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Recommended Items
Spells:
Flash
Heal
Items
Ability Order
Staggering Blow (PASSIVE)
Nautilus Passive Ability
The Fool Speaks
Before we get started, you are, of course, going to want to know who I am. Well, to put it simply, I'm nobody. This is my first guide here on MOBAFire, and I don't pretend to be particularly skilled at this game. In fact, when you get right down to it, I'm still very much a newbie. But I do feel as though I have a good grasp on the theory behind the game, I very much enjoy playing all kinds of champions, and I usually do well enough to think that I have at least some idea of what I need to be doing.
It is important that you know, however, that this is not a guide intended for use in competitive play. Maybe it's viable in ranked games - hell, maybe it's going to carry the next professional team to victory during the next big tournament - but all I know for certain is that, in the casual games that I play, it works pretty well. I do encourage you to give it a try in higher-end play and let me know how it does, but don't go into it expecting this build to completely change the way you look at Nautilus.
When all's said and done, I'm just here to entertain, and, in the process, give you the means to entertain yourself further with a build that I have a lot of fun with.
Enjoy.
- The Fool
As one final note, this guide is very new and subject to review as I polish it up. Just keep that in mind. I'll be keeping a change log down at the bottom.

DADDY'S
- BioShock 2
So, just in case you've been living under a rock for the past few years, it's time to give you an overview to the biggest, baddest, manliest man on the block. There are those who whisper his true name in awed, hushed voices in the backs of the local Buffalo Wild Wings on game nights, when he's laid claim to the best table and is sharing bottomless wings with a few lucky fans. Then there are those who refuse to speak his name at all; whether out of fear or respect, none of them can really say. Perhaps it is both.
In the end, everyone just calls him Papa Naut.
Women want him. Men either want him or want to be him - sometimes it's both, because we all know how that can get. Even twisted abominations that live only to eradicate all life from the universe in elaborate and painful ways have been quoted as saying they'd be honored to share a beer with him. Those who have been fortunate enough to receive a brotherly fist-pound from him have been known to sever their arms and put them in ornate display cases for all the world to see.
But why is Papa so revered?
Ask any of his kids, and they'd say it's because he's the coolest dad in the neighborhood. He's always the ones driving the neighborhood rugrats everywhere and buying them soda and burgers and promising not to tell their parents, and he always buys the best birthday presents. His wife... well, what his wife would say about him can't be repeated in polite company, so we'll just talk about how his neighbors say he makes the best damn barbecued ribs in the state, and how his Super Bowl parties are the stuff of legends.
But ask anybody who's seen him on the Fields of Justice, and they'll tell you the real reason.
Ain't nobody messes with Papa.
On the Field, Papa Naut is a force of nature. Foes cower at the sound of his clanking steps. The sight of his metal fist crashing down on one of the multitudes of minions is enough to send grown men crying for their mothers. And the sight of his raised anchor is a wordless rallying cry for his allies, because all of them know Papa protects his teammates.
Papa Naut loves all his children.
Why Play Papa Naut
Aside from the fact that he's incredibly badass while still being down-to-earth and awesome enough to buy you a beer without ever asking for repayment, on the Fields of Justice, Papa Naut is an incredibly tanky champion who, when built right, can allow his team to absolutely dominate every team fight. He offers an amount of crowd control that can only be described as ludicrous. His potential for disrupting the enemy team is almost unmatched. And, to top it all off, he's got several extremely powerful escape mechanisms to let him avoid getting the tables turned on him.
Papa is, in short, a team player. You don't play Papa because you want to be the hero. You're not going to be hitting like an AD carry, or running around and getting crazy kills like the jungler. You're going to be the anchoring point of your team's battle lines, first in and last out when the fight rolls around. You're going to be the guy your teammates will count on to initiate in a big way. You're going to be the rally point, the standard bearer, the last bastion of defense.
You won't get as many kills as some other champions, but you'll be the one making the crazy disruptive plays against the enemy and utterly shattering their defensive lines. You'll be the one setting up each and every one of those kills. You'll be the one giving passive buffs to your entire team so they can take that much more punishment. You'll be the unsung hero of the game, making your entire team's victory possible. And you'll let them have the spotlight, 'cause Papa doesn't need big applause to get satisfaction out of a job well done.
In short, you're playin' Papa Naut because you're a bro. You're the player everybody wants to group with but doesn't want to actually be, the one who gets no credit for all the miracles they work. You're a Good Guy, a Team Player, the kind of person the League community needs more of.
Papa salutes you, summoner. Read on.

The Fields of Justice, despite outcry from Papa's many fans, have decided that having a single champion capable of flattening entire teams constitutes an unfair advantage to whoever is on Papa's side that round. As such, despite his infinite badassery, Papa is forced to hold back when actually fighting, lest he accidentally destroy the entire playing field.
This means that there are a few pros and cons to playing Papa with this build that you need to be aware of.
Strengths and Weaknesses
Pros
+ Naturally tanky, with abilities to make you more so+ Absurd amounts of crowd control capability + Can punish even slightly overextended enemies + Impressive area of effect abilities and damage + Massive team fight presence + Incredible disruption ability |
Cons
- No built-in sustain- Abilities have high cooldowns at low levels - Forced to choose between damage and durability in early game - Initially low movement speed - Low damage output when flying solo |
All of this adds up to one thing: Papa sets up the plays. He makes his entire team more dangerous by an order of magnitude because of his ability to control the flow of a battle, but he doesn't have the sustained damage output or burst necessary to actually win fights himself.
He is, in short, a support. An awesome support, but still a support. He's there to, surprise surprise, support his team, and without a team behind him, he's not going to be doing much.
But that's all right with Papa. Papa knows he's awesome. He's a big enough man to realize that not being the big damage-dealer doesn't make him any less integral to the team or less important on the field. He's just got a different role.
Papa's Role
As a support champion, Papa's the one doing the grunt work for his team. He's the one setting up the plays for the other champions. He's the one making sure his allies are alive, usually by standing in the line of fire and soaking up the damage (it is hypothesized that said damage is actually entirely ineffective on Papa due to his sheer, immeasurable ballsiness protecting him at all times, and that he simply feigns injury on the field, but this is unproven as of yet). He's the one forcing the enemy carries out of position and interrupting all their precious channeling. He's the one, in short, who's making victory possible.
So remember that. You're setting up the plays, making it possible for the other players to dive in and get the kills they need. Your job is to keep them alive and set up their attacks, to initiate the battles and paralyze all of the enemy heavy hitters before they can burst down your own. You're trying to take the hits intended for your carries.
It's a dirty job, but somebody's gotta do it. And Papa knows enough to realize that, and he's quite content with letting others have the spotlight.

Now that you know what you're going to be doing as Papa Naut, it's time to get into the nitty-gritty, the tools of the trade. We'll start with Masteries and Runes.

Masteries
does have goes a lot farther. This is the main reason for the 0/21/9 distribution; this Mastery is just too good to pass up.








The real thing to note in the Defensive Mastery tree is that three points are invested in


In the Utility tree,









Runes
Once again, we're going to put our runes together around the idea that Papa's playing support to the other champions. As such, we need to look at what a support champion, and Papa Naut in particular, needs to be successful.
The first thing that comes to mind, of course, is gold. As supports don't get much farm, they're dependent on items like Philosopher's Stone to give them the gold income they're missing out on otherwise. To try and give a boost to our economy, then, the obvious answer is the

As mentioned above, supports are played in the bottom lane, and bottom lane is the realm of the AD carry. As such, our runes need to give us some early-game resistance to harassment from enemies that are capable of dishing out the physical damage. The


The gap in Papa's defenses, then, is magic resistance. AP carries won't be as much of an early problem as AP carries, but they still need to be dealt with. The

I have yet to try many other rune combinations with this particular build for Papa Naut, but from what I can tell, there are only a few other noteworthy instances that you might want to substitute for one of the above.
The

Substituting the


Runes to avoid, on the other hand, are far more plentiful. Anything that deals with increasing your damage output is largely pointless on this build, as you're going to be playing Papa for his crowd control and the passive buffs he can pass on to his teammates when built, not his ability to burst down enemy champions. Cooldown reduction and movement speed increases are likewise largely pointless, as the build fixes Papa's naturally slow movement speed on its own, and his cooldowns both get shorter as he levels up and are reduced by several items in the core set.
Just keep your goal in mind when building your rune page: you're a big wall of metal that exists to push enemy players out of position with crowd control, initiate fights, and stay alive as long as possible so that your teammates can get the most benefit from your buffs. Go big, go beefy, and get built fast.

So you've got your runes and Masteries all set up. Papa's ready to rock the house. Now, though, you're faced with the choice of what to take for the game itself - namely, what summoner spells to bring along, and what order to level your abilities in.
Don't worry, kid. Papa's not gonna leave you hanging. Let's take a look.
Summoner Spells




Less-viable summoner spells abound. Certain examples, like








Abilities
Awwww yisss. This is where we get to the good stuff, the stuff that makes Papa the big man on the playing field that he is. Papa is packing some ludicrously powerful stuff in his kit, so let's not waste any time.










Using Your Skills
Looking at Papa's skills, it's very obvious that he's focused on controlling where the enemy goes. He's very effective at controlling the flow of battle, as he can pull enemy champions out of position and onto the chopping block with









So, as you can see, Papa doesn't need massive amounts of damage output to be dangerous. He forces the enemy to fight on your terms rather than the other way around, and can keep them from ever getting into position with his massive disruption capabilities. Entire teams can crumble under the pressure of his


Well, now you know what Papa brings to the table. It's time to learn what he expects to take away from it. Time to talk about the goodies Papa likes to deck himself out with while he's crushing his enemies under his corroded iron heels.
Core Items
These are the items that are Papa's favorites, the ones that really turn him into a powerhouse that can bring his team to victory. It's not a good idea, in my experience, to stray too far from this core build.









Alternate Choices
There aren't really too many alternate choices to consider in this build. Papa wants to build big, beefy, and tough, with lots of passive buffs for his kids and debuffs for the enemy. If you really want to consider alternate builds, though, here are some items to consider.

















Buy Order
Initial Buy


This is a fairly standard initial buy for support champions, but substituting


Early Game
Philosopher's Stone



Again, fairly standard for a support champion. An early



Mid-Game



By this point, people are starting to move around the map more, and Papa's kids are spending more time with the old man. Fortunately, most of Papa's sustainability issues are taken care of, thanks to some handy health regeneration coming from his early game items. Since team fights, whether partial or complete, are starting to come into play, it's start to build up Papa's ability to keep his kids upright by giving them passive defensive buffs from



Late Game




Now's when Papa really becomes a powerhouse.






Early game is when Papa Naut is gonna have some trouble dealing with the enemy, due to a lack of sustain. He'll come out swinging, of course, and he'll be a powerhouse while he's there - but without any ability to stay in the lane under heavy harass, it's unlikely to last if the enemy takes the time to poke him down.
Like any other support champion, Papa Naut is there to keep the kids safe. He's going to be warding all the relevant bushes and keeping an eye out for ganks as per usual, while trying to keep the area clear for his carry to farm. That's all very generic stuff, though, and this isn't a guide for learning how to support. It's time to talk about how Papa himself works in the early game.
The key here is to coordinate with your team's AD carry. At this point in the game, Papa Naut's strength is, as always, his ability to make plays. Big plays. The level one



At this point in the game, Papa's damage output is still pretty good, as the enemy hasn't had much time to build up defenses. Pull the enemy out of position and keep them still while your carry takes them down.
Due to his unparalleled ability initiate fights, Papa synergizes well with high-damage, low-health carries that need a tanky support to start the fight for them.




Since Papa can so heavily punish any enemy who steps even a centimeter out of line with his combo, and is very hard to win trades against due to his crowd control and



Even Papa's got his limits, after all, and nowhere are they more apparent than the early game. He's vulnerable to poke harass, but he's got incredibly powerful zone control to make up for it, and he can initiate fights like no one else. Exploit that, build into your health regeneration items as fast as possible, and you'll be fine.

By the time people start to really roam around the map, Papa should have his


See, Papa loves all his children.

The thing to remember once the middle game is underway is that Papa Naut's items like

With



Because of his tankiness and crowd control, Papa's going to be the one making the big plays and initiates for his team. Kids've got to learn some day, but for now, they can just sit back and take notes. As during the early game, try to catch an enemy out of position with





Once an initiation has been made, it's Papa's job, like any good tank, to get right in the thick of it and take as many of those hits as he can. Don't forget to use the active on


Aside from just generally getting right up in the enemy's faces and asserting dominance, though, Papa Naut excels at dragging enemy carries into the thick of things - which is exactly where they don't want to be. With



If things do go pear-shaped, Papa's got the tools to handle that, too.



Playing Papa Naut effectively requires active awareness of what's happening in a team fight and what are the best targets for a


DADDY'S HOME.
At this point, Papa Naut's got frankly ridiculous amounts of health, and is building into more with



It's time to put all of that to use. Papa's too big and beefy for the enemy to deal with in a timely manner, which means they basically just have to sit there and take whatever he dishes out. This is where he really comes out and starts to shine. He's got the ability to make big, big plays for his family with






In short, you have ludicrous amounts of presence everywhere on the map, but particularly during team fights. You can easily force the enemy out of practically anywhere, and turrets are barely a speed bump due to


Papa Naut is a force of nature. Make them feel it.

So. What have we learned, aside from the fact that Papa Naut is the most awesome guy to ever live?
Well. He's got ludicrous amounts of crowd control and initiation capability, backed up by natural tankiness. He's got a lot of synergy with fragile, bursty AD carries in the early game due to his ability to punish even slight positioning errors by the enemy with a well-placed








His weaknesses, on the other hand, are a lack of sustainability during the early game, which can be mitigated by the Masteries and items that we've selected, and a lack of substantial damage output on his own. Papa Naut likes to let his kids have the spotlight, you see, so it's important that you stick with your team. As an extension, it's important that your team have some idea of what your strategy is, and know to react when you go in for a

Here's hoping you all enjoy your time with Papa as much as I do.
Cheers!
- The Fool
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