Welcome to my first guide of a champion I play way to much :)

Alrighty then, Nasus, is a boss, you can totally blow people up with this guy. I have seen many people play nasus against me and almost all have failed because they play him wrong in my opinion.
I am a proud owner of all his skins souly because I enjoy him so much. I prefer to play Nasus on the more tanky role, he is naturally a DPS character because of siphoning and if used properly with you can decimate somebody. Very few champions can actually go toe to toe with Nasus in a 1v1.
, with a farmed Q you can use that with a trinity proc for half of you life back because of his passive. Nasus is a terrible full tank though, he is like Renekton, he is easily ignored and your not really all that dangerous because you wont have trinity which is what makes Nasus shine. But then again Nasus comes pretty tanky without any items so build items to emphasize that aspect of him.
Nasus also does not play a full DPS role well either because he gets focused really easily, people know that a decently farmed Nasus is a big threat so they go for you in a quickness so building tankier is a necessity.
Nasus is not a duo laner, please do not play him that way you do him no justice and he is not nearly as strong mid and late game.
So my goals with this guide are to give you an idea about how to play Nasus, why I buy what items I do and what to do during early, mid, and late game, how to 1v1 and team fight with the puppy.

Pros:
1) Hits like a bus
2) Towers mean nothing
3) Dat Slow
4) Super Ult
5) Epic solo top champion
6) Can chase with ease

Cons:
1) Mana Hungry
2) Farm Dependent
3) Super squishy early game
4) A big pick your moment champion... he aint no Katarina thats for sure

: I like flash more then ghost because it lets me follow over walls... yeah how often do you read that...
: great for chasing, running, and fighting... its a 3 for 1

other options... and I mean only other options... im not gonna do that do a do not take ****
: Chasing and running away
: good to get that kill or negate some healing
: you will be solo top and this makes leaving lane not a problem
: I have taken this when I see a lot of disables on the enemy team... it can come in handy

So runes. I basically use Jarvan runes for Nasus, nothing super special but it allows for good damage early and nice lane sustain.
Mark of Desolation: Early these are your bread and butter, with a fairly farmed q and a well placed e you will turn someone into doggy treats with the help of these bad boys and they will keep doing so for you all game long.
: Yeah.. mana runes... I went there, but for any of you that have played Nasus you can see why i sacrificed armor runes for these, Nasus is stupid mana hungry, he eats that **** for breakfast lunch and dinner, you have to have it to proactively farm your q up and to do a full combo, these along with your Philo can make that possible.
: I take these because magic resist is a love of mine, and the per level seals over flat scale so much more nicely flat, cause if memory serves me right at like level 7 they are already giving you more magic resist then flat... nuff said
Greater Quintessence of Desolation refer to armor pen reds... also you can take these are also nice because like I called him earlier... a puppy... and that's exactly what he is early game

There are many other rune combinations that you can take, I have asked people in game what runes they have and I hear a lot say health per level seals, mana regen per level glyphs... Find your happy medium with them, there is no perfect rune setup for an off tank, but I like how mine are and they usually win me the fight. Now onto masteries

I use a pretty weird mastery page if I do say so myself and I got them from watching a live stream but for the life of me I can't remember who, but whoever it was thank you, you saved me some trouble.
So I use 8/9/13. Why??? Because I can.

Offense = 8
I only take offense down to because I farm my Q life no other and the extra 3% off of it makes it just that much faster to get that extra 3 damage per little minion kill bless there little hearts.

Defense = 9
I like to take defense down to 9 for and , I cannot tell you how many time I have dodged attacks from a Xin or Noc or Yi and because of that one dodge been able to get the killing Q off on somebody then dip out like a pimp. I get a lot of **** from people about taking dodge instead of more conventional defense masteries but I don't care, they work and that's all that matters.

Utility = 13
I base my masteries mainly into utility because I take red a lot... that slow on top of nasus slow is unfair. Plus the puppy likes mana and utility can help feed that hunger for mana of his.

I am seriously not going to take the time to break down every single item that I use on Nasus preTrinity... yes... I consider that a stage of playing Nasus cause the game changes with him once you have trinity. sooooo
: This item is amazing on Nasus, armor, flat health gain and health regen, it passive gives you cooldown reduction... I hope I have mentioned the farming q thing... so yeah... plus when you activate it you can turn a team fight around with the slow and attack speed debuffs it puts on the enemy, you can also use this for chasing
: Nasus ult... nuff said
: Great item for those pesky Ap casters or any Ap character for that matter, plus it gives some nice health regen and a little bit of movement speed... puppys like to run you know.
: This is a wonderful item for any off tank, it synergizes very well with trinity because it increases crit chance, so you will put a world of hurt on someone when that super farmed of yours crits on the top of someone's head, plus armor and the 2% of your maximum life is converted into attack damage... nothing to complain about with this item.

Optional Items:

Offensive:
: Stacks amazingly well with your passive and the fact you are a all game long farmer
: More life, more attack, and a on hit chance to slow
: I have used this to great affect before, it splashes a great deal of damage onto people in team fights because of your trinity-Q combo, I wouldnt recommend this item though unless you want some lols
: I have actually seen this built on an offtank Nasus before and I rather enjoyed playing against this guy because he was actually good and he spammed a lot
: I put this under offensive because of the ability cooldowns and the attack speed debuff
: I dont usually build winfinity edge, but there are the now and then games and hey it just makes that much more ridiculous

Defensive:
: Can't go wrong with this item... it will save your life
: For those annoying people who play Xin and Yi... and especially Tryndanoobs... ugh...
: I build this quite often actually, it is a wonderful item and I believe it is highly overlooked by people, it has an amazing activate and a low cooldown
: you have a lot of life already but if you are a AtMogs fan then have at it, I would replace either randuin or sunfire for it though... tough choice

: This is your passive and it is an OP passive lifesteal and you will fall in love with it, it allows you to stay in lane all day everyday, late game because of this you will Q once for 1/5 of your life back

: Bread and Butter... farm this all game long... and I mean all game... if you can see a team fight and your in lane and it looks like your team wont need you... stay in lane and farm this... never ever ever use to kill minions... just this... and only this... I have gotten this to +500 before and higher and then left lane and won the game for us... but you have to last hit minions with this. With a well farmed Q you can take a tower in about 10 hits so Q > auto > Q > auto and so forth and so on... you will wreck turrets

: Dat slow... best slow in the game bar none. at level 5 it slows for 95% of movement speed and attack speed... yeah Dat Slow

: This in combination with your Q can will allow you to not just chunk someone for a fair share of there life but MegaChunk them. Also this ability will amazing net you kills that are out of your melee range cause after a patch not to long ago it does half damage on cast now... so you can get that last little bit of life for the kill with this.

: This pretty much makes you a walking unstoppable force in league of legends... Flat health gain on top of 5% of an enemies max life per second and that increases to like a total of 8% with the amount of Ap you will have at full build if you make it that far, plus a percent of damage is converted into attack damage... you couldn't ask for more in an ult

Early Game
Take that solo top lane, if you can't get that or there isn't one, go where you are needed, preferable a carry cause your slow will net kills.
In this stage of the game though your only mission in life is to farm the living **** out of your Q... farm it like there is not future for you unless you farm it... last hit every minion you can with it get that bonus damage as high as possible... never leave your lane to fight in river unless its really close and you think you can get a kill out of it.

Mid Game:
Guess what... your still farming that Q, you should have made several trips back to the store by now and you should be able to win most 1v1 situations... but your goal here is to still be farming your q. This is the super boring part of the game as Nasus but bear with it

Late Game:
Late game it here!!! YAY!!! you should still be q farming when available but don't dedicate a copious amount of time to it at this point, you need to be with the team, fighing, taking towers and bashing people with .

With Nasus not many people can honestly stand up to you 1v1 because of the fact that you will get a lot of your life back with your passive and you have a mini exhaust as a skill along with your actual exhaust.

1v1:
To go up against 1 other person it is rather quite simple, no matter what the first thing you do is them... they now have DAT SLOW on them then you drop on them, try you have them run through as much of it as they can or if they are standing still then place them right in the middle of it, this will put a flat armor debuff on them for a minimum of 5 seconds or Q's if timed right.
So we have initiated on the enemy, what now... Wither and drop spirit fire again if the fight takes that long which it probably shouldn't but if it does and just drop never ending and auto attacks.

Note: you will never have to worry about proc'ing trinity, when you activate it will automatically proc

1v2
I would only recommend going forth with this fight if you are absolutely sure you can win and you have exhaust up, evaluate the enemy champions quickly and make your analysis, otherwise the only difference between this and a 1v1 is that your going for the squishy first.
Rule of Thumb, typically the more squishy they are the harder they hit.

But in the terms of Fighting outside team fights thats about it when it comes to Nasus, he isnt like Ezreal where you have to place yourself right... you are there and in charge

Lastly... do not fight an that is doing good... he will ruin your life

Team Fighing:
As Nasus your goal is to get in the fight right after the main tank... you pop on the bit group, slow the main AD carry (ranged or not) then use exhaust on whoever it is needed on... then just rinse and repeat.

Warning:
As Nasus though... you will get focused... a lot... and I mean a lot... when you run in don't run into the very middle, thats just asking to die, go along the edge of the fight or nearer to the edge.

In conclusion Nasus is a great champion if you play him right. Dont be a hero, do not take badly calculated risks with this character... you will die... pick your moments carefully and just remember... farm that Q

Please if you think I need to add something message me, send me something I dont care if it a personal message, in game, whatever I will listen and add it if I think its a good opinion and I will make your name known for your insight.

Please remember to vote and comment

10/16/2011 - Second build for people who play Duo Lane Nasus