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Adapting to the Tank Meta: Rengar

Blue Collar Bear·3/31/2015, 9:49:34 PM·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 Lion4/1/2015, 3:03:49 AM2 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.

Holy Fervor4/1/2015, 2:47:28 AM1 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

lightdragoon884/1/2015, 2:55:31 AM1 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.