Ability Starts & Maxing

Q start is one of the most traditional and simplest ways of playing Renekton, as Renekton’s overall goal with Q start is simply trying to use his Q to whittle down his opponents HP, as well as using it to shove for your level 2 power spike. Q start is very important just for the reason that it allows us to settle into our basic foundations of the laning phase. Q can provide us early trading benefits, allowing us to also use it multiple times with its 7 second CD, which paired with Conqueror can also lead you to killing certain champions level as long as you’re able to side step incoming abilities and outplay your enemies strengths from level 1 (E.G, Dodge Olaf Q’s, Dodge or use minions to avoid or lower Mordekaiser Q damage, Dodge Yone’s Q’s to avoid knock up damage). Q start can be very great into these styles of champions that are very squishy, or have similar CD abilities to Renekton’s Q, making it a certain possibility for a kill angle.

While I have mentioned Q being great offensively, the purpose of Q isn’t just to look for level 1 kills, but it’s to set them up by hard crashing the 2nd wave, followed by letting the wave push back providing you more space and room to fight your opponent. While Renekton’s Q seemingly feels strong, there are plenty of match ups that can easily out damage Renekton level 1, making it also more of a weaker choice compared to some other ability choices we can pick from. Against ranged or champions with damage passives, Renekton’s Q start doesn’t provide him the edge he needs to kill them, as these other champions by default are a lot stronger with their range or passive advantage to help them overpower Renekton. In these situations, Renekton needs to take another ability to mitigate against their strength, or use his Q to farm safely or look to push for level 2 before his opponents. With that said, Q is the most standard and safe start, however you’re completely relying on shoving the wave with Q start to look for your level 2 advantages in favourable or even match ups, while in harder match ups you simply want to play away and use it to last hit minions and avoid any confrontation.

W start is very situational into the champs you take it against, as these champions are most likely to be ones that are trying to force level 1 kills on you. Some champions such as Tryndamere and Riven, are an example where they will try to force their heavy all in approach level one with their crit and damage passives, to try and overpower and kill Renekton. Renekton’s biggest weakness in this style of match ups level 1, is the fact he doesn’t have much damage outside of his keystone, auto attacks and his non empowered abilities, leaving him at a disadvantage against any champion with a damage passive. Renekton however in these situations can take W to help him return damage back towards his opponent, allowing him to create a kill angle the next time his W is up, or he’s able to regain lane control by level 2, taking E to help him gap close towards his target.

While W provides a really strong tactic to preventing enemies from cheesing him level 1, the W’s 16 CD isn’t as practical as an ability to start in most match ups, due to the fact Q’s 7 seconds allows him to use 2 Q’s before Renekton’s W comes up, making it more practical with most other cases to this. Most of the time starting W also makes us lose kill pressure vs certain opponents, as enemies can quickly wave clear and reach level 2, punishing us for our long W CD as well as the ability to reset the wave onto a more favourable state for our enemies. So with that being said, it really depends on how committed the enemy is to taking W start, as W can be a good chance to prevent cheesing, although it’s not entirely practical within 90% of match ups for the reasons just listed.

Overall E provides great offensive capabilities, allowing us to get an early advantage into notoriously difficult match ups that we wouldn’t normally get. In other circumstances, our E can also be used to counter enemies' cheese strategies, which can range from Jax running at us level 1 with E, Gragas using E and running away or Darius trying to cheese an early trade from bushes. Each one of these strategies can be successfully avoided starting E, as Renekton can use E to dodge Jax’s E activation, Renekton can use his E after Gragas uses his to allow him to heavily trade and chunk him back, and Renekton can use E to avoid Darius’s overcommitting trade to get passive stacks. While E provides great counter cheesing, it can also be used defensively to help him reach alcove level 1, which remains a great strategy to helping him obtain and survive against notorious level 1 lane bullies such as Quinn, Vayne or Varus. To do this, simply run all the way to the top lane from the first few seconds in the game, then use E as soon as you’re on the slope part of the wall into alcove. Doing this will then put you in a safe position, avoiding being caught out in the bushes by the following champions, allowing you to sap XP without avoiding any HP. Once the wave shoves towards your side, you can then exit and use your E to easily dash towards your side of the map.

Taking E start seems really great so far, however you do need to make sure you’re still playing it optimally. Doing a level 1 E trade can be a big fail against heavily damage based champions, such as Sett or Aatrox, where these champions can heavily punish you and kill you in the process (Just check out SRO’s level 1 E dash trade lmao). Another example of a fail is missing your E onto your target, which punishes you massively with the 16 second CD, losing all value and effort into getting an early level 1 advantage.

With all that being said, these are the main reasons and situations for each ability start with Renekton. To add more clarification towards match ups, I have made a tier list here of the most preferred match ups where you can start the desired abilities.

These are all my recommended starts when it comes to starting abilities, as I find these to be the most consistent ability starts for me in the following match ups. What you may also notice, is that some columns also include “Alcove E Start” or “Counter Skill / Situational), these essentially mean that within these match ups you rush to go to Alcove with E start, using the alcove to survive being zoned off the minion wave, while the Counter skill column is essentially taking a certain ability when an enemy cheeses or takes an ability in their own way. Here are some examples when to take certain abilities vs each champion situationally.

You can either start Q if Darius starts Q, allowing you to play for push and poke Darius back. If Darius takes W, you can still take Q to help outspace him and play to poke his HP down. Darius with W start can also opt into cheesing his opponents, allowing him to wait in River pixel bush or tribush, or he can come out of the closest bush opposite to your tower. In these situations, Renekton should try to avoid being caught out in the river, by avoiding walking into these territories. Renekton can use his ward level 1 to counter Darius’s top lane bush cheese if he walks straight to it as soon as he spawns, allowing Renekton to have damage back with minions to skill his E to help him auto attack for the PTA proc, while using his E disengage and out damage Darius. In other situations, Darius can also come out of the bush with E start, which is usually trickier to know until you use E, hence forcing you to hold your ability until Darius shows what he has first, allowing you to skill either W to beat his E start cheese, or take E if he skills W. Overall, you’re reactionary skilling abilities according to what Darius uses.

In the Gragas match up, you can start Q or E mainly, which overall depends on what Gragas does in the first few seconds of the game. If you’re waiting or walking up to a river bush and Gragas uses E to early trade against you, you can skill E to instantly get back onto him in range, allowing you to trade autos and use E2 to disengage. Once Gragas uses E within the lane, Renekton can use E back and force an early kill level 1 or 2. If Gragas takes Q, we can also skill Q to play for shove and reach level 2 before him, or we can also skill E to out trade against Gragas. Skilling E first is never entirely bad in this match up, however sometimes looking to get a preferred trade into Gragas with E start can be difficult if he uses his Q properly, as well as using his minion wave to help him out damage Renekton.

Illaoi is very strong from level 1 with her W and Grasp attack, which forces Renekton into a playstyle where he can take Q start to help him hard push the wave for level 2. Depending on tentacle spawns, this can feel pretty awkward to have to take her damage from level 1, sometimes making you low enough while also forcing the wave on her side, allowing her to use her tentacles more effectively post level 1. Renekton’s other alternative start is actually starting W, allowing him to trade back against Illaoi if she jumps onto him, providing Renekton the damage to chunk her out, while also allowing him to use his ignite and empowered W on the next time it's up. Renekton should try to avoid using W on her boneplating if she takes it, so make sure to auto attack first, then use W once her boneplating wears off. Illaoi sometimes also takes Q start, allowing her to try and push for her level 2 powerspike. In that case, Renekton can take Q and try to out push and look for a level 2 trade back before she gets her W.

Usually when playing against Olaf, Q start is usually better if you’re able to start hitting the minion wave first. Doing this allows you to easily get level 2 before him, allowing you to play more aggressively with his level disadvantage. Usually if Olaf does try to be aggressive level 1 in this situation, you can play to try and side step his Q, in which if he misses and tries to fight you, Renekton’s Q and Conqueror allows him to trade heavily back against Olaf, allowing you to kill him level 1 if you have ignite. In another circumstance where Olaf gets to the minion wave first or tries to cheese from bushes, Olaf will try to zone you off with his Q spam forcing you to take E. When Olaf moves into you, if you use PTA, Renekton can trade 3 autos then use his E to disengage and dodge any incoming Q’s after the fight. Once reaching level 2 Renekton can go in with empowered W to allow him to get the Q. Overall, Renekton has two different kill angles which vary on the runes you take, so make sure to play around these for the desired result.

Sejuani is another match up similar to Gragas, where she can use her Q to engage and chunk out Renekon with the rest of her combo. Level 1 she will use Q with grasp to help her out trade Renekton, setting up for her level 2 trade. Renekton instead can use E to skill against Sejuani, allowing him to return back damage, allowing him to take W level 2 to force a potential kill. Alternatively, if Sejuani tries to E start or fight in the river level 1, Renekton can also trade autos back and use his E to hard force a level 1 kill onto Sejuani with Conqueror. If Sejuani takes W start, Renekton can take Q to play for push and use it to poke back against Sejuani.

Against Rumble you can take Q or E start, which overall depends on what his ability start is. If Rumble takes E start, Renekton cannot reliably look for a favourable fight into Rumble, as his constant uptime with E allows him to out trade and deny Renekton from the fight he is looking for. Instead, take Q start to help you shove the wave to help you reach level 2, allowing you to hard trade back against Rumble. If Rumble takes Q start, Renekton can actually play to heavily trade after he uses Q. Rumble’s 10 second Q level 1, provides you a long window to force an E dash trade, setting you up with a level 2 kill if you take W and use Ignite.

Sett is another match up like Olaf where you can potentially play to kill him within 2 ways. If Sett tries to cheese you level 1 by coming out of the top lane bushes, Renekton can skill Q with Conqueror to allow him to have the damage to kill Sett level 1. When fighting Sett, Renekton must try to kite back towards his minion wave, while looking to use his next Q to help him kill and finish off Sett with Ignite. If Renekton takes PTA, Renekton can use E start instead to help him chunk out Sett and disengage away from taking additional damage with E2. Once Renekton reaches level 2, Renekton can use empowered W to nuke Sett’s potential W shield to easily give him a kill.

Shen is a match up where if Shen tries to Q aggressively and zone you off the wave, Renekton can take W to help him combat against Shen’s damage level 1, providing him the damage to trade back and make Shen respect him. However, due to W’s long CD, Shen will quickly have Q back up, providing Shen priority within the lane. Renekton at this point must wait for his W or level 2, allowing him to potentially look for a kill window if Shen engages. W start is good against an aggressive Shen, however Q start is potentially better if you’re able to play to shove, providing you a quicker level up timer to fight back against Shen and potentially force a level 2 kill that way. Overall, it entirely depends on how aggressive Shen is playing, but more than often I prefer Q start for the consistency to get level 2 before him.

Tryndamere’s heavy aggressive playstyle forces him to take force E and auto attack trades, allowing him to roll the dice for his crit playstyle. If Tryndamere tries to force a fight instantly onto you, you can potentially take W if you want to stun, then look to walk away to preserve HP up. Contesting push level 1 against Tryndamere is very hard in the process, allowing the need to also take Q just to simply poke and get any minions that we can. Overall, the lane really starts when it comes to level 2, so make sure to keep your HP up and play to last hit minions or deny Tryndamere from auto attacking you down.

Against Trundle, Q max is usually standard, as your overall job into Trundle is simply avoiding extended fights with Trundle, while trying to push or last hit minions with your Q. In a pure 1v1 Trundle will beat Renekton level 1, forcing Renekton to play safe until his level 2 . If Trundle comes out of the top bush level 1, Renekton can take W to quickly out trade Trundle, forcing Trundle away from zoning Renekton. Once reaching level 2, Renekton can go more aggressive and play to kill Trundle.

Skilling Q or W depends on what Udyr starts, if Udyr tries to go for Q start and looks to fight you level 1, you can take W to help deal more damage towards Udyr, allowing you to potentially look for a kill angle if you kite back and take Ignite into Udyr. If Udyr takes R, you can try to take Q start to help you contest push against Udyr, while also having the damage with Conqueror to fight Udyr if he doesn’t have empowered R up.

Ability maxing within mid lane is a lot more consistent to remain the same, as the short lane provides more benefits with getting away with E start compared to top lane, where certain enemies can use your over committed trades as their advantage to trade back. Match ups within the E start category are typically easy to get kills on, as the enemies lack of armour provides Renekton a consistent strategy to kill his laners by level 2. Some match ups such as Ahri, Syndra and Ziggs, can be harder to kill by level 2 if they skill their disengage style abilities, so make sure you act fast or look to use flash creatively to avoid their abilities to self peel. In the “Any Works” category, this essentially means you can skill any of your abilities to have decent results in the process. Overall, mid lane isn’t as intricate as top lane is for match ups, so make sure to play each start optimally and play to your overall strengths of your match up.

Renekton’s ability max plays a giant part into Renekton’s overall strengths within a large portion of his match ups and general game situations. Renekton’s main abilities he likes to max are his Q and his W. Historically Q has always been of the better abilities to max as Renekton, however since season 10 onwards Renekton’s Q has been heavily nerfed, taking away a lot of the healing aspect strengths that Q used to provide. Whilst Q was nerfed, Riot also buffed W within season 12, allowing Renekton to max W and lower his CD drastically through the game. What seemed like a one point wonder in the early days of league is no longer the case as W max is completely viable, providing Renekton with many situational and gameplay breaking strengths.

With that said, I will now talk about each purpose of the desired ability maxes.

Q max allows Renekton to have more consistency through his poke damage, healing and his wave clear strengths, all of which provide many different utilities into various match ups. When playing Q max, Renekton has more ways of being able to force beneficial recalls and hard proxy incoming wave states. Renekton Q’s damage in combination with E, allows him to instantly nuke waves to one up his opponents, as well as using his already big lead to help him nuke incoming waves in between towers, allowing him to excel giant farm leads within the early stages of the game. As well as being a great tool to push, Renekton’s consistent damage through Q also allows him to whittle down his opponents HP, while allowing him to wait for his more burstier combos. Aside from also being a better tool for consistent short-mid range damage, Renekton’s Q can also be used to help him survive poke match ups, allowing him to farm from range or use his Q to AoE heal off his opponents and their minion wave.

While Q max has more ways of being consistent through most match ups, Q max does lack the overall scaling compared to the W max playstyle. Renekton’s Q max’s peak will really be around the time you’re able to one shot minions with your max points in Q, allowing you to easily rotate towards objectives, or being able to get a slightly bigger heal within fights. Renekton’s Q damage isn’t as impressive as an ability, as his main source of damage comes from his W and his E. Overall, when it comes to fights and duels within the side lane, Renekton completely relies on his W to burst his opposition. However, if Renekton doesn’t have W into match ups with much lower CDs and higher extended trade damage, Renekton completely gets bullied and shut down easily through the mid stages of the game.

W max is another alternative playstyle towards Renekton’s gameplay, allowing him to completely bypass his long 16 second CD by instead lowering it from 8 to 4 seconds. Renekton’s W is one of the most hard hitting single target abilities in the entire game, being a 225% AD ratio, as well as using on hits to apply even more damage towards his target. With that said, W max allows Renekton’s damage to become even more consistent and heavy, allowing him to also increase the damage by an additional 195 when empowered, providing up towards 1k+ damage every so many seconds within the later stages of the game depending on how you build. When maxing W, Renekton is able to also abuse most other champions with similar low CDs, which would usually be a problem on his Q max playstyle. For instance, Renekton is able to W up towards 3-4x against a Fiora with a level 1 W, allowing him to not only use multiple W’s to bypass her one time use but also to return that much level of damage against Fiora’s Q and passive scaling damage.

Renekton’s entire gameplay becomes elevated once you finish maxing his W, allowing you to fight absolutely everyone in the entire game. Renekton’s W is not only great for duels, but it’s also exceptional within teamfights. Because Renekton can use multiple W’s in a single fight, Renekton can use these to stun any close range targets that get in his way, as well as being able to easily shut down enemies from trying to kill his own carries. Overall W max is absolutely insane for snowballing, however W max does also come with its own weaknesses. W max’s lack of wave clear presents a giant option in being able to shove waves, providing Renekton a disadvantage into enemies with better wave clear than him. W max also only allows him to use W’s as long as he’s in close range, meaning into ranged or high mobility compositions, Renekton struggles to stay in range consistently with this playstyle.

Now that we have covered the main aspects of each ability max, let’s talk about how we can improve both playstyles in the order of levelling our abilities. When I play W max, I typically like to level my Q with 3 or 4 points, which overall depends on the match up and how much wave clear I need (For example; I’d put 3 points Q into W max vs Sett, while I’d put 4 points into champions with slightly more waveclear or if I need that extra poke in the beginning of the game.). I never recommend really maxing W first per se, as losing the early levels of Q’s points is too much to lose in the beginning of the laning phase. In some other cases, we can use triple tonic to help us also reach our max W points by level 9, providing us a heavy powerspike to also finish W max after putting 3 points into our Q. If I Q max, I typically still just normally max E right after, however in some games where there are enemies where I need to peel consistently against with my W stuns, I will max W alongside my E, allowing me to have the best of both points into the game.

While I have talked a lot about the theory of ability maxing, here are some tier lists of match ups I max my Q or W.

Here are all the recommended top lane match ups where I take the following ability maxes.

Champions in the either works tab, allows Renekton to do either playstyle when it comes to ability maxing. Overall this depends on your overall preference and what you prefer within the game.

Here are all the recommended mid lane match ups where I take the following ability maxes.

Compared to top lane, Renekton has more match ups where he needs to do Q max, as most of the match ups require Renekton to match his opponents wave clear with his Q wave clear, as well as using Q to help poke from range and sustain incoming damage.

The ‘Either Works’ tab basically means you can take either ability max playstyle and use it optimally through the match up. This is overall dependent on your preference of playing Renekton.