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Nasus goes against everything that Riot claims they want in a champion.

bokuwa·10/23/2014, 4:37:27 AM·9 votes·5,092 views

Over the years Riot has developed a lot of Champions. Over 120 Champions, and while some are stronger or weaker than others Riot has always gone into it with the mindset that the Champions they design are fun for three parties. You, your team, and the enemy team. While Riot has developed most all of their champions with this in mind, I think they totally botched this idea with Nasus.

Let me start out by saying that this is not a Nasus OP thread, Nasus is NOT OP, but he isn't fun. For anyone.

The player: The average Nasus player might argue with "fun is subjective". This is true, what's fun for some might not be fun for others, but there's no argument when saying "I have more fun farming, than I do teamfighting." If this were a true statement from anyone, ARAM wouldn't even be played, and you would see alot more late game scaling champions who do well by getting farm. So rule out the idea that Nasus' laning phase is fun, it's not. You're basically decimated by your opponent unless you happen to have a favorable matchup, in which case the both of you farm hoping that you outscale the other. You get to have fun for 5 minutes when you're in god mode, but you're going to end the game as soon as u reach god mode so wow for 40 minutes you did nothing, so for 5 minutes you get to have fun. It also guarantees that unless your teamates are stomping their lanes, you're going to get flamed. You are, and you deserve it. You're basically hindering your teamates experience just because of your champion. It's rude, and you're having fun at the expense of others.

The Enemy: The enemy is forced to play against a tank, that deals damage despite not building any damage items. Nasus can build all tank and still one shot carries. It's not fun, the counterplay to this is to end the game. You wanna know how difficult it is to end games with waveclear mids being popular and anti-snowball mechanics in place? It's pretty damn hard. You're forced to commit to fights that wouldn't be good for your team, and if you're not absolutely stomping the 5v4, it's impossible to win the game. And if you didnt know there's 2 other lanes, and a jungler that aren't Nasus. If any of them get ahead, they're able to stall long enough for Nasus to get big, guaranteeing a win. This is not to say that instalocking Nasus is a guaranteed win, it's more than possible to stomp 5v4 teamfights, but it isn't fun to have to constantly force teamfights, it takes away from the objective oriented game that league of legends is intended to be, and it makes your team tilt because there is essentially a timer counting down to 0 until you've hit the turn. If you don't participate in sports, the turn is a term used as a turning point when team that's going to lose realizes they're going to lose and there is nothing they can do about it, team morale is shattered and the game is now a loss, solely because Nasus is in it. This is not fun.

The Teamates: These players suffer more than any other party involved in the game. Not only are they forced to play on the backfoot for the entire game, but even after Nasus completes the countdown and becomes a God, they still don't get to have fun. They get to watch Nasus have fun. They still get destroyed for 40 minutes, and yeah they get a win. But i'd rather lose a close game, than win because Nasus came in as a god and destroyed the enemy. It's not fun to watch someone else destroy enemies you've spent 40 minutes trying to beat just because he wasn't playing the game for the last 40 minutes. Seriously, it is no fun for these players, I would venture to say that a lot of players ban Nasus more often so that he isn't picked for their team, rather than that they don't want to face an enemy Nasus, but hey you're killing two birds with one stone.

What I am getting at here is that Riot specifically designs champions so that they are fun, for all three parties... Nasus isn't fun for any party, save 5 minutes for the player. This isn't good champion design and leads to a lot of players simply despising the character altogether and being frustrated in any scenario where he is in the game.

tl;dr Nasus needs a rework, he's not fun for anyone in the game.

12 Comments

HateDaddy10/23/2014, 7:08:39 AM7 votes

The player: snip

I'm a Nasus main with over 1,000 games on him. I'll break this down for you. His laning phase is actually a lot of fun. There's more too it than simply brainlessly farming - bad Nasus players like Sirchez do this for stream and entertainment, but this isn't the way to win games as Nasus. A Nasus who sits in lane the whole time, doesn't look for TP ganks, doesn't trade and understand his power-spikes is a bad Nasus. Period.

As for match-ups, Nasus has more favorable top-lane match-ups than people realize and his trading power is deceptively good if you know how to trade with him. He's a passive trader early game, you don't begin initiating trades until mid game - where he is actually at his strongest for teamfighting and where he begins becoming a hyper scaling duelist.

Furthermore, late game Nasus is by no means a guarantee. His teamfight is loaded with counterplay, he's incredibly easy to peel and chain CC. Split-pushing is a good option for him, but sending wave clearers or running tank tops he can't dive (see Singed, Cho and even Maokai) make his split-push impossible. It's frustrating to be so easily peeled but it's what balances him, otherwise he'd be broken OP.

As a Nasus player, a have tons of fun.

The Enemy: snip

Late game Nasus. Is. Not. Auto. Win. Yes he builds mostly tank - trinity + 5 defensive items. Yes he becomes incredibly durable. Being an immobile melee should have some perks. Yes he can potentially blow up a carry - if your team doesn't peel for you. You know what shits on Nasus? Supports. A zero gold, 3 item support can make a 6 item Nasus totally worthless.

The Teamates: snip

This is where you are completely wrong.

First off: for teamfighting, Nasus is actually best during MID GAME. Do you know why? If he's decently farmed with 2 tanks items (typically FH and SV), this is when he will feel his tankiest. Enemy teams don't have LW or Void or any major second damage item, Nasus will likely be ahead in levels having more leeway with cooldowns while the enemy won't and flat armor pen + his %damage burn on his ult give him his biggest mixed damage punch at this phase in the game. Nasus, for teamfighting, is by far at his best during mid-game. Late game supports have CDR galore, durability to tank him and utility to peel him. ADC's have LW and supports have mikaels and potentially the ADC himself has QSS. Nasus doesn't feel tanky at all when a ranged ADC and mid lane drop a full combo on him and he melts within seconds. Bad players are anti-fun for teams, not champions. Bad Nasus players farm forever without doing anything on the map unless his team is ahead and he can split-push the whole time. It's not different than someone massively feeding on any champion, you pick them, it doesn't matter.

At the end of the day, I can't tell you what is and isn't fun because this is your opinion and perspective. I think he's fun to play as, play against and have on my team so long as he knows what he's doing (again, I cannot stress enough this applies to any champion). And you want a rework? Let me sum up what a rework will do to Nasus. He'll keep his infinite scaling Q - that's his design. He'll probably lose wither but gain some retarded mobile spell because "muh LCS big plays," he'll randomly do %health damage on like 3 abilities, he'll randomly have %damage reduction and he'll randomly get a knock-up added on his ult if he casts it on top of enemy champions (this would actually be cool, Riot pls do as it only makes sense, he gets bigger, everyone flies). You think he's lame now? Watch when he has limited weaknesses while still being tanky and hitting like a truck. Nasus' outdated kit is what keeps him balance, reworking his design would be a nightmare because there's no way to keep his identity and keep him balanced, which is why I doubt Riot will ever do it and if they do, it won't be for a long long time.

tl;dr fuck you, read it you hive minded redditor with the attention span of a gold fish.

Raptamei10/23/2014, 6:07:52 AM4 votes

The entire game is about "having fun at the expense of others".

You didn't shut him down and you are mad.

DarthSpectrum10/23/2014, 6:20:45 AM4 votes

I wonder how many people who downvoted this actually read the whole thing.

Perhaps one may disagree with this on a subjective level, but realistically, the points OP made are valid. Nasus IS farm intensive, he DOES one shot squishy champions without any damage items, and he CAN carry the game all by himself with 600 stacks.

Playing Nasus is inevitably farming for these stacks, and compared to the styles of other champions, it does seem lackluster.

Ñex10/23/2014, 6:37:06 AM4 votes

I play bot lane on a ranked 5's team with a Nasus main, we have 49 games played this season on more in previous seasons, he plays Nasus 80-90% of the time. I've also played with him in normals most nights for the past 2 years. I have more experience in this matter than you. Period.

You are wrong on all counts;

First the Nasus player. Out-scaling the shit out of your opponent is fun. Knowing your powerspikes and dunking on your opponent is fun. showing people who underestimate you how good of a duelist nasus is, is fun. Outplaying towerdives is fun.

Second the enemy. Shutting down late game champs so hard the can't scale is fun. Snowballing on a lategame champ who oversteps is fun, Successfully kiting an immobile champ is fun. Abusing your superior midgame is fun.

Finally his team. Drawing pressure bot lane and knowing in the back of your head that Nasus is scaling is fun. Nasus teleport ganking bot lane is fun. Having a plan B if you are getting camped bot of mid is fun. Ganking for a Nasus and turning him into an unkillable farm machine is fun.

Seeing you hard work pay off when Nasus comes down for the last couple teamfights of the game, after taking both toplane turrets, finishing the game 12-1 is priceless.

http://puu.sh/cn4Kk/a6e1eb37b3.jpg

LetsDineTogether10/23/2014, 6:05:31 AM2 votes

IDK, i enjoyed being carried by Nasus. I enjoyed the mile run i had to perform to dominate my opponents, and i enjoyed annoying the enemy nasus until he raged quit. Keep the dog in the game. Nasus

ItsStout10/24/2014, 1:33:50 AM1 votes

The reason Nasus can exist is because he is countered by the healthiest thing in the game. Interaction. Nasus makes interaction.

Oh also if u kite him he actually deals 0 dmg.

Drukyul10/23/2014, 6:00:23 AM1 votes

100% agree with the whole thing.

Trynd too.