Adapting to the Tank Meta: Rengar

Blue Collar Bear·Mar 31, 2015·1 votes·2,914 views

So, I've been struggling to adapt to the new tank meta whilst playing my favorite champion: Rengar! Before Cinderhulk appeared, I was playing him with great consistency in ranked. I had over a sixty percent win rate, and I was still climbing. I eventually capped out at Gold II and since Cinderhulk, I've dropped to Gold III. I'll explain my original build that I used pre-Cinderhulk, and what I am attempting to use now. If you're having trouble understanding the concept, think of on-hit builds from back in season 4.

Runes: 9x Scaling MR Glyphs 9x Scaling Armor Seals 9x ArPen Marks 3x Lifesteal Quints

Masteries were 9/21/0 with an emphasis on sustain through extra armor and Second Wind. This setup ensures that I stay healthy and clear quickly. I'm able to do a full clear (and more) with ganks. On my first back, I'm usually able to buy my upgraded Machete and Enchant, along with boots.

Now, my rune / mastery set up is not what I believe is causing me to fail, but I included it for reference. My build is something that I think could use work to adapt to a tank meta. My original build is as follows in order of buy:

Skirmisher's Sabre - Devourer Ionian Boots of Lucidity Youmuu's Ghostblade Locket of the Solari Randuin's Omen Trinity Force

The idea behind my build was to have enough damage to be a threat to carries whilst being resilient enough to offer some damage soaking capabilities. The actives of the items also helps at being either a primary or secondary initiator. The early cooldown reduction also helps me gank often and proc Sheen as well as get resets on Devourer.

The build I am considering with the same runes and masteries:

Skirmisher's Sabre - Devourer Ionian Boots of Lucidity Blade of the Ruined King Spirit Visage Randuin's Omen Warmog's Armor / Frozen Mallet

What do you think of this build over the original build? In honesty, I would consider simply replacing my Trinity with BotRK. I am just fearful of not being able to reach it as a sixth item, so I try to rush it after boots. Tanks also have a considerably good mid to late game, which is also why I try to rush it immediately after my jungle item.

Anything constructive that you think of is appreciated!

9 Comments

Toothless LionApr 1, 20152 votes

The tank meta is great for Rengar because it means less threats. Also I recommend not going Rengar jungle if you want to carry, it's much easier to get the proper gold top lane as long as you know your bad match ups (all of them, get used to it).

Hydra (or Bork), Ghostblade, Last Whisper, Black Cleaver, defensive item, boots < normal build

Bork, Ghostblade Last Whisper, IE, trinity force, GA < fed/late game build

There are other builds I use, but what it comes down to imo is go hydra if they have lots of threats and you need to farm hard, or go bork if you have a good early game and they have a lot of tanks or a kitey adc/apc.

EDIT: also in the jungle I recommend skipping a jungle enchant and getting rangers into tiamat.

Blue Collar BearApr 1, 20151 votes

That is an interesting way to view the game. Tanks are a threat, though, because their ability to peel is great! The fact that they live a long time also means that they get to dish out a lot of sustained damage, which is sometimes underestimated.

I'm not sure if you understood what I meant. I'm using Rengar as a sticky tank that succeeds in assassinating carries upon initiating fights. To do this, he needs a mix of items to survive the initiation and kill his target. At most, I'll build three dps items. I'm looking to survive the team fights. .-.;

Lifesteal quints remove the need for Ranger's Trailblazer. Also, the jungle enchantments are more cost efficient than Tiamat, meaning they give more stats for less gold. The reason to buy Tiamat is to add another ability that has a 1.0 AD ratio into your burst, but I'm not stacking AD at all. I'm stacking on hit effects and attack speed to abuse his 3.5s double root and resets on his Q.

I'm looking to improve my build, not adopt a new play style. If I wanted to play him as an assassin, I would build those items. I'm not, though.

Toothless LionApr 1, 20151 votes

[{quoted}](name=Fluffysaurus Rex,realm=NA,application-id=WEuoGbmp,discussion-id=IkYnGRB1,comment-id=00020000,timestamp=2015-04-01T04:51:35.478+0000)

That is an interesting way to view the game. Tanks are a threat, though, because their ability to peel is great! The fact that they live a long time also means that they get to dish out a lot of sustained damage, which is sometimes underestimated.

I'm not sure if you understood what I meant. I'm using Rengar as a sticky tank that succeeds in assassinating carries upon initiating fights. To do this, he needs a mix of items to survive the initiation and kill his target. At most, I'll build three dps items. I'm looking to survive the team fights. .-.;

Lifesteal quints remove the need for Ranger's Trailblazer. Also, the jungle enchantments are more cost efficient than Tiamat, meaning they give more stats for less gold. The reason to buy Tiamat is to add another ability that has a 1.0 AD ratio into your burst, but I'm not stacking AD at all. I'm stacking on hit effects and attack speed to abuse his 3.5s double root and resets on his Q.

I'm looking to improve my build, not adopt a new play style. If I wanted to play him as an assassin, I would build those items. I'm not, though.

Thing is that at a certain point you won't be killing any squishy fast enough to make either build worth a damn.

Blue Collar BearApr 1, 20151 votes

I disagree. I've had great success with my build.

Holy FervorApr 1, 20151 votes

As far as being a bronzie goes, My build of choice for him is: Tiatmat, Brutalizer, Boots of Lucidity (With Scaling CDR runes, thats 40% CDR) As core. I Quite like Last whisper as well. Tank items are situational :P

Blue Collar BearApr 1, 20151 votes

I did a huge explanation in response to another person why I build the way I do.

I build almost the exact opposite. I feel that outside of Devourer, tank items are all I need!

lightdragoon88Apr 1, 20151 votes

since you are losing the speed of Ghostblade, I consider item 3117 for your ult in speed. Consider getting item 3272 for the added speed when you hit things until later in the game when you might need homeguard.

Ruin king is great against tanks and the attack speed you will have with that and Devourer will make you hit hard. If you want/need a 3rd attack item I would consider LW. Otherwise the Odem/Visage/Warmog looks interesting. But if their AD is more auto attack heavy than Ability heavy then consider thornmail over Omen or even Visage.

Also, and I can't stress this enough: item 2138 and item 2140 .

Heck..after level 9, carry the red one and pop it before you ult for that little extra burst of damage.

Blue Collar BearApr 1, 20151 votes

I've actually sometimes taken ghost to make up for the loss of movement speed. I've done it for a few dozen games, and the results are usually nice. The main issue with it, though, is that I lose out on the only escape that I have early game. It makes him a bit prone to invades, but in team fights he's still just as mobile. The reason why I will not take mobi boots is because the CDR boots are the cheapest form of CDR in the game, and losing out on that means I lose out on my early game presence through ganks with my ultimate.

Well, if I already have botrk and devourer, I'm not sure how much mileage I would get out of LW. I'll test it out as an option to carry. The tank item combo is really just to soak up damage and be ready for the next fight. I always try to build to match the situation. For example, I once built Locket / Spirit Visage / Banshee's and just let my scaling armor make up for my lack of armor. If the enemy team has an all AD comp with only an AP bruiser in the top lane (Maokai is a popular pick lately), I'll drop the SV / Warmog combo and go for straight armor.

Are the Elixir's really that good?

lightdragoon88Apr 1, 20151 votes

Try the elixirs out yourself and see if they work for you.