Thresh Build Guide - LoL Builds, Runes, Counters & Stats
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14 min read
4/21/2023
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Thresh Build Guide - LoL Builds, Runes, Counters & Stats

Master Thresh Build Guide for Support: Best Runes, Items & Counters to Dominate on the Rift. Stand out with our expert strategy and win more games today


Thresh is a support champion in the popular game League of Legends. He's known for his unique ability to collect souls from enemy minions and champions, which increases his own power. Thresh also has a variety of crowd control abilities, such as hooks and flays, which can disrupt enemy movements and give his team an advantage.

Playing Thresh requires skill and strategy. He's not a champion that can deal heavy damage on his own, but he can be a valuable asset to any team when played effectively. In this post, we'll explore the ins and outs of playing Thresh and how to build him up for success.

To start with, it's important to understand Thresh's abilities. As mentioned earlier, he has the ability to collect souls from enemy minions and champions. This is crucial because it increases his own power over time. The more souls he collects, the stronger he becomes.

Thresh also has several crowd control abilities at his disposal. His hook ability allows him to grab an enemy champion from afar and pull them towards him. This can be used to initiate fights or catch fleeing enemies.

His flay ability is another powerful tool in his arsenal. It allows him to push enemies away from him or towards him depending on the direction he uses it in. This can be used defensively or offensively depending on the situation.

When building Thresh, there are several items that work well with his kit. One popular item is Zeke's Convergence. This item provides bonus attack damage for nearby allies when Thresh immobilizes an enemy champion with one of his abilities.

Another great item for Thresh is Knight's Vow. This item allows him to protect an ally by taking some of their damage for them while also providing bonus movement speed when near them.

Finally, Redemption is another great item for Thresh because it allows him to heal allies in a large area after a short delay.

Thresh's abilities and skill order

Skill Order for Thresh

A common skill order for Thresh is to max out Death Sentence first, followed by Flay, and then Dark Passage. The ultimate ability should be taken whenever possible. This skill order allows Thresh players to maximize their damage output while also providing ample utility for their team.

Death Sentence: Thresh's Q Ability

Thresh's Death Sentence ability is a powerful tool that can deal significant magic damage to the first enemy hit and pull Thresh towards them. This ability can be used to initiate fights, catch enemies out of position, or even escape from danger. One of the best things about this ability is its versatility. It can be used both offensively and defensively, making it an essential part of any Thresh player's toolkit.

When using Death Sentence, it's important to keep in mind that it has a relatively long cooldown time. This means that you need to be careful when using it and make sure that you're not wasting it on targets that are too far away or unlikely to be hit. Death Sentence can be difficult to land if your opponent is aware of your intentions and actively trying to avoid it.

Dark Passage: Thresh's W Ability

Thresh's Dark Passage ability creates a lantern that an ally can click on to be pulled towards him. Not only does this ability provide a way for allies to quickly move around the map, but it also shields allies who are near the lantern. This makes Dark Passage an incredibly useful tool for both engaging in fights and escaping from danger.

One thing to keep in mind when using Dark Passage is that it has a relatively long cooldown time compared to other abilities. This means that you need to use it carefully and strategically, especially if you're trying to save a teammate who is in trouble.

Flay (E)

Thresh's Flay ability deals damage and knocks enemies in a direction. It can also be used to interrupt enemy abilities such as dashes or jumps. Flay is an incredibly versatile ability that can be used both offensively and defensively depending on the situation.

When using Flay, it's important to remember that its knockback effect can sometimes work against you if you're not careful with your positioning. For example, if you're trying to pull an enemy towards you with Death Sentence and accidentally knock them away with Flay, you could end up losing the opportunity to engage in a fight.

The Box (R)

Thresh's ultimate ability is called The Box. It creates walls of spectral chains that slow and deal damage to enemies who pass through them. This ability can be used both offensively and defensively depending on the situation.

When using The Box, it's important to remember that it has a relatively long cooldown time compared to other abilities. This means that you need to use it carefully and strategically, especially if you're trying to save a teammate who is in trouble.

Thresh's Passive - Damnation

Thresh's passive ability is called Damnation. It allows him to collect souls from dead enemies or minions, which grants him bonus armor and ability power. Collecting souls is an essential part of playing Thresh effectively as it allows him to scale well into the late game.

Building the Right Items for Your Thresh Build

Identifying Your Role in the Game

Before building items for your Thresh build, it's important to identify the role you want to play in the game. Do you want to focus on supporting your team or dealing more damage? Once you've identified your role, prioritize building support items that can benefit your team.

Building Support Items

Support items such as Redemption and Locket of the Iron Solari are great choices for Thresh builds. Redemption can heal allies and deal damage to enemies, while Locket of the Iron Solari provides a shield to nearby allies. These items not only benefit your team but also help increase your own survivability.

Zeke's Convergence and Iceborn Gauntlet for More Damage

If you want to deal more damage with Thresh, consider building items like Zeke's Convergence or Iceborn Gauntlet. Zeke's Convergence increases your attack damage and ability power while also providing a powerful aura effect that boosts allied critical strike chance. Meanwhile, Iceborn Gauntlet gives you additional armor and mana while also allowing you to slow enemies with an area-of-effect spellblade.

Adapting Your Item Build Based on Enemy Team Composition

It's important to always adapt your item build based on the enemy team composition. For example, if the enemy team has a lot of physical damage dealers, consider building Thornmail for additional armor and grievous wounds. If they have a lot of magic damage dealers, consider building Spirit Visage for increased magic resistance.

Mobility Boots for Mobility

Finally, don't forget about mobility! Building mobility boots can help increase your movement speed and allow you to quickly move around the map to help your teammates when needed. This is especially important if you're playing as a support character like Thresh.

Rune choices for Thresh

Guardian: The Go-To Rune for Thresh

Guardian is the most popular option among Thresh players. This rune provides a shield to both you and your ally when one of you got damaged. The shield scales with your maximum health and lasts for 1.5 seconds.

Bone Plating reduces incoming damage from champions' basic attacks or abilities after being damaged by them once every 45 seconds. This helps mitigate early game poke from enemy champions and makes it easier to engage in trades without taking too much damage.

Unflinching grants tenacity and slow resistance while using summoner spells such as Flash or Ignite. This allows you to escape sticky situations more easily or chase down fleeing enemies.

Biscuit Delivery gives you free biscuits every few minutes that restore health and mana when consumed. These biscuits can be used during laning phase to sustain yourself and your ADC without having to recall too often.

Cosmic Insight reduces the cooldowns of your summoner spells, items, and abilities. This allows you to use your crowd control abilities more often and make more plays for your team.

Aftershock: A Defensive Alternative

If you prefer a more defensive playstyle on Thresh, Aftershock would be your choice. This rune provides tankiness and bonus damage after immobilizing an enemy champion.

Aftershock grants bonus armor and magic resist for 2.5 seconds after immobilizing an enemy champion with hard crowd control abilities such as Q (Death Sentence) or E (Flay). After the duration ends, you deal damage to nearby enemies based on your maximum health. This makes Aftershock a great choice for Thresh because he can easily activate it with his crowd control abilities.

The rest of the runes are same as Guardian, so we will keep here short.

Glacial Augment: An Aggressive Option

If you want to be more aggressive while playing Thresh, consider taking Glacial Augment as your primary rune. This rune slows enemies hit by crowd control abilities such as Q or E which makes it easier for you and your team to catch them.

When taking Glacial Augment as your primary rune on Thresh, there are several secondary runes that complement this playstyle. Hextech Flashtraption allows you to swap out one of your summoner spells for Hextech Flash which can be used to surprise enemies or escape sticky situations.

Minion Dematerializer helps you clear waves faster which allows you to roam more often and make plays for your team. Cosmic Insight is still a great choice since it reduces the cooldowns of your summoner spells, items, and abilities.

Bone Plating and Unflinching are also useful for providing additional tankiness and tenacity respectively. These runes help keep you alive during fights so that you can continue making aggressive plays for your team.

Thresh's Counters

High Mobility Champions: Yasuo and Lucian

Yasuo and Lucian are two champions that can easily counter Thresh's combo due to their high mobility. With their ability to dash or blink, they can dodge Thresh's Death Sentence (Q) or Flay (E), which are essential for his combo. By avoiding these abilities, Yasuo and Lucian can prevent Thresh from engaging in a fight effectively.

Moreover, Yasuo's Wind Wall (W) is an excellent tool against Thresh's death sentence (Q) as well. The Wind Wall blocks all incoming projectiles.

Long-Range Champions: Xerath and Lux

Xerath and Lux are two champions that have long-range abilities that can poke Thresh from a safe distance. Their abilities allow them to harass Thresh without getting too close to him, making it difficult for him to engage in a fight.

Xerath's Arcanopulse (Q) has an incredibly long range and deals significant damage to enemies hit by it. By poking Thresh with this ability, Xerath can force him out of lane or prevent him from engaging in fights effectively.

Similarly, Lux's Lucent Singularity (E) has an extended range and slows enemies hit by it. This ability allows Lux to poke Thresh while keeping her distance from him. Moreover, if she lands her Light Binding (Q), she can follow up with her ultimate Final Spark (R), dealing massive damage to Thresh.

Disrupt Movement Abilities: Janna's Howling Gale and Poppy's Keeper's Verdict

Janna's Howling Gale (Q) and Poppy's Keeper's Verdict (R) are two abilities that can disrupt Thresh's lantern. These abilities prevent Thresh from saving his allies or engaging in a fight effectively.

Janna's Howling Gale knocks enemies up. If Janna times her ability correctly, she can interrupt Thresh while he is trying to use his lantern, leaving his allies vulnerable.

Similarly, Poppy's Keeper's Verdict knocks enemies away from her and creates a wall that stops enemies' movement. This ability prevents Thresh from using his lantern effectively since he cannot pass through the wall created by Poppy.

Crowd Control Abilities: Rell and Leona

Rell and Leona are two champions that have crowd control abilities that can interrupt Thresh's combo. These abilities prevent him from engaging in fights effectively or saving his allies with his lantern.

Rell's Magnetic Storm (R) pulls enemies towards her, disrupting their movement and preventing them from escaping easily. This ability allows Rell to interrupt Thresh while he is trying to engage in a fight or save his allies with his lantern.

Similarly, Leona has multiple crowd control abilities such as Zenith Blade (E), Shield of Daybreak (Q), and Solar Flare (R). By using these abilities correctly, she can interrupt Thresh while he is trying to engage in a fight or save his allies with his lantern.

Stats of Thresh

Thresh is a champion in League of Legends with impressive stats that make him a force to be reckoned with. In this section, we will take a closer look at the numbers behind Thresh's health, health regen, mana, mana regen, damage, attack speed, armor, magic resist and movement speed.

Health and Health Regen

Thresh has a base health of 600 which increases by 120 per level. This means that at level 18 he has a total of 2460 health. His base health regen is 7 which increases by 0.55 per level. This allows him to sustain himself in lane and stay alive during team fights.

Mana and Mana Regen

Thresh's base mana is 274 which increases by 44 per level. His base mana regen is 6 which increases by 0.8 per level. These numbers may not seem significant but they allow Thresh to constantly use his abilities without running out of mana too quickly.

Damage and Attack Speed

Thresh's base damage is 56 which increases by 2.2 per level. He also has an attack speed of 0.63 which increases by 3.5% per level. These stats are crucial for Thresh as he relies heavily on basic attacks to deal damage early on in the game.

Armor and Magic Resist

Thresh has a base armor of 28 with no increase per level. This means that he needs to build armor items if he wants to survive against AD champions who deal physical damage such as marksmen or fighters. On the other hand, his base magic resist is higher than his armor with a value of 30 which increases by 1.3 per level making him more resilient against AP champions who deal magic damage such as mages or assassins.

Movement Speed

Finally, Thresh has a movement speed of 330 which is average for most champions. However, he can increase his movement speed with his abilities such as his Q (Death Sentence) and W (Dark Passage).

Advanced Strategies for Thresh Players

Versatile Kit for Countering Different Champions

Thresh is a champion with a versatile kit, which can be used in various ways to counter different champions. To make the most of Thresh's abilities, it is essential to understand the enemy's abilities and cooldowns. This knowledge can help Thresh players make better decisions in terms of engaging or disengaging from fights.

Using Flay (E) Ability Before Death Sentence (Q)

One advanced strategy for Thresh players is to use their Flay ability before Death Sentence. By doing so, they can easily catch enemies off guard and set up kills for their team. The Flay ability deals magic damage and knocks back enemies, making it an excellent tool for initiating fights or creating distance between allies and enemies.

Interrupting Enemy Abilities with Flay Ability

In addition to initiating fights, Thresh's Flay ability can also interrupt enemy abilities and provide peel for allies. For example, if an enemy champion is channeling a powerful ultimate ability, such as Malzahar's Nether Grasp or Warwick's Infinite Duress, using Flay at the right moment can cancel their channeling and save your ally from taking significant damage.

Combining Abilities with Lantern (W)

Thresh's Lantern ability (W) provides a shield to allies who click on it while also pulling them towards Thresh. Combining this ability with other abilities like Death Sentence or Flay can create devastating combos that catch enemies off guard and allow your team to secure kills.

Final Thoughts on Maximizing Your Thresh Build Potential

In conclusion, mastering the art of Thresh build is not an easy task. It requires patience, practice, and a deep understanding of his abilities and combos. However, with the right items, runes, and strategies in place, you can become a formidable force on the battlefield.

It's essential to prioritize Death Sentence as your primary ability since it deals significant magic damage to enemies. Flay should be maxed out second as it provides excellent utility for both allies and enemies alike.

Choosing the right items for your Thresh build is equally important. Depending on the situation at hand, you may want to focus on building tanky or damage-oriented items. Some great options include Zeke's Convergence for its synergy with your ultimate ability and Knight's Vow for its ability to protect your ally while also healing yourself.


In terms of runes, there are many viable choices for Thresh players. Aftershock is a popular option due to its defensive capabilities when engaging in combat. Alternatively, Guardian can provide additional protection for both you and your ally.

It's also crucial to understand Thresh's counters so that you can adapt your playstyle accordingly. Champions like Morgana or Braum can make it difficult for you to engage effectively with their respective abilities.

When playing as Thresh, always keep an eye on your stats such as health and mana levels. Proper management of these resources will allow you to stay in lane longer and make more plays throughout the game.

Finally, advanced strategies such as using Lantern aggressively or performing complex combos like Flash-Flay can take your gameplay to the next level. Experimenting with different techniques will help you find what works best for your playstyle.


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