Nobody Escapes - A Comprehensive Guide to Thresh, the Chain Warden - Part 2

Missed Part 1? Read it here!

 

Item Builds

Thresh can be built a few different ways, and his most efficient build paths are diverse from level 1. Because Thresh can fit into and be effective against most team compositions by keeping his build path flexible, I will highlight the most useful items Thresh can build and explain the situations they are strongest in. I will also include a few full build paths as examples of what build paths are most useful in what scenarios. NOTE: All of these builds assume you took the Wealth mastery in the UTILITY tree (covered in the Masteries section of the guide).

Starting Builds

Ancient Coin + Health Potion (Total Biscuit of Rejuvination)(x3) + Mana Potion (x1) + Warding Totem - Starting Ancient Coin is the squishiest starting item build that Thresh can take as it provides no actual combat stats, making trading with the enemy laners harder, especially if they started with an offensive or defensive item of some kind. The upside of starting Ancient Coin is that it gives you a buff to your income generation early game, providing a steady, reliable source of gold that is collected with no effort on your part.

Additionally, Ancient Coin provides additional sustain; every minion that dies near you restores 5 health. While this does not seem significant at first, realize that that is 30-35 hp back per wave, which, at 1 wave per 30 seconds, comes out to a little more than 1 hp per second, or 5 additional Hp5. Finally, the bonus mana regen Ancient Coin provides somewhat mitigates the fairly high cost of your abilities.Warding Totem early on provides a bit of free vision for the early game, and will be the recommended start for just about every starting item build.

Ancient Coin + Health Potion (Total Biscuit of Rejuvination)(x2) + Green Ward (x1) - A spin-off of the previous starting item build, this path sacrifices a health and mana potion for a ward that lasts much MUCH longer than your trinket ward. Use this variation if the enemy takes a jungler capable of ganking very early (Vi, Jarvan IV, Lee Sin, Udyr) or if prolonged brush vision is imperative to having an advantage in lane (Blitzcrank, Caitlyn, Zyra).

Doran's Shield + Health Potion (Total Biscuit of Rejuvination)(x2) - The tankiest starting item available to Thresh, this item confers a bunch of great defensive bonuses like a large amount of extra HP and some flat autoattack damage reduction make you a brick wall to your opponents. The downside is that you don't have a seperate source of gold income outside of your masteries and innate gold per 5. Therefore, it is a good idea to pick up a gold generating item like Relic Shield or Ancient Coin on your first back if you have enough money for it and a few wards.

The other downside is that Doran's Shield does not build into a larger item, therefore it is a great investment for your early game at the slight cost of having a slower start on your mid- and late-game builds. If you are looking for the strongest early game possible, this is arguably the best option.

Relic Shield + Health Potion (Total Biscuit of Rejuvination)(x3) + Mana Potion (x1) - Relic Shield is the best of both worlds: it provides defensive stats like Doran's Shield and also acts as a secondary form of sustain and gold income a la Ancient Coin. It also builds into a great late game defensive item with a great passive.

The main downside to Relic Shield is that, because Thresh is considered a ranged champion, he does not benefit from the true damage execute that melee support champions enjoy. He can still proc Relic Shield, granting gold and HP to his ADC, but he must actually last hit the minion correctly, which takes some practice. This is aided somewhat by the extra magic damage provided by Flay (E)'s passive, but it still requires timing on your part and communication between you and your ADC about when and on what minions you plan on using the Relic Shield passive on, which is not always something that can be coordinated in soloqueue.

Relic Shield+ Health Potion (Total Biscuit of Rejuvination)(x2) + Green Ward (x1) - A similar spin off of the previous starting item build featured earlier in the section. The sacrifice to sustain here is a bit heavier as Relic Shield sustain is more potent but also more sporadic whereas Ancient Coin sustain is weaker but consistant and effortless. The trade-off for this particular build if you expect longer but less frequent lane skirmishes or a lower harass lane.

Ruby Crystal + Health Potion (Total Biscuit of Rejuvination)(x2) - This starting build provides you with a large amount of bonus HP as well as a head start on your sightstone, but no further defensive bonuses beyond the justification of whatever defensive stats you took into the game with you on your rune and mastery pages. This is a good starting build if you anticpate needing vision control very early on in the game, but also sacrifices the extra income and sustain provided by Ancient Coin or Relic Shield.

 

Early Game

Boots of Mobility - These are the only boots you should really ever buy. They are incredibly cheap (800g) and provide an incredible movement speed bonus. This is the only item that you will buy that give no direct defensive bonus, but the earlier you get these boots the better. The additional movement speed these boots provide allow you to roam around the map, warding deeper into enemy territory with less chance of getting caught, running to other lanes and ganking, creating quick, easy advantages for your sololane teammates, and allowing you to zone and psyche out your opponent by outpacing them.

If you recall at the same time as an ally and are returning to the same lane or area on the map, you can translate the bonus movement speed these boots grant you into a benefit to your ally by pulling ahead of them, then tossing them a Dark Passage (W) while walking, allowing them to gain ground that you have already covered. The bonus movement speed also makes it easier to dodge projectiles (as long as the passive bonus is not lost).

When using Boots of Mobility you must be wary of all sources of damage around you, because taking ANY damage will immediately lose you a whopping 80 movement speed, and, because these boots have a lower base movement speed than any other tier 2 boot option, you will find yourself noticably slow than your allies and enemies once you lose this buff unless you have compesated for it in some other way. These boots also benefit from several augments:

- Alacrity - The 20 bonus movement speed this augment offers compensates for the lowered base movement speed on Boots of Mobility, which may be crucial since you will often find yourself in the middle of teamfights where, if things go awry, you will need every advantage you can afford to make a swift escape since your Mobility Boots passive inactive. It also simply makes you even faster with the Mobility Boots passive active.

- Homeguard - A decent choice if you are defending your base under siege by the enemy team or you need to be able to quickly return to lane after recalling. These boots give you the unique advantage of being able to participate in a fight, take damage, recall, heal up rather quickly and return to assist in finishing up the fight (depending on how far away it is).

- Captain - A niche pick, but justifiable if you want to more directly convert the bonus movement speed you gain from Mobility Boots into a benefit your entire team can enjoy. This moderately strengthens the ability of your team to follow up on any initiations you make onto the enemy team by making you a beacon to which your team can rush towards.

Sightstone - This should be, without exception, the first item you get that builds out of lesser components. It provides a little bit of HP and all of the wards you should ever need. If you started with a Doran's Shield then it is alright to pick up a gold generating item beforehand, but Sightstone should be the item you rush.

Aegis of the Legion - A powerful defensive item to have early on, this item covers a lot of bases: it provides a good amount of HP, a fairly large amount of magic resist (which helps cover the deficiency created by Thresh's passive that was discussed in the Skill Mastery: Damnation (Passive) section), and a significant amount f Hp5. It also provides an aura hat grants your teammates bonus Hp5 and magic resist, which helps immensely against AoE magic damage compositions, and is just a generally useful bonus to offer your team. Aegis of the Legion also upgrades into Locket of the Iron Solari, a very powerful lategame item.

Chalice of Harmony - A great sustain item that also offers a bit of magic resist, this item is a great item for keeping your mana up, allowing you to trade more frequently with your opponents without the fear of going oom. It also builds into Mikael's Crucible later on, an incredibly useful support item.

Glacial Shroud - If you find yourself going against a particularly AD heavy team, you may consider picking up Glacial Shroud. It is a fairly cheap item, and everything that it offers is beneficial to Thresh: the extra armor makes him a sturdier target, the bonus mana allows you to stay in the field longer before recalling and the cooldown reduction gives you more hooks, lanterns, flays and boxes. It also builds into two good items for Thresh: Frozen Heart and Icebourne Gauntlet.

Warden's Mail - Another good choice against a team with a lot of physical damage; while not having as diverse an array of bonus stats as Glacial Shroud, it grants more total bonus armor and a passive effect that reduces the attack speed of anyone that autoattacks you by 10% for 1 second, making this the preferable choice against teams with a lot of champions that are autoattack-based (Jax, Vayne, Kayle). Additionally, this item builds into two great items for Thresh: Randuin's Omen and Frozen Heart.

Mid Game

Locket of the Iron Solari - This upgrade from Aegis of the Legion gives a 200 more bonus health, 10% cooldown reduction and an active that grants a shield to every allied champion around you. This upgrade further emphasizes it's usefulness against AoE magic damage team compositions, and is just a generally useful item for granting bonus damage mitigation.

Face of the Mountain - The final form of Relic Shield grants bonus health, Hp5 and cooldown reduction, making it a great item for beefing up Thresh during the mid and late game. It also increases the passive charge regeneration rate, and increases the total number of passive charges you can store to 4. Finally, it grants an active component that places a shield that scales with your total health onto a target ally that then explodes after a short amount of time, dealing AoE damage that scales with the targets AD and AP. This is a great item to take if you are looking to protect a specific member of your team, or if you are loking to add some extra burst and safety to an allied assassin's self-initiation. Some people, however, find that the charges are harder to expend in the mid and late game, since your teammates will generally be too concerned with pushing the wave quickly to want to take the time to allow you to last hit minions, especially since Thresh does not benefit from the passive execute that other champions will.

Talisman of Ascension - The final form of Ancient Coin grants bonus Hp5, Mp5, Gp5, Cooldown reduction and flat movement speed, as well as an increased amount of gold granted from fallen minions. It also has an active component that grants a burst of movement speed to Thresh and everyone around him when activated. Outside of battle, this item acts as a great source of sustain and income, and in battle the active component gives your team more potent chase, initiate and flee capability. Of the two final form gold generating items, the stats granted by Talisman of Ascension are not as useful as those granted by Face of the Mountain, however the active component is arguably more useful. This is the tradeoff that you must consider when deciding which of the two items you end up choosing.

Mikael's Crucible - The upgraded form of Chalice of Harmony gives cooldown reduction, magic resist and two forms of mana regeneration, but the real reason you buy this item is for the active, which heals a target ally for a % of their max health and removes any cc and most debuffs from them. While this is a relatively weak defensive item for someone like Thresh, the heal and cleanse this item provides plus the safety of your Dark Passage (W) makes it very hard for the enemy team to trap and lock down your allies as long as you are nearby.

Late Game

Randuin's Omen - The primary armor item for Thresh, Randuin's Omen is the full package. It gives you a large amount of physical resistance AND a large amount of health to justify those resistances. Additionally, the passive component punishes enemies for targeting you, and the active component gives you an AoE slow that further strengthens your incredible ability to initiate fights. The active ability of Randuin's Omen also scales with your total armor and magic resist, meaning that it is strengthened not just by the items you buy (including itself) but also by the souls you collect. When using the active ability, try to hit as many people with it as possible to get the most out of it per use.

Frozen Heart - Another ridiculously strong armor option for Thresh, Frozen Heart further expands Thresh's mana pool and grants a massive amount of armor and cooldown reduction. Be sure to have some bonus health already when buying this item so the defensive stats it grants dont go to waste. Additionally, Frozen Heart reduces the attack speed of all enemy units in a wide radius by 20%, punishing champions that are particularly reliant on autoattacks. Stacking this item with Randuin's Omen allows you to ignore most physical damage and reduces the potency of the enemy ADC tremendously, giving your team a significant edge in teamfights in terms of damage.

Banshee's Veil - This item helps correct the magic resist deficiency that Thresh suffers from, and is a great way to itemize against a magic damage- or initiation-heavy team. Taking this item against champions that like to start fights (Syndra, Blitzcrank, Vi) discourages initiation and allows you to fight on your terms. It also offers a small amount of bonus sustain once the spellshield it provides is popped.

Icebourne Gauntlet - A fun item to build on Thresh, Icebourne Gauntlet provides Thresh with Armor, AP, CDR, Mana and a passive that grants him an AoE slow on hit after he uses an ability. This item gives Thresh some power behind his punch and increases his impact in prolonged fights. It also gives Thresh a waveclear tool and allows him to kite enemies more effectively. This item, while fun and somewhat practical, should not be rushed by any means. It should be treated as a potential final item choice after you have filled all of your defensive and support needs.

Zeke's Herald - Another niche item, this item grants Thresh health, CDR and an aura that grants Thresh and all nearby allied champions bonus AD and % lifesteal. This is a good option if you are supporting a very high damage team that scales primarily with AD. Again, this item is relatively weak, defensively speaking, so do not buy it before your more core defensive items.

Ruby Sightstone - The upgrade to Sightstone gives bonus health and an extra stored ward. Because the gold that it would cost to upgrade Sightstone is usually better spent on another item, it is not recommended to upgrade to Ruby Sightstone until very late in the game when you have literally nothing else to buy but, because you should never sell your Sightstone, the bonus HP and ward slot is worth upgrading eventually. Before you upgrade to Ruby Sightstone, make sure your Sweeping Lens fully upgraded into an Oracle's Lens.

 

Matchups

To play Thresh to his fullest potential, you must be mindful not just of the capabilities of your champion, but of the champions the enemy team is using. This section will discuss what support champions best and are bested by Thresh. NOTE: These analyses assume that both Thresh and the opponent play competantly.

Easy Matchups

 Sona - Sona is a large, squishy, immobile target with low defensive values and hp. This makes her incredibly susceptible to Thresh's crowd control, therefore you should be getting kills and damage off of her from the start of the game. Against Sona it is important that you play aggressively and keep vision of the lane bush, as her poke can be quite potent early on.

 Zilean - Zilean is another squishy and relatively immobile target for Thresh to easily cc over and over. His poke is less avoidable than Sona's since it is longer range and applied instantly, however you can use the delayed AoE damage of his Time Bomb (Q)'s damage to your advantage by positioning yourself within your own minion wave and having it detonate, pushing the wave towards you, forcing them to extend farther into the lane and possibly denying CS to the enemy ADC. Additionally, using this to give CS to Zilean will turn off the gold generating passive of Spellthief's Edge (the typical starting item for Zilean).

 Blitzcrank - Blitzcrank is tankier and harder to kill than the other champions in this section, however the reason he is such an easy matchup is because your presence mostly negates his. You are ranged and he is melee, meaning that you can usually land your harass first. More importantly, you create a situation in which neither target available for Blitzcrank to grab is a particularly good idea. If he grabs Thresh, he effectively initiates you on him, since he puts himself within range of all of your abilities, allowing you to continue the fight with all of your cooldowns still up. If he grabs your ADC, you can simply toss them your Dark Passage (W), giving them a free ride to safety and dramatically reducing the kill pressure that Blitzcrank exerts on his lane.

Janna - Yet another squishy immobile target for Thresh to land his hooks on. She is slightly trickier, since she can shield yourself and, if he anticipates your initiation, can stop you mid Death Leap (re-Q) with her Howling Gale (Q). Once she is initiated on, she is not very combat effective, so you will almost certainly get at least a summoner spell, force her to burn her ult, or just straight up get the kill on her upon every successful initiation.

Skill Matchups

 Nami - She can trade evenly with you in lane, she can sustain off any harass you inflict in time, and she has the ability to augment her ADC's autoattacks and inflict just as potent cc on you as you can on her. She also has a great engage and disengage tool in the form of her ultimate, Tsunami (R). Thresh vs. Nami is about positioning, brush control and dodging skillshots.

 Leona - A tanky all-in initiator with a large amount of cc and magic damage, Leona is a tough customer. However, she is also incredibly predictable in that she does not harass and that every initiation is an all-in. Your advantage come in laning phase where, before level 6, she is fairly squishy and her entire plan is reliant on getting a successful jump to a target with Zenith Blade (E), which is an ability you can interrupt mid-cast with a well-timed forward Flay. Because of that, you can completely negate Leona's presence in lane if you are dilligent and position yourself to counter every initiation she attempts. Placing yourself near your ADC means you are always available to cancel any initiations onto him and possibly follow up with one of your own. Just don't get to close, or else Leona could turn on you and start a fight on her terms regardless. This matchup is about who can find the more creative method of initiation, and who can surprise the other first.

 Soraka - Ever since her rework, Soraka has become a much more formidable opponent. She provides a higher level of sustain (at the cost of her own health) than you are able to keep up with. She can harass you from beyond your range to retailiate, she has a powerful self heal and she can compeltely shut down your initations with the silencing fields she creates. Getting the jump on her is the best way to aggess on a Soraka: you need to make the lane dangerous for her, since she is trying to make the lane boring and safe for her and her ADC. Be sure not to linger in her Equinox (E) to avoid the eventual root it will inflict and try to burst her down before she can escape or react to your initiation. Finally, consider focusing her early on in teamfights, removing her as a healing element that the enemy team will be reliant on since she will nt be able to restore her allies' HP if she is low herself.

Difficult Matchups

 Alistar - The cow is big, he is frontloaded with very powerful crowd control, and is very difficult to kill, especially after level 6. Keeping your distance is essential, as his abilities are all fairly short range. Do not initiate onto him, and that will bring you in range of him, or even worse, bring him in range of your team. Do not engage near his turret, as it is all too easy for him to knock you up and stun you with Pulverize (Q) and then throw you into turret range with Headbutt (E). Finally, avoid fighting him when his ultimate is active, since it gives him a ridiculous amount of damage reduction as well as a hefty chunk of bonus AD. You should try and keep the lane passive and focus on peeling Alistar off of your ADC.

 Karma - Karma is one of Thresh's most annoying support matchups. Karma can deal potent AoE magic damage poke from out of range of any of Thresh's abilities, shield her ADC from damage in skirmishes and lock down single targets while healing herself. She will most likely help her ADC push you under your turret and then poke you relentlessly with her spells. The most you can do is dodge her poke and possibly pull her underneath the turret. Karma's usefulness falls off after laning phase if she does not get fed whereas as Thresh you will only become more useful to your team as the game progresses. Try not to die, bring plenty of potions and dont overextend as Karma is nearly as good as you in facilitating ganks in the early game.

 Lulu - An annoying matchup for many of the same reasons as Karma, Lulu carries the added annoying of her harass going through your minions, and can easily frustrate your initiation attempts onto her with her ult, Wild Growth (R). Her usefulness also does not fall off in the mid- and late-game like Karma's does; she indeed stays relevant throughout the game. Try to outtrade her by ganging up on her and forcin her to blow her ult early or on a bad target, and taking advantage of her fairly long cooldowns will also get you an edge. She does not exert as much kill pressure on you as Karma,, but she is just as annoying.

Morgana - Her crowd control lasts longer than yours and it hits from farther away. She can negate any crowd control you aim at an individual target with her Black Shield (E), and she can turn around engages with her ult, Soul Shackles (R) very quickly. Finding a fair fight against Morgana is very frustrating since she negates most of your kit. by destroying your ability to chain cc a target. You can try bursting down her shield, or makingher waste it on one target and then switching your focus as a team to another enemy (since the cooldown of Black Shield is fairly high), or you can simply wait to outscale her, since you teamfight much better than she does, whereas she excells at making picks with her Dark Binding (Q). Taking Mikael's Crucible and Banshee's Veil will frustrate her attempts at lockign down you or one of your allies.

 Zyra - Zyra is the hardest counter there is to Thresh. She can gain brush control and poke you effortlessly and at next to no cost with her plants. She can lock you down in an instant with her Graspoing Roots (E), opening you up to harass. She can poke you under tower with Deadly Bloom (Q). Her autoattack range is longer than yours, allowing her to harass you even without spells for free. She deals an incredible amount of magical damage, forcing you to itemize against her or buy a large amount of potions to withstand the kill pressure she exerts. She can block your hooks with her plants instantly. Finally, if you ever manage to engage upon her or your team, she can immidiately turn the fight against you with her ult, Stranglethorns (R), which does a large amount of magic damage in a massive AoE and knocks you up. She is incredibly hard to fight as Thresh, and even surviving her lane presence is a challenge.

Countering her is a challenge in and of itself since she can kite you so easily. Catching her alone is your best bet, removing her from the equation entirely by picking her off and then engaging on the rest of the enemy team separately will allow you to fight unimpeded. Flanking her is also an option since, after all, behind her plants and crowd control she is just another squishy, immobile mage champion. Calling for a gank on her when she has you pushed to the turret will see her burning a lot of abilities and summoners to stay alive. Keep in mind though that her plants and ult still to a lot of damage, and if you end up chasing her too far you may find yourself rooted under her turret.

Conclusion

Thresh is an incredibly rewarding champion to master. He is fun, challenging and incredibly powerful, which is the reason he is a staple of a support player's repertoire. No matter how much advice I give you, however, the best teacher is Familiarity, so I encourage you to log on and play a few games with him. Playing Thresh, after all, is the most fun thing about him!