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Recommended Items
Runes:
+9 Adaptive (5.4 AD or 9 AP)
+9 Adaptive (5.4 AD or 9 AP)
+10% Tenacity/Slow Resist
Spells:
Flash
Ignite
Items
Ability Order
Surging Tides (PASSIVE)
Nami Passive Ability
Champion Build Guide

Hi friends, I'm Jovy, a MOBAFire admin and veteran league player. I've been playing Nami since her release in 2013. I remember watching her teasers and thinking she'd be amazing - and I was right. Nami's always been a consistently good pick, and she's been in great standing during season 8 and will likely continue to shine in season 10. I think she's a very strong, safe and versatile champion and she's among my favourites to pick for ranked!

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Nami's strengths are her ability to heal and protecc, but also attacc. She has loads of CC, solid range and she can empower her own (and her ally's) auto-attacks to deal extra damage (and slow). Her heal is one of the most potent in the game, though it can be a bit expensive in terms of mana, and it also doubles as a poking tool too. |
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Her biggest drawback is that she's really squishy. She has a heal but outside of that she's really easy to bop. She's also immobile almost entirely, aside from her passive which grants her a brief movement speed boost when she self-casts an ability. This makes her weak against bursty champions like Leona, Blitz - they can get to her easily (or get her to them) and detonate her before she can blink. |
Should I try out Nami? (patch 9.10) Yes. Nami is in a good spot right now. She will fit into a lot of different comps because she offers a lot of different things. The only time I can think of when she isn't preferable is when the enemy team has a lot of assassins. Unlike

You can purchase







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Increases your mov speed by 1% and makes all your movement speed boosts more powerful; i.e. it has synergy with your passive. |
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Increases your AP when you're above 70% health. This will not only allow you to do more damage but also increase your healing & the movement speed buff from your passive. |
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Your first attack every 10 seconds on an enemy champion scorches them dealing extra damage. Nice chunk of damage if you start a fight with your E damage bonus as well. |

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More CDR everywhere - items, abilities, spells etc. CDR is one of the best stats to get on Nami so getting this rune would be a no-brainer if you're delving into inspiration. |

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Nami is very squishy and this rune can negate some incoming poke from the enemy AD/support. Makes a big difference during laning phase. |
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Improves your heal in two ways - firstly, it's stronger when self-cast and secondly it is stronger on targets who have less than 40% health. Self-explanatorily good! |
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Font marks an enemy you've CC-ed and allies attacking a marked enemy will get slightly healed. This works great with Nami because she has so much CC in her kit. |

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In terms of stats, there are a number of ways to go about it. I like getting adaptive force or CDR in the first tier, then focusing on defense as Nami is very squishy. Depending on what you face in the enemy team, I would get armour + health or armour + armour or some MR if they have double AP carries or a scary burst mage. . . |

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When Nami's abilities hit allied champions they gain 60 (+20% of ability power) Movement Speed for 1.5 seconds. This effect is doubled for allies hit by Tidal Wave.
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Sends a bubble into the air towards a targeted area. When it lands, it deals 75 / 130 / 185 / 240 / 295 (+50% of ability power) magic damage to all enemies in the area of impact and encases them into bubbles. Enemies hit by the bubble are lifted into the air and stunned for 1.5 seconds before being dropped to the ground.
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Heals an ally for 60 / 85 / 110 /135 / 160 (+30% of ability power) and bounces to a nearby enemy champion, who is damaged by 70 / 110 / 150 / 190 / 230 (+50% of ability power. Ebb and Flow can only bounce to each target once and hits up to 3 targets. The damage or healing value is reduced by 15%(-7.5% per 100 AP) with each bounce.
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Empowers an allied champion's next 3 basic attacks and spells, causing them to slow the target by 15/20/25/30/35% (+[5% Ability Power]%) for 1 second and deal 25/40/55/70/85 (+20% Ability Power) bonus magic damage. Lasts for 6 seconds.
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The Tidal Wave briefly knocks up enemies that it comes in contact with, slowing them by 50 / 60 / 70% and dealing 150 / 250 / 350 (+60% of ability power) magic damage. The slow duration increases based on how far the Tidal Wave has traveled, with a minimum duration of 2 seconds and a maximum of 4 seconds.
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Since Ardent Censer will be your first big purchase, you will want to buy Aether Wisp on your first back if you can afford it. If you're a little short, pick up Amp Tome and remember to buy 2 ![]() |
Rexchange your





There are several options for your final or final two items and they're generally dependant on the kind of team you're playing against. Here are some items you might consider getting:
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Solari is a great item especially if you've gone the Ruby route, since then you'll have more HP and the shield will be stronger (it scales with max HP). Pop this baby mid team fight and it'll increase your team's chances a lot. You can also use it pre-team fight-changing ultimate like Karthus ult or ![]() |
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Pop it to speed up your entire team by 40% and start up a team fight or escape from an unfavourable one. Great stats for Nami as well with the AP and health. |


When it comes to the support role, there's more to it than just playing the champion. You need to be a great communicator, you need to know where and when to ward and you need to understand wave management. So to start off the gameplay chapter which will also include details about laning phase, roaming, teamfighting, trading, combos and god knows what else, I will talk about wave management.
Managing the minion wave ensures that your ADC gets as much farm as he can. This is important because farming = money and money = good items which in turn = strong ADC. And as the old proverb goes, happy ADC = happy life.

// First Wave In bot lane you'll get level 2 after 9 minions die (so mid second wave, 6 melee and 3 ranged minions in total). By helping your ADC during the first wave, you can get an edge and get level 2 before your enemy laners do. You do this by simply auto-attacking the minions down to low HP (so that the ADC needs only to last-hit it). If you start attacking a minion that's already half HP or less, you risk ruining it for the ADC (AKA it might die before the ADC has a chance to last hit) so you have to be careful not to make your ADC lose out on gold for nothing. Whichever side's 9 minions die first is the side that will get level 2, which is why you want to accelerate the process by auto-attacking. Once you get level 2, you'll have higher stats and an ability extra and that might be enough to land you a level 2 kill. ![]() |
// Under Tower Although as a support you won't need to last-hit minions almost ever, it's still important for you to help your ADC do it. Especially under towers. Tower shots will kill a full health melee minion in 3 hits, and a ranged minion in 2. After 2 hits, the melee minion will have but a sliver of health, and thus it'd only take one AA from your ADC to kill it. If the minion is full HP, don't interfere here. For ranged minions though, the tower will hit it once and leave it at around 30%, and an ADC (pre first back) won't be able to kill it with one shot, and won't have time to kill it with two. This is where you come in to AA it once. That's about it. When they're not at full HP, you just have to wing it. You'll get good at it with practice. ![]() |
// Holding the Wave If you're in lane and your ADC isn't, you can hold the minion wave for him so that the minions don't die to the tower. You do this by simply standing in the way of the minions and making yourself their target. If your minions are around, you can hold the wave by only last-hitting minions (so they don't go to waste), but don't attack them or you'll push the wave/kill most of the minions and your ADC won't get anything out of that. If you're low level, don't tank the minions for too long because they can pack a punch and you don't want to get too low and then not be able to engage or fight the enemy laners. If there are enemy champions nearby you should be careful as well. ![]() |
// Pushing the Wave You generally push the wave with your ADC when the enemy bot laners aren't there (AKA they died or just recalled). This is done by continously auto-attacking (but making sure not to ruin the last-hits) the minions and you can also cast your E and Q on them of course. Once they all die, your minions can journey onwards to the enemy turret and die. This way the enemy bot laners will lose out on the gold & exp they'd normally get from killing that wave. If the wave is too close to your tower or in the middle of the lane, you won't be able to push it all the way to their tower before they're back so it's best to freeze it in that position and recall yourselves. If you do push it anyway, there's a good chance they'll arrive in time and freeze the minion wave near their tower thus forcing you to be nearby their tower so your ADC can CS, leaving you vulnerable to ganks. ![]() |


League of Legends is a team game and it requires good rapport between you and your fellow teammates. But bot lane especially is the lane which requires the most trust & communication, since you are two people working together towards the same goal, like the symbiotic relationship between some fishies and sea anemones. You keep your ADC safe, farmed and happy and they'll reward you with a nice victory screen.
When you are playing solo though, you'll need to rely on the chat and the pings. Chatting in the middle of the game is probably ill-advised, as it's not a particularly slow moving game, especially in laning phase, this is why you will have to learn to use your pings properly. The help ping when you are trying to escape (it'll notify your ADC to come to you so you can E off him or counter-engage), the danger ping or retreat ping when you notice a foreigner near bot lane. Most importantly you'll want to notify your ADC about the cooldowns of your spells and abilities (alt+click on ability/spell). If you notify your ADC that your exhaust isn't up for another 20 seconds, they'll know to patiently wait before an engage, or to play safe.

When it comes to games like these, you will occasionally get frustrated. Perhaps at yourself, more often at your ADC. I won't tell people how to play their games, but I will advise against flaming either way. Disregarding the fact that it's real people behind these screens, controlling those champions, with real feelings and all, flaming is not constructive and will lead to more mistakes, possibly AFK situations or intentional feeding from a disgruntled teammate. Instead, be nice. ADC got a kill? "Wow nice" "damn, good job" "wp". Short, sweet, to the point, doesn't even need to be true. Positive comments makes people feel good and play good :)


Nami's great at all stages of the game. In laning phase she can play the part of the babysitter and keep her ADC safe and fed throughout the first 15ish minutes. Or she can play the part of the poker and land the ADC many kills with her Q, E and ultimate. Usually you'll want be both, unless you are behind or have a very passive ADC or hyper-aggressive enemies in which case you should stick to trying to stay alive and hope for ganks.
// Level 1 Level 1 is fairly insignificant, outside of trying to reach level 2 first which I've discussed above. // Level 2 At 2 however you can start getting some picks. If you get level 2 first you can try to catch the enemy ADC or support (especially if they're squishy) in a Q and then try to kill them or burn their flash. If the enemy gets level 2 first (especially if it's an aggressive bot lane) you need to pull back and play safe until you reach level 2 yourselves. // Level 6 The next lane changer is level 6 when you and your enemies have your ultimates. Nami's ult is great because it automatically makes you both deadlier but also harder to deaden. Your general kill combo is Q into ult, but you can also ult them straight-up, though you'd need to be somewhat close to do that and hit the ultimate. Better yet use your E first to slow them, making it easier to hit both Q and ult. Your ult leaves them really vulnerable because they can't dodge it, they'll be knocked up and then slowed and it's also super easy to Q them after they get affected by the ult slow. So some of your combos are: |
// 1.__
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This first combo requires that you hit your Q on a desired target. Once they're trapped in the bubble, you have a window of 1.5 seconds to CC lock them with your whole kit. Right as the bubble is about to pop, unleash your Tidal Wave; it cannot be dodged at that point. You can also hold it for a second or 2 if you know they have flash or another gap closer. They will still be in the range of your enormous R even after they dash. Then hopefully your ADC can do some serious damage; amplify him with your E and use your heal and Ignite at your discretion.
// 2.__
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Combo #2 requires either Exhaust or some ally CC. By utilizing some "pre-CC" (so, Exhaust or for example Ashe or Varus ult) you can make it that much easier for yourself to hit Q or R. The rest of the combo is pretty much the same as #1.
// 3.__
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Same idea as #2 but when you don't have an ally to assist you or Exhaust. I've mentioned before that you should feel free to sometimes use E on yourself rather than your ADC. This is the prime time to do so; use it to slow your target and then hit an easier Q and R for combo #3.
*All the asterisks basically mean "when/if necessary". W boosts your trades a lot so generally you want to cast it whenever your ADC is below ~90% health since he'll be in range of the enemy and hurt them and heal you too. As for exhaust, you use it to lower the damage output of the enemy ADC and you also use it as a slow, which is why I mention it in combo #2, as it can be used for engage. |


Team fights start occuring once the first couple towers go down and people stop laning properly. It can be pretty chaotic and they'll happen over objectives, towers and around picks. Picks are when you pick off an enemy that's mispositioned, they'll usually either end up in 1 or 2 kills or a full-blown team fight.
Anyway so assuming you're not the one who got picked off, here's what you do in a team fight:
1) Engage: Usually you don't want to be the engager because you're very squishy. Unless you're making a pick with your Q, it's better to let your tank/jungler engage for you. Having done that, you can use your ultimate or Q to follow up. 2) Disengage: If a team fight is going awry, Nami is really good at disengaging fights. This basically means getting everyone out of a fight safely. Your ult is your best disengage tool since it'll knock-up then slow the enemy, making it really hard for them to catch up afterwards. Your Q can stop several people if they're bundled, and using your E and W, you can speed up your teammates due to your passive. 3) Peel: Peeling is generally reserved for your ADC, but you can do this for everyone. It's basically keeping off sticky enemies from your carry and trying to keep them alive. Nami is great at this because of her heal and all the CC, and her E is handy too because she makes your ADC a stronger kiter. Kiting is attacking the enemy while escaping from him at the same time. This is essentially your most important function. 4) Empower: In general Nami can heal several teammates in a fight, empower their auto-attacks and you also have a lot of active items to boost your team's chances of winning. You want to use your E on ranged champions (usually your ADC) and you want to heal either your tank (so he can sponge longer) or whoever is being focused by the enemy in general. |


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← Click here to check out my general guide on Warding to learn all about it! . |


Nami's all-around a great support and synergizes well with every ADC in my opinion, since she can cater to both more passive and more aggressive playstyles. The best ADCs for her are, imo, the following:
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Ashe Nami are good in the way Xayah Nami are, you bring a lot of safety to Ashe's laning. These two also have a lot of CC together making it a great lane to gank for your jungler. |

As for as enemy ADC match-ups go, Nami will do worse against long-ranged enemies (who can stay out of her poke range), enemies who deal burst damage and enemies with high mobility, who can dodge her spells.


In general Nami does well in most lanes. I think burst supports are her biggest problem however, as well as supports with strong CC. Hard match-ups for Nami are the following:
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Blitz is probably your worst match-up because you're immobile and squishy, and just begging for a ![]() |

Warm thanks to everyone who has gotten this far! If you have any questions, feel free to comment or send me PM or you can add me in-game (N7 Legion on EUW and Jovy on NA). Special thanks to my friend Shea for helping me with the guide and build :)
If you enjoyed my guide, upvotes and comments are very appreciated :) And if you're interested in reading my other guides, click on the pictures below!

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