I consider myself one of the first players to actually use thorn properly. I played her exclusively during the CTT in November 2015, and during the open beta pre-release. She has received a few nerfs since then, all of them to blight I think. If you really want to play thorn I've got a suggestion for gear and helix choices. Thorn can be played in many different ways. She has some helix choices that can completely change your playstyle over the course of the match. You could start the game sniping in the back, and taking out packs of minions with blight. As the match progresses you will grow stronger and more ferocious. You can then end the same game dancing among your foes like a ferocious, proud, hungry, and extremely deadly Phoenix. You'll fly through the air with a burning passion, hunting your prey to extinction. When you die; you are only reborn. You are reborn with more fury, intelligence, anger, and "AN ARROW FOR EVERY HEAD!" Or you could end the game still sniping in the back. I obviously have my preference, but I do know those that were really good at providing heavy damage from the backlines. I'll just tell you the setup I use for the way I prefer, and have the most fun with. For gear I recommend a cheap loadout. A blue health regen. It's in eldrid packs. Has a +health regen, + health regen after surviving for 180 seconds. Better if you get one that has a - to shield anything to make it cheaper. Even if you don't have a blue health regen like I described, any health regen item is great. This is an almost must have. A green attack damage. + attack damage, +health after surviving for 180 seconds, - shield anything. Also in eldrid packs Green skill damage. + skill damage, +health after surviving for 180 seconds, - to shield anything. With these three you can get all gear unlocked for a mere 1470 shards. Cheaper than any single legendary, and only 420 shards more expensive than a single purple w/o any negatives. You can also go with a shard generator in there somewhere, but if you do I suggest you keep your health regen gear no matter what. You could also put in a blue +max health piece as well. If you get a max roll one it will increase your health for a total of 280+ another 210 after surviving for 180 seconds. For helix choices. 1. Slow on blight. Both choices are actually really good and viable, but as your a new player I would suggest the slow for now. 2. Movement speed when running through blight. The only reason I suggest this is because the other two helixes are just plain bad in almost all situations, and blight brawler is garbage in any and all situations If your in trouble, drop a blight at your feet and book it. The devs did say they were taking out blight brawler and replacing it with a new choice, so fingers crossed that it will be something usable 3. I highly suggest burst propulsion. It propels you in the opposite direction you are facing. If you are facing downward it will shoot you higher into the air. Used properly you can keep yourself out of any melee's reach really effectively. I can not express enough how big impact burst propulsion makes on thorn. It will save you more times than any Miko ever will when your standing at deaths door, and a pesky melee is the guide to final rest. Even if the enemy team has no melee characters, it is very useful. To me it is one of the biggest game changers in her kit. Draw strength is good, but I have always been more successful with burst propulsion. I will add though, if the enemy team has a Toby that is even remotely good, and you don't have a Montana or marquis on your team that is focusing the Toby, (Montana, Marquis, and Thorn are probably the best Toby counters in the game) then always pick draw strength. Your team will thank you for making sure Toby can't set up for long to truly devastate your team. Draw Strength can also be good for taking out a Miko that is staying in the back healing someone. Let it be known that the level three helix choices for thorn is probably the biggest difference in a thorn build. If you plan on playing more backlines you should pick draw strength. You will rarely encounter enough opportunities to properly utilize burst propulsion in the backlines. Also, draw strength is a helix I would only suggest for incursion, and very rarely for meltdown if there is a Toby. If you are playing face off or capture, burst propulsion is a must. Draw strength will never be useful enough in those two modes, even if there is a Toby. 4. Go for cursing volley. By itself it isn't a great choice, but paired with the level 5 choice it is great. We'll get to that. Focused volley is also a great choice if you can reliably hit people with it, but the devs are getting rid of focussed volley in the next patch, so probably not a great time to get used to focused volley. (personally believe the patch is going to launch next Thursday, or the Thursday afterward. They are having the beatrix reveal stream next Tuesday. History shows the reveal stream is about a week before character early access, and they can't release her until the patch drops.) Nockout isn't a great choice in my opinion. To fully utilize it you need to be absolutely point blank to your target unless they are Montana, Isic, or atticus. Even then you only get a damage increase of 122 per volley activation. 5. Bleed damage on cursed enemies. Makes curse do a total of 96 damage over 8 seconds. I know it doesn't sound like much, but it ends up usually out damaging the extra damage you might get with hextension. This helix pairs really well with the level four that makes volley arrows curse those it hits. This is also the point where the level 1 helix (piercing volley) becomes great if you do decide to take it.let's say you take piercing volley, cursed volley, and cursed targets bleed. You hit at least 5 enemies with volley, (you can actually get so many more in incursion because of the bottlenecks in lane) you deal damage with the initial volley, and you get an extra 480 damage dealt between the enemies hit. You can then put a blight on the minion wave for even more damage, (specially since the wave is still cursed, so your blight is doing more widespread damage as well) cursed volley+blight can be a really good waveclear combo for those moments when your team is down, and you need to kill minions now. I feel volley is best used to burst down enemy players, and blight should be used primarily for waveclear, but used together on a person or minion wave after this point can spell some big damage. The mutation for level five is basically useless at the moment, but I think the devs mentioned they were reworking that helix in the next patch. If they do it right it could become a good counter to an enemy kleese.