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Choose Champion Build:
-
Nami Build
-
My Usual Build
Spells:
Flash
Exhaust
Items
Ability Order
Surging Tides (PASSIVE)
Nami Passive Ability
Threats & Synergies
Extreme
Major
Even
Minor
Tiny
None
Low
Ok
Strong
Ideal
Ideal
Strong
Ok
Low
None
Introduction
Hopefully this guide helps you with how to play Nami and what to do! Before going into the guide, I would like to notify that this is my first guide on this website, so very sorry if there are any mistakes or anything! Feel free to mention something wrong with the guide or what your opinions are. Alright, let's become the Master Tidecaller!
Pros
+Very versatile pick with lots of good synergies
+Can win pretty much every matchup if played well
+One of the best peeling supports in game
+Has tons of CC
Cons
-Very squishy and has no mobility to escape
-Can be mana hungry when playing aggressive or trying to sustain
-CC is not reliable all the time
-Very high skill cap: she's quite hard to pick up as a new player
The main reason to pick
Nami is her versatility. If you play aggressive or passive, she still offers what most support need, a heal that can poke and heal. She can usually deal with most matchups, but it depends on if you can play her correctly and adapt to her kit.
Nami tends to transition well into mid/late game because she has a reliable amount of CC that can turn the fight around. In addition to, her kit helps her ADC stay alive and makes it easier to escape from ganks or something like that.
Even though there are pros, there are always cons.
Nami is a very squishy and vulnerable target. If she's been hit by any sort of crowd control, she's almost always dead after. She kites around decently, but you are always vulnerable since you don't really have an escape. Although her CC is really good, it's also really hard to utilize in team fights. Her
Tidal Wave is very slow and can be dodged easily, and her
Aqua Prison is a hard skillshot to land ( especially since it's sort of a weird skillshot to land ). She's also very mana heavy, especially if you play aggressive.
+Very versatile pick with lots of good synergies
+Can win pretty much every matchup if played well
+One of the best peeling supports in game
+Has tons of CC
Cons
-Very squishy and has no mobility to escape
-Can be mana hungry when playing aggressive or trying to sustain
-CC is not reliable all the time
-Very high skill cap: she's quite hard to pick up as a new player
The main reason to pick


Even though there are pros, there are always cons.






The main setup I would use for Nami's support page would be 0/18/12 because it provides the utility that Nami needs for her early game. The Cunning tree provides mana regen ( which is always useful with
Nami ), movement speed, gold during laning, cooldown reduction, and an increased heal! The Resolve tree gives her a little bit of health/health regen, movement speed, and cooldown reduction on your spells!

When going through the process of figuring out what runes to get on Nami, it should depend on what your lane matchup is. I usually tend to go with defensive quints and seals to make up for her squishy early game. I also take some utility and magic resist glyphs for a little power spike in the early game. Sometimes, I take three mana regen glyphs just to make up for her mana heaviness.
Greater Mark of Hybrid Penetration Greater Mark of Hybrid Penetration
The hybrid penetration marks are my favorite for Nami because they allow you to use your early power as much as possible; armor pen for your ranged auto attacks to abuse melee / low ranged supports heavily, and magic pen for your abilities.
Greater Seal of Health
Greater Seal of Health
In bot lane you'll usually be laning against different champions with multiple damage types which is why full armor isn't that great. Besides that, the combination of armor quints + health seals right now actually gives you a better totals. I would recommend to always take flat runes because otherwise you risk getting snowballed upon just because you're squishy early game, but it all depends on the situation.
Greater Glyph of Mana Regeneration
Greater Glyph of Mana Regeneration
I like to take a few (max 3 or 4) mana regen glyphs to slightly make up for your mana problems. It's completely dependent on you if you feel the need to use these or not, but I'd never get more than 4 because you'll otherwise be sacrificing too much magic resist.
Greater Glyph of Magic Resist
Greater Glyph of Magic Resist
You'll most likely be facing a support that will very likely deal magic damage, which is why these are a reasonable pick. I wouldn't recommend taking scaling magic resist because you'll always be getting some magic resist in the standard build and you'll really need to get as much defensive stats as you possibly can for your early game/mid game.
Greater Quintessence of Armor
Greater Quintessence of Armor
Armor quints + health seals is a really effective combination – this will provide you as much defensive stats as you possibly can.
Greater Mark of Hybrid Penetration Greater Mark of Hybrid Penetration
The hybrid penetration marks are my favorite for Nami because they allow you to use your early power as much as possible; armor pen for your ranged auto attacks to abuse melee / low ranged supports heavily, and magic pen for your abilities.
Greater Seal of Health

In bot lane you'll usually be laning against different champions with multiple damage types which is why full armor isn't that great. Besides that, the combination of armor quints + health seals right now actually gives you a better totals. I would recommend to always take flat runes because otherwise you risk getting snowballed upon just because you're squishy early game, but it all depends on the situation.
Greater Glyph of Mana Regeneration

I like to take a few (max 3 or 4) mana regen glyphs to slightly make up for your mana problems. It's completely dependent on you if you feel the need to use these or not, but I'd never get more than 4 because you'll otherwise be sacrificing too much magic resist.
Greater Glyph of Magic Resist

You'll most likely be facing a support that will very likely deal magic damage, which is why these are a reasonable pick. I wouldn't recommend taking scaling magic resist because you'll always be getting some magic resist in the standard build and you'll really need to get as much defensive stats as you possibly can for your early game/mid game.
Greater Quintessence of Armor

Armor quints + health seals is a really effective combination – this will provide you as much defensive stats as you possibly can.
On
Nami, you generally want to start W
Ebb and Flow first. Make sure not to level anything before you get in lane because in case of an invade, you'll want Q
Aqua Prison. The reason
Ebb and Flow is better to start with in lane is because it has reliable damage than
Aqua Prison. The versatility it gives + the possible bounces make it a really strong ability to trade at level 1 with heals and damage. In addition to, if you max W, the heal will be massive ( especially with the keystone mastery the increases the effect of healing ).
After level 1 you'll want to get
Aqua Prison to make for effective trades and escapes. Not taking Q will leave you vulnerable. At level 3, you can either go for another point in your
Ebb and Flow or take
Tidecaller's Blessing( E ). This generally depends on the matchup (do you need the slow or the extra heal/damage) but also on your mana consumption. Sometimes, I would put two points in
Ebb and Flow to increase healing against Soraka or Sona.
You should max
Ebb and Flow first by level 9. However,
Tidecaller's Blessing can be very strong in poke matchups if you don't need the heal. The low mana costs will then allow you to keep playing more aggressively. If you find the heal to be too low for a heal, I would recommend maxing E for the trades your ADC can do.
Finally, take your ultimate
Tidal Wave whenever you can (levels 6, 11 and 16) and max
Aqua Prison last because you only use it for the CC.





After level 1 you'll want to get




You should max


Finally, take your ultimate


Starting Items



This is your standard start.


Besides



Passive Starting Items



This is a start for a very situational matchups ( where you can't rely on getting gold from poke or auto attacks through

The final upgrade of this item ( Talisman of Ascension ) is usually a lot better for a support like


Core Items
Core items are items that you should be getting every game, since they're such important items to Nami ( or any support in general ), they should never be replaced.










After finishing Sightstone, swap out your




Offensive Items
Offensive items are the items you should get when you're winning your lane. They often provide some AP and other useful stats, meaning you can make use of the effective snowball lead. When behind/even however, you mainly want to focus on team oriented items that can help during team fights and thus you shouldn't get these items in such a situation.













Utility Items
Utility items are the typical support items that allow you to assist your team in winning fights. They usually provide defensive stats and a very good active and or passive. When getting these actives, make sure to use them effectively because otherwise you're wasting the item's effectiveness.








This part of the guide will explain to you all you need to know about the laning phase, specifically for Nami but still applying to most supports. Even if you are an experienced support player, I would recommend reading this part perhaps if you didn't know something!
To start off, never level a spell before you actually arrive in lane or require it in an invade or comparable situation. You´ll sometimes need the
Aqua Prison in case of an invade, but otherwise you really want
Ebb and Flow.
Always make sure to cover for your jungler, but don't cover if they're doing another camp that's far away from your lane. However, if you have to leash for your jungler keep this in mind: NEVER stay too long. Give him a few auto attacks, but make sure to head to lane in time. You can also give a
Ebb and Flow if your jungler get's too low.
What's the purpose of this? The current bot lane meta is currently defined by level 1 pushes. If you push at level one, you'll kill minions faster than your enemy, but this also means you'll get XP at a faster rate than your enemies do. If you kill the first wave + first 3 melee minions of the second wave, you'll hit level 2 – unless you missed some XP from getting to lane late.
Why is this important? Well, if you push faster than your enemy, you'll get level 2 first. Whoever hits level 2 first has a MASSIVE edge in bot lane since you have one extra spell to deal damage with (+ your base stats often scale on level). If you hit level 2 before they do, you can force a trade and come out really far ahead.
To start off, never level a spell before you actually arrive in lane or require it in an invade or comparable situation. You´ll sometimes need the


Always make sure to cover for your jungler, but don't cover if they're doing another camp that's far away from your lane. However, if you have to leash for your jungler keep this in mind: NEVER stay too long. Give him a few auto attacks, but make sure to head to lane in time. You can also give a

What's the purpose of this? The current bot lane meta is currently defined by level 1 pushes. If you push at level one, you'll kill minions faster than your enemy, but this also means you'll get XP at a faster rate than your enemies do. If you kill the first wave + first 3 melee minions of the second wave, you'll hit level 2 – unless you missed some XP from getting to lane late.
Why is this important? Well, if you push faster than your enemy, you'll get level 2 first. Whoever hits level 2 first has a MASSIVE edge in bot lane since you have one extra spell to deal damage with (+ your base stats often scale on level). If you hit level 2 before they do, you can force a trade and come out really far ahead.


However, never go to aggressive to poke the enemy because you'll get a lot of minion aggro that way. Only trade when the enemy minion wave is approximately the size of yours, or smaller. If the enemy wave is bigger than yours, you'll get more minion aggro from attacking them, then you'll probably deal to them – that's another reason why pushing the wave is important: it means the enemy won't be able to engage on you or they'll get a lot of minion aggro. Another risk is that you're really squishy, so you'll get punished fairly hard if you misposition, so never go too far ahead of your ADC or you will die.
Usually, you should try to get a











During fights, you should mainly prioritize hitting the enemy ADC with your




Mid/Late Game
Mid/late game is mainly about two things; objectives ( Baron, Dragon, towers, etc. ) and teamfights.

First of all, in late game it is really important to have vision control over Baron and Dragon. Make sure to ward the objective iteslf and the surroundings so you'll never lose an objective due to not having enough vision around. Another reason wards are important is because it also allows you to pick enemies off guard and make rotations around quickly.
A rotation in League means you move from one lane to another, quickly, in order to take an objective. If you see an enemy is out of position through your vision control, you can move around to the other side of the map with your team and take a free turret. The same goes with Dragons and Barons ( even though they are a bit more fight/team incorporated ). Always be sure to check your timers on the objectives so you can notify your team about what to do, as well as when to provide vision. You mainly want to do this so the enemy team doesn't get the upper hand if they try and take the objective.
In teamfights, your main objective is to keep your carries ( mostly your ADC and AP mid laner ) alive, and nothing but that. You can try to create a pick with your







These synergies are ADC's that are fairly strong when paired along with
Nami. Although they are good in lane together, it doesn't always mean you will win lane. It all depends on how you play, and what you do!
Varus has very good synergy with
Nami because both are excellent at poking down an enemy and have a massive amount of crowd control at level 6. Generally, you'll be waiting until you hit
Aqua Prison and then follow up with a
Varus
Piercing Arrow and your standard combo. At level 6, you can DESTROY your enemies if you hit
Aqua Prison into
Chain of Corruption leading into
Tidal Wave.
Lucian is a dominant laning champion when combined with
Nami because you have high potential in short trades. His double shot passive applies
Tidecaller's Blessing for 100% and if you hit
Aqua Prison, you can pretty much take down most of your enemies health in one trade once he gets some levels in his
Piercing Light. In late game, your synergy isn't as great since he doesn't really need such hard peel, but your crowd control combined with
The Culling can still make for very strong poke/damage.
Caitlyn is one of my favorite ADC's with
Nami because of the long range poke and disengage.
Nami basically allows
Caitlyn to stay outside of damage from the enemies and allows her to keep hitting autoattacks empowered with
Tidecaller's Blessing. In certain matchups, you could consider maxing
Tidecaller's Blessing first but only if you feel confident in your synergy with your ADC.
Jinx works fairly well with
Nami because
Nami has the utility to keep her safe in teamfights and in a 2v2, both of you can poke pretty well using her long range Q
Switcheroo! autoattacks. In all, it's a standard lane with nothing complicated. You need to use everything you can to keep her alive since she's super squishy. Also, you can combo her
Flame Chompers! along with your
Aqua Prison to make your enemies locked down during fights/trades.
Ezreal isn't my favorite with
Nami, but the downside is that
Ezreal doesn't really fit into the ADC meta/role. Regardless, you have a super devastating poke combo (
Aqua Prison into
Tidecaller's Blessing empowered
Mystic Shot and
Ebb and Flow is a very effective as well as an easy trade. When yu hit level 6, you also get a very long ranged AoE ultimate combo. The early levels during laning phase might be difficult though because Ezreal is quite weak during that time.
Tristana is on my top lists with
Nami because
Nami has the utility to get her to the late game stage and keep her alive all game. Even in the early game, both of you can be quite effective by pushing down botlane and poking with
Explosive Shot and your standard combo ( empowering ADC with E, then bubbling the enemy, then heal for trades ). When
Tristana reaches her late game stage, she becomes incredibly powerful and can auto attack from a safe distance while being able to turn aggressive if necessary.
The synergy between
Miss Fortune and
Nami isn't as strong as it might seem to be. This is because your ultimate isn't instant/fast like
Crescendo or
Solar Flare ( which are very famous combos when playing with
Miss Fortune, but takes time to travel. For that, the combo isn't as effective as it would've been. Besides that, Miss Fortune also has limited poke damage in lane. I can say that
Miss Fortune and
Nami's passives work well in terms of movement speed!
Nami has the tools to provide
Vaynewith a relatively safe lane. You can't poke as much in this combo, but in all-out fights you can pretty much allow
Vayne to use out all the damage she possibly can. You probably won't be able to much before level 6, but after that you can win fights if you can
Aqua Prison into
Condemn. Add
Tidecaller's Blessing and you'll make sure no one can run from the
Vayne. I'm not saying that they can't do anything before level 6, but it's hard for
Vayne to all in without taking so much damage.
Kalista is an alright synergy with
Nami, but there are still advantages.
Kalista's W passive can allow great amounts of poke to the enemy if used properly. In addition to,
Kalista's ultimate
Fate's Call works very well with
Nami's
Tidal Wave. If used correctly, you can establish a knock-up combo that can allow
Kalista to auto attack in the back line. I would recommend this combo if you're going against someone like
Soraka because she can get obliterated since she can't heal herself unless she lands her
Starcall.







































The synergy between

























Alright everyone, thanks for reading my guide! I really hope this guide helped you with what to do with Nami, or to decide to try her yourself! If you did enjoy the guide, feel free to leave a comment and tell me what I could do to improve the guide. Any support is appreciated! Just remember, "Sometimes you're the catch, sometimes you're the bait!"
Anyway, good luck in the Rifts Summoners, and may the tides be ever in your favor.
Anyway, good luck in the Rifts Summoners, and may the tides be ever in your favor.
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