SPACESPACE

SPACESPACE

Hey everyone, it's Nathan, but on the Rift I am simply AtypicalDarkLord. This, truly, is my first guide of any kind so I would appreciate any feedback that you have! Now without further ado, let's dive right into Nasus and see why he can be one of the best top laners in the game. This guide covers my favorite variant of a Nasus build, all out tank. Throughout the guide I hope to provide valuable insight on what I like about Nasus and the things that make him difficult. So, let's get to it!

Pros

+ Siphoning Strike gives natural AD + Natural Lifesteal with Passive + Ult gives Great Power Spike + Wither provides Engage/Escape

Nasus provides one of the most diverse play styles in the game. He has natural AD with his Siphoning Strike which grants stack for kills with the ability. His natural sustain is huge due to his passive and the combo of Wither, Fury of the Sands, and Siphoning Strike is devestating.

Cons

+ Poke Heavy Champs make Life Hard + Blind is your Worst Nightmare + No Stacks = No Natural AD + No Early Game = Weak Late Game

The worst thing about Nasus may be how much you have to change play styles based on matchups. A bad matchup can equal a bad game if you aren't prepared to adapt. Champs that have strong early games or blinds (I'm looking at you Teemo) make stacking a chore. Be prepared to adapt and you can survive.

Soul Eater: // Nasus drains his foes of their spiritual energy, giving him a natural 10 / 15 / 20% life steal. This ability increases every 6 levels. This ability gives you great natural sustain as your Siphoning Strike gives you anywhere from 8 to hundreds depending on your level and Attack Damage (including stacks)

Siphoning Strike: // Siphoning Strike is your bread and butter, your make or break, your peanut butter and jelly?, whatever you prefer to call it, it is your tool to victory. Activating this gives bonus attack damage of 30/50/70/90/110 plus stacks. If the ability kills a small minion it grants 3 stacks, if it kills a large/super minion or a Champion it grants 6 (this includes Drag and Baron).

• // Early game especially, only use for strikes you are sure will kill.
• // You can active and not use for 10 secs. But you must endure the cooldown if you don't.
• // Early game prioritize farming over pushing your opponent.

Wither: // This slow is legit! Not only does it cause slow from 35-95% of movement speed it also slows the attack speed by a factor of .5 (17.5-47.5%). This is great for both engage and escape, especially when it comes to being or receiving a gank. Hit them with it and watch their rage grow.

Spirit Fire: // Nasus unleashes a spirit flame at a target 400-radius area, dealing magic damage to enemies caught within. The spirit flame burns for 5 seconds afterwards, dealing magic damage each second and reducing the armor of enemies within the area. This may not do much damage with this build but the armor reduction is key, and not to mention it looks scary as hell when it gets thrown around you.

Fury of the Sands: // Once again, this is scary as hell to play against. All of a sudden that small dog with an ax you saw becomes a giant hell hound that will eat your soul. Not only do you get larger Fury of the Sands also gives an area of effect damage based on targets health, extra health for you, and incresaed attack range. It gives escape (if you must) due to your size increase and great team fight tool. Unleash the Fury!

• Greater Quintessence of Health: 78 flat health to start makes laning early much easier and helps to add early sustain when paired with any of the starting items from earlier.
  
• greater mark of hybrid penetration: I struggle with this one solely because I never know where to go flat armor pen or the hybrid pen. In the end, I come back to these because they seem to provide the most balance regardless of how you end of having to build.
  
• Greater Glyph of Magic Resist: 12 magic resist to start helps to give you the sustain you need. Could be substituted for cooldown reduction if you arent going up against a ap heavy team or laner.
  
• Greater Seal of Armor: Always a good choice with most champs. No one likes being squishy especially in top lane. Squishy top normally equals dead top.

Do: Ghost, Teleport, Flash, or Ignite are the only spells that I would recommend to take when laning nice. And 9 times out of 10, I take Ghost and Teleport and hears why. Nasus has no hard escape yes you could slow someone and ult and hope and pray you make it out but its much easier to just press d and GTFO. Tele is useful for getting back too lane and into team fights and seems to be a must for most top laners.

Don't: Anything else. You aren't jungling. No Smite! And anything else is basically a joke.

Alright, now its time for us to really get down to business. Nasus is a great choice top lane but often it seems that people playing him end up scared if you are getting poked hard. Laning is your most important phase and without a strong laning phase by the time you are needed for team fights you end up just taking up space rather than being a one man wrecking machine. So, how do you fix these problems and what should you be doing in lane.

First, and foremost, you must be willing to get hit in order to gain stacks. If you are afraid to get hit early you end up at 10 minutes with less than 100 stacks and you are asking yourself, how in the world am I not doing any damage? But, how do you get the stacks that you desperately need?

Early Game:
Farming minions is a hard art to master. You always to seem to hit too early or too late, and then you end up frustrated and dozens of farm behind. But, never fear, I will do my best to help you have a successful laning phase which on Nasus often equates to a strong late game. When you first enter lane you need to understand that your Siphoning Strike takes anywhere from 8 to 4 seconds to come back up after use. (Make sure you see that this is after use as it doesn't go on cooldown until you actually strike. Early on you need to only use your strike when you are sure that you are going to get the kill. In general, until I build up to around 100 stacks I only use my Siphoning Strike when the minion has the amount of health that I could take away with between 1 and 2 basic attacks. Take your back to bases when you need it and always be mindful of your Teleport. For most of us playing normals or some low elo ranked games (bronze, silver) using teleport to get back into lane is not a terrible idea, especially if you had to back due to a hard poke or gank and your turret is under siege. But, if you can save your Teleport for getting into team fights then that is always favorable. GOAL STACKS @ 10: 100

Mid Game:

This is easily one of my favorite league meme's but it really helps to describe your mid and early game. YOU MUST FARM. Unless you know that you are dominating in lane and that you have the ability to get a kill and help somewhere else don't leave your lane. Doing this denies you of too much farm for the amount of benefit that you get out of helping (maybe) get a kill or push someone out of lane. Leave this to your jungler. It will be the most beneficial to the team for you to farm. After 20 minutes though you need to be ready to enter team fights regardless of where you are in stacks. Don't keep farming unless you are absoultely sure that your team is ok without you. GOAL STACKS @ 20: 300-400

Late Game:
This is where Nasus can shine. By this point you should be tanky enough for you be able to go into a fight get to around half health pop your ult and come out with almost the same amount of health that you went in. You want to make people focus you. 3 Assist and a death while your ADC took 3 kills is never a bad exchange. And, with your Siphoning Strike there is a good chance that you could 2 hit a squishy with your Q. You have the ability to kill them while taking turret agro as well. More than anything else you just need to be able to be involved in all of the team fights. If you are there you have a much higher chance of winning the team fight or at least not losing it. GOAL STACKS: An A&& Load

So now that we have covered what your gameplay will look like, I wanted to spend more time doing some do's and don'ts of farming.

Do's
1. Auto-attack on high health minions that are out of range of the enemy. It lets you get to Siphoning Strike earlier than normal.
2. Focus on the large minions. Not meaning auto them, but more so ensure that you get the stack off of them as they are worth more.
3. Use your Wither and Spirit Fire sparingly to allow for key farm or on ganks.
4. Do not be afraid to back. If you die you are worthless.
5. Play with confidence. You must believe in yourself in order to win.

Don'ts
1. Overextend in lane. Your Ghost can only save you every once in a while.
2. Use your Spirit Fire just because you can or to weaken minions.
3. Auto-attack low health minions when you have your Siphoning Strike up.
4. Leave lane to chase down a low health jungler. They can normally elude you and you end up in bad situations.
5. BE SCARED.

Nasus is one of those champs that a lot of people hate to play against. And, you can be one of those people. I hope you guys enjoyed this guide and if you have any comments, suggestions, or question feel free to leave them below. I will see you all on the Rift.