Who is Next? Thresh

Today we're going to be looking at a new champion that has been already introduced into the League of Legends PBE server, called Thresh.

Thresh is a dark champion that has been introduced into League of Legends to collect the souls of the ones who have fallen in battle. Thresh could possibly be played in the mid lane and the jungle and even the top lane, but it's too early to judge the prefered position for this champion.

Abilities

( Passive ) Keeper of Souls
Thresh collects the souls of dead enemies by walking near. Souls permanently grant Armor, Magic Resistance, and ability power. Champions and large minions always drop a harvestable soul. Small minions only sometimes drop a soul. Thresh does not armor and magic resistance per level. Values are tentative but atm they give 1.00, .99, .98 etc per soul. It stops lowering at .5

( Q ) Shackle

Passive: Deal 0.5*AD-1 magic damage on each hit that builds up when not attacking.
This value is equal to total souls collected plus up to 80/110/140/170/200% of attack damage, based on the amount of time since his last attack.

Active: Grab an enemy, then pull them to you or leap to them.
Throws out his scythe, dealing 80/110/140/170/200(+0.5*AP) magic damage to the first unit hit and pulling them toward him for 1.5 seconds.

Reactivate this ability to pull Thresh to the bound enemy.

( W ) Lantern Toss
Create a shielding lantern that an ally can use to dash to you. Throw the Lantern to a point. If an ally near the Lantern clicks it, they pick it up and Thresh pulls both back to him. Additionally, allies who come near it gain a shield lasting 6 seconds that absorbs up to 60/100/140/180/220(+0.4*AP) damage. Allies can only receive the shield once per cast.

( E ) Sweep
Knock nearby enemies in the direction of your choice. Deals 65/100/135/170/205 (+0.4*AP) magic damage in a line beginning behind him. Enemies hit are pushed in the direction of the swing, then slowed by20/25/30/35/40% for 1.5 seconds. Cast forward to push; cast backward to pull.

( R ) The Box
Trap enemies inside walls that slow and deal damage if broken. Creates a prison of spectral walls around himself. Enemy Champions who walk through a wall suffer 250/400/450 (+1.0 AP) magic damage and are slowed by 99/50% for 2 seconds, but break that wall. Once one wall is broken, remaining walls deal half damage and slow duration.

 

Personal Opinion: Thresh's passive will allow him to deal a lot of damage and also get really tanky without the need for the most expensive items to do so. All he will really need to be strong in team fights and keeping his lane are minion kills. Therefore I think Thresh will be a very suitable champion for either the mid lane or the top lane, not so much the jungle as he won't be able to gain as many "souls" in the process of jungling.

My only worry is that this passive will make Thresh overpowered and will allow him to kill other champions easily without the trouble of buying pretty much any items. After playing Thresh several times on the PBE server I can easily say he's a really strong champion and I would recommend an AP / Tank build for him which will work great with his passive. One disadvantage of Thresh is that he is quite a complicated champion to be played. He has fairly long cooldowns which stop him from having a series of combos, but if you manage to catch out a champion with a half full health bar you can easily finish him with one combo.

You're probably asking yourself now how can you counter such a champion? Well Thresh being a good "crowd controller" I would recommend items such as Qucksilver Sash, Mercury boots and also as a spell  Cleanse these would neutralise the effects of "The Box". If you were wondering what champion would be a good counter pick on Thresh, one of the top ones would have to be Olaf, simply because of his Ult that cleanses him on any slows and poissons and will allow him to either escape from Thresh or attack him.

Overall I was really enjoying playing Thresh although it will take you some time to get use to his spells and his combos, so don't get thrown off him too soon. In my opinion he has the potential to even be a future pick on the competitive circuit of League of Legends.

Here's a quick look at the available skins for Thresh: The Deep Terror Thresh