A note to top laners facing a Nasus

XxxLumberJackxxX·Feb 10, 2015·111 votes·9,797 views

Rushing a Sunfire Cape is just about the worst thing you can do, with the exceptionally rare and debateable exception of Rammus.

Why? It provides no damage during its build path, so you can't abuse the level 1-5 weakness of Nasus. It auto pushes lane on completion. You know what Nasus loves doing after purchasing 1 cdr item? Farming under tower. You can not hit his tower while he is farming under it. Tank runes and masteries make the aoe dmg negligible 1v1 to everything except your post game score.

So please, if you are on my team facing a nasus, build a dmg item and mess him up. If you are on the other team, continue sunfire spam.

131 Comments

MXXIVFeb 10, 201574 votes

Glad to see somebody actually posting ideas how to counter other champions instead of whining like other people do.

McAllisterFeb 10, 201557 votes

As a Nasus main, I'll be forced to create 5 new accounts to downvote this with.

Legit though, I giggle every time I see someone bring a Doran's Shield into lane with me. You serious? I'm not going to hit you until level 9, and then I'm going to kill you unless I've died 3 times.

Kitten of EvilFeb 10, 201520 votes

People honestly don't seem to get that. Nasus wants to just ignore you and farm. It's a waste of stacks to use even one Q on your enemy laner unless you need to!

SinlaireFeb 11, 201514 votes

I play a Shen top. wanna see a Nasus get pissed? watch him set up to Q a low minion and use Shadow Dash to taunt him the moment his Q winds up to strike. The Q turns and hits Shen at 40% reduced damage and his CD is blown on the skill while the minion dies without feeding his stack.

One of my most rewarding match ups ever when i get to watch him silently rage every time i blow his Siphoning Strike. good times...

Kitten of EvilFeb 11, 20152 votes

I would hate you so much. I got 420 stacks against an enemy Garen the last time I played. Sure, I died once or twice, but at that point it didn't matter. He needed to silence my Q more.

5 Stacks 1 AxeFeb 12, 20152 votes

just play teemo he will just go afk after 70 stacks 20 min

The HexmageFeb 12, 20151 votes

My best game with Nasus was vs Teemo; 850 stacks in 30 minutes

5 Stacks 1 AxeFeb 12, 20152 votes

that teemo sucked

revliledpembrokeFeb 11, 20154 votes

Teemo and Quinn see you farming and just blind you.

Kitten of EvilFeb 11, 20154 votes

Well, they would if they could. Quinn's Q usually lets you get an attack off before the blind works.

admiralcourvoisiFeb 10, 201525 votes

Upvoted just because of the fact that you're providing positive ideas instead of complaining. Great job, keep it up!

Ser GarlandFeb 10, 201518 votes

The thing about Nasus is his weakness involves harassing him early. But when you harass him he literally retreats to his tower, which lets you farm freely, which pushes the wave to his tower, which let's HIM farm freely. The only weakness Nasus has is if you somehow let early game Nasus push to your tower.... which is balls ass slow and can leave players feeling impatient.

WheatloafFeb 10, 201518 votes

Garen + item 3068 = FLAMING JUSTICE.

Nobody denies flaming justice, not even the stackmaster himself.

Blue Moon WolfFeb 11, 20157 votes

I thought the stackmaster was Veigar ? That title must have been beyond his reach ;D

KonidiasFeb 10, 201513 votes

Nasus is an insufferable pain to lane against... The only strategy is to become keeper of the minions, and freeze the lane near your turret... then you just stand between the minions and Nasus and keep him far away from them, zoning him from XP and those precious stacks.

Obviously you can't keep the wave frozen forever, but once it resets, you need to do the same thing and get the wave pushed back toward you.

Some games I'm impatient and push the lane, and those games I lose 100% of the time because Nasus just farms away and becomes a boss in the late game.

You can't even use the strat of pushing the lane and roaming because the cost is too great. You simply can't let Nasus free farm. You can't even just farm lane with him because his farm outweighs your farm by leaps and bounds.

You 100% have to deny him farm.

It's boring but by mid game Nasus will be pretty much useless.... and finally you can group for team fights and win.

Only Play DariusFeb 10, 20152 votes

super strong slow and AOE armor shred? not really useless.

Ser GarlandFeb 10, 201512 votes

He's literally a baby that you have to sit. Riot said something about not wanting top lane to be an island where two champions farm? Nasus makes it a damn island.

SkiasFeb 11, 20153 votes

Best thing to do is collapse on mid early and crush the towers. If you can dominate mid and bot while hes still trying to farm, he will be forced to come down weak or let his team get rolled in 4v5s.

ArveanorFeb 10, 20157 votes

I feel like this is directed at my 3am game last night... look I Eventually built a black cleaver to help deal with him, but I was trying to be a tank for my team, and it was too late at night...

Edit: Oh and yes, I fed the shit out of Nasus :/

AnatharionFeb 10, 20157 votes

If they pick Nasus counter pick with Azir Cassiopeia Gnar Nidalee Teemo

African Mundo Feb 10, 20156 votes

When I lane against a Nasus as Renekton, it doesn't matter if I get an early kill and build brutalizer, he out duels me regardless by the time he has glacial shroud and is level 9

MISTER TRUMPFeb 11, 20153 votes

build tiamat instead you will win if you get damage

Blue Moon WolfFeb 11, 20154 votes

remember the manaless advantage, endless harass, stun combos as he tries to siphon a minion, force him to use up all his mana and keep the lane pushed so he can't recall safely.

Dingding123Feb 11, 20152 votes

he cannot escape you forever Renekton

Blue Moon WolfFeb 11, 20156 votes

the best way to counter Nasus is a good vet.

Vet Student IRLFeb 11, 201517 votes

im here sir

Blue Moon WolfFeb 11, 20152 votes

well played sir, well played.

DarkenedSoul420Feb 10, 20155 votes

Yup good points, also a random tip to deal with Pantheon top is to pick Nasus . He will run out of mana tryinh to kill you early, then you can free farm until he recalls, then you do the same and buy hp or armor and repeat the process. A really good panth can probably kill you but if you do it right, he isnt much of a threat

ProeliumFeb 10, 20154 votes

As a Pantheon top main... stahp! Stahp telling people how to beat him! :)

What Is SmiteFeb 11, 20158 votes

Enemy picks Nasus = I pick Olaf

I dare you to try to farm minions

Raja ChachkiFeb 11, 20152 votes

i dare u

What Is SmiteFeb 11, 20158 votes

Do you want to risk 300+ true damage?

JamnonFeb 13, 20151 votes

Do you max your true damage first, then?

What Is SmiteFeb 13, 20152 votes

Yes since it has no mana cost and it refunds the health used to cast if it kills, perfect for last hitting and afterwards I max W or Q depending on how well I am doing

JamnonFeb 13, 20151 votes

I usually rush BotRK cause that's just sick on him, then maybe against magic, Spirit visage. If AD, I get a frozen heart for the CDR or a item 3143 I like this build.

What do you think of that and what do you build?

What Is SmiteFeb 13, 20152 votes

My usual build is a item 3143 rush as my first item so that I have some survivability in teamfights followed by either item 3065 or item 3102 , I pick up item 3111 , then I build item 3153 and after that the game usually ends before I reach full build

BharhashFeb 11, 20152 votes

{quoted}

Yup good points, also a random tip to deal with top is to pick . He will run out of mana tryinh to kill you early, then you can free farm until he recalls, then you do the same and buy hp or armor and repeat the process. A really good panth can probably kill you but if you do it right, he isnt much of a threat

As someone who regularly takes Pantheon top, I have to disagree with you on just about every level here.

Pantheon is a very strong lane bully, and those are champs that Nasus struggles again. Ranged poke, stun, high MS. If you faceroll all your abilities as they come off cooldown, yeah Panth will have mana issues. But if you're even halfway intelligent about it then Pantheon will win hands down against Nasus.

My usual start with Pantheon is a Longsword, one health pot, and two mana pots. This means that unless the enemy jungler is pitching a tent in my lane, I have nothing to worry about. If I'm feeling really trolly, I'll even W the enemy Nasus when he goes to Q something.

TL;DR - Pantheon wrecks Nasus.

NomenclatureFeb 11, 20155 votes

how can i beat a nasus when he ignores my dmg and continues to q minions for 500 hp regen. HELP!! HE GAINS HP FOR FARMING

Evil JesterFeb 11, 20153 votes

Easiest way to counter a nasus.....Build health.

No seriously, I have played against nasus so many times, they always pull the same tank build and stack with Q, so just stack health. I hardly ever loose lane against him because I create a damage barrier that he can't get past. no matter what he does the same percentage of hp damage to me, I never see a nasus stack more damage than I stack health.

even when I play Riven top, Il build phage, cleaver, or frozen mallet, prioritising HP first.

Gnar IS one of the best counterpicks, he out ranges, can hop away when he uses slow and is a good ranged champion that works well with health builds

nasus ether takes to much damage and is forced out of lane, or runs out of mana and is forced to be pushed under his tower and with no mana he cant farm as effectivly, which helps alot during his late game.

Dat late game doh, now thats is a different story...

Tis a nice dayFeb 11, 20154 votes

It's pretty easy to NOT "loose" lane against a Nasus, because they're going to be more concerned with farming than trying to kill you. Hitting even against a Nasus isn't going to do you much good since as long as he's farming just as much as you are, he's going to outscale you sooner or later.

Ashes AriseFeb 10, 20151 votes

Isn't nasus like really bad these days?

Ser GarlandFeb 10, 20157 votes

Lol no. He's picked all the time in solo Q. He also pretty much counters all sustain less bruisers.

Electro522Feb 10, 20157 votes

Ahem.......... Darius

Yeah, he normally builds sustain, but landing against Darius as pretty much anyone is a pain in the ass!

Ser GarlandFeb 10, 20151 votes

Sustainless in the sense that they require no mana. Sure, Darius shreds champions like Nasus early game, but if the Nasus is able to be pushed to tower by an overly aggressive Darius, Nasus will win in the end.

SpecterVonBarenFeb 11, 20153 votes

[{quoted}](name=Ser Garland,realm=NA,application-id=3ErqAdtq,discussion-id=n37G5Ttt,comment-id=0003000000000000,timestamp=2015-02-10T23:28:00.200+0000)

Sustainless in the sense that they require no mana. Sure, Darius shreds champions like Nasus early game, but if the Nasus is able to be pushed to tower by an overly aggressive Darius, Nasus will win in the end.

Not really. Darius can just sit outside his tower range and dare Nasus to q minions, and if the Nasus does then he'll just use his pull and then chunk his health.

EdbwnFeb 11, 20152 votes

So Nasus counters bruisers that don't use mana? I beg to differ. Riven, sure. Nasus does fairly well against her. Garen? Hell no. Garen should be able to shut Doge down pretty solidly.

GigglingAngelFeb 11, 20151 votes

When I go up against a Nasus at top, I usually go with Heimerdinger + Exhaust over the usual Teleport.
That forces him to rank his E to do meaningful damage to me and my turrets, which makes him getting charges on Q more difficult. More-so, if he charges me into my turrets, I blast him with exhaust then a stun with my grenade. He then eats up all the damage from the turrets + missiles/grenade (boosted by the exhaust), is still too slow to leave fast enough because of exhaust, and the turrets finish him off before he can even touch me twice (if at all).
If he uses Ghost, the slow from the exhaust and grenade usually give me enough time to do the damage I need to him for him to back off, or else he dies.

EndlessSorcererFeb 11, 20153 votes

God, Heimerdinger is a horrible matchup for Nasus. If you position your turrets correctly, he'll have to dodge lasers for every Q stack and he can't even try to engage on you. The best he can do is Wither you for a jungle gank, but he can't really follow up and you still have your minions and turrets to help you kill the jungler.

Akali is another good choice since she can outsustain his damage, constantly poke him with Q, burst him anytime he tries to CS by double-procing Q, and burst him down mid-game. Considering Nasus can't really stop Akali from freefarming without a lot of help, she'll just farm to a horrifying mid-game even without early kills.

Kitten of EvilFeb 11, 20151 votes

Can't his Q one-hit turrets though?

EndlessSorcererFeb 11, 20153 votes

He has to reach the turrets first, in which case he should take several lasers, turret shots, a stun grenade, maybe rockets, and some autoattacks. If you position the turrets correctly, they should fire a laser at him every time he tries to last hit.

If you want to see the matchup, Sirhcez played Nasus against it here. Watch how the Heimerdinger played early game.