I'm Empress Bee. I'm a support main and I've been playing Nami for 8 years now. I've reached Grandmaster several times playing mainly Nami. This is my no frills guide to how I play Nami.

I stream on Twitch. Feel free to ask me any questions there or join my Discord and shoot me a question on there.

Nami, the Tidecaller. Nami is a ranged enchanter support played in bot lane. Nami provides sustain, engage, disengage, and poke. She is the jack of all trades but master of none. Therefore, she is a good pick in solo q because she will provide something in all team comps and can adjust her play depending on her AD's style.

Nami's Positives → Easy trades → Ranged autos → Sustain → Hard CC

Because Nami has ranged autos she is able to contest the enemy adc for CS easily. Nami has a very strong laning phase due to her W which provides both poking and healing. Nami also provides CC pre-6 and CC post 6.

Nami is pretty squishy since she is an enchanter. Therefore, she is vulnerable versus hard engage enemies. She is also extremely telegraphed with her Q and R. This makes it easy for the enemy to flash her CC or dodge it in general.

Nami's Negatives → Squishy → CC is unreliable (telegraphed, slow, hard to land) → Somewhat reliant on another CC engage to land Q

★ Summon Aery helps Nami with poking and shielding at the same time. Once she gets ardent censor Summon Aery applies ardent with Tidecaller's Blessing. ★ Manaflow Band Ebb and Flow has a high mana cost. Mana flow helps offset the cost. ★ Transcendence provides Nami with 10 ability haste at level 10 and additional 20% reduction on basic abilities after a takedown at level 11. ★ Absolute Focus is an option if you want extra power in lane instead of waiting until level 10 to feel transcendence. I take this in a lane that I will be a bully in and will never be below 70% health. ★ Scorch adds on extra poke during the laning phase. ★ Biscuit Delivery lets Nami be very aggressive during laning phase by providing more mana. This rune isn't required if you feel as though you do not need the extra sustain or mana. ★ Time Warp Tonic I take this rune because in an engage meta this helps me burst heal myself in a fight or if I get caught. Cosmic Insight is an option if you do not like the time warp tonic route. It gives an additional 15 ability haste and 10 item haste. Both very valuable stats for a support to spam your skills more often. Perfect Timing is a viable option against comps that have assassins. Bone Plating decreases the damage taken throughout the game. Revitalize increases aery shield and Ebb and Flow healing by 5%. If the target is low health it is instead increased by 10%.

IGNITE

★ Ignite: This summoner spell is both offensive and utility. This provides Nami extra damage in lane but also applies grievous wounds (debuff that reduces all healing received) to combat Heal.

FLASH

★ Flash: Provides utility to escape or engage with Flash → Aqua Prison.

EXHAUST

OPTIONAL Exhaust: An option against engage lanes and enemy compositions with assassins and high mobility champions. Exhaust is a targeted ability and makes up for Nami's lack of consistent CC.

HEAL

OPTIONAL Heal: A defensive and utility option to compliment your AD when they take Teleport, Barrier, Cleanse. Do not take heal if your AD already has it as they do not stack efficiently.

PASSIVE ABILITY

Surging Tides (Passive): When Nami's abilities hit allied champions they gain 60 (+20% of ability power) Movement Speed for 1.5 seconds. This effect is doubled for allies hit by Tidal Wave.

Q

Aqua Prison (Q): Sends a bubble into the air towards a targeted area. When it lands, it deals 75 / 130 / 185 / 240 / 295 (+50% of ability power) magic damage to all enemies in the area of impact and encases them into bubbles. Enemies hit by the bubble are lifted into the air and stunned for 1.5 seconds before being dropped to the ground.

W

Ebb and Flow (W): Unleashes a stream of water that bounces back and forth between allied and enemy champions. On Ally Hit: Heals the ally for 60 / 85 / 110 / 135 / 160 (+30% of ability power) and bounces to a nearby enemy champion. On Enemy Hit: Deals 70 / 110 / 150 / 190 / 230 (+50% of ability power) magic damage to the enemy and bounces to a nearby allied champion.

E

Tidecaller's Blessing (E): Empowers an allied champion for 6 seconds or until they have attacked 3 times. During this time, their basic attacks and spells deal 25 / 40 / 55 / 70 / 85 (+20% of ability power) bonus magic damage and slow the target hit by 15 / 20 / 25 / 30 / 35 (+5% of ability power) % for 1 second.

R

Tidal Wave (R): Summons a Tidal Wave outward from Nami's position. The Tidal Wave briefly knocks up enemies that it comes in contact with, slowing them by 50 / 60 / 70% and dealing 150 / 250 / 350 (+60% of ability power) magic damage. The slow duration increases based on how far the Tidal Wave has traveled, with a minimum duration of 2 seconds and a maximum of 4 seconds.

Q

Aqua Prison (Q): Set up your Q with the Tidecaller's Blessing slow, Tidal Wave CC, or another form of CC from a teammate. Hold Q until all movement spells have been used unless you are confident you can land it or they're already CC locked.

W

Ebb and Flow (W): Use autos as the main form of harrassment with W as follow up to ensure won trades. Since the bounces have diminishing returns you will have to make a choice: If you took more damage than wanted: W yourself and then bounce it to the enemy. If you want to do more damage: W the enemy and bounce it to yourself. Aim for 2 bounces. 3 bounces makes W incredibly mana efficient.

E

Tidecaller's Blessing (E): E can be used to add additional damage during auto harassing and on Ebb and Flow. It should also be used to make it easier to land Aqua Prison due to the slow.

R

Tidal Wave (R): Your bread and butter combo of peeling, engaging, and disengaging will always be R into Aqua Prison. R has a knock up and a slow that sets up for a perfect cc combination. Aqua Prison into R is unideal due to the lack of reliability of landing. Nami's ultimate has a small channel before the wave comes out which allows you to buffer enemy CC. Buffering the enemy CC with your CC allows you to still be putting out damage and buying time before they can follow up. Use this when you don't have an option to dodge.

Teleport Timing

Timing : Teleports have 5 rings that get smaller towards the center. Throw Aqua Prison when the 5th ring begins to accurately time their arrival. This beautiful demonstration was created by Icy Pengin.

Ult Timing

Timing : Your ult animation can only be canceled by death. Use this to still output damage, peel, and delay enemy follow up while CC'd.

Thank you for taking the time to read my guide! If you have any questions you can find me on Twitch or join my Discord.