Stacks in ARAM

MisterHealYoGirl·Feb 18, 2016·11 votes·2,296 views

A lot of GP's power is in his ultimate upgrades, which depend on farming. On ARAM, since last-hitting is difficult or impossible, he gets free Serpents over time. However, Nasus, who is also dependent on farming to achieve his power, doesn't get stacks. AP Nasus is alright, and I'm not complaining about the state of Nasus in general; it just seems weird to compensate GP for the lack of farm but not do the same for League's #1 farm-dependent champion.

EDIT: I'm not trying to say that Nasus is bad or that AP and tank builds are inadequate for him; it just seems like an inconsistency.

17 Comments

KalarepaFeb 18, 20164 votes

One thing I learned from ARAM - Nasus can have literally 0 stacks and still be crazy strong in late game. Nasus, Veigar and Sion are already pretty good in ARAM, I don't think they need any help

KnoyleFeb 18, 20161 votes

But can't Veigar just farm off assists and Kills?

charcharmunroFeb 18, 20161 votes

Same with Sion, to an extent. But I once had an ARAM game as Nasus where our team was mostly AP so I went AD tank. I only got about 150 stacks and still managed to 1v3 quite a bit.

charcharmunroFeb 18, 20161 votes

Veigar has a near lane-wide stun, Sion is a LOT harder to run from and can abuse the brush to invisi-slam you, and Nasus can either go full-tank and still stand 1v5 and just bop people relentlessly. He's just a BIT less destructive than usual.

Only Play DariusFeb 18, 20161 votes

Nasus is terrible in ARAM not sure what you are trying to say. Even if he is supposedly strong with "zero stacks" late game (completely untrue) 80% of ARAM games end before 3rd item

Veigar works because his stun is the size of the map and he gets 5 AP every assist.

Sion works because he gets 10HP from assists. All he has to do is rush a sunfire and he gets free tankiness just for existing.

FoodtankFeb 18, 20163 votes

The main difference I see between Nasus and Gangplank in this respect is that Nasus' damage is increased linearly with every stack he accumulates. Gangplank's stacks do not give him direct damage boosts instantly, and they also do not result infinite scaling. Plus every stack obtained by Nasus (and Veigar) makes subsequent stacks easier to acquire.

MisterHealYoGirlFeb 18, 20161 votes

But at least Veigar is ranged. Even getting near the minion wave can be suicide for melee champions.

ZarkkastFeb 18, 20162 votes

Don't build bruiser Nasus in ARAM. Simple.

He can be really good if built full tank or ap.

HayRossFeb 18, 20162 votes

You always build him full tank anyway, except for usually a Tri-force

IqqiFeb 18, 20162 votes

It is called AP Nasus or reroll. Riot cant even balance summoner's rift. Riot can not now start worrying about making every player feel that every champion is somehow relevant or feels good in ARAM. Please baby jesus no.

eve candyFeb 18, 20161 votes

Nasus AP in such a little map can be very op , there is no reason to build a normal build :-) also his E and ult have a lot of aoe , and you know....the map is small.

coeurloyalFeb 18, 20161 votes

I would argue that farming in ARAM isn't nearly as difficult as you make it out to be; It just takes a different pacing than most people are used to. Unless I'm playing a very poke-heavy or peeling champ, I usually have ~100 CS by the end of a 20 minute game. With an ADC my average is significantly higher--closer to 150. You can check my match history if you'd like; this is my fun account (lots of ARAM matches).

Nasus with an execute should be able to pull off plenty of executes throughout the game. Even if he can't, I don't think he needs the help. Most AP Nasus players I see trend toward the top (right?) of the damage charts.

Only Play DariusFeb 18, 20161 votes

Lets be honest: AP Nasus sucks.

Now that we have that out of the way, the answer is Riot doesn't care, they are having trouble balancing SR as it is. They only did that for GP because the thought came across while they were designing him. They aren't going to go back and try and tune all the old champions for a secondary game mode.

It's not just stackers/late game champions that suffer in ARAM. We have champions whose viability/balance is centered on jungle enchants MasterYi XinZhao Udyr Shyvana Elise , champions who's sole purpose is to splitpush a sidelane Tryndamere Aatrox Renekton , champions with kits outright not meant for other maps Evelynn Skarner Mordekaiser RekSai Kindred Bard etc. and many of them are in an even worse spot than Nasus.

The best thing to do is not take the game mode seriously and don't expect it to be balanced. Makes it easier to enjoy.

10TicklerFeb 19, 20161 votes

[{quoted}](name=Jelly Mac,realm=NA,application-id=3ErqAdtq,discussion-id=revJlk9E,comment-id=0006,timestamp=2016-02-18T23:50:01.165+0000)

Lets be honest: AP Nasus sucks.

Now that we have that out of the way, the answer is Riot doesn't care, they are having trouble balancing SR as it is. They only did that for GP because the thought came across while they were designing him. They aren't going to go back and try and tune all the old champions for a secondary game mode.

It's not just stackers/late game champions that suffer in ARAM. We have champions whose viability/balance is centered on jungle enchants , champions who's sole purpose is to splitpush a sidelane , champions with kits outright not meant for other maps etc. and many of them are in an even worse spot than Nasus.

The best thing to do is not take the game mode seriously and don't expect it to be balanced. Makes it easier to enjoy.

Clearly, you must not play many ARAM games.

MasterYi is strong AF with the InvinciQ and Damage reduction on his Q allowing him to dodge damage while dishing it out too. XinZhao has the strongest Engage short of Malphite in ARAM Tryndamere Renekton Have ultimates that make Diving a Very sound strat in ARAM environments. Bard can consistantly Stun, and HEAL his entire team with CDR runes and items Mordekaiser Turns all games into a 6v4 eventually

All of these champions can be Gamebreaking

Only Play DariusFeb 19, 20161 votes

Yi has a hard time early game and his late game is heavily dependent on sated (and without sated doesn't do enough damage to justify a tanky build)

Xin is getting some serious upcoming nerfs because of his synergy with sated, which of course he doesn't have in ARAM

Tryndamere team fighting is awful at all stages of the game and his tower dives against multiple opponents are bad

Renekton is balanced around shutting down a single opponent in a solo lane

Bard's tunnel is worthless on ARAM

Like it or not, a significant amount of Mord's power budget is tied up in his dragon ghost

KoggyStyleFeb 20, 20161 votes

ignore jelly lol

EfficientDynamoFeb 19, 20161 votes

While you are at it, why not rescale Cassiopeia passive stacks. Since multiple poisoned champs at once doesn't increase the accumulation of stacks, she feels MUCH weaker than her already lackluster self on SR.