I am low challenger of season 4 in NA and I fill during rank. I do not have an impressive win rate with this champ but she is my most played in season 4. I am making these guides for myself and friends mainly so sorry if you're looking for visuals. I was top 1000 Nami on lolskill.net in 2014 which tracked at least NA and EU together but no KR.

Published 10/11/14
Added Recognizing tower dives chapter 10/16/14
Added Twitch matchup 10/30/14
Updated When to pick nami chapter 11/12/14
Added Ezreal matchup 11/17/14
Updated for new rift beta 11/21/14
Replaced elixir of brilliance for elixir of sorcery, added Ezreal to synergy chapter, updated when to pick Nami chapter, up Braum difficulty, added pantheon to dragon chapter, added anti backdoor to late game chapter 11/24/14
Updated early game chapter for fake ward 12/1/14
Updated When to pick nami, updated early game chapter for lvl 2 ganks, updated conclusion, removed pantheon solo drag in drag chapter 1/9/15
updated farming under tower chapter 1/18/15
updated when to pick nami 1/20/15
Updated title 1/21/15
updated runes 1/31/15
updated leona difficulty 2/6/15
Updated apm, leashing, dragon, baron chapters 2/12/15
updated Tristana matchup 3/5/15
Updated items chapter, updated When to pick nami chapter, added righteous glory, twin shadows, and banner of command 4/3/15
updated Introduction and items chapters, When to pick nami, removed Zekes and Frost Queen from items 8/7/15
Updated masteries, when to pick nami chapter, matchups of leona, janna, thresh, and added lucian matchup 8/24/15
updated Early game chapter on lvl 2 with jungle camp 9/4/15
Added soraka matchup 9/5/15
updated masteries and masteries chapter 9/15/15
Updated early game chapter 9/24/15
updated when to pick nami chapter 10/6/15
Updated timers chapter 10/15/15
added master yi match up, updated janna matchup, masteries, and masteries, when to pick nami, summoner spells, timers, the level one before minions spawn, leashing, early game, and dragon chapters 11/13/15
Updated items and items chapter 11/14/15
updated warwick matchup, items, items chapter 11/16/15
Updated masteries and masteries chapter 11/25/15
added ashe match up, updated blitz matchup and masteries 12/12/15
Updated when to pick nami, items, masteries, timers, leashing, the level one before minions spawn, mid game, team fighting, and conclusion chapter and masteries 12/17/15
updated conclusion chapter 12/20/15
Updated recall scenarios chapter 12/21/15
added rengar matchup 12/24/15
Updated when to pick nami chapter 1/8/16
reformatted items, skill usage, recall scenarios, early game, mid game, late game, dragon, and baron chapters; updated items & early game chapters 1/12/16
Updated recall scenarios 1/13/16
updated when to pick nami chapter 1/24/16
updated masteries and masteries chapter 2/13/16
added volibear matchup 2/14/16
added bard matchup, updated when to pick nami chapter 2/15/16
Updated introduction and when to pick nami chapters 2/27/16
updated minion advantage and skill usage chapters 2/29/16
Updated when to pick nami chapter 3/11/16
updated when to pick nami chapter 4/3/16
Updated early game chapter 4/5/16
updated purchase order 4/17/16
Updated mid game chapter 4/21/16
updated ezreal matchup 5/1/16
Updated when to pick nami and items chapter 5/6/16
updated soraka and alistar matchup and when to pick nami chapter, added caitlyn matchup 5/15/16
Updated dragon chapter 5/20/16
added sivir matchup and when to pick nami chapter 5/26/16
Added wukong, zed, and jarvan matchups 5/29/16
updated skill usage chapter and zilean matchup, added irelia, rumble, kalista, and amumu matchup 5/30/16
Updated blitzcrank and kalista matchup, updated when to pick nami chapter 5/31/16
updated item chapter 6/2/16
Updated runes; when to pick nami and runes chapter 6/9/16
updated ezreal matchup 6/11/16
Updated yi matchup 6/13/16
updated masteries and masteries chapter 6/14/16
Added vel'koz and jhin matchup 6/15/16
updated rengar matchup 6/16/16
Updated when to pick nami chapter 9/22/16
updated when to pick nami chapter 9/30/16
Updated when to pick nami chapter 10/8/16
updated when to pick nami, leashing, early game, and baron chapter 10/17/16
Updated items, masteries; when to pick nami, masteries, and items chapters 1/1/17
updated when to pick nami chapter 1/19/17
Updated runes, item purchase order, masteries; when to pick nami, runes, and masteries chapters 5/1/17
updated when to pick nami chapter 5/7/17
Removed masteries chapter; Updated items and runes; Updated when to pick nami, runes, items, chapter 6/25/18
updated summoner spells, items, skill order, runes, janna and sona matchup; Updated when to pick nami, summoner spells, runes, items, timers, the level one before minions, leashing, early game, mid game, late game, dragon, and conclusion chapters; removed importance of vision control and added jungle tracking chapters 12/14/21
Updated when to pick nami chapter 2/13/22
updated when to pick nami and conclusion chapter 4/2/22
Updated when to pick nami chapter 7/2/22
updated when to pick nami chapter 7/13/22
Updated runes and items; when to pick nami chapter, runes, items, and team fighting chapters 2/14/23
updated when to pick nami chapter 3/14/23
Updated sona matchup and when to pick nami chapter 6/4/23
updated summoner spells, items, items chapter, and summoner spells chapter 6/6/23
Updated runes and when to pick nami chapter 7/16/23
updated when to pick nami chapter 8/5/23

As of patch 13.20, Nami and her partner Lucian got nerfed too much and aren't good anymore. Nami should always be picked with Lucian or mages like Karthus bot. Lucian Nami hard counters Xayah Rakan as well. Should pick Lucian before Nami. If they take away [nami then you pick Sona. Currently B tier in competitive.

Flash is mandatory for all. When I think about Exhaust and Heal, I think about when we 5v5 is there someone on the front line that I need to exhaust? For ex. Kennen, Yasuo, Riven, Fizz, Annie, Rengar, Vi, Zed, and more would need exhaust. If there is no one in the front to exhaust, you take Heal since it would be very hard to exh their longer range threats. Your lane partner should always be Lucian and he takes either Ignite or Cleanse.

Only use Future's Market to buy Imperial Mandate and other completed items early with debt.

Take magic resist instead of armor if against only magic damage bot lane.

Imperial Mandate is best rush before upgrading boots and don't buy any Control Ward until soul point, baron, or elder dragon. Go into debt with Future's Market only for the completed item for the fast spike.

Mikael's Blessing if they have critical cc.

Buy Refillable Potion in your first or second back, can sell 1 Health Potion for it.

Buy boots as your first core item for warding the enemy jungle with jungler or warding defensively around mid lane after backing. Boots helps roaming after pushing lane if the opportunity is there.

Elixir of Sorcery bought before dragon soul or elder dragon.

Redemption can be bought if enemy has no anti healing.

Staff of Flowing Water when playing against divers and/or multiple allies with ap ratios.

You should always time the enemy summoners. Do this with ctrl a then ctrl c after typing the timers and later remind your team with ctrl v. You should always time the enemy summoners. Flash is 5 min, but Ionian Boots of Lucidity reduces flash by 30s, Cosmic Insight reduces flash by 46s, together reduces flash by 69s. Exhaust and Cleanse are 3 min 30s while Ignite and Ghost are 3 minutes. Teleport can be looked at by holding tab and divide their teleport cooldown by 60. Heal is 4 min. Buffs are 5 minutes if you dont have vision of their buffs to make use of riot's buff timers. Dragon and baron are timed by the game scoreboard. inhibitor is 4 min.

Actions per minute; you should try to never stand still. It will warm up your hands if you keep clicking left and right. Also do some wrist exercise so you don't develop anything bad.

For maxing a skill second, put points into E when bot tier 1 tower is up, then put pts into Q when your or their bot tower dies.

Your Tidal Wave will be used for disengage or follow up engage. Only way you can engage is if there is no vision of you over the wall.

For Aqua Prison, if the enemy is losing trade or running from your gank you q their escape route. If the enemy is winning trade, chasing, engaging, and/or ganking you, then u q in front of them. If your skill shot gets dodged while following this criteria, you did your job since they had to avoid in a direction that puts them in an unfavorable position, unless they use blinks and dashes. If you kno their blinks, dashes, or Flash is ready, you're going to have to wait for them to be next to you or predict their dash/blink.

In lane your Tidecaller's Blessing should be used on yourself during lvl 1-2 as you have hybrid pen marks. When u or ally is escaping with low hp, use ur E on some1 full hp to slow enemies down since the low ally wont likely auto.

Watch champion spotlight for nami on how to use her Ebb and Flow, but also make urself and adc full hp before trading. It is ideal if u can heal urself and dmg enemy safely. Ebb and Flow is more important to use in 2v2 duels or teamfights as healing 2 allies rather than dmg 2 enemies, unless all but one of you are full hp. Ebb and Flow priortizes the lowest hp champions so having one low health teammate is fine to use Ebb and Flow offensively. [For example, you are 1/4hp, ur adc is 1/3 hp, enemy supp is dead, and enemy adc is 1/3hp. Do not use w on the enemy adc. Instead use w on ur adc or yourself. Using w on urself while trying to hit enemy in lane and kiting back is better than w them since it might not bounce back to you.

Use champion portraits for W and E if allies are bunched together.

Save Aqua Prison if the threat will not be in his threat range unless he Flash, so save Aqua Prison for after his Flash.

Wards won't be enough as good jungle players know how to get around them. You need to keep track of junglers by their pathing. First know which side they started by a deep ward or on his teammates leashing. Be careful though, as people can fake leash. Ping on the map which camps the enemy jungler should be at and all laners should play accordingly. If you ping jungler is on opposite side of map while your jungler is on your side, you should trade with the enemy laners. If jungler is on your side, then play safe and do not push lane.

You can easily E Lucian during his q animation as he will use his double shot to hit enemy champs. It is a bit harder without voice communication to coordinate your E with his dash + passive.

You can E Caitlyn right when she auto atks, you're going to need good apm.

You can E Kog'Maw right when you hear him use his W.

You can E Twitch as he stealths. Also the heal is needed to alleviate his early game.

You can help set up Yasuo for his ultimate. His Steel Tempest can apply your E.

Your kit is valuable for poke comps.

You can E Vayne as she does her combo. Also the healing is needed to alleviate her early game.

Ezreal can easily apply all 3 of ur E.

Do not pick a skill yet until you see your lane opponents in lane, when top laner appears at top to show there is no lane swap, or there is no delay invade. Ebb and Flow is best for 2v2 lane, but an invade or lane swap it is better to start Aqua Prison. You should defend a choke point safely. If defending raptor area do not stand in bush. If defending mid lane then have vision of both bushes and no need to have vision of their tower. You should use your trinket ward somewhere generally at 0:45, unless you see a group of invaders then you ward where you are escaping to. If you ward in front of them, they can kill it. A delay invade optimally happens at 1:25, so warding at 0:45 at a decent spot to see the invade coming will let your team respond accordingly. If an enemy sees you when you are about to ward, its better to back off and ward a spot that they cannot see even though it is not as deep.

This season, junglers can get to scuttle before or right after their full clear so you don't need to leash.

Generally for all lanes, if you have more minions you can go aggressive if your adc follows up and you know where everyone is in the map; but not past the minions if you need your minions to help fight the enemy champs. If there are 10 enemy minions and you have 3 minions just back up all the way to tower as you will get collapsed on by the enemy. Since you will not lose any cs(creep score), you might as well go back to tower anyways. It takes 9 minions as duo lane to get lvl 2 so you should count both minion waves to see if you get lvl 2 first, they get lvl 2 first, or both sides will get lvl 2 at the same time. If they are getting lvl 2 first then you're gonna have to back off far and ping back your partner. If the lane is even then you have to be cautious. Only do short trades when trading or else you take too much minion damage.

You should watch your lane and your teammates to see if they have the factors of getting dived. The most obvious one is low health. Others are no flash, huge incoming minion wave, and champions missing. If you pay attention to other lanes or yourself, you can warn the possible dive and move your jungler, others can roam to help, or get in a spot for a safe teleport, all to turn around the dive. If none of the responses are available then the possible victim must leave. The duo lane should generally be together when the minion wave is at their tower, or else the enemy duo can 2v1 dive the lonely bottom player. Tell that bottom player to leave or call others to turn the dive around.

Towers will prioritize minions toward the bottom of the lane first. During early levels you can auto once on a full hp caster minion. The caster minions near the top of the lane will most likely get hit by your minions which means you need to auto those more than once or not at all.

Generally you recall when your bot player is recalling or dead. Best case scenario is you know where everyone is on the map and you can safely push to their tower if you have more minions or freeze when they have a bit more minions. You can recall before a siege minion wave(which spawns after 2 minion waves during early game), so that by the time you go back to lane you won't miss out on too much cs since siege takes a while to be killed by tower as well as enemies can't push that fast.

If you killed your enemy laners and you do not know where everyone is on the map then you should go to your tower and recall. Do not risk getting killed by their jungler or whoever. If you got a successful jungler to gank you then ask him to push with you unless you are all low enough for a triple kill. After recalling, buy while walking to edge of fountain always until 20 minute mark.

Warding in the bottom river will help to avoid their bot duo cheese as well as lvl 2 jungle ganks.

Level one use Ebb and Flow and auto their adc, unless their support is closer to both you and your adc from which both of you should focus dmg on support. It takes 9 minion kills for duo lanes to level.

If you get level 2 first u can get Aqua Prison, but if both duos get level 2 get Tidecaller's Blessing since they can use flash to dodge your q. After lvl 2 you should play passive unless you know where everyone is in the map.

Never trade if you are not full health.

It is ok to take one kill because you want to get your mythic item by third dragon.

Ward mainly when you push to enemy tower and let your bot player know to back off; you can also fake ward by walking to a spot and pretending to ward.

Only use Aqua Prison during all ins or ganks, as it takes away mana from your Ebb and Flow and baits your adc to a bad all in.

If the mid is missing then you should expect a gank and should back off. Watch for teleports as well as you can't all in unless your jungler and your teleport(s) is ready to help. Get all 3 skills lvl 3 if you expect gank or all in.

After first back run in jungle near mid lane to ward the river bush near mid towards dragon or to deep ward the enemy jungle that isn't the buff bush. It is best to ward and roam with jungler. Try to ward the gromp area/ raptor area as that is the easiest after your lane is pushing(preferably under enemy tower), tell your bot player to play back or follow you as you deep ward so he doesn't get 2v1. For warding the raptor make sure you see the raptor camp to see their jungler. For warding the gromp you don't need to ward the blue buff bush, just ward over the wall that can see both blue buff and gromp. If you see their jungler and he can 1v1 you or is not scared then you should just back off and ward a spot where he can't see you place since he is preventing you from deep warding. Generally when your jungler comes, you let him show first before engaging since u don't want to die in a 2v2 before your jungler gets to do anything.

As red team, many blue team players Control Ward their tri bush at bot. It is very risky to take them out without your jungler, so instead you can ward these spots to see an incoming gank from the jungle but not from river.

Mid game generally starts when a tower dies or when someone gets lvl 6 as they can tower dive. Always ask for help when warding, never ward by yourself unless you know where everyone is.

You should generally be mid with your bot partner. Just get experience and play safe to wait for next dragon fight. This is why late game counter picks are best.

Always have a Control Ward slot. Only use Control Ward for dragons and barons.

Never get aced as just a siege wave is enough to end the game.

It is ok to lose inhibitor. Just focus on dragons and protecting nexus towers. Always take dragon over baron unless it's cloud. Always take dragon over towers and inhibitors as well. Do not take base towers if dragon or baron is coming up soon as the enemy will generally respawn in time.

Never get aced as just a siege wave is enough to end the game.

It is ok to lose inhibitor. Just focus on dragons and protecting nexus towers. Always take dragon over baron unless it's cloud. Always take dragon over towers and inhibitors as well. Do not take base towers if dragon or baron is coming up soon as the enemy will generally respawn in time.

If you have open nexus(no nexus towers) then sit in base until all inhibits respawn.

Only do dragon when 2 enemies are dead or at base & while your team isn't low, or it is a free dragon. A free dragon is when the enemy team is aced, their teleports are down, completely cleared their vision, they're taking top buff, or recalled to base.

If they have Fiddlesticks, Nunu & Willump, Master Yi, Udyr, Shaco, Elise, Karthus, Lee Sin, and possibly more(not to mention laners helping out), then you need to keep it warded from a specific lvl onward for a possible sneak.

If the enemy starts dragon, poke them until dragon is half hp, then fight. Poking them makes them disoriented to either finish, run, or fight. Dragon does aoe so if you start it, have one person in the pit to tank it away from team.

Always team fight for the third dragon as everyone would be closest in items. As scaling team, you can give the first two if not safe to contest.

Prioritize dragons over everything else.

If you have dragon soul, instead of starting elder dragon camp the enemy jungle and fight. If playing protection composition, backline hits dragon while frontline zones, then get off dragon if they go in.

When securing baron for bait or to take, you want to deep ward and ward surrounding bushes to keep from getting stolen or to get a pick. Do not exclude the tri bush towards top lane.

As red team you want to pink outside the pit and sweep inside the pit.

As blue team you want to pink in the pit near the entrance so that the enemy doesn't kill it over the wall.

Do not stand behind the baron when taking it, since it will do damage to everyone behind it.

As for positioning when taking baron you need to stand outside the pit with your carries. As for ward kills in the pit, support should be the one since support's dmg against baron is least important. When the enemy is in the baron pit, hit the baron to make it hit your enemies. Never use your cc at baron when enemies are around. One person should zone the enemy team if they are coming to stop the baron attempt. Communicate with your team beforehand to finish, run, or turn to fight.

At 20min and onwards you must ward it against sneaks from high objective junglers such as Nunu & Willump, Udyr, Karthus, Fiddlesticks, Master Yi, and possibly more(not to mention laners helping out).

Always take baron over inhibitors.

Preemptively use oracle alteration and Vision Ward(preferably in a bush so they dont know and walk to it) for stealth champions. Peel for your carries but you may use your ult to follow up engage.

When disengaging, you should use Tidal Wave first then follow up with Aqua Prison immediately since they'll be locked in place by the knock up for a short period of time unless they are far away.

Use Tidecaller's Blessing on your mage if he autos often for they have magic pen. Save Aqua Prison for champions that have high kill pressure, usually not on pure tanks; unless your adc is dying to off tanks. If you can bubble multiple people then go for that instead, since they then won't be able to peel for their teammates or disrupt your backline.

If enemy team is mostly diving champions, then tell team to peel isntead of engage, chase, and flank. Read skill usage would fill the rest.

Nami should only be picked as a counter pick against enchanters, but Sona is better. All questions will be replied by private message. I stream on twitch.tv/bive and offer coaching lessons for all roles for $20/hr. https://www.youtube.com/user/sinc67/videos is my youtube.