Hello ladies and gentlemen, my name is Luukki and this is my guide for playing Nasus. In this introduction i'm going to explain a few things.
First of all, I made this guide generally for ranked game play.
Second, I made this guide because there is not many Nasus guides especially made for ranked game play.
Third, this is my first guide and i'm looking forward for constructive comments.

Thank you.

Luukki
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Ps. YOU SHOULD ALWAYS LISTEN TO THIS WHILE PLAYING NASUS

I've recently realized that Nasus is a beast when your opponent doesn't know how to play against him. So I suggest you to play him versus lower elo opponents who have less knowledge and experience how to face Nasus in lane.

Pros

Passive lifesteal with Soul Eater
High potential damage output while being tanky
Infinte stacking ability with simphoning strike
One of the hardest single target slow in the whole game Wither
Strong late game
Ultimate gives a huge stat boost and deals good amount of damage

Cons

Weak early game
Needs stacks to get viable late game
Has no viable harassing ability
Lacks of ranged abilities
Mana problems early game
If counter picked easily kitable

The magic of Nasus is his ability to deal high damage without being reliant on his items. (thanks to his q) This is why you should build him a tank.

Early game

Core

: Cloth Armor philosopher's stone Boots Glacial Shroud

Situational

: Chalice of Harmony Sheen Heart of Gold

Mid game

Core

: Mercury's Treads Frozen Heart Shurelya's Battlesong Sheen

Situational

: Ninja Tabi Eleisa's Miracle Quicksilver Sash

Late game

Core

: Guardian Angel Trinity Force

Situational

: Last Whisper Thornmail Warmog's Armor Atma's Impaler Force of Nature Randuin's Omen

I start up with a cloth armor and 5 health potions. You should have about 70 armor at level 1 and this will help you alot. Next I want to get my philosopher's stone and boots. The philosopher's stone really helps me with Nasus' early mana problems. Remember to ward your lane to see incoming ganks. If you're having trouble in lane you might want to buy a heart of gold. Next you should build a glacial shroud to get extra armor and mana and some nice cdr. When you have finished your Glacial shroud, you have 2 choices; either rush your sheen or go for shurelya's reverie. It's up to you if you want to go for more damage or if you want that sustain and easy escapes from ganks. Shurelya also gives you a good amount of CDR that helps you with stacking.

If you are facing an ap champion, start with boots and 3 hp potions and get a charlice of harmony. Also you might want to get your sheen and shurelya's before your glacial shroud.

Next build your boots of speed into mercury treads to get some tenacity and mr. You might consider getting ninja tabi if you are facing a heave auto attack based champion (f.ex tryndamere or fiora). In the case I get ninja tabi, i get them quite early, before or after my philo because they are so cheap. If you do build ninja tabi, build your philo into an elisha's miracle to get tenacity. Next build your glacial shroud into a frozen heart and start building pieces of your trinity force. When you have finished your trinity force, either get a fore of nature or if the enemy as heavy cc you might want to get a quiksilver stash.

At this point of the game, if you have stacked correctly you should be pretty much unstoppable. At this point what you're going to build is very situational. If the enemy is stacking armor you might want to get last whisper. A guardian angel is an all around good choice. If their ad carry is fed, get a thornmail and you should be fine.

Here comes the most important part of playing Nasus: farming. It is critical that you get the max out of your q so that you will rule the late game. Here's a few tips to get the best possible amount of these precious stacks.

Tip n.1

- Level up your Q when ever possible (except level 6 obviously). I know this sounds stupid but i've actually seen some people leveling their E before maxing out their Q skill. ALWAYS TAKE YOUR Q TO REDUCE THE CD AND INCREASE DAMAGE

Tip n.2

- Do not spam your abilities.
Nasus has a bad early mana pool and you shouldn't spam your abilities even with your philosopher's stone or you will find yoursef going constantly back.

Tip n.3

- Do not get counterpicked
I know this might look like an odd thing to be read in a nasus but simply do not counterpicked when playing Nasus because there are some champions that simply will rape nasus on lane. The main rule is that any strong early game champion that can kite a little (like teemo) will punish him early.

Early game - This is the most difficult stage of laning as nasus. A good solo top wont let you get much of farm because he knows that you are weak and uses that as an advantage. Your base stats are low, you don't deal much damage with your abilities and you have hardly any range with your spells or attacks. But if you get over this phase with decent amount of creep score you will be fine and you will start to dominate your lane. You should ask your jungler for a gank in the case that your lane is getting pushed towards your turret. Always remember to ward your lane to see incoming ganks. With Nasus, if your opponent is decent, you will not win your lane you need to aim for a stalemate.

Mid game - At this point your manapool should be good thanks to your philo and glacial shroud. This will allow to get yourself lots of stacks and give you decent survivability with your lifesteal. What i like to do is wither the enemy when he tries to go for a last hit. I do this especially if i've pushed the lane under his turret, so that he looses a lot of cs. At this point you can start harassing the enemy with your q and w. You don't want to take down the enemy turret early as this will force you to overextend and make you vulnerable to ganks. Call to your team mates if your lane is heading somewhere else's lane.

Late game - This stage is all about positioning, champion picks, items and baron. Nasus is a good champion and with proper farming he should have good items. You shouldn't rely the map awareness only on the support and you should do your part with the warding as well. In teamfights you should initiate the fight with your ultimate, proceed with your wither on the enemy ad carry and by placing your spirit fire into the enemy team. With proper stacks you will almost 2 hit the enemy ad carry with your simphoning strike. It is important that you don't get caught by the enemy team or your whole team will suffer and might cause a defeat.

In this section I will cover 2 things, who to focus in a teamfight and when to initiate a teamfight.

Your target order:

1 - The enemy focusing or/and causing a threat to your ad carry
2 - The enemy ad carry
3 - The enemy ap carry
4 - The enemy bruiser/tank
5 - The enemy support

When a teamfight starts, I think of 2 things:
1 : Who in the enemy team is the biggest threat to your team
2 : What is their team composition like?

If they have a bruiser that can leap on my ad carry, let's say for example our kog'maw gets ulti'd by the enemy nocturne, I always want to help our ad carry out of the trouble. IF they do not have such an initiator i just try to grab a hold of their ad carry with wither and I either chase him away of the fight, and help my team or kill him. I usually don't chase f.ex an ezreal, i just wither him and start smacking their team.

When the game gets into the phase of teamfights, it's very important to know when to initiate.
First you must have your whole team up, or atleast the same amount of players with you when fighting. Second, with nasus you usually want to have a strong initiator (ashe's arrow, malphite's ult) because nasus get's easily kited. Positioning is very important, and you should have an oracle on your team to clear out their wards so that they dont have vision on you.

Tier 1 Spells

Ghost - Gets you closer to the enemy, makes kiting harder for the enemy when this is combined with your wither and your phage. Excellent choice.

Teleport - Makes sure you get each and every minion. Also allows you to get into team fights from your own lane.

Tier 2

Flash - Gap closer,and good for escapes, but since Nasus is so tanky he benefits much more of ghost.


Ignite - Gets you that bonus damage to secure kills especially in the mid game phase.Also a good coounter for champions like mundo and swain.


Heal - This combined with nasus' ultimate gives like 1000 health. A good way to bait enemy under turrets.

Exhaust - Good but wither does the job.

Tier 3

Promote - No.

Surge - No. You don't use ap or as.

Clairvoyance - You're not a support

Revive - Just no.

For runes I take flat attack damage marks, flat armor seals, and flat magic resistance glyphs. I also take flat armor quintessences.

These runes help me with the early problems of nasus' where he is very vulnerable to harass.
Also when you're playing against an ap champion, you might want to take mr quints instead or flat ad quints instead.

I wont waste your time on these because they are pretty straight foward.
For masteries I take pretty standart 0/21/9. I choose to go this way because the defensive tree masteries are really helpful for nasus since he is so weak early on. I also get 9 on utility rather than going offensive because i like the extra movement speed.

In this section I will talk about your worst enemies and give a few tips to fight against them

Gangplank

Threat 7/10

Gangplank is a very hard counter against Nasus. His damage early is good and his Parrrley has a decent range to harass with.

Things you can do

Swap lanes with your mid
Stack armor and take teleport and flash as summoners
Just stay under your turret

Recommended early items

Cloth Armor Ninja Tabi Heart of Gold Glacial Shroud

Teemo

threat 6/10

Now this guy is a tricky one. He has a good poke with his poison darts and he is good against nasus. He can abuse his early power against you pretty well and will kite the heck out of you with his frozen mallet/phage. However, if you can sustain the beginning, you will dominate him mid/lategame.

Rumble

Threat 10/10

I'll be plain honest with you. Rumble is probably your worst nightmare. Rumble succeeds at harassing the enemy with his flamethrower who try to last hit minions. He'll make you're life a pain by doing 2 things, denying you from last hitting minions, and when he can, he will kill you. However there are a few things you can do.

Tip n.1 Try to make him waste his flamethrower by pretending to go last hit a minion. When the flamethrower stop spitting flames go for the cs.
Tip n.2 Rush Mercury treads and get as much mr as possible. Go for flat mr quints.
Tip n.3 Ask for your jungler to babysit your lane. Rumbles tend to push their lane and this is a good opportunity to gank your lane.

At the end of this guide i'd like to say thanks to Trivial secrets, who helped me with this build a lot.

Here's a picture i draw of nasus
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