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Nasus Build Guide by

[10.22] How to get Gold with Nasus, In Depth - All Matchups

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Hey, was just wondering why you dislike doran's ring so much, it makes laning phase so much easier against bullies.
You can poke teemo and some vaynes out of lane, and keep beefier bullies low enough that they do not want to dive you.

Hello! Thanks for the question, I'll try to answer it as best as I can.

even though it's on my section of not recommended, in the notes I give a small explanation of why it isn't the best item and in case you haven't read it, I updated it to make it better to understand why it's not that good of an option.

Regarding the explanation of why it isn't that good compared to other options. main weakness of my current build is trying to get enough gold to purchase , so items such as , + 4 pots or are way superior options since they all provide early game stats that will help survive until he gets Sheen, upgraded at lvl 6 and some stacks of which will allow you to survive in lane way easier. only provides Ability Power which only can use early on and it has a huge mana cost even early on, less HP than and the regen passive with the added damage to minions which are not that worth.

Also trying to poke opponents isn't the best since you give up a lot of to poke them where it can be used to get a lot more stacks and principally thats the huge weakness of E max Nasus, it lacks of consistant Damage, thats why I also recommend just putting 3 points in E and then fully max Q in hard lanes.

Thanks for the question I hope you liked the guide, remember it was created to help Low Elo players rather than High Elo ones ;3

Hey, thanks for the reply.

You write in the notes that Doran's ring is only useful when maxing E, but this is totally wrong in my opinion, for a few reasons.

1. Spirit Fire doesn't do more damage per ability when upgraded, keeps its cooldown, and costs more mana with upgrades, so Ability Power is actually more important for it at lower E levels.
(At E level 1, 15 AP increase the damage by ~16.3%, while at level 2 it only improves the damage output by ~9.4%, level 3 increases dmg output by ~6.7%, and E max gets a ~4% boost.)
Keeping E at a lower level actually makes the extra AP more relevant, as it gets used more.

2. Doran's ring gives mana regen, and this is the reason I take it for hard lanes. an extra 5 mana regen matters more than 6 hp regen ( from Doran's shield) if you need mana to farm and trade.

Quoted:

. Nasus main weakness of my current build is trying to get enough gold to purchase Sheen

Take Doran's Ring, farm and poke with E. This gives you a lot more leeway and ability to survive pre-6, you can farm from further away.

Quoted:

Also trying to poke opponents isn't the best since you give up a lot of Mana to poke them where it can be used to get a lot more Siphoning Strike stacks

With [Doran's Ring] (and manaflow rune possibly) your mana issues are pretty much solved.

Quoted:

remember it was created to help Low Elo players rather than High Elo ones

I'm low elo (silver), and my recommendations are likewise for low elo.

Taking Doran's ring has let me pretty consistently win lane against bullies, and i believe that for low elo this will work for others too.

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Hey, Glad to haer some arguments with numbers and facts, I'm more than glad to answer your question.

1- According to wiki page, where it mentions in deep details scalings which are mentioned in the Ability Kit Chapter of my guide it does mention that it has scaling AP damage.

✦ MAGIC DAMAGE: 55% / 95% / 135% / 175% / 215% (+ 60% AP)
✦ MAGIC DAMAGE PER SECOND: 11% / 19% / 27% / 35% / 43% (+ 12% AP)
✦ TOTAL MAGIC DAMAGE: 110% / 190% / 270% / 350% / 430% (+ 120% AP)

Based upon those numbers, I'm not really sure if you lose on damage while maxing AP with since it's AP damage increases per level and it has a 60% AP scaling. Remember that AP was a thing in the past.

2- As I mentioned in the notes, Its a decent option whenever maxing due to the regen passive that provides but maxing makes your Q cooldown super long and doesn't allow you to get Stacks which is main source of damage. I'm assuming, as you said, you buy and only put 1 point in and then go for a full max, so in such case the isn't a bad purchase but still the HP regen lost from or is massive.

3- When I stated that the main weakness of my build is getting , It meant that once you get , since it adds so much damage, the from and get increased significantly and once you get , it's going to be really hard for your opponent to poke you down, since if they poke you to half HP, in 1 wave and a half your back to full HP.

4- What I tried to say whenever poking your enemy laner with E, I meant that you are using so much to try to poke your laners with that can be used better to get more stacks which again, are main source of damage. Also the problem with is that its really hard to put into a Rune page, since is somewhat decent but its early game is really really bad and the late game isn't that worth, and / are more Mage oriented runes that work way better as AP rather AD , and nowadays there are not high elo AP mains. If you try to add it as a secondary rune, it becomes really hard to survive lane early on, unless it's a troll matchup, in such case its listed in my matchup guide that in the easiest ones you can swap in the Setup the + to + but in harder matchups this is really troll and not worth.

5- Keep in mind that at one point of the game you will sell your starting item in case it's an item like and the resell value of it its inferior to the resell value of Triple start that you can sell even early on to get to your powerspike even earlier; Or even starting items such as + 4 pots since you will eventually use the to build it into an item.

6- If works for your playstyle then keep on going, but in my personal opinion I don't think it's an item that is as good as or since early on, you are trying to survive lane and the best stat to help you is Health Regeneration or early , rather than Regeneration.

Thanks for the comment, I'm hoping I solve your question, in case I haven't, feel free to leave a comment down below to keep the discussion, I'll be more than glad to answer it. Have a good Day/Afternoon/Evening from where ever you are from ;3.

1. You get the same bonus magic damage per AP regardless of what level your E is.
At level 1 E, 100 AP will add 60 (120) magic damage per E, and this is true for E max as well, only the base rate changes. (I am using E max for demonstration only, the same relationship holds for E1 vs E3 and E3 vs E max)

E max costs more mana, so it gets used less. The AP does more work the more E is used and is a smaller percentage of the damage as E is leveled, therefore the more you level E the more marginal the added damage from the AP is.
I suggest going over the numbers again, so you can see that the (small amounts of) AP matters less as you level E.

2. I explained above that in some cases the mana regen is more important than the hp regen, though both are really useful early.
Specifically, there are cases where farming with E actually saves you more hp than having beads or doran's, because you don't get hit. It also allows you to farm without taking the risk of getting all-inned ( by a lvl 3 renekton or darius for example).

3. I think sheen is great, the problems are mostly before that. That is why I suggest starting doran's ring for some lanes, farming is easier that way for some matchups.

(btw, bloodline doesn't do all that much so early in the game, pre lvl 7 nasus already has 12% lifesteal, at lvl 7 he has 18%. It takes 50 minion kills to get 1.2% lifesteal from bloodline, 75 to get 1.8%. The way waves work, with perfect cs you'll get less than a tenth the value of soul siphon from bloodline at any given minute, at least until level 9. Basically, kinda worthless early imo, you don't need it middle, and late you get chunked fast enough it doesn't matter. would definitely take something else, but tenacity looks better than bloodline here)

4. If only doran's then conserve mana a little and you'll have enough for q. the mana cost for E is 70, Doran's Ring and natural lvl 1 regen gives you enough for an E every 30 secs with ~2 mana left over, without dipping into your reserves at all. That leaves 250 mana plus level up bonuses to regen (0.5 per 5 secs) and capacity (42) for stacking, which is 12 Qs, plus regen.

In any lane (255/20= 12 Qs plus 15 mana, 42 mana = 2 Qs + 2 mana per level, 1 mana per 10 secs per level, -> 12 Qs, + 4 Qs at level 3, plus the 15, 4, mana regen is 1 more Q at least) 17 Qs before level 4, when there are only 25 minions, is not an issue.

In a hard lane I'd expect you to have trouble getting half that many Qs in before level 4.

So you can use E for poke and farm once every 30 secs without manaflow band or ever being worried about not having enough for Q, and honestly every 20 sec or so should be fine in hard lanes. considering the cooldown is 12 secs, this means using E if you can hit them well and get some farm.

5. This is not different for doran's shield. These are both items that are meant to make laning easier at the cost of a little gold. If you can get by as well or better without any doran's item you should, but that's not the issue here.

6. The same to you, feel free to do what works for you.

I think I've explained why my opinion is that this item is better in some situations.

7. In my games a lot of very hard matchups (in general and in your opinion on this guide) are not bad at all. This is a combination of me being in silver and using mana regen. Take that as you will.

A good whatever-it-is-for-you as well good sir.

Hey, Glad to hear you answered, I'm more than glad to debate this idea.

1- In your first point, you do a calculation based upon how many times you can use and therefor how much is the damage output of the ability based on your total mana bar, which based on that you are right, will do less damage since you are using it less since it has a scaling cost. But a thing you are not keeping in mind is that enemy laner have base Magic Resistance growth per level and you make your enemy laner feel more tempted to go for , negating a lot of your E poke which will also negate your only CC tool you have, your . You will deal more damage with your but since you decided to farm more safely with , your stacks will get significantly reduced to the point it won't be worth.

2- If you are playing you have to understand when to give up farm, you can't just always try to use your and get perfect farm. Keep in mind that in and matchups, I list that you should go and to allow you to farm slightly more safely with .

3- A good enemy laner will heavily punish your start by pushing the first 2 waves and let the 3rd (cannon) wave "bounce" back to his tower and then set up a freeze making you overextend in lane which makes you really weak whenever getting ganked since your can only be used on one enemy champion. Not having stronger base stats early game such as Armor or HP regen will set you way more behind that you will notice.

isn't about early game, is about having a decent ammount of sustain once you get lvl 6 and a strong Mid game; and neither or provide that. can be used instead of into heavy CC teamcomps (Which by default already counter ) but still, due to the cap, , and you will reach the cap easily making useless where will become more usefull due to the insame ammount of lifesteal. Also it has a synergy with , , and increased healings.

4- You need to keep in mind that isn't the best at surviving laning phase or even dives, so most of the cases you can't just be at 60 when the enemy jungler is Top side of the map or the Support/Midlaner are Roaming. If a decent Jungler, Support, Midlaner and obviously the Toplaner notices this, they will look to dive you since your only escape/disengage tool you have is your and you will not have enough mana for it since you've been spamming and blowing up all your mana.

Also using your every 30 seconds is super useless since by the time you can use it again, your enemy laner will already be back to the ammount of HP he had before using it, and since you don't put points in its base damage won't increase, the enemy laner base Magic Resistance will increase so it becomes sort of pointless to go for a if your just planning on using your every half a minute.

Also as I mentioned before, its really hard to add into a rune page, since if it is on the main Rune page neither , or are good options to be a tanky frontline for your team due that they are runes designed mostly for Mages that sit in the backline and spam abilities, rather than a Frontline Juggernaut. If you try to use it as a secondary rune, there aren't many options where it can be viable but if you want a setup like that, you can use Juvenile setup, he is a Diamond player that goes for , , , and secondaries and . Here is his OP.GG

https://na.op.gg/summoner/userName=Juvenile

5- That is mostly the reason why most of high elo players go for + 4 or 3 + start, since they are both the most Cost/Efficient starting items.

Overall it's not a bad item if you are playing back and putting some points in since per cast, it will deal more damage to help you wave clear safely and with a decent distance, But options like or are way stronger specially if you want to climb in SoloQ since most of High elo players showed us, that is the way. Have a good Day/Afternoon/Evening from where ever you are from ;3.

1. You seem to be ignoring my main point here, which is that the extra mana regen lets you farm BETTER in hard lanes. In hard lanes you don't get to free stack to your heart's content anyway, Farming with E just lets you get more gold, and possibly stop them from diving you (or poking a vayne/ teemo out), and the extra mana is necessary for that.

Side note, I don't think changing the enemy boots is a negative at all.

2. Just go . Much simpler if you're already using E to farm.

3. Not sure why you think it's easier for them to hard push when you have more E power. Would love an explanation here.

3b. No, Bloodline sucks at lvl 6 for nasus. You should have 0.6 lifesteal from it, umless you got zoned hard, in which case you get 0.
When you already have 12% lifesteal this is not going to matter, pretty much ever.
You get another 6% lifesteal just by getting to level 7, which is 10 times that. So it doesn't affect your sustain noticeably until much later levels, at which point it probably is not the deciding factor on your survival (hint, tenacity matters more)

4. The whole point of doran's is to help with those mana issues, not sure why you keep bringing in mana issues as a counterpoint. If you try it in a hard lane and find you have mana issues due to using E every 30 secs I would be very surprised.

Every 30 secs will slowly take their hp down, but 2 things you are missing:
You can use it every 30 secs on average, not just like clockwork, and minion waves spawn every 30 secs.

Manaflow Band: Summon aery is probably worth vs a vayne or teemo just for the extra poke. Remember that laning is everything for nasus, because good laning lets you actually use your mid game power spike.
If you want conquerer, take it as main tree, take tenacity rune (it's way better than bloodline) and manaflow in secondary, no reason this should work less well than Juvenile's set for you.

None of my explanations have hinged on the manaflow rune though.

5. Who cares what most high elo do. Silver and below is a different game.
I don't expect a bronze nasus to necessarily manage in lane vs darius without a doran's item, and don't expect the extra 100 gold value later to be what makes or breaks his laning or mid game. If it doesn't matter to them, yes take gold efficient. If it matters then don't, missing even 5 minions because of this makes it worthless

To conclude the argument; In my opinion due to all the arguments I previously mentioned before, isn't the best starting item and can't be compared to 3 or start; this was shown by people that climbed way higher than Silver or Gold unlike us. High Elo have taught us a way to climb with and I can guarantee you that no one that made it past Diamond and plays consistantly , will ever recommend you as a starting item. Even though people play way differently in different elos, you must addapt yourself and understand how to play the game in order to climb, if you keep the same playstyle, you will be stuck for ever

I go for since my build already solves Tenacity problems with , and added with the shield; also the whole point of is to provide scaling and tank via and again, it's not something that only low elo players do, its something that you can play even at higher elos.

Playing with secondary is super troll unless your enemy laner is playing something troll. It provides no early game survivability relying only on to survive laning phase.

Going for into a top is straight up trolling. Her first item is a and even before that she build so she will have early to outsustain your poke, all this without even mentioning that the whole tree doesn't provide any tanky stat to survive lane against a , it'll only provide some scaling damage and decent stats, but will run you down all game as soon as she gets 2 items and she'll do it even faster if you go for trying to poke a as . Also this works for Juvenile since he plays tree as its main allowing him to get access to runes like , , or providing him some survivability and tankyness.

Gold efficiency, specially on a champion like due to his lack of Early game power, making it really hard for him to keep up in gold against his opponents, its a pretty big deal, so you should be always looking to get gold efficient items since also his items are really expensive.

As a conclusion, since I don't wanna write a 40 comment discussion over why is a bad starting item and I'm not the only player that thinks the same about it. I'm calling this an end to the Argument, I hope you enjoyed the guide and in case you didn't like it, remember that in the conclusion, I listed another high elo players with their respective guides so you can use them.

(101) |

Hey hey,

I was just scrolling around and I was wondering about the following:
Why would you ever have to dodge E? I'm so confused!

PS: You really, really do not have to bold/color your entire introduction, conclusion or update log. Neither do you have to use italics on all item/rune descriptions. It will look fine without all those things!

PPS: The images in the intro do not show up, you have to make sure they have a .png at the end of the link (go to the image --> right click image --> copy image source (or something like that; my browser is in another language!) --> paste link in code)

Hello! Glad to hear some feedback on the Guide specially from a Moderator, and I appreciate the tips on the Chapters, I will defenitevely change the format on some of them, It's my first guide here and I'm new to this format xD. Also thanks a lot with the pictures, I didn't know how they were not working.

Regarding the E, It's usually because if she goes for it, She can press R on you and then the whole enemy team can burst you down even with Passive in a 5v5 fight. I played couple of times against this Matchup and I've seen that some Lissandra Players go for picks rather than 5v5's, so if you get hit by the E and she takes it when her team is near by, She can get a kill on you and force a 5v4 teamfight favoured on her side. I'll look to re-explain it better on the Matchups.

(101) |

Aah I understand now, I got confused by the "getting hit by E" part. It is often used to gapclose, but it is rather rare for it to actually hit (she can wait with reactivating till it hits, but that's only used to oneshot champions). Most players will take it once they are in R range. So what you actually need to do is stay at a respectable distance from her (if you fear getting picked), so that when she casts her E, you have enough time to react/run away from it.

Good luck with updating & upgrading your guide, it's a learning experience and I'm sure it'll get better!

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Yes, I sort of meant that but I most likely didn't use the right terminology to explain it better xD. As you said, I meant that she will use it to get close to you and then CC lock to burst him with her team. The thing is that will be sometimes the frontline for his team, so if the frontline is really far back, the backline will not get in damage, so as you must stay nearby to make sure your Backline deals damage while being safe.

Truly appreciate it all the help you gave me, specially with those images that are now fixed thanks to you xD. Thanks and I hoped I answered your quesrion, have a good one!

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