As a Nasus player, I admit that he can be frustrating to play against

This isn't another "QQ too op how do I stop him thread." There are hundreds, maybe a thousand of those, and they all get responses along the lines of "deny him farm, roam, camp him, kite him, etc." This is about why he frustrates people even when they know his counterplay.

What I think makes frustrating overall is that, while he does have very defined counterplay, you can't beat him in the same way that you beat other champions. He's really, really hard to "win lane" against. His 1v1 ability outscales pretty much everyone in the game, and his midgame power spike is so enormous that it can often overcome some pretty massive CS discrepancies he may have suffered.

There are people that don't mind that about because he's weak in other areas, but some people still can't seem to handle him even when they're told what his weakness is. I think more than anything else, Nasus destroys certain types of players: those who like to stay in lane until they get fed, and those who play passively and wait for an opportunity.

Frankly put, very, very few champions (Pantheon, Darius, the occassional Riven) have actual kill pressure against an experienced player. You can harrass him all you want, but most of the time he'll just outlast your mana pool with his sustain, and if it's too much, he'll just back and TP to tower. Even if you're a lane bully, he'll probably eat one or two combos just so the lane pushes, and he'll take whatever farm he can get under tower. Once he gets level 6-9 and some resistances, he'll beat your ass with half your CS if you try to fight him. Even then, he'll rarely extend and risk getting ganks until he can basically 1v2.

Your best hope of getting a kill is an early dive with your jungler or a cheese lane gank, which is unreliable. Most of the time, all you can do is try to harrass him out of lane and delay him. If he gets a kill on you through a gank, trying to deny him farm is pointless because he'll probably just outtrade you with 20 mana. His early game might be passive, but let me be clear: Laning Phase is not usually Nasus's weakest point.

On the other hand, if you try to play passive and wait for him to make a mistake, you're not going to fare much better. Playing passive isn't going to slow his farming, and Nasus some pretty simple mechanics that aren't very punishable. If he's worth his salt, he probably won't extend without wards or underestimate your combo and stick around when he's low. If he does, make him pay, but don't surprised if he gives you zero opportunities. You can't win by outtrading him either if knows the matchup, almost everything favors him eventually.

You could be a good player overall, but the thing is, it doesn't really matter how good your laning mechanics are if you're playing against Nasus, and that sucks if it's your strongest aspect of the game. If you consistently win lane but need improvement transitioning from laning to teamfighting, Nasus is going to be your worst nightmare.

He feels like a brick wall if he's played right. I honestly can't remember the last time that I got solo-killed in lane by a / / / / / / / / / / / / without at least going 1 for 1, and I don't even consider myself to among the best of players.

Personally, I wouldn't mind if Riot cut his early sustain a bit in favor of spiking a bit faster--did you know that, not including his passive, has the 4th highest HP regen in the game (http://leagueoflegends.wikia.com/wiki/List_of_champions'_health_regeneration )?

But until then, I apologize on behalf of all players if we ruined your day. And no, we will not stop playing our beloved doge.

[slayer-jinx-catface]