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is Thresh really a tank support?

Erockandroll··2 votes·5,070 views

More a philosophical debate about what a tank support is. Thresh does well building defensive stats, but mostly because he lack any major scaling. The other thing I noticed is that Thresh really does not have any defensive abilities. He does have CC but so do many poke and utility supports as well.

Part of it is Thresh's goal. He's good at pick and catchout potential because he has his hook, and can position his allies with his lantern. Similar mechanics are shared with Blitz.

I guess What I think of Tanks supports are ones who have good defensive abilities, (and engage tools) while being less reliant on items for defenses. Leona's Eclipse gives her passive defenses, Alistar ult give him strait damage reduction. both of which have more AoE tools to disrupt the enemy.

Not debating whether thresh is good, (or good in the current meta) But is it a good pick when asked to pick a tank support? (maybe because your team does not have a tank)

5 Comments

Lost R3 votes

If your team is inherently fragile, then Thresh is a considerably less viable pick. He's only as durable as your vigilance will allow; even though he lacks defensive scaling, his passive more than makes up for it. It doesn't take much to have him outscale even the tankiest of champions, but only as long as you are vigilant about collecting souls.

The thing is, not everyone will build him this way. Most build him as a glass hook; entirely dependent on his grabs and not much of anything else. You'll know you're facing a glass hook when you see Thresh's build look something like this: item 3069 item 3117 item 2049 item 3800 item 3110. If it works, it works well, but if it doesn't (AKA he can't land his hooks), he doesn't have much to fall back on, and he suffers HARD for it.

If Thresh is your only tank, it is absolutely imperative that you build hard tank items (item 3143 item 3047 item 3111 item 3190 item 3222 item 3102 item 3401) to make up for it, and practice diligence on soul collecting.

People like Thresh because his lantern is one of the best peels in the whole game; great at extracting allies from the front lines or even accelerating their approach to it. His crowd control is also much more reliable than Blitz's, who requires he grab the enemy and then punch them into the air (if he can't catch them by walking up to them), and it only affects one target (or a max of two) while Thresh's crowd control actually affects a crowd. Displacing allies and enemies alike is a powerful tool, and the utility of his skills are not as dependent on AP as other support types (Soraka Nami Lulu Janna Bard Sona Orianna Lux Morgana). Combined with his passive, he gains great incentive to tank up and fulfill more roles than most other champions would dare to dream. He is one of the very few jack-of-all-trade champions as a result.

Lugg2 votes

He is considered a tank because his passive gives him permanent armor when he harvests souls. The longer the game goes, the tankier he gets.

I think he is more of a bruiser since his base armor is so low and he doesn't gain any just from leveling up. Plus he does very good damage on his AA.

Apex Liar1 votes

Thresh is not a good pick without good team play or mechanics.

Team Play: 3v3, 5v5, LCS, etc... games where optimal communication is achieved.

Mechanics: I don't mean Zed or Leblanc mechanics where you can outplay someone, I mean mechanics as in you can successfully predict where an enemy is going to be when your hook fly's or if you can mind game a spell shield. Some people are good at mind games, some are not. If you are not Thresh is not a good champ for you.

The reason I said both of these things above is Thresh is a utility support but super squishy, hard engage with cc will counter like Annie, Alistar and even Janna with her cc and shield. These people hurt you because now your adc doesn't know what to do when the enemy engages on you resulting in a double kill bot lane and your vayne flaming you because you "can't land a hook".

Lorinne1 votes

It depends on what sort of tank your team needs. Thresh can be a good tank support. His kit has good engage potential, some peel, etc. It depends on who all is on your team. If, say, Thresh was going to be the ONLY real tank or engage on the team, maybe a Leona would be better? She has more hard CC, engage, tankiness for such a situation. Braum could also be a good choice, depending on the enemy team and whether or not the wall would be needed. Thresh isn't bad, Leo isn't bad, Braum isn't bad, Naut isn't bad...but depending on the needs of your team and the build of the enemy team, one usually fits better than the others. Thresh, overall, is excellent, especially if you have a tanky or bruisery top and/or jungle, but (again) I probably wouldn't choose him if he was the only tank/engage. His hook isn't the most reliable engage. His wall and flail are good for keeping enemies put/peeling once a fight starts, but I feel like a Leo/Braum could do it better, especially if they're the only ones on the team capable of doing it.

aaronconlin1 votes

I kind of want to build him as an AP Bruiser support

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