Boards›Gameplay

@Riot - Let's talk about Nasus and his Q stacks.

Edgy AngstLord·5/4/2015, 3:15:01 AM·2 votes·1,639 views

Alrighty, before anyone goes into the usual "Poke him in lane, don't let him farm" (which is valid), let me explain the scenario:

[(http://matchhistory.na.leagueoflegends.com/en/#match-details/NA1/1811758071/36514907?tab=overview)]

I'm a Sion top. The enemy Nasus doesn't connect for the first 6-10 minutes of the game. I miss very, very little farm until about the third, fourth wave into the game, the reason being this is the point of the game when Nasus finally arrives in lane. Me, realizing that I cannot let Nasus get stacks and I must punish him further for getting to lane so late. I harass him to no end, I have him under tower for most of the laning phase. He's missing a lot of farm, and he's almost dive worthy (I have him under 200 health for most of his levels 2-7). After he starts getting some levels and stacks (because while I can harass him to no end, there's only so much you can do before he starts stacking).

To point out some of my mistakes where the enemy Nasus could have stacked:

  • At one point, I did try diving him, but this time he had his ultimate. He pops it and he gains more health. I underestimate this and, on top of that, this one time I have a chance to kill him, I miss my ultimate. Sad wrecking ball of flesh is sad. :( I escape, but he's able to farm up some before I tele back and continue to harass him.
  • I dive him another time, and while I get the kill, so does he. Passive for the win, and all that.

I realize I'm a Silver 4, and I'm not the best player mechanically, and all that fun stuff. I realize my level of play is scoffed at because, let's be honest, you get a good run in placements, anyone and their mother can land in Silver 4 with the right amount of luck and being carried like a overstuffed backpack. Now, higher elo mechanics aside, and my general Silver status as well, what flabbergasts me is why Nasus hasn't been looked at more carefully by the Rito team.

There's a reason in my elo and even higher up in Silver play, that people are saying "Ban Nasus please." (the highest I've ever been is Silver 2 - I've recently come down to Silver 4 because the varying scenarios in the lovely bracket of Silver) - it’s because he’s a low risk, high reward character. There’s a running joke “When you play Nasus, it’s not if you win, it’s just a matter of when.” You can do all the harassing you want, all the denying the farm, all of the ganking, whatever. You leave Nasus alone for more than five minutes of farming and boom. He becomes a monster that has no chance of counter play and all the potential to carry in the game.

I know it’s been suggested before, but I feel like it needs to be said again. Change something about his stacks. Make him lose some on death. Make him gain them slower - something, anything. Obviously, tweaking would need to be played around with, either how many stacks he lost after death, or how many he gained permanently. If Riot can play around with how much damage Cindhulk/Sunfire cape does per level, couldn’t it be argued that Nasus gains less stacks in the beginning of the game and more towards the end of the game?

Nasus is obviously not extremely OP (or he would receive waaay more play in the LCS) He has weaknesses and strengths for people that are on much higher level of play that I (and many other players) haven't even touched. However, on the flipside, he is a strong pick when beyond Silver/Gold. Something needs to be changed, or at least played with, so that the Doge isn't a giant timebomb waiting to go off in a player's game.

Just food for thought.

20 Comments

Unlucky Number75/4/2015, 3:50:57 AM7 votes

your problem is that you pushed him to his tower. nasus wants to farm under tower. that's where it's safest. what you should have done is freeze the lane at your tower. if nasus even things about coming out to farm, take his lunch money, give him a wedgie, two indian rope burns, and hang his desecrated corpse out to dry.

another thing you should have done is, used your level advantage and the fact that they basically don't have a top laner for the next 20 minutes(after nasus gets back) to leverage your teleport advantage on the other lanes. especially the bot lane where the biggest counter to nasus normaly waits, no not the adc, the support.

see the main weakness to nasus is his lack of mobility, A proper support can exploit this with their cc ablities so that he's not a threat to your damage dealers. during mid game nasus overcomes this weakness by being at a higher level and having more items then your support due to being in a solo lane. late game nasus falls off because the support has caught up enough that the difference in level and items doesn't matter anymore. what you had there was a very early game nasus already up against a mid game support. if nasus even thinks about taking part in any team fights for the next 20 minutes then he'll be free gold for your team, so that means the only thing he can do is farm. That also means that any team fight you have will be 5v4. that means dragons, turrets, even a baron if you think you can take it.

there are also tricks to stop him from farming.

when you push top lane, after your done make it so that top lane will slowly push back to you. this way if nasus decides to farm again he'll be wide open for a two man gank.

Kouga5/4/2015, 4:53:20 AM3 votes

{quoted} ** I harass him to no end, I have him under tower for most of the laning phase.**

And that's where I stopped reading.

Pushing under tower is not denying. They still get XP from each minion and a good player can still combine a few proper AAs with his Q to land stacking last hits. He might miss some, certainly, but it doesn't take many stacks for him to be able to comfortably last hit under his tower. And at that point you're just providing him a free buffet.

Instead you want to freeze the lane near your side, just in front of your tower, and keep him zoned off of the XP completely. It opens him up to repeated ganks from the jungle, and if he actually loses the xp and farm, he'll be in a much worse state.

But if you push to his tower, its your own fault for losing.

IcyPepper5/4/2015, 3:18:03 AM3 votes

I just wish he couldn't target towers with his Q, or at least have the damage reduced.

Taking towers extremely fast is the adc's job, someone building tank shouldn't literally two-shot towers all by themselves.

Jamaree5/4/2015, 3:19:06 AM2 votes

If he lost stacks, he would go from being viable, to being the worst champion in the game.

BeatzBoyFTW5/4/2015, 6:59:34 AM1 votes

Darius

Bears Dont Care5/4/2015, 3:33:03 AM1 votes

You do realize nasus was bad back when he did 2 2and 4for his stacks. Now you want to make it so that a nasus makes any play, he loses the little bit of damage he possesses. Sounds fair

Matezoide5/4/2015, 4:52:10 AM1 votes

So you had the upperhand, failed a dive and allowed Nasus to catch up.

Lugg5/4/2015, 6:50:07 AM1 votes

I have to agree that Nasus needs some tweeking. IMHO he stacks his Q pretty quick right now and a slight slowdown of that would be great since he can literally get to the point where he can 1v5 entire teams. I also don't think he is that weak early. He has the single best slow in the entire game, so he can easily get back to tower or catch you and finish you off before you get to yours. Plus his sustain once he hits level 3 is very good.