Guide · Support

Thresh Guide

the Chain Warden

Support

Tank

Tier C Support

Thresh, the Chain Warden, is a support and tank champion that is demanding to master. Across our 1428 analysed ranked games, Thresh is mostly played as Support (100% of its games), with a 50.1% win rate in that role: tier C among Support champions (#29 of 39, ranked by win rate). Thresh's damage is mostly magic (78%): magic resistance items are therefore effective against this champion. Win rate varies with game length: 51.7% in short games (under 25 min, 447 games) versus 42.9% in long games (over 35 min).

Averages measured over 1428 Support games played with Thresh, from our ranked Solo/Duo data collection.

Combos and how to play

Thresh is an engage and protection support. Death Sentence pulls an enemy toward you (or you toward them), Dark Passage protects nearby allies with a lantern they can use to dash toward him, and The Box traps enemies with walls that slow and damage. His passive collects souls that permanently increase his armor and power.

The hook and the flay

Q › E › AA AA

When: An enemy is hit by Death Sentence.

Death Sentence binds and pulls the enemy; Flay sends them in the direction of the hit (toward your allies or the turret). Your charged attacks deal more damage if you wait between them.

The team-fight engage

Q › Q › R

When: The enemy carry is isolated.

A second activation of Death Sentence pulls you toward the enemy, which positions you to drop The Box around them and their allies. Its walls slow and damage those who break them.

The rescue

W › E

When: Your carry is being dived.

Dark Passage shields nearby allies from damage, and they can click the lantern to dash to you; Flay pushes the aggressors away.

Laning phase

Death Sentence is your main ability: place it carefully, since it decides your lane. Drop the lantern between your carry and the danger, then use Flay to push an enemy away or bring them back under your turret.

Common mistakes

• Using Death Sentence without checking the minions: they block the path.
• Dropping the lantern too far from your allies: they can only use it if they reach it.
• Casting The Box when your team is not ready to take advantage of it.

Riot's official tips for playing Thresh

• Communication is key when making use of Thresh's lantern. Let your teammates know how you like to use it.
• Death Sentence and Flay can be combined in either cast order for powerful combinations.
• Thresh can collect souls without needing to kill units himself. Planning your map position to be near the most deaths will help to maximize soul collection.

Build, runes and summoner spells

The most-played core build is Zeke's Convergence, Knight's Vow, and Locket of the Iron Solari (79 games, 51.9% win rate).

Zeke's Convergence+Knight's Vow+Locket of the Iron Solari

79 games · 51.9%

Knight's Vow+Locket of the Iron Solari+Mikael's Blessing

79 games · 63.3%

Bandlepipes+Knight's Vow+Locket of the Iron Solari

50 games · 44.0%

Summoner spells

Flash + Ignite49.0% · 800 games

Flash + Heal53.2% · 423 games

Exhaust + Flash47.5% · 204 games

Most-played runes

Aftershock + Inspiration

48.6% · 751 games

Primary tree · Resolve

Font of Life98%

Bone Plating87%

Unflinching88%

Secondary tree · Inspiration

Cosmic Insight94%

Biscuit Delivery68%

Shards

Adaptive force59%

Adaptive force57%

Health scaling59%

Guardian + Inspiration

48.3% · 290 games

Primary tree · Resolve

Font of Life99%

Bone Plating84%

Unflinching88%

Secondary tree · Inspiration

Cosmic Insight97%

Biscuit Delivery75%

Shards

Ability haste85%

Health scaling63%

Health scaling72%

Glacial Augment + Resolve

54.0% · 259 games

Primary tree · Inspiration

Hextech Flashtraption88%

Biscuit Delivery96%

Cosmic Insight98%

Secondary tree · Resolve

Unflinching76%

Bone Plating75%

Shards

Adaptive force55%

Adaptive force60%

Health scaling58%

For each row, the most picked rune among the games played with this page (share of games in brackets).

Which items to build against the enemy team?

We sort every game by the enemy team's damage. These are Thresh's completed items and their win rate in each situation; "▲" marks an item that does at least 3 points better than its usual win rate.

Mostly magic-damage enemy team49.8% · 418 games

At least 50% of their damage is magic

Locket of the Iron Solari 50.5%

Knight's Vow 56.1%

Zeke's Convergence 49.5%

Mikael's Blessing 49.4% ▼

Bandlepipes 54.5%

Frozen Heart 50.0%

No item clearly stands out in this situation: the usual build remains the reference.

Mostly physical-damage enemy team50.0% · 378 games

Less than 35% of their damage is magic

Locket of the Iron Solari 51.1%

Knight's Vow 55.6%

Zeke's Convergence 42.0% ▼

Mikael's Blessing 58.9%

Frozen Heart 51.8%

Bandlepipes 50.0%

No item clearly stands out in this situation: the usual build remains the reference.

Balanced enemy team50.3% · 632 games

Mixed physical and magic damage

Locket of the Iron Solari 51.3%

Knight's Vow 54.1%

Zeke's Convergence 50.8%

Mikael's Blessing 63.0% ▲

Bandlepipes 51.3%

Frozen Heart 51.4%

The item that stands out most is Mikael's Blessing: 63.0% win rate, +5 points versus its usual win rate.

Counters and matchups

Who counters Thresh as Support

Nautilus Thresh: 35.4%48 games

Nautilus has the edge in 65% of the 48 Support duels against Thresh. See the Nautilus guide.

Nami Thresh: 40.6%32 games

Nami has the edge in 59% of the 32 Support duels against Thresh. See the Nami guide.

Blitzcrank Thresh: 41.3%46 games

Blitzcrank has the edge in 59% of the 46 Support duels against Thresh. See the Blitzcrank guide.

Rakan Thresh: 41.7%24 games

Rakan has the edge in 58% of the 24 Support duels against Thresh. See the Rakan guide.

Braum Thresh: 43.8%32 games

Braum has the edge in 56% of the 32 Support duels against Thresh. See the Braum guide.

Who Thresh is strong against

Soraka65.2% · 23 games

Seraphine59.5% · 37 games

Pyke57.1% · 28 games

Lulu56.9% · 58 games

Leona55.3% · 38 games

How to play against Thresh

• Thresh's Death Sentence has a long cast time. Watch for the cast to begin to take evasive actions.
• Intentionally breaking a wall of The Box can allow a vulnerable ally to escape unscathed.
• Thresh relies on collecting souls for a portion of his defense and damage. Try punishing him when he moves to collect them.

Win rates measured over direct same-role duels; only matchups with more than 15 games are listed. See all of Thresh's matchups.

Abilities

PassiveDamnation

Thresh can harvest the souls of enemies that die near him, permanently granting him Armor and Ability Power.

QDeath Sentence

Thresh binds an enemy in chains and pulls them toward him. Activating this ability a second time pulls Thresh to the enemy.

WDark Passage

Thresh throws out a lantern that shields nearby allied Champions from damage. Allies can click the lantern to dash to Thresh.

EFlay

Thresh's attacks wind up, dealing more damage the longer he waits between attacks. When activated, Thresh sweeps his chain, knocking all enemies hit in the direction of the blow.

RThe Box

A prison of walls that slow and deal damage if broken.

Frequently asked questions

Full Thresh page · League of Legends tier list · All champion guides