Changing Nasus E from armor shred to armor penetration could help him

Sasogwa··2 votes·952 views

So basically, what I suggest is changing the 20/25/30/35/40 armor reduction of Nasus's E into armor penetration for him and his teammates. What does it change? At first sight nothing, but it affects greatly synergies with %pen items. Indeed, reduction applies before penetration and basically makes Nasus' E have an antisynergy with item 3035 item 3036 item 3033 and the %pen mastery of offensive tree. And I believe that if the penetration of these items would go before the shred of E (so basically changing his E to armorpen instead of armorshred) would help him without actually doing any great buff. First off, we could see a new kind of juggernaught Nasus with item 3033 (doesn't mean squishy, he would pick it up like other juggernaughts pick item 3071 ) making his build look like : item 3025 item 3065 item 3047 item 3033 item 3143 item 3026 and his identity of a lifesteal based immobile juggernaught would be reinforced. We could even see Warlord's Nasus, more immobile than Stormraider's and slightly less tanky than Grasp but more lifesteal heavy and actually being a damage threat to tanky champions... basically the people he is supposed to face since he can't reach the backline due to the nature of his kit. It also slightly helps his utility in teamfights by making him have higher synergy with his ADC that has item 3035 (upgraded or not).

Overall a really invisible buff that could actually do good things.

9 Comments

Wolfess1 votes

this would be a nerf honestly, for a few reasons.

1: nasus doesn't need armor penetration. His kit revolves around stacking his Q for damage while he builds tanky. His passive lets him heal for large amounts later on and works best with tanky as hell builds with high CDR. If laned and farmed properly he can 1-2 shot squishies late game and will often out-duel other tanky/fighter/bruiser champions with his CC and Q damage.

2: changing it from armor shred to reduction is a nerf because reduction only works for himself and his own damage, whereas an armor shred directly reduces the armor of the affected unit meaning that ALL sources of damage that do that type of damage (armor reduction making physical do more damage, where a resist reduction would make magical do more damage) would do MORE damage to the debuffed unit.

tl;dr nasus doesn't need armor shred items like last whisper or cleaver or any of that. get tanky, farm, melt faces with Q. Remove the LW and fill in the remaining 10% cdr with something else like warmogs, or you can dump ninja tabi for lucid and get a different tanky item instead of LW.

specter4241 votes

it would be nice if they just gave him penetration at a certain amount of stacks on his q

but nasus doesnt need buffs until wither is removed

TheOvermind1 votes

Nasus never builds last whisper. Reduction helps team, penetration does not

http://www.reactiongifs.com/r/2011/09/mind_blown.gif

Sasogwa1 votes

{quoted}

Nasus never builds last whisper. Reduction helps team, penetration does not

http://www.reactiongifs.com/r/2011/09/mind_blown.gif

No shit, but actually I was thinking of a debuff that gave everyone else armor pen, which would sound weird. Or give bonus armor pen to every ally standing in the circle.

AcidTheWarlock1 votes

I'd think a debuff granting allies armor shred against targets in the area would be nice, honestly.

It's not flat pen like before so you'd still have your item synergy but it helps the team as well.

Sasogwa1 votes

{quoted}

I'd think a debuff granting allies armor shred against targets in the area would be nice, honestly.

It's not flat pen like before so you'd still have your item synergy but it helps the team as well.

https://media.giphy.com/media/1Z02vuppxP1Pa/giphy.gif

EndlessSorcerer1 votes

Nasus can't really itemize for percentage penetration/reduction efficiently due to the nature of his kit and playstyle.

I'd rather keep the AoE armor reduction since it helps my team signficantly (when used properly) rather than weaken it to strengthen its interaction with an item I'm rarely going to purchase.

Sasogwa1 votes

{quoted}

Nasus can't really itemize for percentage penetration/reduction efficiently due to the nature of his kit and playstyle.

I'd rather keep the AoE armor reduction since it helps my team signficantly (when used properly) rather than weaken it to strengthen its interaction with an item I'm rarely going to purchase.

Actually he could very well as a single item. Going for triforce is an option on Nasus which is pretty much equivalent to getting an item of armorpen in terms of "you have 1 slot that's not defensive" Also as I tried to explain but apparently didn't manage very well, it's not about only Nasus getting the armorpen, it's about everyone on Nasus team getting armorpen, but the fact it's armor pen and not armor shred makes it have better synergy with other arpen items.

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