My name is Gravixx, I am an avid League of Legends player and a support main. Last season I hit Diamond and ran out of time, this season I intend to climb even higher. I am a Nami one trick and I climbed all the way from Silver to Diamond using almost exclusively Nami. Nami is great because she is so versatile and completely change the way a game turns out. There are so many different play styles and a fun kit to play with she is easily one of my favorite champions to play.

Edit: As of patch 10.1 Nami's E, Tidecaller's Blessing now affects abilities!!! This is HUGE and allows for new bot lane synergies! I remember all the times thinking to myself, "man if only her E worked with abilities we would've gotten that kill". Now it's here and I am SO excited!

Pros

+ Flexible Kit
+ Good Sustain
+ Good Combos
+ Good Poke
+ Good Engage

Cons

- Low Mobility
- Team Reliant
- Hard to Master
- Squishy

Synergies

-

Yasuo combos exceedingly well with your ult and is very strong with you late game.

-

Vayne's passive movement speed combo'd with yours, her W and your E, her E and your Q. The synergy is amazing in bot lane, a good duo will snowball out of control.

-

Kai'Sa can engage very well either with both of your Es or some poke and her ult. You can constantly harass your opponents and win most of the trades that come your way.

-

If both you and Draven can land your cc, your E and his Q does an insane amount of damage and you can keep him alive with your W. The damage output and sustain combo should not be legal.

Threats

-

and

both like to hide in bushes and hook you out of nowhere. If this happens you are most likely dead, but you can easily avoid this by keeping vision up in these possible areas.

-

and

Twitch both like to do level 2 ganks and ruin your day. Twitch ADCs are not as bad to go against but you don't want to find yourself caught out by either of these or you will have a bad time.

-

Draven like I said before has a very high damage output, and if you fail to cc him, he can easily shred you within a couple seconds.

-

and

These guys and just assasins in general will usually be more focused on the ADCs but if you are doing your job well and being extremely annoying they will target you and nuke you.

How to not die every time you get hooked!

As Nami is a sustain support, she is very good against poke champions, but susceptible to all in champions like Thresh, Blitz, Leona, and others. The best way to counter these are to minimize the damage you take. I know that sounds dumb, but if you know a tank with very little damage is going to CC you, bubble their ADC so that when you're free you have time to escape. If Thresh throws a hook at you or your ADC, bubble him so he can't pull himself towards you. It's always a trade, I'd rather get hit by a tank with no damage than their ADC, even if your bubble doesn't hit, it zones them and forces them to go around thereby decreasing the damage you take.

Other than all in compositions, you're pretty set otherwise. Against most other matchups you can kite effectively with all of your CC, and you can chase as well with your passive movement speed. Nami is flexible and works well with most ADCs and against most matchups, you just have to watch out for burst damage and engage.

Overall she goes well with most team compositions, the CC, sustain, and utility work well with most team comps. On the flip side however, you may want to avoid picking Nami against assasin heavy teams because there isn't a whole lot you can do about it in late game.

Starting Items

Pretty standard starting items for Nami and other squishy heal/shield supports. I am personally very aggressive in laning phase, making sure to get my Spellthief's Edge procs used as soon as they're up to maximize quest progress and gold. Using auto attacks empowered by your E to harass the enemy adc while they are cs-ing not only grants you gold but is a valuable poking tool. If you can get your procs off very consistently then you should complete your quest around the 9 minute mark. The 2 health potions are useful but I like to take Biscuit Delivery, so if you're confident you won't be taking heavy damage early you can instead buy a control ward if you're afraid of a level 2 gank (I'm looking at you Shaco and Twitch). Nami can be pretty mana hungry early, but Manaflow Band, Biscuit Delivery, and [spellthief's edge]] should all help with that.

Core Items/Laning Phase

-

I always rush Ardent Censer as my first core item. You should upgrade your support item as soon as you can as per usual, and possibly boots if there are fights and objectives you need to get to. Ardent Censer is so good on Nami not only due to the flat stat bonuses of AP, CDR, Mana Regen, Movement Speed, AND heal/shield power, but the additional passive as well. Ardent Censer grants you and your target ally bonus attack speed and damage on hit scaling with level. This is triggered with every allied bounce of your Ebb and Flow, as well as targets of Tidecaller's Blessing as long as Summon Aery is avaliable. Ardent Censer is amazing in 2v2 skirmishes, full teamfights, and epic monsters and objectives. Nami's best friend.

-

You should upgrade your Spellthief's Edge into Frostfang as soon as you can. The flat stat bonuses are nice, but the main reason is that it doubles the amount of gold you get per hit, allowing you to complete your quest faster. You don't really need to upgrade Frostfang into Eye of the Watchers right away because you only get one more ward and some flat stat bonuses.

-

As soon as your Frostfang completes its quest, you should swap your warding totem for Oracle Alteration. Your Eye of Frost will be your source of wards now, and Oracle Lens will be used to clear enemy vision. This is absolutely essential later in the game and many low rank players don't do this. Clearing out vision at Baron Pit and Dragon pit is essential for taking those and winning teamfights. If your team is struggling and the enemy team is in your jungle a lot you need to start taking vision control back by clearing enemy vision and putting down your own. On the other hand, if you are winning, clearing out vision of the enemy jungle is also extremely important because you can get picks on the enemy team if they are farming blind in their jungle.

-

Boots of Mobility allow Nami to get around the map super speedy quick, you can E yourself to get your passive up and move even faster. Once out of laning phase you can roam (safely with vision of course) and catch enemies of guard to gank and 2v1 them with your hard engage.

Late Game/Other Core Items

-

You can either go Athene's Unholy Grail next or rush straight into Redemption. I personally go Athene's because I find myself running out of mana at this stage of this game and it is a huge help. In addition, Athene's will also give your healing a boost based on the amount of damage you deal. For instance if you get a great engage with your ult and q the enemy, your first heal after this will have a big bonus on it. Not to mention the stat bonuses are very helpful.

-

Redemption is an excellent teamfighting item. If your team is often in clustered fights, Redemption may be a better rush than Athene's. While the stat bonuses are helpful, the active is what really matters. The Redemption active heals all allies in the target circle and damages all enemies in the circle. This heal is buffed by your Ardent Censer heal bonus, and the damage counts towards your next Athene's Heal bonus if you have it. Even if you get picked or assassinated in a teamfight, you can use Redemption from the grave and win a teamfight for your team without even being alive.

All items prior are very strong recommendations/must haves, but after this point you have a little more flexibility. Your last item can fit the situation you're in or just be personal preference. For example I usually purchase Twin Shadows as my last item, as it can get your team valuable picks late game or help you chase down any stragglers. Alternatively you can get Mikael's Blessing which can save your adc in a teamfight along with some nice stat bonuses. Some others I have seen are Rylai's Crystal Scepter to further increase your cc in fights, and Zhonya's Hourglass if there is a ton of burst damage on the enemy team and you need to buy yourself some time.

At any point in late game, if you feel the need to, you can also buy an Elixir of Sorcery for a bit of extra power. You can also upgrade your support item fully into Eye of the Watchers for an extra ward charge and some bonus stats. I typically do these things after I've completed all of my other items.

Overall, most of Nami's items synergize well with each other, typically providing mana regen, CDR, AP, heal/shield bonuses, and other similar attributes. The items I've listed above work very well with each other, but if you have a strong personal preference otherwise, by all means try it.

Standard Runes

-

First off, Summon Aery is an excellent choice on Nami. The shield helps to win trades by protecting your ADC in addition to your healing. The shield also allows you to proc Ardent Censer with Tidecaller's Blessing. Aery is mainly used for its defensive power but it can also be helpful with poking.

-

Manaflow Band and Biscuit Delivery simply allow for extra sustain in lane, enabling Nami to spam her spells with the help of extra cooldown reduction from Cosmic Insight.

-

Absolute focus allows you to put a little extra on your spells when you return from base. If you keep yourself near full or full health, this bonus will give you an advantage with the extra healing power in teamfights.

-

Gathering storm scales very well with Nami, if the game goes very long your Ebb and Flow can easily win fights with massive heals.

The adaptive force bonuses simply put a flat increase on your heals and pokes, but you could swap your offensive one for CDR if you'd like. The armor rune is to simply reduce the amount of damage you take in trades with the enemy ADC while in laning phase.

Alternate Runes

-

Guardian provides even further shielding when in a fight, as you should almost constantly be casting your spells on allies during fight. The added haste also pairs nicely with [[surging tides].

-

Font of Life allows you to win trades much easier by being aggressive and allowing your laner to heal when successfully landing cc from your Q, E, and Ultimate.

-

Bone Plating further increases your trading value by decreasing the damage you take from enemy attacks, paired with the other runes in this tree, trading with the enemy laners should be a breeze.

-

This rune is great on Nami in every situation, in laning phase you get more value out of your heals and shields, and can be the difference in your laner dying from ignite or not. In teamfights this can effect multiple teammates at once, proving to be an extremely valuable rune to have.

Like the standard runes, I find Biscuit Delivery necessary to survive in lane. The sustainable mana will let you spam your spells with the help of Cosmic Insight.

The 3 extra runes are the same as the standard runes.

Alternate Sorcery + Resolve

While I personally prefer Inspiration as my secondary runes for more lane sustain, Resolve is also a good option for bonus healing power, with the trade-off of losing mana and health, thereby causing you to recall more. With Summon Aery, Font of Life, and Revitalize, your laner will have even more protection than usual.

The Primary tree is the same as the standard rune set above.

-

Font of Life is a great rune to have, as it is amazing for lane trading. Font of Life will get triggerd by Aqua Prison, Tidecaller's Blessing, and Tidal Wave. If you land a bubble or slow the enemy with an E empowered auto attack, you're not only damaging/ccing the enemy, but your adc will heal as well essentially doubling the value of the trade. While the heal may not be a lot, over time it builds up and can set you and your laner up for an easy fight.

-

Revitalize is a great rune to have on Nami, as it gives a flat increase to your heals and shields, especially when in a close fight at low health. Think of this ideal situation, you are above 70% hp, activating Absolute Focus, your laner is at low hp, enabling the extra bonus on Revitalize, you have your bonus heal and shielding power from your items, and you put a huge heal and shield from Summon Aery on them to win the fight. The enemy gets tilted and you win laning phase easy peasy. Overall Revitalize is just another way to buff your healing, which is always good on your favorite fish.

The alternate runes are the same as the others, but still a matter of personal preference so feel free to play around with other combinations that you like.

Surging Tides - Passive

-

Nami's passive grants bonus movement speed to allied champions affected by her spells (including herself). This is triggered by every spell in her kit and doubled by her ultimate. Her passive makes engaging very easy, as you can just toss your E onto your ADC and zoom into engage or W and hit multiples teammates for a boost during a teamfight. The double on her ult makes it even easier to engage on a teamfight if you're running it down mid for example and hit a sick 5 man ult.

Aqua Prison - Q

-

TARGET RANGE: 875 COST: 60 MANA COOLDOWN: 12 / 11 / 10 / 9 / 8 ACTIVE: Nami sends a bubble towards the targeted area, dealing Ability power magic damage to all enemies hit, Sight icon revealing them, and Stun icon suspending them for 1.5 seconds. MAGIC DAMAGE: 75 / 130 / 185 / 240 / 295 (+ 50% AP) Her Q is a great tool for harassing enemies. During early game and laning phase you can get a quick kill by catching enemies in the middle of an animation like Thresh's Q windup or Caitlin's Q windup. You can use this to prevent the enemy from csing or comboing the knockup with a Yasuo. The damage is fine but the main use for it is a great cc. Dropping a bubble on an ally does trigger your passive however you should just use your W or E whenever possible as your Q can be clunky and hard to time and you might need it while it's on cd.

Ebb and Flow - W

-

TARGET RANGE: 725 EFFECT RADIUS: 725 COST: 70 / 85 / 100 / 115 / 130 MANA COOLDOWN: 10 ACTIVE: Nami unleashes a stream of water onto the target champion or herself, which then bounces to nearby unaffected champions up to twice, alternating between enemies, allies and herself. Ebb and Flow Heal power heals allies and deals magic damage to enemies, with each bounce being 85% (+ 7.5% per 100 AP) as effective as the previous one. HEAL: 60 / 85 / 110 / 135 / 160 (+ 30% AP) MAGIC DAMAGE: 70 / 110 / 150 / 190 / 230 (+ 50% AP) Nami's W is what makes her my favorite support. You can out heal the enemy while at the same time poking them and is extremely annoying for the enemy to deal with during laning phase. The flat heal isn't huge early game but with Aery's shield it can win you your trades every time. With the provided runes you'll have enough mana to spam your W and keep your team healed whenever needed. In teamfights your W is your best friend, the healing is incredible late game and deals some extra damage too. If you're in a 2v1 or your team is low on health make sure you W an ally first so that 2 allies get hit. If you're in a 1v2 or 2v2 try and target an enemy first so it'll hit your ally and both of them. Another use of your W is if you're in laning phase and you or your ally has any health missing. If an enemy gets even a little bit close, W yourself or your ADC and it'll bounce to the enemy, effectively healing you, damaging them, and granting you quest gold. At this point you have your passive triggered to so you can engage if in the position to. Paired with Ardent Censer, your W can keep you and 2 teammates buffed which is excellent in teamfights or Baron/Dragon.

Tidecaller's Blessing - E

-

TARGET RANGE: 800 COST: 55 / 60 / 65 / 70 / 75 MANA COOLDOWN: 11 ACTIVE: Nami blesses the target allied champion or herself for 6 seconds, causing her target's next three basic attacks or abilities to each deal bonus magic damage and Slow icon slow their target for 1 second. BONUS MAGIC DAMAGE PER HIT:» 25 / 40 / 55 / 70 / 85 (+ 20% AP) SLOW: 15 / 20 / 25 / 30 / 35% (+ 5% per 100 AP) Your E is a great poking tool, firstly triggering your passive for the bonus movement speed and Aery's shield (which will also trigger Ardent Censer). So at this point your ally has buffed Movement Speed, Attack Damage, and Attack Speed and they haven't even used your E yet. When they auto attack, the enemy will be slowed and take additional damage. This is great for chasing and works amazingly well with Vayne. You can put this on yourself to help last hit minions under tower or to harass the enemy early and gain quest gold. One cool thing about your E is that if you put it on someone after they've already launched their auto attack (projectile is in air), then that attack WILL be buffed by your E. This may not see like a huge difference but if an enemy is as super low health and flashes away but your ADC already auto attacked you can tag some extra damage and a slow on the end of it. I like to use my E on myself a lot to trigger the passive movement speed, this way I move super speedy fast. NEW: Works with abilities! Now your E can get triggered with abilities as well, which makes laning phase so much better for you. Trades are much better, as you can E yourself and proc it with your W, Q, R, or autos. Additionally, new synergies emerge with the Nami buff. Her E will affect abilities such as Caitlyn's R, Jhin's W and R, Lucian's W, and a bunch of other long range abilities that can now deal extra damage and SLOW! I've played a good amount of ranked since this buff has been released and as far as I can tell, AoE and DoT abilities only proc 1 charge of her E, but I will keep this updated for any special exceptions.

Tidal Wave - R

-

TARGET RANGE: 2750 COST: 100 MANA COOLDOWN: 120 / 110 / 100 ACTIVE: Nami summons a tidal wave that surges forth, dealing magic damage to all units it hits, Airborne icon knocking them up for 0.5 seconds and then Slow icon slowing them for 2 − 4 (based on distance traveled) seconds. MAGIC DAMAGE: 150 / 250 / 350 (+ 60% AP) SLOW: 50 / 60 / 70% Nami's ult is a fantastic engage in teamfights and has single-handedly won me some games. Your ult will trigger a doubled passive movement speed effect on anyone who passes through it allowing you to chase down the enemy team about to be knocked up. The wave not only knocks them up (cue Yasuo ult), but it does damage and slows enemies hit for a short period after. A very good combo is to ult and follow it and as soon as someone is hit by it, Q on top of them so they're knocked up as soon as they land. If you have a team with you, that enemy is essentially dead. Another good use of her ult is if an enemy just barely escaped a fight and foolishly decides to recall under turret with low health. This is a free kill for you, have fun! Her ult is very good for stealing Baron and Dragon as you can knockup the entire enemy team and your team can swoop in and steal and possibly wipe their team.

Example Gameplay

This was taken in one of my recent ranked games, in this video you can see me do my Tidal Wave + Aqua Prison combo on the Lissandra as soon as she comes in, and I make sure to keep my Tidecaller's Blessing on my Caitlyn, as well as keeping my Nasus healed with Ebb and Flow, also putting out some damage. I catch the Lissandra with another Aqua Prison to secure the kill and I use my W and E again to help finish off the Sylas.


This is an example of a good Aqua Prison use, predicting when the Lissandra was coming in and the travel time of the bubble to catch both enemies in it and secure both kills.


This is another example of Nami gameplay by another user.

Early Game/Lane Phase

In early game and laning phase, your main goal is to set your lane up for success and complete your quest. You can be very aggressive and get kills quite easily if you and your ADC are on the same page. Q -> E -> W -> Ignite and a little help from your ADC, and you have a very high chance of getting a kill. Nami's kit provides great sustain and peel (easy to avoid ganks), so laning phase should be pretty good in most matchups. Complete your quest as soon as possible and keep plenty of vision up, mainly in tri bush, river bush, dragon pit, and any other popular areas on the map.

10.1 Buffs:
With the new 10.1 buffs that allow Nami's E to affect abilities, you will be much stronger in laning trades early game, and can finish off enemies or chase much easier. Nami's winrate has already increased and she's quickly moved up to the S tier as of this edit. She's currently sitting at a ~52% winrate right now, and although her power is increased I don't forsee any big nerfs coming. They might slightly adjust her numbers, like decreasing the slow strength or duration, or decreasing the damage a bit, but I still think that she'll be stronger overall.

Mid Game

At this point you should have Ardent Censer, Mobi Boots, your support item, Oracle's Lens, and possibly more. You can start roaming around the map with your teammates getting vision, pushing objectives, and starting teamfights. If you've done well in lane you should be able to win any skirmishes, and with the proper vision you should have no suprises. Your W will be getting very strong from this point forward and can completely turn the tide (hehe) of a fight. You will still be very squishy and have to be careful of being caught out, but you are now invaluable in teamfights.

Late Game

Now you should be nearing full build or there. Your W is insane and a good ultimate can get you an Ace, several towers, or the game. Even if you die, you can still pitch in with redemption. Stick with your team, keep vision up (control wards too!!!!), clear vision with oracles lens, and DO NOT get caught out. If you die randomly, the enemy team has a clear advantage in teamfights and can get objectives or win the game. Play safe, play smart, stick with your team, and keep them alive.