Nasus; Gameplay Changes
This is a post about laying a base idea, a foundation if you will, to allow us to build off of it, fine tune it, and make it better; but we need to start somewhere. So Nasus right now is so simple to play that you rarely [rarely does not mean never] see him in higher brackets since players know how to deal with him as the game progresses, but his simplicity also makes him a low bracket stomper because players do not know how to deal with him later on, and you cannot realistically deny a Nasus no matter what bracket you are in in the laning phase.
So Nasus is an infinite scaling hyper tank right now, I will not take that aspect away from him, but I will give him a better identity rather than be a super tank and one shot everyone. Something that Nasus does well now, but no one uses very well and is something he was intended for, was as a pushing tank- he can clear waves and take down structures well. So I will focus on giving Nasus more complexities rather than be so simple to play (I will still try to have him somewhat easy to play, do not worry) and move him into a split pushing hyper tank rather than a hyper tank with insane damage (there is no way you can possibly hear the words hyper tank and insane damage and think this is balanced or healthy for the game).
I will love to hear your feedback on the subject and see how I can improve on my base ideas, so use the comment section appropriately people, that is why it is there!
Basic Attack Range: 150 units Movement: 350 units per second
NOTE: SP = Soul Power
Soul Power (Passive): Whenever Nasus directly executes an enemy he gains 1 Soul Power, 3 Soul Power for enemies executed by Siphoning Strike. Nasus gains double the amount of Soul Power for large unit executes and champion kills or assists.
Additionally, Nasus heals for 5(+10%SP) health on his basic attacks and double the value for enemies struck by his Siphoning Strike, one-third healing against minions.
Siphoning Strike (Q): Cooldown: 8/7/6/5/4 seconds; Cost: 40 Mana; Range: 250 units; AoE: 350 units Nasus smashes the ground with his cane at the target location to create a shockwave dealing 40/50/60/70/80(+25%SP) magic damage to struck enemies, and enemies directly struck by the cane in the centre of the area are dealt an additional 10/25/40/55/70(+100%AD)(+40%SP) physical damage.
Structures can be damaged by Siphoning Strike.
Wither (W): Cooldown: 24/22/20/18/16 seconds; Cost: 100 Mana; Range: 750 units; AoE: 500 units Nasus ages the target area for 5 seconds slowing enemies within by 1 second once they leave the area and half the movement slow is applied as an attack speed slow, the applied slow and the withered area both stop dashes on the spot.
The withered area slows by 25% increasing by 7/9/11/13/15% for every second it has been in play, up to a maximum of 99% slow.
Spirit Fire (E): Cooldown: 12/11.5/11/10.5/10 seconds; Cost: 70/80/90/100/110 Mana; Range: 700 units; AoE: 400 units Nasus unleashes a spirit flame at the target location for the next 4 seconds to deal 60/85/110/135/160(+40%AP)(+40%SP) magic damage initially to struck enemies and applying a burn to enemies that make contact with the flames that persist for the next 4 seconds dealing 10/15/20/25/30(+10%AP)(+15%SP) magic damage per second and increase Siphoning Strike's damage against burning targets by 10%.
Minions take 20% increased damage from Spirit Fire.
Fury of the Sands (R): Cooldown: 120/110/100 seconds; Cost: 100 Mana Nasus empowers himself for 15 seconds increasing in size and his total health by 15/20/25%.
While Nasus is empowered his total Soul Power is increased by 35% and he deals 3%(+1% per 100AP)(+1% per 100SP) of enemies' maximum health as magic damage per second to nearby enemies around him.
_Two things real quick:
- Soul Power is basically an unique version of Ability Power, just for Nasus and it infinitely scales making him stronger as he gets farm; more reward for Siphoning Strike executes which is now an AoE spell to push up waves and force Nasus to interact with his opponent and the map rather than AFK farming for most of the game. I set it up this way with making it ratio based so that Nasus can be balanced easily in the long term, I do not want to be a short term thinker, so values can be adjusted easily between patches if something is too weak or too strong._
2. Wither the biggest thing I wanted to removed is the 5 seconds point-and -click applied slow which is basically a 5 seconds stun, and fix the perma aspect about it for when you have capped cooldown reduction and max rank. In doing so we can add other strengths like have it AoE, slightly more range, and stop dashes updating him to go against newer champions with dashes and similar effects without giving him mobility himself with the cost of making it weaker in a 1v1 scenario.
Other things I did was focus on his hyper tank aspect like make his healing passive weaker early game and stronger late game, along with his ultimate, where it no longer grants attack damage but increases his Soul Power by a % for a short time and have his ultimate a % health boost rather than a flat health boost to be stronger late game and weaker early game; this divides up Renekton and Nasus even more with Renekton being the early game bully and duelist that falls off later and Nasus being the farming minion and tower destroying late game hyper tank. Again, I went with this approach since a good Nasus is impossible to deny him, so it is better to say "hey, you get your Soul Power stacks every game, but... we now treat your system like its Ability Power for we can balance you easier and better."