Hi there! Seems to be that you've stumbled upon my Nasus guide! I play League on NA, and I like playing Nasus, who I think can carry lower elo really easily. Take a look, and if you have any comments or questions, leave something here and I'll be sure to respond as soon as I can. :)

So basically, Nasus is a champion that gets strong from farming. He's only played in the toplane, where is where you're going to be able to get most of your farm. Jungle Nasus can work, but it's 100% not as effetive as toplane, as you're getting so many less Q stacks. He's probably going to lose/go even with every lane that knows how to play against Nasus/counterpick, but the thing is that Nasus scales into lategame harder than any other champion in the game!

So basically, if you know you can't fight them, don't. Stay at tower, try to farm as much as possible and pray your jungler isn't stupid.

Passive: Soul Eater

Nasus drains his foe's spiritual energy, giving him a natural 10 / 15 / 20% lifesteal.

This skill is great for surviving lane. The natural lifesteal will make him harder to kill/poke down, and is also great late game when you get Spirit Visage. Without a single life-steal item, you'll be able to get a good quarter of your health back with a Q onto a squishy target.

Q: Siphoning Strike

Active: Nasus' next attack within 10 seconds will deal additional damage. Siphoning Strike permanently gains 3 damage whenever it kills a small minion or monster, and 6 damage whenever he kills a large minion or monster, or enemy champion.

Cost: 20 mana
Cooldown: 8/7/6/5/4 seconds
Physical Damage: 30/50/70/90/110/(+1.0 per attack damage)/ (+3 per enemy killed by Siphoning Strike)

This is Nasus' bread and butter ability. Q into autoattack will deal a bunch of damage. When you kill a minion with this, you get stacks. This is the reason why you scale so hard into late-game, you can just continue to farm and farm and farm and you'll just do so much freakin' damage.

W: Wither

Active: Nasus ages his target, slowing their movement speed by 35%, and attack speed by 17.5%. Additionally, they are reduced further to reach an extra slow at the end of 5 seconds. If the duration of the slow is reduced, the extra slow will be applied faster for it to reach its maximum at the end of the duration.
Cost: 80 mana
Range: 600

Extra Slow: 12/24/36/48/60 %
Cooldown: 15/14/13/12/11 seconds

This is Nasus' only CC ability, and a single-target one at that. It's cooldown isn't going to be very long with some CDR and the slow + AS reduction is great. You can simply cast this on the AD carry and it's like a mini exhaust for a good 5 seconds. Use this when chasing but be careful when using this in lane because it uses a butt ton of mana.

E: Spirit Fire

Active: Nasus unleashes a spirit flame at a location for 5 seconds. Enemies caught in the area are dealt a burst of magic damage. Additionally, enemies in the area are dealt magic damage each second and have their armor reduced while on there and for 1 extra second.
Cooldown: 12 seconds
Range to Center of AoE: 650
Radius of AoE: 400

Cost: 70/85/100/115/130 mana
Initial Magic Damage: 55/95/135/175/215 (+0.6 per ability power)
Magic Damage Per Second: 11/19/27/35/43 (+0.12 per ability power)
Total Magic Damage: 110/190/270/350/430 (+1.2 per ability power)
Armor Reduction: 20/25/30/35/40

This ability isn't going to be super useful for doing damage in fights, but what makes it so good is the armor reduction. Since Nasus usually doesn't buy much Armor Penetration, this is good for doing some extra damage to tanks. As with Nasus' W, be careful when using this in lane, as it also uses a pretty huge amount of mana.

R: Fury of the Sands
Active: Nasus becomes empowered in the sandstorm for 15 seconds, gaining extra health and increasing his attack by 50 while active. While the storm rages, he drains a percentage of nearby enemies max health each second (max of 240 magic damage per second per enemy) and converts 6.375% of the damage done into bonus attack damage for himself until the sandstorm wears off.
Cost: 100 mana
Cooldown: 120 seconds
Radius of AoE: 350

Health Gained: 300/450/600
Max Health to Magic Damage Ratio Per Second: 3/4/5% (+0.01% per ability power)
Total Max Health to Magic Damage Ratio: 45/60/75%/(+0.15% per ability power)
Total Magic Damage Possible (to a single enemy): 3600
Total Bonus Attack Damage Possible (from a single enemy): 229.5

I really like this skill. Nasus basically becomes huge and tanky for a couple seconds, making him so much harder to kill. As well as that, he gets AD as well, making him even more terrifying. Use this at the beginning of the teamfight, as it'll soak up a bunch of damage, as well as the AOE damage being pretty significant as well.

Nasus is a tanky fighter who does best in the middle of a teamfight, doing his best to do as much damage as possible, preferably to squishy AD Carries or AP Carries, but before he can start whacking his cane on top of people, he has to get to them. Mobility is super important on any champion and that's the reason almost everyone runs either Flash or Ghost. Both are really great on Nasus, as you really have no innate gapcloser, other than your Wither, if you could really call it one.

Take Flash when your enemy has a really immobile team or a team with very little peel, where a single Flash will be enough to get you into Wither range, over a wall, or even just melee range, but you should be taking Ghost instead of Flash when they have an Ezreal on their team, a mobile champ like Master Yi or a really heaver peeler like Thresh or Lulu. Against teamcomps with peel or mobility means that when you Flash in and Q them once, their backline will likely be able to get away from you relatively easily, so Ghost will give you that constant movespeed and lets you ram into the fleshy anus of their Ezreal without being kited to death.

The other summoner spell you should be taking is Teleport. Teleport on top-laners is just so-so-so good. It makes sure that, if you are winning, you can come back to your lane whenever you want, you can roam so much more easily, and provides INSANE map pressure. When you're losing, however, TP is still so useful and makes sure you can come back to lane and push if the enemy laner decides to leave or roam or something.

I highly recommend taking this set of Summoner Spells and I take this 99% of the time. If you really want to, you could take Ignite for a little bit of extra kill pressure in lane, or Exhaust if your Support decided to take something else, but otherwise, Ghost/Flash and Teleport is basically what you want 99/100 games.

Generic 9/21/0 tank masteries, change as you'd like.



Just make sure you have CDR in offense and 21 in defense for tankiness.



9/21/0, 6/21/3 or 4/21/5 all work fine too.

Health Seals + Armor Quints is now more effective than Armor Seals + Health Quints.

I like AD Marks, just to make it easier to farm + more damage.

Magic resist is good, but CDR is a must on Nasus, so much better for farming and overall DPS with Q spam.

You are a tank. Build tanky.

Laning is extremely important for a Nasus player. This is where you're going to be getting most of your Q stacks. The reason why Nasus isn't played as much as you'd think, is because his laning is PRETTY ****TY. If you pick Nasus as 1st pick in ranked, you're sure as hell not going to have a good time, because chances are the enemy is going to pick Vlad or Riven into you and farming your Q is going to be just about impossible.

Basically, in lane, you want to farm your Q. That's all you do. Kill potential is extremely small, as they're probably just to run away or straight up kill you. Following up on ganks is actually pretty good for Nasus with Wither. If you can get ahead in lane, that's incredible, as you'll be able to just sit in the wave of minions and farm.

But.. chances are, you're not going to be able to win lane by a whole lot, so you should start practicing your ability to farm under tower.

Starting items on Nasus vary depending on who you're laning against.

If you're against an AP laner like Cho'Gath, high harrass laners like Vladimir or lower threat laners such as Maokai, starting Crystalline Flask with 3 Health Potions is a good idea. It gives you the needed sustain to survive through lane, or enough sustain to farm up quickly and efficiently.

Against some harder lanes like Riven or Pantheon, starting Cloth Armor with 5 Health Potions or Total Biscuit of Rejuvenation helps you take less damage so you don't actually die, while giving you enough health regen to actually survive.

If you're doing well in lane and have decent farm, look towards getting an early Kindlegem and/or Glacial Shroud. This combo is absolutely terrifying. Together, the two give you health, armor, mana and ****ing 20% cooldown reduction. That's T W E N T Y. With your runes and masteries, that should give you 30% CDR. These items will make stacking your Q so much easier and the enemy isn't going to be able to do anything because of your innate sustain from your passive. If you're against a mainly AP laner, build your Kindlegem into your Spirit Visage. Otherwise, start building into your Frozen Heart for your 40% CDR.

If you're not doing well, start building tank. Don't worry about too much cooldown reduction right now, because you just want to be able to stay in lane for as long as possible at this point in time. If you're having a lot of trouble against someone like Vladimir or Teemo, rush a Spirit Visage. You can opt for either Kindlegem or Spectre's Cowl first. If you're getting zoned by a Darius or Volibear, start getting some extra armor or health. An early Warden's Mail would be extremely helpful as it give you armor and the attack speed reduction, but the thing is that you also need health. Don't be afraid to get a few Ruby Crystals as they're really important to your build ( Trinity Force, Randuin's Omen, Spirit Visage, etc.)

this is still a work in progress ! check back often, there will be more here soon ! if you have any questions or things you'd like me to add, please leave a comment, as it helps me, yourself and anyone else reading the guide ! :)