First off, know that this is not a basic guide to Thresh. These tips and tricks are things to practice to improve your game play after having already established Thresh’s basics. This article will not contain runes, masteries, or skill order. These tips and tricks are a lot of the mistakes I see so many Thresh players often making. These are all things that can be practiced using the practice tool and, if you take the time to improving your skills in these areas, you’ll see great improvement in your skills with The Chain Warden. Let's get into it.

Before we dig too deep, let’s establish an understanding of support. There are 3 basic aspects of support: Crowd Control (CC), Sustain, and Utility. Most supports utilize two or fewer of these areas focusing heavily on one. Thresh, however, is one of the few supports that is actually capable of all three of these things, focusing heavily on CC. So know that the greatest value that Thresh brings to any team composition is the amount of CC he can bring to the table.

Maximizing Your (Q) Death Sentence

Thresh’s Death Sentence is the hardest form of CC in Thresh’s entire kit. So getting a deep understanding of how to maximize it is vital to being a god-tier Thresh player.

There are three main aspects to Thresh’s Death Sentence: 1) The stun, 2) the two pulls Thresh takes towards himself, 3) and, finally, the possible reactivation that pulls Thresh toward his target.

To maximize the effectiveness of your Q you want to understand and utilize all three of these effects appropriately. The most common mistake I see Thresh players make is reactivating your Q as soon as possible. When you do this, you’re taking a crucial part of the ability, the two pulls, out of the equation. So you want to get in the habit of waiting to reactivate your Q to get the most out of the ability. Keep in mind too that the duration of the stun lasts as long as the ability is active, so if you reactivate your Q too soon, you’re shortening the overall length of the stun the enemy champion undergoes.

It’s important to note that the Death Sentence is an incredibly versatile ability. It can be used both defensively and offensively in a variety of different scenarios. So keep in mind that it’s not always appropriate to re-Q, or it might be necessary to re-Q as soon as possible. It all depends on the situation you’re currently in. This tip is simply a foundational skill to be in the habit of doing.

What Should You Take First?

Most players (especially new ones) assume that because the Death Sentence is his only form of hard CC, that’s the ability to take first. However, there is a much better option to be utilized that gives you far more lane dominance: Flay. Why is this?

Well, the answer is in its passive. Flay's passive is, “Thresh's basic attacks deal bonus magic damage, increasing with time spent not attacking enemy units or neutral monsters.” This passive maxes out after 10 seconds. During laning phase, this passive is incredibly helpful for a couple of reasons.

The first is obviously the bonus damage it deals. Having that extra damage early on is incredibly helpful to poking and trading that will give you dominance in the lane. The combo you ultimately want to go for level one is auto attack, Flay, and then one more auto. Assuming you’ve charged up your Flay passive, that combo will give you the most possible damage level one, it’s easy and quick, and in many matchups you will win the trade. Establishing yourself early on creates dominance in the lane and allows your ADC to farm up and create a lead over the enemy.

The second reason is helping with farming. This assumes you’ve taken Relic Shield as your first item. This is often the best option for Thresh, but, due to the fact that he is actually a ranged "melee" champion, he doesn’t get the execute damage passive on minions close to death. The Flay passive makes up for that lost damage so you can kill a few creeps and help out your ADC.

Granted that this tip only helps you level one, but it’s a great habit to get into to create an early lead for yourself and your ADC.

IMPORTANT NOTE: The one exception to this strategy is if your team is invading the enemy jungle at level one. On most invades, you’ll want the hardest CC you have, so taking (Q) Death Sentence first will be the most logical thing to do.

Level One Positioning

So in the case that your jungler does not require a leash from you, you really want to be smart about your positioning at level one. With Thresh (as with most supports) you want to position yourself at the edge of the bush closest to the enemy side of the map. This is going to place you in a spot to do your level one combo (AA-Flay-AA) on the first enemy champion that walks into lane. Often times if your team is the first into lane, the enemy’s first instinct is to ward their bush, so when they go to do this is when you get your combo off. Even if they don’t go to ward, they usually get close enough for you to walk up and get your combo off before they can react.

I understand that most games start with your bottom lane leashing for your jungler. However, even if it’s not the first trade of the game, being pushed up at that edge of the bush is a strategy that you will want to keep doing through most of laning phase. As long as you’re not behind, trading this way will maintain your dominance throughout the entirety of the early game.

Understanding (W) Dark Passage Distances

Using the terrain to your advantage is not a new concept. However, I see very few Thresh players using it as a way to maximize your Dark Passage. Depending on your positioning and the terrain you can throw your W farther than you normally would. This is something that you really need to experiment with in the practice tool training mode to learn. Having this understanding across the entire map will make your Dark Passages all the more useful, both defensively and offensively.

Also, it is important to note that the radius you can throw your W is shorter than the radius that you can be away from the lantern and still have an ally click it. This is important to be very aware of when it comes to the question, “What should I do once I throw my lantern?” If you throw your lantern max range you still have a small distance you can walk that can help bring your ally closer to the fight, or pull them farther away from danger.

Ultimately this is a very simple concept to wrap your head around. However, even though this tip is simple, taking the time to master your distances and extensions will vastly improve your Thresh play.

Forcing enemies through (R) The Box

Finally, this last tip is one that is the most effective combo Thresh has in his arsenal. Like I said earlier, Thresh’s greatest asset is his CC and if you pull off this combo, you will have maximized the amount of CC you can do to an enemy champion. The combo is simple: Q-R-Q-AA-W-AA, and I’ll break it down step by step.

So first, let’s talk about Thresh’s ult, The Box. The Box is an incredibly useful ability as it is a great zoning tool while also dumping damage and a massive slow on those who would dare pass through its walls. However, what happens when you’re right next to an enemy and you ult? Often times enemies will either just dance around in the box or Flash out of it. Sure you’ve drawn their Flash and that is useful, but you’ve missed the CC that it offers and the enemy can easily get away. It’s also important to note that from the center of The Box you cannot Flay someone into one of the walls. So how do we solve this?

Well the answer is simple, once you hit a Death Sentence you immediately want to activate The Box. When you do this, with the two pulls it forces enemy champions through a side of The Box. This is a great habit to get into because this means you cannot miss your ult. So at this point, you’ve stunned and slowed the enemy champion as well as created a zone. This part of the combo is very important to have down as it is a skill that can exist and be quite effective independent from the following steps.

After having mastered that part of the combo, the rest is easy. Once you’ve forced the enemy champion through the side of The Box you’ll want to reactivate your Q. At this point they’ll be so slowed from The Box’s CC that you’ll be able to get an auto attack off. The next step however takes a slight level of strategy.

The Flay part of the combo is important, because depending on the positioning and your maneuvering in the micro seconds of the combo you may be able to flay the enemy through a second side of the box. Yes, if you Flay them at all, it will be useful to the combo, but like we’ve been discussing we’re trying to maximize our efforts. So the goal is to Flay them through another side of The Box. Finally round out the combo with one final auto attack.

If you can get the full combo off you will have tossed all but one ability and inflicted as much damage and CC you possibly can as Thresh on one champion. Mastering the entirety of this combo will improve your Thresh game infinitely. This will make you a very formidable foe on everyone’s favorite hook champ.

Wrap-up

Not every one of these tips are complicated in nature, but these five things will make you that much better on Thresh. In my games, I’ve seen many Thresh players that could have ended up being incredible playmakers if they had just practiced these things. So take these tips and tricks and become the god-tier Thresh player that you were always meant to be.

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