What's up bois, Carnarius here. Many people asked me for a build guide so there it is ^^ I'll try to carefully explain my thought process and decision making, as well as summoner spells, itemization and anything else that you would need as a main.


Just to prove that i think i know what i'm talking about

I have peaked rank 6 on eune server, and have been grandmaster/challenger on euw for years now with only. I'm one of the highest elo players in europe for years now, so yes, my builds work.

In this section i will explain rune setup that i personally use, but also other viable options that are used by high elo mains.

Q MAX SETUP

Press the Attack - Nowadays Nasus doesn't have too many options when it comes to keystones, but can't really go wrong with press the attack - having additional damage might be crucial in some situations. Besides adding more power to the champion in teamfights, PTA is a pretty useful tool when it comes to trading as well - when someone is trying to harass you, you can stay in your wave, aa + q + aa to proc PTA and there is a good chance you will win the trade. Overall not insane, but not too shabby.

Triumph - By far the best option in that row, i think it might be one of the best minor runes in the game. Healing on takedown is a very powerful ability by itself and additional gold on takedown makes it even better.

Legend: Haste - easily the best option in that row, after removal of legend: tenacity there is nothing better than free 15 ability haste. Keep in mind that it only works on basic abilities - your ult doesn't receive the bonus.

Last Stand - In my opinion the best option in that row and it's pretty powerful. The reason why i prefer it over other runes in that row is it's relatively easy to stay alive at low hp for nasus (with his lifesteal and steraks), so you can utilize that bonus damage very often.


E MAX SETUP

Summon Aery - This rune is pretty useful in laning phase, after laning phase it loses it's value, but it does provide additional damage if you want to assert dominance in your lane early. Use it if you always want to have prio in your lane.

OR

Phase Rush - The second viable option in that tree, oriented more towards mid/late game. Very useful, thanks to it you can escape from otherwise impossible to escape situations, or you can fight without ghost being available. If you don't care about early that much and you want to be stronger mid to late, feel free to choose this one.

Manaflow Band - In my opinion the best rune in that row, this rune will pretty much completely solve your mana problems for the entire game, except for the lowest levels. The other runes don't provide enough for me to consider them viable options.

Transcendence - Not too many options here, transcendence will offer some more ability haste as well as minor amount of power in teamfights whenever you get a takedown. Not amazing but not bad.

Scorch - One of the options you can go for, scorch will provide additional pressure in lane. Not much else to say, you can go for gathering storm if you feel like having slightly better scaling, it won't make a huge difference though.


SECONDARY RUNES

Overgrowth - Very nice boost to maximum hp, enough said. It will provide around 200-300 hp late game, depending on how long your game will last for. Extra amount of hp itself isn't crazy, but it will boost the value of your shields from other items.

Second Wind - After heavy nerfs on other options in resolve tree (namely ) and potions, this is a good option to improve your survivability in laning phase.


Let's talk about other options:


Conqueror - I don't think it is good at all. Throughout the game it will provide similar or less healing compared to and extra damage it provides is barely visible. just doesn't scale well with flat ad, i'd say just go for fleet if you don't want.


Grasp of the undying - It's an undying topic why this rune is so popular indeed. I could talk about it for a long time, but in summary: the most important aspect of laning phase for is wave manipulation. When you fight your opponents, not only you lose hp (which makes it harder to freeze) but you aggro enemy minions (which makes it harder to freeze), but also you take damage from enemy minions (which, you guessed it). I can understand why this rune might be beloved in lower divisions, where people do not know how to trade and play in the laning phase, which effectively lets you outtrade them and stack bonus HP for free, but the higher you climb, the more useless this rune becomes. I maybe could recommend it to new players or top lane players in general, but the faster you stop using it the better.

CORE ITEMS


Trinity Force - After removal of divine sunderer (o7, you will be missed) this is our sheen item. It's not as powerful, but it gets the job done. Very powerful sheen proc (200% of your base ad, which is decently high for nasus), some health, some movement speed, overall not too bad. The other option you have is iceborn gauntlet, it could be used into full ad teams, but it feels like you have no damage with it, without a shadow of doubt i prefer triforce.


Spear of Shojin - A little surprise - this is the second item i've been going for after the removal of our core items in season 14. I like it for 2 reasons. Number one, it completely solves any ability haste problems, allowing us to ignore ability haste items after second item or even skip lucidity boots and go for something else. Secondly, spear of shojin's passive provides massive amount of damage that effectively multiplies the amount of stacks you have. It's one of those items that makes the difference as soon as you finish it.

Sterak's Gage - I love this item. Even after the nerf it's still very powerful, as it provides massive shield that scales with bonus health. Thankfully we stack a lot of health so we can expect a shield value of around 1.5k as soon as we finish the item. On top of it it provides a very high amount of ad (not necessarily the best stat but always something) and extremely valuable tenacity, which is very hard to find nowadays.


SITUATIONAL ITEMS


ARMOR

Randuin's Omen - Remember this item's name because you will use it a lot. With the changes to crit items randuin's is absolutely mandatory if you are fightning 2 crit users, but it's totally viable against 1 crit user and 1 or 2 ad champs in general. Nothing in the game will provide you more protection than 30% crit damage reduction you get from the passive, amount of health it provides is decent, armor is good and the active can be very useful.

Frozen Heart - Honestly it's not the item i use very often, but it's certainly decent into team that rely on on-hit passive instead of crits. Currently very few teamcomps don't have at least one crit user therefore i would place randuin's over frozen heart in almost any game.

Thornmail - There is only one reason why you should ever buy this - stupid amount of healing on enemy team. Even then, make sure to just purchase bramble vest and sit on it, you don't need finished thornmail because the stats it provides aren't anything special.


Dead Man's Plate - I rarely build this item due to pitiful amount of combat stats it provides, but this + Phase Rush can make you highly resistant to slows against low cc high slow teamcomps.


MAGIC RESISTANCE

Kaenic Rookern - Probably my favourite magic resistance item in the game currently. If there are no other circumstances (like having enchanters on your team) this item will provide the highest amount of protection against magic damage in the game. On top of it the magic shield regenerates rather quickly, allowing you to take poke damage while not losing health. If you need to deal with mages, this is your item.

Spirit Visage - Very solid magic resistance option, especially if you have enchaters on your team that will heal or shield you. Boosts your shields and heals (including life steal) by 25%, good stats, definitely strong against ap champs.

Force of Nature - the last anti mage option that you could consider, but probably the weakest one. It provides very high amount of magic resistance at max stacks, but i'm not the biggest fan of items with raw stats. The penetration in the game is currently very strong, so building items with raw stats with powerful passive effects is not as efficient, especially towards late game. You can consider it if you need mr and mobility at the same time.



OTHER ITEMS


Jak'Sho, The Protean - This is your item if you're looking for defence against both armor and magic resistance. Make sure yo utilize the passive properly, for example try to use your W or E before the teamfight starts, this way you're gonna get full effect of the passive before you take any significant damage.

Black Cleaver - You won't see me build this item often, but if you need to face a lot of heavy frontline, this item could be extremely helpful. First of all it provides useful stats, secondly the armor penetration you apply on your enemies can be used very well by your ad teammates as well.

Sundered Sky - Not the item i build very often, but it has its uses. It can be very powerful against low damage teamcomps with multiple tanks and/or enchanters, in these situations you could use the passive to its full potential and heal for massive amount of health in teamfights, since the longer you live the longer you can heal for.

So first of all, many people ask me when to Q max and when to E max. It's usually a very difficult question to answer simply because it vastly depends on what elo you play at. What i do is i prefer to Q max into match ups that are easy to handle (nowadays there are only few) and E max into everything else.

That being said, i'd recommend you to q max in every game until around diamond (except for the absolute worst match ups, like darius), because that will teach you essential things about laning, like wave manipulation.


Q MAX
Your job while q maxing is to get as strong as possible in mid game and preferably get some solo kills after level 6/7 or further. While q maxing you need to remember that you are very weak early, so wave manipulation and match up knowledge need to be things you absolutely need to focus on in order to improve.

Try to keep the wave under your turret at all times, if possible. This provides massive amount of benefits, you can farm rather safely without being overextended, it gives your jungler opportunity to come over and gank, you don't need to worry about vision because you are in the safe spot, you name it. If you can't keep the wave under your turret, at least try to do it for as long as possible. Nasus is the most vulnerable before level 6, after that we can use our ult to forcefully push the wave if the opponent is trying to freeze, reset the wave and we are fine after that. Before level 6 we have to be very careful though as these are the most important levels where your opponents can abuse you, so make sure to play smart and keep improving when it comes to wave manipulation.

Of course as q max nasus you basically never have prio which is one od the disadvantages of that playstyle, so make sure to let your jungler know to avoid 2v2 fights, at least before level 6, but to be honest these are quite rare in the current meta anyway, as everyone focuses around bot lane and occasionally mid lane.

If everything goes right, try to kill your opponents after level 6/7 or whenever you feel like you can, preferably when the wave is closer to your turret. That will give you room to run your enemies down with your ghost. To increase your lead try to get plates whenever possible and of course make sure to stack cannons. The key rule though - never int for the cannons, losing 80% of your health and then getting dove for a cannon isn't worth it.


E MAX
Laning phase while E maxing is a completely different story. In fact it's the complete opposite of Q max nasus. You want to be aggressive, every time you use e, try to use it on the wave and the enemy champion at the same time. In most cases, especially early, it's better to use e on your opponent even if you're gonna miss some cs with it to apply pressure. You shouldn't have mana problems with doran's ring and e mana cost buff nasus received some time ago.

If done correctly, your opponent will be sitting on a very low amount of hp soon enough. At this point you can even try to go for a solokill if your enemy stays in lane for too long, but if he resets just make sure to quickly push the next wave to make him lose gold and experience.

The main purpose of E maxing strat is to vastly mitigate the difficulty of very hard match ups, as well as having prio almost permanently. Even if you don't manage to get a big lead, you can still just drop the e on the wave, kill the entire wave almost instantly and move to create number advantage for your team.

Of course, we don't max our q but we still max q second so after level 7 (4 points into e) you want to transition into a regular Q max nasus in order to be a threat later on. Your stacks won't be as high but that's the sacrifice for being an actual champion early in the game.

Mid and late game are basically the same for Q max and E max nasus. In general to me playing nasus correctly means 2 things:

1. Being a threat in the side lane, destroying your side lane opponents and getting turrets, which will allow you to get massive gold advantage and as a result, carry teamfights.
2. If you can't do that, trying to soak pressure to make your team have room on the map to collect objectives.

Whether it's going to be 1 or 2, you need to be useful. One of the biggest mistakes that nasus players do is sitting in the side lane, last hitting every single minion. When the laning phase is over, you have to apply pressure, push hard almost every single time (unless you are 0/6 and you're trying to catch up, freezing is allowed then) and try to get as much gold lead as you can, there isn't a single better way of carrying games than getting massive gold/exp leads so you can 1v3.

Once you are powerful, try to read the game and your team's intentions. If you are wrecking havoc in the side lane and your opponents can't stop you, it's totally fine to just go after inhibs and ending the game that way. If you can't do that though and the game seems to be pretty close, you have to act accordingly and after staying in the side lane for a bit try to group up to make the difference in fights for objectives. That's the key word though - objectives. People love to fight for no reason in this game, especially in lower elos. If there is are objectives to fight for, it's almost guaranteed that there is no reason to fight and it's better to stay in the side lane reaping guaranteed gold and experience.

Another thing, nasus is a very weak champion without summoner spells, the reason why i use 2 mobility summoner spells. If you don't have them available (or at least one of them) it's probably a better idea to avoid teamfights, as you will get kited into oblivion. Sometimes you just have to group (elder dragon), but you will recognize these situations as you gain more experience.

So that's it guys. I hope i can help some of you with this build guide and with my experience. If you have any questions, feel free to ask, i'll try to answer them whenever i can. I will update this build guide for sure, as well as i'll add more sections and edit them, but main content is ready so i decided to publish it.

Also if you are looking for some high elo nasus action, feel free to check my stream
>>>https://www.twitch.tv/carnarius_v2<<<
and my youtube channel
>>>https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC57rOHX3WuZXSTdUPH92koQ<<<
Or if you want to join the discussion, here is my Discord
>>>https://discord.gg/BFJTa2W<<<

Enjoy :>