Fenrir has been one of the more lacking picks for most of Season 5, with not much showing in his usual jungle role due to the jungle being dominated by picks such as Mercury, Erlang Shen, Ne Zha, and Ao Kuang. However, towards the end of the season, he has seen a burst of playtime in the support and solo roles as a tank/tank-assassin. Fenrir now resides as one of the most picked/banned picks in ranked as well as in HRX qualifiers and HRX itself.

Fenrir excels in the support and solo lane due to high pressure, poke, and damage as well as being able to stun with his first ability ‘Unchained’ - at 5 runes, stunning for 1 second. This is enough to force Purification Beads or the Support’s active or allow your Hunter to get off a lot of poke onto the enemy. Couple this with the fact that it is very easy to build up Fenrir’s passive and you have yourself a very dangerous snowball lane. At HRX, we also saw this combined with a Solo lane gank at level 1, allowing the Fenrir and the Hunter to get even further ahead. When playing Fenrir, make sure you always have 5 runes applied before jumping to get the stun off (unless you are jumping to escape or secure the kill where no stun is needed). Another part of what makes Fenrir good in the support pre-level 5 is the lifesteal on his second ability, Seething Howl. This allows him to sustain in lane without burning through his runes, as his second ability does not use his runes on activation.

Post-level 5, Fenrir’s ultimate ability, Ragnarok, means that he can CC a god and carry them back into your own team (or the tower). This is very good for an early gank onto the enemy support (forcing either an CC immune ability to dodge Fenrir’s ultimate or allowing the kill onto the enemy support) or a kill onto the enemy Hunter if you have combined it with the stun on Unchained to force the enemy Hunter's Purification Beads.

Ability Level Guide

4>1>2>3 (Support Role)

Fenrir’s levelling should be focused around the stun on Unchained for maximum CC. Ragnarok should always be levelled when it can be to increase it's damage (200-500 + 120% Physical Power). This will allow you to set up kills for your team and get off the most damage when you use your ultimate. Unchained should be leveled and maxed out first due to the stun and the cooldown on the ability. At level 2, you should level Brutalize for poke and chase potential, as well as an extra escape. Levelling Seething Howl second will allow you to heal up on minion and gods in the middle and after the fight, allowing you to stay in the fight longer. Seething Howl also provides Physical Power, therefore should be used when chasing down enemies for the extra bit of damage. Fenrir’s 3rd ability, Brutalize, should be maxed last. While it provides a good extra bit of poke damage and a autolocking chase ability, it provides a small amount of protections on use (which will not be much help if you Brutalize into five enemies).

Build Guide

Fenrir should be built as a tanky Warrior or full support depending on the enemy team composition. This usually starts out with Guardian's Blessing (though Warrior's Blessing can also be used), Warrior, Reinforced, or Talaria Boots (for Damage, Tankiness or Speed respectively), and then into support items such as Sovereignty, Heartward, and optional items for the specific game. Lono's Mask (or the Tier 2 version Protector's Mask) is also a common purchase for the stats it provides.

Final Notes

While jumping in a poking is usually a good idea, be careful of when you do it and try not to take much minion poke. While this can be healed up, you may be jumping into a bait or the enemy may turn on you and kill you. Fenrir takes a knowledge of when to jump in and managing poke in order to play in the support role, as you are more easily killed than a standard Guardian.

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