Hello my fellow Nasus enjoyers and welcome to my Nasus guide. My name is William, friends call me Will or Kang (my chinese nickname), but most people know me as Psychopathic Top. I started playing this game in s6, and have been challenger since season 9 (season 10 I didn't really try as it was my first year in University, so I peaked around 450 lp that season).

Why Nasus?? Well to be honest, I don't even know at this point. When I started playing the game (end of middle school), I made a bet with some acquaintances from my highschool that I would reach challenger in 3 years with a bad champion. I think most of them thought I was joking, and it became a meme that I ever said that. It took me exactly 3 years to reach Challenger one tricking Nasus, and the first 2 seasons (s7 and 8) I had less than 1000 games. Am I happy now that I stuck with the doge for all these years? Yea, absolutely.

Over the years, I've played in every elo through multiple accounts of mine. I've smurfed from fresh level 30 to grandmaster-challenger too many times. I want to share this passion I have for Nasus with everyone through this guide, and I hope you guys can learn something from it and start enjoying the doge and his role in this game.

My twitch should be linked, and that would be the place I stream at (trying to stream daily now with consistency). I have YouTube but I don't upload much, however stay tuned for that!

Enjoy your stay. :)

https://imgur.com/a/JP4wddG
Highest Nasus player In NA for 3 years, and conq has always been what I ran for most of my games. So before you guys doubt me, check the imgur.

Conqueror allows Nasus to take fights that otherwise he cannot, in other words, it pushes him to go further than his normal limitations in a duel/teamfight. It's his 'limit breaker'.

This allows nasus to push forward when his supposed to be dead. Each triumph heal from mid-late could be the difference between winning or losing the teamfight- or the game even.

Tenacity allows Nasus to not run , but instead almost every game (tenacity and unflinching).

Last stand provides Nasus with extra damage as he all ins and gets low. Throughout a game it is normal to deal 1-2k extra damage with this rune.

Second wind is just great overall, basically equivalent to about 2 extra hp pots before your first back. This is extremely crucial in poke matchups, and the higher elo you are the better it becomes.

The main reason for taking resolve second. This paired with legend tenacity allows Nasus to build , which imo is extremely important ( also gives summoner spell haste). Having 30 seconds lower cd on ghost and flash in the mid-late game is the difference between winning the game/losing the game.

TO SUMMARIZE :

Reason for running conqueror is because this emphasizes nasus to be more of a bruiser in the earlier stage, and as game proceeds he turns into a drain tank. The lower your hp, the stronger you become. Nasus is strongest when his hp pool is below 30% with this build. When he gets low, last stand deals around an extra 100 damage per Q with around 300 stacks. Triumph is also a lot more prominent and usually heals you for around 300 per kill/assist. This means that you have to just go in without regrets and fight to the death in a 5 v 5 or 1 v 2 situation. Usually if your team is around, a two item nasus (at 20 minutes) can just wipe the entire enemy team with conqueror and triumph healing as well as passive healing and . People don't build executioners super early nor do they respect nasus healing, so nasus actually does really well in the mid game (15-25 minutes, provided early game went well). As the game transitions into late game, nasus with 3+ items turns into a shield tank with and . He becomes extremely tanky during R while healing even through heal reduct items, provided you have a reasonable amount of stacks. With ghost and unflinching nasus also becomes surprisingly sticky and hard to kite. The nerfs to conqueror does hurt a bit this season, but I mostly just take it for the bonus AD anyways. I still got challenger with it this season, so this should be enough proof that it works just perfectly fine.

The reason for ghost flash is simple: Nasus is a potato without ghost outside lane phase. Even if you are fed there is no teamfighting possibilities due to his immobility and how easy it is for the enemy team to kite him. Since flash cannot be given up (in my opinion) there is no debate as to the ghost flash build. One of the only and biggest downside to this sums choice is if you get turret dove at level 3, the game will be unplayable due to not having teleport to get back into the lane. (will talk about turret dives later) However, even if this is the case, ghost should never be given up as its the only way to teamfight later on into the game. Think of it like a part of Nasus's kit: without it he cannot function.

CORE ITEMS :

Bread and butter for Nasus. Under most circumstances one would want to rush this item on Nasus. It provides an insane damage/stat boost, and also scales super well into mid/late with the armor pen and passive on it. It does well into tanks as well as squishies alike. The best part of this item is it syncs perfectly with your autos during R. It should always be auto-Q-auto-Q-auto-Q during Nasus R with Sunderer, which makes it super smooth (highest possible DPS) as well as an easy way to proc conqueror stacks.

THERE IS CURRENTLY A BUG WITH TEAR (tear doesn't stack on Q), yet it's still mandatory imo if you don't run at least biscuit delivery. imo is a really bad item even after the countless buffs on it. The reason behind it is it gives 0 hp and only pure armor, so it will never be good. Yet people tend to go for this item when they need mana. This is a stupid choice because instead of setting yourself behind by 2.5k gold (worthless item imo), just buy tear for 400 gold and build actual items like and or even . It you think it doesn't work, I have 2 grandmaster accounts and 1 Challenger account currently, and 95% of my games I go tear as a form of mana. Sit on tear and do not complete it. If it gets to late game (30 min+) and you have no slots left, sell it for something else at that point.

Super important item. Provides ability haste, armor, mr and hp (in the form of a decaying shield) all in 1 item. It gives literally everything Nasus needs in 1 item, so it's super hard for enemy team to react/build around it since it should be completely normally around 20 minutes mark. The shield scales with hp, which means it gets boosted up by another 500 hp when Nasus uses R. Super good synergy and super hard for enemy team to counter fast.

A second shield item for Nasus. At this point however, be very careful and watch what the enemy is building. Assassins or even ADCs sometimes build as their 2nd/3rd item, and if they do, DO NOT BUILD STERAKS. This is because both your shields get hard countered by that item. If they itemize early, grab 3rd. Other shield breaking mechanics can be seen in some champs such as , so just be weary when those champs are on the enemy team before you build two shield items. But generally speaking, it is the best in slot choice for 3 item Nasus.

Best in slot item IF they are full ad or if they have shield break mechanics or bonus damage to shields items. Think of it like an alternative for . Read above.

Best in slot item IF they have 1 super fed member on their team. Been testing the item out since the patch released, 2nd item chains feel lack luster due to the lack of resistances it provides (it only gives hp). I would say this item is best as a 3rd item, after stoneplate. Stoneplate is still core. The interesting thing is the tenacity reduction on the item. The person that you are chained to takes 1 extra second on wither, which means in theory your wither lasts 6 seconds on them and its on a 6 second cd, meaning that it could be cast on the same target over and over and put them under perma slow. It's not very practical however.

Best boot choice by far, and should be ran in 95% of the games. The ability haste and summoner haste is just too broken to not abuse.

HONORABLE MENTIONS :

With the three buffs it's gotten in the past two months this item is honestly not bad. Sadly, it's just always going to be inferior to in every way possible this season (unless they GIGA buff it later on). It simply doesn't provide the smoothness has (during R, goes auto-auto-Q instead of auto-Q because it has attackspeed XD), nor the hp, nor does it scale better. On top of that, it's only good vs all squishies. Farewell , you have served me well in the last 3 seasons, I will never forget you but we are parting ways now :(.

Very strong item as a last item. Super late into the game theres no point building a 4th tank item, therefore going armorpen+ damage is the best bet. It also has a 30% slow in passive, so everytime you E on top of enemies champs its an aoe 30% slow. It's really busted imo if the game gets that late.

Same idea as , late into the game just go for an efficient damage item, in this case serves as a distraction when you initially go down, so hopefully your team can get work done. Very classic bruiser item, which is what I enjoy as Nasus is meant to be played more like a bruiser than a tank anyways.

If enemy team is heavy ap and you must go for an MR option, I would suggest this over . It's no longer season 9/10 sadly, and heal reduction are a lot stronger than before. Just go for items with more instant stats than something like that benefits more overall if you can heal large amounts. Let's be honest, who on the enemy team isn't getting heal reduction into a Nasus? The movement speed boost from is also a really nice bonus during a teamfight, as things will get messy and the passive will stack.

As of patch 11.11 with the newest buffs to frozen heart (15% as reduction to 20%, as well as more tankiness- read patch 11.11), I am currently testing the item, but it seems that it is no longer worthless. However I will need more games to determine this.

STACK NUMBER

(Does not matter that much but I know people want to know an estimation/approximation, keep in mind those stats are taken from grandmaster+ games so it could be higher in lower elos)

5 minutes avg- 36-51 stacks

10 minutes avg- 120-150 stacks

15 minutes avg- 240-300 stacks

20 minutes avg- 402-450 stacks

25 min + just make sure you have above 500 stacks and you are fine.

Stacks is simply an efficient way of getting AD while building tank. Think about it this way: a long sword gives 10 AD. +3 stacks is basically permanent 3 AD. +12 would be permanent 12 AD. A cannon and a minion would give more than a worth of AD, minus half of the efficiency (if we assume nasus Qs every other auto during R, it would be around 7.5 AD). If we calculate it like this, stacking is actually a very cost efficient way of getting stronger (example: 300 stacks is aprox. 150 ad). This is also why a lot of the times a well stacked nasus can beat people when he is on a gold deficit. With just he can beat a lot of champs on two items in a duel. (if he is stacked- refer to above) That is also why during early game, missing some cs doesn’t mean anything. Just focus on staying alive in lane and getting that sheen. With the stack count above, you will be able to duel most champs in the game.

Just remember that stacking is secondary. Staying alive and getting items is the name of the game. If the cannon is about to die but it’s hard to walk up or you might take too much damage, just leave it. It is not worth dying at all in lane. The only time death should happen is when enemy team turret dives the Nasus. In a 1 v 1 situation, never die and always respect your laner.

This is what tells apart a good and bad Nasus player. Wave control and controlling the topwave is one of, if not the most important things Nasus players must play perfect in order to achieve higher ranking and to improve. Toplane, in general, is a lane where wave control is extremely important, but for Nasus even more so. The traditional problem is the hard shove wave 1 and 2 and freeze off wave 3 strategy a lot of aggressive laners/champions like to do. The other strategy is the 3 wave crash cheater recall problem. I will get into them below.


2 wave crash cannon wave bounce back freeze

Wave 1 is the first wave of the game that hits top lane. If you are leashing for your jungler, you may reach it slower, and run the risk of missing one cs of xp. Missing cs is fine, but missing xp is really bad. In most circumstances, you want to be in xp range no matter what. The way you miss the first cs in the first wave is if you arrive in lane late and your enemy laner pulled the first wave by tanking your wave, so that his minions hit your minions first and in doing so, imbalances the mechanics of the first wave, so that your minions die faster and his shoves in faster. The way to prevent this is to give your jungler a smaller leash and run to ur lane faster to soak the xp. Wave 2 would be then shoved into your turret, and you should prepare to prevent the wave 3 bounce back. It won’t work every time, but it is always advised to attempt it. The 3rd wave is the first cannon wave of the game. The way to freeze or attempt to slow it down is to tank the minion damage and stand just a little outside your turret, so the minions hit you instead of the turret, slowing down the full push the enemy laner is trying to perform. However, they may harass you and force the wave in. If that happens, the wave will slowly bounce back into his direction and create a freeze far away from your own turret, which makes the game a lot harder to play. At this point you should ask for jungle help for a wave reset or try to shove it all the way in with E, as it is possible they can’t fight you inside a huge minion wave pre level 6.

3 wave crash cheater recall freeze

Same mechanic as the two wave crash, except it's slower and the opponent get to base and get an item (longsword/dblade/cull etc). Only 4 things can happen theoretically upon a toplane wave crash: invade, roam, cheater recall, dive. Three wave crash ensures a cheater recall, which is basically a recall that does not require the player to tp back into lane. They slow shove wave 1 and 2, then hard shove wave 3 and base with around 400-450 gold (depending on their cs- the perfect cs for the first 3 waves is 19 cs). At this point they walk back to lane with their item lead, and your wave will push into them at this stage. Having no tp, there is two options for the Nasus player: try to fight in the big wave, or base with a messed up wave (let's imagine your jungler being botside at this exact moment). There are no right or wrong answers as long as you don't die. If the wave is messed up and frozen, and you can't fight the enemy champion even within a huge wave, simply back and grab defensive options such as or . After that, soak xp and wait for a roam from one of your teammates (mid/jg/sup). Just don't die no matter what. Be patient.

Oh boy. My favorite part.

This is usually not a problem until high diamond + (d2-d1+). In higher elos, it is easier to get poked lower in lane (as your opponents become more skilled), and a lot more likely to get turret dove, 80% of the time on level 3. Nasus level 3 is the weakest. At this time, enemy laner may have accumulated a huge minion wave and its crashing into your turret. High elo junglers may show up at this time and perform what we call 100-0 under turret no counterplay. If it goes through and you die, toplane is half over. You lose a huge minion wave, xp, and the potential for them to proxy you for another minute when you try to walk back into lane (enemy jungler sits in the bush beside top lane, waiting for you to walk up and kill you again with their top). There is actually no counterplay for this, except to beg your jungler to be topside at around level 3 to help you out. All they need to do is to clear from botlane to toplane and back under your turret, so the enemy jungler backs off. Here is a list of the worst turret diving combos (and most common champions) there are and what to look out for in champ select, as it may be worth to dodge those comps:

+
+
+
+
+
+ Honestly any toplaner that takes is really bad.
+
+
+
+

etc.
Jungle:
Top:

Weakside means to play with no resources and getting no help from your team, so you are the 'weak' side that should play safe and play to not die and let botside carry.

Strongside means the side that's getting all the resources and all the help, and are expected to carry a game because all the resources and early map pressure are funneled to make them a carry.

every crash instigates one of four plays: dive, invade, roam, recall. The enemy is seeking for one of those four plays everytime a wave crashes in top. This forces Nasus to weakside, because first 3 levels no matter what you will be the player thats getting crashed on. By definition against a coordinated offensive, your jungler is forced to path away from you, because if he comes top he will simply die with you. This strands Nasus right away, as it leaves options for enemy to 1. dive or 3. roam. So realistically vs 'perfect' players or in a competitive scenario enemy mid will be 3 man diving the Nasus at specific break points. This should put Nasus behind 80-100 cs in 12-13 minutes. All of this is the result of a 3 wave crash at 3 minutes. HOWEVER, because its solo queue and not competitive thankfully, this rarely, if at all happens. Playing weakside perfectly should mean that you should never die, but it is possible for the strongside player (the player getting all the help/resources from his team) to mechanically mess up, and thats your window to winning weakside. Because they have to initiate, there is always a chance they mess up because it's solo queue. Obviously this doesn't happen until a certain elo/mmr, but over all its very good to start practicing playing weakside properly even in low elo (d2-). It's how the game is supposed to be played and it's what we call 'good' League of Legends. Nasus should almost always be weakside anyway, so learning how to not die at certain points of the game and play with low econ is mandatory eventually, to aid with climbing overall. This is not something people can just grasp by watching, it is recommended to spam games to get to this point and to understand it fully.

TIPS

There are many micro tips that people should look out for or utilize when playing Nasus. He isn’t a braindead champion as many people expect him to be. He is braindead if fed, but very difficult to navigate in lane perfectly to get to that point. First 10 minutes of the game pretty much determines how he does for the rest of the game. He isn’t your normal toplaner, and should be played completely differently from the meta.

Jungle skirmishes

This is one of the biggest problems with the current meta for Nasus. Your jungler is your biggest enemy every game. I personally get so much **** in high elo for things that I cannot perform. Many times your jungler may ask you to come help them out at scuttle or in their jungle when they get invaded. As Nasus, your wave is shoved in, and enemy laner is up one level with priority. What is the best thing that you can do? Dont. Fkin. Go. You cannot help them when you can’t even help yourself. Junglers with a Nasus on their team should drop their ego and play knowing their topside will be under pressure. Instead of going in when Nasus CLEARLY doesn’t have priority and is in no shape or form to help, just learn to give and back out, and not go in anyways, die, and blame top. By backing you lose 1 buff, but not your life. Worst case scenario, Nasus goes to help and dies with the jungler in a 2 v 2. This not only gives your jungler a harder time to play the game, it also makes you impossible to play the lane, as my Nasus build doesn’t run teleport, and you just missed a wave of cs, gave enemy 2 kills, and potentially now down 2 levels. The best junglers that I play with understands what I need, understands I cannot go help, and stays positive early game even if they got their buff taken away from them. Those are the junglers that I respect the most and enjoy playing alongside with. However, this cannot be guaranteed obviously, so the next time your jungler asks you to do something dumb in the early game, ignore, and if they start flaming, mute them. By not going, you are actually helping them from keeping yourself safe and not making things worse.

Does this mean I should never go help?

Obviously, no. Watch the map. There are times where you are able to help your jungler. for example when the support is roaming top to help in the skirmish, no matter how weak Nasus is early, a 3 v 2 or 4 v 3 should never be lost. So if there is a number advantage, and the wave isn't in a super bad spot, go and help the jungler if the play is guaranteed. It takes experience and time to get better at macro plays like this. To know when to move and when not to is one of the main reasons I am able to out-rank so many other Nasus players by a large margin.

Animation cancel

E and Q can be used at the same time to Q instantly. You can hold Q and drop E and do the animation as one, which can be used at the start of a fight, to achieve a faster cdr on Q. Doing this cancels the E animation (when you kind of swing the cane over your head), and your Q will always go off immediately instead of after the E animation.

Stacking vs winning lane

Nasus is considered one of the weakest champion early game. But that does not mean you should lose lane early every time. Being weak early does not mean that you get a free pass for losing lane early. Focus on winning lane post sheen and level 6. That is Nasus’s biggest power spike and should be used to its full potential. Stacking is nice and all that, but that is actually secondary when it comes to survival and winning the lane, which is a lot more important and crucial to the success of every Nasus game.

Playing Nasus in high elo is like a game of chess with a twist: Nasus will always be the black pieces. In a game of chess when both players play close to perfection, white should always win/draw. Therefore he gets linearly worse the higher the elo.

However, don't give up or sweat about the champion not being good part. I peaked 700 lp in s9, and I am currently 600 lp in s11, yet I can say with confidence I have not plateaued on this character yet. Until then, I still have a lot to learn and improve. Nasus is really good in low elo, and it only gets hard after d2+. So if you guys are not at that point yet, focus on doing what this guide says and learning new things day by day, let it be matchups or macro. I hope This guide is of use to those that have read this far. I will be updating it monthly most likely.

You guys can find me on https://www.twitch.tv/psychopathictop, and I will most likely be streaming daily, if not at least 5 times a week currently. If I am offline, feel free to check out my YouTube (link at start of the guide under title) or my twitch vods should work too. Also, follow my twitter https://twitter.com/PsychopathicTop, I tweet updates sometimes and just stuff in general.

Best Regards,

William (Psychopathic Top)