Nasus seems like a fantastic option on this meta

YumaS2Astral··1 votes·1,067 views

He is quite weak early game, but it's not like he can't just farm safely. His mid game is godly.

The reason why I think that Nasus would be a good option on this meta is due to his ability to hard counter ADCs.

  1. His Wither can shut down any ADC, even caster ADCs are heavily crippled by it due to reduced kiting power when affected by it. ADCs are popular right now.

  2. Nasus can stack armor and become immortal against ADCs. He doesn't need a lot of offense thanks to his Q.

  3. The masteries benefit him heavily. You can get 0-18-12 and get the 5% cooldown reduction masteries allowing him to have 45% cooldown reduction. Alternatively you can go 0-12-18 to have damage reduction, or healing based on your HP. You don't really need points in Ferocity.

  4. You can use Triforce + FH + Visage and achieve 40% cooldown reduction with just those items. This takes out the need to use CDR runes or Ionian Boots.

  5. Nasus is an effective counter against many of the currently popular Guinsoo's Rageblade users, such as Jax, Irelia, and to some extent Kayle.

  6. Most people are not purchasing anti-tank items on ADCs, such as item 3036 and item 3153.

  7. I forgot to put that - Because more and more people are starting to take Ignite top lane, they are unable to stop Nasus from splitpushing by just teleporting to the tower. Granted that Ignite gives them more power to shut down Nasus early, but it's nothing that playing safe can't solve.

Why Nasus isn't more popular?

6 Comments

SaltyKracka1 votes

A: People don't like playing doge.

B: 45% CDR is actually quite weak on him. The cunning masteries and especially the keystones are all kind of shit for him. I run him 12-0-18 for Oppression, more Q damage, and much more tankiness in lane.

C: Nasus actually kind of hates going against mixed damage. Kayle in particular currently absolutely shits on him, but that's more because Rageblade is especially retarded on her and her nature of any time she's good, she's broken.

D: Nasus still wants at least 10% CDR in runes so he can hit the cap and start hyper-stacking as soon as possible (e.g. FH->sheen rush).

That said, the rise of 4 AD teams has definitely been good for him, since he really works well when he can stack resistances.

YumaS2Astral1 votes

{quoted}

A: People don't like playing doge.

B: 45% CDR is actually quite weak on him. The cunning masteries and especially the keystones are all kind of shit for him. I run him 12-0-18 for Oppression, more Q damage, and much more tankiness in lane.

C: Nasus actually kind of hates going against mixed damage. Kayle in particular currently absolutely shits on him, but that's more because Rageblade is especially retarded on her and her nature of any time she's good, she's broken.

D: Nasus still wants at least 10% CDR in runes so he can hit the cap and start hyper-stacking as soon as possible (e.g. FH->sheen rush).

That said, the rise of 4 AD teams has definitely been good for him, since he really works well when he can stack resistances.

A) I can understand that it's quite boring to just Q all time, in fact.

B) How more CDR is weak on Nasus? He likes to get all CDR he can, to spam Q and W. I don't see how the Ferocity tree would benefit him. The cunning masteries are actually much better for him, especially masteries like Savagery, Secret Stash, and Meditation.

C) Kayle has mixed damage, but since she is attack speed reliant, I doubt how she can absolutely shit on him. Maybe during the early game, but Kayle will have great difficulty dealing with Nasus once he gets enough stacks.

D) Maybe he can get 10% CDR runes and then use IBG and Spirit Visage.

SaltyKracka1 votes

B) It's 5% more CDR that he has to take a tree that's shit on him to get. Savagery is for people that are shit at CSing, which no good Nasus should be; Secret stash gives far less sustain than you'd think and biscuits don't actually do much for him; Meditation is nice, but works out to a low amount of MP/5.

On the other hand, Ferocity has a ton of damage for his Q from Sorcery, Double-Edged Blade, more sustain in the form of Vampirism, and Oppressor, which combined with FH gives you 2.5% more damage always. And he doesn't have to take keystones that are shit on him to get them.

Resolve I don't even need to explain. He wants that Tenacity and slow resistance so much.

Hell, just take a look at champ.gg and see how well the 0-18-12 build is doing (hint:it's shit).

C: Kayle absolutely shits on him in the early lane, and FH costs more than Rageblade does. Wither's AS slow isn't that powerful at first level, and unlike Kayle's kit it actually has a mana cost so Nasus can't spam it.

D: Spirit Visage is actually far less necessary for Nasus than you might think. With the 4 ad current meta, he's often better off stacking armor after FH Triforce.

Nikola1 votes

Its a good theory but as you said his early game is weak , maybe a little bit to weak to play against snowballing adcs . If you are looking for someone to rape adcs its this guy Rammus . Ill give you a couple of champions that are viable in the new meta and ill explain why . JarvanIV Awesome gap closer to focus down and hunt down enemy's in team fights , Amumu hes always been strong but now hes balanced but still strong enough to seek out adc that are our of place in team fights all you need to do is land that Q and follow up with W,E and R and the ADC is already half hp and your team is already close enough to rape the adc . XinZhao same thing just buy item 3075 and stab the adc in its but and just focus the adc . Nautilus This champ is a bit risky but still viable you must have a strong early game to win with him if you do you must keep up with your team or be ahead and seek out those adcs your kit is made make the adc stay in 1 place for a long time. Vi Also a good champ has a good passive if you get close and your team can do the dmg . Here are some champs i DO NOT RECOMMEND . Khazix hes a strong pick but only if you snowball REALLY REALLY REALLY hard like really hard with these new adcs its like we gave all the adcs a can of bug spray . Chogath this champ if you miss your Q will be crap and if you are not really skilled you will be as useful as a hole in a condom . Bard Take away the R and you got BAD nothing else to say his kit is just awful aginst these new adcs his ult is like a get a free re positioning card for the enemy adc .Darius Im not saying hes awful i mean he has reall good damage but everyone after his nerf about a year ago just started going offtank/tank so now he is really weak against adcs IMO . Well i hope this helped and Nasus is only good if he has his slow on them but cait can just 50.cal away from him or graves can dash or ult . I think doggy is gonna get kited hard but u know he has good damage if he gets close nasus wins but to bad adcs are ranged ! i hope i helped !

Suijinheki1 votes

I'd agree with this sentiment. Nasus is especially good vs. Auto attack based, on hit champions, and even some of the AD assassins. I'm fairly certain it's in the context of these meta changes, BoRK nerfs, and LW penetration nerfs that the dog is doing much better now vs. before. Iirc if you look at overall performance for top laners adjusted for plat+ going by metrics like win rate, dmg to champions, gold earned he's around 10th place.

venomous frost1 votes

nasus is so boring to play, he gets great sustain through masteries, but by playing him you learn nothing about the game, except how to stay top 24/7. also, if both lanes lose, he can't make any plays.

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