Thane: King of the Bottom Lane!

Build and Guide Thane: King of the Bottom Lane!

Cheat Sheet
Skill Build

King's Glory > Avalon's Fury > Valiant Charge

Recommended Talents

Flicker, Heal, Disrupt

Items

Gaia's Standard, Sonic boots, The Aegis, Asterion's Buckler, Shield of the Lost, Ancestral Glory

Arcana

Indomitable, Colossus, Mythril

Introduction
Thane is a Tank with a great amount of ability to lock down and displace the enemy. Using his massive amount of displacement in the bot lane can spell trouble for any carry that lacks a huge escape. Late game, Thane becomes great at locking down the enemy or peeling for his allies. Thane is there for you, no matter what you need him for.

Skill Build
King's Glory > Avalon's Fury > Valiant Charge

Thane charges for a short time to slam his sword down in front of him, causing a big frontal cone to erupt in the location cast. This ability deals true damage and does 15% of target’s lost health as physical damage. Thane gains 20% damage and cannot be interrupted while casting this ability.

Avalon's Fury causes Thane to slam into the ground, dealing physical damage to those around him and knocks them up. Afterwards, the enemies hit are slowed by 90% for 2-seconds. I like to use this ability after Valiant Charge so the slow isn't wasted.  One thing is charge the enemy carry towards yours when you ahead and then casting Avalon's Fury. Allowing plenty of time for your carry to deal damage even before they can attempt to run away. With a 90% slow that becomes particularly difficult.

Valiant Charge knocks back enemies, dealing physical damage. At the end of the charge, enemies are also knocked up for a short duration. This ability is great at displacing your enemies, either for pushing them away from an ally or into your team. Combo this with someone like Grakk’s pull and you can really pull an enemy into your tower if you so desire to do so.

Your passive, Royal Power, regens 24% of your maximum health upon dropping below 30% of your max health. With a 75-second cooldown, this becomes a great way of surviving any engage. Thane was made to live and serve his teammates, and his passive is no different.

Recommended Talents
Flicker, Heal, Disrupt

Flicker - 120-second cooldown: Teleports your hero a short distance.

Flicker is going to be a good ability regardless of who you are playing. Any ability that causes you to get out of a bad situation instantly for free is good. Just be sure you are good enough at controlling the direction you blink towards and learn its range. It has the ability to traverse over most terrain based walls, but not all of them.

Heal - 120-second cooldown: You and nearby teammates instantly recover 15% health and gain 15% movement speed for 2 seconds.

This is a great ability for bot laners. Since you both get the full heal and speed increase. Be sure to take it if your ally doesn't. Even if he does, you can still take this for more support.

Disrupt - 60-second cooldown: Silences a structure for 5 seconds.

Disrupt is for the kill hungry bot lanes. If you have the ability to crush the enemy and tower dive them all day, this will help ensure you don't die and can dive freely.

Items
Gaia's Standard, Sonic boots, The Aegis, Asterion's Buckler, Shield of the Lost, Ancestral Glory

Start with Ring of Vitality. We want to rush into Belt of Clarity as quickly as possible to gain the health regen when taking damage. Since we are going to be bot lane, we can expect to be poked by the ranged carry constantly. This will help offset some of that damage.

Rush to finish Gaia's Standard. This will give us some needed health and even more health regen.

Boots are second to help us get on top of the enemy to use our charge into fury combo. It also gives some great reduction to physical damage from the enemy carry.

The rest of the items can be built in order, but I’d build The Aegis if behind or even in lane. Asterion's Buckler can be built third if you are extremely ahead, giving your carry more damage to deal to your opponents.

Ancestral Glory isn't liked by everyone, but with all of the health, we stack. I believe it’s a good life-saver in case the enemy does manage to kill you.

Arcana
Indomitable, Colossus, Mythril

Indomitable grants us attack speed, health, and armor. Making it an overall well rounded red Arcana. However, if you are missing this arcana and want to save some gold. Anything that grants Armor, movement speed, or attack speed works here. Armor more so if you are looking to jungle with Ormarr.

Colossus gives max health which helps with our item build as well as our passive. However, if you can't afford this Arcana you can replace it with anything that adds tanky stats. Either max health, armor, or magic resist work.

Mythil grants armor and magic defense. Giving us a bit more tank early game. You can basically put anything here that grants armor to deal with bot lane. Bastion would be great here if you are sure that the enemy lane is physical damage only.

Early Game
Thane is going to be played based on who your bot lane partner is. Assuming it’s a ranged carry, you need to pay attention to how much they want to trade with the enemy heroes' bot lane, and if they'd win. If you are going aggressive, charge the enemy carry into your ally and use Avalon's Fury to keep them in place. If you are playing passively, all you need to do is keep the enemies off of your carry.

Middle Game
At this point of the game, you should be looking to kill your lane opponents and take a tower. You are starting your transition into a main tank.  For now, you just want to stay next to your carry and peel for them. Keep them safe before you look to kill anyone.

Late Game
Late game, you are a primary tank. You will need to stun and knock around as many people as you can, unless your carry is being jumped by the enemy. If they are being assassinated or jumped onto, be sure to crowd control whoever’s attacking them. You are your carry’s support first and foremost.

FAQ/Tips
Use your charge before your fury. This allows you to put the enemy where you want and then stun them in that location. Causes a much better and controlled form of crowd control.

Do not chase enemies too far unless you are sure your carry is safe. It's almost never a good idea to run off alone when you have no real kill potential. 

Matchups
Ormarr, Easy

Everything Ormarr does deals physical damage, and your passive gives you free armor. He also cannot stop you from ulting, as you are unable to be crowd controlled during that channel. Your ability to do consistent crowd control is also better than his possible cc.

Lu Bu, Easy

Lu Bu is strongest when he uses his ultimate, Conqueror. This ability grants damage and lifesteal and lasts 8-seconds. If you are able to combo him with your CC, you can make him waste nearly the entire duration of his ult, unless your carry decided to stand on top of Lu Bu.

Valhein, Easy

Valhein is one of the shortest ranged carries in the game, making him easier to get within range of you and your carry. Just be aware of his ability to stun and his passives ability to randomly stun every 4 attacks, and you will have an easy lane.

Alice, Hard

Alice has the ability to slow you and speed up herself and her carry. Her whole kit revolves around you not being able to get close enough to use your abilities on her carry. Her ult also has a silence lasting 1 second, in case you are able to get close enough to one of her allies.

Zill, Hard

Zills ult gives him the ability to become untargetable and unable to be attacked. This gives him the ability to dodge your abilities if he times it correctly. Giving him a small window to do what he wants to your carry. He's not free of being CC'd, just harder to hit than most.

Chaugnar, Hard

While you do have the ability to stun and knock back, Chaugnar has the ability to remove any CC from both himself and his allies. The only thing you have going for you is the ability to crowd control twice. If you time it right, he can't stop all of your CC. You, however, have no hope of using much CC on him.