Counter to Nasus?

Orbsolote·3/22/2017, 1:03:11 AM·1 votes·36,306 views

Could someone please explain to me how to counter nasus? I've come across him a lot recently in the top lane and everyone I play just stands no chance against him. After he gets 1 gank and then somehow manages to carry the entire game. I would just like to know how to counter a champion with a q on such a short cd and being able to stack it so that it does 3 extra damage per kill, a w that makes my movement speed go from 380 to 160 when we are both lvl 8, sustain from his passive and up to 30% lifesteal from his passive, and an ult that gives him a sunfire cape and more health temporarily. It just seems impossible to lane against him no matter what I do. If i get a gank it doesn't matter because he either 2v1 or dies and still does twice my damage. He just seems like he has so much to him and I have no idea how to stop this monstrosity. Especially because his w makes it super difficult to secure kills or even run away. Please someone tell me how to stop him from being so strong.

15 Comments

KVbqbFsC8e3/22/2017, 2:55:55 AM4 votes

A good Nasus can't really be stopped from stacking. Even if you play some sort of counter, he'll still be able to get enough stacks to 1v1 anyone if he knows what he's doing. You just have to play around that and take advantage of the fact that he cannot teamfight.

apox REAPER5/22/2019, 3:06:03 AM3 votes

u cant

Dessem3/22/2017, 1:11:51 AM3 votes

Nasus tends to lose to strong lane bullies in the early game or champions who can make plays elsewhere before returning top. Darius is always a good call into him─trading with Nasus early at level 1, then again at level 2 or 3 will usually send Nasus cowering in fear of your Noxian might.

Good idea is to avoid the temptation of pushing Nasus under turret: he's pretty OK with farming under turret, and around ~3:20 minutes into the game, junglers usually have time to gank top so you don't want to be on his side of the lane to avoid getting ganked.

Swain and Sion are also rather good against Nasus. Swain is an enormous lane bully against the likes of Nasus, whereas Sion's ult lets him make plays elsewhere and then just teleport back top. If you're OK with Kled, he can actually force Nasus under turret as well due to his good trades.

The thing with Nasus is that you can't play it like a farm lane, and come mid game you're better off contributing to your team rather than trying to splitpush against him. Nasus is a splitpusher himself and a great duelist once the 20 minute mark is passed (and arguably dangerous around the 12 minute mark already, if he's good at Q), so you want to push with your team and force Nasus to spend attention elsewhere. While Nasus is splitpushing, you can force 5v4 team fights and take objectives elsewhere around the map.

Trap or a Trick3/22/2017, 1:34:50 AM3 votes

nasus maxes Q first, he uses Q on creeps, effectively not maxing anything, Take advantage of this, whenever his q is down, trade with him. DONT PUSH HIM UNDER TOWER, that's a death wish, he'll get free uncontested stacks and you wont be able to kill him. Build either item 3123 or item 3165 to stop his absurd healing and try not to pick auto attack champs vs him, because his w will destroy you. Hope this helped somehow, mi not veyer good at this game, but this is what ive learned from others

franchise76763/22/2017, 1:05:21 AM1 votes

gp and teemo

AlienPrimate3/22/2017, 1:52:03 AM1 votes

Teemo Use the Q blind every chance you get when he is going to Q a minions so he misses his stacks.

Garen Try not to push the wave early game by only last hitting minions and all in as soon as you have level 2. Garen's early damage is really strong so you should be able to make him scared to come close to you again and you just freeze lane by your own tower. Garen also breaks wither with his Q.

Nautilus He has surprisingly strong early game damage to either kill Nasus or do the same thing as Garen and he is tanky enough to not worry about Siphoning strike later in the game.

Urgot Urgot has probably close to the highest early ranged damage in the game. If you can land an E on Nasus you will make him cry with your Q.

Olaf Another high early damage pick. If Nasus builds armor you max E first and hit him with it every chance you get and if he builds health you max Q and do the same thing. If maxing Q first you will need item 2033 for mana sustain. Olaf can also ignore wither once he gets his ult.

Pantheon Spam Q and win the early game with ease. You also block siphoning strike with your passive. The problem with this choice is that pantheon doesn't scale like the rest of the ones I listed.

Chogath Cho can out sustain pretty much anyone in the game including Nasus. His early game damage is insane and by maxing his silence first you will be able to make Nasus miss a lot of stacks in the same way Teemo does. His ult is also a good counter to Nasus's ult if you can time it perfectly to use it before Nasus uses his because most Nasus players will wait until low health to activate their ult in a duel.

Coconut Water3/22/2017, 2:53:41 AM1 votes

In lane Fiora , Darius , and Riven do really well into him early on. If you really want to make him useless, your team should pick a supp that's good at kiting/lockdown like Lulu , Janna , or Nami. These three are, imo, Nasus 's biggest counters in mid/late game as they are really good in teamfights and should he fight against them he becomes too cc locked to get any significant damage off preventing his lifesteal and overall threat to the team. With one of those champs It becomes a lose/lose situation for Nasus. He either splits and consequently lose dragons/barons/ towers in hopes your team wont be able to close out the game fast enough, or he teamfights and loses out on stacking time and risks dying. As far as general tips on how you should play versus Nasus is, crush him in lane, try not to 1v1 him past 25 mins, bring him out of lane and away from farm by hard pushing objectives, have a comp thats good at kiting and dps him before he can sustain, and try to end as quickly as possible to prevent his 1.5k damage q. Nasus thrives vs unorganized teams playing the long game, the best thing you could do to win is really just work together and dont let him be the 40min raid boss.

Big Lincoln3/22/2017, 1:06:49 AM1 votes

Illaoi Yorick both work pretty well

Darius "wins" but it's really easy to fuck up the lane, and Nasus will dominate you after a certain point

Bouncemaster Zac3/28/2017, 7:06:23 AM1 votes

Nasus has no counters whatsoever unless the guy playing him is just godawful. You have to hope his team is too heavy for him to carry.

TheAlMightLYKing5/27/2017, 4:49:05 PM1 votes

How to counter Nasus.. #1 Roam... Nasus needs farm so roam to other lanes win the game that way. #2 Short trades... When he q a minion go in on him. You have a 0.5-0.8 secondS of time (the animation time of q + cast time of w) to get free damage. #3 Gank him pre lv6. This way he can't 1v2 you and can only use w on 1 person. So anything from an elise to a xin will kill him. #4 Burst him down Nasus's are powerful late game so burst him down. (It's like how to beat an olaf tank with ult and summoner 6 charging at your adc. Y0u gotta kill him quickly.) #5 Don't 1v1 nasus (even in early game and/or has low hp) You will get 1v1ed (it's like don't tower dive a 12/0 trynd with ult. #6 Use MCAAR (Multiple champion attack and retreat). It's simple get 1 adc and 1 tank and 1 fighter to 3v1 nasus. The adc poke him and when nasus w and targets adc. The fighter goes in. If nasus is gonna kill someone then the tank cc nasus. Rotate damage form adc to fighter. If nasus attacks someone that person (unless a tank) retreats. All i can think of pls add so we can kill nasus.

ScarletVixen12/17/2017, 1:12:36 AM1 votes

Nasus' only real weakness is hard cc or champs that negate the use of wither. Garen is a decent counter since his Q clears Nasus' wither, and his spin coupled with Black Cleaver shreds armor with little effort. In my experience, trying to freeze lane and harass Nasus is extremely difficult but necessary, but most importantly you have to roam. Because Nasus will always be able to 1v1 you by mid game, the score or difference between you seems to matter little, as Nasus' Q is his main damage dealer. Any champ that is typically weaker will struggle to Nasus, this includes Teemo. Sure Teemo will win early, but he will get stomped around mid game when stacking is alot easier.

So basically... Nasus has no real true counter in the game. His weakness is how useless he is against a team with a good amount of cc. He will usually win lane, but not games altogether.

pickcollins8/4/2018, 1:27:42 AM1 votes

Fiora can handle him pretty well. As can Swain. Camille can shred him if played right. If ur ADC against him grab a Scimitar so you can escape his wither

CancerBasedGod3/22/2017, 1:09:58 AM1 votes

Stop hiding at your turret, stop afk farming. . .

Most common bronze mistake is to just afk farm the lane all lanning phase instead of fighting. With Nasus, as well as many others, you need to hit him a lot, in order to try and push him out of lane. If you don't push him back, and you let him stack 600+ quickly, FF.

EndlessSorcerer8/4/2018, 1:43:34 AM1 votes

Dr. Mundo and Olaf used to be my go-to counterpicks into Nasus.

They were too durable for him to easily kill, their damage was very difficult to build against and Nasus didn't really outscale them later into the game.

However, I feel it is important to mention that macroplay and wave-control is very important when playing against Nasus.

I used to play a significant amount of Nasus and one common mistake I'd see would be people shoving me under the tower for the entire laning phase. Nasus loves being near or underneath his own tower. He can easily last-hit minions under-tower, safely stack his Q and build towards his mid-game items. Also, his skills (i.e. Wither, Spirit Fire, Ultimate) are all fantastic at countering and turning attempted dives into a kill.

You want to freeze the minion wave on your side of the map and deny Nasus. Forcing him to over-extend if he wants to farm which leaves him vulnerable to ganks and provides room to chase him down.