Honestly I can say with great frustration that I am starting to give up hope of this guide going anywhere. This isn't to say I wont come back and look to see how everything is going at my guide but I went from being 3rd top build and my guide being shown to 6th or whatever position that I'm at now. So all I can say again as I have already stated before that if you're going to downvote me please tell me why or don't it doesn't seem like this guide is going to go anywhere.

I WANT IT TO BE VERY CLEAR THAT NO BUILD IS PERFECT AND MINE IS NO EXCEPTION ALSO THE BUILD IS NOT SET IN STONE SO BUILD ACCORDINGLY EX. AD HEAVY TEAM YOU BUILD ARMOR AP HEAVY TEAM BUILD MAGIC RESIST.

Hello and welcome to my build on solo top Thresh. When I first saw Thresh it was love at first sight. Until riotphreak came on and said that he uses Thresh as a support player and that bothered me for two reasons. One why was riotphreak using a champion and not playing him in the jungle and two that he made such a bad*** looking character a support. (Note: I love you support players and I'm one too we keep the team alive and going and I love you good supports but Thresh is too amazing to be just a support!) So I vowed that I would never play Thresh as a support unless absolutely necessary by my team, and after many games I believe I have come up with a good build. So please read the build and if you enjoy it upvote and leave a comment and if you somehow decide to downvote this guide I mean how could you? PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE leave a comment as to what you didn't like and what I can do to make it better also I'm still trying to make this build amazing so any item recommendations you tell me that I like could get you acknowledgment! :) Without further ado let's get our souls taken by Solo Top Thresh.

Pros

-His q does massive damage when you haven't attacked for several seconds if you have decent AD
-Can save friendlies from impossible situations via dark passage or his flay
-GIGANTIC cc with death sentence, flay, and the box. Alistar got nothing on him
-Due to the magic damage from Thresh's q and my build being AD top will have a hard time building against you(most people I've seen that go top against me stack MR little do they realize that I'm still dealing tons of damage through my q's passive)
-Can gain souls which can increase his armor and ability power very nicely

Cons

-Weak early game (you're mainly going to be farming and auto attacking from far away)
-Does not gain armor per level naturally so you will have to farm to get your armor.
-To be honest I struggled just getting those cons

AD Offtank
For masteries I take four points in Fury for the increased attack speed on minions and champs. I put two points in the Butcher because Thresh is ALL about farm think of him like a Nasus but without having as big of a dependence as him. I also take one point in Summoner's Wrath so we can go further down the tree and the extra ad and ap are both appreciated on Thresh. Going further down I take four points in Deadliness for the increased ad damage towards minions and champs it also work nicely with our q. Then 1 point in Weapon Expertise as it gives us more armor penetration which Thresh loves three points in havoc for the increased damage towards all targets although a small percentage its still good. two points in Brute Force as it helps with early game farm, three points in Sunder for some more beautiful armor penetration and finally a point in Executioner's Calling because it really helps with farming and its so easy to whittle the enemy's health so the increased damage will be all the more helpful.

For defense i take four points in Durability as the health per gain is very nice while soloing top and helps to make you tankier. We also take 3 points in Hardiness as top is dominated by ad champions. Also we put one more point in resistance but only so we can get Veteran's Scars which is an amazing mastery when the game begins and every little bit of health matters.

Tanky AD
You still get the first nine masteries that you took on the AD offtank for the same reasons. The first 9 masteries are the same however we add one more point in resistance. We get two points in unyielding as the two points in reduced damage from champions are nice, 1 point in block when in combined with unyielding it gives us a nice 5 reduced damage from champions nothing game breaking but it will help at top. One point in tenacity combines with trader boots gives us some respectable tenacity. Now I have no idea why Riot made juggernaut so "low" on the tree but oh well we will abuse it take 3 points and at level 18 with my build and AD Thresh Masteries you will have 4229 health! That's insane!

AD OFFTANKS
Marks


For marks I take nine marks of armor penetration these will help counter any armor the enemy top may have early game and it scales well into late game.

The other mark I would recommend are greater marks of penetration as now you will do more damage with your auto attacks and also the passive damage from your q which we will get more in depth to later.


Seals

For Seals i take 9 seals of armor as they are needed for Thresh to take damage from the plethora of ad based enemies top until your passive is farmed will be explained later as well.

The other Seals I would recommend are the seals of scaling health if you are building more of the traditional tank role.


Glyphs
For glyphs I take glyphs of attack damage again for your q, its also helpful for early game farm and i don't really see anything else that would be good for him.

Quints

For quints I take quints of attack damage yet again for the q (you might be seeing a trend here) for what else but to make farming easier and for your q. Your going to see why I keep talking about your q.

The other quits id reccomend are the quints of movement speed which I adore on every solo top champ except thresh mainly becuase I feel safe with both my Dark Passage and my Flay however do NOT underestimate these quints they are VERY VERY good.

TANK RUNES
The only difference here is that we will use health per level seals to make us very tanky level 18 and to feed the damage of one our core items for the build atmas impaler.

Flash is a great spell which lets you blink to an area maybe to get that last basic with Thresh escape a gank, or my favorite throw the Dark Passage(the lantern) flash into the enemy team activate The Box and let my tank grab the lantern. If the tank was Amumu we've probably just won our team fight.
I carry ignite as it is always useful for taking down the last ticks of health on the enemy or against people like Vladimir, Swain,and the infamous Dr. Mundo -.- .

Other spells I would recommend are Exhaust as you can lock down an exhausted opponent with a few basics and maybe even death sentence into Flay them.

Teleport however it's only because of the map presence say at bot your support warded one of the two bushes at bot you could always teleport there and possibly get them a kill.

Ok so let's look at all of Thresh's abilities. His passive is Damnation. Damnation does not allow Thresh to gain armor per level instead he gains armor and also ap through collecting souls which in turn have about a 33% drop rate on minions and a 100%chance on champions and large minions such as ancient golem, siege minion, Giant Wolf etc. (also note your own minions DO NOT drop souls). Now we don't have to kill the target for a soul to drop however you want to be able to kill them quickly so you can stack up on souls as soon as you can.

His Q is Death Sentence. I find this skill to basically be what's going to make him a huge threat in the top lane. When maxed out and you have waited 10 seconds between auto attacking you deal your normal basic attack damage plus 200% that's freaking insane! Trinity Force doesn't even give you this amount 150% if my memory is true. Not only that but the damage is not physical no no no my friend it is magic damage! In other words if the enemy purchases armor when they see you with that Bloodthirster they are ignoring the bigger threat your magic damage. If they build mr then basic attacks will destroy them. The only thing they can do is build both mr and armor and that takes a lot of money and can destroy their build as with the removal of force of nature there really isn't too many great mr items except Banshee's Veil and sometimes Maw of Malmortius. During the laneing phase you should use the passive to help you farm and should your q ever be charge to maximum (the icon will turn red and also you'll hear a soft audible noise) hold onto go behind their mage minions and wait for the enemy to try and farm and just basic him/her and if they don't come who cares the lane will most likely get frozen and he/she will be missing out on farm however even if you decide not farm on minions at this time you can still collect their souls so that's a plus for you. Finality for the active thresh will throw out his chain and what target he hits will get dragged over to Thresh you can activate the spell again however to pull yourself towards the enemy note:(you can move while holding onto someone this can pull them a bit more to you if you move backwards or can you closer to them by walking up to them). Now this spell active is fun however I am very good at skill shots for others this might take you a while to get adjusted to, not to mention he has a wind up animation to cast this spell in other words the spell doesn't activate THE second you activate it so not only do you need to be good at skill shots but also at predicting enemy movements. I don't prefer to activate my q again during the laneing phase the reason is after I hook a champion I normally walk up to them just a little bit turn my back to them and activate flay which will send them even closer to me and slow them giving them a long walk back to safety as I bombard them with my basic attacks. We max this skill second for the huge damage boost we get while we are at top lane.

Your second ability is Dark Passage. Dark Passage gives a shield for whoever is close to the shield that decays and the first friendly target to right click on the lantern will get pulled to the lantern. Dark Passage,now this spell can be vary handy during the laneing phase if the enemy wants to spar with you first off please let them unless they have ridiculous life steal Lee Sin, Olaf, Warwick or if they're Teemo -.- then second cast your dark passage and autoattack them most likely you will the trade off due to your damage from your q passive then when they attempt to run continue atutoattacking move auto attack and if you feel comfortable either flay them back to you or do our q combo pull move forward a bit turn around use your flay and then autoattack move autoattack again. Now the other obvious use for this spell is to throw it at an friendly in a sticky situation pray to god they right click on it and now you've saved they're life another trick you can use for this spell is to when your jungler wants to gank top lane throw the lantern to the river bush let them click on it and bam! friendly jungler on the enemy top's face. Also Thresh's lantern has to touch the soul for it to be absorbed so if you cast your dark passage at some souls the lantern will collect them for you use this when collecting a soul would get you harassed too badly We max this last because you wont be throwing the lantern not often until team fights which will take longer in the game.

Flay deals damage and knock back all enemies in a line in front of and behind of Thresh and slows them. Enemies that Thresh faces are knocked back. Enemies behind Thresh are pulled into him. I've already explained some of the uses for this spell. You can also use it to knock back an enemy who's up in your face and you want out or if they dive you and decide they want out turn around use flay now if you did it right they're slowed and in range of the turret still. Also another fun thing is that a Vi charging her q will stop her animation and have to charge it again : P We max this skill second for the increased slow and damage.

Finally Thresh's ultimate The Box or as me and a derpy zombie like to call it Threshold! The Box aka Threshold causes a pentagon shaped wall to surround you at your current location, anyone who crosses over one of these segments is damaged, and slow for 90% for two seconds. If a wall has already been broken then they will get the same slow but for only 1 second. This spell can spell almost certain doom for any turret diver who isn't Fiora or Olaf. If they attempt to dive you just pop it walk away from them and if they stay in the pentagon you can basic them from afar with the turret and if they run they get slowed incredibly and will make an easy target for your death sentence flay combo. In team fights if you manage to get near the AD or AP carry or death sentence them first off activate your q so your next to them and activate your ult and you'll probably get your team that team fight victory. We max this skill first just like every other champion

AD Offtank
]Bloodthirster gives you 100 AD, and 18% life steal however it's mainly the damage that we want from this item. We buy this as our first main item because the damage from your q will do TONS OF DAMAGE and sustain you something Thresh lacks it is an expensive item and unusual to get first at top but trust me build it you will love it.

Mercury's Treads are typically what I'll buy as these will help with any cc effects. I might opt for Ninja Tabi if their team's cc isn't that bad or if i feel the enemy is no threat to me. The enchantment I take depends on how I feel about my team. If were struggling I buy captain but if I'm crushing top or feel like my teams fine i take Alacrity for the increased % move speed.

Frozen Malletwill give you health damage and a permaslow for you basic attacks which at top will make the enemy top hate you so much it also gauntness several auto attacks of them if they were up close to you or you death sentenced and or flayed them.

Runaan's Hurricane is beautiful on this set for several reasons one you can push one lane hard and then go to another one. The second is that it applies and basic attack effects to two targets so your Frozen Mallet will slow 2 people and the passive from your death sentence will hit two people as well and that's why I consider this to be one of our core items. Warmongers imo is op as hell right now with the 1000 health it gives you and the passive of recovering 1.5% of your health every 5 seconds is really overpowering anyways this will give Thresh some good tanking power if you want you could replace this with an atma's impaler if you feel like you don't need the tankyness. The last item you should get is guardian angel because sometimes as the off tank you'll get some heat and the enemy team might wanna focus you down because you're so damn annoying, in a team fight this can change everything 1v5 this is just gonna be a waste so once you get it be sure to stick with your teammates.

Situational Items
Runic Bulwark is a nice item however it's not the best idea to stack them so only get this if your support is insistent on not getting it and you could replace your Warmog's Armor with his.

Is a wild LeBlanc tearing you or your team to shreds? Well with a Banshee's Veil its much less likely that her target will be you and it will give you some time to possibly death sentence her to your team or any other huge burster they may have.

You want to know why Wit's End is optional? Well one I don't believe the damage output is that great from it and we get more attack speed from Runaan's Hurricane and more teamfight presence. The only reason you will most likely get wits end is for that ******* solo top . In this case forgot about Runaan's Hurricane and go straight up Wit's End otherwise the lane will only be filled with Teemo's obnoxious laughter.

Atma's Impaler will only be bought if you feel like the enemy team is getting destroyed.