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Nasus tutorial -> all basic information you want to know about the champion

Carnarius·3/16/2016, 6:51:25 PM·5 votes·2,553 views

hey there, i just finished 1st part of my nasus guide, i hope it can help you guys in polishing your builds and will dispel many doubts

*something about me -my ign is Carnarius. i'm known for being the only one to hit challenger in season 5 in eune server, while playing nasus only. right now i'm in the top 20 challenger so you can say my nasus setup is successful. i've played hundreds of games with him on multiple accounts and i've faced nearly all champions being played by challenger players, so i think i'm an experienced nasus player and i sincerely hope i can improve your gameplay through my experience

*summoner spells -teleport this spell is absolutely mandatory for nasus, you just don't want to skip it. i'll try to point out all the things teleport provides to you:

  • being able to shop and then go back to lane immediately
  • creating opportunities for ganks
  • map control (being able to control dragon, baron and other objectives)
  • increased split push power
  • increased team fight potential and many more, but these are crucial benefits of having this spell. always take it, no matter what

-flash this spell is as needed as teleport. it allows you to be relatively safe in laning phase, allows to engage, disengage, you can finish targets with e flash q combo, you can flash through walls and use it for many different purposes. ghost could be useful under certain circumstances, but it's really bad in teamfights and when you want to escape a gank, especially that almost everyone now has some sort of hard cc or slow and using ghost won't make you avoid it. ghost won't save you from being kited in teamfights as well, so don't consider anything but flash as your main spell

*runes

  • you will need 2 sets of runes preferably, one against ad and one against ap champs. yellows blues and quints always stay the same, only reds differ
  • reds - you go armor against ad champs and magic res against ap and hybrid champs. simple as that. if you are begginer with nasus, you can try attack speed reds, they will really help you with farming under turret, as you will be able to easily hit a minion 2 times before tower kills it
  • yellows - scaling hp runes are probably the best scaling runes in the game, as they give you an extra ruby crystal in your inventory at level 13 and even more later on. it's important to notice that hp is an universal protection against both ad and ap damage types, so having any other scaling runes is not worth it
  • blues - combination of 5% flat cdr and 5% scaling cdr, this way you will reach 40% cdr cap with your items and you won't really notice the lack of these few cdr percentage points early in the game
  • quints - even after nerf, life steal quints are still being the hardest scaling runes into the late game. the important factor is that they are extremely useful at any stage of the game, they are great in lane, especially against heavy pokers and they are great in teamfights, as, depending on a team fight duration, will increase your effective hp by at least few hundred. they scale really hard with passive life steal and runic armor mastery

that's it for runes. of course, if you have many rune pages, you can experiment with, for example, scaling armor yellows against full ad comps, but it happens so rarely that i don't see the point

*masteries first of all, let's talk about all viable keystone masteries and their suitability for nasus

  • stormraider's surge - after recent buffs it became an interesting thing, i got 2 complaints about it though
  1. you have to take 5% cdr instead of 15% tenacity + slow resist, which is really bad
  2. it will pop only once in a teamfight, so if you get hard cced in that moment, it's completely wasted

  • thunderlord's decree - believe it or not, but it's a great trading tool on nasus against meele enemies. it could work against sustainless enemies (like wukong, riven) to dominate them at early game (e + aa + q at level 2 should deal half on their hp at level 2), but it becomes weaker and weaker for nasus as the game progresses

  • grasp on the undying - pretty similar to thunderlords, but this one scales nicely into late game, as it will give you sustain and damage based on your maximum hp. the numbers are tiny though, especially against targets with high magic resist

  • strenght of the ages - it's a specific mastery. it gives you nothing at the beggining of the game, but it has the best scaling into mid/late game from all the masteries

  • bond of stone - it's more of a support mastery, 4% damage reduction is nice but you still take more or similar amounts of damage in teamfights as if you didn't have it

so these are the main keystones that you would be interested in. my choice goes to strenght of the ages with 0/12/18 build. it gives you additional 514 hp along with scaling yellows, so in summary, with life steal quints and 40% cdr you are going to be a mid game monster and resilient late game tank

my other choices are: ferocity:

  • fury - helps you with last hitting under turret, 4% should be just enough to be able to hit minions twice before tower does
  • feast - additional sustain, not much to say. if you have an easy lane opponent, you can switch to expose weakness, which will be a nice boost of damage for your teammates
  • vampirism - additional 2% life steal on top of life steal runes will make you extremely hard to poke out of lane
  • bounty hunter/oppressor - it's up to you which one you'll choose, oppressor is better for early game, i prefer bounty hunter for its scaling

resolve:

  • unyielding - a little bonus for armor and m res, nothing special but still better than tiny hp regen
  • tough skin - tool that will decrease damage from poke nicely in early game
  • runic armor - without a doubt way better than veteran's scars. it will scale with your lifesteal insanely
  • insight - this will decrease cooldowns on your tp and flash heavily, a must have mastery, with a lower cooldown tp you will be able to put more pressure on the map
  • swiftness - great mastery, in many cases it allows you to ignore merc treads and go for boots of swiftness (or ninja tabis), as you will have all movement speed, tenacity and slow resist at once

*items Starting items

  • cloth 4 - your typical start for most of encounters. it grants great protection against auto attacks and a lot of sustain, it also transforms into one of the core early game items, glacial shroud, so it allows you to get cooldown reduction quickly
  • doran shield 1 - great start against burst oriented champions with single target skills (pantheon, fiora) and junglers with high early dive potential (nidalee, elise). it will heavily decrease your chances of being dove, as it gives a lot of damage reduction and hp (as for early game). another great thing about it is that you can farm some gold and come back quickly with cloth + potions. at this point you will be nearly invicible in lane and you'll be able to farm freely in almost most situations

these are the 2 choices i recommend. ruby 2 and anti magic mantle 1 are worse in my opinion, as they won't give you as much sustain and safety as cloth or doran shield would. doran blade on the other hand is an interesting pick, it will give you the biggest amount of sustain early, but it makes you more vulnerable to ganks and there are situations when you can't aa minions often, so i think you should just stick to first 2 options

Early game

  • glacial shroud - it gives armor, cdr and mana, pretty much everything we need and it transforms into our core item, frozen gauntlet
  • kindlegem - cheap way of further increasing cdr and lane safety. it's a part of spirit visage, so it's a must to build this item
  • sheen - after s6 changes, this item is absolutely mandatory. after getting it, you can start trading with your opponent in most situations (but we will get into this later), as it gives a big damage spike for nasus, more health recovered from using q and more cdr, which will be maxed out at this point, if you bought shroud and kindlegem first

these are our core early items. when combined, they will grant a huge power spike at level 9, as provide everything nasus would ever want, cdr (-> damage/stacks/sustain), armor, hp, mana. you should skip one of these and go for spectres cowl against ap champions though (ryze, lissandra), as they will burst you easily without magic resistance

Mid game

  • frozen gauntlet - yep, no mistakes there, no triforce. season 6 changes made this item literally perfect for nasus and it's far superior to trinity. basically it's a triforce + frozen heart combined in one item. it provides a lot of armor, 20% cdr (so your cdr is already maxed out with spirit visage), a lot of mana and more splitpushing power. you will be able to chain your slows even more efficiently (which is really important with boots of swiftness being so strong). it will probably reduce your amount of stacks , but not by a whole lot and besides, in mid game you will be focused on teamfighting/splitpushing, rather than stacking every single minion. you can also delay it if you feel your amount of stacks is too low, you will have 20% cdr from shroud + sheen anyway. always get this item, it doesn't decrease your damage by a lot comparing it to triforce (at level 18 it's 60-70 damage per q -> barely noticeable), but it will safe you a 1 item slot and will make you much stronger way faster. in other words, you will scale into a monster for a mid game and late game -spirit visage - this is another item that you will always use, it has been buffed over and over in the last 2 seasons. benefits of having it are priceless, huge amount of hp, huge amount of magic res, 10% cdr for filling the cap and great passive that scales with nasus's passive insanely hard. it's just too good not to have it, even against full ad teams
  • Sterak's Gage - this item is beautiful. it's definitely the best anti burst item in the game, 30% of max hp shield will boost your survivability insanely, while still providing some damage. this damage scales with gauntlet nicely, as it gives bonus based on your base ad, so the proc from gauntlet will be multiplied (it will give you around 60 more damage per q at level 18 and another 60 when the 30% max hp shield procs). you won't find an item that will give you more survivability (unless the enemy team has fiora + vayne + sated devourer/ruined king jungler combo), you should get this everytime

with these items around 25-30th minute mark, you'll be a monster. now add a decent amount of stacks into it (500-600) and it's almost guaranteed that you will carry any teamfight on your way at that point

that's it for now, part 2 which i currently work on will include gameplay related things and how to win games with nasus, as well as late game itemization thanks for your reading

24 Comments

Skorpio3/17/2016, 2:50:52 AM2 votes

Not to beat a dead horse but I'd like to revisit the iceborn debate. Yes, Iceborn vs TF is a 1 for 1, but let's look at it as two items. Let's say TF + Frozen heart. This gives you the sheen proc, the speed from the phage proc as well as a lot of armor, decent health, 30cdr, and the attack speed debuff. For sake of argument compare it to having IBG and maybe randuin? (drawing a blank on a comparision). You get less cdr, but you get the really nice slow from ibg, it builds a bit faster but you lose out on a bit of armor.

Just looking for your thoughts. I'm not really arguing for TF, just looking for a better understanding of why not TF.

EndlessSorcerer3/16/2016, 10:22:14 PM2 votes

Nicely written guide, though I would recommend having someone proof-read it if you plan to post it outside of the boards.

However, I do find that some of our choices differ and I was hoping to get your thoughts on a couple things.

Runes:

[1] What are your thoughts on Armor Penetration Marks? I typically prefer them since they increase the damage dealt by your Q, Sheen and autoattacks (including his ultimate's bonus AD) quite well.

[2] I typically take Flat/Scaling Armor Seals and MR Glyphs (depending on which I prefer at the time) to improve the value of my healing and my ultimate's bonus health.

Masteries:

[3] I typically prefer Grasp of the Undying for better trades and sustain during laning phase, though I find I don't keep it stacked very well since I usually freeze the minion wave. Later in the game, I find that it takes too long to stack-up since I'm usually engaging in short trades with my opponents (Q, back out) unless I'm teamfighting.

[4] What is your opinion on Warlord's Bloodlust and Fervor of Battle? Additional sustain from Warlord's Bloodlust could be quite useful for laning and it would scale nicely with your resistances while Fervor of Battle would provide additional damage as you autoattack people to death between Qs (which is useful for longer trades post-laning phase).

Items:

[5] Is there a reason that you don't take Corrupting Potion as a starting item? The refillable potions can be quite useful during subsequent backs and it does make you a bit more threatening during fights.

[6] While I can understand why you may like Iceborn Gauntlet over Trinity Force, I noticed that you seemed to focus on the difference in Spellblade damage when comparing it. Even considering Nasus relies on basic attacks for damage and that his kit provides a significant amount of AD, armor reduction and lifesteal, do you find that the movement speed and critical strike chance provided isn't worth having to purchase and expensive offensive item? Or do you find that Sterak's Gage is just that much more valuable on Nasus and you don't want to lose out on resistances?

[7] What is your opinion on Zz'rot Portal on Nasus late-game? While you may not want to rush it or have it kill minions you are stacking off of, it does provide a significant amount of movement speed, resistances and pressure (covering lanes with downed inhibs, letting you push two lanes while your team groups). I have considered getting it as my fifth or sixth item on occasion.

Dominick Destine3/16/2016, 7:40:29 PM1 votes

Nasus tutorial; Q

weeaboomer3/16/2016, 7:42:16 PM1 votes

Do you find nasus to be healthy to play with and against?

"Need to provide all my resources top to allow him to stack"

"Need to provide all my resources top to prevent him to stack"

"So fun to play against a Q bot that out sustains my harass and who I can't 1v1 once he builds one item"

"It's so fun to play with this useless susan who has no stacks and is a walking ward"

"Gotta win this 4v5 because susan is too busy stacking top lane" Tryndamere

What do you think?

Vekkna3/16/2016, 8:28:02 PM1 votes

Why no mention of Warlord's Bloodlust now that it's scaling lifesteal with no crit requirement?

Shuriman Curator3/17/2016, 2:44:14 AM1 votes

Going to try this out. Thank you.

Authority Figure3/29/2016, 5:24:36 AM1 votes

As a Nasus main since Season 4, having only peaked D4 this season, following the "Gateology" from the fellow Nasus player Sirhcez, it'd be an honor if I could get some insight from the top Nasus player in the world. I had a fairly easy claim from G4 to D5, and was lucky enough to reach D4, but it feels as if I've hit wall using the relatively same build(zzrot, iceborn, boots, gage, randuins, maw, & a 30% scaling CDR page), only swapping it up for various situations. I once hit the #15th Nasus in the World according to lolskill.net (which is how I found out who you were) until 6.3 where Riot disabled zzrot, in which I took a break for that entire patch from ranked queue and played normals with my friends. Ever since returning to the scene I couldn't quite find a consistency with my Nasus play and it's discouraged me from playing ranked altogether. I've been in a desperate search for a help in regards how to play Nasus in this current Season & I'd appreciate if you could give me some feedback on how to climb with Nasus in what to me is a higher elo. Whether it be from inexperience on matchups, how to farm confidently without playing too far up, how to control my minion wave when my opposing laners know how to play against me, overall gameplay decisions, any help is appreciated.
Nonetheless thank you for the guide & although I don't believe that simply swapping up my rune page/masteries will put me in a better position to climb, I do intend to try it out over the course of the next couple days and see if it increases my performance. FYI: I don't know if you're willing to spectate/coach players, but if you do those type of things please do let me know as well.

ViashinoWizard3/29/2016, 6:06:55 PM1 votes

This guide is really good you guys.

Glad to see someone confirming my suspicion that IBG has become better (or at least more practical) than TriForce on Susan.

VictoryDance963/16/2016, 6:56:43 PM1 votes

Summary of your guide:

TP spell. Tank or AD runes. Use Q. Win game. That is how I have played Nasus.

SKT NASUS GOD7/4/2016, 3:47:01 PM1 votes

Hi Carnarius, can u tell me your names of other accounts? :) Thank you.

Lazypeon1003/16/2016, 7:21:35 PM1 votes

Good read dude. Love it when I see fellow players make guides. I like to make them for fun for champs I enjoy, but it's cool to see someone from challenger write up a guide on a champion most people just assume is always super easy.