Intro
In this guide we will learn how to abuse Nami in solo queue by reaching her skill ceiling, maximizing her strengths, and making the most efficient usage of her advantages on Summoner's Rift.

Champion Select
Nami is currently a very safe first pick in this meta, Talon is the most optimal ban.

Good Matchups

Wardens

Nami has good engage compliment which will overwhelm most wardens and their lack of kill potential is ideal for Nami to harass with minimal risk. Nami's sustain and slows also allow her an advantage during drawn out fights.

Bad Matchups

Assassins

Nami's Aqua Prison has a long cast time and her Tidal Wave has a long travel time. With the exception of a well-timed ultimate at close range, Nami is an easy target to burst and her abilities have a lot of delay and downtime to effectively and consistently peel assassins.

Vanguards

Nami can be locked down from a range and her abilities can be easily dodged or negated. Vanguards pose a situational threat depending on the champion but the majority in this class can engage on Nami with the only counterplay of respecting their kill potential and playing a safe distance.

Synergies

Divers

Nami's Surging Tides is great for closing gaps and dancing around turret range while her Ebb and Flow's presence alone is a great trading tool and

Spells

Flash is an essential spell for an instant escape and gap-closure.

Exhaust is the best dueling summoner to immobilize and weaken the enemy ADC.

Ignite is useful to secure early cheeses and kills meant to snowball winning lanes.

Heal is an alternative for sustain lanes or when your ADC opts out from taking this spell.

Runes
Primary:

Sorcery

Summon Aery will enhance your trading power with added poke and shields.

Nullifying Orb prevents heavy burst from AP champions such as Karthus or Veigar. Manaflow Band allows Nami to spam abilities more in lane and conserve mana.

Celerity compliments your passive nicely and allows for quick map movement.

Scorch damage is decent enough and the other tier three runes are sub-optimal.

Inspiration

Magical Footwear is the strongest rune for support considering their minimal gold income.

Biscuit Delivery's sustain keeps pressure in lane and helps maintain roam and objective control.

Approach Velocity counters roam compositions and allows clutch saves alongside Tidal Wave.

Secondary:

Resolve

Font of Life is a niche rune for auto-attack heavy Ardent Censer users. Bone Plating can make small lane trades forgiving and is an over-tuned rune in general.

Chrysalis tremendously helps transitioning into the mid game from tough lane match-ups.

Revitalize will amplify your heals and shields especially if you're running Heal.

Domination

Cheap Shot alongside Ignite's true damage makes your all-ins lethal early level.

Zombie Ward permits aggressive lane positioning with formidable vision control.

Skills

Surging Tides enables movement speed to enter and exit trades quickly. Your abilities all apply your passive, be sure to use inexpensive mana abilities to get to lanes or objectives faster such as Aqua Prison or Tidecaller's Blessing.

Aqua Prison has a large hit-box and long animation. Whenever possible chaining alongside Tidecaller's Blessing or Tidal Wave to prevent enemies from dodging this ability. Aqua Prison also has long range and can be used to initiate or peel from a safe distance.

Ebb and Flow is maxed first to prioritize trading. It is important to note that due to mitigation damage, leading with your heal is typically ideal. A few exceptions is if the enemy will not trading back or you want to burst an enemy down.

Tidecaller's Blessing is maxed second for additional slow to prepare an Aqua Prison. A high auto-attack range champion is best for catching an enemy, a high attack speed champion is best for bursting, and a slow hitting champion such as yourself for maximizing the slow.

Tidal Wave, similarly to Aqua Prison, has a much wider hit-box and an initially slow animation. Other unconventional uses could be to speed up allies, or to disrupt engages. If possible cast this in the fog of war for a shorter window for the enemy to react.

#1: Standard

This skill sequence is the strongest for early level trading.

I take two skill points at level three in Ebb and Flow because sustain is more valuable than damage for trading and the base value increase is more efficient than another ability provided you lane your bounces.

#2: Slippery

This skill sequence is used under any of the following circumstances:

• An enemy with a short blink or dash animation such as Ezreal or Lucian.
• An enemy that negates your Aqua Prison such as Braum or Sivir.

The purpose of this skill sequence is to substitute your bubble against match-ups where it is either ineffective, Tidecaller's Blessing can outclass it, or you are not confident in landing the skill-shots.

#3: Cheese

This skill sequence is used under any of the following circumstances:

• An Aqua Prison cheese from the fog of war for less reaction time.
• An Ignite to secure a kill through enemy summoner spell cool-downs.
• An ally with level one priority such as Draven or Xayah for followup.

The purpose of this skill sequence is damage output. A successful bubble will result in lane dominance and a potential early kill. A cheese is a requirement as for lane trades Ebb and Flow is essential.


Items
Starting Items:

Spellthief's Edge's passive is vital for the early game. In comparison to Ancient Coin makes a passive lane and drops could potentially be zoned by aggressive supports.

Refillable Potion, in contrast to to Spellthief's Edge, is a bit of an oxymoron. You avoid buying a Health Potion. It is better to buy a Control Ward with small change.

Health Potions are an alternative to Refillable Potion it will limit your inventory or if early sustain is required. It is recommended to have Biscuit Delivery if this is the case.

Warding Totem is a substitution for your upgraded support item for lane vision. Once obtained it should be upgraded to Sweeping Lens and later Oracle Lens at level nine.

Early Items:

Frostfang upgrades to Eye of Frost once 500 gold is obtained from the unique passive. The stats it provides for building into it is very cost efficient and you'll complete your quest faster.

Chalice of Harmony is a personal favourite for building into Athene's Unholy Grail and otherwise ensures a healthy lane phase. Your Ebb and Flow can be prioritized on your ADC.

Forbidden Idol is an alternative to Chalice of Harmony if another core item is desired. This is more ideal for favourable trades with increased healing and abilities readily available.

Ruby Crystal is simply to get beefier against difficult lane match-ups or if you have an awkward amount of gold on a back. It could be a lifesaver to lane ganks or dives.

Boots of Speed for when Magical Footwear isn't taken. The movement speed helps dodge skill-shots, step up to make catches, and reduces time pathing for vision in your river or roaming.

Core Items:

Boots of Mobility is preferred however there's a situation to build any second tier boots except for Berserker's Greaves. The movement speed is always useful for pathing.

Eye of the Watchers is recommended after at least two core items are built. It isn't necessary immediately as the stats are terrible for the upgrade, but the extra warding slot is very useful.

Athene's Unholy Grail's allows a consistent buff of about 100 additional health on Ebb and Flow. In order to stack blood charges consider self-casting Tidecaller's Blessing when possible.

Ardent Censer will be appreciated by any attack speed orientated ADC and damage output is considerable especially in the late game. You also utilize this item's stats the best.

Primary Items:

Locket of the Iron Solari is ideal when in need of magic resistance or to negate burst or area-of-effect damage. I emphasize timing the active around key abilities instead of in the heat of a fight.

Redemption is an all around item. It can have a huge impact alongside a split push composition, against heavy poke champions, or just placed in preparation of a team fight.

Mikael's Crucible will save your carry from crowd control or pick compositions. You can build this with Athene's Unholy Grail as we never build these items for the unique passive harmony.

Twin Shadows allows you to make very greedy plays. You can scout and get vision by yourself or have the ghosts potentially locate or catch an enemy off guard. The AP is great with your kit.

Shurelya's Reverie is back and is optimized best with compositions lacking gap-closures or engages and movement speed based kits, but can be bought relatively safely universally.

Knight's Vow can help get tankier and enable a very clean 2v2 duel. It can be useful if your ADC is fed and a high priority target in fights.

Secondary Items:

Zeke's Convergence plays a similar role to Knight's Vow, however is best used for peeling off assassins or heavy dive. Do not force the slow if it compromises your position.

Frozen Heart is good itemization against auto-attack orientated champions. An ADC alone would not make this efficient, but against Tryndamere or Yasuo this reduces their damage.

Archangel's Staff is a niche item and would require that you build Tear of the Goddess as a first back item. This item is solely for pushing out abilities all game.

Rylai's Crystal Scepter's raw stats are excellent on Nami. The unique passive slow is overridden by your natural kit slows, but overall still an alright item for slow stacking.

Banner of Command is built before a baron call alongside an Aegis of the Legion buy, which alongside baron minions makes a seige minion hit hard from a safe distance.

Mejai's Soulstealer can be bought safely if you have a substantial lead and the enemy cannot punish mistakes. It is excruciatingly important you do not die to end games quickly.

Early
Once the game starts there are many questions you want to ask yourself:

• Do we have a good invade comp? Does the enemy have a good invade comp?
• Do we have a good cheese bot lane? Does the enemy have a good cheese bot lane?
• Do we have gank pressure? Does the enemy have gank pressure?

If you're against a Thresh or Blitzcrank without other vision sources there is no safe position to get vision on the enemy without a chance of being caught. An invade can begin as early as [00:30] and a Stealth Ward ahead of your peripheral vision can alert your team how to respond to an invade.

If you're against a Nunu & Willump or Sion a late invade is likely but many early game junglers can cheese buffs. You can arrive to lane at a reasonable time by leaving your bot-side buff as late as [01:25], placing a ward can allow your jungle to properly act in this situation to prevent losing gold and experience.

If you're against a Shaco or Twitch be mindful of level two ganks. An early gank with an absurd clear can occur as early as [01:40], but most jungle clears allow ganks at approximately [02:35]. Nevertheless early ganks can decide a lane, in a duo lane wards can be timed to prevent ganks at all times.

Once in lane the first minion wave doesn't need to be pushed. The reason is provided the lane is cleared at [02:05], pushing only decides where the second minion wave crashes. This generally doesn't impact clear time. Once the second wave crashes, auto-attack melee minions for a quick level lead. You can position yourself to zone during the second wave provided you've poked them down beforehand.

Whenever possible stepping-up to poke or all-in is ideal in the following situations:

• The enemy ADC is auto-attacking to last hit.
• The enemy has used a vital ability cooldown.
• The enemy jungler is elsewhere on the map.
• You have the range to trade safely.

If any or multiple of these situations are satisfied pining on my way can alert your ADC of your intentions to trade and allows for cleaner follow-up. The habit of pinging is a necessity.

In lane to ensure a safe fight having tabs on the enemy jungler prevents a turnover. There are methods to have an idea of where the jungler is:

• They appear on the mini-map revealing their position.
• Their camps on a side of the map are cleared giving less incentive to travel there.
• There is indication of movement, such as Kindred's mark or Skarner's crystals.

If these situations are satisfied then holding onto your Stealth Ward is permissible as you've read the enemy jungler's movement. It is also important to have time awareness, a rule of thumb after 30 seconds your information will gradually decrease in accuracy.

You should also monitor the gank pressure of enemy solo-lanes, especially Taliyah or Twisted Fate can present high threat during the lane phase, and an absence in their lanes only leaves a window of a couple of seconds before they could appear in your lane.

It is important to keep tabs on your mini-map, which should be at least a three second occurrence for a split second glance. If you notice the slightest pressure in your side of the jungle, roaming should be your first priority regardless of wave position as a support. You excel in the early game and will win most skirmishes is played properly without a disadvantage in team numbers. If you have trouble deciding whether to engage a fight in the jungle, count beforehand your reinforcement versus theirs; any enemy champion without vision or knowledge of their whereabouts should be considered a potential threat in a skirmish.

Matchups

We meet again, Sashimi Akali.

Alistar is manageable in lane. He is weak level one where you should prioritize poke and zone. Afterwards Alistar's combo should be respected. In lane position behind your ADC, forcing Alistar's initiation target. It is vital to immobilize the enemy ADC when Alistar uses Pulverize so he lacks the follow-up to kill. Your abilities out-range Alistar making poking safe but be wary of auto-attack weaving or Alistar's Flash. If caught by his Headbutt, use Tidal Wave.

Braum is troublesome in team-fights. You can afford to poke Braum while staying behind ally minions, making Concussive Blows less of a threat. Braum hitting his ADC Stand Behind Me can net an easy double bubble even with Unbreakable up, as Aqua Prison is still considered to have landed. Otherwise in team fights waiting out Unbreakable's duration isn't a bad idea either, or baiting it out with another ability so your ADC can open fire.

Janna is easy in lane but troublesome afterwards. Your cursor should hover Janna if she steps up with her spirit, if she uses Zephyr respond with an Aqua Prison; she will have reduced movement speed. Janna's Monsoon channel can be displaced with an Aqua Prison or Tidal Wave. Your abilities with Surging Tides can be used to sidestep Howling Gale. A Stealth Ward in the brush hurts Janna's trades without a reliable way to de-aggro minions.

Lulu is a skill match-up. She will have long duration trading advantage with Pix, Faerie Companion, but Tidecaller's Blessing can evenly match this unless Lulu backed with damage items. An offensive Help, Pix! can be negated by your Ebb and Flow, while defensive use should be bubbled. Lulu late game far excels Nami; whatever hyper-carry Lulu has buffed with Whimsy will be hard to Aqua Prison unless they're slowed beforehand.

Thresh can be poked out of lane, however a Death Sentence can effectively burns your summoners, if not kill you. Dark Passage has a fast animation, if used properly can easily dodge Aqua Prison. However once the ADC has been pulled to Thresh, there is an easy double bubble opportunity. You can poke without being in range of Thresh's Flay, but using Tidecaller's Blessing is still recommended so Thresh can't walk up with an empowered auto.

Outro
I'll be updating this guide frequently filling information as I go. If you have any questions or suggestions related to the guide or not please leave a comment. :)