I've researched a little bit about Nautilus, and both those sources and a few friends of mine have told me he's not a very good top laner. And yet he's under the tank section. Is it true he's not much of tank in comparison to others? Quite frankly, he looks really cool (both abilities and his looks), but if he's not really a tank and just a support/slow jungler then I'm not very interested in getting him.
Try farming with Nautilus' Auto-Attack animation and tell me whether you think he's a viable Solo Laner.
Wow, you guys really have no clue..
Naut top wit AP/defense (I use tank masteries with 24ap 17 armor runes) runes.. start flask...tele and smite
farms better than anyone else early game because the Aoe-Dot on his shield AAs, you can also use smite on cannon minions, due to his passive, you can usually get off an AA (empowered by shield),an E and another AA before they can respond, where they will either face you and take more empowered AA's or run. first back buy bamis cinder, after that go challenging smite, your empowerment from your shield is well over 100 by this point.
He has problems against long long range champs like Lissandra, or cycle champs like ryze, I could see difficulties with Quinn or Urgot early as well, but if they mess up, they are toast.
rest of the build I tend to go RoA, Randuins, Banshees, nashors (hugely increases his damage output) and tabi boots.
honestly if they build a low damage early champ(most tanks, tmoney, whatever) I build nashors as a second item
kill potential at lvl 6 is huge
q>smite>w>aa>aa>r>aa>e>aa . not too many people can escape his all ins, the ones that can are like jax and lee who wardhop, and fizz, who just dodges the ult with his troll pole.
Top and Jungle don't really have a set role requirement. ADCs are almost exclusively 'Marksman'. Supports are pretty much either billed as 'Support' or 'Tank.' Mids are either 'Mages' or 'Assassins.' with the occasional 'Marksman.' Jungle and Top can be just about anything.
Being a tank has nothing to do with laning. He is one of the best tanks (past early game), he just isn't a toplaner because of his mana requirements and general weakness early game. Like Amumu
Bad mana, bad AA animation, Bad harass, bad sustainability.
Everything about Nautilus screams "don't put me in a solo lane."
He is great as a support and jungler because he has elite initiation, CC and protection.
His ganks are legendary because he has so much CC. But his CC is not such that he could poke with it or even farm with it, other than his E.
He is an all in champion with low damage and high CC. He is very very good as a support/jungler, but he has no application as a damage dealer or solo laner.
Top tank - no Mid mage - not great but works and fun
I've top laned him... It really just depends on who you are against in whether you'll survive the lane. You pretty much have 0 kill potential, cuz what are you going to do? CC someone to death? You're completely gank reliant, which means that if the enemy ganks you - you can find yourself losing lane without a way to get back in.
also note, build furor on the tabi boots, helps keep up with the target.
Also I just looked up the OP, hes only a level 12, he wont really run into the people than know how to play against him properly for a long time (unless he like places into gold).
if/when you get up to high ELO's ive been told his usefulness falls off, but until you start facing people who can counterplay he actually does well top
He's actually pretty strong his early game (before his first full item) is just trash cause no CDR and No blue buff for mana regain. I played him top quite a few times before with amazing success. He's a delight to gank for that's for sure
if you want to play him top, then understand this:
you need to be offensive, take ignite, your set your mastery at 30/0/0 both AP and AD, take amplifying tome, and upgrade it to sheen as fast as possible you hit your powerspike with sheen. you should be able to get first blood with ignite at level 3-4
chain your soft CC, start with W, your lv1 Damage with Nautilus using a shield will properly suprass most, top laners at level 1, with an excpetion to Darius, due to darius' strong passive (same applies to GP)
i go with Rune page made of this, 3 AS quints, all AD marks, all AP glyphs, and full armor seals.
now this is a high risk high reward, you will get nowhere playing safe and farming with this build, after getting trinity force, take your sunfire, and go tanky from there
wit's end is always an option for a third item. however i always find myself getting abyssal.
always, gank mid whenever you see a chance, unlike most top laners, running to your jungle to grab krugs and recalling would not get you anywhere, you're still nautilus, you're gank/setting up a gank potential is just stupid strong
aslong as you understand your opponent in lane, and know what to max against this, then you're good
don't build nautilus this way, unless you have a background on how to play him and how to soft CC your opponent to negate all damage.
nautilus is just weak and useless against Gnar, and anyone with a Sustain, he's also weak against true Tanks, and point and click harass champions like pantheon maokai ryze, etc
if you're going FULL TANK, then i recommend 3 quints and all marks and all seals to be armor, and flat mr on your glyphs, with a 30 points on the defensive tree, rush a Rod of Ages, or iceborn gaunt, play this build with TP
but keep in mind you will have ZERO kill potential, and the only killing you'd do is either during a gank, or an accidental kill during a teamfight
nautilus' problem top lane is that he has no sustain and low mobility. I couldn't see him winning to most popular top laners. if he can survive lane phase and can stay even in farm then he'll be great in team fights but it seems like that would be a bit of an uphill battle.
