Welcome to my AP Rengar guide. First of all, I would like to say I didn't discover this from Reddit (>_>). Anyway back to the guide. You might think that going AP Rengar seems a bit unorthodox and that his kit seems to be tailored towards his AD side, well no.

AP Rengar is much stronger than, and scales better than AD Rengar.

Now why did I name this guide "AP Rengar - The New AP Sion" you might ask. Well the reason for this is because he is incredibly similar to AP Sion. His ratios (assuming you hit twice with W because of ferocity) add up to 2.0, which was the equivalent of AP Sion's pre-nerf. As some people may know, AP Sion had a pretty hit-and-run style. Shield on, DFG, Stun, Lich bane smack, KABOOM. There goes their HP bar. Well AP Rengar is pretty much the same but better and he has TWO AoEs instead of just one.

The reason why he is the "new" AP Sion, and POSSIBLY better despite the lack of a stun is because of his mobility/ganking. As some Sion players would know, it was pretty popular to buy boots of mobility, push your lane with shield and then wreak havoc in other lanes. Well with Rengar, you can do that even easier by using his double W to push with, and you have a stealth to roam with, which makes ganks and roaming incredibly easy. Coupled with the fact that he has no mana costs and incredible sustain from his W (and possibly revolver) makes him very strong during and outside the laning phase.

Did I mention it's really easy to farm once you have a few points in W too?

Also just in case it wasn't very clear, this is an AP Rengar MID guide. Although much of this can be applied to top.

I will soon be working with Xazori (2.3k NA Server) to further improve this guide.

With the upcoming AP Rengar nerfs, I'm considering deleting this guide as he will be nowhere near as strong as he is right now. He is getting a 0.2AP Ratio nerf on his W.

21-9-0 Masteries. You don't need any mana or mana regen from utility tree. The movespeed will be negligible especially with your ult, and while the flash cd is nice, your ult will more than make up for it since it will be on a 33 second cooldown.

The points in defensive help me get a bit tankier, and the MR really helps in mid lane.

I get 2 points in the AD mastery of the offensive tree because even if I'm going AP, it will still boost my Q and E a bit, and my autoattacks at the same time, so in this case, I take it over the minion damage mastery.

Also, on the case of masteries and on a side note, NEVER TAKE HAVOC. 1.5% is simply not worth it for three points. You will only do 15 extra damage if you hit for 1000.

REDS: There isn't much to say about this except MPEN, there isn't much of a choice. Magic penetration lets you do more damage to the enemy mid laner, and will override some of their MR if they are also running MR glyphs, if not, then you do way more damage.

YELLOWS: Here you have a choice between armor, or some AP/level runes. I run armor because if I'm going to be diving turrets or ganking bot or top, chances are I'll be tanking PHYSICAL damage. Also, most junglers do physical damage so it'll help if I get ganked.

BLUES: Flat MR. This is to lower the damage the enemy mid lane does to you. Not much else about it. Since you're melee, you'll probably take more harass from mages anyway, because of that, MR will usually be better than the AP you would get from blues.

QUINTS: Flat AP for extra damage. With this, your double W (or just one) will do CHUNKS of the enemy's HP early game and help you set an advantage for later on.

I'll explain why I think these two are the only suitable summoner spells for Rengar.




This is probably all you ever need to get and will get. Flash lets you get in and out better since you are melee and your skills require you to be close, and ignite adds to your burst, which you will need a lot if you want to kill someone before you get your .

Why the other summoner spells aren't worth it

This summoner spell is good, yes, but it's not good for Rengar. He really needs ignite early on to help him snag some kills before he gets his Deathfire's Grasp.

Like above, it's a good spell, but it isn't right for Rengar for the same reason. Besides, he already has a heal.

If you get CC'd, chances are you will die anyway. And also, it doesn't compare to ignite. If anything, you should just get a merc treads if it's that bad. You should be going in, killing someone and getting out, or just kamikaze-ing and taking someone with you while chunking a large portion of the enemy team's HP.

Ah this one's tough. Simply put, it's good, but not as good as flash. You need to get in and out. Flash lets you do that quickly and avoid damage, ghost doesn't. Also, most mid lanes have CC, and if not, their jungle will likely have some. You need to escape quickly if you get ganked, otherwise you will get CC'd and killed. Flash lets you do that, ghost doesn't.

Teleport ganks would be a waste of Rengar's amazing roaming/ganking ultimate. And as I have already stated, you really NEED ignite.


No. Just no.

While in brush or stealth, Rengar will leap at the target when using his basic attack. Rengar builds 1 Ferocity with each ability he uses on enemies. When reaching 5 Ferocity, Rengar's next ability becomes empowered, granting it a bonus effect.


This is what makes AP Rengar so strong. Ignore the bush pouncing mechanic, that just helps you chase a bit, the ferocity is the big stuff. This lets you use your 1.0AP ratio AOE damage skill TWICE. That's big stuff and can't be ignored.





Rengar's next basic attack deals bonus damage and grants him increased Attack Speed for a short duration.

Ferocity Bonus: Rengar deals enhanced damage and his Attack Speed bonus increases.


Not very significant as AP. You won't use this much except for CSing and building ferocity... At least not until you get lich bane.





Rengar lets out a battle roar, damaging enemies and gaining bonus Armor and Magic Resist for a short duration.

Ferocity Bonus: Rengar heals himself for a large amount.


This is the big stuff. The bread and butter. Not only does it do a huge amount of AOE damage, it has a 1.0AP ratio and can be used TWICE. This also gives him INSANE sustain AND gives him some tankiness. This skill is godly.





Rengar throws a bola at his target, slowing them for a short duration.

Ferocity Bonus: Rengar roots the target.


Some of you may have noticed that I got this skill at level one even though it does pretty low damage. The reason for this is for you to be able to CS against the enemy mid lane. Usually the enemy mid lane will be a ranged AP champion and will harass the hell out of you early. This is why I get this at level one, so I can farm and build ferocity without taking damage really early on. It also sets up for my level 2 and 3 burst because I'll have built up enough ferocity by then.

I also get this so I can leash for my jungler (good guy greg).





Rengar activates his predatory instincts, stealthing and revealing all enemy champions in a large radius around him. He gains Movement Speed and rapidly generates Ferocity while stealthed.


When you look at it while playing as AD Rengar, it seems kind of lack luster. The movespeed doesn't even let you keep up with someone once you unstealth. BUT as AP Rengar, this ultimate is simply amazing. If you use the items I said and the masteries, you will have 34% CDR and a 33second ultimate at rank 3. This skill lets you sneak up on the enemy mid lane and burst them down without them even noticing. It makes you a huge threat at level 6 and they will pay if they don't play passive if you've disappeared for longer than 5 seconds once you're 6.




NOTE: At level one, always remember, never choose a skill until absolutely necessary (as in you are going to use it). This prevents you from being useless in the case of an invasion where the AOE damage from your W would be more useful than the slow from your E.

I will go into more detail about my item choices here.


This item is the one of most debate in this guide. I'm still currently experimenting with item builds, but I know for sure that the rest of the build is pretty solid but this item. This item can be replaced with lots of other items. or work fairly well in the place of gunblade. The reason why I'm running gunblade as of right now is because the stats are very, very good for rengar. Everything on gunblade helps him. The AD gives his Q and E a slight boost in damage. The lifesteal heals him for a lot when you use a lich bane infused Q. The AP helps him do more damage, and the spellvamp also heals him. The slowing active is also very very good for helping him keep up with enemies.


This item is really good. It gives him tons of AP and some armor too. The active is really helpful when you need to refresh your cooldowns. Get this in the place of gunblade if you don't really want to get gunblade, if the enemy team is AD heavy, or if their AD carry is fed.


This thing gives Rengar tankiness. It also gives you some slow on your skills for chasing, but since it's not that significant on your W, and your bola shot already slows for a huge amount, that part isn't as significant. It also gives Rengar a pretty good amount of AP. Get this if you are getting killed quickly without being able to do anything. If you are still able to get your burst off in time, or if you are at the stage of the game where if you show yourself, you will die anyway, you might as well get something else like a gunblade or zhonyas to help you do more damage before you die.


This is a good item. Since you will be fairly close anyway, the aura really helps for you. Get this if you need the magic resistance because the enemy team has a lot of AP damage or if the enemy AP is fed (shouldn't happen if you are mid and there isn't an AP top). If the enemy team isn't building MR then you can also get this too because it will be more worth its cost than void staff.


Now here's a special segment about boots.


These are the best boots you can buy. The CDR helps tremendously. It lets you cast your spells more often which is CRUCIAL to Rengar as it lets him build more ferocity. It also helps you stay relevant as the game progresses. You should try to get these above all other boots UNLESS the situation drastically calls for it.

Get these if the enemy team is AD heavy, or the enemy AD carry is fed.

Get these if the enemy has a lot of CC, the enemy AP carries are fed, or if the enemy team is AP heavy.


Why I don't get these boots.


Ah boots of mobility. Sion players should know this as I talked about Sion vs Rengar a lot during the intro. The reason why I don't get these on Rengar is because of two things:

• Ionian boots of Lucidity gives Rengar much more and better benefits. The CDR is incredibly necessary for his success.
• He does not need it.

The reason why Sion needed it was because he had to get past wards really quickly and rush into someone's lane to get into his low stun range in order to gank. Rengar however, has an ultimate that gives him a speed boost and stealths him. You can just ult before you get into the sight range of wherever you think is warded and sneak right past the ward.

This was a tough choice but I decided that the CDR given from Ionians benefited Rengar more than the magic penetration given by these boots. CDR lets Rengar: cast more, get more ferocity, do more damage (because casting more). MPen lets Rengar: do more damage. CDR simply has more benefits, and is more important to Rengar anyway since the majority of his damage lies in one spell (that can be used twice).

No.

This segment will be relatively short. This is only in case you're not sure what order to use your skills in and if you're not sure what to use your ferocity for. Remember that your Q does negligible damage until you have lich bane so you don't always have to use it if you are unable to. Also, if you don't have a DFG, ignore it.

Harass combo 1: E, W, Ferocity W, Q
This is the combo you normally use. This is a basic harass combo that will take down at the very least a third of the enemy's HP. Of course, there are other combos, so if you are ever in a situation where you cannot catch up to the enemy after your E, you can try a different combo.

Harass combo 2: Ferocity E, W, E, Q
Needless to say, this is weaker than the first combo. You only use this if you absolutely cannot catch up to the enemy with only a slow. The snare will let you get to them and you can follow up with a non-ferocity E afterwards for a bit more damage.

Killing combo: R, DFG, W, Ferocity W, E, Q
This is a standard killing combo. If you are missing some of the components, like your ultimate or your DFG, leave it out.

Remember, these are all just examples. I only put them here in case you are confused of what I mean when I say something like "kill them with your combo". Everything here is subject to change based on the situation like if you don't have DFG or your ultimate or something. Also, the order in which you use your ferocity skills does not matter as long as you get the right skills (for example Ferocity W, W vs. W, Ferocity W is the same).

I will only be updating this as I actually EXPERIENCE the matchups. I don't want to theorycraft and have you guys fall flat on your faces because I was wrong.

Over here I'll go over some lane matchups. I'll talk about how to beat them or how to survive against them, and whether or not they are difficult.

Very Easy-Easy
If you can dodge his Q, you have nothing to worry about in this lane. If he gets close to you, bola shot and double W and you will take down a lot of his HP. If he tries to farm from afar, zone him with bola shot. If you manage to land a bola shot, don't be afraid to follow with your W. If he walls to try to stop you, you made him waste more mana so you win. You can kill him easily once you're 6 because he is squishy.

Very Easy-Easy
If he tries to harass you at all pre-6 he will run out of mana very quickly. You can also force him to go OOM by bola shotting him and walking up to W. If he doesn't try to stop you with his stun, he will lose half his hp. If he DOES try to stop you, he will lose half his mana. Once you hit 6, you can kill him by sneaking up on him and using your combo. But remember, he can also easily kill you with his combo as well, but since you will be stealthed, you will probably catch him before he catches you.

Easy-Medium
If she tries to turn the lane into a passive farmfest by laying down tormented soil and then walking away, out push her tormented soil by using W and that will move your minions out of her tormented soil. Then she will be forced to CS at tower (and god damn does her tower CS suck without tormented soil). Also remember to harass with your bola shot. If she gets hit by it, move in to try to W but be VERY careful. If she tries to Q you, you must dodge it otherwise you will take a lot of damage for free. The only challenge in this lane is how to actually hurt her and kill her. You will outfarm her.

Medium-Hard
Since you are both melee, it gives you plenty of chances to W him. It also gives him chances to E and Q you. This is what makes this lane difficult. He will hurt you a lot before you have a sufficient amount of points in your W. Try to make him choose between casting his E on you, or casting his E on minions. Once you've seen him use his skills, that's when you go in to actually hurt him. Always watch his shield bar. If he isn't near minions and his shield isn't full, you can go in with bola shot and double W. However, don't try to harass him near your minions, he will just E and damage you while blocking your own harass. This lane is kind of tough, so try to get your jungler to gank for you. If it turns into a farm fest, he will probably beat you late game.

Hard-Very Hard
This guy is torture. He will put you through living hell until you hit level 6. And even after that you will probably be too low to kill him by yourself. He also shuts down your roaming by pushing endlessly. There isn't much you can do against him. Stay BEHIND your minions. Have at least 3 of them in front of you to block his rockets. They target the three things closest to him. His turrets will push like crazy so you won't be able to roam without losing your turret or most of it. Try to get your jungler to gank. He is an amazing laner, but he is also squishier than a sponge. If you manage to get a gank on him without him flashing away or ulting and kiting you guys, he will die in 2 seconds flat. If you are level 6 and you are fairly high hp you can try to stealth and kill him. If you can survive him, he will not survive you. Also, you do way more damage than him late game. Just always watch out for his poke.

Very Easy-Medium
She's pretty weak. She already has a bad laning phase, but she's melee. If she tries to farm with her auto attacks, bola shot her, W her, Q her, she will not be able to fight back. If she's smart, she will try to CS by using her bouncing blades. Try to tag her with bola shot and move in for W whenever you can. Unless a fresh minion wave is coming, she will have nowhere to go. If she jumps on you out of nowhere, chances are you are getting ganked. Try to get your W and E off on her and run. Once she hits 6, things get a bit trickier. You should be able to keep up your harass on her, but if she moves in for her ultimate, you could be in trouble. Either try to kill her before she gets her full damage off or use your burst and flash out if you are getting too low. If you flashed out, ultimate and try to go in for a second burst if you have enough HP. You are a better pusher too so you can apply more pressure on her if she roams, and you can roam yourself.

Very Hard
This guy is a living hell. Even more than Heimerdinger. At least you can kill Heimer once you hit 6. There is nothing you can do on your own to beat this guy. You can only try to break even. At level 1 just try to farm with bola shot. Try to avoid as much harass as possible from his spear shot. Once you hit level 2 you will have some sustain so you can start farming with your autoattacks. When you are level 3, your W should be able to make an impact on him. If he gets close, double W and back off. You'll probably end up killing all the minions too, which is fine. He will constantly try to harass you with his Q. There isn't much you can do against this but take it and try to harass him back with your bola shot and W at the same time. Try to heal back your HP if he's harassed you too much. Really the only way to actually BEAT him is to get your jungler to gank. You probably won't be able to kill him on your own. This doesn't change once you hit 6. If you try to ult and kill him, you will probably still trade even with you so don't bother with this. Save your ultimate for roaming and ganking. Luckily, you are a better pusher than him. Unfortunately, he is just as good at roaming and ganking as you if not better. Try to break even on harass, out live him with your sustain, and farm. He is an EARLY GAME champion, you will out scale him. Just survive through the lane and help other lanes as much as you can. DO NOT neglect ganking against this guy because he definitely won't.

Medium
Orianna is not much of a problem in lane. The only problem will be that you probably will not be able to kill her until you get your ultimate and dfg, and if you don't have your dfg already, you will likely have to harass with bola shot to try to lower her first. For the first 1 or 2 levels or so, just play passive and farm with your bola shot. Try not to take too much autoattack harass from her early on. When you get more points into your W, push your lane out and start farming jungle creeps like wraiths and wolves while your lane is pushed out. This denies her farm and gives you more because she will lose CS to tower unless she uses her spells, and you get ahead because you are farming more than just your lane. The key to winning this lane is to out last her. Use your pushing power and sustain to your advantage and make her run out of mana. This is when you can start to try to harass her because she will no longer be able to slow you. You can also roam more because you out push her. The tricky part of this lane is trying not to take early harass and trying to kill her, other than that, it's not bad.

Easy-Medium
You play this matchup the same way you play against Orianna, except it's easier. At level 1, play like you normally would. Avoid auto attack harass and farm further away minions with bola shot. When you get a point or two in your W, try to harass him with bola shot and W. He will likely try to stun you. Either anticipate this and move to the side, or just take it. You will out sustain his harass and he will eventually go OOM. When he is OOM, you have full control of the lane. Push it and make him lose CS, then go roam, or freeze the lane near your tower and try to deny/harass/kill him. If you ran my runes, you will have enough innate MR + runes to be able to tank his full combo at level six and still be okay. Just be careful of jungle ganks. Other than that, Xerath won't be able to do much on his own.

At level 1 get bola shot to CS without taking damage from the enemy AP carry, who will try to auto attack you or use their skills on you. This also lets you build ferocity.

At level 2, if you can hit bola shot a 4/5 ferocity, you can follow up with a double W and chunk their hp down to 50%.

If you wait till level 3 to do the above, you can take them down VERY low. If they don't flash and you can keep autoattacking them, they will probably die after one or two autoattacks and ignite.

DO NOT underestimate bola shot. While it is fairly low range, it is also free harass and free ferocity. Spam it at the enemy whenever you can (without taking too much damage of course). Remember, you can always heal back with your W.

If you have a high damage jungler like or and they want to gank your lane, get 5 ferocity and try to bola shot for them. One cast of W should be enough damage for you and your jungler to kill the enemy assuming your jungler actually hits him so you can use your ferocity on CCing for your jungler instaed.

Once you hit level 6, you can try to kill the enemy AP whenever you want. Just back out of sight and ultimate. Sneak up next to them and ROAR like crazy. They will probably die, especially if you follow up with a Q, bola shot, and ignite.

Like I said above as well, your ultimate makes you an AMAZING roamer and ganker. You can sneak past wards if you know where they are and pop out of nowhere, CHUNKING the enemy's life. You should probably try to gank bottom lane, as they will be lower level than you and of course squishier because of this.

Once you get you will probably be able to 1 burst any AP mid you are against unless they are a tanky caster or they built tanky items. ().

Also, by the time you hit level 5 or 6, your jungler will be done his main path, and your W will be strong enough to clear the wolf and wraith camps with ease. Try to get ahead in CS by pushing mid lane and clearing the wave with your W, then walking to either the wolf or wraith camp, taking that and then going back to your lane to push the wave again. Repeat then and alternate camps and you will get ahead of the enemy AP no doubt.

A majority of the time, against people you can't really kill easily, your goal to beat them in lane will be to OUTSUSTAIN them. Out-heal them, and out last their mana. Then you'll be able to kill them, or heavily out farm them.

Mid game is where you really shine. By now you should already have a and hopefully rabadons, or at least starting it. You can snag kills every time the enemy AP carry comes into lane by leaving the sight range of minions, ulting, sneaking up next to the enemy, and using your combo (DFG, W, W, E, Q or DFG W, W, Q, E). Ignite if you have to.

If your other lanes are failing, try to break your tower ASAP so you can help them more. You should already be roaming and ganking, but if you break the tower, it gives your team more map control and lets you roam around freely.

Your ult should also be on a fairly low CD, so if you see one of their squishy carries roaming around, don't hesitate to just press R, jump at them and devour them like the lion you are.

As Rengar, you fall off a bit late game. Your damage drops off a bit once they start to build MR and the AOE damage from teamfights can do a pretty large toll on your health bar. Once you get to this stage of the game, you will have to start relying on your team some more. You won't be able to just run around and take on two people at the same time while bursting one of them down instantly. By now your ultimate should have a 33 second cd. You can use it to scout for enemies if there aren't wards in the area already. Your ultimate radius is also HUGE by now. If you spot one of their carries alone, chances are, unless you spotted at the edge of your ultimate sight radius, they are actually alone. If they are near you, this is your chance to take them out and help your team gain a HUGE advantage, since every player alive counts a for a ton. If you manage to kill one of their carries, take the chance to take baron or a tower. Dragon isn't as significant at this stage in the game. Baron and towers are important if they are available objectives. At this stage of the game, it is more about objectives than kills, but still make use of every opportunity you get to pick off a member of the enemy team as it will make securing objectives much much easier.

There shouldn't be any teamfights early game unless it's an early invasion, in that case you won't be much help if you got bola shot first. Always remember, don't put a point into your skills at level 1 until you actually have to.

At mid game, you will wreck team fights. Your double W alone will be able to take down more than two thirds of anybody's HP. Use this to your advantage. This is when you shine. Don't be afraid to just dive in at the enemy carries with your ultimate and 1 burst them with your combo. You'll likely do tons of damage to the rest of their team as well, and then your team can help you finish them.

Once it hits late game you have to be more careful. The enemies will have built MR by now and will have more damage. Being in the heart of the fight will be very dangerous for you. At this point, you have a few choices:

• You could use your ult to sneak up on their carries, try to kill them with your combo (it will still do a lot, trust me) and try/hope to make it out alive so you can fight again.
• You could ult into the middle of their team (assuming they don't have oracles) blow up the enemy carry with your combo (focusing everything on them) and damage the rest of their team with your AOE from W before dying. This way you kill their carry, and do a lot of damage to their team before going down.
• You could stay at the back and wait for someone else to initiate first then wait for the enemy to blow most of their abilities and CC on them and while their focus is on that person, sneak around and assassinate their carries.

If you've made it out alive in any of the three situations, although I doubt you will with the second one, try to get out with whatever you have (this is what flash would be for) and wait for your cooldowns. This is the reason why we got so much CDR. It allows us to keep fighting. Once your skills are back up, go in for a second round as your W will make a huge impact on the fight. If the fight happens to last fairly long, long enough for your ult to come back up, well then you're in luck. Pop your ultimate and wreak havoc with double W.

For late game teamfights, try to fight in a hit-and-run style. Do damage, get out, wait for CDs, repeat.

I will try to update this guide regularly whenever I have the time for it (or when I get more experience with it).

As of right now, I have not tried AP Rengar in ranked games. This is because he just came out and I'd probably get flamed and trolled for doing it anyway but believe me, it is strong.

I'll show you a picture of my match history as him. Like I said, I haven't tried him in ranked so it's all normals, and not all of them are wins, but they all have fairly good scores, CS, etc.



I will update this when I try this out some more, maybe even in ranked too, but this is it for now.

Thanks for reading my guide.

Feel free to add me on LoL to ask me about this, but tell me its about the guide or I'll think you're a creep >_>.

-Synicosis


UPDATE NOTES:
{30/08/2012}: added more information
{30/08/2012}: added lane matchups, fixed typo
{31/08/2012}: added pantheon to lane matchups
{01/09/2012}: added xerath and orianna to matchups and skill combo section
{03/09/2012}: trimmed lane matchups, added info to early game
{04/09/2012}: added new section
{07/09/2012}: trimmed lane matchups

CREDITS:
-credit to "TehLioN" for suggesting the section about blue elixir and boots