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Nilah Build Guide by Grondvreter

ADC The ONLY role Nilah can play guide | 12.13

ADC The ONLY role Nilah can play guide | 12.13

Updated on July 24, 2022
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League of Legends Build Guide Author Grondvreter Build Guide By Grondvreter 21,558 Views 5 Comments
21,558 Views 5 Comments League of Legends Build Guide Author Grondvreter Nilah Build Guide By Grondvreter Updated on July 24, 2022
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Runes: Normal

1 2 3
Precision
Conqueror
Triumph
Legend: Alacrity
Last Stand

Resolve
Conditioning
Revitalize
Bonus:

+10% Attack Speed
+9 Adaptive (5.4 AD or 9 AP)
+65 Base Health

Spells:

1 2 3 4
Normal
LoL Summoner Spell: Flash

Flash

LoL Summoner Spell: Heal

Heal

Threats & Synergies

Threats Synergies
Extreme Major Even Minor Tiny
Show All
None Low Ok Strong Ideal
Extreme Threats
Ideal Synergies
Synergies
Ideal Strong Ok Low None

Details
- Who is Nilah
- Who am I


Champion
- Pros / Cons
- Abilities
- Tips & Tricks
Pre-Game
- Runes and Spells
- Team Comp


In-Game
- Items
- Gameplay
- Matchups

Who Is Nilah

Nilah and her demon of joy, Ashlesh
Nilah is an ascetic warrior from a distant land, seeking the world’s deadliest, most titanic opponents so that she might challenge and destroy them. Having won her power through an encounter with the long-imprisoned demon of joy, she has no emotions other than unceasing jubilation—a small price to pay for the vast strength she now possesses. Channeling the demon’s liquid form into a blade of unparalleled might, she stands defiant against ancient threats long forgotten.
As Nilah is a melee ADC she plays quite differently from other ADC's, only simmilar to 2 of them, Yasuo and Samira. She is a high skill champion that requires you to be not only good at the champion but exceptional at playing losing lanes and have good positioning and decisionmaking in teamfights





Who Am I

Here's a Video of me playing Nilah

sound is not working sorry :)

Hi! My name is David and i'm a ADC main...u wanted more? Sorry but i'm no one special. Peaked gold IV on NA currently stuck in elo hell same as you probably (since most people who are reading this are probably Low Elo).

My in-game name is Grondvreter and im playing on EUW if you want to go check out my stats on Nilah or just in general.

I don't advertise my rank because people think that just because u are not high rank u are not good enough to make a guide for a champion. I do not agree with this statement and think that as someone who plays in Gold and below i can give u the best guide on how to play at this level.

I am spamming Nilah as much as I can for the next few weeks so I can finish this guide ASAP and officially a Nilah main now, so I will be updating this entire guide every patch with the relevant changes.


Cons / Pros


Cons

- Melee champion
- Need to play very good to be useful
- Early game is eaily punishable
- Long cooldowns
- Still a ADC so she is easy to kill




Pros

- Extra XP gain from passive
- Very Mobile
- Built in Healing and Armor Pen
- W gives MR and AA Dodge
- Strong Mid- and Late-Game
- Relies less on Support than others
- Can innitiate fights

Abilities



Joy Unending(Passive 1)
RANGE: 1000
COST: -
COOLDOWN: -
Whenever Nilah kills a minion, she and the nearest allied champion gain an additional 50% of the experience they would have lost from sharing.
- The total XP that you and your Support get is the normal amount of XP that botlane gets + half of what u lose because you are 2 champions in botlane.
- This means as long as u are not too far behind in farm u will always be the same level as the enemy botlane.


Joy Unending(Passive 2)
RANGE: 1000
COST: -
COOLDOWN: -
Whenever a nearby allied champion uses an ability to heal or shield either Nilah or themselves, they both receive a bonus amount equal to 7.5% of the healing or 15% of the shielding after a 0.5-second delay.
- Bonus shielding lasts as long as the shield that triggered the effect, up to a maximum duration of 4 seconds.
- Healing and shields granted by items, runes, and summoner spells will not trigger the increased amount.
- This means that your Support almost always has to have some sort of healing or shielding ability.


Formless Blade(Passive)
RANGE: 600
COST: -
COOLDOWN: -
Nilah gains 0% − 33% (based on critical strike chance) armor penetration. Her basic attacks and Formless Blade heal her for 0% − 15% (based on critical strike chance) of the post-mitigation damage dealt to champions, converting each heal instance beyond maximum health into a shield that last 6 seconds.
- Post-mitigation damage is the damage dealt after all the modifiers (like armor) have been calculated.
- This ability works like Overheal.


Formless Blade(Q)
RANGE: 600
COST: 30
COOLDOWN: 4
Nilah cracks her whip-blade in a line in the target direction that deals physical damage to enemies hit, increased by 0% − 100% (based on critical strike chance). If Formless Blade hits an enemy, Nilah empowers herself for 4 seconds: gaining 125 bonus attack range and 10% − 60% (based on level) bonus attack speed, and causing her basic attacks to strike in a cone that deals 100% AD physical damage to enemies hit. Against secondary non-champion targets, this is reduced to 33% AD for minions and 10% AD for monsters. On-hit effects are applied only to the primary target.
- Formless Blade can hit structures.
- If Formless Blade is cast during Slipstream, Nilah leaves behind a wave that is sent towards her location at the end of the dash, dealing the same damage to enemies hit.
- This ability will cast from wherever the caster is at the end of the cast time, so u can buffer it before using Flash or Galeforce.
- Parrying effects ( Counter Strike, Spirit's Refuge, Blinding Dart) will negate Formless Blade's empowered attacks only as the primary target.


Jubilant Veil(W)
RANGE: 150
COST: 60/45/30/15/0
COOLDOWN: -
Nilah envelops herself in mist for 2.25 seconds, during which she becomes ghosted, gains bonus movement speed, reduces all incoming magic damage taken by 25%, and dodges all non-turret basic attacks.
- Allied champions she touches will also be enveloped for 1.5 seconds, gaining the same effects.
- Allies may only be affected by Jubilant Veil once every 6 seconds.



Slipstream(E)
RANGE: 550
COST: 30 Mana + 1 Charge
RECHARGE COOLDOWN: 26/22.5/19/15.5/12
Nilah dashes a fixed distance in the direction of the target enemy or ally, dealing physical damage to enemies she passes through.
- Nilah periodically stocks a Slipstream charge, up to a maximum of 2. They can be cast 0.5 seconds after one another.
- Slipstream resets Nilah's basic attack timer.
- Formless Blade and Apotheosis can be cast during the dash.



Apotheosis(R)
RANGE: 450
COST: 80
COOLDOWN: 110/95/80
Nilah whirls her whip-blade over 1 second, dealing physical damage to nearby enemies every 0.25 seconds. She then bursts to deal physical damage and pull them 250 units towards her. Each hit also slows targets by 10% for 3 seconds, refreshing on subsequent hits.
Nilah heals herself and nearby allied champions for 30% − 45% (based on critical strike chance) of the post-mitigation damage dealt to champions, reduced to 10% against non-champions, converting each heal instance beyond maximum health into a shield that last 6 seconds.

- Apotheosis can pull enemies through walls and can knock them across to Nilah's location.
- Spell shields will only block the burst damage.
- Nilah is unable to basic attack and cast her other abilities during Apotheosis, but she is able to move.
- All active items can be used during Apotheosis except Everfrost, Prowler's Claw, Stridebreaker, Ironspike Whip, Goredrinker.
- All Summoner Spells can be used during Apotheosis
- Apotheosis is only interrupted by death.


Tips And Tricks

Nilah is not the most mechanically challenging champion that riot has put out, she is actually pretty easy in comparison to recent champs like Zeri or Bel'Veth. What makes her hard is that she is melee, so your positioning must be very good or you will get poked so low u can't engage or you will get blown up in seconds because despite being a melee champion, she is still a ADC.


Basic poking
Your Q Formless Blade is a Auto Attack reset, so in theory you should Auto Attack before using it, but that isn't always possible due to your short range. It works well enough by Q Formless Blade'ing a enemy, Auto Attack them and immediatly back off. They won't expect the sudden range and damage you get so if timed right u can easily get free poke in, or atleast trade back some of the poke they put on you.



EQ Combo
If you cast Q Formless Blade after using E Slipstream it results in your enhanced Auto Attacks being delayed as seen below. Your Q Formless Blade can be cast during your E Slipstream to maximise your DPS. I find that spamming Q while u are dashing with E Slipstream can help league detect the ability needs to be used during the current ability cast.



Basic Lv3 trade
Nilah has 2 dashes that can be used as a engage and disengage at the same time. As seen below u can E Slipstream on a enemy get a quick spell rotation off and E Slipstream back to your support for a big chuck of damage that the enemies won't easily trade back. Just be sure to let your support know u are only trading so they don't commit to a all in 1v2.



Pre-Lv6 all in
Nilah has a very good engage with a support after level 3 due to W Jubilant Veil dodging all Auto Attacks and having 2 dashes. If you W Jubilant Veil you and your support before E Slipstream'ng into the enemies (Remember to EQ as shown above) you wil deal a nice chunk of damage while taking little to none in return thanks to W Jubilant Veil. If you are even in HP or ahead you will win most 2v2's.


You can also engage alone but that is only recommended if you are in a very easy matchup and far ahead.



Post-Lv6 all in
Nilah has the strongest level 6 spike of all the ADC's, and because of her passive Joy Unending she and her support will almost always get level 6 before the enemy. Use this spike to engage and try to 2v2, as long as you are over 50% hp you win every 2v2 even with a support that can't engage, unless ofcourse u get hit by a lux Q Light Binding or another ability that will stop your engage.


You can also Flash during your Ultimate Apotheosis if the enemy gets out of range. See ability rundown for all items that can be used during Apotheosis. You can also use and ally for distance with your first charge of E Slipstream to reach the enemies like in the pre-6 engage.


Teamfighting
Teamfighting is where Nilah shines in my opinion, yes she can 1v1 a lot of champions in a sidelane, but like Diana, Nilah's Ultimane Apotheosis can completely change the tides of a fight. That's where a good Nilah player gets seperated from a average one, how you use your abilities in teamfights.
For starters you can use your W Jubilant Veil on the engage champions when the fight starts to protect them (it can completely shut down a Jinx) and then E Slipstream and/or Flash into the enemy and land a big Ultimate Apotheosis. You can use Flash during your Ultimate Apotheosis cast so you land on the enemies with the pull in part to CC them for your team to kill.


The way I prefer to teamfight when u have someone to engage the frontline is to E Slipstream or Flash towards the backline and focus on killing them, but this is not always possible so just attack whoever you can.

Runes And Spells


SUMMONER SPELLS
-
FLASH: Flash is used on almost every champion, it has been meta since the start of season 1 and is basically the cornerstone of League. It allows you to dodge spells and attacks, change positions and use it to make flashy plays.
Heal: Heal is the most common summoner spell for ADC's since it helps you and your support, it is also easy to use and you don't have to choose who to heal as it automatically heals the lowest health ally if you're cursor is not on someone. I rarely take heal as the other 3 summoner spells work better in specific situations, if you struggle with the others or just don't know if they will be worth it, take heal.
Exhaust: Exhaust is very underrated on Low-Elo ADC's because they don't bother learning how to use it. It can completely shut down champions like Zed or Master Yi who can one shot you. It also helps with diving ADC's like Vayne or Tristana. It can help if you struggle with the Samira matchup. Just note that in higher Elo's where enemy ADC's take Cleanse a lot more than lower Elo's, Cleanse can remove exhaust.
Cleanse: In higher levels of play, Cleanse is used a lot more against botlanes with cc like Ashe or Leona. It is a more selfish rune since you cannot heal your support so if the eenmy doesn't have dangerous CC in the botlane it is usually not worth it since you can just buy a Quicksilver Sash for something like a Nether Grasp or Realm of Death. Very useful into Varus, Ashe, Leona, Nautilus or Seraphine
Ghost:






Work In Progress
#ce2ed1
#3cd6a8
#0e1e3b
Item Set

Copy this and import in "Items"

{"title":"Nilah","associatedMaps":[11,12],"associatedChampions":[895],"blocks":[{"items":[{"id":"1055","count":1},{"id":"1036","count":1},{"id":"1054","count":1},{"id":"2003","count":3}],"type":"Starter (Engage/Enchanter or Poke/Hard Poke)"},{"items":[{"id":"6670","count":1},{"id":"1053","count":1},{"id":"1037","count":1}],"type":"1st Back (Cheap/No Shieldbow)"},{"items":[{"id":"6673","count":1},{"id":"6672","count":1},{"id":"3006","count":1}],"type":"Core"},{"items":[{"id":"3508","count":1},{"id":"3046","count":1},{"id":"6676","count":1},{"id":"3072","count":1},{"id":"3153","count":1}],"type":"2nd Item (Damage/Kraken/Squishy/Poke/HP Stackers)"},{"items":[{"id":"3031","count":1},{"id":"3046","count":1}],"type":"3rd Item (Normal/After BORK or Collector)"},{"items":[{"id":"6333","count":1},{"id":"3072","count":1},{"id":"3031","count":1},{"id":"3036","count":1}],"type":"4th Item (Survive/Poke/After PD/Tanks)"},{"items":[{"id":"6333","count":1},{"id":"3065","count":1},{"id":"3026","count":1},{"id":"3072","count":1},{"id":"3091","count":1},{"id":"3156","count":1},{"id":"4401","count":1},{"id":"3139","count":1}],"type":"Survival/Poke/AP"}]}

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The ONLY role Nilah can play guide | 12.13

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