Thresh combos: cooldowns, costs and the order that matters
Ability-by-ability breakdown of Thresh with real cooldowns and costs, the combo worth drilling, and why order changes the outcome.
Damage is a sequence, not a sum
Casting in the wrong order on Thresh does not shave a little damage off — it frequently wastes an ability outright, because the setup lands after the payoff.
450 attack range means Thresh wins by not being where the fight is. Spacing is the whole skill, not a detail of it.
The kit, with the real numbers
Damnation
Thresh can harvest the souls of enemies that die near him, permanently granting him Armor and Ability Power.
Death Sentence
Thresh binds an enemy in chains and pulls them toward him. Activating this ability a second time pulls Thresh to the enemy.
Dark Passage
Thresh throws out a lantern that shields nearby allied Champions from damage. Allies can click the lantern to dash to Thresh.
Flay
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.
The Box
A prison of walls that slow and deal damage if broken.
Skill order, and how to reason about it
Take The Box at levels 6, 11 and 16 — the ultimate is always worth the point it costs.
For the basic abilities, Death Sentence (Q) gains the most from being ranked: its cooldown falls by 10 seconds between rank 1 and max, which is the largest improvement in the kit. That is the usual argument for maxing it first.
This is reasoning from the cooldown data, not a win-rate ranking — a matchup that punishes you can invert it.
- Q · Death Sentence — cooldown 19/16.5/14/11.5/9s, improving by 10s across its ranks
- W · Dark Passage — cooldown 21/20/19/18/17s, improving by 4s across its ranks
- E · Flay — cooldown 13/12.25/11.5/10.75/10s, improving by 3s across its ranks
Reading the cooldown column
Those cooldown figures are per rank, lowest first. The gap between the first and last number is the best argument for a skill order there is — an ability that drops sharply as you rank it earns those points; one that barely moves does not.
Thresh is mana-gated, which is the real limit on how often you can contest a wave early.
Riot's own notes on playing Thresh
These are the designers' words, not ours — the tips shipped in the client for 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.
Drill it in practice tool
Practice tool has no MMR attached and lets you reset cooldowns on demand. Ten minutes there beats ten games of learning a sequence while somebody fights back.
What the stat line does between level 1 and 18
| Stat | Level 1 | Level 18 |
|---|---|---|
| Health | 620 | 2660 |
| Attack damage | 56 | 56 |
| Armour | 33 | 33 |
| Magic resist | 30 | 56.4 |
Movement speed 330 and attack range 450 do not grow with levels — they are the two numbers that stay true all game.
Full Thresh page — abilities, stats and every skin →