[REWORK] Nautilus the Titan of the Depths

Dear Riot and community,

I want to talk about Nautilus and his current state of affairs and how he is played.

I used to play alot of Nautilus when he was released and off and on during the seasons, but alot of the reasoning as to why I don't use him as often I would like is simply because of how you're forced to play him.

I'll explain.

Nautilus is perceived to be a tank, have lots of CC (crowd control) and be great at peeling for your team while they goto town on the enemy team.

This statement simply isn't true.

While up for debate on whether his CC is hard CC or soft CC, his crowd control effects have the least amount of impact because they are all actually incredibly soft CC.

Scenario:

You need to be the champion that is going to build full tank for the team - Check You need Crowd Control - Check You need your Crowd Control to be able to disrupt channels and/or be able to peel enemies dive charging your team - Not Check

Here is the reason why:

Staggering Blow is a good starting up of his peeling potential by rooting his target to stop incoming charges by the overaggressive enemies, but after that autoattack root he can't continue that momentum because of the cooldown timer.

You might say this is a great time to use Riptide, well yes and no. While Riptide slows, the slow effect feels like it has no impact because of how short the duration is and how weak it is. Because of the way how slows all work now (under 2 second durations) and how easy it is to itemize/set masteries to negate it, thus is a poor tool to use as a means for being a defender of your team because it doesn't deter enemies.

Dredge Line is also kind of a poor use to deter enemies charging your friendlies or interrupt dangerous channels because the closer you're to the target, the quicker the effect ends and shows how least impactful it can be. The very fact that dredge line can't be used to target back line targets is also a reason why you can't use it to disrupt dangerous targets like a Katerina Ult.

So now we have [R] Depth Charge, a great initiation and defensive tool if needed. Can knock up a target to disrupt anything as a defensive measure or be used on the offensive to setup a fight.

The drawback, is being forced to rely on it as it is your only realistic defensive measure against enemies that are a threat. Because of how long the cooldown is, once you use it, you lose it.

And this is where I think the issue stems from, the pattern of: There are too many windows of opportunity for the enemy to use against you as Nautilus because after your first rotation of abilities (Staggering Blow root into Riptide into Depth Charge into Dredge Line), you're left defenseless to do anything for yourself or your team during cooldowns.

There is a saying while you're at a job site working:

"Down time is wasted time if you're not working."

Nautilus has this problematic pattern.

Once cooldowns are fired on his abilities (and passive from Staggering Blow), he really doesn't do anything afterwards to keep himself "working" and meaningful to himself and his team.

Lets take a different tank as an example, like Leona:

Why does this champion proceed to do the role of tank better or more precisely, effective as a tank?

• First off: She has innate tankyness from her [W] giving her some stats needed to be on the front lines. Nautilus's [W] Titan's wrath can parallel this.
• Second: Leona's Zenith Blade can root a target in the back she is trying to get to.
• Third: Her ult can help lock up multiple targets as needed or one target
• Fourth: Her Q is a melee ranged stun
• Fifth: Her passive allows her to be a great team mate buddy with sunlight procs allowing a little more extra damage
• Sixth: Crowd Control are near instantaneous when needed
• Seventh: The most important part. Her Crowd control abilities have impact because they can deter enemies charging her team (with the way stuns and roots work), can stop dangerous channeling effects, and are on low enough cooldown (with the added help of cooldown reduction) that lets her operate so well like this

Leona's downtime is mitigated by how much cooldown reduction she has, having to choose which position to be at depending on what is prioritized first (Peeling while in the back or locking down someone by going offensive and deep into the enemy team), constantly keeping track of the battle pace of when to use her abilities, and using abilities to their maximum effect to by getting as many sunlight procs for team so she doesn't overlap them to waste.

Nautilus doesn't have this luxury and if anything, is detrimental to himself and his team because of how the mechanics of his abilities work which comes down to reliability of the accuracy of his crowd control, which type of crowd control he has, how often he can use that crowd control, and what is it he can do in between that crowd control.

This here is a concept rework and will give a reasoning description of the changes after:

Nautilus the Titan of the Depths

[Passive] Staggering Blow: On-Target Cooldown: 9 / 8 / 7 / 6

Nautilus's first basic attack deals an additional「 32 + (6 × Nautilus' level) 」Magical damage and Roots his target for 0.5 / 0.75 / 1 / 1.25 / 1.5 seconds. Subsequent basic attacks deal an additional 「 (2 × Nautilus' level) + (1% of Nautilus's max health) 」 magical damage.

The root effect of this ability cannot trigger on the same target more than once every few seconds.

[Q] Dredge Line: RANGE: 1100 COST: 60 / 70 / 80 / 90 / 100 mana COOLDOWN: 18 / 16 / 14 / 12 / 10

Active: Nautilus hurls his anchor forward in a line and forms a tether at the first enemy or terrain it hits for 3 seconds.

If it hits an enemy unit the target is briefly stunned and dealt magic damage, while the tether persists the target is slowed by 30%.

[Q] Drag them Down: Active: Nautilus drags himself and the unit together, briefly stunning the enemy. If the anchor hits terrain, Nautilus will drag himself forward and the cooldown is reduced by 50%.

Magic damage: 60 / 105 / 150 / 195 / 240 (+ 75% AP)

[W] Titan's Wrath: COST: 80 mana COOLDOWN: 18

Passive: Nautilus's autoattacks reduce Tian's Wrath's cooldown by 0.5 seconds each hit.

Active: Nautilus gains a shield for up to 10 seconds that absorbs a base amount of damage plus a percentage of his maximum health.

Shield Strength: 85 / 90 / 95 / 100 / 105 (+ 9 / 10.5 / 12 / 13.5 / 15% of max health)

[E] Riptide: RANGE: 600 COST: 40 / 50 / 60 / 70 / 80 mana COOLDOWN: 7 / 6.5 / 6 / 5.5 / 5 Active: Nautilus slams the ground, causing a ring of explosions to radiate out from him in 3 waves. Each explosion deals magic damage to enemies in the area and roots them.

Magic Damage per Wave: 60 / 100 / 140 / 180 / 220 (+ 30% AP) Root Duration: 1 / 1 / 1.25 / 1.25 / 1.50

Enemies take 50% less damage from explosions beyond the first that hits them.

Maximum Magic Damage: 120 / 200 / 280 / 360 / 440 (+ 60% AP)

[R] Depth Charge: RANGE: 825 COST: 100 mana COOLDOWN: 140 / 110 / 80 Active: Nautilus fires a shockwave that chases a target enemy champion, dealing magic damage and knocking up enemies it passes through for 0.5 seconds. The shockwave explodes upon reaching its target, knocking them up for 1 second and stunning them, dealing magic damage to the target with Enemies taking 75% less damage from the explosion radius and slowing them for 30% for 1 second.

Passthrough magic damage: 75 / 125 / 175 (+ 40% AP)

Explosion magic damage: 150 / 250 / 350 (+ 80% AP)

Stun Duration: 1 / 1.5 / 2 Slow Duration: 1

So lets go over this.

Nautilus's Staggering Blow was given the "Braum" treatment in a sense after removing Titan's Wrath's damage component, because Nautilus needed something to help him keep momentum when autoattacking.

This allows him to still keep some damage (especially for jungle camps) but wouldn't be over the top.

Titan's Wrath is now purely a defensive steroid means for his kit, +20 increase base with a lowered ratio and because of the nature of his kit he can get some reward by continuing to stick on top of a target with his autoattacks.

Dredge Line is updated to today's current forms of hooks and pulls but in a utility-esque twist with the slow and tether allowing Nautilus more choice in what he wants to do.

Riptide rework now being the defacto core ingredient with his passive, this thrones Nautilus as the goto champion for being the defensive peeler of Root snares and has meaningful synergy with his kit.

Depth Charge's reduced base damage but added crowd control utility to the explosion around the target allows Nautilus to choose if he absolutely needs to setup an offensive charge or use it for more defensive measures.

I believe this play pattern is a much better user experience for the role intended for him to be in.

Let me know your feedback on this.