Hello, my game name is Desahri, and this is the first guide I have ever made. I am still in bronze II, but I don't play ranked a lot.
At last, I'm dutch, so my English might be a bit vague, but don't hesitate to ask any questions.

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Friends

Pros +Good cc +Heal +Strong poke +AOE stun / on-hit slow +Bewbies :D

Cons -High cooldowns -Squishy -No escape -Hard to hit best spells -High mana costs

Counter

Flash is a main spell for Nami as a support. Nami doesn't have a gapcloser/escape-tool, and is pretty squishy, so Flash is very effective on her.

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When you play with a few premades or a full team, I highly recommend Clairvoyance, you can place it every 60 seconds (54 seconds with 3 Summoner's Insight mastery) and makes sure your jungler won't be invaded, and prevents ganks on bottom lane. Clairvoyance isn't very strong in solo queue. I tried it, but it is a lot weaker than Exhaust, since your teammates never know when you place a Clairvoyance. Since Clairvoyance can't be upgraded by a mastery, I found it a lot weaker. Unless you can really use it efficiently, I wouldn't choose it.

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Exhaust in general is strong on a support, since it can help the adc to secure the kill. I do not use this spell often on Nami, since her Tidecaller's Blessing already gives a slow (if you hit your(or your adc's) basic attacks), however I always play with premades, and therefore always use Clairvoyance. In solo queue, I recommend Exhaust over Clairvoyance.

These are all possible runes you can take. The recommended page is what I have, but you can try different pages, to see what fits you the best.

Mark

magic penetration

In this guide, you will be poking a lot with your Tidecaller's Blessing, so to penetrate through the enemy adc early on is very strong.

attack damage

Since your Tidecaller's Blessing works on basic attacks, and you poke a lot with your basic attacks as well, some extra ad can be very annoying for the enemy.

armor penetration greater mark of armor penetration

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to get as much damage from you basic attacks, you can take some armor penetration as well, however, some extra flat ad can be strong as well.

armor

if you try to poke the adc, you can expect that you will receive a basic attack, so armor will make sure this damage isn't too high in the beginning, since Nami is pretty squishy.

Hybrid penetration greater mark of hybrid penetration

If you a combination of armor pen. and magic pen., you can replace them with hybrid pen., it will give you an advantage in stats. If u prefer only one of them, then don't buy this rune.

Seals

armor

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if you try to poke the adc, you can expect that you will receive a basic attack, so armor will amke sure this damage isn't too high in the beginning, since Nami is pretty squishy. The same reason as for the marks. Having a lot of armor is very nice, if you want to poke hard.

Glyphs

magic resist

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this is mostly to get less damage from spells from the enemy support. In this way, it is easier to poke the enemy adc without getting too much damage from the enemy support (e.g. Sona).

mana regeneration

most supports can be out of mana very quickly when they try to poke too much, so a bit of extra mana regen can be very useful.

Quintessence

gold

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A support doesn't have a lot of farm (normally), so the extra gold per 10 sec can be very important, else you may not be able to get enough gold for wards and your build, and you may suck late game.

Due to season 4, Greater Quintessence of Gold won't be necessary. Instead you can take some other quintessence:

ability power

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In my opinion, ability power doesn't scale that good on Nami, but your poke( Tidecaller's Blessing) will do a bit more damage

health

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It will give Nami a bit more health, so she will be able to sustain her lane better.

Starting items

x3 x3
This build is mainly meant for you to be able to use your spells more frequently. I mainly don't have to use this, since the mana cost of Tidecaller's Blessing isn't very high, however, if your timing of using it sucks, and you tend to use it too much, you may want to consider this build.


Because of Season 4 this build will let you get a lot more money, because of the tribute passive, which gives you bonus gold when you use a basic attack on the enemy champion. You will have to recall early and use your Stealth Ward wisely, since you only have one.


This item grants gold when you don't last-hit a minion. It also grants increased regeneration. Only take this if you plan to play passive.


Still a strong item, but right now, the other support items are a better choice on Nami. If your lane needs the sustain and the extra gold, you can consider it, but I wouldn't recommend it.

Trinkets

At the start of the game, you should start with a warding totem, because else, you won't have a lot of wards. You will be limited to your Stealth Ward and your adc's Stealth Ward.

After your 2nd or 3rd recall, I would sell your Stealth Ward, and buy a Sweeping Lens, especially against an aggressive/fed enemy botlane. You can remove wards in either the river (creating opportunities for ganks) or in the bush (so you can easily poke them or prevent them from poking you)


This is a map with stars, indicating the most important places to ward. This is for when you are the bottom team (purple). Turn your screen 180^o to see it for team blue's perspective


The red stars are very important to ward, if you don't want to be ganked.
Keeping the tri-bush warded is one of the most important things to ward. The enemy jungler can come through this bush, so if it isn't warded, you will get ganked without even being pushed.
Warding the river is only necessarily if you are pushing, since the jungler probably won't come when you are close to your turret.
The red star close to the elder lizard and the red star in the banana bush are places I ward in the beginning, depending on which buff the jungler starts with. This is to prevent the enemy to countergank the other buff.

The orange stars aren't necessarily to ward, but can be quite handy if they are warded. The bottommost orange star gives vision to all the 'entrances' the enemy jungler can come from.

The yellow stars can be important, depending on the situation. The bottom two stars are placed if you want vision on the enemy support. Against a Blitzcrank or Leona, this is very important.

These are wards to know where the enemy is guarding, and also to know the position of the enemy jungler.


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You want to get a Sightstone as early as possible. It will eventually save you a lot of money, since it refreshes every time you recall or respawn. a Sightstone gives you 4 wards, and since preseason 4, you can place 3 wards without one disappearing. These wards act the same as Stealth Ward.
Also, when you want to have vision on a brush, but just for a moment (to know whether it is safe or not), you can use the Sightstone. When the third ward from the sightstone is placed, the first will disappear, so it won't be a big loss when that ward disappears.

Items after sightstone

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If you bought the Ancient Coin you have to upgrade it to this item. it gives increased regeneration and you get more gold (4) when a minion dies near you.


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If you bought Spellthief's Edge you should buy this. It gives you more ability power, mana-regen, and you get more gold (8) for AA/spells hitting an enemy champion


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You want to build this, if you are losing very hard (if you have died 2 times without getting any kills or assists for example). Kindlegem gives a lot more early sustain, so you will survive enemy engages. It also gives CDR, making it possible to get spells earlier. Kindlegem isn't a gp10 though, you have to keep that in mind


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I don't recommend Chalice of Harmony, but if you spam your abilities a lot, and the enemy support trades more damage with you when poking, I recommend the Chalice of Harmony. The mana regen and the passive(increasing mana regen with percentage of mana missing), gives you the ability to poke more, and the magic resist makes sure you can trade damage easier with the enemy support. (I only buy this when I play Galio support)

Boots and enchantments

If you want be back at your lane quickly, I recommend Mobility Boots. With the extra speed, it is also easier to clear enemy wards safely


Ionian Boots of Lucidity gives you the ability the cast spells quicker, and Nami has a lot of cc, so you may want to buy this if your teamfights are too weak.


Ninja Tabi is more meant if you lose botlane hard. It will give you extra sustain against their adc.


It is always nice if someone takes this enchantment. Enchantment: Captain is better on a tank, but if the tank doesn't take it, you should.


If you know what it does, it doesn't need any notes. The insta-heal and speedboost are very strong to get back in the game quickly.

Final items

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An underestimated item. The active on it gives a slow on a target enemy champion ánd surrounding enemies, and it has given my team quite a lot of kills. The slow is only 2 seconds but it reduces the movement speed by 50%


talisman of ascension
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talisman of ascension's active gives a small speedboost to all allies within its range. It can be used to engage and disengage. The extra health, health regen and mana regen makes it a very good item for squishy pokers, such as Namiand Sona

face of the mountain
...targon's brace
With face of the mountain, you will get quite a lot of health and health regen. the passive is very strong as well, since you will now have 4 stacks, but its active will be quite useless. When activating, an ally will get a shield based of 10% of your max health, and you will lose 20% of your current health. Nami isn't known for having tons of health, the active will mostly be disadvantageous.


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Twin Shadows sends out two ghost which will go to an enemy and slows them. They have quite a long range, so if someone is chasing an enemy, you should immediately use it. This is one of my favorite items to end with on a support.

zeke's herald
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zeke's herald is quite expensive, but is quite useful. At my level, I never see the AD bruiser taking this item, so I normally take it myself. It gives extra poke on your basic attacks, it gives CDR, it gives extra sustain, and it provides an aura for your team (if in range) which gives extra AD and lifesteal. I only take this if nobody else does, and if it works in our team composition.


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When the Ohmwrecker came out, I thought it was an OP item. This wasn't the case, but it is very strong. It disables a tower for 2.5 seconds. If our lane is winning, and I get too much money, I always try to buy the Ohmwrecker. Beside its active, it also gives ability power and health/mana regen. Nice item to have, but very expensive. This is not a item I would go for, unless I have way too much money.


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This is a must-have for most supports. It gives a high amount of mana regen (14 mana regen + UNIQUE passive: mana font), extra magic resist, and a very strong active: It removes a stun, fear, etc and heals 150 + 10 x level. You should always try to use it on the adc. Might take a long time before you can buy it, but it is definitely worth it.


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Sometimes, a support gets a lot of kills, since your adc can't secure it, or your basic attacks deals the finishing blow by accident. nothing is wrong with that (though it is not ideal either), but if it is the case, you should do a bit more damage, else it is wasted money. I like to buy an Athene's Unholy Grail, since it gives a lot of magic stats (magic resist, ability power, mana regen and CDR). If you are a non-poke champion, like Leona, you should go for a tanky item, like Randuin's Omen


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Locket of the Iron Solari is a very strong item in general. It gives you health and armor, making you very resistant against the enemy adc. Also, the active can make you win a teamfight. Some people really underestimate the power of the shield. Since every ally in range gets the shield when activated, it gives a bigger health advantage.

Notes

DON'T take both Mikael's Blessing and Athene's Unholy Grail, since its unique passives are the same (mana font), so it won't be worth the money

It is possible that you don't like most of the support items, or you don't use them (e.g. you never use ohmwrecker, or all turrets are down). You can instead buy an AP item. I don't recommend buying Rabadon's Deathcap, as most supports do in low elo. Instead, buy Morellonomicon, since grieveous wounds is way more useful for your team( Nami doesn't deal tons of damage with AP).

Passive

Surging Tides gives her and her allies +40 movement speed when they are hit by her abilities. This boost stays for 1,5 seconds.

Surging Tides is mainly meant for her Ebb and Flow/ Tidecaller's Blessing/ Tidal Wave. It works on her Aqua Prison as well, but it is more useful to use it with your Ebb and Flow/ Tidecaller's Blessing.
Surging Tides on her Tidal Wave is mostly meant for a teamfight initiate.

Q


Aqua Prison launches a bubble to a selected area and stuns an enemy for 1,5 seconds.

Aqua Prison can be as deadly as a Rocket Grab. If your adc reacts quick enough, he can do tons of damage.
During the late game, you can turn teamfights with your aqua prison, if you hit 2 or more enemies. If these two enemies are the adc/apc, your chances of winning are very positive, since their main damage dealers can't do damage for 1.5 seconds, and won't be able to escape.

W


[Ebb and flow]] is a splash of water that bounces between 3 champions. It either bounces from an ally(including herself) to an enemy back to another ally(including herself again), or the other way around. If an enemy or ally is first hit by Ebb and Flow, it won't hit him twice. Below are 4 ways in which Ebb and Flow can bounce.
Ebb and Flow can be quite annoying for the enemy, since it deals damage to them, and when they deal damage to you, it heals you again, so damage trading is hard however, it has a very high mana cost, so you don't want to use it a lot.
In teamfights, it is better to focus more on healing, target an ally first, so it will heal two of your allies. The damage of Ebb and Flow isn't that high to first target an enemy and hit 2 enemies with your Ebb and Flow.

E


Tidecaller's Blessing gives the basic attack of herself or an ally bonus magic damage, and when a basic attack hits with this buff, it slows the enemy. This effect only stays for 6 seconds or 3 basic attacks.

Early game, this ability is a very big poke, and it slows as well. You can use it on yourself, to poke, or use it on your adc when you want to engage (e.g. when the jungler comes).
In teamfights, it won't be that useful anymore, you mostly use it when you win the teamfight, and want to secure the last kills, or when you have to escape, to give someone a boost, or slow an enemy. You will have to come close to him to hit a basic attack, so it might be a bit too dangerous to do so.

R


Tidal Wave sends out a wave which knocks up the enemies hit, and later slows them. The slow is determined by how far the wave has travelled.

Tidal Wave is a very strong engagement ability, which speeds up your allies, and slows your enemies.
In lane, when you hit your Aqua Prison and can't quite finish the enemy adc or supp, you can use it.
You can also use it when a jungler comes. If it is warded, you have to use it very early, so that the enemy will realise too late that the jungler comes to gank.
On top of that, when the jungler comes for a gank, when the enemy is hit by Tidal Wave, it will be very easy to hit your Aqua Prison as well. The enemy will be CC-locked, which gives the jungler more than enough time to come.
In teamfights, you can literally 'turn the tides'. The knoch and slow gives your allies (especially the apc mid) the chance to hit their spells, and turn around teamfights.

You always want to level your ult as soon as possible. Tidal Wave is a very important ability, and by leveling it, you increase its damage and slow, and decrease its cooldown

As said before, you want to poke by using your Tidecaller's Blessing

Ebb and Flow gives a pretty nice heal at max level, which helps your adc. Also, it can do quite a lot of damage when it hits the enemy as well

You want to level Aqua Prison at last, since the stun is the only importantpart of it, and the stun duration doesn't change by levelling.

Nami is a very squishy champion, so I want to spread my mastery points within the defense and utility tree.

makes you less vulnerable against enemy adc AA

to be able to stay longer in lane

easier for Nami to win a poke trade and to play more aggrssive

to give Nami more health

to give Nami even more health

not very useful, but necessary to go deeper into the tree, and movement speed is always nice

to give Nami more mana regen

to make the trinkets easier to place, since their cast range is pretty small (especially the on from the sweeper)

extra health regen for every 300 mana, can be quite useful when building mana on 2nd item

improve the effectiveness of potions, useful when poked very hard

if you just haven't enough mana, or you almost die, the instant health and mana is pretty useful

gp10 is always nice to have on supports

If your adc can farm, you will receive money from his last-hits as well.

gives you more starting gold, to be able to buy a ward and two pots, instead of one pot

to have more mana and be able to poke more

to receive money from your poke (with your Tidecaller's Blessing(works well with Spellthief's Edge)

to be able to use your spells more

I want to explain how I play Nami. I try to make it asap (got technical difficulties, won't come probably)

1-10 changed clairvoyance to exhaust, since some people can't read that clairvoyance should only be taken (my recommendation) with pre-made bot

13-8 Added hybrid penetration runes

2-8 re-added all pictures (photobucket reached bandwidth). added Sightstone to items and removed the old Locket of the Iron Solari

29-7 minor lay-out changes (thanks to XeresAce) and edited the tree in the masteries section ( Awareness was still in it)

25-7 changed masteries (Agreed with a comment in the discussion). Awareness removed and Biscuiteer / Explorer's Ward

(28-9 i've been reading some comments and it seems that my guide is quite useful. I want to thank all the people who gave feedback to me)

27-11 jeez has been a long time since my last update. I quickly changed the masterypage and added king-of-the-mountian. Will be updated inmensely this upcoming weekend

30-11 I wont finish this weekend, very busy, hope I finish next week

7-12 this weekend finish masteries part. Next week finish items

10-12 Thanks to rainbowbutcher, I saw I made a mistake with the ancient coin. Instead of getting gold when the adc last-hits, u just get gold when not dealing the final blow.

14-12 completed items after Sightstone. tomorrow finishing it for good

16-12 FINITO :D

2-1 (2014) made a few notes (thanks to NorthernRedStar) in the item-section.

4-1 I will edit a few things over this week and next week (due to tips from Joxuu)