Hey guys, RG Attrocity here and I decided to make a guide for Nautilus, probably one of my most favourite tanks in the game. First off, I'm going to take you guys through the runes, masteries etc. and then explain in depth on my choice of items. Most of which will benefit your team in some way.

This build is entirely based on getting his shield early before anything else, getting as much bonus health as possible and also giving your team some armor/MR benefits, as well as hurting the enemy team's stats a bit.

Greater Mark of Armor

I know what you guys are thinking, why armor marks instead of seals? Simple reason is, I prefer to use health per level seals, as they give more health in the long run. It still gives a suffcient amount of armor in my opinion.

Greater Seal of Vitality

Nautilus's shield depends on his bonus health and these seals will be excellent to put the amount of shield that you get, up.

Greater Glyph of Scaling Magic Resist

Obviously needed if you want to tank effectively, especially if the team is AP heavy.

Greater Quintessence of Health

To give a bit of extra health to start off with.

All of these runes + Doran's Shield gives you almost 800HP at level 1.

Ok, now for the in depth explanation of my item choices. You could also base this build situationally. But that's up to you. I find that this build works for me perfectly.

CORE ITEMS

Aegis of the Legion
Gives you Armor, MR, Damage and Health. It also gives your team a small amount of these stats. But it still gives you the aura. This item may have low stats, but would you rather have yourself be uber tanky, or help your team to get some slight survivability?

Frozen Heart
Gives you Mana and Armor, Nautilus's abilities drain your mana like hell, so this helps him a lot. Also reduces enemy attack speed by 20%, so it's a very good support item in a team fight against those pesky AD carries. This doesn't have health, but the mana, CDR and armor bonus helps you become more sustainable in fights and if you ever manage to pick up the golem buff, you will rely heavily on this.

Abyssal Mask
Gives you AP, which helps you burn the enemy team's health down a little bit, especially with the shield and Riptide, and also gives MR. This also reduces the enemy's MR by 20. So your AP carries will have a field day. When in team fights, you'll need to get close to the action. This item will not only give your AP carries an advantage, but it will give your abilities a slight edge in fights as well.

Rylai's Crystal Scepter
Health, AP and reduces movement speed when you hit champions with your abilities. 35% on a single target ability or 15% with multi target. Dredge Line will give you the edge needed in team fights when you initiate, slowing your target by 35%, all other abilities will do 15%. I get this item last, since you need to get tanky first with armor/MR before you think about getting Rylai's.

Sunfire Aegis
Health and Armor, plus a nice Damage over Time passive. Since you need to get up close with the enemy in team fights, this could be essential to the fight. I take this simply because of the health it gives. Which is 450.

The main thing you need is HEALTH on top of all other things.

Situational

Boots: Either Ninja Tabi or Mercury's Treads, depends on what the enemy team has.

That's pretty much all your situational items, but do feel free to experiment with the build and try out your own items.

Items that I don't recommend using

Warmog's Armor
Now I know what you guys are probably asking me right now, why not warmogs? This would surely be a great item for nautilus? Well, my reason is, when you get warmogs, you need to farm, a lot, the base stats you gain from warmogs is nice, but the overall farm isn't worth it. Depending on WHEN you get warmogs is one of the main reasons. Do you get it ASAP or near end game? Either way, Nautilus's farm is difficult Early/Mid game. So in my opinion, it's not worth using.

Shurelya's Battlesong
Nice support item, giving you the activated movement speed increase, but again, not worth it due to the amount of health, although the other stats that it gives, it is really nice for Nautilus, don't get me wrong. But still, not recommended to use.

Soul Shroud
Just no... If you're that desperate for health and mana, then use Banshee's Veil.

Locket of the Iron Solari
New item, and it sucks in my opinion, lacking health, the aura sucks and the active is just not worth the gold.

Items that I would probably use in some situations

Banshee's Veil
Gives health, mana and MR. Perfect for Nautilus, but I would only use it situationally. Say most of the enemy team has skillshots/abilities, then I would probably get this over say, Abyssal Scepter, because I could compensate the loss of AP with a shield.

Guardian Angel
If you find that you're getting your butt kicked, get this. No need to explain why.

Your shield will be the main ability you need to revolve this build on, so make sure you max it first, ALWAYS.

W>E>Q

Flash is obviously a must, in order to escape quickly, don't like flash? Then swap it for Ghost.

I take Teleport if I'm solo top. If you don't have a jungler, then take Heal or ghost on top of flash.

Pros

Awesome Initiator
Great CC
Good escape artist, provided that you're quick enough
Ultimate is OP if you use it in a team fight.

Cons

Quite slow to start with
Mana burns easily
Using Dredge Line properly takes time to learn and perfect
Ultimate is useless if you don't use it at the right time.

Ok, so that's it. Just to give a brief summary on the build.

Should you take on my build: 270+500+450+other buffs, masteries and your health per level seals = roughly 1300 bonus health.

Take all the health masteries in the Defense tree, after that get movement speed increases + other tanky masteries. Also take movement speed increases on top of that.

When going into team fights, Initiate with Dredge Line, basic attack your target, pop Depth Charge if there's at least 3 enemy champions around and aim it for the furthest away, pop Titan's Wrath, then Riptide, try and get close enough to basic attack those who haven't been effected by your passive. If you're on low health, Flash away and use Dredge Line on terrain to escape easily.

My runes, masteries and items give Nautilus a balance in MR and Armor, whilst taking some AP into fights along with other auras. If you don't like how the build is carefully planned out, either experiment with it, or just don't look at my build.

Thanks for taking your time into looking at my guide, hope this helps you dominate Solo top and the enemy team!

RG Attrocity