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I have seen some people playing AD thresh and I have always played him more tanky. Is AD thresh a viable build?

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4 Answers 4

up vote 5 down vote accepted

I wrote this in comments, but I feel the need to post this as an answer, and I recognize the fact this will be downvoted by most people who do not play competitively.

DISCLAIMER: If you want to play around with AD thresh in normals, go right on ahead. If you do so in ranked, people who take this game seriously WILL report you for this type of behavior. Take this from someone who was banned in S1 for running Karthus Jungle, even though I am a Gold tier player and was actually winning games with it. You can get banned for picking certain champions in un-orthodox roles.

Your title is : AD Thresh, possible or not?

Possible? Yeah, sure, anything is possible. I can play karma as a solo-top if I feel like it.

However in your question, you ask : Is AD thresh a viable build?

Viable? Absolutely not.

What makes an AD Carry, then?

High AD base stats : (Thresh does not have this).

Example: Caitlynn's or MF's attack damage goes up 3 per level, Thresh is 2.2. Negligeable, however; Cait and MF's attack speed goes up 3% per level, while Thresh only goes up 1%. That would mean a fully leveled Thresh will be AA'ing 34% slower than a regular AD.

An attack damage/speed steroid :  *(Thresh does not have this)*. 

Example: Ezreal passive, Trist Rapid Fire, MF Impure Shots, Cait passive, Graves Quickdraw, Varus passive... I could keep going for days, but you get the idea.

A skill that does decent amount of bonus damage.  *(Thresh does not have this)* 

Not EVERY AD Ranged AD Carry has this, but most do. Examples: Graves Buckshot, MF Double Up, Cait Piltover Peacemaker, Ezreal Mystic Shot, Ashe Volley

An Escape/Disengage ability 

Again, not EVERY AD carry has this, but most do. Examples: Corki Valkyrie, Trist Rocket Jump. Ezreal Arcane Shift, Graves Quickdraw, Cait .45 Caliber net

A high-damage ultimate ability:   *(Thresh does not have this)*

Examples: MF, Ez, Graves, Cait, Corki, Tristana... etc.

The only thing Thresh has comparable to other AD Carries?

Ranged on his auto-attacks. But that does not make him a viable AD Carry. If you follow that logic, Sona, Nidalee, Soraka, Karthus, Brand, Annie are all viable AD carries, and they aren't.

Sources : lolwiki, being Gold S1, S2 and now Div III gold S3.

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I think you should reread the question, it is not "is thresh a viable ad carry" it is "is thresh a viable ad champion" there is a big difference. –  Ravekner Feb 18 '13 at 18:14
let us continue this discussion in chat –  Ravekner Feb 18 '13 at 20:10
Actually Tresh, has his Death Sentence, which has a passive ability that adds magic damage equal to 200% of his AD at lvl 5... that together with some attackspeed, makes Tresh do some serious damage, not to mention getting armor for picking up souls. Which does make him a nice top ad champ at times. –  Lyrion Feb 18 '13 at 20:20
@Joetjah Hehe, I was thinking the same thing, probably not because he ran Jungle Karthus, but probably because of his attitude that he was banned. –  Lyrion Feb 20 '13 at 8:33
My definition of viable = whatever is currently semi-OP or bordering on broken, like Elise laning phase for instance, or 53% or higher win rates. Just because you can play a game and manage to not feed doesn't mean it's viable. Like I've mentioned previously, our definitions of viability may differ greatly. If Thresh was so 'viable' top lane, he would be played there. Unfortunately for you, it has never happened in any real tournament setting yet, and I have never seen it done either. And I hate to bust your bubble, but it never will happen in competitive play, either :/ –  user41604 Feb 20 '13 at 15:06

I would have to say yes.

Two reasons for this-

1) He has a ranged auto attack, so he would be capable of farming/harassing with a fair safety margin.

2) If played as an Attack Damage champion, he could fairly easily become a tough due to his passive giving Armor and Ability Power per each soul he collects.

Would I have him as the Attack Damage Carry? No.

Would I have him as a possible top lane champion? Absolutely.

He has a good kit and even though I still run into a lot of players that don't know what Thresh is capable of, that does not make him a bad champ. I currently see Thresh as "the" Utility Tough when it comes to team compositions.

He has ways to initiate, escape mechanisms for your team, and has a decent amount of Crowd Control as well.

So yeah, it is my belief that Thresh is absolutely viable as an AD champion. All you have to figure out is what items to build on him and in what order to level his skills as an AD champ.

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I have to agree, it is totally possible i played him yesterday, starting out with Runaan's Hurricane , then went for a black cleaver. And by then I was blaasting people away. –  Lyrion Feb 18 '13 at 7:14
Order of skills is focus his Q first, the chainpull. The passive adds damage equal to AD. –  Lyrion Feb 18 '13 at 9:40
For any newer player reading this and thinking of going AD thresh competitively, please note: Possible /= Viable. If you play AD thresh in ranked a few times and get reported, you may get banned. –  user41604 Feb 18 '13 at 15:29

My 2 pennies.

I've seen AD thresh in non-ranked games and it isn't a success generally

  1. Doesn't scale with the muplication of AD/AS/Crit/ArP like an "classic" ranged AD carry
  2. Doesn't scale quite like an AD melee/bruiser
  3. Can't go big tank and damage, like say Garen or Jarvan IV. He has to compromise
  4. If he does go AD, he takes CS and/or kills from his lane partner = underfed ranged/melee AD
  5. His Q bonus is magic damage and requires a delay between AA for maximum effect

So he may be able to hit hard but he can't hit often.
And what happens when his spells are on CD?

For me, his value is in the CC. Not his DPS

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Thresh's basic attacks deal bonus magic damage on each hit. This value is equal to the total number of souls collected plus a percentage of his attack damage, based on the amount of time since his last attack. <-- His passive on death sentence, this means that he still does damage every attack, thus giving him some nice damage together with attack speed. If he goes AD he will usually go top and not steal any cs. If his spells are on CD, his main damage will still hurt. –  Lyrion Feb 25 '13 at 15:38
you and marco leblanc, the only thing i could think of while reading this is you both sound the same. coincidence = nah –  Ravekner Feb 25 '13 at 20:16
@ravekner look at my network profile. I've been here for years on the SE scene. Don't insult or cast aspersions because I disagree with you... –  gbn Feb 25 '13 at 20:43
you posted an answer with the same exact thought process as marco leblanc, to a question that was never asked in the first place, and you expect me to care how long you've been in the community? oh wait, that sounds like something else i read recently, like how being a gold ranked player means that their answer is better than someone that isn't stroking their epeen. –  Ravekner Feb 25 '13 at 21:17
@Ravekner: you really don't like dissent do you? Whatever. Deal with it: this is a public forum. –  gbn Feb 26 '13 at 7:54

Answers above our outdated, since the recent patches to thresh, he is a very viable AD carry, but Not doing physical damage, most of his damage is Magic damage. therefor "Is he viable botlane?" No, But he is very viable midlane, because of his hard cc He can counter Cait. and since he relies on basic attacks to do most of his damage, He counters Kassidan But if you want to play a thresh mid, its extremely hard to learn, Its also hard to know how fast you can attack and poke them, Poking with Basic attacks will make their health bar crumble, And making sure your max your E first, because it has bonus damage from souls+AD 200% AD at max level, Make sure to build Sustain on him, Hextech gunblade is a great item on him, his magic damage will be turned into health and the extra sustain isn't bad Once you have about 200 AD and 150 AP you can start building tankyish, Really just health No more then two warmogs or 1250HP + is needed,

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