THIS GUIDE IS CURRENTLY BEING UPDATED:

ALL THE MISSING CHANGES ARE WRITTEN BELOW. ONCE ALL THE CHANGES ARE MADE, THE GUIDE WILL BE FINISHED:

- Triumph is being swapped with Absorb Life in the Fleet Footwork build;
- Legend: Tenacity is being swapped with Legend: Haste in both the Press the Attack and Fleet Footwork builds;
-Waiting on mobafire.com to update the database with the new runes.

Guide Details → About the Guide → Why Nasus Mid Pre-Game → Runes → Itemization

In-Game → Early Game → Mid/Late Game

Hello everyone. I'm Surfer and this is my Nasus Mid Simplest In-Depth Season 14 Guide.

I've been playing Nasus since 2015, and been playing Nasus Mid Only since 2021.

I have been wanting to make a Nasus Mid guide for a while, and I finally managed to borrow some time to do it :D

I believe most people nowadays want knowledge to be delievered in the fastest and cleanest ways possible. So this guide is written with the objective to keep information at a minimum, but at the same time, as In-depth as possible. I will organize information on what you need to do and why you need to do it, in that order. I hope this turned out well.


If you prefer watching a video instead of reading, here's my guide in video format:
Play Video
Please feel free to use the comments to suggest improvements to this guide if you feel like I can explain any topic in less words than what I currently have.

All the guide changes will be noted in the "Guide Patch Notes" Section at the end of the guide.

Thank you for reading this and if you have any questions either comment on this guide or ask on my stream at twitch.tv/surferkillerhd so I can answer you faster.

Simple Pros/Cons on Nasus Mid:

Pros → Smaller lane than top; → More stacks; → Overall easier matchups compared to Top Nasus; → Can run back to tower faster; → Harder for opponent to freeze;

Cons → If your mid laner roams before you build Sheen, you won't be able to stop them or follow them; → You lose hard if you get camped by the enemy jungler/support; → Enemy Top can swap with Mid.

Main Rune Setup

Press the Attack Lethal Tempo got removed. So I discovered this rune instead. You stack it pretty fast, either by auto attacking twice and using Siphoning Strike or using it in-between autos. Take this Rune Setup Vs. Tiny/Minor/Even matchups.

Triumph Absorb Health is a good rune, but only when combined with other healing sources. Take Triumph when you build Press the Attack and Absorb Life with Fleet Footwork

Legend: Haste

Legend: Haste Takedowns give you Basic Ability Haste up to 15. Very helpful, specially early on.

Last Stand More damage when you're low. Good for close fights. You will have lots of them.

Font of Life You heal when you slow. Just like Absorb Life, simple and good to use.

Second Wind Good for sustain in lane. Keeps you alive. This rune is a must have.

Attack Speed

Health Scaling

Tenacity/Slow Resist

Secondary Rune Setup

Fleet Footwork Take this Rune Setup Vs. Even/Major matchups. Stack and run away to safety when laning. With this build, you can get healing from up to 6 sources: Fleet Footwork, Absorb Life, Second Wind, Revitalize, Doran's Shield, Health Potion.

Absorb Life

Absorb Life Good healing rune when combined with Fleet Footwork, Revitalize, Second Wind and Doran's Shield. Never use this as your only source of healing.

Legend: Haste

Legend: Haste Takedowns give you Basic Ability Haste up to 15. Very helpful, specially early on.

Last Stand More damage when you're low. Good for close fights. You will have lots of them.

Revitalize Good for combining heals with other sources, just like Absorb Life.

Second Wind Good for sustain in lane. Keeps you alive. This rune is a must have.

Ability Haste

Health Scaling

Tenacity/Slow Resist

Rune Setup for Extreme Matchups (E Max/Hybrid)

This Rune setup is focused on Lane pressure Nasus. Read the Early Game Section for the explanation on that.

Summon Aery Guaranteed Hit extra damage with your E, can hit twice if the champion stays on it. You can take Arcane Comet alternatively. Can't hit everytime but does more damage.

Manaflow Band Gives you mana when you hit your E. Keep an eye on your HUD. Use your E everytime it's up until 250 mana.

Transcendence Good chunk of Ability Haste that you will need when doing this build.

Scorch Burn damage for your E.

Font of Life You heal when you slow. Just like Absorb Life, simple and good to use.

Second Wind Good for sustain in lane. Keeps you alive. This rune is a must have.

Adaptive Force

Adaptive Force

Tenacity/Slow Resist

Tank Build

Doran's Shield Best starter item. Got buffed last season. Cloth Armor and/or Beads are not good to build anymore.

Your goal is to recall when you have 900G to buy Sheen/Lucidity Boots.

---

First back if matchup is Tiny/Minor/Even:

Sheen Best item for Nasus currently. I've tried other builds without Sheen, and nothing is comparable to the damage this boi gives.

First back if matchup is Major:

Ionian Boots of Lucidity Best boots for Nasus. Gives you a lot of Ability Haste and Summoner Spell Haste. I am currently testing other boots like Mercury's Treads and Plated Steelcaps for patch 14.10, mainly because of Legend: Haste. I will update here once I reach a conclusion.

---

Core Items

Trinity Force The best item on Nasus currently. I've tested different items like Spear of Shojin , Sundered Sky , Iceborn Gauntlet and Trinity still feels the best for our dog. We are building mainly tank, so we only need Trinity as our damage item.

---

2nd Item

Jak'Sho, The Protean Build this if the enemy team comp is composed by a balanced amount of AP/AD. (E.g: Rumble, Hecarim, Lux, Sivir, Milio)

-OR-

Frozen Heart Build this if the enemy team comp has attack speed based champs (E.g: Jinx, Master Yi, Irelia). Insanely cheap, gives mana and a huge chunk of armor.

-OR-

Spirit Visage Build this if the enemy team comp has 3 or more AP champs. Alternatively, you can build Force of Nature or Kaenic Rookern, but keep in mind you need at least 50 Ability Haste.

---

3rd Item

Sterak's Gage No matter what 2nd item you build, Sterak's is gonna be your 3rd. It's the only source of Tenacity left that Nasus can build besides Mercury's Treads.

---

Rest of build

Depending on what 2nd Item you build, just do whatever you're missing to counter the enemy team. Some of these items can be down to personal preference (like choosing Force of Nature over Spirit Visage). You don't have to follow this to the letter.

Armor Items

Frozen Heart If you need Mana or have less than 40 Ability Haste or if the enemy team comp has attack speed based champs.

Unending Despair If you need Armor and already built Frozen Heart. Check if you don't need Anti-heal/Anti-Crit. This item does insane damage when comboing with your ult.

Thornmail If you need Anti-Heal. Don't finish the item until it's your last. Buy only Bramble Vest.

Randuin's Omen If you need Anti-Crit. You might see yourself building this item often because of the recent ADC changes in patch 14.10.

Magic Resist Items

Spirit Visage Main item if you need MR.

Force of Nature If you need MR and already built Spirit Visage.

Kaenic Rookern Another MR item if you need more.

Abyssal Mask If you have a fed AP champion in your team. It will reduce enemy's magic resistance and make them do more damage. You also get more MR for each enemy with reduced MR.

---

Other items you can do

Jak'Sho, The Protean You can do Jak'Sho at any point in the game if you need to build any Armor + MR item. When I don't build it 2nd, I usually build it 4th or 5th.

Black Cleaver You can do this if you're fed and need some extra damage. Black Cleaver helps you with a bit of armor pen which is nice.

Fimbulwinter I see some Nasus Mains do this. I think Frozen Heart gives you the mana you need. You're also forced to buy Tear of the Goddess early.

Hullbreaker This item can be built if you know your team won't win fights and you need a split pusher. Nasus already pushes towers really hard, so I wouldn't recommend it. Personal preference if you want to build it. Keep in mind that having Teleport helps with splitting/helping with objectives.

Blade of the Ruined King Build this if you're smurfing in Plat or below. It's fun :)

---

Hybrid Build

Doran's Ring Obvious Reasons. You are going E Max Nasus early on.

Your goal is to recall when you have 900G to buy Sheen/Lucidity Boots.

---

First back:

Sheen You still build Sheen early because you will be building Lich Bane later. You can do this before Ionian Boots of Lucidity if your jungler is camping you or if you feel that you can kill the hard matchup.

-OR-

Ionian Boots of Lucidity You will always build these boots when doing the hybrid build.

---

Core Items

Malignance Has good passives that help your Spirit Fire and Fury of the Sands pop off. It gives 20 ultimate haste and it empowers your ult, reducing MR and doing more AP damage.

---

2nd Item

Lich Bane This item makes the Hybrid build shine. It transforms your Siphoning Strike into a 45% AP damage and 75% AD damage spell with spellblade. You are able to fight with your Q from here on out.

---

3rd Item

Jak'Sho, The Protean After building your 2 core items for the hybrid build, go back to building Tank. If the enemy team is full AD/AP then you build Frozen Heart or Force of Nature respectively.

---

4th Item

Sterak's Gage No matter what 3rd item you build, Sterak's is gonna be your 4th. For the same reasons mentioned in the tank build.

---

Last Item

Build whatever tank item you're missing to counter the enemy team. Choose one of the following: Spirit Visage / Kaenic Rookern / Frozen Heart / Randuin's Omen / Thornmail / Unending Despair

Don't forget to Build Abyssal Mask if you have a fed mage in your team.

Press the Attack/Fleet Footwork Setup

The First 10 minutes will decide your laning phase.

First: Don't touch a single minion besides last hitting with your Siphoning Strike. If you've played Nasus Top, you already know what I mean. Keep yourself under tower but don't let all the minions crash into it.

If you are running Fleet Footwork, walk up to a minion, stack and run away, as you get the movement speed to back off to safety. That way you don't get poked as much.

Second: Get 100 stacks in 10 minutes. The higher the better. 200 Stacks at 10 minutes means you can kill most of your matchups as soon as you have Sheen.

Third: Don't leave mid until you have Sheen + 100 Stacks + Fury of the Sands. No matter if your jungle is getting invaded, no matter if your mid laner is roaming early. Every time your laner leaves, tell your team right away. Push the wave with your Spirit Fire. Try to crash it into the tower. Fall back afterwards. Back to last hitting with Siphoning Strike.

Fourth: Don't let your jungler gank you before level 6. It will go wrong 90% of the time. If you still get ganked, use Wither and Spirit Fire and back off. Some junglers can win the 1v1.

Fifth: If you are low HP, it's better to be safe and recall, even if you don't have enough gold to buy anything useful. You will lose XP and Gold of course, but you don't give a kill to your enemy mid/jungler. With the new season 2024 map changes, Mid seems easier to dive now. Keep that in mind.

Recall at 900 Gold so you buy Sheen / Ionian Boots of Lucidity as fast as possible. Remember to check the "Threats" section of this guide. If the matchup is Tiny/Minor/Even, buy Sheen. Else, buy Ionian Boots of Lucidity.

Do you have Sheen built? 100 Stacks? Check your matchup in the Threats Section of this guide. You might be ready to kill them. If you do, wait until they do the same mistake, then kill them again.

If you're ahead, look for fights outside of mid. Look at other lanes, check if they need help. Fight for objectives. Always keep an eye on your stacks and make sure you hit 400 by 20 minutes.

If the lane didn't go well for you, keep playing safe under tower and wait for some time. As soon as you see the opportunity, move to a sidelane and start scaling there. When my laning phase doesn't go well, I see myself swapping with my botlane most of the times. Same thing could happen to you.

Tough Matchup? Can't reach your 100 stack goal at 10 minutes? Check the "Threats" Section of this guide. If I don't tell you to do E Max vs that matchup, then next time bring Fleet Footwork.

E Max/Hybrid Setup

Some matchups won't just let your farm ever. So with them, I decided to start bringing Doran's Ring, Max Spirit Fire and Proc Manaflow Band.

Keep an eye on your HUD to check when you can Proc Manaflow Band. For the first few minutes of the game, only use Spirit Fire when Manaflow Band is ready. Afterwards, try to last hit minions with it and hitting your laner at the same time. Keep an eye on your mana so you don't run out too fast.

This way, you get 250 extra mana and insane damage + lane pressure against your matchup. You will still need to focus on stacking, so try to aim for 300 stacks at 20 minutes. You can also roam to help your jungler with invades/objectives before level 6 if you want. Just don't forget that Spirit Fire is your main ability until 10-15 minutes.

Lethal Tempo/Fleet Footwork Setup

Mid/Late Game will depend if you got ahead vs your matchup or not.

If you did get ahead, stop for a second and take a look at the enemy team.

Is someone insanely fed? Do you have a 10/0 Jinx in botlane? If so, time for you to start building against them. Try to limit test yourself into killing them, you most likely can, specially against ADCs. Save your Wither only for them. You most likely won't split push if you're winning, so just focus on objectives and teamfights. Stay close to your team.

If your laning phase didn't go well, then it's time to start split pushing. If you brought Teleport, it's gonna come in handy if you want to help with objectives. You don't have to mainly focus on stacking anymore, so try to use your Spirit Fire more often to clear the waves faster. If you have Flash, then keep an eye on objective timers, make sure you're there for your team when the objective spawns.

Focus on 1 lane at a time, for example, choose Top, and try to take the tier 2 tower. Look at your map every 5-10 seconds, look for the enemy team, if most of them are missing, they are most likely coming for you. Fall back, recall if it's not safe, if it's just 2/3 people coming, fall back to a bush and when they leave, go back to split pushing.

After you take tier 2 tower of that lane, try to take tier 3 + inhibitor. If you're struggling, switch to another lane, apply the same principle.

Remember, make sure you always have Ghost and Fury of the Sands ready. You're gonna need all these if you want to participate in a team fight. Flash will help if you have it, but you can fight without it. Always focus on the easy targets first (E.g: ADCs, Squishy Champions, Back-liners). If you brought Teleport, save it to go to objectives when you're splitting.

E Max/Hybrid Setup

Since your matchup was horrible to play against, you most likely are struggling with stacks, as soon as you get the opportunity, swap to a side lane and split push. You're splitting will work the same as in Lethal/Fleet setup, so read that part if you haven't.

In teamfights, try to stay a bit in the backline if you can, using Spirit Fire when available, and only commit fully if you know you can finish your opponent off. Keep an eye on the fed squishy carries, and all in on them with Ghost if you see an opportunity to catch them off guard.

The good thing that is good about Max E Nasus, is that you still deal a good chunk of damage even if you don't have your 400 stacks at 20 minutes, because your Spirit Fire makes up for it. Make sure that when you fight, you always use Spirit Fire, auto-attack once and then Siphoning Strike your enemy, you will realize you just did huge damage. That's the beauty of your E working. The only downside is that your Wither doesn't slow as much.

Late Game

For late game, it depends on what elo you're in. If you're at Platinum or below, I think Nasus is the strongest champion in your game. If you're at Emerald+, I think the opposite. I personally think Nasus falls off past 30 minutes. So the only thing I can advise you is to keep your focus on objectives. Elder Dragon and Baron are your game winners.

[14.10]:

-Added a "Table of Contents" Section to the guide;

-Renamed the "Normal Matchups" Ability order to "Default";

-Renamed the "Hard Matchups" Ability order to "Extreme Matchups, E Max";

-Reworked the "Why Nasus Mid" Section to look cleaner and clearer;

-Reworked the "Runes" Section to look cleaner and clearer;

-Reworked the "Itemization" Section, so it looks cleaner and clearer;

-Simplified/Clarified text in the "Early Game" section;

-Added more information for the E Max/Hybrid Setup in the "Early Game" and "Mid/Late Game" Sections;

-Renamed and Changed "Lethal Tempo" rune setup to "Press the Attack":

-Swapped Lethal Tempo with Press the Attack;
-Swapped Legend: Tenacity with Legend: Haste;
-Swapped Unflinching with Font of Life;
-Swapped the 1st Rune Shard: Ability Haste with Attack Speed.
-Swapped the 3rd Rune Shard: Health with Tenacity/Slow Resist.

-Changed the notes:
OLD: 3rd rune shard is currently personal preference. Either choose Health or Tenacity/Slow Resist.
NEW: Play this rune setup against Tiny/Minor matchups.

-Changed "Fleet Footwork" rune setup:

-Swapped Triumph with Absorb Life;
-Swapped Legend: Tenacity with Legend: Haste;
-Swapped the 3rd Rune Shard: Health with Tenacity/Slow Resist.

-Changed the notes:
OLD: Play this rune if you want to play safer. Good for matchups that are hard but still possible to farm against.
NEW: Play this rune setup against Even/Major matchups.

-Renamed and Changed "Summon Aery (Hard Matchups, Max E)" rune setup to "Summon Aery (Extreme Matchups, E Max)":

-Swapped Absolute Focus with Transcendence;
-Swapped Unflinching with Font of Life;
-Swapped the 3rd Rune Shard: Health with Tenacity/Slow Resist.

-Changed the notes:
OLD: Spam your E until manaflow band is at 250 mana. Keep an eye on your HUD.
NEW: Check the "Threats" Section of the guide to know who are the extreme matchups.Spam your E until manaflow band is at 250 mana. Keep an eye on your HUD.

-Reworked the "Threats" Section so it looks cleaner and clearer. The following Matchups have been changed:

Ahri is now a Major matchup instead of Extreme;
Akshan is now a Major matchup instead of Extreme;
Hwei is now a Extreme instead of Major;
Lissandra is now a Extreme instead of Major;
Aurelion Sol is now a Extreme instead of Major;

-Seperated Itemization into 2 builds (Tank and Hybrid):

Tank Build:
-Changed the Notes of the "Starting Items" Item set in the "Items" Section:
OLD: Buy Doran's Ring if it's too hard to farm vs your matchup. Doran's Shield for everyone else.
NEW: Buy Doran's Ring if you're building E Max Nasus.

-Changed the Notes of the "First Back" Item set in the "Items" Section:
OLD: Build Sheen first if you want to try to win a fight after level 6. Build Lucidity Boots first if you want to play defensive or know you can't win the 1v1.
NEW: Check the "Threats" Section of the guide to know what to build first. Build Sheen for Tiny/Minor/Even matchups, Ionian Boots of Lucidity for Major/Extreme matchups.

-Changed the Notes of the "Vs. Full AP Team" and "Vs. Balanced AP/AD" Item sets in the "Final Build Examples" Item group in the "Items" Section:
OLD: Build Kaenic Rookern over Spirit Visage but you will have higher CD on your Q.
NEW: Spirit Visage is personal preference. You can build Force of Nature or Kaenic Rookern instead.


-Changed 2nd item recomendation to Spirit Visage;
-Clarified option to build either Sheen or Ionian Boots of Lucidity depending on the threat level of the matchup;
-Clarified the option to build other boots becides Ionian Boots of Lucidity;
-Replaced Deadman's Plate with Black Cleaver as an alternative item;
-Added Blade of the Ruined King as an alternative item;

Hybrid Build:
-Added the Hybrid Build into the "Items" Section;
-Added Notes for the "Hybrid Vs. Balanced AP/AD" Item set in the "Final Build Examples" Item group in the "Items" Section;
NEW: Last item will depend on what type of damage you are receiving the most. Either Force of Nature or Frozen Heart.

-Moved Doran's Ring to the Hybrid Build;
-Added the rest of the itemization for the hybrid build.