I am Wildcatsexual, a Gold support main who mainly plays in tournaments. My go to champion is Thresh and if that is taken away I'll default to Morgana. I started playing league in January and had dabbled with ranked solo queue in February. I placed in Bronze I fell to Bronze II and quickly shot up to Silver IV-V before becoming heavily focused on tournament play. I mainly played Annie/Janna/Morgana when I played ranked until I finally purchased and learned to play Thresh. Once I was comfortable with Thresh I rose from Silver V to Silver II coming to halt again to focus on tournament play. At this point I began to exclusively play Thresh and Morgana as these two champions were more or less easy lane wins when played effectively. Eventually I picked up ranked again and went on another tear with 85%+ winrate to find myself at Gold V (100 LP) where I haven't played much due to moving states. Anywho, this guide is at the request of a lot of friends and community mates who have found my Thresh play to be at great level for my relative rank and growth. This is strictly how I view and play the champion as well as why it works for me and has been effective in my climbing from High Bronze/Low Silver to Low Gold along with success in tournament play against higher ranks.

Ignite if there isn't a bursty champion on their team or hyper scaling OR if you are confident that you can absolutely annihilate lane with it. Exhaust is the safer choice and it scales far better into the late game so that'll be standard.

9 AD Reds, 9 Hp Yellows, 6 CDR 3 MR Blues, 3 Armor Quints I go CDR Blues for quicker Hooks/Flays. If I don't go 6 CDR I'll go full 9 MR and that's the only change.

Fairly standard 0/9/21. If I feel I need more tankiness I'll go 0/16/14 but that'll be aginst mostly AD/AP teams and when I'm against Leona/Naut/Alistar/(Insert Tank Support Here) because I'm rusty.

Pros

Great Engage/Disengage
Stack Armor through Souls which allows for more MR items
Great gank potential with lantern
Fits various types of team compositions
Kit isn't at risk of being nerfed/buffed
Ranged AA allows for lane bullying

Cons

No sustain
Skillshot reliant
Takes a ton of games to master each skillshot

Unfortunately there is no fool proof 100% accuracy secret to hitting Thresh's Q but there are certain things you can do to make your life a lot easier in that aspect.

1) Learn from your opponents. A lot of times when people try to land a hook they throw it out and don't learn from what occurred when they miss. Try to understand what your opponents thought process is when they dodge. If you come at X angle they will dodge to their left/right. That is my thought process whenever I miss a hook and it becomes a statistical certainty the more I observe their habits. If you adapt this kind of thought process not only will it become something you naturally do, but it will also give you a psychological advantage over your opponent as well. This is especially important against champions like Ezreal, Lucian, Graves, Vayne, Kalista, Leblanc, Kassadin, and everyone else with a dash or gap closer. In situations where they HAVE to go a certain direction because you have allies coming at them and they cannot afford to dodge in a that direction this is where "prediction" comes into play. Because they cannot afford to dodge a specific way that makes a straight hook impossible to miss hence they are forced to either flash or dash. It's in that moment that you can use the wind up time of the hook to aim in their intended direction for the "Madlife" plays. Play Video
When it comes to making flash Hooks it's the same thing. If the enemy is in a position where they have to dodge you can more or less guarantee a hook landing. Play Video
If you know they have flash or dash then you can aim for their only direction of escape. As with any big flash play you do have the chance to miss. That being said there are times where the opponent can dodge in any direction because you're attempting a full range flash hook. At that point it's up to you to figure out where they will go. These flash hooks are the ones that excite you the most :D

Another way to ensure you hit your intended target when grouped up is to flash towards a different target and then hook in the direction of the target you desire. This generally has a high chance of success as most people expect a hook in the direction you face. Play Video
You can also use peoples tendency to dodge to hook high priority targets behind the frontline. Play Video
2) Use the minion wave to your advantage. Often times the enemy will be sitting behind minions to avoid your hooks. If you tell your adc or you simply wait till the right gap opens up you can get a free hook, just as the minion dies, to land.

3) Use fog of war. Brush control is a huge part of hitting your Q. If you assert brush control especially when they haven't warded it you have a lot of freedom to hit near invisible Q's as they can't see the wind up or the direction until the last second. If your opponent goes to ward the brush you're in that's a free hook as well. Use every bit of the fog of war to land game changing hooks or at worst blow enemy summoners

4) Flay first, hook second. What a lot of Thresh players including myself don't do at times. If you can walk up and flay you guarantee a free hook as you just applied a 20-40% slow on the enemy, displaced them (closer or further depending on the direction), and that makes either hitting your Q a certainty. In the off chance that you were slow in activating your Q you will burn a flash which you can still catch them out of if you aim it right anyways.

5) YOU DO NOT HAVE TO RE-ACTIVATE YOUR Q. A lot of mistakes can be made by dragging yourself onto the enemy. You can put yourself far from your ADC or team and get bursted down. REMEMBER: you can walk towards the enemy while your Hook is still stunning them until you're in range to flay them. This makes for more effective trading that lessens the amount of harass you may take from enemy champions AND minions. THIS ALSO APPLIES ON YOUR ULTIMATE: You can walk until your ult is directly on top of the enemy you've hooked. What you've now done is Stunned them with your hook, given them a 99% slow with the breaking of your ult wall, the damage from your ult, AND you still have your flay for another 20% slow along with damage. Layering your CC as Thresh can make a huge difference in damage output.

How you use your lantern can be life or death in trades as well as whether you allies or even yourself live.
Firstly the uses for lantern:
1) Facecheck Brushes/Objectives: Don't want to risk walking into a deathbrush/trap? Just toss your lantern in to see.

2) Bring your jungler to gank. If you need to beat their ward coverage you can lantern your jungler from the fog of war to gank.

3) Save allies. The placement of your lantern in these cases are important. Don't throw your lantern directly on top of your ally. Aim it a little ways away but within clickable range. This allows them to not be screwed by the "I couldn't click lantern because X was on it". Play Video
4) For trades/kills. The shield allows you to trade and avoid damage. You can also bring your allies to you when going for kills etc. Check out videos where players make a Hook and flash to get the lantern in range for an ally to follow up. This requires a bit of work as you have to be very quick with the flash the Lantern placement and the re-activation of your Q

One of if not the most important ability of yours. A well timed flay can make the difference between winning the game, lane, trade, etc.

In conjunction with Death Sentence (Q). You usually want to either flay into Death Sentence or vice versa. When you re-activate Q you want to think about when you will flay, who you want to flay and what direction. If you can aim your flay to hit multiple targets that's less people able to dps you. This is especially important in lane. Even if you don't re-activate your Q it's important to distance yourself properly to flay. Max range flays can maximize CC effectiveness while minimizing taken damage.

Defensive Flaying. Any champions with gap closers can be effectively stopped with a well timed flay. Leona's Zenith Blade, Lee Sin's Q Syndrome, Gragas Body Slam, and so on so forth. Jarvan's E+Q combo can be stopped assuming you flay before he passes your positioning or an allies positioning. An example of me failing to stop his knock-up but stopping the full animation: Play Video
Offensive Flaying. Not much different here other than using it to get kills, win trades, etc. If you play against champions with dashes/jumps like Lucian, Graves, Tristana you can Flay them mid dash/jump and stop them in their tracks. It's important to save your abilities in moments where they can use such an ability and are trying to escape. You don't always have to use your flay right after you land a hook. The hook can be used as a gap closer to position yourself better to make full use of your kit.

Relic Shield. The interaction with relic shield and Thresh is a rather unfortunate one. As a "ranged" support Thresh cannot effectively proc the passive compared to melee supports. The way to bypass this issue is to wait for the passive of Flay to be up. This is indicated by the red icon above your abilites:
That basically allows you to hit a minion at a fairly higher amount of health compared to when the passive is down. This is how you effectively proc Relic Shield's passive.

I'll keep this brief. Know that the ult damages the first person to break a wall as well as applying a 99% slow. Anyone else that breaks the walls receive a near 50% slow. Knowing this you should apply your ult in a way that can maximize the effectiveness of the slow. That being said to defensively use your ult you can set it up in choke points like jungle entrances, brushes, dragon/baron pit openings, and so forth. This can effectively allow your team to escape or reposition for another fight.

Alrighty, I can't emphasize rushing the level 2 in lane. You can straight up win lane off of this advantage. If you land a hook into flay you can guarantee either a kill or flash/heal/exh. If you use relic shield use the first two charges right away and you'll have one up for the first cannon minion. If you want to save charges to heal your ADC by all means do so. I usually like to get those first three charges before I do that.

Trading. You want to use you empowered autos whenever your flay passive is up. Those really add up. If they aren't warding the brushes then go in for an auto and duck back into the brush. Even if you land a hook, it doesn't always mean go all-in. Consider jungle pathing and vision as you trade. If you guys are strong expect to be camped hard. This makes trading a very risky thing. If you're jungler isn't coming to help make it your job to provide vision within your jungle around the entrances. Be careful of minion wave size. If their wave outnumbers yours don't look to all-in as the minion damage early can absolutely lose you a trade that you think was favorable. If you have advantage remember to play around it. zone them off of waves to deny cs or push them into tower if you notice their ability to cs under pressure is awful. Don't tank unnecessary turret shots too when pushing them in. Be aware of the damage you can take, give,and diminish with summoners included. If they have summoners and you don't even with a lead you could still lose out. If there's a BF Sword on their side whereas your ADC has pickaxe in sustained trades you will lose out unless you can land some great CC.


Keep as much control over the brush as you can. If you can control the brush you increase your chances of landing hooks and making plays. If you are so dominant in lane try to drop a pink in the brush closest to your tower. This make it easy for you jungler to lane gank.

Losing Lane. Let's say your down a few kills or your ADC is awful. DO NOT STAY IN LANE. Your kit makes you an incredibly dangerous and effective roamer. If you can snowball other lanes they more than make up for what the ADC may lack. I have watched numerous streams where the player roams the map feeding kill after kill to his laners while the ADC whines in chat and at the end of the game everyone is thanking them for not wasting time bot doing nothing. If you feed people kills they will be more than happy to bypass you leaving lane.

Blue Side Aggressive Wards
Blue Side Defensive

Red Side Offensive

Red Side Defensive

All-in-all what has really helped me is actually watching streams of pro players as well as pro games. I haven't spent as much time playing as I have watching the game itself and I have managed to elevate myself to this level so far. That being said the more you play the better you will become. Spam some thresh games. It might sound dumb but I always spam a ton of games against bots with any champion I am trying to learn and Thresh is no exception. Take him to every lane. Try different builds (AP/AD/TANK/etc) and learnt he nuances. Playing against bots in a 1v2 lane can provide a lot more for you learning-wise than you think. Hope this helps out and feel free to add me on league ^^ I'll be updating fairly consistently.