Even though it sounds like a far-off-meta top lane build, AP Rengar has actually been a very old playstyle for this champion. Even in season 4, there were some players that climbed the solo queue ladder in LoL by only playing AP Rengar.
And I’m here to talk all about it.
To put it shortly, AP Rengar is all about utilizing Battle Roar (W) to its maximum potential. This ability can be very explosive and its damage quite overwhelming if Rengar has a full set of ability power items.
But in order to take full advantage of Battle Roar, you also need to know how Rengar’s passive works and how you can empower his W consistently for more damage overall.
So, let’s talk about the details!
Rengar AP or AD – Explained
Rengar is an AD assassin in League of Legends. His primary damage is physical and most LoL players build him with AD/lethality items. Rengar’s Battle Roar (W) is the only magic damage ability in his kit and it scales with 80% of his AP. So, Rengar can also be an off-meta. AP assassin or bruiser.
There’s actually a lot of diversity in this champion’s playstyle depending on the items you decide to go for. In past, Rengar’s even had a tank build where he was also utilizing Battle Roar to heal and stay alive a lot longer in a fight.
Nowadays, 95% of the Rengar players you encounter in your games are all with varying AD builds that allow them to assassinate the enemy carries. The AP build can also do the same job, but it does it differently.
On the surface, AD Rengar will always have more damage than AP Rengar. This is simply because the champion is designed around the playstyle of an assassin and his abilities work well with armor penetration and attack damage.
AD Rengar is your sure bet if you’re looking to carry games in solo queue as a jungler. It will give you an edge over your opponents, especially if you know how to gank with Rengar already.
But the AP Rengar build offers a lot faster combo and a lot more AoE damage, so you can assassinate more enemies at once. It’s way easier to stack Rengar’s passive with Q and E rather than W and E, so often it feels like AP Rengar has even more damage.
So if you’re looking to try something new and see a different side of Rengar, the ability power build is there for you. It will also give you a lot of damage and can even help you dominate the opposing top laner.
So, definitely try it out.
Read Also: How to Gank as Rengar? (Complete Guide)
How Do You Play Rengar AP?
Early Game
Even though your main damaging spell on AP Rengar is W, you actually always start the game with Q. The strategy is to quickly get to the bushes in the top lane and bully the enemy laners.
With Rengar’s passive, you can jump from the bushes to minions and enemy champions. This allows you to deal extra damage to your lane opponent. And you should do it over and over again.
Rengar’s base numbers are pretty decent and you can win most trades against top laners early on. Your Q has a very short cooldown, so you can practically spam it.
On level 2, you should always take W because of the extra damage and the self-heal. With Battle Roar, it becomes even easier to win trades and establish control in the top lane.
This level of aggression should be kept throughout the laning phase as AP Rengar. If you make a mistake or the enemy jungler punishes you, it’s okay to step back a bit and analyze your situation. But otherwise, you should always be the lane bully.
If you’re taking AP Rengar into the jungle role, it’s important to only use the empowering effect on your W. This will help you clear camps faster and that way your AP build won’t slow you down too much.
Read Also: AP Gnar Build Guide
Ganking & Team Fights
Once you get to level 6 as Rengar, it’s a great time to start ganking as well. With Thrill of the Hunt (R), you can effectively gank any lane as long as you pick the right target and you get the timing right.
For example, if the enemy top laner is Maokai who’s really hard to take down as AP Rengar, move to the bot lane. If the enemy duo is overextending, you can activate Rengar’s R and jump on them to set up two kills for your team.
You can also do this on the mid lane as well as partner up with your jungler and invade the enemy territory.
Rengar’s ultimate grants one stack of his passive when you jump on an enemy target. And it’s important to track your stacks because you want to use your empowered W for maximum damage.
There are two ways to approach team fighting as AP Rengar – jump on the enemy carry and assassinate them or jump onto as many targets and do an insane amount of AoE damage with W.
Both ways are legit and will help your team a lot. And you should always choose what to do according to the situation at hand.
For example, if you see the enemy ADC isolated and away from his teammates, it’s an easy one-shot kill for AP Rengar and you should take it.
However, if the enemy team is stacked together, jumping on all of them with empowered W will allow you to quickly burst all of them, leaving their HP bars at around 50% or less.
You can always hide in bushes and surprise-kill an enemy champion that face-checks blindly.
Read Also: AP Gangplank Build – AoE One-Shots! (Guide)
Ability Combos
There are many combos you can do on Rengar. Depending on how many stacks you already have, you can take a different route in empowering your abilities.
It’s important to remember that you can actually use Rengar’s W twice since his passive resets the abilities when they get empowered.
Here’s the most popular combo for AP Rengar before level 6:
Passive jump – Q – E – W – W empowered
With this combo, you effectively double your AP damage. The great thing is that this happens almost instantly since there’s no cooldown between the W and the empowered W casts.
But also, you can use these combos for a similar effect:
Passive jump – W – Q – E – W empowered
E – passive jump – Q – W- W empowered
Once you unlock Rengar’s ultimate, the simplest combo you can do is:
R jump – Q – E – W – W
However, when you get your mythic item Hexteck Rocketbelt, the best combo for AP Rengar is:
Q – R jump – W – E – W empowered – Hextech Rocketbelt
Many players forget that you can actually activate Rengar’s Q while in your ultimate to prepare it. Additionally, you can also cast W and E while in the air so you can empower your W even faster.
This is how AP Rengar is instantly so explosive.
Read Also: AP Skarner Build Guide
AP Rengar S12 Build – Runes
- Electrocute
- Sudden Impact
- Eyeball Collection
- Ultimate Hunter
- Absolute Focus
- Gathering Storm
Electrocute
The primary keystone for playing AP Rengar is Electrocute. It’s the best-performing one in all matchups and situations, so don’t ever change it.
What Electrocute offers is an additional source of damage when you’re trying to one-shot the enemy carry. Electrocute strikes the target after you perform one of Rengar’s combos for extra adaptive damage.
In this case, Electrocute’s damage will be magic and it will scale with your level and the amount of AP you have. So, it’s a great way to keep your burst potential high throughout the game.
Sudden Impact
Sudden Impact is another rune that synergizes with Rengar’s kit. And it fits perfectly into the whole AP playstyle.
With Sudden Impact, you actually get bonus magic penetration after you jump with Rengar’s ultimate or passive. The rune has only 4 seconds cooldown, so you can absolutely abuse it in lane with Rengar’s passive jumps.
Read Also: AP Xhin Zhao Build Guide
Eyeball Collection
Eyeball Collection is the rune we take from the third row of the Domination rune page. And this is because it’s simply the best choice out of the three runes there.
Eyeball Collection passively increases your ability power as the game goes on. The rune works on Eyeball stacks which you collect by killing enemy champions. But only an assist is enough to collect a stack.
So, it’s a useful rune to have overall.
Ultimate Hunter
Ultimate Hunter is one of the best ways to increase your cooldown reduction in League of Legends. Not only does Ultimate Hunter give you ability haste right away, but it increases your ability haste with each unique enemy takedown.
That’s why it’s important to occasionally roam around the map and collect kills or assists from opponents on the opposite side of the map. Rengar works fantastically well with high cooldown reduction, especially this AP build.
Read Also: AP Sejuani Build Guide
Absolute Focus
For secondary runes, Absolute Focus is absolutely a must-have one!
What this rune does is it increases your AP when you’re above 70% health. We primarily take it because it synergizes with Rengar’s all-in thanks to his ultimate.
In other words, every time you try to one-shot an enemy carry with Rengar’s R, Absolute Focus will be there to increase your power. So, always take it!
Gathering Storm
And Gathering Storm is another way to ensure you have enough AP to assassinate your target in the late game.
Gathering Storm gives you bonus ability power every 10 minutes for the rest of the game. It’s a fantastic source of free AP and you can double its value if you build Rabadon’s Deathcap.
Read Also: Full AP Nocturne Build Guide
AP Rengar S12 Build – Items
- Sorcerer’s Shoes
- Hextech Rocketbelt
- Lich Bane
- Rabadon’s Deathcap
- Void Staff
- Zhonya’s Hourglass
Sorcerer’s Shoes
The boots options for AP Rengar will always be Sorcerer’s Shoes. The bonus magic penetration is a must for an assassin such as this champion and it improves his damage output overall.
You don’t need to build Sorcerer’s Shoes as a first item, but make sure you get them early on.
Hextech Rocketbelt
Hextech Rocketbelt is the mythic item you go for on AP Rengar in 100% of the games. There’s simply no better item for Rengar than this, and it synergizes insanely well with his kit.
Not only does Hextech Rocketbelt give the most important stats for Renga – AP, health, and magic penetration, but it also has an amazing active.
Rocketbelt’s active allows you to dash into a direction but can sometimes help you extend the range of Rengar’s passive jump. This isn’t an easy thing to do, but you can practice it.
Additionally, this item can help you proc Electrocute even faster.
Lich Bane
Lich Bane is the core item for AP Rengar regardless of the matchup. You can even build it before Hextech Rocketbelt. Or, you can simply get Sheen (it scales with AD) for 700 gold and sit on it until you can complete Lich Bane.
Lich Bane boosts Rengar’s overall damage by empowering his auto-attack after he uses an ability. This damage is counted as on-hit magic damage and can be applied at once through Rengar’s Q. So, it’s always worth having it!
Read Also: AP Hecarim Build Guide
Rabadon’s Deathcap
The next big item you need in your inventory is Rabadon’s Deathcap. Since Rengar has a high AP ratio on his W, building more raw AP significantly boosts its power.
With Rabadon’s Deathcap, you get 120 bonus AP as well as a 40% increase in ability power overall. So, it’s a big power spike for AP Rengar in each game.
Void Staff
No matter if you’re playing against tanky champions or not, Void Staff will always be one of the most important items on AP Rengar.
The sole purpose of playing AP Rengar is to assassinate one or multiple enemy champions. And you can’t do that without magic penetration. On the other hand, Void Staff will cap your magic penetration and significantly increase your damage.
Zhonya’s Hourglass
As far as defensive items are concerned, Zhonya’s Hourglass is the most useful one for AP Rengar.
When you jump in with Rengar, you have no way to get out of the fight. So, it’s crucial to have the Stasis effect so you can dodge key attacks from your opponents.
Zhonya’s Hourglass will also give you bonus armor, so it’s a good item to have against AD team comps too.
Situational and Optional Items
There aren’t too many situational items that AP Rengar favors.
Banshee’s Veil and Morellonomicon can be useful, but make sure to build them only as a counter to crowd control or healing in the game.
Skill Order and Summoner’s Spells
As I’ve already mentioned above, Rengar’s Battle Roar is the most important ability here and needs to be maxed out first. The second is the Q and then comes the E.
Here’s a graph of how your skill order should look on AP Rengar:
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 |
| Q | Q | Q | Q | Q | |||||||||||||
| W | W | W | W | W | |||||||||||||
| E | E | E | E | E | |||||||||||||
| R | R | R |
As for Summoner’s Spells, your best combo for top lane is Flash + Ignite. Teleport is useful but you want to be more lane-focused with AP Rengar. And unless your bot lane duo is always warding the bushes behind the enemies, you won’t get a good value out of Teleport.
Additionally, you can always swap Ignite for Barrier, Exhaust, or Cleanse depending on the matchup at hand.
Conclusion
That was everything on how to build and play Rengar AP in LoL! The whole playstyle is really fun and I recommend it for everyone to try!
If you want to learn more about AP Rengar, I really advise you to watch this YouTube video. It talks at length about one of the best AP Rengar players in League, so make sure to check it. You can also watch the player’s stream and learn all the details from him directly!
Good luck to you!
