"I will have vengeance."

Nautilus is a very powerful Jungler with a quite fast clearing power thanks to his barrier AOE/shield Titan's Wrath, and some strong ganking opportunities with both Dredge Line / Staggering Blow combo, and his long range Depth Charge ultimate.

He is great through the whole game, both early and late-game, where he can build as a powerful initiator thanks to his awesome tanking abilities and tons of crowd control effects (he's the champion with most CC's in the whole game).

He could also play as a carry bodyguard by peeling your enemies off, helping your team-mates feed themselves, or just shutting down enemy assassins.

SPACESPACE

PROS - Monstrous tanking abilites - 4 different kind of CC effects, both single-target and AoE - Fast clearing ability when jungling - Efficient and reiliable ganker - Powerful team fight initiator - Strong carry bodyguard

CONS - Slowest champ in the game - Very few escape possibilites - Not much damage late game - Depends on team-mates ability to score kills - Can be shut down by early counterjungling - Can easily go out of mana expecially early on

SMITE

This is a pretty obvious choice for any jungler. Useful early on to get blue/red buffs and farm, and still very important later for dragon and baron farming and/or stealing. While in previous seasons some champs could go without Smite, in Season 4 just don't go jungling without it.


FLASH

Another win-win safe-pick Summoner's spell choice. Flash is useful for ganking, chasing, and escaping tight situations. A great GANKING COMBO is a surprise Flash jump on an unsuspecting opponent, snaring him with Staggering Blow, slow with Riptide while your Titan's Wrath DoT slowly kills him, and then grab him with Dredge Line to ensure the kill. If something goes wrong you still have another opportunity with Depth Charge and/or another Staggering Blow, guaranting an almost 100% "You cannot escape" combo.


GHOST

Ghost is another safe choice for Nautilus to somewhat help out with his lack of mobility. Better than Flash for prolonged chases, reaching your goals and escaping routes, it still lacks the surprise effect and the chance of jumping through walls. It's a good spell, and mostly, it's just a matter of personal preferences.

STAGGERING BLOW


Your passive: useful for bursting out additional damage during engages and ganks, it's just the icing on the cake that gives you an additional mana-free CC (snare), on an 8 secs cooldown.
Staggering Blow is especially useful during teamfights as you can snare down all enemy champs, one by one, relentlessly catching them and stopping them on their tracks.


DREDGE LINE


A skillshot grab wich is actually easier to use than you may think, thanks to the large hitbox. Dredge Line actually drags you halfway to your opponent after grabbing him, and can also be used to drag walls and object, serving as a secondary purpose dash/gap closer. Other than the basic GANKING COMBO explained above, a useful tactic during teamfights is to grab out the overxtending bruiser or a minion, close up to enemies, Depth Charge them all and then Riptide them while your team mates finish them off. Take Dredge Line at level 3 to ensure a fast gank top or mid (better explained later).
Dredge Line can also be used as a last resort escaping tool by grabbing objects, while your opponents are slowed by a Riptide shockwave... if you still have the mana for that!


TITAN'S WRATH


This is your bread-and-butter ability wich is usually maxed out first. Not only this skill gives you the big shield that makes Nautilus an almost invincible tank during teamfights, it also helps out clearing camps as fast as you can during the jungling phase, due to its AoE damage to monsters. Its DoT deals terrible damage to enemy champs in early game, and can still be a reliable source of damage later on, to bring down a carry together with Iceborn Gauntlet's power. Also, it resets auto attacks, so a very viable technique for Nautilus pro players, is to grab your enemies with Dredge Line, snare them with Staggering Blow, then quickly activate your Titan's Wrath to get another additional strike.


RIPTIDE


Riptide is basically an Area of Effect slow effect wich will also damage your opponents. Quite powerful early on, does not do very much damage later due to the fact that you're not building Ability Power, unless you choose to go for a late Liandry's Torment, whose passive will benefit from the additional damage due to the inherent slow. Riptide is best used just after a Staggering Blow as the shockwave it generates it's quite slow to cast and expand itself, so it can't be trusted for chasing high-mobility champs. Great during teamfights, Riptide can be very efficiently used together with Randuin's Omen Unique active, to perma-slow all enemies during a battle.


DEPTH CHARGE


Your ultimate is a terribly powerful ability that may entirely change the outcome of a teamfight. It will pop up all other champs and monster it will pass through, until it hits your main target stunning him, and that's where a good Nautilus will make the difference with a bad one. Catching many enemies with a single Depth Charge it's your first and foremost priority, even if that means you need to target a tank instead of that slippery ADC, and also it's a great initiating tool as it will catch everyone's attention on the ongoing fight.
Other than that it's an incredibly useful chasing tool, due to the fact that it will relentlessly follow the enemy champion even if he's way out of your range after casting, or if he goes invisible or hidden. While Depth Charge cannot be interrupted, it still has a short windup animation, so be careful to time it properly.

Basically you need to go as much tank as you can. Since Flat/Scaling Greater Seal of Armor got nerfed down, Greater Seal of Health is the way to go, hands down.

Greater Mark of Attack Damage is in my opinion far better than Greater Mark of Attack Speed, due to the fact that Titan's Wrath will proc his DoT even when the shield is down, as long as Nautilus is completing is animation. So in order to get another full attack and proc an additional DoT you will probably need at least +30% Attack Speed. Also while more Attack Speed means clearing earlier camps 0.02 seconds faster, more Attack Damage means you pack more punch during ganks.

Greater Glyph of Scaling Magic Resist is the way to go if you want to stack up as much MR as you can through the levels, wich is always helpful, as many champs AD champs will still do mixed damage due to items like Blade of the Ruined King. If you want to be more offensive Greater Glyph of Scaling Cooldown Reduction is still a viable choice.

Greater Quintessence of Movement Speed are quite obligatory, as Nautilus is really damn slow, and every bit of additional speed is absolutely required to successfully jungle.

THE BASICS

Always start from the camp nearest to the bot-lane, to get the best pull without forcing your mates to lose minions. This means the Red Lizard Buff if your team starts from the lower part of the map, or the Blue Golem Buff if your team is on the upper part of the map.
Ward your nearest tribush (the one in the river near the Dragon), and ask your toplaner to ward your other unclaimed buff if they want to invade.
If they do, don't fight back unless your team is much stronger: go grab their Red Buff instead as fast as you can, with at least 2 other team mates.

STARTING ROUTES

Your first duty is to go gank mid or top as early as you can. The ideal route to maximize your experience, and gank with both Red and Blue buff is: Red - Wraiths - Blue - Gank if you start from Red buff, or Blue - Wolves - Red - Gank if you start from Blue buff. Your first skill should always be your W Titan's Wrath, then R Riptide, then Q Dredge Line for a first level 3 gank. If you can't gank early because of counterjungling, or your mates being too pushed, keep leveling W at 3, and then Q at 4.

FIRST GANK

Ask your team mates to play under turret for the first 2 levels: the idea is to gank at level 3 when they aare still at level 2. Gank mid or top lane, as they can easily profit and snowball: an early gank will give them a probable kill, and an important advantage in farming and levelin, wich, early on, may cost their opponents an entire lane.
During your first gank try to save your grabbin' Dredge Line to guarantee the kill instead of using it to engage: just read the basic GANKING COMBO explained in the SPELLS section.
Sweeping Lens are of the utmost importance during these ganks: even if they know you're there, you will still press them with your presence, forcing them to flee away and lose precious farm and experience, provided your team mate is playing under turret.

Top lane is easier to gank if your team mate does not push: just walk out from the bush toward their turret instead of instant engaging, so your opponent is forced either to engage your team mate (in wich case you can grab him out of danger and kick his lower level ***), or to flee upwards inside the bushes where you can grab him out while your mate punches him in the guts.

Mid lane is harder to gank due to the wider space available to your opponent to just flee from southern river. Again, walk towards their turret while your team mate engages, but keep your eyes widely open for a potential counter-gank wich may ruin your day, especially if the enemy jungler is stronger than you (like Jarvan IV or Lee Sin). If you can't grab the midlaner or just can't properly engage, don't overxtend yourself: as explained above, forcing them to back under turret, gives your team mate a precious advantage in early leveling and farming.

JUNGLING AND FIRST RECALL

After your first gank, go Wolves ( Smite), Wraiths and then Golems ( Smite), if you started from Red Buff, or Golems ( Smite), Wraiths and then Wolves ( Smite), if you started from Blue Buff. Recall when you got 1100 gold at least (you should be level 5), and buy Quill Coat, Boots and Ruby Crystal, or try to close Spirit of the Ancient Golem if you got enough gold.

PSYCHOLOGICAL WARFARE

When you go back to your jungle, gank again the same lane you already ganked first, and press him as much as you can. If you can kill him twice (please give the kill to your team mate!) not only you snowball your team mate and shut down an entire lane, they will probably start flaming their jungler to get a gank. Stay around and go for a countergank: you have a nice chance to kill them both with your snowballed team mate's help, wich is a guaranteed flame amidst their team.
At this point you should be level 6, and now it's time to gank bot with your tremendous ultimate: Depth Charge. Save it as much as you can, especially if a 3 v 3 or 4 v 4 brawl ensues with jungler and midlaner: you can hit them all with it, granting an easy kill on weaker targets such as their ADC and a double-triple kill if timed correctly. After that, rush to Dragon and kill him with mid and/or bot lane's help.
At this point your item priority should be closing your Mercury's Treads (or other boot types), and Randuin's Omen to get an additional CC.

LATE GAME TACTICS

After lane phase is over (usually between level 6-9), your main role is to be a bodyguard for midlaner and ADC, and most of all a teamfight initiator. Save your smite for the always risky Dragon or Baron Nashor fights, and try to always be in the middle of all teamfights, to slow everyone with Riptide, get a better positioning for Depth Charge, and snare all enemies one by one with Staggering Blow. Do not roam the map alone: you're not an assassin, your role is to protect and engage big battles, expecially when synergizing with other high-CCs support champs such as Leona or Alistar.

Spirit of the Ancient Golem
Vote: 10/10

This should be your first item as a jungler: try to build it up as soon as possible, as it will grant additional money. It gives CD reduction, a huge Health bonus, some early Armor, and helps warding the map so you can freely use your Sweeping Lens around to scout enemy wards.



Mercury's Treads
Vote: 8/10

Probably one of the best items in the game. 35% CC resistance that stacks with Tenacious , and most of all, some early Magic Resistance wich is always useful, as you will keep building Armor for a while.



Ninja Tabi
Vote: 3/10 (7/10 versus AD-only teams)

You will get plentiful Armor from all the other items you will buy in this build, so Ninja Tabi are a pretty useless item, wich leave you without that precious Magic Resistance you need to survive, and without the even more interesting Tenacity bonus. Buy them only if all their team does Physical Damage.

Boots of Swiftness and

Boots of Mobility

Vote: 6/10

Bla bla bla you need speed with Nautilus, bla bla bla you need speed for ganks... Well it's true, and actually some more chasing power is ok. But being more tanky is way more ok, especially in the endgame. Pick movement boots until you're sure you won't miss a Dredge Line anymore.



Randuin's Omen
Vote: 8/10

Health, Armor and a great Unique effect that will allow to get your enemies permanently slowed down by synergizing with your Riptide shockwave effect. A great item to build as soon as you've built your Spirit of the Ancient Golem and Mercury's Treads, to start seriously tanking their team.



Iceborn Gauntlet
Vote: 9/10

Another great item, and pretty much core for Nautilus. Other than the obviously incredibly useful slow effect and additional damage that will keep you being a threat that cannot be ignored, Iceborn Gauntlet provides you all the mana you require to sustain prolonged battles. Build it right after Randuin's Omen, when doing damage becomes a bigger priority than just tanking.



Banshee's Veil
Vote: 7/10

Banshee's got nerfed quite a lot of times during the years. Today it's still a pretty solid item, expecially for it's Passive ability, and a safe pick to counter those pesky mages.



Sunfire Cape
Vote: 7/10

A good item, quite useful during prolonged battles, but somewhat inferior to Randuin's Omen. Build it as a last item if you need more Health or Armor, or choose something else instead.



Frozen Heart
Vote: 7/10

A good item with pretty good stats. Buy it against teams who rely on many quick attacking champion that deal Physical Damage such as Jinx, Twitch, or Olaf.



Thornmail
Vote: 6/10

A very situational item. Buy it if enemy team does only Physical Damage, or if they got a very fed AD carry such as Master Yi.



Locket of the Iron Solari
Vote: 4/10

It used to be a pretty powerful item back in the days past, when it gave both Armor and Magic Resistance aura. Now it's a very mediocre item, with subpar stats, and a miserable shield wich could still be somewhat useful only if all your team mates are close to you. Build it only if you desperately need to stack Magic Resistance, for example against a fed Veigar.



Guardian Angel
Vote: 6/10

Pretty good item, and the only one left in the game that gives both Armor and Magic Resistance. You don't need to come back from death tough, as you will probably be the last to die anyways. A bit overpriced, only interesting when overfed or very late game.



Liandry's Torment
Vote: 7/10

Pretty strong damage item wich gives you some additional killing power. Adds quite a punch to your Riptide due to its inherent slow, could be useful in those very rare scenarios when you are the only one who can score some kills (ie. very noob teams).



Abyssal Scepter
Vote: 6/10

Another pretty situational item. It gives some Magic Resistance and a pretty cool Magic Penetration Aura, wich can be useful to help out a well fed AP carry against another fed AP carry. Your own damage won't change by much by the way.



Warmog's Armor
Vote: 5/10

Another great item that was nerfed into nothingness patch after patch. Could be a last slot filler to improve your Titan's Wrath shield, but I think you can buy better items for the same amount of gold.



Spirit Visage
Vote: 6/10

Another decent item, with pretty good stats and a lame passive that does not help Nautilus in any way. Mostly a slot filler if you desperately need some additional Magic Resistance, after you build your Banhsee's Veil, wich is a superior item in every department.