The Nautilus Problem

KiwiFlavor Ziggs·11/8/2019, 1:38:06 AM·3 votes·1,458 views

Recently saw the Nautilus nerf today and have to be real, especially as he is one of my most played and favorite champions: I think you missed the mark here. Firstly, I don't believe damage is Nautilus' problem - he does a lot of damage quickly because all his abilities have damage numbers, but also long cooldowns. Secondly, he is a victim of the meta not strong by himself. He wasn't often taken as support before the hook meta but is because of it. Thirdly, I always get sad when a champion that has pushed to support gets nerfed because they truly have nowhere else to go.

  1. Support Nautilus doesn't rely on damage. I know support Nautilus is doing well, and a nerf may be justified. I don't think nerfing damage works though because it begins to eliminate any possibility of seeing players branch out to mid, top, or jungle Nautilus - which I miss dearly. I think to affect his support numbers more, you should begin by nerfing the Q width and damage (Not length, just width as even I can admit its incredibly easy to land due to deceptive width) or nerfing one of his CC's (duration of root passive, q knock up, e slow, or r knock up would suffice).

  2. When the above happens, hopefully something else is given in return. I'd be interested in any of the following: W stealing MR from the opponent on auto attacks (Nautilus was an avid user of Wit's End before the rework to it, and benefits greatly from the steal-effect), E dealing % max health damage to help his laning and jungling, or (more of a fun one) causing Nautilus to take a chunk of wall with his anchor if hitting terrain with Q, buffing his next Q/Auto greatly.

  3. Why care? As stated above, Nautilus has nowhere else to go now. I've seen Doinb play Naut mid, but even in the hands of possibility the best mid laner, Nautilus loses lane and at this time only has a 50% win rate on him - and really was only taken alongside a hook support for synergy. Nautilus used to have decent success in top lane and could even be a jungler but has since lost all presence everywhere else aside from support. I'm afraid for this damage nerf because, as stated above I don't think it will affect his support win rate at all. In fact, the nerf itself is tame and barely noticeable, but I know how this goes - he will be nerfed again more aggressively when his win rate doesn't budge but this ultimate damage nerf won't be reverted - and he'll cease to be a good support, and with the damage nerfs also be unable to play anywhere else - especially since none of the S10 changes look to be helpful to him at this time.

TLDR; Nautilus Revert this damage nerf on his ult, nerf some type of his overbearing utility not his damage(1), and then buff his damage in a doesn't-affect-bot-lane kind of way(2).

Any thoughts from you all on this? I love Nautilus as a champion and hopefully the changes to him, that I can admit may be due for him - be more creative and balanced in the future. Also, he hasn't a skin in a while - and lacks a Epic+ level skin, what would you all think about a skin in 2020 for the big guy? (Prestige would be awesome imho)

10 Comments

MrFawknSunshine11/8/2019, 1:46:16 AM5 votes

naut is strong cuz of his cc and his tankyness so nerfing damage if fine. dont nerf what makes him a tank.

Dreamhare11/8/2019, 2:40:35 AM1 votes

And yet, they nerfed the wrong damage output source (his Ultimate) that keeps Nautilus locked into botlane as one of the most OP Supports right now. His numbers should be revised so he could go back to Jungle and/or Top while still being a not-so-op-but-viable Support.

Jesi Oni11/8/2019, 9:54:21 AM1 votes

Prestige skins suck... I dont understand why someone would want a yellow colored chroma. Only Aatrox looks better than original out of all prestiges released to this date (thats achievement to make so many trash skins if you ask me).

I agree with one thing... He could use a high quality skin.