Nasus Build Guide by Gott der 7 Meere

About this Build

I play Nasus as a jungler. Apart from allowing him to farm his Q in peace, Nasus is exceptionally quick at clearing camps, can solo dragon with ease, has good sustain and can duel and gank successfully. With this guide I present to you an utility centered build. I also do not get a Sheen. Read further to get a different look on Nasus.


Please note that this guide assumes you already know the basics about LoL, I won't explain in detail, since I want to make this guide as short as possible. For more detailed information I suggest you first read jhoijhoi's Nasus guide.

The reasons behind my build...

• Why no Sheen (and ) ? - Champions with On-Hit effects all profit from Spellblade items and Nasus is no exceptions. But are they neccessary and cost-effective on Nasus ?
  In terms of damage they provide more burst but less DPS than pure AD. So I would say they are even or slightly in favor of Spellblade items, since they allow for easier Q-farm. But look at the rest of the stats they provide. They give you early Mana and Ability Power, both wich are weak for a jungle Nasus. When looking at a way to solve Mana problems, stacking Mana will require him to recall to base mor frequently and it will run out in the crucial stages of the game. Mana Regeneration is far superior and we already get a bunch of MReg items, so sadly, the Mana from spellblade items is superflus. And regarding the fact that his ult damage doesn't profit from AP (due to a maximum damage cap) I'd say AP is also weaker than AD. The last and most controversal thing about these items are the slowing effects. They pretty nice - thats the reason people buy them - but they are redundant. Unless you really need to slow several targets, your Wither is the only thing you need. The really expensive slowing effects are not needed on Nasus - unlike other junglers.
  To sum it up, AD is cheaper and works more reliably, spellblade items are just too expensive, trust me. I really advise you go for Hexdrinker or Spirit of the Elder Lizard if you need damage.
  
• Why instead of s ? - Because saving 180g (the equivalent of one jungle clear) is quite amazing early game. It means you can afford boots and wards when the other jungler can't, something that can snowball a game in your favor.
  
• Why CDR runes and no MR ? - Since MR is useless in the jungle and you will get an early anyway I do not see MR Glyphs as the best option. CDR items are more expensive than MR items and the CDR Glyphs got buffed recently. I really love them, give them a try.
  
• Why don't you max or at lvl 9 ? - The reason is simple: You don't need that to farm or gank or fight. Ranking Siphoning Strike first allows for more Q-farm but makes your clear speed (overal farm) and ganks weak. Spirit Fire first makes your clear speed explode but your Q-farm and ganks drop and gives you mana issues. 1x 3x 5x around lvl 9 is what works best for me.

Pre-Game Settings

Summoner Spells take and either , or . Allthough I recommend Ghost now, other summoner spells can still have a lot of use on Nasus, always remember he is quite speede as it stands and can lock down his targets with wither.

My masteries go deep into utiliy with only some points into offense (CDR) and defense (reduced minion damage). We get the utility tree for which allows for the start, the increased sustain from lifesteal, spellvamp(!) and free pot, the huge CDR for more Q's and finally the movement speed increase, that makes Nasus ganks so strong.

Runes are AD/Armor/CDR/MS and as many Lifesteal Quints as you need to stay at high health in the jungle (I usually take 2). Intrestingly Spellvamp quints give just as much sustain and you may also decide in favour of them. You can also take attack speed (AS) marks, but they won't improve your clearspeed since it is always the waiting time for your Q that matters the most.

Abilities

HH Soul Eater (Passive) AD, AS, APen: A huge amount of sustain for free. Just adding a tiny bit more of Lifesteal can make you regen more damage than you take in the jungle. Late game the free Lifesteal from a farmed Q (and your AA) is quite big.

HH Siphoning Strike (Q) AD, CDR, APen, Farm: First of all, a very short CD AA-reset that boosts your effective AS by ~50% and makes AD pretty good on Nasus. But then it has this additional, stacking damage - awesome for an on-hit effect! A good Nasus player should never loose a game once it goes past the 50min (+ 1000 total damage) mark due to this skill. While your enemies have a limit to their DPS - even Vayne - you do not. You can afford a full tank build and still one-shot her. So make sure you last hit with this - monsters, minions, towers, enemies, everything. It gets increasingly easier with farm/AD and CDR.

HH Wither (W) CDR: First you have to understand that unlike bonus AS or MS that only increase your already existing stats, debuffs just cut down the entire value. Therefore a 35%-95% minus on movement will make your enemies freeze and the AS debuf will take away all their AA-power. Even with 35% Tenacity, you still disable a target for 3.25 sec every 6.6 sec. Realize that your enemie's first panicking efforts to escape are futile, take your time and get to them, --AA--AA them. And if they believe they can escape with or after it wears off - just follow them for the next Wither.
HH Spirit Fire (E) AP, CDR, MPen: A big AOE that allows you to clear camps in a heartbeat. And since Nasus is awesome, this skill needs to be awesome, too. Armor Reduction will increase your AA and Q damage to monsters - and I mean really increase. Negative Armor values mean you deal additional damage. Sadly this doesn't work on dragon and baron. If you want to split push, max it first, but usually 2 points are enough to bring creeps to -HP and 3 points clear your jungle. Beware of the Mana cost at higher ranks (I suggest you get if you want to max it early).
HH Fury of the Sands (R) AP, CDR, MPen: Without the 3600 damage cap, this skill would make AP Nasus the most OP thing in the League. To get an impression of the damage it does, just go stand near dragon and ult. It is huge. Remember you are awesome and you know that there is more to the deal. First of all a sizable health gain, almost a free (and don't bother about , your Health gain remains unaffected). Lastly the more damage you do, the more AD you will recieve. After some seconds you will get 200 AD (!) per enemy in your Aura. Know this and do not run away when you are low, you can easily clean up with -- or just by auto attacking (!). There is nothing more you can wish for as an ultimate. Oh ... did I mention it makes you big and scary ... well it does.


Get one point into Siphoning Strike to farm it up and max it when you think you need it to actually fight. Get 2-3 points Spirit Fire early for jungleing and max it when you want to split push. If the above criteria are leaving you points, put them all into Wither unless you can rank up your Fury of the Sands.

How to build him ?

Due to his lifesteal and with the gold from utility, Nasus can start with a , saving 180g without any compromises. You can buy one additional just in case. This puts you quite ahead of the enemy jungler as it is equal to one jungle clear! You can almost always afford to get boots or wards on your first trip back.

Your will clear the jungle camps and let you lasthit the big monsters with . Sooner or later you will notice that in terms of sustain, you lack Mana, not Health. You should therefore get a Philosopher's Stone early. Together with the and the Philo upgrades you won't have any Mana issues. Obviously you also want asap. Also start building towards wich is core to almost everyone of your first items.
Please keep in mind that you have no points into defense. Always buy early resistances, especially if you have CDR Glyphs!


Depending on how well the game is going, you want to upgrade your boots, get some CDR and buy your first major item: . You also need to think about wether you want to build an (and probably a ) or Shurelya's Reverie. Go for , or depending on team composition - for Enchantment: is a must have. As gives CDR now, you may also choose to get it quite early - 500 HP, 10% CDR, Tenacity for only 2000g!


Since the changes to you can now happily rush . Allthough CDR might be redundant, Shurelya's Reverie can still help you and your team. Get / / as your mid game items. As you also want damage you can start building towards or if you don't need the MR go for Lifesteal items like or instead. Please note that while these items give damage, we don't get them just for the sake of damage. They do just as much for your survivability with additional lifesteal, MR and handy active and passive effects.


This is where games usually end and only occasionally you will get to the full build:


Note that this build is very balanced and will work in most cases; however, there are times that call for different items, so you might end up with something like this:

Closure

Thanks for reading and credits to JhoiJhoi. Feel free to post your feedback.

(But before you post, think about this: Its a miniguide, so takes those 60 seconds to completely read it and your confusions might be gone.

• I explain my skill order but I will never impose it on you. If you like to max Q early, be my guest.
• Runes are as always what each player individually thinks works best to win early game. Just because I take a CDR glyphs, doesn't mean you should, too.
• Masteries really don't need explanation, look at them, get the gist and put them where you please.
• If you don't want a specific item, well... don't get it.

No one needs to play Nasus like I do, I just hope this guide helps you to get to understand Nasus better.)