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Choose Champion Build:
Spells:
Smite
Flash
Ability Order
Staggering Blow (PASSIVE)
Nautilus Passive Ability
What This Guide Will Teach You

Welcome to my

Perhaps the most important concept of playing Nautilus is understanding what your role is. As Nautilus (with this build), you are to function as a Tanky/DPS, Initiator, Crowd Controller, and whatever your in-game position is (Jungler/Support/Solo). This is key to your playstyle and incredibly important to how you work within your team. In order to get the most out of this champion, all of these roles must be understood and acted upon.
We're going to start with exactly what Nautilus does and how he does it, and then later move into how externalities (items/runes) supplement the core of this character.
PROS
-
- Some of the best Crowd Control in the game
- Can be built to fit many different roles
- Strong Jungler and Effective Ganker
- High Survivability
- Great Initiator
- Very useful passive
- Scales well
- Very helpful during teamfights
CONS
-
- Low mobility
- Has difficulty if counter jungled
- Early game jungling is somewhat slow
- Fairly item dependent
- Early game mana pool is easily drained if not careful
- Requires a lot of practice!

This passive is amazing.










More Crowd Control? Yes.

JunglingLaningtank. First and foremost, this is going to be your job. As Nautilus, if you can't take hits, you won't be able to effectively initiate, sustain yourself, CC, or pretty much do anything. The difference between the jungling and laning build are the obvious jungling talents that are to alleviate some early game problems you may encounter. If you favor using
Ghost over
Teleport or
Flash, you may want to move a point from Summoner's Insight.



Runes




So, these runes should be pretty obvious for their use, but here's the general breakdown: you're a tank and defense is the way to go when it comes to surviving. The marks and seals both stress armor while your glyphs are going to incorporate magic resist; pretty standard. Your quintessences, however, are going to provide you with movement speed, which is invaluable in both initiating battles, chasing, escaping, and general roaming, especially while jungling. Because Nautilus has enough mobility trouble as is, we attempt to rectify this with our runes and Summoner Spells.
BEST SPELLS



Obviously, Smite is ONLY for junglers. However, if you are Jungling, you need this spell; no way around it.
Now, I prefer to run Flash and Ghost on Nautilus when laning. This is because Nautilus is strapped for mobility. Ghost's functionality is fairly straightforward: it allows him to chase high speed enemies, run away from sticky situations, and grants additional maneuverability in teamfights to land tons of Staggering Blows. Flash's usefulness is undeniable, enabling wall-jumping, chasing, escaping... it's simply a must have. If you don't use Flash, I highly recommend that you do.
VIABLE SPELLS



These spells are entirely based on your playstyle and can take the place of

NON-VIABLE SPELLS




These are the only summoner spells that are possibly seen in competitive play, but for the particular







Starting Items



Jungling


When jungling, the standard






When laning, you're usually going to be playing support, so you're going to want to gather up a few Gold per 5 items. Start off with a










Core Items



These three items define how you plan to play Nautilus. Let's go over each one in a bit of depth.









So, now that you have Warmog's, you're generally not the focus in teamfights because of your ridiculous HP pool (It should be around 3.5k, assuming you're leveling steadily). This HP pool will only increase, bringing you up to around 4k by the end game. So, what goes well with tons and tons of health?



End-Game/Situational Items




















Other Viable Choices





All of these items have their own strengths and all work well on Nautilus. If you are playing Support,






Now that we understand Nautilus' skills, items, and roles, it's time to enter the battlefield.
Farming Creeps


An extremely simple process, but overlooked by some. Hit


Lane Harassment



This is going to be your bread and butter in lane. Pull an enemy in, hit Titan's Wrath, Riptide them, and then walk away. The stun from




Chasing an Enemy Champion





When you're chasing an enemy champion, you want to keep Titan's Wrath up as much as possible. Obviously, this is the greatest proponent of your damage, so you need to sustain it as much as possible to maximize your DPS. Riptide is used as the obvious slow, but (assuming that your enemy is running away from you) to ensure that it hits, you often will only be able to hit it after a Staggering Blow.
Using Dredge Line and Depth Charge takes a bit of practice to know when exactly to cast. When your target is running, Dredge Line should only be used when your target gains a substantial distance away from you, pulling you out of melee range. If this situation occurs again before you can Dredge Line and your hook still has a cooldown of over 4-5 seconds, then go ahead and Depth Charge. Depth Charge, usually, should only be used if you feel you can secure a kill.
Escaping Battle



If it's not activated, start off with Titan's Wrath for your extra HP boost. Follow up by using Riptide to slow your opponents down and then Dredge Line your way towards a wall. To make sure you get the most of out of your Dredge Line, use it in a way that allows you to gain the most distance as possible out of it, generally aiming at around a 30-45 degree angle towards the wall and opposed to a 90 degree angle. Use the video below to see what exactly this implies:
Teamfights





In teamfights, you want to hit Titan's Wrath whenever it's up and Staggering Blow as many opponents as possible. Use Riptide whenever it's off cooldown to hit as many opponents as possible while you do this. Use Dredge Line to pull in low health, escaping enemy champions or pull distant AP/AD carries attempting to battle from afar. Don't be afraid to Depth Charge these carries at any time; however, if you can hit several enemies with Depth Charge due to one champion standing in the back, you should definitely seize the opportunity for some great CC.

This is going to be your general Jungling route. Let's explain everything step by step.
1
Start by getting one point in




We go to blue golems first because going for wolves first will mean that your Titan's Wrath will not be up in time for fighting golem. You need this shield to take on golem and killing wolves with riptide is fairly faster unless you have a very, very willing top/bottom lane to assist you.
2
Titan's Wrath should either be back up or just about to finish on its cooldown. Engage wolves, hit Titan's Wrath and then Riptide them. Finish off the large orange wolf first and then finish off the two smaller wolves. Don't be afraid to use Riptide again if it comes back up, it will be off cooldown by step 3.
3
Same as wolves, hit Titan's Wrath and Riptide the wraiths, focusing the large red wraith first. Move onto 4.
4
Focus the smaller golem first, using Titan's Wrath and Riptide. Use


5
If possible, get ready to gank either bottom/top lane, depending on the team you spawned on. Refer to the Ganking section below for information on this. If the lanes are far too pushed or the situation simply cannot call for it, go ahead and go back to wraiths and then follow through to step 6.
6
Hit Titan's Wrath, Riptide, same as always. Keep your focus on the Lizard Elder (red buff) and let your Titan's Wrath DoT and Riptide take care of the smaller lizards. Use Smite when necessary.
Ganking



Ganking can be a bit difficult and near impossible until level 3. Let's say you're aiming to gank top lane (as a jungler). For this example, we will assume your top laner is



You then ping Irelia, signalling Wukong to attack. Wukong moves in and you also emerge from the bush. You beat Irelia in the skull with a strong






In a less perfect situation,





The reasoning behind initiating with Dredge Line in the second situation is to ensure that some damage is done. It is obviously optimal to engage without Dredge Line so you are able to pull fleeing targets back in, but you can't always rely on this being an available possibility. However, this does not mean you should not be patient. Patience is a virtue: a virtue that can net you an early 400g for your team.
Here is a video of a general jungling route. Note that you won't be able to gank this easily (these were beginner bots!) and you should go head towards red/wraiths right after you gank, if successful.
Playing Support
When playing support on Bottom Lane, you should start off with your




So, now, why exactly is the 'optimal' ward location the best? Because it allows view from a possible gank coming from Dragon, Tribush, or directly down from Purple Team's blue buff. It also will generally spot



The Acceptable Wards are dependent on your priorities. If dragon is up and you are worried that it might be stolen by an enemy


The situational wards should only be used if you are subject to a ton of harassment from either of the side bushes or you are certain that opposing junglers on the blue team will attempt to gank from the tribush.
Be sure to coordinate with your laning partner (generally an AD carry like



Solo Top
I don't have too much experience playing as solo top Nautilus, but the general idea is to stay passive and grab last hits, not dissimilar to how most solo tops play. Harass the same way you would as a support and clear creeps that reach your turret with







Pulling an overly aggressive enemy into your turret range with




I hope that you enjoyed this guide and learned while reading it. Test out this build and see if it fits your playstyle; if not, perhaps another build may work, which other guides on this website cover. If you have any concerns, questions, criticism, ideas, or anything else that you would like to tell me, feel free to comment below or send me a message. I am always looking for feedback, good or bad. Until then, have fun, and I look forward to seeing you on Summoner's Rift!

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