I'm writing this guide because I build Nautilus quite differently than the other guides on here and wanted to share.


Nautilus is an assist machine. His role is to get your lanes ahead of the other team's early game with some solid ganking and disruption. LoL is all about early game anymore, and he will help your lanes snowball with some solid ganks and also becomes a huge ability soaker-upper late game (while taking up half the other team's screen)

You will rarely ever burst someone down on your own in a 1v1 situation. Your job is to keep them in place while your team does the dmg and keep them from getting away.

Pros:

One of the top gankers in the game
Tons of CC (even on auto attacks)
Tanky
Great ult for ganking and initiation late game
Takes up half the other team's screen

Cons

Low Damage
Slow move speed
Slow attack speed
Can't carry

No flash? Take what spells you're comfortable with. I prefer exhaust to secure that first blood or to throw on the carry in late game. Your Q is a semi-flash to get away, though you can't jump walls with it, but you have alot of extra CC to help escape.

Why AS? Naut's base attack speed is SLOW, most likely because of his passive which roots people. More AS leads to quicker clear times and more procs on your W before the camps go through your shield. Once the shield is gone on your W, you'll see how much longer it takes to clear camps, especially blue/red buffs early on that eat through your shield in a couple of hits.


Standard


Standard. Maybe add more AS or flat MR.

Start with armor/pots. His base armor is somehow one of the lowest in the game. With a good leash you might be able to save some pots after your first few camps, all depends on the leash. This can build into aegis later.


The shield on W scales off HP, HoG helps with this while also giving some Gp5. Its not that naut is a bad farmer, but when you spend alot of time ganking you need some extra income


Again, some extra regen and income. Build into Shurelya's later.


Ok, I buy these boots 90% of the time. naut is slower than hell. grabbing mobility boots helps him get around so much easier for ganking or assisting lanes or just warding. Other options are merc treads for a CC heavy team or ninja tabi if a team is heavy on auto attack (tryn/xin etc)


Throwing this in the build to remind everyone the importance of warding. With mobility boots and many gank attempts, you should be warding just as much as the support. Naut is not as item dependent as your carries, so stop being cheap and throw down some wards.


This item is often missing from most Naut guides. RoA is almost essential. Makes you tanky while also giving you some relevant damage. More HP for a bigger shield on W and more AP for that little extra damage. Keep in mind Nautilus is an assist machine. You will rarely ever burst someone down on your own in a 1v1 situation. Your job is to keep them in place while your team does the dmg and keep them from getting away.


Turn your Philo stone into this after RoA. Great for helping your team chase or get away from a bad engage. Even if your support has one, its not an item you can have too many of.


You can choose to get aegis any time during the build honestly. Every team should have one. Gives you some extra defense and your team some nice aura buffs for the low cost. Converse with your support to make sure its not already in his build (though each of you will receive the other's bonus, your teammates won't receive aegis x2). Skip to Wit's if this item is covered.


Great next item because of its low cost. Keeps you relevant in team fights as it will allow you to not only snare more people with your passive but also provide more proc's on your W, extra damage per hit, and stack MR.


It's a toss up between this and frozen heart to round out the build. If your support bought aegis, get both =)

As always, there are situational items if a team is AP heavy (force of nature) AD heavy (frozen heart), auto attack heavy (thornmail) or its super late game (guardian angel). These could take the place of randiun's in the build

This skill separates the good naut's from the have naut's (best pun ever). Take it at level 4 and dont touch till last. I prefer smartcast on all abilities and this is no exception. Use it to either pull yourself toward a gank or catch someone getting away.

e.g. Hiding in side bushes near mid. Use this to initiate. If you cause them to flash, still worth it, you'll get them next time.

e.g. 2: Ganking top. Enemy runs through buses to avoid your vision. Use q to pull yourself toward the back wall terrain, slow them with E, root them with your passive. Dead.

This is also a good escape skill and the reason why I don't take flash on Naut. You can pull yourself to terrain to get away, and the CD is shortened when doing so, allowing you to use it a couple times to get out of a sticky situation.



This is the skill you get first and max first. It has a shield & DoT proc to help clear camps and does a fair amount of damage during ganking. Just getting one hit off during a gank could mean a kill as it ticks like ignite. Keep in mind it will ONLY proc while the shield is active, and it scales with HP. The cooldown is VERY long, so don't waste it on wolves if you're about to clear blue etc.


This skill is interesting. Its decent enough for clearing the jungle and has a lower CD than W. It can be devestating during a gank but you have to be in the enemy's face for the full effect as its radius is fairly small. I use this skill after I land a Q to slow them, then follow it up with an auto attack to root them in place.



Hitting 6 with naut almost ensures a kill on your next gank.

Start with depth charge, the enemy will begin to run in pure terror because they cannot avoid it (This skill can only be avoided by Nocturne's W/Sivir's shield/Poppy Ult or a banshee's.)
Once they are knocked up, grab them with an easy Q, slow them with E, then finally activate your W and root them with an auto-attack via your passive. If your teammate in lane hasent secured the kill by then, then you probably did.

In teamfights, naut's ult is a GREAT initiation tool like ashe's arrow. Target the carry in the back if possible (the range isnt huge though), as it will knockup champs in its path. Q yourself in the middle of the team, let them waste their CD's on you while you slow with E and do AoE DoT with your W shield. Try to alternate between targets because you cannot root the same champ twice (12 sec CD). Q champs that are low to chase or use it to get away if they got the better of you.


Your role is not to get a quadra kill, your role is to be a big pain in the ***.

Just to highlight some why/why not's:

Why: 4 in swiftness?. Naut is slow. Need all you can get since we didnt take MS quints.

Why not: Honor guard (0.5, 1, 1.5% dmg reduction). Honestly 3 points in this is hardly noticeable. 1.5%? Why bother. Throw 2 of those points to gain 4 more MR in 'resistance' and the other point to gain some more HP/5 regen.

Feel free to leave any feedback as this guide may change. There are many different ways to build naut but I feel mine is a team-oriented balance of mobility, ganking, tankiness, and pain in the ***-ness.

3/16/12

Replaced warmog's with wit's end. After some experimenting, this item is great for the cost at that point in the game.