Hello, I'm ThisIsPatrik, and this is my Naafiri Guide.

I go by Patrik nowdays. I am a long time League of Legends player (started back in Season 1). I'm a top lane main who mainly plays Jax, but I've played every role across the years playing this game. I've mostly done my climbing with top lane though, where I've been Master tier for the past 3 seasons.


My Twitch.tv:ThisIsPatrik


You can also follow me on Twitter for more updates on everything. Twitter


Naafiri is an interesting assassin in the sense that she has very simple abilities, and she is overall made to be more accessible assassin compared to some of the other ones. Instead of pure mechanics, she is rather focused on decision making and strategy, and having good fundamentals.

Pros + You can pet the dog, what more can you want? + Naafiri is very simple mechanically + Can be flexed to jungle, though it's not the greatest experience + W won't get stopped by roots + Packmates can block skillshots for you + You can use E to go over walls Naafiri is very strong in terms of finding picks for her team and overall solokilling enemies with her packmates. Her packmates can bodyblock skillshots, which can be a huge advantage in duels.

Cons - Requires a bit longer sometimes to kill targets due to needing to setup execute with Q - W can get bodyblocked by another champion - Weak vs grouping - W also makes your engage really telegraphed Naafiri will struggle in teamfights due to her not having insane leap straight onto enemy carries or other similar types of mobility. This means you have to play out fights more strategic, taking into consideration enemies bodyblocking your W for example.

DOMINATION

The keystone of choice for me is Electrocute. You will proc it quickly during combat, and especially in laning it will help you win trades. Short and sweet. The other keystone choice out of the Domination tree is Hail of Blades, which feels nice due to getting quick autos in during trades and all-ins, but I'm not completely settled on which is better.

Naafiri has two dashes to proc this with, so you will have just extra lethality at your disposal when you engage combat, which is nice.

Zombie Ward will provide you with damage, and utility as well since you will create vision while clearing it.

Out of these runes, I choose Relentless Hunter to move around the map faster, which will help with roams and rotations. Your other option is Treasure Hunter, to have more chance at snowballing and gain your items faster.

Personally I like to take the attack speed rune cause it makes queing autos smoother in general, other than that it's just standard offensive shard and most of the time HP shard, since it scales better compared to the resistance shards, although armor/mr can sometimes help during early parts of the lane phase.

PRECISION

Triumph will heal you a bit after scoring a takedown, which might make you live from some close skirmishes or teamfights. On top of that you gain a bit of gold which is small but nice addition.

Coup de Grace is the obvious choice here since it will help you burst down targets faster once they hit the less than 40% HP mark.

• We Are More (Passive): Naafiri peridiocally summons a Packmate that fights alongside her. She may have up to 2-3 Packmates at a time based on level. Naafiri summons the maximum number of Packmates when the game starts and upon respawning.
  
  Hitting champions or large monsters with abilities reduces the cooldown by 4 seconds, and killing enemies reduces it by 1.
  
• Darkin Daggers (Q): ACTIVE: Naafiri throws a dagger in the target direction that deals physical damage to enemies hit and inflicts them with a bleed for 5 seconds. Darkin Daggers can be recast after 0.5 seconds and within 4 seconds at no additional cost. If the target is already bleeding, they are instead dealt the remaining bleed damage and additional bonus physical damage which is increased based on target's missing health. If that target is also a champion, Naafiri heals herself.
  
• Hounds' Pursuit (W): Naafiri channels for a brief duration upon targeting. After the channel, the target is revealed for 1.5 seconds and Naafiri and her Packmates dash to the target, each colliding with the first enemy champion hit. Upon impact, Naafiri deals physical damage and slows the target by 99% for 0.25 seconds, while Packmates deal 10% of that damage to their own targets.
  
• Eviscerate (E): Naafiri dashes in the target direction and deals physical damage to enemies she passes through. Upon arrival, she explodes in a flurry of blades to deal physical damage to nearby enemies.
  
• The Call of the Pack (R): Passively this ability grants Hounds' Pursuit bonus cast range. Upon activation, Naafiri despawns active Packmates and respawns the maximum number of new ones along with extra Packmates. She and the Packmates are also granted bonus movement speed that decays, and is doubled while out-of-combat. She will also grant sight and reveal nearby enemy champions for a few seconds. While active, The Call of the Pack grants Naafiri bonus AD, increased maximum health for Packmates and reduced the total cooldown of We Are More by 50%. Also her first ability or basic attack against a champion will grant her a shield for 3 seconds.
  
  First takedown she gets during the duration will refresh all the effects of The Call of the Pack, restore Packmates to full health and grant Naafiri the same shield. After the ability expires, extra Packmates are despawned and other ones restored to full health.
  

Duskblade of Draktharr Duskblade of Draktharr is really good item for Naafiri since it increases your damage based on target's missing health, and also grants you stats you want (Lethality, AD, Haste). On top of that upon scoring a kill you will turn untargetable and invulnerable, which is key to getting out of fights and skirmishes, since Naafiri lakcs proper escape tools.

Youmuu's Ghostblade Youmuu's Ghostblade will enable you to have more target access through more movements speed. Also grants you Lethality when stacked fully, and grants your Legendary items bonus AD. During the active you become Ghosted, which can help you sometimes access your targets through a lot of units.

Eclipse If the enemy champions are too durable as a whole, Eclipse will help with this since when you proc it you deal % targets max health damage to them. It will also grant you some movement speed and a shield upon the proc to help you survive and navigate fights and skirmishes easier. Mythic passive also grants you some armor pen and movement speed which is always nice.

Ravenous Hydra Ravenous Hydra as a whole seems really popular right now for a lot of champions. Especially for assassins, it gives the more wave clear tools to shove waves and roam, or pose a threat on sidelane by pushing waves fast. This is really good into ranged matchups as a first item even, since it gives you sustain and waveclear.

Black Cleaver Offers a lot of good raw stats for Naafiri, and on top of that she stacks in instantly with R+W combo. A very good item that should be built in most games imo.

Prowler's Claw Classic option for assassins with dashes. Good against squishy targets. After your next dash or a blink, your next autoattack deals bonus physical damage, and also slows the enemy briefly. This allows you to deal more damage to them easier within that short timeframe and potentially create the pick you need.

Ionian boots of Lucidity Standard option for most assassins, helping you with having more uptime on your abilities that you need to help lands those kills on enemies. Nice addition is the summoner spell Haste, which will give you more uptime on your Flash and Ignite as well.

Berserker's Greaves Naafiri's only real option for attack speed without major sacrifices. Attack speed helps giving you more DPS during fights through your autos, and overall for the fluidity of her gameplay they feel great, so if you can sacrifice the haste and summoner spell haste from Ionian Boots of Lucidity, then this is a great choice.

Edge of Night A nice defensive item when you need it, but comes ultimately with sacrifice in damage for defensive stats and the spell shield. Only build this when you absolutely need it, or you might find yourself short of damage.

Serylda's Grudge A very appealing item for Naafiri since it gives % pen which is really helpful and also gives you utility through the slows you will apply, especially from range with your Darkin Daggers. Usually a 3rd item choice.

Guardian Angel If you require safety when needing to create risky picks or just trying to navigate through teamfights, this might be a worthy pickup.

Death's Dance Another defensive option while still granting you some offensive capabilities. It can help you live through some fights and especially teamfights where you can get takedowns that will heal you over the course of the fights.

Serpent's Fang Not a very great item statwise, but gives you the necessary tools to deal with enemy teams with heavy shielding.

Spear of Shojin If you have nothing specific that you need, Spear of Shojin is a great option since it will grant you a lot of Haste, some more damage and on top of that a bit of HP to help you surivive fights.

Maw of Malmortius Good pickup against bursty mages. It grants a decent amount of AD and MR, and the lifeline passive will also give you lifesteal for the duration of the combat which can help make the difference between living and dying,if you get to attack someone.

In lane you mainly trade utilizing your Q procs, unless the enemies come to fight right next to you. With the help of your E, you can reposition to dodge abilities or to land your Q2.

Naafiri doesn't have that much different combos she will pull off, and her abilities are faily simple so they are easy to execute.

+

- Most basic combo you will utilize is Q + Q in lane.

+ + + + +

- This is pretty standard full ability combo that you will execute. Your engage is very telegraphed due to your W, but this is a pattern you can utilize in lane and all-ins, just keep in mind your W can be bodyblocked by another champion. If you have The Call of the Pack available, you can use it before executing the combo to add more damage to it. Important to note that upon landing your Hounds' Pursuit will do a autoattack without animation, so you can't que one straight after using Hounds' Pursuit.

+ +

- You can buffer your spells during Darkin Daggers cast time, meaning you can start repositioning already during your Q cast with Eviscerate. Utilizing your Eviscerate after first Q cast is adviced since it will boost your Q2's execute damage.

To be added

Naafiri is a great assassin to introduce you to the class, and really make you work on your fundamentals. Any feedback on this guide is highly appreciated, I will be updating this guide as I go with learning more about Naafiri. And of course if you enjoyed the guide make sure to follow me on Twitch for League of Legends content (although it's mainly Jax soloQ gameplay)! Follow here - ThisIsPatrik