Boards›Gameplay

How I would change Nasus to benefit everybody.

420 mlg pro 69·6/20/2018, 7:47:11 PM·8 votes·2,327 views

While other bruisers have Hashinshin to speak for them. There really isn’t anyone to speak on behalf of nasus players.

Hi, I used to be a Nasus one trick with almost 1.1 million mastery points and would like to go back to playing him more but he is just not playable at the moment.

Don’t get me wrong, this is not intended to be a massive buff to him that will make him overpowered, I don’t even what that because then he’s going to be permabanned.

I would really love for Riot to read and consider my changes, I have provided my explanations for every change so you understand why I think these changes are necessary.

SUMMARY OF CHANGES I think that the changes I want will make Nasus a bit stronger in the late game (he’s kinda lacking in his “strongest” phase right now)

The changes will make it easier to shut down Nasus early on.

The changes will give Nasus a much larger learning curve.

The changes will reward better players

Why do I want this?

Currently, Nasus just loses late game even though it’s supposed to be his strongest phase. He dies really easily and shields and cc just completely shut him down.

Nasus still needs counter play, he is winning the lane too easily to the point where champions like Darius stand no chance at shutting him down.

I really want Nasus to have a larger learning curve, I see people first timing him in ranked and doing just fine.

THE ACTUAL CHANGES I think it’s time to get into the actual changes I want to implement.

Base stats:

Base attack damage: 67>126.5 (levels 1-18) to 70>138 (levels 1-18) Basically just give Nasus 3 extra ad lv 1 and 0.5 more ad per level. His main item will always revolve around sheen (Triforce and Iceborn). A common item (Sterak’s) was changed to not give base ad anymore, a few extra base ad should help compensate.

Base Armor: 34>37 Base Magic Resistance: 32>35 Every champion did get a bit of compensation when Runes Reforged came out but the Nasus rune page used to run a lot of mr or armor to help his early game. I myself had rune pages that gave +21 armor lv1 and one that gave around +23 magic resist. You gave Nasus 9 armor and 0 mr so I think his base resistances should be increased a bit (Fun fact, with the old runes, Nasus could have 80 magic resist level one if he bought Null-Magic Mantle).

Passive, Soul Eater:

Passive lifesteal: 10/15/20% (levels 1/7/13) > 7/11/15% (levels 1/7/13)

NEW: Lifesteal applies to premitigation damage NEW: Lifesteal items are only 50% effective on Nasus

Currently, in the late game, A 1000 stack Nasus q would heal Nasus for around 70-80 hp if he hit a tank, around 200 against a squishy target, and around 390 against minions. This is really not a lot and there is no good way to increase this healing other than making the lifesteal apply BEFORE armor. Here is some math:

1000 stacks= around 1500 dmg per Q (with Triforce, Q base damage, Q scaling)

Against tank with 80% reduction: 15000.20.21.3( 1.3 because Spirit Visage is a common item)= 78hp heal Against squishy with 50% reduction (with GA and Zhonyas, getting to 100 armor is not hard): 15000.50.21.3= 195hp heal Against minions with 0% reduction: 15000.21.3= 390hp heal

New Q: 15000.151.3= 292.25 hp heal vs everything

Now you are thinking “Nasus Q is on a 1 second cooldown”. Yes it is, and yes this does mean he is healing for almost 300 hp every second. But 300 hp a second is still not much compared to other champions such as Darius, Fiora, or Dr.Mundo. Also, Nasus is not guaranteed to get a Q every second, he is kited a lot late game. Finally, this is the healing for 1000 stacks, so this means that the 300 hp/second heal is around the 50 minute mark.

I dropped the lifesteal at level 1 because of the armor/magic resist/base ad increases and the q buff (explained later). Also, most of Nasus’s healing early game is not from lifesteal, it is from second wind and Doran’s Shield.

I made lifesteal items only 50% effective on Nasus because I know that swapping out a tank item for a damage item is not that harmful to his tankiness. With lifesteal applying before armor, lifesteal items would be too insane on Nasus.

Q, Siphoning Strike:

Mana cost: 20 (at all ranks) > 20/19/18/17/16 (at ranks 1-5) Cooldown: 8/7/6/5/4 seconds (at ranks 1-5) > 6.5/5.75/5/4.25/3.5 seconds (at ranks 1-5) Base damage: 30/50/70/90/110 (at ranks 1-5) > 50/70/90/110/130 (at ranks 1-5)

With the new Runes Reforged, around the 10-20 minute mark, Nasus can only Q once every 4-5 seconds due to it’s mana costs. Q is not considered an ability which means that it will not stack manaflow band meaning that manaflow band would usually not be completed until the 15-20 minute mark. In addition to the mana changes on Wither (explained later), Nasus needs the mana cost on his Q a bit lower.

Looking at 6.5 seconds level 1, it seems too short at first. But with the old runes (+15% cdr), Nasus used to start the game with a 6.8 second cooldown on Q, so this change is not that big. Late game, with Nasus’s R, his Q cooldown would only be reduced to 1.05 seconds compared to the 1.2 right now. I want the Q cooldown to be lower because it rewards better Nasus players. Better players who play around minions and cooldowns will be rewarded for being better by having more stacks.

I am giving Nasus Q some more base damage since I am changing Nasus’s W and E. Some players enjoy playing early game aggressive Nasus and I don’t want to completely kill that playstyle.

W, Wither:

Mana Cost: 80 (At all ranks) > 120/110/100 (At ranks 1/3/5) Cooldown: 15/14/13/12/11 seconds (At ranks 1-5) > 18/16/14/12/10 seconds (At ranks 1-5) Duration: 5 (At all ranks) > 4/4.25/4.5/4.75/5 (At ranks 1-5)

All of these changes are meant to make it easier to fight Nasus early while still making him decent later on. With these new changes, bad Nasus players will lose lane a lot harder and players playing against Nasus have many more opportunities to shut him down.

E, Sprit Fire:

Mana Cost: 70/85/100/115/130 (At Ranks 1-5) > 100/110/120/130/140 (At Ranks 1-5) Armor Reduction: 15/20/25/30/35% (At ranks 1-5) > 5/10/15/20/25% plus 5/10/15/20/25 flat armor reduction (At Ranks 1-5)

I am giving Nasus some of the flat armor reduction back because, as I said before, I don’t want to kill Nasus’s aggressive playstyle (and because reducing flat armor is better for one shotting squishies).

I increased the mana costs to balance out the ability to make sure it can not be spammed in lane.

R, Fury of The Sands:

Cooldown: 120 seconds (At all Ranks) to 120/110/100 (Ranks 1/2/3) NEW: Gain 15/20/25% (Ranks 1/2/3) tenacity during the duration of this ability.

The cooldown on Nasus ultimate is way too long late game. It is the 13th (I think) longest cooldown in the game at rank 3. It’s longer than game defining ultimates such as Amumu’s R or Nocturnes R. It needs to be on a lower cooldown late game.

A bit of extra tenacity would really help in the late game.

CONCLUSION

Thanks for taking time out of your day to read through this. I am open to any suggestions in the comments. Here is a link to my OP.GG: http://na.op.gg/summoner/userName=420+mlg+pro+69

If you guys would mind sharing this with other people to get more attention that would be greatly appreciated.

13 Comments

Sasogwa6/21/2018, 1:23:45 PM3 votes

It's quite a lot on the buffing side, probably too much.

If i recapitulate

Buffs

  • Higher base AD, early and late
  • Higher lifesteal on tanks and scales a lot more considering every champion gains armor with level and it heals in premitigation damage
  • +20 flat damage on Q (equivalent to : you start the game with 20 stacks)
  • Lower CD on Q, not only early but also at max rank ! Also slightly less manacost (barely does much, I don't like mini mana buffs I believe champions should manage their mana more, when you think in s2 Nasus Q rank 5 had 40 manacost we've gone a long way)
  • +3 armor and mr
  • 1 less second on W cd at rank 5
  • E better against squishies
  • R which is already overloaded af gets on top of that tenacity

Nerfs

  • Lower lifesteal earlygame
  • Wither is quite nerfed early ranks, also manacost higher
  • E manacost is higher, it becomes weaker against people with more than 50/100/150/200/250 armor (depending on E rank), else it's a buff to the shred.

At the same time that I like the premitigation damage heal, it's absolutely crazy in lategame, with a SV and full tank (lifesteal buys being a trap and halved anyway). I guess that's the goal, buffing his lategame. I think that the base resist + q damage + q cd buffs compensate the lifesteal nerf + wither nerf earlygame so it won't be that easy to bully nasus. I however LOVE manacost nerfs to E and W, I think it's important that Nasus should not be able to spam earlygame and choose between spending mana on farming or trading and that is good for differentiating good Nasuses from bad ones. I could even nerf Q manacost. But I'm a nostalgic from s2 :P

In any case what I would love from Nasus is to feel again that aspect of "I get shit on earlygame, but if I manage to stack despite that, I become a ticking time-bomb that will scale hard lategame "

EvilMoustacheMan6/21/2018, 7:16:20 AM1 votes

While I appreciate and agree with most of the changes it just won't work in this meta. Frankly speaking a Nasus q maxing already has problems laning against most popular toplaners with some equal to being suicide. In higher tiers of play e maxing is much more viable due to the changes to his ult making his stack requirement to do damage around the 200 mark with sheen while giving much more reliable and safer laning/gold and gaining the ability to have lane priority/management earlier which is huge in this game now. In order for these changes to work something else needs to be added to enhance his survivability early with some conditions that can be exploited and some serious mana scaling since he already has some mana problems and with those changes he'll be a sitting duck lol.

Edit: Also if it were up to me I would just straight up remove the mana cost on his q when he hits lvl 16 or 18 since laning phase is long gone and he would be splitting or looking for other opportunities on the map since he is a duelist and his teamfighting will always be lackluster. It would also give that final oomph of "I've reached my lategame" spike feel.

If it were anyone that could get Riot's attention on Nasus's problems it would be Sirhcez.

VoraciousX6/21/2018, 7:22:39 AM1 votes

How about instead of that they revert his ultimate to AD instead of Armor. That's where his insanity comes from. I never thought giving him 80 or 90(can't remember) armor from his ultimate was a smart change. That's just too much defenses for nothing. It makes it so you don't even want to fight him in his ultimate. The counterplay is to literally run away from him when he ults, but he has his wither to keep you close. Revert it back to the AD and that changes and you can still fight him in his ult but he'll do a lot more damage like he used to.

remakoro6/20/2018, 8:37:13 PM1 votes

I think his biggest problem in the late game is heavy mobility and damage creep that went completely over him. As hilarious as it is his stuff in actually got mostly nerfed. So his damage output does not feel that crazy as before. Everyone killing each other in couple of hits just as he did. But without stacking like idiots for 30 mins. Yet he goes down extremely fast as well. And he also cant keep up with anybody in speed/mobility. Especially if you cant take/proc phase rush or something similar.

If he was released today rito would surely give him some way to fight that problem. Like ability to disable dashes in aoe or on particular champion.

Cowgirl Ed6/21/2018, 12:53:17 PM1 votes

even though it’s supposed to be his strongest phase

wrong, nasus shines mid game. late game he's garbage.

Swiftstrike46/24/2018, 10:50:06 AM1 votes

He just needs minor base stat adjustments early and the Q needs to be lowered by 1 second per level. That will probably solve everything.

XdeathitselfX6/21/2018, 9:46:52 AM1 votes

as a diamond 2 1trick nasus, the top 5 ranking nasus in the world at season7 with 1 million mastery

i have to agree but the thing is his current kit is actually (supposed to be) only great for mid game due to his kits nature and ever since they removed the flat armor pen from his E he doesn't even have a good mid game anymore on top of that heavy defensive runes are removed with was super vital to nasus and storm raiders's surge is removed which was by far the most important thing that makes nasus work, so right now nasus is bad at the early game, bad at the mid game but ironically his kit is supposed to excels at the mid game XD and his late game is horrible without storm raiders surge.

the key to win with nasus is by snowballing the mid game and that flat armor pen actually helped with that and because all champions who faces nasus always gets mercury treads and never go ninja tabi due to his strong wither cc slow and by removing that flat armor pen he cant snowball anymore at all but only can if your enemy toplaner is bronze or silver, if he can't snowball like he is supposed to he cant win the mid game at all and thus ending up in the late game and auto lose the game if you dont believe this watch this clip, one of the best toplaner atm in the world KHAN from previous LZ and now KZ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dnE1nwyPIVk&t=1525s

That's how nasus is supposed to be played, this was at season 7 and btw this nasus didnt have his R buffed yet and as you can see the current nasus even with the R buffs, the old nasus is 5X better than the current nasus.

so in my conclusion if you want to enjoy or even win your games never ever pick nasus he is good at doing nothing now with all those changes.

if you are one of those players that still think that nasus is op then no one can help you to get good at this game