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QQ Nasus QQ

Hoi Im Temmo·7/8/2015, 4:48:59 AM·1 votes·1,009 views

So, recently, I have come to SERIOUSLY dislike Nasus as a champion - I have always disliked him, but just recently, it has grown exponentially.

This thread is A) me complaining in the hopes my voice will be heard and B) an explanation of WHY.

Further, please bear in mind I am but a lowly silver 5 player - many of my complaints are likely part of the skill barrier - but considering a vast amount of lol players, if not a majority, are in bronze, skill problems are not just me. They effect the fun of this game for many.

All numbers are generalized/rounded to the best of my memory

QQQQQQ -

Nasus, as a champion, is game warping. By that, I mean that the entire strategy of the game is altered by his mere presence. If you are playing a top laner (I have seen, in the past, Zed as a good example) who likes to roam after pushing lane, guess what, you can't. The moment you leave lane, a competent Nasus will gain stacks so fast you have no hope of dueling him ever again.

So his presence all but forces you to remain in lane. Most non-tanks (at least that I play) die in 3-5 hits from Nasus after he farms a bit. Normally, this isn't so surprising - he is a very strong melee champ who you need to keep at a distance - except that his insane slow prevents any hope of actually getting away. As Teemo (for example) I have had Nasus slow me, hit a mushroom, and still catch and kill me. (BTW, Teemo's blind seems to not always block the damage from Nasus' Q. Not sure if this is a glitch, or what) - My main problem with this is that the only hope you have vs a stacked Nas is to kite, something you simply cannot risk doing.

So, he has potent cc and the literal strongest (potential) melee damage in the game. Even this would not be so bad - except he is also an incredible tank, later on diving multiple turrets for multiple enemies through cc to get kills. Even if you do kill him, you "lose" the fight, because its not worth if their team is pushing bought while you go even with their tank.

So up to here, I claim (at least) that Nasus is unduel-able, unkite-able, and doesn't have the downsides that glass cannon champs do, so at that point you consider other options - the main one (that I have seen as most viable in my play, if there is advice, please help) is to simply try to ignore him. Its one champion after all, you can leave him top farming while your team pushes mid to try and take a quick win - except that later in the game, nasus is also the fastest tower pusher in the game, with people actually 4-5 outer turrets (or less depending on game length) shotting turrets.

So I, in my opinion, see Nasus as a champion who pushes faster than some teams, can turtle a free win in lane, can shrug damage, and out damage Vayne. What the actual hell.

The three champions I play most (please dont judge) are Teemo, Garen, and Mundo. Most recently, Teemo.

Teemo SHOULD counter Nasus - and in a 1v1 scenario, he certainly does. I, recently, held a Nasus to 30 stacks at 11 minutes (he was not the best at farming with low stacks, so I cannot claim all the credit here) - however, Nasus was farmign under tower. So to maintain his disadvantage, I was INCREDIBLY pushed, vs an Eve jungle. The result was, at 11 minutes, I was 6/6/0 on Teemo, barely taking Nasus with me before dieing to Eve (to prevent him from farming during my death clock) - this in turn resulted in an Eve who was so fed, my bot lane was smashed by 15 minutes, and shortly after we lost mid, and I took the blame for feeding. My team threatened to report me if I didn't come mid to help against the problem I caused, and the result was Nasus was at over 200 stacks 5-6 minutes later (with help from the jungle)

Is it actually just me playing bad, or can we agree that Nasus is unfair/unfun for the game? I don't claim that he is unbeatable, but only that his strength is unreasonably high, and that he creates a "fight the clock" instead of the enemy team atmosphere that further frustrates and annoys players.

30 Comments

Only Play Darius7/8/2015, 5:01:56 AM3 votes

Which is why you roam and kill his team in 5v4 while he is busy stacking. Don't try to play the same game that he is. The only champion who can truly babysit him in lane is Darius, and possibly Vladimir (not as likely), every other champion will get to a point where they can no longer deal with Nasus 1v1.

I'm a Nasus main and I can tell you that the players who screw me the most are the ones who roam and help their team.

SaltyKracka7/8/2015, 4:52:44 AM3 votes

Try playing Nasus.

Realize he's anything but unkiteable, and that your assessment of his tankiness and tower-taking capabilities are incredibly overblown.

Become a better, less shitty-champ playing person. (Yes, I'm judging you for playing Teemo. This is to be expected)

NemeBro7/8/2015, 6:30:59 AM3 votes

Garen, Mundo, and even Teemo don't really counter Nasus IMO. The first one's damage falls off too quickly against Nasus, the second is a passive farmer like he is, and the latter... well Teemo can counter Nasus and will certainly deny him early on, but Teemo isn't much of a threat outside of lane, and a Nasus that is down 20 CS will become too durable for Teemo to handle once he gets some MR and health, and once Nasus gets about 200 stacks Teemo can't really fight him anymore due to how squishy he is.

Champions that actually counter Nasus:

Akali Faced this once when I was a super noob with Nasus and it was hell, I've heard other Nasus players say she was hard as well. Darius My own personal go to Nasus counter. His early damage is obscene. Take ignite and aim to kill Nasus early and often. Make sure to ward, you will probably get camped. Lissandra Her harass is hard to dodge and she's almost impossible to catch, even with wither. She also makes Nasus stand still and chill the fuck out during team fights. MasterYi You don't see him top lane much, and for good reason. He's very fragile in lane and easily bullied. Nasus is even weaker early. Max Wuju style with Yi first and bully the shit out of him. Highlander removes and grants immunity to wither. Yi is one of the few champs able to duel Nasus for most of the game. He's also a pretty strong roamer, so you can leave and kill the mid laner quickly if you've forced Nasus out of lane/killed him. Olaf A strong counter to Nasus in lane. Take your E first, and max it first as well. Olaf can heavily deny Nasus and easily kill him in lane if played properly. Ragnarok removes wither. Rush some armour to make his Q's hurt less (he shouldn't have many of them), kill Nasus whenever possible, or at least force him out of lane. Pantheon Not much to say here. Bully the shit out of Nasus early game with Q spam, then Q>W>E>Ignite>Q for a kill. Use your ult to roam or to quickly return to lane. Poppy Allegedly. I've heard she can counter Nasus, but I don't know much about how. Swain Swain's harass both deals high damage and doesn't even push the wave. One of the hardest opponents for Nasus. Trundle Probably one of my favorite choices to counter Nasus with. He's not the best at denying stacks, but due to his kit he can actually duel a well-stacked Nasus. I've dueled a Nasus that had full build and 800 stacks with Trundle. Trundle also totally shits on Nasus' hopes and dreams in team fights by stealing his tank stats to make him easily blown up. Vayne If you use Vayne top you're a bad person. She does counter Nasus though. I shouldn't have to say why. Velkoz Don't actually do this, because a competent jungler will camp the shit out of Vel'koz top and kill him. But just as a funny anecdote, I once had to deal with a Vel'koz top as Nasus and it was the single most horrible laning experience I have ever had as Nasus. You can't stack for shit against this guy. My fucking jungler didn't even come once, punk bitch. Vladimir Vlad has resourceless, spammable harass and scales very well into late game. His team fight presence is also probably bigger than Nasus' due to his ult. Good counter.

Anyway, as Jelly Mac said, roaming is perfectly viable against Nasus if babysitting isn't really an option. A Nasus players' worst fear is his team feeding before twenty minutes have passed, because Nasus simply can't do anything to help them before that point.

EndlessSorcerer7/8/2015, 2:38:40 PM2 votes

I have had to put this in so many threads. It's a copy-paste from another post of mine.

First, the general tips:

  • Try to avoid shoving Nasus under his turret. That makes him very hard to poke and/or kill as most melee champions, leaves you overextended (and wither makes it very easy for his jungler to gank), and limits your jungler's options.

  • Nasus will typically stack resistances. Nasus built a lot of armor against you, so switching lanes with your Kassadin would have been a good idea. Kassadin is really good at poking out melee champions due to his mana sustain, the burst damage on W, and the poke on Q. Hecarim would have worked very well mid-lane, since you could easily roam bottom lane to help them snowball.

  • Nasus deals primarily physical damage and he doesn't usually itemize for armor penetration. If you believe you will have to split-push against him for a significant portion of the game, you want to purchase some armor. item 3047 and item 3075 are especially useful when dueling him since they will reduce and reflect damage from his Q respectively.

Shoving to tower is the absolute last thing you want to do against Nasus. It lets him safely free-farm and sustain, limits your trading opportunities, prevents your jungler from ganking him (in most cases), and leaves you vulnerable to ganks (and Wither is great for chasing people down a lane). Diving Nasus can be risky as well since:

  • Wither slows you and lets him escape
  • Spirit Fire reduces your armor, amplifying the damage dealt by the tower
  • He can get a large burst of health from his lifesteal and his ultimate

Now for your questions.

How do I deny farm?

In my experience, I find that you have to freeze the minion wave and zone Nasus from farm. If at all possible, try and get the minion wave pushing towards your tower, freeze it, and call your jungler up to gank Nasus while he is overextended.

A good Nasus player may know how to handle this situation and break the freeze, but if you can get an advantage against him you can often bully him early. Just make sure he spends as little time under his tower as possible, since they is where he can freely farm and sustain.

Do I roam or stay top?

This greatly depends on the situation. Many counterpicks against Nasus will want to stay in lane with him and deny/bully him for every CS he tries to get. This works quite well when you can do so for an extended period of time, but this isn't always possible (especially when your team is losing). If your champion isn't good for handling Nasus or your team is having issues, you may have to roam to try and snowball other lanes. This can help you end the game early, snowball your team to victory, or get you allies fed enough to help against Nasus. This can be really risky though, since it allows Nasus to freefarm and splitpush.

What champions do I pick into Nasus?

Generally, I find you want some mixture of the following quantities in a champion laning against Nasus:

  • Durability (to survive retaliation and ganks)
  • Sustain (to stay health and outsustain him)
  • Spammable abilities (to punish Nasus whenever he tries to CS)
  • They have some method of sticking to Nasus or don't rely on attack speed (since Wither can cripple many opponents)
  • Anti-tank abilities (armor reduction, percent health, etc)

In addition, it helps if your champion has a strong mid or late game so that they don't fall off in comparison to Nasus. From playing as and against them, I find that the following champions can (or could) do relatively well in lane:

Akali Darius DrMundo Gnar Hecarim Kennen Mordekaiser Olaf Rumble Shyvana Swain Trundle XinZhao Yorick Vladimir

However, you don't always have to counter Nasus solely in lane. There are many champions in other roles who work very well against him.

**Mid laners: **Malzahar Cassiopeia Azir Heimerdinger Karthus Orianna Viktor Ziggs Kayle Velkoz These champions typically offer high sustained damage and methods of kiting Nasus when he tries to approach their team.

ADCs: Ashe Corki Draven Jinx Sivir Varus Vayne KogMaw Kalista These ADCs primarily have CC (knockbacks, slows, snares) for kiting Nasus and deal either mixed damage or highly amplified physical damage. Several of them have percent health damage or anti-tank abilities to help kill tanks like Nasus quickly.

Due to the crippling effects of Wither, your ADC should typically have either item 3140 or summoner 1. This can let them remove Wither immediately and kill Nasus before he can reapply it.

Junglers: MasterYi Nunu Gragas Sejuani Elise LeeSin JarvanIV Nautilus RekSai Junglers can be tricky since you typically want someone who is strong and capable of kiting him late game, but you also want someone with strong early pressure to gank Nasus and set him behind.

Nunu can set the enemy jungler behind, relieving pressure from the top lane so they can keep bullying Nasus. During teamfights, he can buff your ADC to increase their damage, chain-slow Nasus to prevent him from reaching anybody, and is too tanky for Nasus to kill.

Master Yi is a special case since he isn't that great against Nasus in teamfights but he can absolutely murder him when they splitpush against one another. Master Yi can deal a lot of mixed damage (Devourer, Blade of the Ruined King, Wuju Style), build somewhat tanky against Nasus (Ninja Tabi, Thornmail), can use Meditate to reduce Q damage, and ignores Wither. He deals far too much damage for Nasus to heal through and deals it too quickly for Nasus to kill him.

Supports: Pretty much the entire support pool can help counter Nasus due to the CC they provide and how good they are at kiting/peeling immobile squishy champions from their carries.

What summoners do I take?

You typically want to take Flash and Teleport. While Ignite gives you some extra kill pressure, you may still lose your level advantage if you have to walk back to lane. In addition, if you don't have teleport than Nasus can freely splitpush and still join fights so you will either lose towers 1v0 or lose teamfights 4v5.

What do I build?

That greatly depends on the champion you are playing. However, I would recommend building your percent-penetration items relatively early in the lane since Nasus will be stacking resistances against you. Afterwards, you may want to get some armor (such as Ninja Tabi, Chain Vest, Seeker's Armguard, or Warden's Mail) or continue building damage.

If you want an example, I would typically build Ionian Boots, Hextech Revolver, and Void Staff as Vladimir when laning against Nasus (or most tanks) so that I could quickly poke him out of lane and prevent him from sustaining through my damage. As Darius, I would recommend rushing Black Cleaver into Randuin's Omen to render his armor ineffective and to become durable enough to ignore his damage long enough to kill him.

That's most of the advice that I can give based on my experienced playing against and as Nasus. Hope it helps.

Mob Psycho 1007/8/2015, 4:56:48 AM2 votes

Just play someone with a good early game aka Pantheon Riven orDarius and force him to lose cs. I've gotten my ass kicked by rivens and darius' way too often as Nasus to know.

BigPooStorm7/8/2015, 6:55:08 PM1 votes

Couple problems I see in your post. You said that you can't roam since once you return he will gain so many stacks you can't duel him. This is completely untrue and overexaggerated. More like you have to let him sit in lane for 20+ minutes before he gets enough stacks. Secondly. roaming is one of the best ways to "counter" him, since you can snowball the game out of control that way, and it won't matter that Nasus has been stacking a lot. As a Nasus player, some of the best ways he gets countered is by strong roamers who can get advantages for other lanes and snowball the game.

Also, just because you aren't skilled enough to win lane against Nasus using one of the strongest counters, doesn't mean he is OP, it means you don't know how to counter him. So as someone who has sunk hundreds of games into playing him and learning how to get better, I'm suppose to have my main champion nerfed/changed b/c you aren't skilled enough to play against him? That doesn't sound fair at all.

I've started going on these boards a lot in the past months, and I've noticed a lot of low division players complaining about champions being OP that are barely even played at higher divisions (a lot of complaints about Nasus and Tryndamere). You really want to nerf these champs and make it so no one plays them at all?

ModWulf Helhammer7/8/2015, 4:54:15 AM1 votes

Quick comment on your post: Blinds only block the AA portion of the damage. Any extra damage from his Q stacks go right on through, as it is activated by an ability, which blinds do not block (same thing happens with Quinn)