Hi, I am Lamiący Janek, small content creator on Youtube, specializing in analyzing the Meta game in League of Legends. I have also played this game from the support role for around 10 years now and I am comfortably sitting between Diamond1 and Diamond2 Rank, recnetly I have hit Master :). I have partnered with Challenger Project to make this guide for one of most popular support in the game - Nautilus. I will be using data provided by their AI which analyzes thousands game per week to provide more accurate tips to how to build properly in Summoners Rift. You can find all AI recommendations Here

Pros → Huge amount of Crowd Control → Great laning presence → Best lock down in the game with his Depth Charge → Easy to play → Hard to avoid his engage → Cool voice xD

Nautilus is one of the best Engage Supports in the game. If CCing enemies is your thing, then you are in luck! Nautilus has 4 different forms of CC in his kit. His laning is also one of the strongest in the entire game.

Main problem with Nautilus is that he gets outscaled by enchanters like Soraka Janna or Sona. You need to build a big lead and close the game fast or you will find yourself somewhat useless even when hitting good Dredge Line all the time. Additionally, in late game we are kinda squishy for a tank compared to f.e. Leona. To fix that we can build Zhonya's Hourglass but its not a perfect solution.

Cons → Somewhat weak late game → One dimensional → Weak scaling → Huge model, easy to get stuck in minions

PASSIVE ABILITY

Staggering Blow (Passive): Every first auto attack will root the target for 0.75 to 1.5 seconds with a bit of extra damage. Very potent when combined with the rest of the kit. Try to proc it on every enemy champion in range every time you get a chance.

Q

Dredge Line (Q): This is your main form of engage. Long range hook that pulls a target and you in the middle of this skillshot with a very (and I mean VERY) fat hitbox. Be careful when aiming near minions as it can easily be blocked by them. Additionally if you hit terrein instead, you will pull yourself to it and will get refunded 50% of cooldown.

W

Titan's Wrath (W): Self shielding ability with extra damage to your auto attacks for your target and those in close distance. Most important is the fact that this ability is auto attack reset which makes it extra useful in allins.

E

Riptide (E): AoE damage and slow around us. It deals damage and slows 3 times in a row and there is an option to hit the same target 3 times for maximum damage output.

R

Depth Charge (R): Targeted ability that marks one champion. It sends out a “wave” from Nautilus to the target dealing damage and knocking everything on its path. The main target gets knocked up for 1 to 2 seconds depending on level of ability while other units get knocked up for just 1sec. This ability is the reason why Nautilus have such a great lock down of priority target. You can’t dodge this knock up unless you have Zonias or Spell shield of some kind.

SUMMONER SPELLS - FLASH: Must have, let us do some aggressive Flash+ , Flash+ or even Flash+ AA. Additionally it is a safety net if we need to escape bad situations. IGNITE: We take it in most situations. Secures kills by applying Grievous Wounds to the target. This way any healing going into the enemy is cut in 60%. Additional damage is just cheery on top. EXHAUST: In rare cases when, your ADC wants to take ignite OR when you have already 2-3 ignites in your team take Exhaust. In lane use it as soon as enemy ADC turns on you inside your window of engage. In teamfight use it on target dealing most damage ( who is most fed usually).

Locket of the Iron Solari Standard purchase in most games. Always try to look at what you will be shielding in teamfights, don't just press it to press it. For example, negating incoming Karthus or Ezreal ult can be huge for winning the game.

Evenshroud In rare cases where there is completely 0 AoE that could be shielded by Locket of the Iron Solari, take this item. Generally a very good item that will add around 4k damage in the span of the game. Excellent choice for making sure that the priority target dies.

Shurelya's Battlesong This is a very good choice if your team is kiteable and generally movement speed dependent.Example of champions that you would want to build this around are: Darius, Hecarim, Wukong, Vladimir.

Zeke's Convergence This is usually the first item after mythic IF you are snowballing hard. Bonus damage and cooldown reduction allow us to increase the lead more easily. Especially good item in combination with Evenshroud.

Knight's Vow Another option for a fires item after mythic IF you are facing a big burst threat like Zed, Kha'Zix and other assassins. It will stop them one shooting your ADC as up to 20% damage they deal will go into you no matter what.

Thornmail Third and final option for first item after mythic. We build it mainly for the passive healing reduction, so check every game if there is someone who will be this healing threat like Soraka, Aatrox. Sylas or Viego. If there is none you can ignore this item as there are better options focused on the armor stats.

Zhonya's Hourglass I know it looks like a troll but it is truly a great option for Nautilus as your 3rd item. First - it gives AP which increases our damage output. Additionally it gives a good bit of armor and ability haste. Most importantly - the active part - patches up our biggest weakness in mid to late game which is survivability. You will often find yourself engaging in the fight and dying in the process as Nautilus has no way out of a bad situation. Pressing this item when everyone starts to focus on you at the start of a teamfight can be sometimes game winning.

Anathema's Chains Fun but niche item. You want to buy it if the enemy team has one type of damage with one exception. For example there is AD top, jungle and ADC but AP midlane. In such a case you want to stack Armor as your main defensive stat and build this item to place it’s active on enemies midlane. That way you will decrease his damage to you without building any real MR.

Redemption Very good item to combine with Locket of the Iron Solari as it will increase its shield. Use it in the middle of fight OR when your team gets poked before.

Force of Nature Facing 3 magic damage dealers? Just build it and watch them cry.

Watchful Wardstone Very underused item. You will be able to put 2 [control ward]s and 4 [stealth ward]s at the same time which is extremely valuable. However in lower elos where games are much longer I would ignore this item as you will have time to build something more expensive.

Mobility Boots Default option when snowballing. Use it tho. Don’t just sit on them in botlane. Go roam!

Plated Steelcaps If you don’t have options for roam, because you have no pressure in midlane, or facing a lot of AD/auto attacking threats.

Mercury's Treads Facing a lot of CC? This is the way.

Boots of Swiftness In very rare cases when you struggle to move due big amount of slows in enemy team.

Our AI analyzes data from thousands upon thousands of ranked games to determine what are the best behaviors in most impactful parts of the game so you know what to do every step of the way.

As you can see, with Nautilus it is crucial to not only just roam in every stage of the game, but the best thing you can do is roam WITH one other player, be it your ADC or Jungler.

To clarify - SPLIT suggestion means you should focus on managing Vision control, by warding and clearing wards, which you do usually in some sort of distance from the rest of your team. This does not mean you should be in solo lane pushing minions.

In terms of farming jungle camps - this is quite important, especially when you see you lack around 100 or so gold to your next big Item spike.

INSPIRATION

Glacial Augment should be the main option as of now. It sends out rays of frost that slow down enemies whenever we hit them with any kind of hard CC. This means our , and will create a slowing area that additionally decreases damage done by enemy champions standing inside by 15%! Slow is extra important when facing a double-ranged bot lane, because it gives us extra sticking power so they can’t make distance between us.

Hextech Flashtraption gives us extra pressure in the lane. Try to force all in lvl 2, and feel free to burn your flash in doing so. If you trade your flash for enemy ADC flash it’s just fine. Thanks to this rune you will have huge pressure from just standing in bushes. To maximize this you want to buy Oracle Lens and sweep the wards. Perfect Timingis great option if you have plans to buy early Zhonya's Hourglass.

Biscuit Delivery easy to use rune, use it at low hp/ when you lack mana. Minion Dematerializer very underused rune, good vs poke lane as it lets safely kill canon minions without exposing yourself to take big damage on your face. Future's Market another underused rune. Going back early and buying your first full boots or Mythic item can make all the difference in the game.

Cosmic Insight your default choice. It lowers cd of your Summoner spells (always useful), and items like Locket of the Iron Solari or Shurelya's Battlesong Time Warp Tonic useful for winning short trades. However getting heavy nerfs in 12.7 so probably dead choice.

For the secondary tree we choose Determination tree with choice between Second Wind and Bone Plating depending if we play against poke - Second Wind or something with more burst damage - Bone Plating. Unflinching is always good Rune to run as it simply decrease duration of any CC on us.

For shards we always take bonus attack speed as it helps us deal extra damage from the W empowered attacks. From defensive options we adapt, but in most cases double armor is just super good, unless playing against mage support/botlane carry.

RESOLVE

Aftershock used to be the default option for a long time, but meta switched from engage support to encheters and that's why we use Glacial Augment most of the time. However Aftershock is still go to choice if we are facing Leona, Alistar or Braum and Blitzcrank.

Font of Life let us heal the team a little bit during teamfights, but in most cases much better of a choice is simply to take Shield Bash since not only it gives us better survivability but also empowers our auto attacks after pressing W, witch is crucial as every little bit of damage matters.

In this section everything has good value. We take Bone Plating when facing other engage supports, Second Wind vs poke lane and Conditioning in passive lanes where we won't be punished by taking an empty rune slot for the first 12 minutes of the game.

Unflinching is the only Rune worth taking in this slot unless you don’t face ANY CC in the entire enemy team, then pick up Overgrowth.

For the secondary tree we choose Inspiration, as it can patch up any shortcomings of Nautilus. Cosmic Insight your default choice. It lowers cd of your Summoner spells (always useful), and items like Locket of the Iron Solari or Shurelya's Battlesong. Biscuit Delivery easy to use rune, use it at low hp/ when you lack mana. Minion Dematerializer very underused rune, good vs poke lane as it lets you safely kill canon minions without exposing yourself to take big damage on your face.

For shards we always take bonus attack speed as it helps us deal extra damage from the W empowered attacks. From defensive options we adapt, but in most cases double armor is just super good, unless playing against mage support/botlane carry.