Nami Build Guide by Prenora
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Dorans Start
First back
Get these
Purchase Order
Pick one
Final Choice
Sample full build
Sample Full Build
Ability Sequence
Masteries
12
Ferocity
18
Cunning
0
Resolve
Threats to Nami with this build
| Threat | Champion | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|
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1
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Annie | with no escape or much poke you easily can out trade and harrass her |
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1
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Nidalee | She has to get close to do damage which you can keep her away. |
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1
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Kassadin | Loool never was there an easier matchup, they Can't touch you pre 6, and by then you're ahead by so much they still can't touch you |
Introduction
Hey there everyone, Prenora again, if you remember my Tristana build you'll know that I like to play champs outside of the meta, and that these aren't for trolling but for those who want to learn a new way to mechanically play their favorite champion, well here's how I do it, so sit back and relax while I teach you why I call them Surrender Bubbles.
Lets get started.
Pros / Cons
Pro's
* Self Sustain
* 2 hard cc's
* a scaling slow
* movement speed passive
* end game team synergy
* Best early game trades hands down every time.
* good bubbles make the enemies rage
Cons
* Squishy
* Item Reliant
* Low AP scaling
* No gap closer
* Immobile early game
Runes
Marks
x6
Greater Mark of Attack Damage Though this is an AP build these runes will help last hitting and increase basic attack damage for better harrass
x3 
Greater Mark of Magic Penetration slight boost to early poke
Seals
x9
Greater Seal of Armor you want to take the least amount of damage possible when making trades, these are the most cost efficiant seals with the runes and masteries combined, and and will keep you healthy early game
Glyphs
x9 
Greater Glyph of Ability Power runes are the best way to capitalize on your ranged abilities chances are you'll be doing more damage then you'll take, so bringing more ability power instead of magic resist will benefit you more
Quintessence
x3 flat 
Greater Quintessence of Ability Power all your abilities scale of AP, any other quintessence would just be a loss of early power, as a harass champ, you're a lane bully so take advantage of that.
Masteries
Ferocity
Sorcery
5 points is a given, you wont need the atk speed at all at early levles
Fresh Blood
You will be using a lot of aa's this is a great mastery
Natural Talent
you wont benefit too much from
Vampirism
and +15 AP at lvl 18, why not.
Battle Trance
honestly the toss up between battle trance and double edged sword is up to you, I prefer battle trance for the late game team fights, but double edged is great for early game, you will most likely be in long duration trades as people always underestimate the Nam Nam's so it gives you the same reward as double edged, but saves you from the 1.5% increased damage.
Cunning
Savagery 5 points in this will make last hitting so much easier
Secret Stash
potions got more expensive, this make them worth your money the fiteen instant mana is more useful than you think as well.
Merciless
when you get your enemies low, this helps you keep them low, with the dorans ring you shouldn't need the mana regen from
Meditation
Dangerous Game
super useful for carries, get this
Precision
if these points were runes they'd be worth a lot of money, very valuable
Thunderlord's Decree
I'll explain this more later, but it works very well on Nami, this is very important get this
Summoner spells
Good
: Basically a given, best escape/chase tool in league, combine this with Surging Tides and you can re position with ease
: secure those kills with ease by adding some handy dandy true damage
: if you're up against a lot of cc then it's a good grab, if you get caught you have no hard escape, but flash and ignite are way better
Bad
: with the recent buffs to assassins this is become a more popular grab lately, since Nami is skill shot based, taking this against a zed/leblanc or maybe yasuo might be a good idea if you're not confident in your mechanics
:the speed and heal it provides fall off late game when you do
: can be useful if you're against a champ with a lot of sustain
this is more situational, but as a bully, you shouldn't have a problem in the laning phase
Starting Items
Dorans ring adds a great amount of starting ability power and mana regen for sustain along with the passive, add the 60 hp and you've got yourself a great start
you're going to need a few of these to recover from any unfavorable trades or poke, spamming Nami's heal too early wastes too much mana, use these to save some mana
: keep yourself warded with the Warding Totem you have no hard gap closer, surging tides can only help so much, but if you get caught too far into mid lane, you're dead
if you're going against a skillshot reliant champ like 
Ahri or 
Brand then Boots of Speed will give you more time in lane but you still trade for the early game damage output, so that's a call you'll have to make
Early Game Items
I made a section for this because Nami's abilties have different paths for different play styles and different items benefit her in different ways against different champions, you should be getting all these items for your build anyways but it just depends on what you get first; you'll see what I mean...
: I grab the sheen if I'm ahead against a melee champ, I.E Yasuo, Kassadin, basically any champ where you'll be taking advantage of your AA's more then your abilities....There's a little bit more to the sheen, I'll explain below as well
: Blasting wand is the average item, if you're finding yourself within range to apply a lot of harass, this is the early power boost you need to get ahead against any champ you out harass or trade harass with
: grab the codex when you're against any champ when you can't keep up with their cooldowns or sustain, viegar, malzahar
: If you have completely dominated your lane, get the needlessly large rod since you have extra money to spend, it's going to keep you far ahead of your enemy
Early Sheen and Animation cancelling
Basically if you have the gold to spare or if you decided you'd need this item first you're going to want to get this on your first back, reason being is explained by the term animation cancelling, it's a pretty self explanatory phrase, but basically it means that you use abilities or AA's to cancel the animations the champions have. All of Nami's spells are cast near the beginning of her animations meaning that all of her animations can be cancelled with relative ease, so after the ability is cast you cancel it with an AA and with the sheen that AA is now charged with bonus damage, so it's extra damage that requires no extra effort, just proper timing
A little more in depth into animation cancelling on her abilities
all of Nami's animations can be cancelled by an attack move
for Aqua Prison wait until as soon as the bubble is in the air, the bubble can't be cancelled once it's in the air so as soon as you see it you're good to go
for Ebb and Flow you can issue the attack move as soon as you see the water leave your staff, it's actually slightly faster than Aqua Prison
Tidecaller's Blessing is awesome because there's no animation for it, it's instant, so you can cast it while moving, if you have this ability off cooldown often times you can use Tidecaller's Blessing as your attack move, meaning you can cancel your other abilities with Tidecaller's Blessing
Tidal Wave is the only ability that can't be cancelled since the wave doesn't appear until the animation has actually finished. there's some microseconds I'm sure you could argue over but it's irrelevant, because of this, you'll always want to use Tidal Wave when you're out of the enemies range or as a last ditch effort as casting tidal wave leaves you immobile for e very important half a second.
Core items
: Ludens Echo is your wave clear, since 2 of Nami's abilities don't deal minion damage, you're going to need the wave clear that this provides from it's passive, get it first if you're struggling to keep up with your opponents wave clear.
the Movement speed also synergizes with your passive well. I mean extremely well, and it can stack if I'm doing well I grab another one end game to complete my build just for the MS bonus
: the Lich Bane is a great first item when you have the opportunity to spell weave, but the stats it gives are great for you, 250 mana, 10% CDR and another 7% movement speed again just synergizes with your passive, the spell blade passive is great when self casting E Surging Tides
: I'm not fan of sacrificing the power of a stronger item but the stats to cost ratio on this item are fantastic, the 20% CDR from this item is imperative to nami's end game because to keep up she'll have to kite with her bubbles the CDR will help you have them up more and the mana regen for when you miss a few too many.
the 120 ability power from the hourglass is almost necessary, the active is just a bonus, use it to buy some time waiting for your abilities to come off of cool-down when in a pinch.
Again the early cooldown reduction these provide is really good to help your harass the Aqua Prison is your main damage tool and needs to be up as often as possible, but if you have 40% CDR from other items, go 
Sorcerer's Shoes ofcourse.
the ability power from the deathcap is not entirely necessary since you're more of a harass champ then a bursty one, but if you find yourself behind in damage it provides quite the spike.
A fantastic amaount of Magic penetration for when they start to build resistance, keeps your damage relevant in taking out the front line tanks. or back line carry's
Abilities
Surging: Surging Tides makes re positioning in team fights super easy and fun, even in trades the movement speed it provides makes moving around fun, even traveling the map becomes easy, it scales with AP too so it always stays relevant. Try to self cast as many abilities more than not. Early game this passive is like having a pair of boots, for a little bit of mana you can easily dodge skill shots or escape early ganks.
Aqua: Aqua Prison is Nami's most damaging and useful ability by far, the 50% scaling is more than you think when coupled with a 1.5 second stun/knockup. Using the bubble requires alot of practice since the bubble has a travel time try to cast it slightly in front of where you enemy is going to be, or use it when you know your enemy is going in to last hit, Use it when roaming or when getting ganked to stop your attacker, use when being chased or when chasing. best of all even if you are behind, the stun is fantastic in teamfights. I'll go on a bubble rant down below
Ebb and: Ebb and Flow provides amazing sustain while in lane, but it's a mana hungry spell, always try to use it offensively while making sure you are in range of the bounce that way you deal damage and heal yourself in a single cast. When the heal bounces to you it also procs Surging Tides so you can attack, heal yourself and gain a burst of movement speed to chase or escape
TIDECALLER'S: Tidecaller's Blessing has amazing scaling if you can land all 3 procs. Self casting it also gives you the movement speed to chase, on top of the slow it provides for your next 3 attacks, it makes you really sticky. I like to start my combo with Tidecallers and use it's slow to make landing the bubble easier,
*after playing many games with Nami I've found this to be the level 1 skill in all instances, kill the first row of minions, self cast then hit all 3 shots on your enemy laner which is incredibly easy with it's slow, it procs thunderlords and deals incredible damage lvl 1
Tidal: Tidal Wave should only be used as an initiate, it has horrible scaling and is slow but it has a really wide and long range, use this defensively always, it's the single best ability in the game for turning around what seems like a lost fight. the knockup and slow basically guarantee landing the bubble, while speeding you up
or use it to start teamfights, backed up by your whole team this is an amazing initiation tool that doubles your already insane bonus from surging tides.
in almost all situations I grab Tidecaller's Blessing at level 1 it has the least mana cost and best early trade potential
I grab Ebb and Flow lvl 2 for the sustain and range. As it's early damage isn't nearly as good, the only time I get this first is when I know I'll be taking more poke from zed or malzahar, Ahri, or if I won't be able to hit the enemy with any other ability, Leblanc/ xerath ect...
I get Aqua Prison at lvl 3 as it is a really mana hungry spell to spam and even then unless I know I will land the bubble I try not to use it until it's second point because the damage still isn't worth the mana
then ofcourse get Tidal Wave whenever you cam
The Bubble
I'm going to go ahead and give this it's own section because it's key to being a good Nami or an ok nami.
Let's face it the bubble has difficult timing to master but landing one is game changing.
Here's how to step your bubble game up to pro status.
With the slow missle speed you can't cast the bubble where your opponent is (unless you are CC chaining)-((Crowd controlling an already stunned or immobile enemy)) instead you have to predict their movements and aim where they are going to be when your bubble lands. Sounds simple enough right?. wrong, this varies based on movement speed, spell abilities, and much more, but practice makes perfect. for example, if laning vs LeBlanc you dont want to cast it on the LB herself but instead the marker she left behind when she dashed, or when you get ulted by zed, his ult places him behind you, so when you see the cross on your champion, you know you have to place your bubble behind where you're facing.
getting two V oned is where Nami can really show off
when getting double teamed, you always want your enemies to share your abilities, sure if you can trap them both in one bubble great but more often than not you're going to want to bubble one, ult the other, slow the guy who just came out of the bubble, ect...Nami has enough CC to defend against up to 3 enemies, I've done it, many times. When you chunk 3 enemies down without taking damage, they'll probably back off, if not, keep it going.
Nami is in my opinion besides Lulu, the single best champion for turning the odds to her favor, and it's because many people underestimate her I think. Many people have never fought a mid lane Nami before, use this to your advantage.
Combo's
Nami has the best pre 6 solo trading I've ever seen in a champion, I've gone against a lot of champions, from lvl 1 you can out trade any opponent.
Tidecaller's Blessing > Ebb and Flow this is your bread and butter combo, you will be able to proc thunderlords every single time, in fact thunderlords can't keep up with my lvl 2 Nami. Tidecallers speeds you up on self cast proc getting you closer to the enemy, once your aa lands cast Ebb and Flow which heals back any damage they countered with, the speed boost from ebb gets you in range to proc thunderlords on your second aa which slows them for the third...this combo garuntees half health at lvl 2 while keeping you full.
Tidecaller's Blessing > Aqua Prison- basic lvl 2 combo- TB proc until in range then use bubble
Tidecaller's Blessing > Aqua Prison> Ebb and Flow easy lvl 3 combo same thing as the first combo just cast the heal while they are suspended for easy damage, dont forget to finish proccing tidecallers damage while they can't move, don't underestimate how much damage it adds to your combo
Tidal Wave > Aqua Prison > Ebb and Flow
once you learn how to animation cancel you can weave spells like this
Tidecaller's Blessing > Ebb and Flow (procs Surging Tides)> Tidecallers blessing (these 3 hits are easy to land because of the slows and always procs [[Thunderlord's Decree
or for the most DPS
Aqua Prison > Animation cancel with Tidecaller's Blessing> AA > Ebb and Flow> animation cancel with an attack move > AA
remember to use Surging Tides passive to constantly re position yourself while kiting or chasing while many champs have to run in a straight line to keep up, nami has the unique ability to move around since shes so fast, as long as you keep using abilities
also remember that Tidecaller's Blessing has a really low cooldown, you can use it to chase enemies and stick to them, if you time it correctly you will have your other abilities back as you hit the last proc..time her abilities so you always have at least one available, this allows you to take full advantage of Surging Tides.
Gameplay
Early game
Early game you come running right out of the gate trade trade and trade again, Nami has a huge waveclear problem, deny them as much farm as possible, harass every chance you can but focus on farming with AA's (it takes practice but it can be done). Focus on where your enemies will be in order to land those bubbles, look for opportunities to roam, Nami's CC makes her roam game very good, having Tidal Wave isn't even necessary but is certainly helpful but feel free to roam pre 6 if you're ahead, she is incredible at it.
Nami is the queen of getting ganked, you will probaly get ganked first, second, and probably third, until after 3 double kills they learn their lesson,
because of all the cc Nami has getting ganked almost always works out in your favor
with good bubble placements you can one v two under your tower all day.
and when you're getting a gank from your own jungler, your kits makes securing the kill easy.
Mid Game
at lvl 6 depending on how ahead you are roaming is extremely easy with 
Nami as I said, all of your cc makes ganking easy and keeps you ahead, your waveclear will most likely be lower than your enemies though so keep an eye on your lane, don't leave it for too long or you'll end up losing your tower pretty quick, around mid game watch for ganks as well
but all in all your play style shouldn't differ too much from early game. keep an eye out for opportunities to get ahead and take them, your scalings are low and soon you'll fall behind, if you're not actively trying to stay ahead. Roam, get kills, assists, Farm, teamfight, Nami can litterlly do it all
Late game
My favorite part, I really do call them surrender bubbles, by now you should have won mid lane your kit really does make catching enemies offguard easy and rewarding, hit them with your abilities and catch them with tidal wave so they can't escape and you'll easily get fed. which brings me to late game, even if for some reason you fell behind, it happens, your CC is amazing, if you are behind don't worry about getting back ahead, your scalings aren't that good, find the carry on your team, and support them, get them fed,
NO MATTER WHAT, ONCE YOU LAND ENOUGH BUBBLES THE ENEMIES WILL SURRENDER, I PROMISE
Team Fights
in team fights you're going to want to stay close to the tank, right behind the front line, so you can keep your front line healthy but still stay close enough to the adc to protect them as well, with all of your CC though your main job is to single out the enemy carry, and lock them down for the kill.. initiate with Tidal Wave aiming it for the carry, then use Aqua Prison to lock them down further
Wrapping it up
Nami is my best and favorite champ,( though by no means am I saying I'm good at league) I'm just one of those guys that play for fun... hopefully I gave you a new perspective on her playstyle though.
this build is super fun and pretty darned effective but with anything takes practice, don't get discouraged
Thanks for coming back to my second guide, I enjoy making these and will probably continue to do so for a few more of my favorite break the meta's
in the mean time, have fun out there and try something new
so go ahead make me proud, I want to see some Nami's carry the mid Lane.
feel free to to let me know if I made any mistakes or if I left something out and feel free to share any comments or ask any questions.
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