League of Legends Renekton Guide

The Butcher of the Sands is out for revenge as he seeks to spill his brother’s blood. One of the strongest juggernauts in the game, Renekton is the embodiment of death. This champion has always found a place in the League of Legends meta outside of top lane tank dominance. This Renekton guide will help new players understand the best way to use this champion in their competitive games. It’s time to experience playing the champion with the most aggressive playstyle in League of Legends.

The Butcher of the Sands

Growing up, Renekton was a child of noticeable strength and fighting ability but his brother – Nasus – worried that his strength might consume his emotions. Nasus enlisted Renekton as a soldier of Shurima and together, they defended the Empire from many threats. As Nasus lay dying in his bed from an incurable disease, the Emperor commanded him to ascend but he was too weak to climb so Renekton pushed him towards the Sun Disc. Together, they became Ascended who protected the Empire for centuries until a great threat left Renekton sealed for centuries and corrupted him.

Renekton has always been a favorite pick in the Top Lane because of the consistency he brings as a damage dealing flank champion. This champion is monstrous in the laning phase and even in teamfights if he is ahead. Despite many patches coming and going, Renekton’s playstyle has remained the same. This Renekton guide aims on highlight his strengths and weaknesses as well as the proper way of playing this champion in different situations.

Renekton General Gameplay

Renekton is a champion that likes to fight all the time. In this Renekton guide, we’ll keep mentioning and discussing his aggressive playstyle as a juggernaut champ. Since Renekton doesn’t make use of Resources like Mana or Energy, the only thing that stops this champion from engaging onto an enemy whenever he can are his cooldowns. Renekton will always play the aggressor and should not be played conservatively in lane since that will put him behind.

Renekton Guide: Skills and Rotations

First up on our Renekton guide, we’ll be discussing this champion’s basic rotation. Renekton has a catch n’ kill kit that makes is enhanced by a resource called Fury. His abilities force him to get up close and personal with the enemy team and tries to stick as close to them as possible. Renekton’s strength is empowered the more enemies he has in his range.

Passive: Reign of Anger

Innate – Renekton generates 5 Fury every time he hits a basic attack on an enemy unit. After 12 seconds of not attacking any unit, Renekton loses 4 Fury every second.

At 50 Fury or higher, Renekton’s next basic ability has its effects enhanced. The enhanced effect does not generate Fury.

Fury generation is increased if Renekton is below 50% Health.

Fury is what gives punch to all of Renekton’s abilities and makes his a very great damage source. Players should always try to keep 50 or 100 Fury before going all-in on an enemy champion. To achieve this, Renekton players mustn’t be afraid to hit minions a lot during the laning phase and push the wave towards the enemy. Make sure to allocate your Fury consumption on the abilities you want to use during the engage so that you don’t waste your chance of dealing a huge amount od damage.

Q: Cull the Meek

Active – Renekton swings his cleavers around him, dealing physical damage to all nearby enemies and healing himself for each enemy hit capped to an amount. The amount of Healing increases by 300% if the enemy hit is a Champion.

Renekton gains 2.5 Fury for each enemy hit, 10 if it is a champion capped to 30 Fury.

REIGN OF ANGER – Cull the Meek deals addition damage, increases total healing by 200%, and increases the healing Cap by 300%

Cull the Meek is Renekton’s main damaging ability. Players can use this either to store Fury if the enemy is playing too safe against you or to use this offensively. The best way to use this ability is to hit as many minions alongside the enemy champion as possible to maximize the healing received. Ideally, the player wants to wait until the end of the combo so that they can negate some of the damage that the enemy inflicts. Try to use this often if you’re being harassed by the enemy so that you can sustain from the aggression. Max this skill first.

W: Ruthless Predator

Active – Renekton enhances his cleaver, empowering his next Basic Attack on a non-structure enemy within 7 seconds, gaining 50 range and striking twice. This attack deals bonus modified physical damage and stuns the target for 0.75 seconds. Each strike applies on-hit effects at 100% effectiveness and grants Fury, 10 bonus Fury if the target is a Champion.

REIGN OF ANGER – Ruthless Predator strikes 3 times instead, destroying damage mitigating shields on the target after the first strike, and increases the stun duration to 1.5 seconds.

Ruthless Predator is Renekton’s hard-CC skill. A great way to use this ability against Champions is to land a Basic Attack first before using this ability to maximize the number of attacks you land since this ability resets the Basic Attack timer. It’s not necessary that you use this ability’s Reign of Anger proc unless you’re fighting a champion that has shields like Camille, Malphite, or Shen so that you deal the highest amount of damage as possible.

E: Slice & Dice

Active – Renekton dashes a short distance towards a direction, dealing physical damage to all enemies he passes through. Hitting an enemy unit will allow Renekton to recast this ability.

Recast – Renekton dashes a short distance towards a direction, dealing physical damage to all enemies he passes through.

Hitting an enemy with these abilities generate 2 Fury, 10 Fury if the enemies hit are Champions, capped at 30 Fury.

REIGN OF ANGER – During the recast, Renekton deals additional damage to the enemy and reduces their armor for 4 seconds.

Slice and Dice a mostly used as an emergency gap closer but is excellent in dueling because of the empowered ability. Players should try to pass through champions using empowered Dice before using their full combo to maximize the damage dealt. In addition, don’t use the recast immediately after the first cast (if not empowered), and try to land a full combo auto-attack > W > auto-attack > Q first before using the recast so that you can catch an enemy if they attempt to escape using Flash or another ability.

R: Dominus

Active – Renekton is overcome with rage and empowers his body for 15 seconds gaining bonus health, 20% increased size, 25 bonus range, and an instant 20 Fury.

During Dominus, Renekton deals magic damage every 0.5 seconds to all surrounding enemies and generates 5 Fury per second up to a maximum of 75 Fury.

Dominus is an ability that helps Renekton survive fights better and increases his Fury generation. Having Dominus active increases both his teamfight capability and dueling capability because of the AoE damage that he inflicts alongside the threat of using an Empowered Q in the middle of the enemy team. Players should pop Dominus whenever the enemy team is trying to make a move against Renekton (tower dive or gank) or when he is trying to make a risky play such as a dive or when engaging on two or more champs.

Renekton Guide: Items and Builds

Next up on our Renekton Guide, we’ll be talking about proper itemization when it comes to playing Renekton. This champion is popularly used as a top laner so we’ll be following itemization for the role specifically. However, a large part of this build can be used even if the player was to play in Mid Lane as well.

Starter Items

Doran’s Blade – Renekton likes to get up close and personal while building up Fury by attacking minions so having the omnivamp helps him in terms of sustainability. It’s also great to have the extra AD in the early game to make him more aggressive.

Core Items

Stridebreaker (Mythic)– A lot of players like playing Goredrinker but Stridebreaker offers more utility. Renekton likes to close the distance and fight face-to-face so the extra movement speed and short distance dash helps him get into position so that he doesn’t waste using Empowered E.

Sterak’s Gage – Sterak’s gives Renekton more survivability and makes him a big threat in teamfights because of how long he can stay in battle with the HP Bulk, Lifeline, and Empowered Q proc in the middle of as many enemies as possible. This also gives him much-needed damage with the bulk.

Recommended Items

Black Cleaver – This item is especially useful when fighting against tankier enemies but is still good even if fighting against less tanky units because it makes them a lot more vulnerable.

Death’s Dance – Another great damage source with defensive utility. A great item to be built if you’re ahead and like to fight individual duels against enemies caught out of position.

Guardian Angel – Renekton players should be fearless and nothing makes you more fearless than having Guardian Angel active. As long as you hold out long enough and deal a lot of damage to the enemy team, you won’t mind losing your GA skill since no one will wait to kill a Renekton about to respawn.

Spirit Visage – A good build if the enemy team has a lot of AP users. This also increases Renekton’s healing from his Q ability significantly.

Thornmail – Renekton’s Grievous Wounds item of choice. Most players will want to try to take down a Renekton diving straight into the middle first so it’s easier to apply this even if the enemy team is scattered.

Renekton Guide: Runes

Primary: Precision

Keystone: Conqueror – Renekton can easily fill stacks with his empowered W and E combos so he’ll be able to benefit from the lifesteal and bonus AD per stack early on. Once the Conqueror is fully stacked, don’t be afraid to commit to a fight.

Triumph – A rune that helps Renekton survive a lot longer and make him difficult to kill in fights. The extra HP will just give him more time to wreak havoc through enemy lines and destroy them from the inside.

Legend: Alacrity – The attack speed helps Renekton stack Conqueror and build up Fury a lot faster. This rune will make him really deadly when stuck to an enemy champion.

Last Stand – Renekton will most likely be taken down below 60% almost immediately because of how high he is on the kill priorty. Take advantage of that time to deal as much damage as possible.

Secondary: Resolve

Demolish – Renekton likes to push the wave into the enemy so having Demolish will help him build up a gold lead faster because of Turret plates in the early game. This will also help him become an excellent split pusher.

Second Wind – Renekton likes to be bullied in lane because of how much he likes to stick to the enemy minions. Activating Q inside a minion wave also causes him to take minion damage which can hurt a lot so having extra healing will help him sustain better.

Renekton General Overview

Throughout our Renekton Guide, we talked about how aggressive this champion can be. Players that don’t have a proactive playstyle will most likely fail on this champion either because they fail to secure an early game lead or because they get bullied during the laning phase. Renekton is a champion that needs to take the risk so playing for the kill is a mindset that is acceptable when playing this champion as long as you understand what your team wants to do during those situations as well.