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Runes: Conqueror
1
2
Precision
Resolve
+8 ability haste
+6 Armor
+8 Magic Resist
Spells:
1
2
Primary Summoners
Ghost
Teleport
Items
Ability Order
Soul Eater (PASSIVE)
Nasus Passive Ability
Threats & Synergies
Extreme
Major
Even
Minor
Tiny
None
Low
Ok
Strong
Ideal
Darius
Hard lane, avoid fighting him as much as possible. Ask for ganks from Jungle and/or Mid. His passive does magic damage, so get Mercury Treads. Can't really stop you from farming, outside of killing you. You should win late game, if you haven't fed him to oblivion.
Ideal
Strong
Ok
Low
None
Champion Build Guide
Introduction
Hello, I'm iFetchStacks. If you couldn't tell by my name, I am a
Nasus main. I have been playing this game consistently since
Gnar was released in August 2014, and consistently playing
Nasus since around the release of
Kalista. I currently have over 1 million mastery points with the champion.
My rank? Currently Bronze 3. I am Top Nasus OTP but I do play Support fairly regularly, and can play multiple Supports with consistency.
Why do I play
Nasus so much?
Because I like his play style - Sit back and farm until you can make a (hopefully) huge impact mid-late game. Plus, I just think it's really satisfying to last hit things with his
Siphoning Strike. He also has a very high win rate when you've played more than 50 games.




My rank? Currently Bronze 3. I am Top Nasus OTP but I do play Support fairly regularly, and can play multiple Supports with consistency.
Why do I play

Because I like his play style - Sit back and farm until you can make a (hopefully) huge impact mid-late game. Plus, I just think it's really satisfying to last hit things with his

Pros/Cons of Nasus
Pros
+ Simple kit.
+ Late game is disgusting to deal with. If allowed to split push and farm, he can easily get enough damage to two shot an ADC.
+ His
Siphoning Strike damage works on towers. If allowed to farm, he can take out a tower with just two.
Demolish also procs with it.
+ Really tanky and can easily deal a ton of damage with zero damage items.
+ His
Wither is super strong. It slows movement speed AND attack speed. Currently the second strongest slow in the game at 95% when maxed!
+ If you don't have a game plan, he's almost impossible to deal with.
Cons
- Extremely weak early game.
- Extremely easily kited.
- If kept off minions, or falls behind, he is pretty much useless.
- Bad team fighting if enemy team is super mobile or has tons of crowd control.
- Early game, he is countered by almost everyone in the game, due to his lack of damage/hard crowd control (stun, silence, polymorph, etc).
+ Simple kit.
+ Late game is disgusting to deal with. If allowed to split push and farm, he can easily get enough damage to two shot an ADC.
+ His


+ Really tanky and can easily deal a ton of damage with zero damage items.
+ His

+ If you don't have a game plan, he's almost impossible to deal with.
Cons
- Extremely weak early game.
- Extremely easily kited.
- If kept off minions, or falls behind, he is pretty much useless.
- Bad team fighting if enemy team is super mobile or has tons of crowd control.
- Early game, he is countered by almost everyone in the game, due to his lack of damage/hard crowd control (stun, silence, polymorph, etc).
Team Composition
What team compositions does
Nasus fit well in?
Honestly, he fits well in almost any team composition, but he is best in any of the following team compositions. (This includes Ally and Enemy team compositions):
1. A team that has high CC.
2. A team that is capable of 4v5s if he wants to split push most of the game.
3. A team that is capable of rotating if he needs help getting out of a sticky situation.
4. A team that is capable of applying pressure in the other lanes to pull the enemy jungler away from his lane so he doesn't fall behind due to being camped.
5. A squishy enemy team.
6. An enemy team with a lack of hard CC or mobility.
7. A team that has enough long range wave clear. So you can split push if your team is behind, and get pressure in side lanes.
What team compositions should you avoid picking
Nasus?
There's not many team compositions he is bad into, but here's some examples. (This includes Ally and Enemy team compositions):
1. A team with a lack of hard CC.
2. An enemy team that can block your
Siphoning Strike with more than 1 champion.
3. A team composition where you need to peel for your carries,
Nasus doesn't really have much peel to offer other than his
Wither.
4. An extremely tanky team.
Nasus can't melt tanks very easily.
5. A team without any ranged champions, although this should never happen. If it does, PLEASE DODGE CHAMPION SELECT!
Any really good synergies with other champions?
Nasus doesn't have any synergies that give him a clear advantage, but generally goes well with anyone that can lock a team down, or a jungler that can either camp you and get you ahead, or pressure objectives or another lane to force the enemy jungler away from your lane.

Honestly, he fits well in almost any team composition, but he is best in any of the following team compositions. (This includes Ally and Enemy team compositions):
1. A team that has high CC.
2. A team that is capable of 4v5s if he wants to split push most of the game.
3. A team that is capable of rotating if he needs help getting out of a sticky situation.
4. A team that is capable of applying pressure in the other lanes to pull the enemy jungler away from his lane so he doesn't fall behind due to being camped.
5. A squishy enemy team.
6. An enemy team with a lack of hard CC or mobility.
7. A team that has enough long range wave clear. So you can split push if your team is behind, and get pressure in side lanes.
What team compositions should you avoid picking

There's not many team compositions he is bad into, but here's some examples. (This includes Ally and Enemy team compositions):
1. A team with a lack of hard CC.
2. An enemy team that can block your

3. A team composition where you need to peel for your carries,


4. An extremely tanky team.

5. A team without any ranged champions, although this should never happen. If it does, PLEASE DODGE CHAMPION SELECT!
Any really good synergies with other champions?

Runes
Which runes do I usually take?
This can and will vary depending on the matchup, but this is the rune set you will use in a majority of your games.
Grasp of the Undying: This is the keystone you will use in almost every game, because the % Max HP damage, healing and health increase is needed to help you survive lane and win duels.
Demolish: Why would you not take this rune?
Nasus is very tanky, and
Demolish scales with your
Siphoning Strike damage and deals an extra 100 + 30% of your Max HP as damage on top of it.
Conditioning: This just scales too well with your Q to not use.
Overgrowth: Starts to pay off mid and late game, when you're strongest, and it'll amplify the effectiveness of your health items.
Biscuit Delivery: You can switch this one out for
Magical Footwear, which will put you 300g ahead by getting free boots. But if you're in a harder matchup, this sometimes helps you survive lane as well. 4 extra free potions throughout laning phase. Consuming or selling each one permanently increases your mana cap. Especially useful if you find yourself using a lot of mana early game.
Cosmic Insight: The more cooldown reduction you have, the more you can farm up your
Siphoning Strike damage.
Bonus: Depends on the matchup, but I typically go with:
1. Cooldown Reduction (based on level)
2. Armor
3. Magic Resist
Can other runes work on
Nasus?
Honestly, almost any combination of runes can technically work on Nasus, with the exception of
Aftershock, due to his lack of hard CC. I do not recommend you use most of them though.
This can and will vary depending on the matchup, but this is the rune set you will use in a majority of your games.











Bonus: Depends on the matchup, but I typically go with:
1. Cooldown Reduction (based on level)
2. Armor
3. Magic Resist
Can other runes work on

Honestly, almost any combination of runes can technically work on Nasus, with the exception of

Summoner Spells



After the recent changes to

Now, when you want to impact the map with a




At the highest levels of the game, map movements will have to be more purposeful, while things like tower dives can be done with a little more confidence, knowing that the enemy team will have to either decide not to help the target of the dive, or commit everything to help them.







Items
Items:
While I will not go into depth on every item I listed at the beginning of this guide (don't have the patience to do that), I will go into the items you will get the most frequently. Did I miss an item you think I should add? Let me know!
Doran's Shield: Best for rough matchups, where the enemy is fairly pokey or has heavy harrass. (Teemo, Jayce, Kennen, Kayle, Quinn, Urgot, Vayne, Gnar, etc.)
Mercury's Treads: These are generally the best boots for
Nasus since you'll want minimal CC on yourself so you can get on their damage or get out of a sticky situation easier.
Plated Steelcaps: Sometimes the enemy's AA damage is so high however that
Plated Steelcaps become the optimal choice; especially if you're against a full AD team.
Frozen Heart: I get this item for the armor value, ability haste, and the passives. Very useful against AA based champs like most ADCs. Can get
Randuin's Omen as well if the enemy team is doing a lot of damage with crits.
Trinity Force: This is the best 1st item option for
Nasus, since it gives so much CDR (and other things) and the
Sheen passive synergizes so well with
Siphoning Strike. This same section also applies to
Divine Sunderer.
Spirit Visage: You should build this as your second item if you're either in a tank matchup, an AP matchup or vs a high AP comp. Otherwise you should usually build it as a 3rd item. If you're against a full AD comp you'll still want to build it at some point, but you should just build
Kindlegem and delay upgrading it until you have enough armor. Increases his passive healing.
Thornmail: Build this item when you want a way to deal with the enemy ADC's lifesteal, or the lifesteal/healing of the enemy you're split pushing against.
Dead Man's Plate: This should usually be your final item against teams where you want to build even more armor. It makes you decently tanky while also increasing your mobility.
Adaptive Helm: An alternative final item, which you can optionally build even sooner, when you're against heavy magic damage. It helps especially vs champions like
Cassiopeia,
Ryze or
Karthus who deal heavy magic damage DPS. Also great counter to
Teemo.
Force of Nature is an alternative to this item.
Sterak's Gage: Get this if you're getting bursted in fights. It gives you a pretty strong shield.
While I will not go into depth on every item I listed at the beginning of this guide (don't have the patience to do that), I will go into the items you will get the most frequently. Did I miss an item you think I should add? Let me know!























Abilities




Damage: 30/50/70/90/110 +

Cost: 20 Mana
Cooldown: 7.5/6.5/5.5/4.5/3.5 sec
If












Maximum Slow: 47/59/71/83/95%
Maximum Cripple: 23.5/29.5/35.5/41.5/47.5%
Cast Time: 0.25 sec
Cost: 80 Mana
Cooldown: 15/14/13/12/11 sec


The flame then remains for 5 seconds, dealing magic damage each second to all enemies within the area and Armor penetration reducing their armor while they are inside, lingering for 1 second.
Magic Damage: 55/95/135/175/215 (+60% AP)
Magic Damage Per Tick: 11/19/27/35/43 (+12% AP)
Armor Reduction: 25/30/35/40/45% of target's armor
Cast Time: 0.25 sec
Cost: 70/85/100/115/130 Mana
Cooldown: 12 sec


While




Effect Radius: 400
Bonus Health: 300/450/600
Bonus Resistances: 40/55/70
Magic Damage Per Tick: 3/4/5% (+1% per 100 AP) of target's maximum health
Cast Time: 0.2 sec
Cost: 100 Mana
Cooldown: 120 sec
The following is very difficult to do consistently, but looks cool. If you're fast enough with it, you can blend your







Gameplay
Early game:
At level 1 you'll be taking
Siphoning Strike to begin stacking it up on minions. Remember: You get 3 stacks for melee/ranged minions and the smaller creatures in the jungle camps. You get 12 stacks for large monsters in the jungle camps, Baron/Dragon, and each time you kill a champion. Play extremely safe and avoid trading unless your enemy can't retaliate because they're busy last-hitting a minion; even then just poke them with a single AA and walk away. Avoid using
Siphoning Strike for anything other than farming stacks early on, since its very weak early on and your focus is on becoming as big of a mid-late game threat as possible.
At level 2 you will want to take
Spirit Fire (or
Wither if your jungler wants to gank you). You'll continue laning the same, but you will now have the option of trading back hard with
Spirit Fire -> Auto-Attack ->
Siphoning Strike if the enemy goes too ham trying to bully you to stop you farming your
Siphoning Strike stacks. Do not attempt this against a difficult matchup, they will likely just all in you.
At level 3, depending on the matchup you'll either put another point in
Siphoning Strike to more effectively stack it, or take
Wither or
Spirit Fire depending on what ability you took at level 2, to help defend yourself against aggressive enemy all-ins.
After you reach level 6, and get
Fury of the Sands and have
Sheen you can actually turn a lot of matchups around and get solo kills if the enemy underestimates you, since you become so tanky and
Siphoning Strike gets such a low cooldown. For the most part you'll keep laning the same, focusing on farming, but you do always have that option of turning on your enemy if they go too aggressive, and you can even start to trade more aggressively yourself if the enemy laner is weak enough that you can start to bully them.
Mid/Late Game:
At around 300 stacks, and when you have a
Sheen you're a turret eating machine. You excel in 1v1 situations and 1v2 depending on who the 2 are if you play it right. The best way to pressure the map as
Nasus mid to late game, is split pushing with your
Teleport up to stop any Baron/Dragon plays from going on or to stop the other team from engaging onto your team. Just be aware if whomever is matching your split push can cancel your
Teleport or not.
Nasus gets knocked around in teamfights, but with
Fury of the Sands and your lifesteal you can tank an enemy team for a good chunk of time, which allows your back line to pop off. The later the game goes the harder teamfights get for
Nasus, since you spike in power around the 2-4 item threshold.
Nasus can teamfight and dive with the right team composition, but he's best played as a split pusher.
In a majority of your games you'll still usually want to stay in a side lane and just split push, since it allows you to continue to effectively stack up your
Siphoning Strike damage, you take towers so quickly, and if you're not already stronger at 1v1s than your enemy laner then it's only a matter of time until you will be. Split pushing is all about playing around Baron and Dragon's respawn timers.
You'll want to split push TOP if:
a) Baron is up but your TP is down.
b) Your TP is up, but baron is down and dragon is up/respawning soon.
You'll want to split push BOT if:
a) Baron is up/will be respawning soon and your TP is up.
b) Your TP is down but Baron is down as well and dragon is up/respawning soon.
Basically you want to be split pushing as far away from the most important neutral objective as possible, that way the enemy team can't collapse on you without giving up a free Dragon/Baron (make sure your team is aware of this and spam ping them to do the neutral objective as soon as you see the enemy team collapsing on you); and the enemy team can't just take it themselves or freely engage 4v4/5v4 because you have
Teleport.
When you notice a fight breaking out, you'll want to
Teleport onto the nearest ward/minion to join in. Unless your team can win it relatively easily. In team-fights, you'll want to immediately pop
Fury of the Sands and
Ghost, run towards the enemy ADC or other high priority target,
Wither them, and make them go bye-bye. Remember that if it looks like you won't be able to take anyone down before they take you down, it's smarter to retreat so you can survive. The faster you make the call to retreat, the higher your chances of surviving. And if you realize so late that you're still going to die no matter what, then just do as much damage as you can before you die.
Sometimes you can also use
Teleport to flank the enemy team if there's a really good ward set up behind them where you can surprise them, giving their carries no place to run; they either walk into you or your team. These flanks can be game-winning, especially if the enemy top laner is on a side lane defending your split push and aren't able to match your
Teleport in time to make it an even fight.
At level 1 you'll be taking


At level 2 you will want to take





At level 3, depending on the matchup you'll either put another point in



After you reach level 6, and get



Mid/Late Game:
At around 300 stacks, and when you have a








In a majority of your games you'll still usually want to stay in a side lane and just split push, since it allows you to continue to effectively stack up your

You'll want to split push TOP if:
a) Baron is up but your TP is down.
b) Your TP is up, but baron is down and dragon is up/respawning soon.
You'll want to split push BOT if:
a) Baron is up/will be respawning soon and your TP is up.
b) Your TP is down but Baron is down as well and dragon is up/respawning soon.
Basically you want to be split pushing as far away from the most important neutral objective as possible, that way the enemy team can't collapse on you without giving up a free Dragon/Baron (make sure your team is aware of this and spam ping them to do the neutral objective as soon as you see the enemy team collapsing on you); and the enemy team can't just take it themselves or freely engage 4v4/5v4 because you have

When you notice a fight breaking out, you'll want to




Sometimes you can also use


Conclusion

I hope this guide gave you insight to how I play

Links and Stuff
Feel free to add me on the following:
Discord: iFetchStacks#0924
League IGN: iFetchStacks
Discord: iFetchStacks#0924
League IGN: iFetchStacks
iFetchStacks
Nasus Guide
Ultimate Nasus Guide from a Nasus OTP - Season 2022
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