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Choose Champion Build:
Spells:
Revive
Exhaust
Ability Order
Soul Eater (PASSIVE)
Nasus Passive Ability
Introduction



1. There wasn't a Dominion

2. I want people to stop whining about

Also, please read my whole guide. At least skim the important sections(items/runes/general tips)! I put many hours of editing and writing things that I can't cover with the cheat sheet into my multiple sections below. You will miss out on key things if you don't!
Protect your minions. You can beat any melee character and most ranged ones if you follow this rule. What do I mean, exactly? I mean what I say. Keep them alive. Zone out the enemy with E. Spirit fire is big enough to hit all the minions and your enemy if you do it right. Attack him if he decides that you aren't a threat and wants to kill your minions. Why is it important to do so? They hurt. They really ****ing hurt. Even late in the game, Dominion minions RAPE. If your enemy is melee, they won't be able to get near you if you stand in your minions. They contribute to capturing points TREMENDOUSLY. If you can channel on a point for 2 to 3 seconds(lets say thats all you have before an enemy gets to you), and have 3-4 minions attacking it as well, it will decap.
Be wary of ganks. If you lose bot, your team might have to lend you a hand to get it back, and they might need that hand at top, and then you lose top, and then they are free to gank you at bot because they can defend 3v4 at top pretty easy because your team sucks.. and the cycle CONTINUES! Okay thats probably exaggerated a little bit, BUT REALLY. DONT GET GANKED! What are the signs that you are going to be attacked soon? The easiest one, but also the hardest to act upon in time, is your normally passive lane opponent being unusually aggressive. If you are vs a Sivir who is usually cowering when you even walk towards her.. and now she wants to trade blows.. there is probably a LeBlanc on the way to take your virginity. However, because you are so confident, your brain is going to be slow to realize this. You must train your brain to go "THIS ISN'T RIGHT EXHAUST WITHER SHURELYAS GHOST ULT RUN".
Be wary of ganks. If you lose bot, your team might have to lend you a hand to get it back, and they might need that hand at top, and then you lose top, and then they are free to gank you at bot because they can defend 3v4 at top pretty easy because your team sucks.. and the cycle CONTINUES! Okay thats probably exaggerated a little bit, BUT REALLY. DONT GET GANKED! What are the signs that you are going to be attacked soon? The easiest one, but also the hardest to act upon in time, is your normally passive lane opponent being unusually aggressive. If you are vs a Sivir who is usually cowering when you even walk towards her.. and now she wants to trade blows.. there is probably a LeBlanc on the way to take your virginity. However, because you are so confident, your brain is going to be slow to realize this. You must train your brain to go "THIS ISN'T RIGHT EXHAUST WITHER SHURELYAS GHOST ULT RUN".
There are little to no scenario's where you shouldn't go bottom lane in Dominion. There just aren't any benefits to you or your team really if you go Top. Sure, you can deny the point a little with spirit fire but you are too low level to do any damage. You don't have cooldown reduction yet so you can't
Wither spam, you aren't tanky yet, and
Spirit Fire doesn't deal good damage yet. You really need to go bottom to get your levels up and some items under your belt before you leave bottom. In games where I'm consistently holding their bottom point, I'll stay there all game. But if I'm just stalemating and could be doing something better because I'm farmed, however, I'll usually ask one of our weaker teammates to hold bot while I go do something better. Staying bot until about 15 minutes and then going and fighting means a gold advantage of about 3k. Its pretty significant.
If you do just HAVE to go top for some reason, start with Prospector's Blade and Boots.


If you do just HAVE to go top for some reason, start with Prospector's Blade and Boots.
This comes first because I am breaking a rule among Nasus players - Not farming my Q to the max.
The skilling order isThis seems controversial, but there are a few good reasons why I did this. For one,
Spirit Fire is just amazing. People really never see how good this skill is because normally, late in the game is the only time you see it maxed. This is when people have good resists and are generally tankier. Spirit Fire pushes extremely well. It also zones your enemy, and is great harass - but really only early on. That is why we max it first. At level 5, it will do a whopping 205 instant damage, is nearly impossible to dodge, and most of the time you can hit all of the creeps as well. It will deal a combined amount of almost 400 damage to an entire creep wave. So this pretty much sums up my first point -
Spirit Fire is amazing and overlooked, as is Nasus. You are probably wondering how, if
Spirit Fire is this amazing thing why hasn't someone posted about it? Well, thats mainly because it takes tons of mana to use. However, with
Frozen Heart/
Sheen and the massive mana regeneration bonus from the map buff, this isn't a problem. Even spamming it with max cooldown reduction.
Wither - This skill hard counters any attack damage focused character in the game. Ranged Carries - They can't kite you because one attack takes almost 2 seconds to perform. Oh, did I mention their feet are glued to the floor? They are naturally squishy because they rely on their kiting, so they are food for you. Melee AD - Won't be able to fight you because of the attack speed slow. Can't run away either, so they don't have much of a choice. What is the best part about this skill? It's spammable. A 1.8 second downtime with max cooldown reduction. I get "That slow is ****ing OP" at least once every few games.
Fury of the Sands deserves a small subsection, I suppose. What is it? It is Nasus's ultimate. Upon activation, Nasus morphs into a giant version of himself. He will gain 600 maximum HP - which WILL heal you if used. He will have an aura of sand swirling around him that damages nearby enemy units per second based on their max HP. Approximately 6.375% of this damage is turned into free attack damage. It isn't uncommon to see numbers such as +150 to your AD when you use this. If you are fighting someone in their minions, oh it only gets better.
The skilling order isThis seems controversial, but there are a few good reasons why I did this. For one,





Wither - This skill hard counters any attack damage focused character in the game. Ranged Carries - They can't kite you because one attack takes almost 2 seconds to perform. Oh, did I mention their feet are glued to the floor? They are naturally squishy because they rely on their kiting, so they are food for you. Melee AD - Won't be able to fight you because of the attack speed slow. Can't run away either, so they don't have much of a choice. What is the best part about this skill? It's spammable. A 1.8 second downtime with max cooldown reduction. I get "That slow is ****ing OP" at least once every few games.

Alternatives
9x
Greater Mark of Critical Chance
9x Greater Seal of Defense
9x
Greater Seal of Armor
9x
Greater Glyph of Magic Resist
Lets talk about why these are my choices for runes.
Armor pen - Really standard. I should say, really, THE standard for characters that deal physical damage. Not much of an explanation needed(however, see below to my explanation of crit runes).
Crit Chance - Somebody really smart on the league of legends did the math and crit chance is on par with armor pen at every stage of the game. Plus, it has the advantage of being more 'random'. So, why don't people run Crit chance all the time? Because it doesn't affect skills. Well, most skills. It works on nasus's Q, his only AD skill, so there really is no disadvantage to taking these of armor pen. I'm just not stupid enough to have crit chance in my cheat sheet, thats begging for downvotes. People are idiots :)
Both sets of Armor Runes - Armor is great. Being more tanky is wonderful. I chose the per level runes because of the accelerated leveling and the fact that you start at level 4(before any real fighting is done) on Dominion. It is really up to you as to which to use, it won't make a big difference either way. Late game vs Early game.
Both sets of Magic Resist Runes - Magic Resist is great. Being more tanky is wonderful. I chose the per level runes because of the accelerated leveling and the fact that you start at level 4(before any real fighting is done) on Dominion. It is really up to you as to which to use, it won't make a big difference either way. Late game vs Early game.
Health per level runes - Health is nice. It lets you take more damage vs magic and physical damage. Free health crystal from nine seals. Best rune.
9x

9x Greater Seal of Defense
9x

9x

Lets talk about why these are my choices for runes.
Armor pen - Really standard. I should say, really, THE standard for characters that deal physical damage. Not much of an explanation needed(however, see below to my explanation of crit runes).
Crit Chance - Somebody really smart on the league of legends did the math and crit chance is on par with armor pen at every stage of the game. Plus, it has the advantage of being more 'random'. So, why don't people run Crit chance all the time? Because it doesn't affect skills. Well, most skills. It works on nasus's Q, his only AD skill, so there really is no disadvantage to taking these of armor pen. I'm just not stupid enough to have crit chance in my cheat sheet, thats begging for downvotes. People are idiots :)
Both sets of Armor Runes - Armor is great. Being more tanky is wonderful. I chose the per level runes because of the accelerated leveling and the fact that you start at level 4(before any real fighting is done) on Dominion. It is really up to you as to which to use, it won't make a big difference either way. Late game vs Early game.
Both sets of Magic Resist Runes - Magic Resist is great. Being more tanky is wonderful. I chose the per level runes because of the accelerated leveling and the fact that you start at level 4(before any real fighting is done) on Dominion. It is really up to you as to which to use, it won't make a big difference either way. Late game vs Early game.
Health per level runes - Health is nice. It lets you take more damage vs magic and physical damage. Free health crystal from nine seals. Best rune.
9/21/0Defense Tree
Tier 1
Resistance
- Free Magic Resistance, 'nuff said..
Hardiness
- Free Armor, 'nuff said..
Tier 2
Durability
- Health per level to back up that free resistances.. nuff said.
Vigor
- Health regen, but mostly filler.
Tier 3
Veteran's Scars
- Another free 30 flat health. Why is the defense tree so good to us?
Tier 4
Initiator
- Not amazing since they made it only work while above 70% health, but hey, movement speed is great.
Enlightenment
- Two points into this to cap off our cooldown reduction. 3 points would be a waste.
Tier 5
Honor Guard
- % Damage reduction. Not much, but really this is just icing on the cake as is..
Tier 6
Juggernaut
- Okay so we can't run, fight him, and now he has MORE hp AND now we can't disable him!?! /surrender
Utility
Tier 1
Summoner's Insight
- Summoner spell mastery. Mandatory. Whether you use
Ghost and
Flash or
Ghost and
Promote, you NEED this.
Good Hands
- Not great, but what else is there? Could possibly let you be the guy who saves the game by a fraction of a second. It happens, you've seen it I'm sure. Maybe this will make the difference, but for me it only gets two filler points.
Improved Recall
- I value this one point wonder more than 3 % reduced death timer. Doesn't matter though, do what you like.
Tier 2
Swiftness
- Free movespeed.
Scout
is useless, no wards in Dominion.
Meditation
is nice but between the massive mana regen and max mana obtained by my item selection and the buff from the map, this isn't needed. At all.
Tier 3
Runic Affinity
- This is an interesting mastery. It increases the duration of speed shrines and quests, which can be quite useful. Its up to you whether to get this or the ghost mastery.
Offense
Tier 1
Summoner's Wrath
- Only here for the
Ghost mastery. Get
Runic Affinity
instead if you want.
Tier 1


Tier 2


Tier 3

Tier 4


Tier 5

Tier 6

Utility
Tier 1







Tier 2



Tier 3

Offense
Tier 1























I get this item for several reasons. I get it because it gives tons of starting armor. This is important because it allows you to take less damage when you decide to go in and get a last hit with










I get these boots because they are amazing. They give movement speed 2, which is the most common so you will be on par with or above(thanks to movement speed quints and our mastery set up) even people who have



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There are few enemies who can beat you if you will counter build appropriately. I'm going to go through the top bottom laners as picked by RealWolf M, in his tier list found here.
Cassiopeia is a very tough lane to handle as any melee character let alone one without a hard gap closer. I highly recommend picking someone else to deal with this one, but if you do get stuck against her, there are a few things you can do to make it easier. One of the easiest things to do is to get your
Odyn's Veil earlier than normal. Zone hard with
Spirit Fire and ask for ganks frequently. She's squishy and easily killed. Besides that, you just have to out play her. Dodge her spells, don't try to 1v1 her from full hp if she has her ult up, etc.
Maokai is very easy to beat. He pushes hard, but can't take you on in a fight. He does low damage after his first combo and hes not really a dps. Just deal with his pushing early with
Spirit Fire and run up and beat the hell out of him after you get a few items under your belt. Get an early
Negatron Cloak to help counter his damage.
Skarner is very easy to beat. He only does good damage if hes allowed to auto attack. And you, being the awesome
Withering
Nasus you are, will not allow him to do so. Frozen heart + wither means an average of 85~% attackspeed slow on whoever you are fighting. That, and the fact that he absolutely has to be in melee range to deal damage means your
Fury of the Sands and
Spirit Fire are going to be hitting him constantly. Easy to beat.
Soraka is very very very hard to beat. I'd say impossible if the enemy soraka counter builds you efficiently. She has massive survivability if she builds mostly tank items like a bot soraka should. Extremely annoying silence, but at least its down to 1.625 second duration
instead of 2.5 because you are a good player and bought
Mercury's Treads. You deal almost all of your damage in melee range, so you have to go up and let her
Starcall you if you want to deal any damage to her. This means that she is going to be stacking massive Mr reduction on you the whole fight and dealing more and more damage as she goes. Her W heals for a decent amount and gives her 80 armor. She can ult on top of that to heal her whole team and restore her own hp. And, if shes really wanting to be a *****, her build is going to be something like this:
Mobility Boots,
Frozen Heart,
Thornmail,
Rylai's Crystal Scepter,
Rabadon's Deathcap,
Abyssal Mask. I mean really, what do you expect to do against that? Not win, that's for sure!
Urgot is one of the others you probably won't beat(If they are good!). I thought that I could handle this guy as
Nasus, I had done it before after all. So I get into a game all confident, and I actually am winning for awhile. I rushed my
Frozen Heart and he couldn't deal much damage to me, I played well and dodged his nades etc. He got his damage items, and it got closer, but I'd still win if I played smart! I capped him a few times but my team was busy so I could never hold it for long. After his
Manamune and
Last Whisper, he finally gets a
Thornmail. That was when it went downhill. After that, he got a
Frozen Heart. So not only was he penetrating massive amounts of my resist due to his grenade, he had last whisper, and two of the best armor items in the game. I lost that game. So what I'm trying to say is, if you are low elo, and you yourself are pretty good, you can probably beat
Urgot with
Nasus. But if he wises up and builds even a
Thornmail, you are going to be in a tight spot.
Yorick is actually really easy to beat. What
Nasus counters most is ad champions that need to be in melee range to fight you. I don't count his ghost harass as a fight, by the way. I mean when he intends to kill you. How does
Nasus do this?
Wither,
Spirit Fire, and
Fury of the Sands. Wither will reduce his auto attacking damage to almost nothing. If he intends to kill you, he will be standing on top of your face spamming ghouls. You simply drop
Spirit Fire and enjoy the -40 armor debuff. Let's look at Nasus's ult. It deals percentile magic damage for 15 seconds, at rank five it drains 5% of their max hp per second. Okay FireRebel, I see how that racks up, but is it really enough damage to kill him? WAIT YOUNG ONE! I WAS NOT FINISHED! You see, your ultimate also converts 6.375% of the damage dealt into AD. Yep. Against a 2200 hp opponent, you will gain 7 AD per second simply by standing by him. Nice right? Still not finished! Don't forget that
Yorick is going to use his ultimate on himself. Yep, that means now you are hitting 2 enemies with 2200 hp. So thats 14 AD per second. Oh, we forgot the ghouls! They do have low max hp, though. Let's be modest and say they add 6 ad per second all together. That's 20 free AD per second! That's 300 after 15 seconds! Of course, there is the factor of magic resist! So lets say he has 50% magic damage reduction. Okay. Now its 10 ad per second. 150 free AD, still not shabby at all. But then there is the factor of the minions in the lane.. What if you get him to fight you in those minions?!?! It could be 50 ad per second, if the wave is big enough.
I've gone on for long enough about that, I figure. Last reason
Yorick is easy to beat is because his ghouls home in on you.. and you can farm your
Siphoning Strike off them. Lol.
















instead of 2.5 because you are a good player and bought




























I've gone on for long enough about that, I figure. Last reason


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