Nasus Post (Wall of text)

Hi everyone my name is HenryDaHen and after reading a post from an NA player, I have decided to make a post about my thoughts on the champion Nasus. IMO, I think he has an in depth, well worded article of his thoughts on yasuo as a champion. https://boards.na.leagueoflegends.com/en/c/gameplay-balance/H6nGwafH-yasuo-post-wall-of-text-inc Disclaimer I am a low elo player but I have played nasus for 1 and a half years with mastery 7. Though I admit I do have shit mechanics, I know this champion very well since he is my main top lane pick and I have tried multiple item builds and rune pages on this champion. Examples include the sirchez, and quas build. Please read the entire post and make constructive arguments rather than vent your hate shutting down my opinion because I am a bronze scrub. Nasus current state patch 7.7 Lore and appearance The background story of Shurima which covers the story of nasus is very interesting because there are so many elements to it such as betrayal, guilt, heroism and so on. When you know the lore and play the champion, you feel like a badass. In terms of the skins, I got the rare K9 nasus skin and it is so cool to play with it. In general, the look of nasus, he reminds me of the Egyptian god named Anubis. **Skill and macro ** In terms of mechanical skill, he is very easy to understand and he only has a very easy skillshot to land, which is his spirit fire but in terms of macro, you need to understand each enemy top laner very well in order to be successful on nasus whether it will be positioning, trading and getting cs safely. Nasus has taught me patience and the art of wave management emphasising the importance of knowing how and when to freeze and push a wave. Balance and win rate For this current patch as mentioned above, nasus is underwhelming as a champion though he will be slightly buffed with the tank update, because of the new items and the rework of the current items. In terms of balance, his kit is ancient. With a slight numbers change, riot could softly nudge his win rate to 50% but he definitely needs a rework. I don’t know why he was not reworked in season 5 during the juggernaut rework? Nasus pros and cons Before I elaborate on why he needs a full rework, I want to weigh out his strengths and weaknesses of his current kit and then summarise it in a paragraph. PROS • In built sustain. Nasus’s current passive is 10% lifesteal which scales to 20% lifesteal. Combine this with spirit visage and runic armor, nasus should get around 28% lifesteal which is huge. • Tanky. His ult was changed so that it gives 55 MR and ARMOR straight up and a slow increase of both stats over the 15 sec. This made nasus so much tankier and it was great for baiting out the enemy team to overextend. • Infinite scaling damage. This is the core identity of nasus. When he kills a minion with q, it gets 3 extra permanent damage and It goes forever. When you get ahead and have enough stacks, it feels cool to one shot an adc.

CONS • No mobility. Nasus has no skills which help increase his speed, therefore if he gets caught, he needs to flash. • No hard cc. Nasus does have a scaling slow increasing to 95% but against certain champions with slow resistance, or cleanse, the cc becomes lack luster. • Easy to kite: The two cons add up to 1 big weakness, any champ with constant cc, hard cc and range can easily keep nasus at bay regardless of the number of stacks. • Mana hungry. Nasus has lower base mana than other top lane champs and his mana costs are high. If u happen to get a free gank, you would do the W, E, Q combo and that would cost 170 mana if abilities are rank 1. That is close to half your mana pool which seriously hurts if your gank fails. • Weak early game and linear power scaling. For nasus to be useful to the team, he needs 350 stacks by 20 min if he wants a comfortable late game. For that to occur, he would need to cs well while surviving lane bullies and early cheese ganks without dying once. Dying is extremely bad on nasus because the time spent dead is time not spent stacking. There is the e max build however, it falls off after 30 min because adcs will have enough lifesteal to just auto the minions and cancel out the damage put out by your spirit fire. Once the late game hits, your success rate depends if you can land your Qs on the squishies. If you are being kited really hard, then your late game is not as strong. In general, nasus has more cons than pros and tuning the stats only bandage the problems. He currently hangs on a thin line between broken and absolute trash. A rework is necessary to make nasus more reliable as a late game scaling champion. REWORK No changes Soul eater: the life steal passive is what gives nasus sustain in the top lane. Ultimate: I like the season 6 change to the nasus ult. It helps nasus stay alive letting him make the most of the 15 sec duration. Small changes W: Wither: mana cost 60/65/70/75/80 starting attack speed slow will be increased with rank: 17.5%/24.5%/31.5%/38.5%/45.5%. The attack speed slow will always end up at 47.5% Movement speed slow: unchanged (it is still scaling from 35% to 95%) These changes will make the ability scale well into the late game. E: Spirit Fire: The enemy’s armor will be reduced by 20/25/30/35/40 when in the spirit fire and also for 5 seconds after exiting the spirit fire. The rest of the ability is unchanged. These changes give the ability more consistency because currently, for the ability’s high mana cost, it is lack luster. Comparing this ability to lux’s lucent singularity, • Her base damage is higher • Her cast range is almost double of nasus • Her base cooldown is lower • Her ability has a slow built in. Big changes Q: Siphoning strike (auto attack reset) Cooldown and range is the same.

• Damage: 70/90/110/130/150(70% ad ratio) Mana cost: 20.
• If nasus kills an enemy with Q, 0/5/10/15/20 mana gets refunded.
• Removed (When nasus kills an minion he gets 3 permanent damage and 6 permanent damage for other enemies) This active effect is the main reason why nasus has so many cons as mentioned above. Right now for his late game effectiveness, he solely relies on his q and that makes him so easy to exploit from the enemy team. New passive (Adaptation) Nasus gains an additional passive or an additional effect on 1 of his abilities every 10 minutes. The time starts when the minions start spawning. The timer can be reduced by • 1 minute (every 20 cs) cannon creeps and epic jungle monster counts as 2 creeps • 2 minutes (every champion, baron dragon assist and objective assist) • 4 minutes (every champion kill, dragon and baron kill, objective takedown) The passive works toward the champions of the enemy team. For example, if there is a swain on the enemy team, nasus will gain a passive or an additional effect which will help counter swain. DISCLAIMER: The passive is turned off if you are dead and waiting to respawn. Additional passives Vital point targeting: nasus’s melee attacks gain 40% bonus armor penetration (autos and q). This ability is learnt if there are tanks on the enemy team. Champions- hecarim, malphite, mundo, nautilus, poppy, etc Runic weapon: nasus’s melee attacks inflict grevious wounds for 3 seconds. (autos and q refreshes the duration). This ability is learnt if there are champions with self- sustain on the enemy team. Champions- fiddlesticks, garen, swain, Vladimir Siphoning strike (Q ability additional effect) Deadly parry: Nasus’s Q ability will block the next champion melee attack (the cc in the melee attack will also be blocked). The parry is only successful if nasus is facing the enemy champion performing the attack. If Nasus lands his q on the enemy champion within 0.8 sec after the parry, Nasus will gain 10%/15%/20%/25%/30% movement speed for 1.75 sec. Wither additional effects (W ability) Fatigue: wither will now deplete 20% the enemy champion’s maximum mana pool. This ability will be learnt if there is a mana hungry champion on the enemy team. Champions- anivia, ezreal, karthus, swain,veigar, velkoz, warwick,xerath etc. If the enemy champion uses energy, their energy regeneration will be reduced by 80% for 5 seconds. Champions- zed, leesin, kennen, etc weakness: Wither will now reduce the enemy champion’s AD or AP by 20% depending on which stat is higher. This ability is learnt if there are assassin or diving type champions on the enemy team. Champions- diana, evelynn graves, khazix, leblanc, pantheon, riven, talon, zed etc.

Spirit fire additional effects (E ability) Intense heat: enemies in the sprit fire will be grounded. This ability is learnt if there are champions with mobility spells on the enemy team. Champions- kassadin,katarina, shen, vi yasuo zac, etc.

Fury of the Sands additional effects (R ability) Foot in the grave: All knock ups will be converted to a stun. The stun duration can be cleansed and reduced with tenacity. This ability will be learnt if there are champions with knock up and knockback on the enemy team. Champions- alistar, chogath, Janna, lee sin, malphite, nami, rakkan, yasuo etc Unstoppable momentum: nasus gains 5%/10%/15% tenacity. This ability will be learnt if there are 2 or more champions on the enemy team with hard cc. Reasoning These changes aim to shift the late game power of nasus towards his other abilities. Primarily nasus is supposed to be a tank (a champion which soaks up all the enemy cc and damage) allowing your teammates to safely dish out the damage. He definitely has lost his late game split- pushing ability but even then, there are champions that can delete minion waves faster such as static shiv tryndamere and singed. This rework does vastly improve nasus’s team fighting simply because of the amount of utility he provides. If you have read till the end, thanks for reading and comment on your thoughts. Peace