Nasus Build Guide by Bligen

Introduction

xxxxx Nasus in top lane is usualy played as a bruiser or a tank, being able to take a lot of damage, and do quite a bit of damage. He heavily relies on farming his Siphoning Strike early game. He is also very good at taking down enemy carries in teamfights very easily.



xxxxx Nasus has just came into the jungle world, many people still don't like it, but it's actualy very viable. He has a good clear time, as well as nice sustain becouse of his passive Soul Eater because it gives him lifesteal. But, jungle Nasus isn't the strongest bruiser, because junglers are often forced build a little bit like support which reduces his individual strenght.

Pros / Cons

xxxxxxxx Pros: Very good tank Good damage Good crowd control Very helpful in teamfights Good zoning in fights With ultimate can kill baron or dragon fast Good split pusher

xxxxxxxx Cons: Relies on farm Can be kited quite easily if you buy Quicksilver Sash No gap closers Can get out of mana fast No escapes Low damage unless built for it.

Items

xxxxxxxxTop Lane Nasus

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xxxxxxStarting items:

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xxxxFor top lane Nasus I suggest starting with a Sapphire Crystal and 2 x Health Potion this way you have more than enough mana to farm up your Siphoning Strike, which will help you carry on to late game

xxxxxxFirst recall:

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xxxxOn your first trip back, you should try to get atleast a Sheen, to make your Siphoning Strike deal a lot more damage to champions, and to minions, after Sheen you should be able to 1shot caster minions with Siphoning Strike. Also on the same trip try to get Boots of Speed for getting arround the map faster in case you decide to roam, or are forced to roam. If you're taking too much damage also get a Chain Vest or a Negatron Cloak depending on which damage you're taking.

xxxxxxFull build:

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xxxx Ninja Tabi or Mercury's Treads - Chose one of the boot pairs, depending on what's more dangerous for you, enemy team's basic attacks, or the crowd control. Also the Enchantment: Furor helps you stick to opponent easier when they try to run.
xxxx Iceborn Gauntlet - This item provides you with a nice armor boost, which obviously helps you tank physical damage dealers, but it also has a very nice passive, which makes it harder for opponents to run away from you once you hit them.
xxxx Spirit Visage - This item gives you the highest amount of magic resistance that any item can, also a little bit of health. But the main reason to get this is the passive, Nasus has naturaly high health, + Greater Quintessence of Scaling Health Regeneration + Warmog's Armor and you regenerate A LOT of your health, and with spirit visage all this healing is increased by 20%, it also increases regeneration from baron buff.
xxxx Warmog's Armor - Provides you with a boost of health and health regeneration.
xxxx Randuin's Omen - Gives you a very big boost in health, and armor, as well as a nice passive for anyone that hits you, also the active is very good at chasing down fleeing opponents if they get in range just for a second.
xxxx Guardian Angel - This item provides you with a nice amount of armor and magic resistance, but the main reason to get this item is the passive, a second life for one bruiser can completely turn a game arround in your favor.





xxxxxxxxJungle Nasus

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xxxxxxStarting items:

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xxxxFor jungle Nasus I suggest starting with Hunter's Machete and 5 x Health Potion for extra damage on minions and survivability.

xxxxxxFirst recall:

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xxxxAfter ganking a couple of lanes, and cleaning the entire jungle a few times go back, and finish off your Spirit Stone and Ninja Tabi, or if you can't afford those atleast Boots of Speed.

xxxxxxFull build:

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xxxx Ninja Tabi - These boots help you defend from enemy ad carry, and also blocks damage from dragon and baron basic attacks.
xxxx Spirit of the Ancient Golem - This item is upgraded from Spirit Stone and provides you with a nice amount of health. This item also gives tenacity, which eliminates the need for Mercury's Treads
xxxx Runic Bulwark - Provides you and your teammates with magic resistance boost, and a small armor boost, you might think this is a pure support item but it works well on junglers too.
xxxx Warmog's Armor - This item gives you health and health regen boosts, which you need in order to survive a teamfight.
xxxx Frozen Heart - This item provides you with a lot of armor, and some cooldown reduction which works well on Nasus, it also reduces the attack speed of nearby opponents, so it ends up helping your entire team.
xxxx Guardian Angel - This item provides you with a nice amount of armor and magic resistance, but the main reason to get this item is the passive, a second life for one bruiser can completely turn a game arround in your favor.

Skill Sequence

xxxxxxxxTop Lane Nasus:

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xxxxxxxxJungle Nasus:

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xxxxxxxxAbilities:

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xxxx Siphoning Strike - This is Nasus' Q ability, which gains bonus damage, upon last hitting a minion/champion/tower. In top lane, you should take this ability first and max it first, becouse that way it deals more damage, and it's easier for you to get high damage from lasthits on it. Altho, in jungle it's not worth maxing, just put a point in it at lv2, and lasthit the big minion in camps with it.
xxxx Wither - This is Nasus' slow and attack speed reducing ability, in top lane you max it second, becouse you have a lot of time to farm Siphoning Strike and you should also have Sheen or one of it's upgrades, so you have kill potential if your opponent is slowed. In the jungle you also max it second, becouse it's a very good ganking ability, which lets not only you but also your team get in range and start hammering on the opponent.
xxxx Spirit Fire - This is Nasus' E ability, in the top lane it isn't very useful, since it doesn't do a lot of damage, and the armor/magic resistance reduction isn't that great. But in jungle it's best to max this ability first, becouse if you want to clear camps fast you need good aoe.
xxxx Fury of the Sands - This is Nasus' ultimate ability, which gives him a lot of health and attack damage, in both cases you upgrade it as soon as possible - at levels 6, 11 and 16, this ability is great for teamfights becouse of it's hp increase and damage, and also helps clear objectives like baron or dragon becouse it deals hp % to targets arround you.

Masteries

xxxxxxxxTop lane Nasus:

xxxxxxExplanation:

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xxxxFor Nasus I like to go pure tank masteries, becouse that's what he's realy good at, and still manages to deal heavy damage.



xxxxxxxxJungle Nasus:xxxxxxExplanation

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xxxxWhen jungling with Nasus I like to stay tanky, but switching a couple of points from defense vs champions, to defense vs minions.



xxxxxxMasteries worth talking about:

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xxxx Unyielding and Block - These two masteries might not look like much, but in early game when max dmg done in one spell or basic attack is 100, this comes in realy handy, ofcourse it's not useful late game, but a good start means a lot.
xxxx Relentless and Tenacious - With these two, noone will be able to stop you for a long time, especialy if you buy some tenacity items too!
xxxx Juggernaut - Increases health by 4%, might not seem like much, only 40hp from every 1k you get, but think about it... how many times has it been that a 1v1 ends by you dieing and opponent with less than 20hp? How many times have you died to the last tick of ignite? So every bit counts :)

Runes

xxxxxxxxTop lane Nasus

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Greater Seal of Armor - Provides you with a flat boost of armor, so that you can brawl with anyone 1v1 early game.
Greater Mark of Scaling Attack Damage - This is more for late game, because your damage will get less and less noticable if enemies get armor.
Greater Glyph of Magic Resist - Gives you a flat magic resistance boost, works well if your enemy team's mid roams or your enemy jungler is mostly magic damage, like Amumu
Greater Quintessence of Scaling Health Regeneration - This one provides you with a lot of useful health regeneration late game - 3health/second, so you can survive a lot longer in teamfights.


xxxxxxxxJungle Nasus:

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Greater Seal of Armor - Lets you survive longer vs jungle creeps, and also will be harded to kill if you gank physical damage laner (or need to tower dive)
Greater Mark of Attack Damage - Provides you with a flat boost of attack damage, which will help you sustain in jungle because your passive Soul Eater provides you with lifesteal, so the more damage you do the more you heal.
Greater Glyph of Magic Resist - Gives you a boost of magic resistance, so that you can survive longer when ganking mid, or find a counter-jungling opponent.
Greater Quintessence of Attack Damage - Aswell as marks, provide you with attack damage boost, altho can use the scaling health regeneration ones I recommended for top

Spells

xxxxxxxxTop lane Nasus

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xxxxxxRecommended:

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xxxx Ghost + Ignite - This summoner spell combination provides you with the ability to chase down fleeing opponents, or escape from threats, aswell as giving you that little bit of damage which might secure a kill.

xxxxxxAlso viable summoner spells:

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xxxx Exhaust - Provides you with a nice slow and damage reduction, can be extremely useful if used well.
xxxx Flash - Lets you get away from treats aswell as Ghost or maybe even better, but not as good of a chasing tool.



xxxxxxxxJungle Nasus

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xxxxxxRecommended:

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xxxx Smite + Ghost - This is quite obvious I believe, Smite is there to clear the jungle camps without dieing and securing objectives, while Ghost is there to chae down opponents or to escape threats.

xxxxxxAlso viable summoner spells:

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xxxx Teleport - This summoner spell isn't very popular, but can help you get quite suprising ganks, your bot or top laners simply have to ward one of the lane bushes (best is towards the enemy tower), and when they need you - you teleport.
xxxx Flash - Lets you get away from treats aswell as Ghost or maybe even better, but not realy a good chasing spell.

Farming

xxxxAs a Nasus you heavily rely on how well you farm up Siphoning Strike, because late game it will be your main damage source. In top lane try to lasthit minions with Siphoning Strike as often as possible, and always get the cannon minion, because it gives 6damage instead of 3. In the jungle just lasthit the big minion with it, that way it also gives 6damage.

Team Work

In teamfights Nasus shouldn't be the one to initiate, because he got no gap closer, or heavy cc. So you should wait until one of your team mates initiate, then go in straight on to enemy squishies that most likely deal a lot of damage. That is your goal: to save your team from damage. Use Spirit Fire on the targets that your team is attacking, because that way it reduces their resistances, while you should use Fury of the Sands, Wither the opponent you want to catch, and go up to him and start spaming Siphoning Strike, if you have Iceborn Gauntlet it will also slow the opponent, making it harder to escape.

Lane matchups

Good matchup for Nasus:

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• Nasus vs Tryndamere - This lane is an easy win for Nasus, you just need to wait until Tryndamere initiates, then Wither him, Spirit Fire and Siphoning Strike, that way you put a lot of harass on him, and don't take much damage yourself because attack speed reduction counters Tryndamere hard.
• Nasus vs Aatrox - This matchup is actualy very good for Nasus since Aatrox is an attack speed champion, but never waste Wither on him before he uses his Dark Flight, and if his Blood Well is down, go in and harass the man!
• Nasus vs Yorick - Nasus' Fury of the Sands gives him attack damage for damage dealt to targets arround him, and since Yorick creates more targets, he ends up giving Nasus a huge amount of attack damage.
• Nasus vs Fiora - Fiora relies heavily on attack speed, so Wither reduces her damage big time, and even know she can block your Siphoning Strike with Riposte, you can simply wait until the duration ends or remove it with a basic attack.
• Nasus vs Malphite - Nasus will have a very easy time in lane, because malphite players usualy stack armor and health, while Fury of the Sands deals % of their health in magic damage, and if they get magic resistance - they'll get melted by Siphoning Strike

Bad matchup for Nasus:

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• Nasus vs Teemo - Teemo can simple use Blinding Dart whenever you try to last hit a minion with Siphoning Strike, good Teemo players will also auto attack a couple of times for poison damage.
• Nasus vs Rumble - Nasus will get very hard early game, the only cs he will get will be under tower and it won't be much. Because whenever Nasus goes up to get some farm, Rumble can use Flamespitter and deal a lot of heavy damage.
• Nasus vs Olaf - Every time Nasus goes for a lasthit, run up to him and use Reckless Swing, even if he hits you - the true damage will still do more than Siphoning Strike.
• Nasus vs Darius - Simply harass him with everything you got when Nasus goes for cs, he will feel completely useless and have to lasthit under tower.
• Nasus vs Gangplank - This is actualy a very good matchup for Gangplank, because he can remove Wither with Remove Scurvy and whenever Nasus tries to lasthit, or maybe even poke with Siphoning Strike, use Parrrley on him, and soon he'll be forced out of the lane.
• Nasus vs Jayce - If played well, Jayce will win the lane no problem, because he has very good poke from range, and can knock Nasus aside if he gets into melee range.
• Nasus vs Mordekaiser - Mordekaiser is one of the strongest top laners in the game if played well, he can harass Nasus with his abilities very easily, while also gaining a shield so that Nasus can't harass you back.
• Nasus vs Vladimir - Vladimir can sustain in lane a lot easier than Nasus can, because whenever Nasus go for cs, use your range advantage and poke the **** out of him.

A word from BligenN

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