he misses a hook early game.
Morgana's black shield counters his hooks.
Can be easily counter played if you're new to him.

Your runes honestly does make your character, and I find that using tank with a bit of damage runes work wonders on any support that is tanky. I'm going to explain my rune choices, why exactly I chose these runes, and how they affect your gameplay.

Tank Support Runes

Quintessences: I really find this to be the best of the Quintessences that you can use, this is because it really just adds that extra health for early game which will make you tankier than your opponent, allowing you to not have to back as early.

Glyphs: These are amazing for lane phase and just overall, that extra magic resist, even if it is just a bit, really does help you out a lot while playing. This makes you more tanky in the sense that you can take more hits from AP champions without taking as much damage. Once you have a few items, the bonus Magic Resist from these runes really do help.

Seals: These give you extra armor while in lane phase and in the overall game. The extra armor makes it harder for their AD carry to poke you down while in lane phase, which allows you to not have to back as early, as well as take the damage for your AD carry.

Marks: The AD from your runes will allow you to poke the enemies in lane with your Auto Attack and take out a good amount of their health. This, along with your flay passive will make you hurt, and will even allow you to poke them down low enough for your AD carry to finish them off.

Passive Support Runes

Quintessences: I still use the health quints on passive support, just because when you're passive you're going to need the health if they try to poke you down or have a lot of damage in bot lane. This really does help in lane phase, and I think you should take it no matter what. You can substitute it for something else though if you don't like going Health Quints.

Glyphs: Again, If you're a passive support against an aggressive lane, you're going to want defensive runes. Which is why I went magic resist runes, you want to use these if you're against one of the popular ap supports such as Annie or Morgana.

Seals: Seals of gold gain really do help if you're passive, just because you're not really going to gain much gold when you go passive, and these will help you with that gold gain so that you can keep up with items.

Marks: I like to go armor marks if I'm on a passive support, because you still are going to need the armor. If you're going full defensive, you will need the resist and the armor because your enemy lane might just go full aggressive. You can always grab the scaling magic resist instead of armor if you prefer to go full magic resist runes on a passive support.

Standard tank support Masteries. 9/21/0

These are mostly the standard support tank masteries, with no utility, the purpose of these masteries are to keep you as tanky as possible, even if it doesnt give you the utility that the utility tree gives you, I think that if you're aiming for a really tanky support, you should follow these masteries.

Offensive Masteries

This gives you Cooldown Reduction without even buying anything, it's helpful for Thresh because he has generally long cooldowns early game, and with max points in this they will be shortened a bit, allowing you to do better in early game.

I took this just because of what it does. It basically means that if you damage an enemy with your Death Sentence, Flay, or The Box, it will increase the damage that your allies do to them. This is extremely useful if you have someone on your team who can burst them down when you lock down a target with Death Sentence.

I chose to go with this because when you have this mastery along with your Flay passive, and your runes, your Auto attacks around level 6 or so will be dealing approximately ~120 damage. This allows you to easily poke down your enemies with little or no risk due to Thresh's range on his Auto attacks.

This really does just give you bonus AD, which is really helpful early on, even if it is just a small amount. Like I said for the mastery above this, the extra AD helps Thresh poke down his enemies without really any risk.

Defensive Masteries

Even if it just reduces enemy auto attack damage by two at max rank, this allows you to take a small amount of less damage while in lane, and is really helpful for early levels such as level two and three.

At max rank this gives +2 health every 5 seconds, even if it is a small amount, this allows you to heal quicker while out of combat when you're in early levels, even saving you from using your potion if you took just a small amount of poke damage. You really want to just put points in this for the early game sustain.

This is just small damage reduction but it does make a difference when you're still pre-level ten. Along with your armor and magic resist, this allows you to be pretty tanky early on and avoid being squishy. This also allows you to duel the enemy support if they're squishy like Janna or Sona.

Putting max points in this gives you +36 health, and even if it doesn't seem like much it really does just make you so much more difficult to kill when the enemies have hardly any items. By the time they get to buy items, you'll have items as well, and this pretty much prevents you from dying early on in the game and falling behind.

This gives you 3% damage reduction from enemies with movement impairing effects on them. I find this really useful because your Flay slows enemies, and if you use that to pull them towards or away from you while they're attacking you it reduces their damage to you. Personally, this is really good on Thresh because you will end up being focused around 85% of the time.

Since you're going full tank thresh, or utility with mostly tank, this is probably one of the best masteries to have. Giving you 3% of your maximum health, when you have around 4k+ health, it gives around ~120 extra health, which while it may not seem like a lot of health, it really is good.

The armor bonus on this really helps out your early game, even if it is just 5, it makes it harder for the enemy AD carry to kill you. The armor stacking on thresh is what really does make him tanky, and you can use this to your advantage.

Perseverance

This regenerates your health, when combo'd with Recovery it makes your health regeneration pretty good. If you get poked down to about 75% of your health, you will regenerate it pretty quickly with both of these masteries.

I find this to be extremely good on Thresh, because you will be the one to engage teamfights and this just makes you so much more tanky while in the middle of the enemy team. It is definitely worth the points in it.

Reducing crowd control effects by 15%? This is really useful on Thresh because you will get focused down if you're doing really good and this really just allows you to escape from their CC easier. This can make you more difficult to lock down and to catch if you're trying to run from enemies.

Passive Support Masteries 4/4/22

If you want to go a more passive support, you would probably prefer using the following masteries, as they provide much more utility, while still keeping cool down reduction and armor.

Offensive Masteries

As previously stated, you want to get this for the cool down reduction, as thresh has generally long cool downs when you really dont have anything maxed out.

Defensive Masteries

The passive health regeneration is amazing if you're playing passive, just because you want to avoid being chunked down since you wont really have as much tankiness as the other mastery path.

The bonus 5% armor and magic resist help you still keep some of your tank qualities while being passive, as it lets you keep that natural tanky quality of thresh but still allows you to put other points into utility.

Utility Masteries

I think this is pretty useful since it reduces your recall time, it can be helpful if you need to quickly back or are trying to get out of a sticky situation.

This allows you to move quicker around the map, and this'll allow you to quickly save an ally, or if you're running from the enemies it gives you a better chance to escape.

I like to take this because of the cool downs on summoner spells it gives you. This is really useful if you take a spell such as Exhaust or Heal for your lane, it'll allow you to cast them more often and let you win trades more often.

Alchemist is a really good mastery to put in if you're going support, even if you're not playing Thresh. It just allows the money you put into potions to be worth more, and is overall very useful.

This goes paired really well with your gold runes if you're playing the passive Thresh build. It gives you more gold and that will allow you to get ahead of your lane opponent by getting items earlier.

This is simple, it makes your health potions heal for more and return a small bit of mana. It allows your potions to be worth so much more while in lane phase, since you won't have to back to buy potions that often.

You get an extra one gold each time your AD carry kills a lane minion, thus improving your gold gain even more throughout the game.

This gives you an extra 40 starting gold, allowing you to buy an extra potion. I find this useful because it just gives you even more starting sustain while at early levels in the game.

Generally in lane phase you will get behind of your AD carry in experience because you'll have to leave lane to ward at times. This allows you to gain extra experience if they're higher level than you, allowing you to catch up quicker in levels.

This allows you to gain extra gold on an assist, so you don't have to suffer with being that far behind in gold and items. I find it pretty useful if you're good with your champion you're supporting as and you know you'll get a lot of assists.

This is a very useful mastery as it gives you 5% cool down reduction, along with 10% cool down reduction on activatable items. If you're going full utility Thresh you absolutely need this mastery.

This adds movement speed when out of combat. I find it really helpful on Thresh as it allows you to roam around the map and make plays easier or save your teammates easier.

You can of course change these up for anything you would rather prefer, although these are my two main builds for Thresh depending on what exactly I'm going for. Of course, remember to check in with your AD carry on what type of support they would like.

Flash is probably a necessity on all champions, no matter what role you're going. This is probably one of the strongest and most viable summoner spells right now, as it just has so much potential. It allows you to escape if you have no other way to, it allows you to close the gap between you and your enemy if you have already used your gap closer, and finally it allows you to juke your enemies.

I prefer exhaust over heal on Thresh just because of the amazing plays you can make with it. This slows down the enemy and reduces their damage dealt. With exhaust, you can engage on a trade in your lane and win by slowing down whoever you're focusing, allowing your AD carry to burst them down quickly. This can also prevent someone from killing one of your teammates by using exhaust on the enemy whom is chasing your almost dead teammate.

Heal is another option you can get on Thresh, if you would prefer to go for a double heal lane rather than another option. This can bring a lot of utility in lane, because if you need the heal and your AD carry's heal is on cool down, you can save a life. You can take this option if you prefer it over something like exhaust.

Ignite is also another option for Thresh. You can use it to secure kills that your teammates can't get, and it really would be useful if there's no major threat on the enemy team which would require you to get heal or exhaust. Although most supports don't get ignite anymore, it is still a viable option for Thresh.

Thresh's passive, damnation is actually a pretty good passive. When you pick up a soul, you gain bonus armor and AP, which is really good because with a large amount of souls, you'll have a ton of bonus armor. This gives a chance for a soul to drop whenever you're near a minion that dies, however it's not always 100% certain that a soul will drop. If you kill a champion, the chances of a soul dropping is 100% though. Basically, you want to collect as many souls as you can, but try not to put yourself in a risky situation such as running into the enemy tower to pick one up! I will give you a nifty trick on picking up those dangerous souls later on in this section.

This is Thresh's hook ability, you can pull off some pretty good plays using this ability. Basically what this ability does, is if you land it on your enemy, it will stun then and pull them towards you, however you can press it again to go to your enemy, which makes for some good engages. Whether it is engaging a fight or disengaging a fight, it is amazing if you know how to use it. I will dedicate a section later on explaining what exactly you can do with your thresh hooks and the amazing combos you can pull off with them.

This is Thresh's lantern, and is probably one of the best abilities in his kit. This provides and Area Of Effect shield for your team, and can also allow you to save teammates with it. If an ally grabs your lantern, it will allow them to end up where you are, which you can use to save some of your allies from situations where they would otherwise die. A nifty trick you can use with your lantern is using it to pick up souls that would otherwise be dangerous to get, to do this, you throw your lantern down to where the souls are, and it will collect them for you.

Flay is probably my favorite of Thresh's abilities, as it allows you to either: A) Pull enemies closer to you and prevent them from escaping. or B) push enemies away from you to prevent you or your enemies from dying, which is useful in disengages. This also gives you a nice passive AD buff, increasing your damage from Auto attacks on your enemies. Flay can be used two ways, backwards and forwards. If you use it backwards, it will pull enemies into you, if you use it forwards it will push them away. Try to use this to your advantage and know when to use it backwards and when to use it normally.

Thresh's ultimate is really good with his whole kit. This creates a "box" around Thresh. When an enemy knocks into the side of your ult, it slows them and damages them. This can be extremely useful in lane phase, especially when you're trading with your enemies. If you want to really lock someone down, you can use your combo on them, which I'll explain further on in this guide.

I'm going to explain what ways you can max out his abilities, when you should max it like that, and why

Standard aggressive Thresh

This is what I generally use on thresh, probably just because I like having the short cooldown on your Flay which can generally get you or your teammates out of sticky situations by pushing the enemies away. At max level, it should be on around a 4 second cooldown if you have CDR, which can be helpful for teamfights. You want to use this ability build if you're going to rely on your Flay a lot.

You want to max your hook last, as if you were to max it early on it would be really costly when it comes to your mana. As long as you can land a hook, you really don't need to max this until later on.

You want to max your lantern second, as by the time you get around to putting in your second or third point, there should be some team fights or even small 3v3 fights going on. Maxing it second allows you to have at least a few points in it when it's important.

This is what you want to max first. The bonus AD on it really does make a difference while in lane, and I've found that when you max this it lets you poke down your enemies easier while playing safe by having it on such a low cool down.

You pretty much want to put a point into your ult every time you can. Your ult provides amazing utility to your team fights and even to lane phase as it allows you to easily disengage or secure a kill.

Hook Landing Thresh

If you're really good at landing hooks with thresh, I would suggest using this ability order instead of the general ability order. This order allows you to have amazing cool down on your hooks, and it can be really useful if you're against one of your counters such as Morgana because her Black Shield will be on a higher cool down than Death Sentence if you max it first. Allowing you to land more hooks.

If you're going for the hook landing thresh ability order. You're going to want to max this first. If you can land your hooks, then maxing this out first is really a good advantage. You can also max this out first if you're planning on invading and want to lock down the enemy jungler.

You generally would want to max out your lantern next, however you can swap this out for Flay if you prefer. Although maxing out your lantern second would give you more utility for team fights.

you can either max this out second or third when you go for the hook max thresh order. However I personally prefer maxing this one out last if you were to max hook first, just because lantern might give a bit more utility for your team fights, however this can be useful in team fights as well. Try experimenting with which you prefer to max second.

Utility Thresh

On a utility Thresh, you would probably want to max out your Dark Passage first, this is because it provides the most utility out of all his abilities. I would generally go this ability order if you want to be a more team player type support and help out the team rather than being a full on tank.

You want to max this second when you go utility thresh, this is because it brings more utility on this build rather than Flay. It will allow you to cast more hooks and have your hook be on a shorter cool down.

When you go utility thresh, you want to start with your lantern first. This is because it provides a really strong shield which will help your team mates out a lot. When you max it first, the cool down is pretty low and you'll be able to throw out your lantern a lot in lane.

I really think you should max this last if you're going full on utility Thresh because when you go utility on him, you'll generally be staying in the back making sure your team stays safe and locking down targets with your Death Sentence so you'll only really need one point in it for now.

As Thresh his Death Sentence is probably one of the most useful abilities. This is because you can preform a good amount of tricks with his hooks. Basically, if you're being chased by the enemy and you need to get away or you'll die, you're going to be able to hook to a creep over the wall and get away. I'll provide a screenshot with the places you can hook over walls, and how to pull it off.

How do I hook over walls?

Hooking over walls, as difficult as it may sound, isn't really too difficult at all and can be really useful in escaping from enemies. There are multiple spots on the map to which you can hook to and then "jump" over walls as you tap your hook again to go to the enemy. Here is a visual guide on the spots you can hook over the wall to enemies. Generally it is around these areas, just make sure you know the range of your hook before you cast it!



Here I demonstrate an example hook over the wall on the blue side red buff. It really doesn't take too much effort and can make the enemies confused and impressed by your hook plays!

Wombo Combos as Thresh!

As Thresh you can pull off a number of wombo combos in team fights. I'm going to list a few of my favorite ones and tell you how to pull them off! These combos will make your teammates see you as a godlike support.

The classic teamfight combo.

This is one of the classic and potentially amazing combos that Thresh can pull off. I like to use this for engaging in fights on the enemy team. You want to start by throwing Dark Passage into the enemy team, immediately after you Death Sentence onto one of them and press it again to get into the middle of them. Following up your Death Sentence you use The Box to prevent them from escaping, use your Flay to pull them close to you if they're running, and throw them into your teammates. After you finish this combo, your team should have killed most of them.

The disengage combo

This is a simple combo you can do to disengage the fight if you're losing or you can't fight them and they engage on you. You want to immediately cast The Box to slow anyone trying to get to you and your teammates. Afterwards you turn to them for a second and use Flay to push them back from you. Put down Dark Passage in front of your team if you're all together, or if someone is getting caught put it by them so they can lantern to you. By now your team should be fully disengaged, however if you're not, you're going to have to make a very important play here. What you do if you've done all this and they're still on your tail and your team has no hopes of getting out alive, you turn on your enemies and you walk into them, serving as a distraction while your teammates get away.

On Thresh, the items you buy really does depend on what exactly you're looking for. He can be played as a tank support or as a utility support. Overall it depends on what you're more comfortable with.

Tank Thresh

This is my general build for tank Thresh. I try to go for mainly tanky items, but also items that can benefit the team as well as allow you to soak up all the damage. Listed below are the core items you must have on tank Thresh, along with optional items and which circumstances you should pick them in.

Core Items

This is generally what you need to buy on any support, no matter who you're playing. It provides amazing utility and allows you to place vision wards on the map. Most of the time your teammates will not ward and depend on you to keep vision on important objectives such as Baron and Dragon. If you are confused on where to ward, here is a quick visual guide on where you should ward for Baron and Dragon. With purple being on the purple side and blue being on the blue side.

Face of the Mountain

This is the best possible gold income item on Thresh. It provides tankiness, a shield for you or one of your teammates, and just overall does help you in becoming more tanky, which should be your goal for Thresh.

I generally purchase this on him just because of the overall plays you can make with these. The movement speed bonus really does help you when you're in lane phase, and even out of lane phase. With these you can easily roam from bot to mid and make plays, as well as quickly move around the map to ward or to save someone with your lantern.

I always buy this just because of the fact that it increases the armor and magic resist of you and your teammates. This is really good if the enemy has mixed damage, but even if they don't because of the active. The active really does make this worth buying, as in team fights you will be able to shield your allies with not only your lantern, but this as well. Providing a double shield for your team.

Optional Items

Even though I listed this under optional, I buy it 90 percent of the time. I really do like this item because of the passive health regeneration, as well as the health you get from it. This really does make it harder for the enemies to kill you.

Zeke's Herald

This item gives nice stats for you and your teammates. The life steal and AD that it gives your team really does help if you have at least two AD champions on your team. The Cooldown Reduction is also really helpful for Thresh as it allows him to use his abilities more often.

You want to get this if they're mostly AP, meaning that their only AD would be their AD carry. This gives you nice Magic Resist, as well as health which makes you harder to kill for them, since they would be mainly AP and couldn't really chunk you down as fast.

You want this if you're the only one who will engage team fights on your team. This allows you to stay in the middle of the fight as well as deal damage and stay alive.

This is a really good buy if you need the health and your team is having trouble sticking the the enemy team in team fights. The active is really useful for team fights, and the health and armor will help you if you're getting melted by their AD carry.

You should only buy this if you need the Magic resist and the Health. The passive is really the only good thing about this, I would generally only buy this if the enemy has an AP carry who can chunk your health really quickly (For example: Nidalee, Veigar, LeBlanc).

Utility Thresh

Core items

You will need this no matter what build you're going with thresh. Sightstone is a necessary item on any support character. It lets you secure objectives and keep vision on the map.

Talisman of Ascension

You want to buy this if you don't go the relic shield path. Although I personally prefer relic shield over this item, it is completely up to you. The active on this is good for engaging team fights, fleeing team fights, or catching up to enemies getting away.

I find this still really useful on utility Thresh. Just because of the extra shield it gives your teammates that's on such a short cool down. It really is one of the more useful items you can buy on Thresh.

Optional Items

These really are the most useful boots on Thresh, I just really love the whole utility that it gives him, being able to move around the map faster and make more plays. You can however swap this out for other boots if you need to.

I really don't buy this on thresh, but honestly it can be useful on him. It would probably work well paired with Talisman, as it would allow you to quickly catch up to enemies by activating both at the same time.

This is a really useful item if you plan on going full utility. It allows you to heal your teammates, and I find that this goes paired really well with Locket of the Iron Solari just because those two combined allow your team to become extremely defensive.

I like this item on Thresh because it allows him to keep targets close and slow them, as well as providing him with some tankiness. It's a really good utility item to help your team in team fights. It also allows you to slow enemies trying to jump onto your carries.

Zeke's Herald

When you buy this, it provides your team with extra AD and lifesteal, making it another really good item to buy on Thresh, since you should be by your team mates most of the time while in team fights.

In lane phase as Thresh you want to make sure you're doing three things.

1. Protecting your carry.
2. Collecting souls.
3. Engaging and making plays.

I'm going to go in-depth on how you can do these three things.

Protecting your carry

To protect your carry, you want to be using Dark Passage to get them out of sticky situations where they would die. To be able to do this, you have to make sure you don't stand too close to them while you have Dark Passage up. You want to use Flay forwards on the enemies if they try to engage and you or your carry are low on health.

If the enemy jungler ganks, you want to be sure to hug tower and Flay them off your tower if they start attacking it. You should have wards up in the river constantly to prevent ganks though, because playing safe is better than the enemy AD carry getting a double kills.

Collecting souls

Collecting souls off your passive Damnation is one of the most important things you can do as Thresh. The souls really will help you out in lane, giving you extra armor and ap. You want to try to collect as many of these as you can. You want to use your Dark Passage to collect them if it's too risky.

Engaging and making plays

To make plays in lane as Thresh you need to make sure you land a Death Sentence on the enemy, once you do, go in on it and Flay them into your AD carry. You want to use Exhaust if they're low and getting away so your carry can finish them off. If you have your ult, using The Box would be useful in trades too. You want to generally go in if you know you can get the kill or if your jungler is there to gank for you.

As a mid or late game Thresh you want to be doing basically the same things as lane phase, just a bit different. This time you're going to be doing the following.

1. Warding objectives.
2. Protecting your team.
3. Engaging and making plays in teamfights.

Warding objectives

You want to constantly have wards on objectives such as Baron and Dragon. This is to prevent the enemy team from taking them. You're going to want to make sure to be using Sightstone all the time in this phase, if dragon is gone you swap your wards to baron. You will also be using Sweeping Lens to get rid of any enemy wards if you're going to be taking said objectives.

Protecting your team

As Thresh your main priority is to protect your team, you can do this by using the disengage method I mentioned earlier in my guide. This is where your Dark Passage and Locket of the Iron Solari will shine, these will provide a double shield for your teammates if they need it. You're going to also want to use Flay to keep enemies from locking down anyone on your team.

You should also be running around the map at this point and making plays. If you see your mid lane in a bad 3v1 situation, you need to run in there and Flay them away from your mid lane, or engage on them if you know you two can kill them all. If they're already dying, you want to use your Dark Passage to allow them to lantern to you and to safety.

Engaging and making plays in team fights

This is going to be basically Thresh's time to shine in the game. You're going to want to use my engage combo from my wombo combos section to engage on the enemy team. If you need to, pop your Locket of the Iron Solari along with Dark Passage and your face of the mountain or talisman of ascension active, depending on which one you picked. You're going to be the tank in team fights, and you're going to be the one to soak up all the damage and allow the carries and damage dealers to live. If you die in a team fight, as long as your team's carries live, you shouldn't be upset, because it means you're doing your job, you want the enemy team to focus you so that they can't kill your carries.

Along with tanking in team fights, you want to peel for your carries, using Flay and The Box to keep enemies off of them.

Just as any other role in the game, you can be countered when you're a support. I'm going to give three of Thresh's counters, and how exactly you can deal with them. Honestly, you can't really get countered too hard if you know your champion well, even though these counters may be difficult to deal with, if you know how to fight them, you will win.

Difficult Matchups

Morgana is one of Thresh's biggest counters. This is because her Black Shield counters his Death Sentence. It is really annoying when you cast your hook on her and she just cancels it out with her shield. Another annoying thing about lane with a Morgana is her Dark Binding+ Tormented Shadow combo which will chunk out some of your or your AD carry's health.

To deal with Morgana as Thresh, you can either wait until her Black Shield is on cooldown before casting Death Sentence or you can cast it one the one who doesn't have her shield on. If you do land a hook while she has her Black Shield up, you can still press q again to go to her, so if you're trying to engage you can do that and use Flay to push them towards your AD carry.

If Morgana gets her Dark Binding+ Tormented Shadow combo off, you should use Dark Passage on whoever got hit by it so they don't have to deal with the damage that it deals. Try to get out of her Soul Shackles if she uses them, if you get caught there's no need to worry, try not to die in the time you're snared and you should be fine.

You should be pretty safe in this lane and should win it if you keep your lane warded, and use these tips I provided.


Leona is another one of Thresh's big counters. She is pretty tanky and this makes it difficult for Thresh as he will do amazing against squishy supports such as Sona or Janna. I believe that Leona is more difficult for Thresh to fight against for multiple reasons.

Leona has two stuns which are major cc. Shield of Daybreak is her first stun, and when she combos it with Zenith Blade it will pretty much be a snare and a stun at the same time, making it difficult to get out of, but not impossible. If Leona uses her Shield of Daybreak+ Zenith Blade combo, you can easily avoid it by using your Flay, although it does take some timing, it will still get her off of whomever she used her combo on.

Leona excels in team fights with her Solar Flare+ Eclipse. To prevent her from doing too much damage to your team in team fights, you want to make sure you're always using your Flay to prevent her from using Zenith Blade to get back into your team. If your team can lock Leona down long enough, you should be able to win the fight.

Against her in lane, you should generally play safe and stop her from using her combo on you or your AD carry, because if she does her AD carry will get a kill around 85% of the time.



Annie is one of the supports that I personally use to counter Thresh, she is just so good against him that it is one of his harder counters, and she will pretty much win lane unless she is bad at supporting with Annie.

Annie just dominates in lane with her passive which allows her to aoe stun you and your AD carry with Incinerate. She has strong single target focus with her Disintegrate and can use that to single stun your AD carry while the enemy AD carry wipes them out. At level six, she gets her ultimate, Summon: Tibbers which can be used as a massive damage aoe stun on you and your AD carry.

To win lane against an Annie as Thresh you really do have to play safe, and I would suggest really only going in if you know you can get the kill or if your jungle is ganking to help your lane out. When you engage, you want to try and CC Annie as much as possible, or she will stun you and your carry and have her carry burst you guys down. You want to be using Dark Passage whenever you feel like she's going to engage, this will prevent some of the damage or get your AD carry out of her range so she cant engage on you.

Even Matchups

Nidalee can be somewhat difficult for Thresh to fight. This is because of her Javelin Toss which can be used to poke you for a good chunk of your health. With her new passive Prowl, you will get punished if you get hit with her Javelin Toss as she will most likely go full in once you're hit by it and marked with Prowl's debuff. Nidalee's Primal Surge can also make your lane against her annoying, as it will allow her AD carry to take your tower down fast and will heal her or her AD carry.

When in lane against a Nidalee, you want to try and avoid her Javelin Toss as much as possible. If you can't avoid it and are going to get hit, you want to throw down Dark Passage so you don't get damaged too much by it. If your AD carry keeps getting damaged by her Javelin Toss you want to try and take the hits for them, as they're much more squishy than you are. You want to try and engage on her or her carry once she has used her Primal Surge, as she wont be able to heal the damage you deal.Try to save your Flay to cc her Takedown] if she has her Prowl debuff on you or your carry, as it will deal a lot of damage.



Nami goes pretty even with Thresh, however she does have the possibility to win lane if you don't know how to go against her. Nami just has so much more sustain while in lane, due to her Ebb and Flow and her Aqua Prison. Nami's ultimate, Tidal Wave can be really annoying when you're playing against her, as it will prevent you from going all in.

To lane against a Nami as Thresh, you're going to want to wait until she wastes her Aqua Prison and then you're going to want to engage with Death Sentence. You should also try to avoid going all in on her and her AD carry when you out number them because of her Ebb and Flow which will bounce between you and them, allowing her to heal herself and her carry while damaging you. You want to avoid her Tidal Wave, which can be easily avoided as it moves slowly.



Lulu can be anywhere from even to easy when you play against one as Thresh. Unless the Lulu player mains her and only plays her, you shouldn't have too much difficulty against her as Thresh. Lane phase against a Lulu can be somewhat annoying, due to her Whimsy and Help, Pix!, as those are her two main utility abilities. Her Glitterlance and Wild Growth also make this lane somewhat difficult.

To lane against a Lulu as Thresh, you want to avoid her Glitterlance as much as possible, as it will deal some damage and slow you, allowing her AD carry to poke you down. If she casts Whimsy on your AD carry, be sure to use your Dark Passage on them to avoid any damage that might be dealt to them while they're crowd controlled. Once she's level 6, try to poke her down and force her to use Wild Growth, once she's wasted it is when you want to go all in on her or her AD carry and kill them.

Overall, this lane should be fairly easy if you avoid her Glitterlance and try to make her waste her Wild Growth.

Easy Matchups

Sona is a pretty easy match up for Thresh due to her squishy nature and Thresh just has overall better utility. When in lane against a Sona you want to be sure to put as much harass on her as you can, even when playing passive. You want to try and force her out of lane early so she cant get off her Aria of Perseverance on her or her AD carry. Try to land Death Sentence on her as much as possible, as it will CC her and allow your AD carry to burst her down easily due to her squishy nature.

As Thresh you pretty much out play everything that Sona does. You have slows to counter act her Song of Celerity and if she tries to use Hymn of Valor on you or your AD carry, you can just easily shield the damage with your Dark Passage. Overall, this lane should be fairly easy as long as you keep harassing her and her AD carry.



Janna should be a fairly easy match up for Thresh. It can be a bit difficult though if you're not sure what to do. To lane against a Janna as Thresh, you have to know how to deal with her. You want to try and avoid her Howling Gale as it will knock you and your AD carry up. If she casts Eye of the Storm on her or her AD carry, change your focus to whomever doesn't have Eye of the Storm on them.

You want to try and punish her for missing her Howling Gale by harassing her with either your AA damage from Flay or with your Death Sentence. Her ultimate Monsoon can be a bit annoying to deal with. You should go in after she uses her ultimate to get the most effect in team fights or in lane, as she wont be able to knock you back or heal.

Janna has a lot of CC, she should be an easy lane, but you might have to play safe if she's playing super aggressive with her Howling Gale.



Soraka is a fairly easy lane match for Thresh, although her Astral Blessing, Infuse, and her ultimate Wish can be just a bit annoying when fighting against one. Soraka doesn't deal as much damage in lane anymore, due to her Starcall nerfs, and that will make the lane more in your favour, as she really only has her heals and silence now.

When in lane against a Soraka, try to make her waste her mana early by getting off a lot of poke on the enemy carry and her, as this will force her to use Astral Blessing a lot, which costs her a hefty amount of mana. Try to make her use her Infuse on you or your carry, to make her end up wasting even more mana. You really shouldn't worry about her Starcall damage, as it can easily be soaked up by your Dark Passage.

Like all supports, with Thresh you have AD carries who do bad paired with him, and AD carries who do good. In this section I'm going to point out which AD carries go best with Thresh and why, listing their pros and cons when paired with Thresh, as well as which AD carries don't do so well with Thresh.

Tier 1 AD carries

I have come to notice that these carries go the best with Thresh, from my experience of supporting them, along with my experience playing them with a Thresh support. After a lot of experimenting around on just what carries go well with Thresh, these are the possible best that you can pair with him, which will almost guarantee a won lane.



Let's start off with Lucian, he is one of my favorite AD carries overall, he's just so good, it doesn't matter if you're playing him or supporting him. Despite the lore between the two, this is probably the ultimate duo in bot lane. They just have so much damage between them along with CC and range.

When in a lane with Lucian as your AD carry, you want to lock down your enemies with Death Sentence so he can get damage off on them with either his double auto attack from his passive Lightslinger, or he can get damage off with his Piercing Light. This will allow him to poke down his enemies. This lane is generally a safe lane for your side, due to your Dark Passage and Lucian's Relentless Pursuit, which will allow you two to avoid a lot of damage and escape easier.

At level 6, you guys can pull off a wombo combo with your two ultimate abilities. You'll engage with Death Sentence while Lucian follows up on it. Throw down your ultimate, The Box and trap them momentarily while Lucian damages them even more. When they try to escape, use Flay to pull them closer to you guys while lucian finishes them off with The Culling.

Just the overall safety and damage output of this lane is what makes it one of the top tier duo bot lane combinations. This will allow you to get your Lucian fed, as you will win this lane most of the time.



Corki is probably my second favorite AD carry just because of his all in potential, escape potential, and poke potential, making it really easy to lane as him and difficult for his opponents. When combined with Thresh, there's just so much potential no matter what build you're going.

Corki is another great lane partner for Thresh, this is because of his poke range along with his all in potential. Corki's Valkyrie combined with his Gatling Gun allows him to follow up on you going in with Death Sentence. His Valkyrie also allows him to easily escape any ganks on your lane, making you able to save you Dark Passage for if you really need it. Corki's Phosphorus Bomb allows him to damage them from afar, once they're damaged you can engage and secure a kill.

At level 6, your ultimate The Box allows you to trap them for Corki to use Phosphorus Bomb, and then all in with his other abilities. Corki can also secure far away kills with his ultimate, Missile Barrage, allowing him to pick up kills that would otherwise be impossible.

This lane combination has pretty good synergy because of the ability to easily all in and escape if you need to. It is probably one of the strongest combinations for bot lane, as Corki deals mixed damage, meaning he'll be able to easily whittle down opponents in lane if they only have armor and not magic resist.



Caitlyn is a pretty safe pick for whenever you AD carry, she relies mostly on Auto Attacks due to her passive Headshot. This is why she goes good in lane with Thresh, you have so much lockdown potential and that allows her to get her Auto Attacks off.

When it comes to having Caitlyn as your duo in bot lane, you really just want to make sure to keep peeling for her and preventing her from dying so she can get fed. To do this you want to use your Flay to get enemies off of her, and use your Dark Passage to ensure that she doesn't take much damage in lane which would force her to back.

You want to use your Death Sentence to lock down your targets so she can get her Auto Attacks off, allowing her passive Headshot to go off, or for her to use Piltover Peacemaker. Basically, you want to lock down your enemies with Death Sentence and Flay so she can get her main source of damage off on them.

Overall, Caitlyn works well with Thresh. She has her 90 Caliber Net which allows her to escape sticky situations without having to use your Dark Passage to save her, and just the overall lockdown of this lane with your spells and her Yordle Snap Trap make it a good lane.



Draven is like Caitlyn, a mostly Auto Attack based champion, although he does still have some abilities which will be useful. He is the type of AD carry who'll burst down targets with his Auto Attacks and if he doesn't kill them, he'll chase them down and finish it.

I find that Draven is a good pick to pair with Thresh because of the lockdowns that Thresh can provide with his Death Sentence and Flay. This allows Draven to get Auto Attacks off on his enemies, allowing him to gain more of his passive, League of Draven, which'll eventually allow you to snowball lane if he gets a kill or two.

Draven doesn't really have any escape, unless you count his Blood Rush, however he'll usually use that to chase and get a kill. This is why Thresh is important for him, as Thresh's Dark Passage allows Draven to easily escape.

I find that once you're level 6 in lane, Draven and Thresh become a really good combo for the lane. Once your ultimate, The Box is up, Draven can take advantage of them being trapped and use his Stand Aside to knock them into your ultimate. Draven can then take advantage of them being slowed and easily kill them with his Auto Attacks, if he doesn't kill them, he can finish them off with Whirling Death.

Tier 2 AD carries

These carries go good with Thresh, however I find that they rely on the skills of your players rather than just mindlessly comboing the enemy until they're dead. These actually require you and your carry to think about your decisions, and that's why I put them in tier 2, because they still can work really good when played correctly.

*Still in progress*

Overall, Thresh is a very good support, if not one of the best. By now, you should be able to do pretty well off with him. I tried to provide most of the basic, yet in-depth information on Thresh into this guide by giving nifty tips and tricks. This was my first guide, so I would appreciate some feed back on it, and maybe tips on what I should change or improve. If you have any questions on Thresh feel free to message me on league, my summoner name is Deathshandx and I play on the NA server.

Good luck and have fun playing thresh! :)

June 26 2014

Added Draven to lane synergy.

June 22 2014

Added Lane Synergy section.

June 21 2014

Added Soraka to the matchups section.

Added Lulu to the matchups section.

Added dividers to matchups section.

June 20 2014

Added "when should i pick thresh" section.

Added Nidalee and Nami to the matchups section.

Added line dividers to sections.

Compressed the images into "spoiler" sections to make it seem less long.

June 19 2014

Updated guide, adding different masteries, runes, skill orders, and option paths based on what you want to play.

Added change log.

Added Janna and Sona to the lane match ups.

June 18th 2014

Guide added.