Thresh Discussion / Suggested Buff Notes
Thresh W Rework/buffs/changes among other things
Introduction So, let me start off by saying that I've been playing thresh a lot, since the day he came out on PBE. I main thresh, and I've easily played somewhere around 2,000 games on him. So, at least take it from me, that I've seen his ups and downs since the day he came out, recognize his strengths, and weaknesses more than most other league players out there. The sad truth is, I just don't play thresh anymore, because at the moment he's weak, he has a poor win ratio, and it's because as a champion and in the support role, he isn't as strong as he should be. There are simply other better picks at the moment.
Win Rates Let me state, why Thresh as a support is important, I'ma just use my handy dandy http://champion.gg/champion/Thresh link for some statistics, so you guys can follow along, and start to see "why" the changes I'm suggesting might make sense or not, and help him in areas where help is needed. But, I'm going to state, that thresh is the most played support in league of legends.
He just is, he has a play percent of 29.32%, but averages a 47.94% win rate. Even players with +125 games played as him, average a 52% win rate, when most "balanced" champions (champions with win rates around 50%) have win rates around 55%. Meaning "Skill" and mastery of thresh isn't the reason why his win rates are low, even experienced thresh players, and high elo players suffer a lower win rate than other players who've mastered other supports. Players with over 125 games on Taric, have a win rate of around 59%, it's ridiculous.
This basically means, he's messed up, and it's not the players fault.
Buff Suggestions These suggestions are my personal opinion, of what will help thresh in areas that he's naturally weak in, that aren't necessarily intended in his design.
Passive: Damnation increase the time souls disappear from 8 seconds to 9 seconds.
This will help players get tankier earlier in the game, as he suffers from being, in my opinion, too squishy.
W. Dark Passage
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Increase the shield amount from
60/100/140/180/220to 80/120/160/200/240. This will help with some early game poke, as damage in lane from enemies tend to outscale any shield worth at all in lane, especially since most thresh's will only invest 1 point into W, meaning there already isn't incentive for it. -
Remove the cooldown of~~ 22/20.5/19/17.5/16~~ and give it a universal 16 second cool down.
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Increase AP ratio from
40%AP to 50%. This will help his end game shield scale out and be a little more effective. Lets assume you have 50 souls at 20 minutes, with one point in W. By current stats, it's a 60+14 shield.
- [New] Allow Thresh to reactivate W to bring the lantern back to him. This way he can bring the lantern to himself, proving him with a shield, and allowing him to walk around to teammates who could benefit from the small shield by being within range of it.
Internal Dark Passage Changes.
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Decrease the internal cast time from 1 second to 0 seconds. Make the lantern cast instant, as it's nearly impossible to shield even telegraphed attacks like Caitlyn's Q, which have a decent heads up. Meaning, if I press a location with smart cast, the shield should be able to instantly be applied, if the lantern could travel faster when thrown, that would be cool and solve it, or just have the shield affect the allies before it visually lands there. If Caitlyn's Q is 1 second from the moment she casts it, to the moment it's likely to hit you, and the lantern takes about a second to throw, it's damn near impossible to block that damage, let alone other damage in lane.
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When the lantern is in an area and a soul spawns, allow the soul to instantly be gathered by the lantern. My example, is when you throw a lantern on a friendly jungle camp, and the junlgar kills the large monster, then takes the lantern. The instant grab of the lantern means the thresh does not get the soul that was just near the lantern. This will be the main buff to his faster, and higher scaling tankiness.
As you can see, his W is the least attractive, in terms of it's raw stats, it's very weak. There are a lot of very small things related to Dark Passage that just don't make it smooth, or feel important. Or things that hinder the players quality of life decisions when using it. It's unattractive, and most times, players are stuck maxing it last, leaving players with a 60 shield, 22 cooldown lantern throughout the entire laning phase and into mid game. As I pointed out, at 20 minutes this shield might grant an whopping 74 instead of 60 due to AP ratios and assuming you have 50 souls.
E. Flay
- when fully charged, does bonus true damage to minions (similar in effect like a relic shield would) and neutral monsters.
Among the supports, thresh is ranked 23/24 of gold earned, I think this can be contributed to the reason that, most thresh's often compete with their ADC's when trying to help thresh get his Relic/Targon charges, and may or may not contribute to his gold income. This will also buff Thresh Jungle for anyone wishing to dare
R. The Box
- Reduce the AP scaling from
100%to 40% - Reduce the damage from
250/400/550to 200/350/500 - All walls will do damage to enemy champions, but after a wall is broken, the remaining walls will slow for only 1 second.
I think, allowing all of the walls to do damage is an important part of his kit, but helping make it's damage damage scale less in team fights late game would be a good enough nerf that doesn't put the ability too far ahead, as it's mostly considered a buff.
Aside from the abilities, I think thresh could benefit from some earlier game tankiness, as that tends to be one of his main issues mid game. Aside from the abilities, I think thresh's main concern is his lack of early game tankiness, thresh offers a wide variety of utility, but in team fights mid game, thresh often gets annihilated. Not to mention, thresh is poorly ranked in damage output. 18/24 meaning all of the above champions, do more damage than him:
- I'd recommend giving him some minor MR scaling from 1-18
- Increase attack damage scaling a little.
If you've read the entire thing, a big thumbs up to you, even if you've read over some of the random buff suggestions, likely from the abilities then a thumbs up to you too.
