Renekton is one of the most popular top laners currently in League of Legends. If you don’t ban him, you can expect either your top laner or the opponent to pick him due to how strong he is.
He punishes carries who fail to position correctly with his high damage and mobility. While he doesn’t scale as well into the late-game as other champions, the game will usually be decided by then depending on your play.
As with all League champions, specific items are going to be more effective depending circumstances of the game. But there are certain items that will work well on Renekton regardless. These core items are going to ensure that you have the best possible chances of winning with this champion.
Runes
Precision
Press the Attack: This keystone is great for Renekton. You can deal a tremendous amount of damage early on. You can dash, W, Q, and auto to punish the opponent without him having time to respond. Against tanky compositions, you can go for Conqueror to ensure that you scale better into the mid or late game.
Triumph: Triumph is a great snowballing rune to help you survive low-health encounters and earn a bit more gold on takedowns. In teamfights, this can be the difference between you getting enough time to use your Q to survive the encounter and dying.
Legend: Alacrity: Legend: Alacrity is a basic rune to increase your attack speed and make your attacks feel more fluid. It is the default rune against all types of teams, but if you’re facing a heavy crowd-control focused team, you can go for Legend: Tenacity instead. If you feel the need to get some lifesteal early on, then go for Legend: Bloodline instead.
Last Stand: As Renekton you’re usually going to be walking to enemy champions and soaking up all their poke while you reach them. As a result, activating the Last Stand effect is quite easy and makes you extremely deadly if you reach them with a low amount of health.
Resolve
Demolish: This rune is required for you to have the ability to take towers easily. Since your kit doesn’t do extra damage to towers, you’ll need help from runes. It can allow you to snowball early on, especially if you get a couple of tower plates.
Bone Plating: Early tankiness allows you to be very oppressive considering how difficult it is to answer your dash into stun. By adding this rune on top of your kit, it allows you to be a monster who takes over the early game with ease. The rune scales well into the mid-game and can help you survive burst champions by diminishing their initial burst.
Bonuses: +9 adaptive force, +9 adaptive force, +6 armor
Starting items
Doran’s Blade
This offensive item is perfect to start with on Renekton. It grants you health, attack damage, and lifesteal to help you survive the laning phase and get your core items with ease. While getting Doran’s Blade might seem better in most matchups, you need to go for Doran’s Shield against ranged matchups to have a better laning phase.
Health Potion
During the farming phase, you are most likely going to take damage from enemy champions. Health potions heal back 150 health over 15 seconds and will give you extra time before having to base.
Core items
Ninja Tabi
Ninja Tabi is the best defensive option in the top lane since you’re a melee top laner. You’ll be getting auto attacked quite a lot early on and getting this item early reduces all that pressure on you and allows you to survive the laning phase easier. You can rush this item against any AD matchup to ensure you survive all encounters.
The only exception would be if you’re facing heavy crowd control-focused teams. Mercury’s Treads would be a better option then.
Blade of the Ruined King
Blade of the Ruined King has been a staple Renekton item ever since it got buffed. It scales well with the W in your kit, which activates the health steal effect. The build-path is great as well with Cutlass giving you a lot of kill potential, especially against immobile champions. You can slow the opponent with the item, then follow up with your E, W, and Q combo to delete them easily.
