Hello, my name is Michael, aged 29. Playing LoL since beginning of season 3 (not so long), maining Nasus. The highest I ever got as Nasus player was Platinum 2 (currently in series for Platinum 1 - still climbing).

These are my stats playing Nasus last 3 seasons (accurate for April 2016):
I am a platinum player (been there for last 3 seasons). I would probably get higher, but I guess im too prone to greedy decisions later in the game and I get bored of D'cane after playing him exclusively for longer periods of time.
This is taken from my op.gg profile (September 2016) :

October 2016 : Series to Platinum 1
I also apologise for the low quality of the graphic(s) above, I was never much into it :)

If you are Platinum 1 or below this build will work for you.
If you are Diamond Nasus you still should try this build just to see if you get same effects as I've got in Plat. I didn't have the occcasion to test it there :D
If you are new to Nasus you will also find this guide helpful.
If you want to counter Nasus badly, but failed with many 'so-called' counters like Riven or Garen, this guide will help you with picks, so next time you really counter him.
Im not gonna write about obvious things, like what is Siphoning Strike and how it works. I am more focused on the strategic aims and tactical decisions, which are best for you. I am assuming you played Nasus at least 1 time and know how his abilities work.

All you should know about me is this - I have Played way over 1000 games with Nasus keeping a steady winrate ~60% winrate in the divisions I've been playing at (after I learnt to play him to his full extend - beginings in season 3 weren't that good for me, hehe).

I've tried all kinds of builds, from DPS ones, thro hybrid ones to pure tank ones. After spending some time testing I had to admit that at Platinum level the best build was the one the pros were using. It was my main build for a long time. Then the lifesteal quints got nerfed and yellow flat armor runes too and I started testing again... After some time I decided to buy these CDR runes and this was the best decision I have ever made. After playing first game with this build I threw the old ways away and literally NEVER looked back. Since I am using this build i noticed my stacking ability in first 20 mins went up by average of 100 stacks per game! I noticed my KDA went up from around 2.3 up to roughly 2.9. I noticed I started carrying games on my own and my winratio skyrocketed. At the moment I am playing on 2000 elo, so my KDA dropped, cause I get camped a lot, but 65% winratio should speak for itself.

You want people to tell enemy top laner "GO AFK NOOB?"
To droll at the amount of stacks u get?
You want to two shot squishes?
You want to carry a lot of games?
You like to have an impact rather than be one of many?
This is a build for you.

If you ask people around you what is Nasus everyone will answer straight away - late game monster! That is not entirely truth. Basically what Nasus is - he is a heavy Q scaling dependant champion.

Which translate into - Nasus can be a monster during any phase of the game. He doesn't base his power solely on items tho as other champions. He bases his strength on your ability to farm as many Q stacks as fast as possible.

You need to understand one thing. Nasus can be very dangerous as soon as he hits 6, it all depends on how fast can you stack his thing. If you stack fast enough (for example 100+ stacks on lvl 6) you can go 1vs1 vs an early game monster like Lee Sin with his ignite up and utterly destroy him. Nasus is not a champ of early all ins however. When playing Nasus you don't want to waste your mana and all in at 6. Nope. You gotta aim to be a reckoning force around 20 mins timer that takes turrets, wins 1vs2's and make enemy team surrender before they realize what hit them.

Nasus biggest powerspike hits the exact moment you get tanky enough so no1 can burst you (for example 1-2 defense items) and you get enough stacks to chunk away 30-40% of unarmored enemy hp with 1 Q.

If you manage that, you can carry games solo with Nasus. Later on you can have impact, but you are just one of many.

First of all with my build you get 10% or 15% CDR from runes and 5% from masteries. Your aim, if the lane is easy enough is to rush - Sheen and Kindlegem. That gives you a 6 or 7th minute 35%/40% CDR which is all you need to farm your Q very fast.

If lane is slightly harder and enemy harasses you constantly you build 1 or 2 Cloth Armor with Kindlegem - against AD or Kindlegem with Null-Magic Mantle - against AP). That's 30% CDR - its still a lot.

If enemy is a real deal and zones you pretty quick, you will have to remain at 20% CDR Base (its still way more than 99% Nasus players out there) and prioritize getting Warden's Mail or Spectre's Cowl.

What's stupid amount of Q you ask?
100+ at level 6
200+ at around 12 mins
400 or more at 20 mins mark

I understand you sometimes might have problems achieving this - but this is your aim with this build. Get some tank Items early, get as much stacks as possible first 20 mins then go down the lane and help your team get 4 turrets in a row. Get an early Tripple. Make your team comeback from -10 frags difference.
That's what you can do if you play your puzzles right.

Both items work on Nasus really good, I used to prioritize Iceborn as it gave early tankiness and more CDR, so more stacking potential and easier laning. Also the cost was more acceptable than TF, which apart from giving dueling potential had very little to offer.

However after the changes to both items over the course of the seasons I started to pick Triforce in most cases over Gauntlet. The key was the 20% CDR which was achievable in similar gold expense (roughly 2k gold for 20% early CDR), but also the combination of passive and active MS buff made me reconsider my choice.

Gauntlet still gives you early tankiness (but only after completing full item - Glacial Shroud alone aint much of a tankiness) and CDR, Triforce after having two parts of it gives you early lane dominance if u stacked fast enough, along with the CDR which boost your stacking ability. On top of that you start moving really really fast, especially with 2 MS quints.

At this moment I chose the Triforce.

I would say first 5 mins of playing Nasus are critical and set you up for good or bad.

Unless you are 100% sure you can get a CS without taking harass (or taking next to none), you only move in to Q. If you are not Q'ing this very moment you stay safely behind your minion wave and away from enemy harass range. Unless your enemy is a champ that cant harass you early you DO NOT move in to lasthit a minion with Autoattack. Its not worth it - you get free dmg for no Q bonus (bad), you push ur lane (not much but still - and you want enemy to be pushing), you are putting yourself at risk of being ganked for no Q stacks (bad !).

IF YOU ARE NEW TO Nasus THERE ARE SOME BASIC RULES YOU SHOULD FOLLOW TO WIN YOUR LANE IN THE EARLY GAME (BEFORE 6):
1) Never overextend over your melee minions (just don't!)
2) Never go in for risky CS with Siphoning Strike if you are below 50% HP (some champions even 75%)
3) Do NOT risk going for Autoattack CS into enemy harass reach, if its not to stack Siphoning Strike.
4) Do NOT use Spirit Fire at all, unless for some weird reason you gotta all in or its point 5. It's the easiest way to go oom early.
5) When you are heavily denied with 0 chance to get any Siphoning Strike stacks you are allowed to use Spirit Fire. I rather use it to zone enemy champion, than to farm with it - in most cases they will avoid standing inside it, which gives you some room for stacking.
6) Pay HUGE ATTENTION to enemy level. If he is higher level than you and it's early game, play even more careful than when you are equal level (don't let him catch you!) I cannot stress enough how IMPORTANT this point is!
Do not do it, if you aren't heavily denied or this will push your lane, making you even more screwed.
7) Do NOT use Wither unless enemy is killing you or you go all in.
8) AND FOR CHRIST SAKE ASK YOUR JUNGLER NOT TO GANK YOU EARLY (And especially not a level 3 gank, because if enemy jungler counterganks there are two dead bodies on top - and it's not your enemies). If you even survive it your lane gets pushed and that's really bad!
9) If for some odd reason your jungler ganks for you before 6 (For example your against Darius) - do NOT go in first - throw a Wither, use Spirit Fire and let your jungler go in first drawing enemy laner attention. If enemy top focuses jungler then you go in. Or not if you are too low on HP (don't risk it).
10) IMPORTANT - if ur jungler ganks and you get early kill or assist you should either try to shove the lane (if its near middle) and farm till u see ur enemy laner aproach. Then you run away, go back to base and reach your lane on foot. Tping to lane is a bad choice then cause you are on the wrong side of the map, possiblly dieing to a gank or 1vs1 vs enemy laner. I tend to do golems at top before backing if I am at that side, as they give 30 stacks if executed with patience. That gives enemy laner the time to push the lane to your turret and you can judge whether to TP or come back to lane on foot.
If and my jungler get the kill near my turret i refrain myself from pushing as most enemy tops will TP back to lane keeping it exactly where i want it to be.
11) Try to freeze your lane just outside of your turret reach, but dont risk your life to do this.
12) Never leave your lane early to help god knows who (you can help jungler with early RED / BLUE but that's about it). Do not give a fudge if your jungler gets caught up invading enemy RED, its his damn fault if he risks it and fails it.
13) If you get low and out of Health Potion - TP to base, get items - TP back. Dont stay out too long, if u can get some tankiness and extra CDR - dont wait for it. You waste like 15 seconds doing it, missing like 1-2 Q's maybe, but you will get far more from the extra CDR. If enemy has strong level 6 (for example Riven) do it before 6!

Remember the more chaos on TOP (your jungler ganks, enemy ganks, 2vs2 skirmishes, 3vs1 dives, etc etc) the worse. You want peace. You want to control your lane. You want to farm. So if that stupid Lee Sin of your team comes 3 times in a row to 'help you out' in a failed gank attempt, tell him to stop coming. There is a little chance he will get you early kill, he will push your lane. He will draw enemy jungler. You do not want that. Tell him to go help bot or mid. If he doesnt understand it yell at him till he stops.

This is the moment you should be able to feel comfortable at farming, getting a bid bolder with your actions (assuming you didnt die till 6). If you died, it will take time for you to feel really comfortable (assuming you dont die 2nd time). After 6 you farm your arsse up, freeze enemy mobs in front of your turret, so the lane is stopped out of its range, but u are still two steps aways from it. Ideally you should do it early levels aswell, but its not always working if enemy is good in harass.
Stack, stack, stack.
If enemy gets reckles or gets low, you see the kill opportunity, by all means you can go in.
But remember, if you do and fail to kill him you will probably end up OOM and you will have to back and loose some stacks. Be flexible and keep in mind stacking is crucial.
Also, you can always check how do your stacks feel on the enemy at any given time. Just punch him in the face and watch how much %hp he loses. If its a lot and u feel you can zone him out or kill him do so. Just dont spam your E or W too much or you will get oom. In some games when i get a respectable amount of stacks, i keep farming and if enemy comes close to minions i Q him and do it every time he comes. If he gets below 50% i all in with ghost and ult throwing everything at him. But only if i get enough stacks to be nearly sure i can take him out pretty quickly without losing too many stacks.

Ideally you should still try to freeze a lane near your turret and gank behaviour as points 10 of prev chapter :
10) IMPORTANT - if ur jungler ganks and you get early kill or assist you should either try to shove the lane (if its near middle) and farm till u see ur enemy laner aproach. Then you run away, go back to base and reach your lane on foot. Tping to lane is a bad choice then cause you are on the wrong side of the map, possibly dieing to a gank or 1vs1 vs enemy laner. I tend to do golems at top before backing if I am at that side, as they give 30 stacks if executed with patience. That gives enemy laner the time to push the lane to your turret and you can judge whether to TP or come back to lane on foot.
If and my jungler get the kill near my turret i refrain myself from pushing as most enemy tops will TP back to lane keeping it exactly where i want it to be.

You got stupid amount of stacks, you got tanky?

Good, take your enemy turret, take a second one.
Take mid turret, help getting dragon really. Works as any other champ. Unless your team wants you to stay top don't do it. Don't let your team 4vs5 if you are a freakin beast. Carry them, this is your time.

To wreck havoc with Nasus you need minimum of 300 stacks at 20 mins mark. The more the better. You need 40% CDR, some armor, some MR, Boots and Sheen.

This is the build I like to go with in teamfights : Boots, Sheen, Glacial Shroud, Warden's Mail, Spirit Visage or if not enough cash Spectre's Cowl. If you are not soaking heavy AD damage early you can finish Iceborn Gauntlet instead of picking up Warden's Mail and you can also upgrade your boots into one of three Boots of Swiftness (if enemy has plenty of slows and u need MS), Ninja Tabi if you are against AA focused champion on top like Tryndamere or enemy ADC got fed early or Mercury's Treads if enemy team has plenty of hard CC or you are having problems mitigating the AP damage early on top.

If you reach 300 stacks at 23 or 25 mins mark then sorry.... You are - just a regular Nasus. A tank with some nice damage. You are not a hypercarry and you probably won't become one this game. You are still strong but its not enough for your enemies to run away from you the moment they see you, even in number adventage :) Don't worry, **** happends, play to your best ability and help your team secure objectives!

Nasus is a late game beast....

Nope he is not.
He is really strong for a Bruiser/Tank but that's about it. He is not an assassin that will destroy enemy backlane before they notice. He gotta walk up to do damage.
Late game is ADC or assassin type heavy burst champions time. Enemy carries after acquiring enough items will shred you even with 6 defensive items quite fast and you gotta reach them to do damage. The very late game is not a good time for Nasus, nor any other melee champion without a reliable gap closer.
If the game comes to the moment that everybody has 6 items or similar, you can loose even with 1000 stacks if enemy team has a better ADC than you or a good peel composition. You will get kited to death and dumped upon a lot during the endgame. You can do your best, focus enemy carries / peel for yours and pray that your ADC has more skills / items than enemy.
That's why you are aiming at ending the game earlier. Possibly before enemy carries build armor / magic penetration items.
You are still a power to be reckoned with. But you gotta be at melee range sadly. You can try some sneaky backdoors tho as your a pushing machine:)!

If you get your arsse handed to you on a golden plate and loose lane do not try to get stacks back after 20 mins unless you see opportunity to do it without putting your team at risk. Remember its solo Q, 200 stacks Nasus with Tank build in teamfight is better, than letting your team 4vs5 when you farm. Don't do it, it never ends good.

Nasus split pushing can be really strong, but only if you got a capable team. If you push they gotta pressurize different points on the map otherwise you will just get ganked by 3-5 people top and you just gonna die. You can always ward up and try to see how much attention you draw, if its not big you can try to split push a bit and get two first turrets pretty fast. The problem start at inhibitor turret. Basically split pushing is really good in organized gameplay environement, soloQ not so much. If you get a good team, that can execute split-push strategy quite nicely - you will probably win the game anyways if you join them for teamfights :)) At least that is true for Plat and anything that is lower than plat.
Its also pretty good if enemy plays a wombo combo AoE composition (like Orianna + Amumu + Wukong or some other ridiculous combo:) In those situations starting 5/5 teamfights might not be the best idea.

To start of with, you gotta know that I played with all of the combinations of runes you can think of. Hell - I even tested armor red runes on Nasus. Cooldown reduction is by far the most potent stat for Nasus early, as having lesser cooldown on your Q helps you stack faster, which gives you more damage.

1) More damage means less time being a pushover, waiting till you stack enough to throw a challenge to your adversary.
2) More damage means you can farm all the mobs you want and use your CDR to your max potential earlier, cause you will be at adventage earlier, zoning your opponent not being zoned.
3) More damage on your Q also means you will have more early sustain, when your lifesteal kicks in.


After building first CDR item Sheen / Kindlegem) im 25% CDR.
35% CDR at 2nd item (if the lane is easy enough its 1850g), which means I'm near the stacking cap really quick. Last item - Stinger - you build it after judging if you need CDR or rather tankiness. Depending how good you are doing on the lane. In some cases if you loose hard you build it later rather than sooner. In some - as your 3rd item.

So after taking runes that cap your CDR and are essential to your stacking ability you got :
Marks - it's not a brainer really. Lethality is broken right now so I ditched the flat AD runes this season and recommend doing the same.

For yellow runes my pick is 9x Greater Seal of Health. My thinking behind this is simple - as yellow armor Seals got nerfed some time ago, Health Seals give you 18% more HP at lvl 1 and 9x Greater Seal of Armor seals give you just 9 armor against AD opponent. Effect is similar in lane against AD opponent, but what if enemy swap lanes and you end up against AP carry top? What if enemy Riven is a mid pick, and Swain or Ahri goes top? You just wasted 9 runes to build an anti AD setup and you are soaking ap damage really quick without any defenses.

The thinking is simple.
Which runes are best early depending on enemy champion type of damage :
vs physical damage : Armor > HP > Scaling HP
vs magic damage : HP > Scaling HP > Armor
vs true damage : HP > Scaling HP > Armor
vs hybrid damage : HP > Scaling HP > Armor
Therefore I always take HP seals.

Ofc against some full AP champs its nice to get a bit more MR, then i recomment running 6 x Greater Glyph of Magic Resist and rest Greater Glyph of Cooldown Reduction.
This will give you 15 CDR start (-> 25% -> 35% -> 45%). That's runepage 3. You will have to ditch the MS quints in order to do that tho (and take CDR ones instead).

Last two quints I prefer the MS ones. They stack nicely with Triforce active and passive, they give mobility and tbh from season to season League is more and more about mobility. However if you want to have the highest possible stack count you can add 2 extra CDR quints for 5%. Remember tho that this will overcap your CDR after building all your CDR items (Runepage 2).

Ahri

Early laning difficulty: 8/10
Post 6 laning difficulty: 6/10
HP / mana sustain: 5/10
Gank assists: 7/10
Snowball / Roaming potential: 7/10
Teamfight presence: 4/10
Self peel from farmed Nasus : 10/10
Type of damage : LOW CD MAGIC BURST
MATCHUP : FAVOURS HER HARD

This lane is pretty tough. First two levels she will give you some breathing room to farm in, but when she gets all 3 of her abilities up it becomes noticably harder. You have to play very carefully and not let her charm you. If she manages to land her charm you are guaranteed to loose 50% of your hp early.

After first back this lane ain't getting any better. Her poke is consistent, hits hard and doesn't really deplete her mana. You could kill her after lvl 6 with some stacks, but she has excellent self peel with a hard CC and one of the most annoying ults in the game. If you really want to go for her, you need to bait her ult and then catch her with your ghost.

Basically you can't really farm effectively in this lane, even with Spirit Visage you will have problems doing so for prolonged amount of time. You will have hard times killing her aswell. You will not get too many stacks, but she also can't completely deny you. If you play it smart and don't die to her you will outscale her hard. This means you gotta avoid her charming you - hiding behind minion waves is mandatory (tho remember, she can blow those lanes up pretty quickly). Your teamfight presence is a lot bigger than her, so you need to count on making your influence there. Deserting lane to teleport gang bot with some stacks isn't a bad idea on this lane.

My Start: Ruby Crystal + 2x Health Potion or Null-Magic Mantle + 1x Health Potion
Early build order: Spectre's Cowl -> Kindlegem
If she is bad and u farm comfortably rush Null-Magic Mantle and Kindlegem into Sheen

Aatrox

Early laning difficulty: 5/10
Post 6 laning difficulty: 3/10
HP / mana sustain: 10/10
Gank assists: 7/10
Snowball/Roaming potential: 5/10
Teamfight presence: 3/10
Self peel from farmed Nasus : 7/10
Type of damage : HIGH CD PHYSICAL BURST
Matchup: FAVOURS YOU

This matchup can be somewhat tricky. He has owesome sustain, but his damage is somewhat lacking. He can deal burst damage but it lacks consistency to be a real threat for you, unless you make a big mistake and overextend for Q stack when under 50% health. His sustain and the fact that he doesn't use mana may seem harsh for you in theory, but all his harass abilities are skillshots which can be dodged and they have long CD for you to heal up in between.

His 1vs1 ability is not that strong. Theoretically you could start fighing him at any point of the game and emerge victorious (assuming same farm - even on eary levels!).
Even tho this is all true, if you commit to fighting for lane dominance early you will inevitably push the lane closer to his turret, leaving you vulnerable to early ganks.
On top of that if you manage to take him down, he still has that annoying passive, a good escape and probably an ignite, which might screw you over. Trying to fight for lane dominance, although possible, is risky and may put you behind. It's way easier to play a regular Nasus and just sit and farm carefully. During the laning phase do your best to avoid his ranged attack, it has fairly slow projectile and is easily dodgable if you pay attention and don't move too predictably.

Its easy to feel comfortable in this lane and push - u should not do that too early. Play passively, farm up your stacks, let him push the lane to your turret. Also watch out for his burst, if u are below 50% and u didnt hit 6 yet, he can combo you down with jump in, AA ignite and that ranged attack he has. Also be aware that Aatrox can assist ganks pretty well, he has a slow, a knock-up paired with dash and also his passive is owesome for diving turrets. Once played against a good Aatrox and a Zac jungle! Been dived 24/7.
Small tip : think twice before diving him when his passive is up.

Start: Cloth Armor + 4 Health Potion
Early build order: Chain Vest or Glacial Shroud first/second into Kindlegem
If you farm comfortably early: Glacial Shroud into Kindlegem

Akali

Early laning difficulty: 3/10
Post 6 laning difficulty: 7/10
HP / mana sustain: 7/10
Gank assists: 7/10
Snowball/Roaming potential: 10/10
Teamfight presence: 6/10
Self peel from farmed Nasus : 2/10
Type of damage: LOW CD HYBRID BURST
Matchup: FAVOURS HER

This lane doesn't happen too often, but if you play a lot of Nasus you will encounter her sooner or later. Akali is a lot stronger than you are in the first 5 levels. She suffers from one major drawback - she can't reach you unless you let her. She can ofc harass you with her ranged attack but its not anywhere near enough to push you out of the lane (even when leveled first). Exploit her limited mobility and get yourself some nice stacks before she gains her dash.
This lane becomes noticably harder after level 6. She has giantic burst and sick scaling. If you decide to farm against her, building MR won't be enough to farm safely in the lane. You will also need some armor before you can feel comfortable on this lane.
After level 6 it's easier to go all in and kill her (if u farmed enough stacks), than trying to outsustain her, which is pretty pointless (unless u like to run to your base all the time). If you didnt farm enough stacks till 6 you cannot kill her nor outsustain her meaning you've lost the lane pretty hard.

Also if akali sees you are hard to kill or you are gaining adventage she will roam. This will make it easier for you to farm in but you have to spamping misses, otherwise she will get fed and ruin the game before you get fat.

Minus of this lane is that Akali is hybrid, mostly AP damage. She forces you to rush early Magic Resistance, making you vulnerable to ganks of a typical AD jungler. I do not recommend picking Nasus against her, because her roams to mid can end up really deadly. Lost quite a few games, because i was tied to my lane and she roamed freely getting fed early and carrying the game.

Start: Ruby Crystal + 2 Health Potion
Early build order: Kindlegem and Null-Magic Mantle into Glacial Shroud

Alistar

Early laning difficulty: 3/10
Post 6 laning difficulty: 1/10
HP / mana sustain: 4/10
Gank assists: 10/10
Snowball/Roaming potential: 2/10
Teamfight presence: 5/10
Self peel from farmed Nasus : 8/10
Type of damage: LONG CD MAGIC with LITTLE BURST or Sustained Physical Damage
Matchup: FAVOURS YOU HARD

Welcome my friend to the stacking heaven! Allistar is more of an assistant than a threat on his own. He is a great tank, an owesome peeler and a CC monstrocity, but he lacks the damage to stop you from getting stupidly fed. The lane is yours to farm in, but remember that Allistar can be really deadly when their jungler comes to gank. I recommend heavily warding the lane and just farming until you get into state of a hypercarry.
Also, watch out if you decide to dive him, apart from his ridiculous CC (a knockup and a hard displacement) - his ult neglects 75% damage, so even if he is low HP but has his ult up he won't be an easy target to kill. He can also chain his CC's one way or another to make a combo. When you push the lane close to his turret keep in mind not to let him walk up straight to you, cause he will just knock you up and then push you directly under it! He can also use flash to pull it off, so watch out for this!

Just farm until 20 mins and keep up 1-2 wards all the time and you should dominate the game as soon as you leave top. Also, watch out, some Allistars build AD instead of AP, so you need to itemize accordingly.

Start: Ruby Crystal + 2 Health Potion
Early build order: Kindlegem into Glacial Shroud always unless something weird happends early.

Cho'gath

Early laning difficulty: 7/10
Post 6 laning difficulty: 5/10
HP / mana sustain: 5/10
Gank assists: 6/10
Snowball/Roaming potential: 5/10
Teamfight presence: 7/10
Self peel from farmed Nasus : 5/10
Type of damage: REASONABLE CD MAGIC BURST
Matchup: FAVOURS HIM SLIGHTLY

Cho'gath is an enemy I personally don't enjoy laning against. Especially early you gotta be really carefull and focus fully on avoiding his AoE knockup. He has good harass, he deals magic damage, if he lands his combo 2-3 times on you he might kill you early.

After building some magic resistance and boots of speed this lane becomes significally easier to handle. After 6 the score depends on how good can you stack against his harass avoiding his aoe knockup at the same time. You gotta be really careful if he whitles you down to around 50%. This mean he can knockup -> silence you -> and use his MONOMNOMOMNOMOM before you manage to ult.

There are three ways of handling his annoying lane presence :
1) Waiting for him to use the ability then quickly moving away (the actual zone of the knockup is tad smaller than the one shown in game). This requires constant focus and really fast reaction time.
2) Rather than trying to dodge a specific spell when he casts it, try to make it harder for him to predict where will you be in a next second. That means you should be constantly on the move, aproaching the lane from different angles, avoiding moving in a straight lane to get an obvious CS.
3) Going for obvious CS and then walking back midway to bait his knock up - this gives you some freefarm time until his ability goes off CD again.

In teamfights he is also very dangerous, cause he scales well and gets rly tanky. It is a lane that can go both ways. You can crush him if he is bad with skillshots and you will be on the ball with the knockups or he can kill you a couple of times if you don't pay attention.

Start: Ruby Crystal + 2 Health Potion or Boots + 4 Health Potion
Early build order: Spectre's Cowl into Kindlegem, after that I recommend Mercury's Treads to have some easier time dodging his ccs.

Darius

Early laning difficulty: 9/10
Post 6 laning difficulty: 7/10
HP / mana sustain: 4/10
Gank assists: 7/10
Snowball/Roaming potential: 7/10
Teamfight presence: 4/10
Self peel from farmed Nasus : 0/10
Type of damage: LOW CD HYBRID BURST, DOT and TRUE damage
Matchup: NIGHTMARE

Laning against Darius as Nasus is extremely tough. He has all the tools needed to harass you, zone you out and deny you. He is also hard to itemize against as he deals physical, magical and true damage. Kiting him thro your minions so they attack him aint an option, as he will just drag you into his own pile of mobs and bash you in the head with that giant axe. On top of that he has a passive that puts stacks of bleed on you, which means the longer he hits you, the quicker you die.
You will have to farm Golems/Big Wraith in this lane, you will have to recall very often, burn a lot of pots and wait for him to push the lane to your turret. Im not gonna lie, if he is any good your stacks will look miserable in this game.

There are only two good things when laning against Darius, first - his harass pushes a wave to your turret so he will be at your door 24/7. Second - he is very slow, has totally no escapes and is easy to gank. If you are facing Darius ask your jungler for early ganks. The more ganks the betters, most of them will grant you or your jungler an easy kill. Also, if you are below 60% do not engage first during the gang, just Wither him and wait for jungler to jump on him - then engage - but watch out - Darius can easily take you out during a lvl 3 gank! Also watch out for counter ganks! As nasus you loose every single 2vs2 unless you got a heavy hp adventage.

When laning against Darius it's advisable to try to bait his Decimate (the AoE dmg spin he has) before going in for CS. After the latest changes it has a bigger armtime, so it's easier to anticipate it and move out of it. On the other hand he gained a noticable heal after using it. Remember that both his slow and Decimate are fairly low CD (<10s), but his Apprehend (the pull) has over 20sec cd, unless he lvls it up. Also, when you eat first portion of harass and manage to move away, do not go in unless the bleed stacks are removed or he will kill you easily. After 6 its not going to get much easier unless you get some armor, some hp and some stacks. You can counter his ult with yours, but latency can be a killer for you in that case.

Although the recent Darius changes made him slightly easier to handle in lane, he is still an extremely effective counter to the dog.

Start: Cloth Armor + 4 Health Potion
Early build order: forget CDRs, get HP and armor and your best not to die early.

Dr. Mundo

Early laning difficulty: 2/10
Post 6 laning difficulty: 4/10
HP / mana sustain: 8/10
Gank assists: 7/10
Snowball/Roaming potential: 5/10
Teamfight presence: 10/10
Self peel from farmed Nasus : 8/10
Type of damage: Sustained Magic + %HP Damage
Matchup: FAVOURS YOU SLIGHTLY

This lane is really good for you in terms of stacking, however Mundo will also farm freely and turn into the late game monster. He is also very dangerous during ganks due to his cleaver permaslow.

During the begining of laning phase you should let him push the mobs to your turret. If he is smart he will try not to let this happen - but you can only lasthit when Q is up and he probably gonna want to cs every single minion from the first few waves. When that happends he will try to reset the lane using his AoE to kill the last few of your minions. Try to avoid this by tanking some minion damage. Ideally you should have Mundo at your own turret not the other way round.

From the gameplay perspective you should just hide behind your minions and stack. He can't kill you early if you don't do anything stupid. He has also no tools to stop you from farming early. After 6 it can become harder, his ULT is a low CD spell (<1min), that gives him a lot of health back in a short time. This lets him become more agressive, cause he can always trigger it and run away slowing you down if he gets into some kind of trouble. Also, don't let him kite you for too long. If you want to kill him, he is low without ult - a chase is advisable. If his ult is UP tho, dont overextend over your creep lane, cause his cleavers along with ult can turn the fight completely around. This lane is an exception, in which i sometimes decide to take Ignite instead of Teleport.

Also, you can easily tell if you are meeting a good Mundo or a bad one. Apart from the cleaver skillshot management, you can see how he uses his ult. A good Mundo will use his ult as soon as he hits 50% to heal up to full and keep bothering you, cause he knows that he will get the CD shortly. Bad Mundos tend to wait till they get low or in trouble, these are the ones you can kill way easier.

In this lane your mana management is critical. If Mundo becomes overly agressive after 6, you should just stay behind minions. This will force him to go melee range, then you smack him with a Q and walk away just a tiny bit. If he comes closer, you smack him again (you should have enough stacks due to easy early game stacking to make him think twice). Don't waste your mana on Wither cause that's what he wants to achieve.

Start: Ruby Crystal + 2 Health Potion
Early build order: rush Kindlegem and Null-Magic Mantle, then if he is not giving you hard times you can build Sheen to upper your CDR then proceed building Spirit Visage or just finish the Iceborn Gauntlet if you don't have problems mitigating his damage.

Elise

Early laning difficulty: 7/10
Post 6 laning difficulty: 3/10
HP / mana sustain: 2/10
Gank assists: 6/10
Snowball/Roaming potential: 5/10
Teamfight presence: 5/10
Self peel from farmed Nasus : 6/10
Type of damage: Sustained High Magic Damage
Matchup: FAVOURS YOU SLIGHTLY

Elise used to counter Nasus, but that's no longer the case. Since the season 4 masteries and some minor Elise nerfs her laning phase is not anywhere as oppresive for you as it used to be.

The Spiderwoman suffers from one major drawback. Mana. If she gonna harass you a lot she will run oom in the end. Her damage is high but steady, so you can see when she has a chance of killing you. She has similar problems to Malphite during laning phase. If she builds damage she lacks the mana sustain/tankiness to be dangerous. If she builds mana sustain, she wont have the damage. If she builds tanky its a free farm for you.

During the laning avoid cocoons, hide behind minions and try to grab as many early stacks as possible. Regardless of her mana issues you should play really careful till your first shopping. She has tools to kill you, if u end up below 40% without a hp pot, just recall and come back to lane. After getting some MR and ult her harass is nowhere near enough to push you out of the lane. Also if you are planning to all in her, try to bate her Cocoon first. If you are planning to dive her, remember that she can Reppel which makes her untargettable for a brief amount of time. If you dive her, make sure you have enough HP to eat a couple of turret shots.

Start: Ruby Crystal + 2 Health Potion
Early build order: rush Null-Magic Mantle or Spectre's Cowl (depending on how much harass ur getting), then proceed with Kindlegem into Spirit Visage. If you are not having much problems you can pick up Sheen before SV.

Ekko

Early laning difficulty: 5/10
Post 6 laning difficulty: 3/10
HP / mana sustain: 3/10
Gank assists: 7/10
Snowball/Roaming potential: 10/10
Teamfight presence: 7/10
Self peel from farmed Nasus : 10/10
Type of damage: Medium CD Magic Burst
Matchup: FAVOURS YOU SLIGHTLY

He used to be a very popular champion to take top lane till his recent nerfs.
Back then tanky Ekko was a real pain in the *** to fight against, cause he could get super tanky, while still dishing out some nasty damage. It was so broken that he could win a duel back then against a heavily stacked nasus who rushed magic resistance, by just building armor. Although its no longer the case, he is still very much viable top pick.

If he builds tank now he can't stop you from farming nor challenge you when you get stacked. Wining this matchup is all about not walking into his skillshot slow sphere (that turns into stun if u stay in it too long) too many times and rushing early magic resistance. Playing safe, building tanky, dodging skillshots is a key to handling this lane.

If you are however playing against a full AP Ekko (which is way more likely nowadays) you will have to play safer, cause he will do way more damage. On the other hand he will be easier to kill then.

The problem with this lane is his ability to walk out of some ridiculous situations with both his mobility and his ultimate. He also has really nasty CC to slow you. Possibly one of the hardest matchups there are if you are planning to go for the kill. Also he has a really big roaming potential and snowballs really hard.

Regardless - You will get stacks tho, lots of it.

Start Null-Magic Mantle -> Spectre's Cowl -> Kindlegem

Fiora

Early laning difficulty: 8/10
Post 6 laning difficulty: 3/10
HP / mana sustain: 1/10
Gank assists: 3/10
Snowball/Roaming potential: 10/10
Teamfight presence: 7/10
Self peel from farmed Nasus : 3/10
Type of damage: LONG CD Burst + Sustained Physical DMG
Matchup: FAVOURS YOU

This champ has absolutely sick damage early game. You will have to play defensively and pick your last hits carefully. The moment you get some armor however and ur ult she almost immidietely stops being a threat and the lane is urs to farm in.
Do not die to her till you hit level 6, even if that means having 20 cs less than she has. Step out of turret range only with full HP and get ready to Wither and run if she goes all in.
After 6 and collecting some armor however you can feel very comfortable laning vs her, you can kill her easily even with her ignite up, whilst not having much stacks - assuming she does not riposte your Q - that can kill even a well fed nasus :)
Additional tips :
1) If you see her shine for a second, that means she triggered her Ripposte. Do not Q her then, but autoattack and then Q. Otherwise you will take a lot of dmg and she will take none. Even a nicely stacked nasus with armor can die to her if he gets 1-2 of his Q's baited on riposte.
2) Her ultimate boost her damage noticably and heals her, so its good to bait it, before all inning her if u aren't sure u got enough stacks to just wipe her out.
3) if she dashes thro you or your minion her next dash cd will come up sooner. She can kite you pretty well if she knows what she is doing, so keep that in mind when planning an all in.

After losing her lane to you, she is still dangerous in teamfights and when she roams. It's one of those champions that never gets completely useless.

If you however die before lvl 6 you will have problems. Similary to Riven this little extra gold can give her opportunity to snowball and ruin the game for you. Stay alert.

Start: Cloth Armor + 4 Health Potion
Early build order: Rush Chain Vest if possible into Kindlegem and Glacial Shroud or Sheen later.

Fizz

Early laning difficulty: 6/10
Post 6 laning difficulty: 2/10
HP / mana sustain: 1/10
Gank assists: 3/10
Snowball/Roaming potential: 10/10
Teamfight presence: 6/10
Self peel from farmed Nasus : 5/10
Type of damage: Reasonable CD Magic Burst
Matchup: FAVOURS YOU

He is not popular top pick and there are reasons behind this. He has nice burst damage, but he needs melee range to deal it. His CDs are fairly long and as an assassin, he is very squishy. The only bad thing about this lane is that he forces you to build early MR instead of armor.

During laning he doesn't have the tools to push you out of lane unless you do something stupid. In most cases he will combo you, but then you got your 10-12 sec window to heal up thro auto attacks / Q's and potions. He lacks consistency to deny you and he pays the price for it. On the other hand - if he gets you below 50% before 6 and you can't heal up just recall to base and tp back up with some MR. At 6 he becomes a problem for most mid laners, but not for you. Your ult totally counters his ult. You can see it coming, it takes some time before it will deal damage to you, so you can safely trigger your own ult. Result? You are at the same HP levels or higher than before ulting. Additionally his ult can miss, yours cannot.

During the whole laning phase, he can be annoying with his jumps and not being targetable when you would like. Don't worry about it. Stack yourself up and just kill him when u get enough. One jump can't save him for long.

Also, he snowballs really hard so make sure you don't die early to him and spam ping misses if he starts to roam. He is a champion that can carry games alone, so watch out for him.

Start: Ruby Crystal + 2x Health Potion
Early build order: Null-Magic Mantle into Kindlegem and Spirit Visage. You can pickup Sheen before building SV if you are not having troubles mitigating his damage.

GangPlank

Early laning difficulty: 7/10
Post 6 laning difficulty: 3/10
HP / mana sustain: 7/10
Gank assists: 3/10
Snowball/Roaming potential: 7/10
Teamfight presence: 4/10
Self peel from farmed Nasus : 7/10
Type of damage: RANGED PHYSICAL BURST EVERY 5SECS + MELEE AA
Matchup: FAVOURS YOU

GangPlank is an annoying matchup. He can and will harass you from range with his Parrrley - it's a low CD spell (5s). This lane would be tough but his autoattacks are melee, which means all you gotta do is sustain thro his Parrrley and not stand in the explosive boxes radius he spawns to farm safely. After acquiring some armor this lane becomes pretty easy. Also watch out for his ult, don't fight in it. It got buffed recently and GangPlank can kill you if you play it wrong.

Also, you can use his explosion boxes to your adventage. The boxes he spawns have hit points, so when he shoots it when they are at 1 hp they explode. On the other hand if you hit them when they are at 1 hitpoint they despawn and u earn stacks (yay!). As he is a ranged champion and you are melee you need less time to land a Q than he needs to land his Parley onto them. This means if you have good timing you can totally get rid of one of his harass options. Remember tho, dont try to dismantle the 2nd explosive he spawns, always the first one first. This is because if u walk into 2nd explosive box radius and he detonates the first, he will chain the detonation onto the 2nd one damaging and slowing you down.

Also, he is really hard to kill due to his Remove Scurvy (when he eats orange) removing your Wither and healing him for considerable amount. If he levels it, you might aswell forget about killing him in lane, cause you won't make it without a gank. On the other hand he can't really stop you from farming so the lane is a stalemate - which is a good thing for you, cause you scale 2 times better than him.

Start: Cloth Armor + 5 Health Potion
Early build order: Rush Chain Vest if possible into CDRS, preferably Kindlegem or Sheen first.

Garen

Early laning difficulty: 7/10
Post 6 laning difficulty: 2/10
HP / mana sustain: 6/10
Gank assists: 3/10
Snowball/Roaming potential: 7/10
Teamfight presence: 7/10
Self peel from farmed Nasus : 7/10
Type of damage: LONG CD Physical BURST + Sustained dmg
Matchup: FAVOURS YOU SLIGHTLY

First few lvls are tough cause he can deal a lot od damage, making your Q farm harder cause of the silence - my advice always go in with Q already activated for a lowhp mob. Dont go in and count on getting creep low with AA then Q. He will just silence you and spin to win, leaving you with 0 bonus Q stack and free dmg from exchange. Also if you go in for Q he will use skills that will push the lane to your turret which makes it a lot easier.

When you acquire your armor (after 1st back) he is only potentially dangerous if he rushes armor too. If he goes dmg - you will just outtrade him the moment you get 200 stacks or so rendering him useless annoying moscito in lane. However if he rushes armor he can make your dmg really low till you get a LOT of stacks.He can also kill you if you get reckless and let him engage you when you are below 50% without your ult up, which should - if played correctly, never happen. His ult can take around 20-25% of ur hp instantly. Silence, spin, ignite, ult combo can be potentially very deadly at any point of the game if you arent paying attention.
Also his Q removes your Wither so dont bother whitering him if he doesnt have it on CD. He has nice sustain, is hard to catch and he will make your squishes lifes miserable in teamfights. He might not scale aswell as you into the very late game, but with enough farm he can be a huge threat to your team in midgame teamfights. Do not ask for ganks in this lane - he is hard to kill, you will only waste ur jungler time. If a jungler comes tho, make sure you bait his Q before you go in with Wither or he will just shake it off and run away to safety.

Start: Cloth Armor + 4 Health Potion
Early build order: Rush Chain Vest if possible into CDRS, preferably Kindlegem or Sheen first. If he is not giving you too much problems early and you manage to gather 1500g you can get Kindlegem and Glacial Shroud straight of the bat. This will boost your stacking a lot, but you will have to play careful till you either get Chain Vest or finish your Iceborn Gauntlet.

Gnar

Early laning difficulty: 5/10
Post 6 laning difficulty: 1/10
HP / mana sustain: 3/10
Gank assists: 4/10
Snowball/Roaming potential: 6/10
Teamfight presence: 7/10
Self peel from farmed Nasus : 3/10
Type of damage: Sustained Physical Damage
Matchup: FAVOURS YOU HARD

This by far my favourite ranged opponent. In theory he should be a problem for you, but he is not. He is a champion that can be countered HARD by thinking. He is also one of the squishiest champions out there. Taking into account most Gnars choose to build damage first you can destroy him as soon as you get some stacks and stacking vs him aint really that hard.

There are few instructions how to beat Gnar :
1) If they choose to lvl Boomerang Throw at lvl1 you are free to farm and ignore him till he hits lvl 2. He won't have the damage to push you out.
2) The moment he levels his Hyper you gotta start paying more attention to what he is doing. As soon as he gets this ability try not to let him hit you 3 times in a row. Ideally you should come close to minion that is <5% last second, CS it with Q and walk away from his range. A good Gnar will use his Boomerang to get 1 extra stack of Hyper on you, but in most situations you should get away with free CS without him proccing the Hyper dmg.
3) After achieving some stacks and lvl6 don't engage him at all until he uses his Hop offensively. If he does, you go all in and he dies.
4) Never engage him when his rage bar goes close to full. He pushes the lane nicely in his megaform so just walk away, let him do it and continue farming.
5) If you want to go for a kill the best moment to engage him is when he is just about to get out of megaform. Most Gnars get confused there, not sure whether to fight or run. In most caes they will choose to run as they see they will be soon vulnerable. Their low MS and the fact that most Gnar players choose to use Crunch for waveclear / offensively makes it for easy kill (Remember Crunch shares CD with Hop!).

After you kill him once, its really easy to kill him again. And again. Gnar is very squishy and have nothing apart one jump to get away from you. As soon as you get a slight adventage you just walk over him.

Even tho most Gnar gets destroyed in lane by Nasus it doesn't mean they become useless. On contrary I've seen quite a lot of Gnars topping their team dmg lists although losing the lane 0:3 or 0:4.

Start: Cloth Armor + 4 Health Potion
Early build order: Rush Chain Vest if possible into Glacial Shroud and Kindlegem later. If he is really bad you can try to skip Chain Vest and go for Glacial Shroud + Kindlegem, but It's risky.

Gragas

Early laning difficulty: 6/10
Post 6 laning difficulty: 3/10
HP / mana sustain: 6/10
Gank assists: 9/10
Snowball/Roaming potential: 7/10
Teamfight presence: 7/10
Self peel from farmed Nasus : 8/10
Type of damage: REASONABLE CD MAGIC BURST
Matchup: FAVOURS HIM

He is a problem. He can't completely deny you, but he will make last hitting problematic at times, especially early. Furthermore you will not kill him on a lane even with a lot of stacks if he has half a brain. He also deals out some nasty magic damage, which forces you to start with MR build. His teamfight presence is on pair with yours and he is great at assisting enemy jungler ganks (stun, slow + displacement).

Although you might get some nice stacks in this matchup, his CC will make u suffer not only during laning phase but also in teamfights. If he knows what is he doing he will keep you away from his carries dealing a lot of AoE damage meanwhile. He is probably one of the few champions that can't deny you from stacking Q's, but can deny you kills hard.

when laning against him, you gotta remember to play carefully at all stages of game, cause he is a CC machine and if you get too low on HP he will just kill you. Also his ULT can throw you away from your turret so you have to keep that mind. Furthermore his ganks assists are just deadly - ward a lot and play smart. He punishes any kind of yolo actions hard. If you decide to go for a kill, make sure his ULT is on CD and he just stunned you, you will need to burn ghost in order to secure the kill.

Start: Ruby Crystal + 2 Health Potion
Early build order: rush Null-Magic Mantle or Spectre's Cowl (depending on enemy harass), then proceed with Kindlegem into Spirit Visage. If he doesnt give you problems you can rush the Mantle and the Kindlegem into Sheen.

Illaoi

Early laning difficulty: 7/10
Post 6 laning difficulty: 1/10
HP / mana sustain: 5/10
Gank assists: 5/10
Snowball/Roaming potential: 5/10
Teamfight presence: 4/10
Self peel from farmed Nasus : 3/10
Type of damage: Heavy Physical Burst Damage
Matchup: FAVOURS YOU HARD

Illaoi is a really easy matchup if you know how to play versus her.

First thing you should know about her - she spawns tentacles. The places she plants them is totally random, but they always spawn next to a wall of some sort. It's her main source of damage and the thing that makes this lane so good for you at the same time.

RULE NUMBER ONE
1 TENTACLE = 3 STACKS

This means that you prioritize killing tentacles over killing minions (unless its a cannon one), so if you gotta choose, you Q stack the tentacle and last hit minions with ur autos. To kill a tentacle you need to AA it and Q it cause it has two hit points, which requires two attacks to take it down. Keep in mind that when Illoai is not there, his tentacles will go dormant - which reduces their hitpoints to 1, so it's a nice idea to clean them up when he is not there.

Also remember, when she duplicates you and starts killing your image you should just walk out of its range, most likely under ur own turret or even behind it. Doing this will slow you and curse you - meaning - you start spawning tentacles too (you remove the curse by killing 4 tentacles). These are your extra 12 stacks. However - when you spawn the tentacles

RULE NUMBER TWO
MOVE WHEN YOU SPAWN TENTACLES

When you spawn a tentacle - it will hit in the same direction you used to stand, when u started to spawn it. I suggest you keep moving until the tentacle hits the ground, so you can collect the stacks for free.

This lane is very easy to stack, but similar to Yorick lane, at some point you will struggle to stay alive, cause of her constant harass. Rush early armor to counter that.

Although stacking in this lane is pretty straight forward - killing Illaoi is a lot harder. If you want to kill her you not only need to get stacked, you also need to :

RULE NUMBER THREE
RUN WHEN SHE ULTS

if she ults she immidietely spawns several tentacles, which hit like ******* trucks, so even if you are 400 stacks and fed - IF SHE ULTS YOU - YOU MOVE AWAY. It's that simple.

It is also possible, to go for the kill then - but it's risky. You gotta keep in mind that the tentacles from ult will hit the exact direction you used to stand when she started casting. It is possible to avoid most of the damage if you for example move slightly to the left or right and forward instead of backing off. It is a big gamble tho as any form of CC or minion pack can cost you your life.

If you follow these directions - you shouldn't have much problems facing Illaoi. Happy stacking!

Irelia

Early laning difficulty: 5/10
Post 6 laning difficulty: 2/10
HP / mana sustain: 5/10
Gank assists: 5/10
Snowball/Roaming potential: 7/10
Teamfight presence: 5/10
Self peel from farmed Nasus : 3/10
Type of damage: REASONABLE CD Physical Burst
Matchup: FAVOURS YOU HARD

You counter her. She is tad stronger till 6 (especially with ignite). But she cant kill you or deny you if you don't do anything stupid. You will get your stacks. From lvl 6 onwards its a skill or rather stack matchup. If you get enough you can ruin her even at lvl 6. If you don't get enough by the time you hit 6 (I nearly always do), then you will ruin her later on, when u get enough stacks.
When playing against Irelia you need to be aware that if she has less HP than you, she can stun you. She has nice sustain when 1vs1, but nothing even remotely comparable to yours.
Also remember that she deals true dmg (her weapon shines and makes a clear sound when she turns it on), getting some HP early might be a good idea. Armor won't save you from her true dmg, but it will help you out survive other of their abilities so you gotta build that too. She has a strong ult, but if you don't die early on and get a fair amount of stacks, she should have no chance of challenging you with it.

Irelia is by far one of the most pleasant lanes you can get. From time to time ofc, you can meet an exceptional Irelia that will make it tad harder, especially early, but if you play smart you will stomp her anyways.

I normally start Cloth Armor + 5 Health Potion and in most cases I get Glacial Shroud by my first back. If I have over 850g i choose to build Kindlegem first instead and proceed into Glacial Shroud. Also getting Sheen will greatly enhance your chances of winning a direct duel, but lack of tankiness may force you to back prematurely if you do that.

Jarvan IV

Early laning difficulty: 7/10
Post 6 laning difficulty: 3/10
HP / mana sustain: 1/10
Gank assists: 10/10
Snowball/Roaming potential: 8/10
Teamfight presence: 9/10
Self peel from farmed Nasus : 6/10
Type of damage: REASONABLE CD Physical Burst
Matchup: SKILL MATCHUP

This lane is somewhat tricky in many ways. Meaning - if you make a mistake early you can die and loose this lane badly, as he snowballs pretty hard. He has really high burst damage, so if he catches you below 50% you are probably already dead.

If this game only involved you and him, I would say the laning favours you. The plan would be to play defensive till 6, farm up some armor and wreck him. Sadly there is a lot of things that can go really wrong in this lane due to his burst and amount of his CCs.

Focus on not dieing till 6. Do not stand on his banner, or between him and the banner. If he throws the banner behind you, never run back, but rather move to the side. I recommend you start with ghost and flash at this lane due to the nature of his ultimate.

Jarvan is a lane bully with a lot of CCs. If u get armor, he becomes way less dangerous, but he never gets totally useless even if far behind. Many times I had a feeling that I'm winning the lane (having clear adventages in 1vs1s), but he played defensive and waited for gank which was super-deadly. I remember once getting 350 stacks+ in this lane around 20th minute mark and going 1/4, because of him being a CC machine. Later on, he was destroying my carries a lot more effective than I could kill his.

This lane can be really easy if he is bad or you play it good and he gets little or none help. On the other hand he can totally destroy you if he gets good ganks or you play your cards poorly. Not a good matchup, similar to Cho'Gath lane you gotta be on the ball constantly and warding properly to maximize your chances of success.

Start: Cloth Armor + 5 Health Potion
Early build order: Rush Chain Vest if possible into CDRs, probably Kindlegem as 2nd item is your best choice, but if u get enough money [[Sheen] is also a viable choice.

Jax

Early laning difficulty: 3/10
Post 6 laning difficulty: 5/10
HP / mana sustain: 2/10
Gank assists: 6/10
Snowball/Roaming potential: 10/10
Teamfight presence: 7/10
Self peel from farmed Nasus : 8/10
Type of damage: Sustained Physical Dmg with Magic Burst (Hybrid)
Matchup: FAVOURS YOU

This lane is very good for you. You can farm freely till lvl6 and CDR build will help you with it. He will ofc try to prevent it, but he has even less tools to do it than Irelia. If he becomes too agressive bang him once or twice in a face, let him know you are no pushover. You have great initial sustain, he has none!
Besides without him using his Ignite you are way stronger duelist 1-5. Taking into account that Teleport is very popular tool on top, there is big chance that he will lack the Ignite. This means that he can't kill you alone during laning (especially 1-5!) unless you play REALLY REALLY AWFUL.
After 6 he gets a big powerspike, but if you farmed good and stacked your Q near perfectly you will be able to dunk him even at lvl 6! He deals hybrid damage, so if you aren't sure of your stacks, don't engage him until you get both - some armor and some MR in lane. Also remember that Wither counters him hard (even on low lvls) - if he tries to stun you with his E, you can Wither him and walk away - then move back in and kill him. Assuming you got yourself enough stacks to beat him.
Also he is really good at running away so don't get discouraged if he manages to slip away from you a couple times in a row. Remember that after him obtaining level 6 his every 3rd consecutive attack gives him extra damage. Don't be scared when he attacks you and you loose a lot of HP. He can't do that constantly. You deal way more sustained damage, if he wants to fight you, let him come!

Start: Cloth Armor + 5 Health Potion
Early build order: Rush Glacial Shroud and Kindlegem. If he is really good you might wanna try to grab early Chain Vest / Null-Magic Mantle. Personaly I just rush 45% CDR in this lane for early dominance. I pick the CDR items depending on my goldcount when i visit the shop.

Jayce

Early laning difficulty: 7/10
Post 6 laning difficulty: 3/10
HP / mana sustain: 1/10
Gank assists: 4/10
Snowball/Roaming potential: 7/10
Teamfight presence: 5/10
Self peel from farmed Nasus : 7/10
Type of damage: Physical Reasonable CD Burst
Matchup: SKILL MATCHUP

He is ranged. He is annoying. He has a good poke. Its hard to kill him. There are few things however that makes this lane easier that it seems from the first glance.
1) you can predict when he tries to do serious damage. If he opens his gate focus on avoiding his powerball. If he doesn't empower his ranged nuke with the gate you can mitigate through it just fine.
2) He has no early sustain, exploit it! he is a mana user, so his harass is limited to his mana.
3) He has an arming timer on his switch weapon, so if he switches it to melee, he can't switch it back for ranged straight away.
4) If he wants to do consistent damage to you he needs to build mana in order to do so. The new item Essence Reaver helps him with that, but most Jayce's still build Tear of the Goddess, which makes the laning after 1st back fairly easy to sustain.

If you want to kill him (assuming you got enough stacks and some armor), wait for him to engage you with his Thundering Blow then go all in. If he is smart, he won't risk that, but you still can kill him if his Acceleration Gate is on CD and you engage him then and blow ghost the moment he uses his Thundering Blow on you. This requires two things, first - him not having Flash up. Second - there is enough room for you to chase him down and kill him. If you are knocking at Jayce doors you are in a big disadvantage, because not only stacking gets problematic near his turret, but also he can harass you with 0 punishment and you are open to jungler ganks. Don't siege him, it's not worth it, even if u got adventage.
If you play this lane carefully and don't let him do too much free damage to you, you should be more than fine. The laning works very similar to teetto lane, where the higher level you get, the easier the lane becomes.

In teamfights you are a reckoning force. He is just another poke and run champion with very little teamfight presence. However you gotta remember than he is a high damage champion with owesome mobility, so even if he loses his lane his roams are always dangerous and he can get back into the game easily.

On the other hand if you let him get an early kill the lane might shift from an 'annoying but steady' for 'run for your life'. You definetely don't want that, so do yourself a favour, don't die till 1st back.

Start: Cloth Armor + 4 Health Potion
Early build order: Rush Chain Vest if possible into CDRS (I almost always pick Kindlegem as a first CDR item in this matchup).

Katarina

Early laning difficulty: 3/10
Post 6 laning difficulty: 4/10
HP / mana sustain: 3/10
Gank assists: 8/10
Snowball/Roaming potential: 10/10
Teamfight presence: 8/10
Self peel from farmed Nasus : 5/10
Type of damage: Reasonable CD Magic burst
Matchup: FAVOURS YOU

On contrary to Akali lane this matchup is actually not that bad. She has less damage than Akali face to face, similar poke but she can also teleport herself close to you very fast. Her ult deals a lot of damage but its the only way she can kill you at any point of the game.

Before 6 you should be able to farm without much problems.
The moment she gets lvl 6 you should already have the resistance needed to survive thro her ultimate. If you haven't visit the shop yet and she is 6 this means you are playing va'banque. The only real threat in this lane is her roaming potential and sick scaling. Even if she does really awful, dies several times to you she can still carry the game hard if she roams and for example get a lucky double kill bot or a clean-up triple during teamfight. The recent nerfs to her ult CD were fully justified in my opinion, cause she was on my permaban list for quite some time.

Start: Ruby Crystal + 2 Health Potion
Early build order: rush either Kindlegem or Spectre's Cowl into Spirit Visage. The pick depends on how good is the Kat you are facing. If she lets you farm and roams a lot all you can do is rush CDRs and try to stack yourself godly.

Kayle

Early laning difficulty: 8/10
Post 6 laning difficulty: 4/10
HP / mana sustain: 5/10
Gank assists: 4/10
Snowball/Roaming potential: 7/10
Teamfight presence: 10/10
Self peel from farmed Nasus : 7/10
Type of damage: Sustained Magical Damage + some burst (Q)
Matchup: FAVOURS HER

She is a ranged AP champion with a lot of damage under her belt, so this is not good matchup for you. It could be far worse tho. She has some weaknesses you can try to exploit to deal with her.
First - she pushes like crazy which makes her vulnerable to ganks and lets you be where you like to be - at ur turret.
Second - her damage is heavily countered by Wither at later all-ins.
Third - In early phase you can bait her to blow her Righteous Fury. After her sword stops shining, you get a few seconds window at which you can farm freely cause she cant harass you then! Take advantage of this! Not only go for Siphoning Strike then, but autoattack minions till she gets Righteous Fury back up to heal yourself up and get ready for next portion of her harass. After she builds enough CDR, she can have Righteous Fury up 100% of the time, so keep that in mind.

The first phase of the laning phase is really annoying and hard to stack in. After gaining some MR and lvl 6 it becomes easier, but I wouldn't encourage you to go all in till you get your Spirit Visage and tier2 boots. She is really hard to take down 1/1 due to the amount of sustained damage she can deal, the fact that she can slow you with Reckoning and at the same time heal herself up with Divine Blessing, which also gives her extra movement speed! On top of that, you got the most broken ultimate spell in the history of LOL called Intervention which makes her immune to any kind of damage for few secs.

On the other hand - keep in mind that Kayle is naturally really squishy, so if she makes a mistake don't hasitate to punish her for it.

I would say this lane favours you in the end, if it was only about 1vs1s. Sadly her teamfight presence is huge and her ULT is a gamechanger that can single handely win a game even for a team that is far behind if casted the right moment on right person.

Start: my pick on this lane is Ruby Crystal + 2 Health Potion.
Early build order: rush Spectre's Cowl into Spirit Visage. I don't recommend rushing early Kindlegem against her, but if she is bad or you get a good gank / early kill - by all means go for it.

Kennen

Early laning difficulty: 8/10
Post 6 laning difficulty: 4/10
HP / mana sustain: 3/10
Gank assists: 5/10
Snowball/Roaming potential: 6/10
Teamfight presence: 6/10
Self peel from farmed Nasus : 7/10
Type of damage: High Consistent Magic Damage with BURST during ultimate
Matchup: SKILL MATCHUP

This is teemo version 2.0. Annoying to deal with. Hard to catch. Ap. Ranged. He is not that good nowadays tho. His dmg is high but consistent. If you play it good you can get decent farm and wreck him later with all in with ghost. If you kill him once, he wont bother you again. Magic Resistance makes this lane a lot easier so that's what you should be rushing.

During the laning phase you gotta watch out for his passive. Three auto attacks or spells against you means you are stunned for one second and give Kennen opportunity to nuke you even further. This stun has diminishing returns, so if you are exchanging damage the 2nd stun will be shorter. This is very important during the later all ins.
His basic poke Thundering Shuriken is a low CD spell so at the early game you will be eating a lot of damage.

After 6 and obtaining some magic resistance this lane becomes significally easier to farm in. However if you are planning to all in him, make sure he just wasted his dash, otherwise he will be next to impossible to kill.

His teamfight presence is solid, however he needs items to be played to his full potential. If you play safe and don't give him free kills, he won't be anywhere as strong as you. This lane is all about patience and waiting out his mistakes. He will do it sooner or later, don't get annoyed by his poke. Control it.

Start: I would go with Ruby Crystal + 2 Health Potion or Null-Magic Mantle and a potion.
Early build order: rush Spectre's Cowl into Spirit Visage. I don't recommend rushing early Kindlegem against him, but if he is bad or you get a good gank / early kill - by all means go for it.

Kha'Zix

Early laning difficulty: 7/10
Post 6 laning difficulty: 2/10
HP / mana sustain: 3/10
Gank assists: 6/10
Snowball/Roaming potential: 8/10
Teamfight presence: 6/10
Self peel from farmed Nasus : 7/10
Type of damage: LOW CD Physical Burst Damage
Matchup: FAVOURS YOU

Kha'zix is more popular in the jungle than on top, but you can win this lane easily by building early Warden's Mail. He immidietely stops being a threat then and u can build your stacks without problems. On the other hand he has gigantic burst and can kill you really fast if you don't pay attention. Watch out. Especially early.

Before 6 you should be focusing on not giving him a freekill. If he manages to build The Brutalizer before you get some armor and HP this lane may become tough after lvl 6 aswell.

Kha'zix is heavily gimped if he's on the lane not in the jungle, because if you stay in close proximity of your minions, his Taste Their Fear passive - called isolation does not work. If he kills your minions however do not aproach him till next wave arrives. He also has another passive, called Unseen Threat, which gives him extra damage when he is invisible to your team - this tool is also way better during jungling than on the lane, where you have eye contact with him most of the time.
These passives combined with his Q/W nuke and a really long leap (especially when upgraded) give him great tools for exterminating squishies, especially if he catches them alone - so untill you are squishy he is really danagerous. Also his roams are pretty deadly, so if he disapears from the lane make sure everyone is aware of it.

Later on, if you did not feed him hard you just walk over him like a train. Don't die till 6, get some armor and wreck him.

Start: Cloth Armor + 4 Health Potion
Early build order: Rush Chain Vest if possible into Glacial Shroud and Kindlegem later.

Lee Sin

Early laning difficulty: 6/10
Post 6 laning difficulty: 1/10
HP / mana sustain: 7/10
Gank assists: 7/10
Snowball/Roaming potential: 7/10
Teamfight presence: 5/10
Self peel from farmed Nasus : 6/10
Type of damage: Medium CD Physical Burst Damage
Matchup: FAVOURS YOU

Lee Sin is so called nasus-counter. Nope. Its not true at all. All you gotta do is survive till 1st back, come back with Chain Vest. Hide behind minions. If you got some armor and stacks you can challenge him after 6, but its far better to just farm safely without taking too much free damage (hide behind minions in order to do so). Later on he becomes useless, if he doesnt get kills.
From time to time you will ofc encounter an extraordinary Lee Sin that may give you troubles laning - especially early. Happily 95% of them can't stop you, if you play it smart.
Lee Sin is all about landing his Sonic Wave. If you make it hard for him to land it, he won't be able to kill you early. He deals really high burst damage, but is essentially really squishy. He has a shield that is really strong early game, later on it's nothing you should worry about.
The biggest difference between a good Lee and a bad Lee is not only landing his skillshot but also his ability to not be hit by you in exchanges. After 6 and gaining some armor you are stronger than him, assuming you stacked pretty well. Okay - you feel like you got your adventage, but don't let him bait you into chasing him unless you are 100% sure you wreck him. He can deal nice burst dmg, especially when his CD's are up, so a good Lee will attack you, then if he gets low try to kite you and force you into running after him. When he gets his CD's back he will attack again. Do not let him control you like that. Engage only if you are sure you got enough stacks to kill him between his CD's. Don't waste your time, if you aren't certain. Patience, patience, patience.

If you make a mistake and die to him early - don't get discouraged. Just don't let him do it again or you will make him snowball, making this lane really difficult for you.

Start: Cloth Armor + 4 Health Potion
Early build order: Rush Chain Vest if possible into Kindlegem/ Glacial Shroud/ Sheen later.

Lissandra

Early laning difficulty: 7/10
Post 6 laning difficulty: 4/10
HP / mana sustain: 3/10
Gank assists: 8/10
Snowball/Roaming potential: 7/10
Teamfight presence: 8/10
Self peel from farmed Nasus : 8/10
Type of damage: Low CD magic poke + medium CD magic all in (burst)
Matchup: FAVOURS HER

Ap, ranged, great CC, hard to catch, owesome harass, has a gap closer, root, build-in zhonya, low CD poke. You won't enjoy this lane.
Has mana - you can exploit that as she is quite mana hungry early. Stay way behind minions to avoid her low CD Ice Shard (it comes thro minions like Miss Fortune's double up, but as an AoE. Keep your distance from minions, aproach them when ur going for a stack or a cs (only if you think its worth it). If you survive till obtaining some MR it will get a lot easier. Still be cautious, her KIT is designed to assist ganks - if they catch you 2vs1 you are most likely dead, even with ghost.

On paper she has the tools to dump on you, but her mana hunger won't allow her to totally cut you off. She is also very strong in teamfights due to her AoE damage, so outscaling her is not an option, as she will probably be more useful than a fed Nasus, especially if they go for wombo. Lissandra in fact has a long learning curve, so if an unexperienced player comes top with her you might do just fine.

Start: Ruby Crystal + 2 Health Potion
Early build order: rush Spectre's Cowl, then Kindlegem into Spirit Visage - also Mercury's Treads should be your pickup for boots.

Lulu

Early laning difficulty: 6/10
Post 6 laning difficulty: 3/10
HP / mana sustain: 4/10
Gank assists: 8/10
Snowball/Roaming potential: 5/10
Teamfight presence: 8/10
Self peel from farmed Nasus : 10/10
Type of damage: Low CD magic poke
Matchup: FAVOURS HER

Laning against her is not that tough. She has some nice poke, but she uses the same spell to waveclear. Don't stand directly behind minions but more on the side and she will have to choose whether she wants to farm minions or harass you. Her damage can be high but its consistent and predictable. If you rush early MR you can negate most of her damage easily and maybe kill her if u burn ghost at right moment (slow on CD). Although you might do okay on lane vs her - she renders you totally useless in teamfights. At least if you try to play offensively and chase her carries. Her kit is designed around keeping melee champions away from her and her carries.
Her slow is low CD, on later levels it feels like a permaslow - she can also polymorph you to keep you away from her squishies. If you are against Lulu in teamfights I recommend peeling for your adc instead of chasing enemy ones. If I see Lulu in enemy team there is a big chance I am building Last Whisper to help my carries blow up enemy tanks that engage us.

Start: Ruby Crystal + 2 Health Potion You can also just start with Null-Magic Mantle with 1 potion early, but if you play this poorly, you might be forced to shopping before getting enough money for the items you want to buy.
Early build order: rush Spectre's Cowl, then Kindlegem into Spirit Visage - also Boots of Swiftness should be your pickup for boots. You can get Sheen before SV if she is bad.

Malphite

Early laning difficulty: 4/10
Post 6 laning difficulty: 2/10
HP / mana sustain: 2/10
Gank assists: 8/10
Snowball/Roaming potential: 5/10
Teamfight presence: 10/10
Self peel from farmed Nasus : 7/10
Type of damage: Sustained Magic Damage with HIGH Burst Ultimate
Matchup: FAVOURS YOU

This is a good matchup. You will get plenty of stacks. He can get a little annoying before you build your MR or if you decide to rush Kindlegem + Glacial Shroud instead first. Nevertheless annoying doesn't mean undoable - you can farm just fine, even if you go straight for 40% CDR cap instead of rushing resistance. Also, a lot depends on the Malphite - you should not rush flat CDR if he is playing 21/10. If he's tanky 10/21 means its not only possible but advisable (you should get Null-Magic Mantle between the CDR items tho so his harass doesn't whitle you down too fast).

Malphite has itemization problems when playing against Nasus. If he rushes defense items, he is playing it safe, but he can't stop you from farming at all. If he goes for damage he lacks the mana to push you out of the lane when harassing you. He can build an early Tear of the Goddess and I guess its the most reliable build against Nasus but still he doesn't have the damage to push you out fast, you will get plenty of stacks before you will be forced to recall.

On paper Malphite should have everything to deny you - sustained POKE, some nice burst, plenty of cc's, build-in natural tankiness. He still has all of these things, but he needs a lot of money because his early scaling is just awful. This means you should NEVER feed Malphite becuase this easy lane of yours might turn into living hell if you do.

Remember not to come close to him if you are below 30% and he has his ult up! You might not be able to trigger your own ult in time to save yourself then! Better just trigger your own ult first and then aproach him and minions. He will naturally back off then, and you will emerge with 70%+ hp after the ultimate ends, which should extend your laning time before recalling quite a bit.

Also - watch out, he might not be that dangerous solo, but his gank assists are pretty crazy. Ward a lot when playing against him. Good vision is a key to winning this lane.
To summarize this : you will get your stacks easily during this lane, just make sure you don't feed him with kills during the farmfest. Remember : playing against Nasus with a lot of stacks is a huge challenge. Playing against a fed Malphite is a real terror!

Start: Ruby Crystal + 2 Health Potion
Early build order:
Either rush Spectre's Cowl and Kindlegem into Spirit Visage, or take Kindlegem, Null-Magic Mantle, Sheen path.

Maokai

Early laning difficulty: 4/10
Post 6 laning difficulty: 1/10
HP / mana sustain: 6/10
Gank assists: 7/10
Snowball/Roaming potential: 4/10
Teamfight presence: 7/10
Self peel from farmed Nasus : 7/10
Type of damage: Sustained Magic Damage
Matchup: FAVOURS YOU HARD

This matchup resembles Malphite lane in many ways. First he can be annoying with his poke, but this should be not anywhere near enough to push you out. Second - he can't kill you on his own unless you commit to fighting him too early (or you just play badly). He needs jungler help to have any chance bringing you down.

The lane itself is a stacking heaven and one of the easiest you can ever hope to get. Regardless of all that - remember to ward during your laning phase. His root is an owesome tool for assisting ganks, so you gonna die a lot if u get too careless. Also, don't fight him for lane dominance too early, focus on getting your stacks, you will wreck him later on with ease. Also, if u decide to fight him without a clear adventage, move out when you see a circle AoE effect around him, this means he triggered his ult and if u don't move out in time you will take some really nasty magic damage.

Start: Ruby Crystal + 2 Health Potion
Early build order:
Either rush Spectre's Cowl and Kindlegem into Spirit Visage, or take Kindlegem, Null-Magic Mantle, Sheen path.

Master Yi

Early laning difficulty: 7/10
Post 6 laning difficulty: 6/10
HP / mana sustain: 7/10
Gank assists: 8/10
Snowball/Roaming potential: 10/10
Teamfight presence: 9/10
Self peel from farmed Nasus : 6/10
Type of damage: HIGH True&Physical sustained damage
Matchup: FAVOURS HIM HARD

This lane is as ugly as they get.
Master Yi is a champion that beats you on every level of the game, assuming similar feed.
He is also really good at zoning Nasus away from creeps. After 6 if you Wither him he just laughs his arsse off at you, because his ult not only removes it, but also makes him totally immune to it. He doesn't give a damn about your early armor cause he has build-in true damage (that's why a good Yi will always level his Wuju Style first against Nasus). Later on when you get tankier and you get some stacks he will be a one man army running around the map killing things (as he probably will have a free farm top + possibly some kills of you).

Similar to Lissandra lane - Master Yi is not a popular solo top and only handful of people know how deadly he is when laning against Nasus. From the handful of them only few has the experience of playing Master Yi against Nasus:) You can safely assume that he is going to jungle, if he is picked :) However, If he is going top with ignite, do tremble!

Start: Cloth Armor + 4 Health Potion
Early build order: Rush Chain Vest if possible into Kindlegem/ Sheen/ Glacial Shroud later. If he is destroying you hard - early Thornmail might not be a bad idea.

Nidalee

Early laning difficulty: 7/10
Post 6 laning difficulty: 3/10
HP / mana sustain: 7/10
Gank assists: 5/10
Snowball/Roaming potential: 5/10
Teamfight presence: 3/10
Self peel from farmed Nasus : 10/10
Type of damage: Either PHYSICAL OR MAGIC BURST (depends on build) - requires landing skillshot or you to step into trap to be effective
Matchup: FAVOURS YOU

She is annoying to lane against early. Spear, spear, spear, spear, spear, zone, deny, spear, spear, spear. However if u manage to get some MR (or armor if she for some odd reason builds AD - although I didnt see AD nidalee in ages due to her changes). and avoid her traps and Javelin tosses you will outscale her hard later on. Remember, if she hits you with spear or you set up the trap she can double dash and deal a lot of damage in a split second, so back off to a safe distance immidietely and wait for the debuff to wear off.

The lane gets a lot easier to farm in after building some defenses and getting your ultimate. On the other hand you gotta be really careful before that. If Nidalee gets ahead early she may give you a lot of trouble and cause a lot of frustration even after 6.

If you play it safe and smart early, you should build a lot of stacks quite fast. The problem comes when you will try to go for a kill, which is a huge challenge. Her dash is a low CD spell, she also can heal herself up. Best moment to engage her is when she tries to kill you, either bate her when she thinks she has an adventage or burn ghost in the right moment.

During teamfights she is really garbage. If she is AD she has a bit of poke and a nice 1vs1 damage but she blows up really fast if she gets into middle of the fight. If she is AP her main dmg source is the Javelin Toss. If she is tanky, then she is next to useless and you should kill her last then.

PS. Always check LOL-nexus or another lol scout site to check if she is AP or AD, as its crucial for the early game.

Start: Rush magic resistance into early CDR.
Early build order: Flexible. Depending on how comfortable you are in avoiding her skillshots and harass you may either rush Spectre's Cowl into Spirit Visage or just rush Kindlegem, Sheen, Glacial Shroud with a Null-Magic Mantle somewhere in between.

Olaf

Early laning difficulty: 7/10
Post 6 laning difficulty: 8/10
HP / mana sustain: 7/10
Gank assists: 5/10
Snowball/Roaming potential: 5/10
Teamfight presence: 7/10
Self peel from farmed Nasus : 4/10
Type of damage: Sustained Physical Damage + low CD TRUE damage burst
Matchup: FAVOURS HIM HARD*

*Assuming he knows what he is doing.

Competent Olaf can deny you. There is no doubt about that. If you play it very carefully however and he aint that good, you can win this lane.

A lot depends on how you play your cards early, but even more on how good is the Olaf you are facing. Let's say that he has adventage early, especially if he takes Ignite. First five levels can be a living hell if you will try to ignore him and farm. Contrary to what you may think, it's sometimes easier to kill Olaf without items, than after 6 when he builds em. This lane will force you into a different playstyle than most others. If he is agressive you will have to use your Spirit Fire a lot, to zone him so you can get your stacks.

Something that has to be said about this lane - it gets noticably harder after first back! Assuming one thing - he rushes early armor and lvls his true damage move first called Reckless Swing. This means that if the lane is pushed to his turret and he freezes it, you won't be able to farm at all! If he builds armor first you won't be able to kill him either. If you are facing Olaf pray for him to build damage first instead of armor or that he lvls his Undertow first. If he does one of these two things, you can possibly kill him and farm yourself up when he is gone or just take a lot of his hp down and farm when he is zoned.

Also remember that Olaf passive called Berserker Rage makes him hit faster the less HP he got. That passive combined with his Tough It Out is potentially really deadly. If he is bad you will just kill him during 1vs1 if u get some nice stacks, if he is good he will trigger his Tough It Out the moment he gets very low and he will regenerate HP faster than you deal damage - he will also refresh his Reckless Swing true dmg CD faster, as his CD is shortened on his every auto attack! So don't get fooled, even if you have 20% HP adventage at some point of dueling this may not to be enough to take him down!

There is one thing to be said about this lane. You can play perfectly and get destroyed. Olaf is a very complex champion that needs experience to be played to his full potential. This lane may occur piss-easy if a nonexperienced Olaf tries to counter you. Or he burns his Tough It Out too early or too late during a duel. And that happends a lot ! On the other hand If he plays it good (rushes armor, maxes Reckless Swing first, uses Tough It Out when low on HP during 1vs1, not pushes the lane bur rather waits for you to do it and then zones you with his Reckless Swing spam-harass), you are shafted beyond any redemption. The ball is on his side - if he is good you will have to ask for ganks im afraid. A lot of them, cause 1 kill won't be enough to snowball thro his true damage harass.

Also you will need to alter your build order slightly, as you do need HP early in this lane along with armor. Remember that his ultimate move - Ragnarok makes him immune to your Wither (and all kind of cc's for that matter) and his Undertow can be a permaslow if he chainhits em. He has to pickup the axe to reduce the cooldown tho.

Start: Cloth Armor + 4 Health Potion
Early build order: Rush Chainvest into Kindlegem / Sheen.

Pantheon

Early laning difficulty: 10/10
Post 6 laning difficulty: 5/10
HP / mana sustain: 3/10
Gank assists: 10/10
Snowball/Roaming potential: 10/10
Teamfight presence: 7/10
Self peel from farmed Nasus : 5/10
Type of damage: Low CD physical burst
Matchup: FAVOURS HIM HARD

Now, this is the lane I hate playing.

For starters, there are two things that can make this lane a lot easier for you :
1) he takes teleport instead of ignite (rarely happends)
2) he starts with something else than Crystalline Flask (if he takes different starting item he is dumb).

First 6 lvls of this lane are a total and utter nightmare. This is the kind of lane you should be thinking of running armor Quints instead of CDR ones. Basically - you never want to play against Pantheon, whether he is going top or jungle, just make urself a favour - don't pick Nasus. This lane is not only frustrating but also hard to farm in.

If you ever get forced into this lane, you will have to do everything in your power not to die in first 6 lvls (easier said then done) and rush early armor. His early scaling is just ridiculous and if he rushes The Brutalizer into Last Whisper you might have problems even after acquiring the armor. He only needs a handful of items to be really dangerous, why you need at least two big tank items to lane against him without problems. The only thing you can try to exploit during this lane is his mana levels. If he doesn't take Crystalline Flask he will lack the mana to push you out of the lane fast enough, which will make it a lot easier for you to mitigate his damage. If he does however starts with flask you gotta hope that he is bad and he will let you farm / live for some odd reason :-) He also doesn't have early HP sustain, but flask covers for that more or less.

he has a stun connected with a gap closer, long range low CD Spear Shot and immense map presence due to the nature of his ult. If he gets you low to around 50% and you have 0 potions you should back immidietely. Reason is simple - his spears deal double damage to targets below 15% and got a really high range (this means if you get below 15% you are as good as dead as long as he is in range to throw it). Coming up into his range without stacked up armor with 50% HP is a suicide. His QWE combo and Ignite will take you below 15% easily, thus he will just finish you off with a double damage Spear Shot.

Also be aware that his diving potential is huge. If his jungler comes to gank, they might dive you without 0 problems because Pantheon's Passive Aegis Protection can soak a turret shot or two if he is actively attacking you! Also another thing about this lane is the fact that this passive works nicely against your Siphoning Strike - similar to Fiora lane you gotta remember to autoattack him before Q'ing him. This sometimes in the heat of the fight may be the difference between lost and a won lane!

If you manage not to die and get a reasonable amount of stacks and armor this lane becomes a walk in the park. However getting to that point is the real challenge. There is a much bigger chance that he will just wreck you (especially if his jungler has any brain) and proceed to roam everywhere to wreck your team aswell pushing an early adventage into a won game. Better avoid this lane.

Also, if Pantheon's team doesn't win the game in first 30 minutes there is a big chance they won't win it at all. He falls off really hard, if not the hardest of all the champions in the game.

Start: Cloth Armor + 4 Health Potion
Early build order: Rush Chain Vest if possible into Kindlegem/ Glacial Shroud/ Sheen later.

Renekton

Early laning difficulty: 8/10
Post 6 laning difficulty: 5/10
HP / mana sustain: 8/10
Gank assists: 8/10
Snowball/Roaming potential: 7/10
Teamfight presence: 7/10
Self peel from farmed Nasus : 7/10
Type of damage: Medium CD physical burst
Matchup: FAVOURS HIM

This matchup is really hard till level 6, especially if he picks up ignite. Basically he has a dash (double dash if first dash goes thro your minion or you), a stun and an AoE harass / heal ability + an ultimate that works similar to your own.

Till 6 his early damage is really high, and if he gets level adventage over you - you shouldnt aproach his harass range at all, but rather wait till either ur under ur turret or you have the same lvl as him.

You should also watch his ragebar carefully, if its full then going into his range is a big risk, especially if you are below 60% hp. He may kill you in split seconds then.

After 6 the lane becomes noticably easier to handle, especially after getting some early armor and some stacks. On the other hand its sometimes easier said that done - if he kills you before 6, he may snowball out of control and totally wreck you.

After 6 he is still very strong and may kill you, especially if you let him harass you constantly, but if you play it carefully you should be able to trade him after getting around 200 stacks, armor and Sheen (more stacks required if his ignite is up).

Renekton has been given some love at 5.3 patch, especially his scaling is pretty good right now. This means he doesn't fall off that easily and early as he used to be. Getting some stacks in this matchup and having adventage 1on1, doesn't nessesarily mean you will do more in teamfights anymore. He became now somewhat similar to Jarvan matchup. You may have some adventage if you are smart and stack fast enough, but there is plenty of opportunities for an early screw up and he doesnt fall off at all anymore.

Similar to Riven lane - if you want to kill Renekton you need to go balls deep after he burns out all of his 3 cds as his auto attack damage isnt high enough for him to trade you if you are stacked. He is a typical AD caster champion, which means that most of his damage comes from his abilities, not auto attacks.
Basically if you get stacks and armor, a good Renekton will harass you with a Dash in, stun, AoE dash out combo. He can be really hard to kill if he builds armor and plays the game that way, because in most cases he can harass you for free then. However if he decides to dash in, QW and dash further to you and try to kill you with his AA's this may lead to his demise (if you have enough armor and stacks that is). Most good Renekton players will try to back off when their cooldowns are down to re-engage you when they get back up. This can really turn a duel around into his favour so if you want to kill him, you should have enough stacks to do it between his CDs.

Start: Cloth Armor + 4 Health Potion
Early build order: Rush Chain Vest if possible into Kindlegem/ Glacial Shroud / Sheen later.

Rengar

Early laning difficulty: 5/10
Post 6 laning difficulty: 1/10
HP / mana sustain: 7/10
Gank assists: 7/10
Snowball/Roaming potential: 10/10
Teamfight presence: 8/10
Self peel from farmed Nasus : 7/10
Type of damage: Short CD Physical burst, requires nearby bush or ult up to utilize fully
Matchup: FAVOURS YOU SLIGHTLY

This lane in terms of laning and stacking your Siphoning Strike is not challenging. He has very high burst damage but it requires him to jump out of the bush to utilize fully. A good Rengar will be sitting in bushes a lot, he will also kite u there during any 1vs1s that may come later on.

The plan is to stay away from bush and let him push. Farm carefully, get early armor and ult. Then you can dump on him. He is not that hard. He has nice dmg, but fully neglected by armor. Also, his ult grants him invisibility so he will be painful to take down without a pink ward if he has any brain. He can also jump out of his invisibility mode same way as he jumps out of the bush. Apart from that bush/ult jump he has 0 gap closers so you should try to exploit that. Especially early levels. He has great sustain, high burst, a skillshot based slow that can immobilize you, but if you play carefuly he should never kill you without a gank.

I would say this is a very favoured lane, but it's not so easy as you may think. If the game comes closer to late he will blow up your carries before you can Q-strike twice. Similar to Fiora lane even if he loses the lane he is stil a threat. Also watch out for his roams! Ping your mia'ss multiple times if he leaves the lane. His damage is ridiculous if he somehow gets ahead.

Start: Cloth Armor + 5 Health Potion
Early build order: Rush Warden's Mail if possible into Glacial Shroud / Kindlegem later.

Riven

Early laning difficulty: 5/10
Post 6 laning difficulty: 2/10
HP / mana sustain: 5/10
Gank assists: 7/10
Snowball/Roaming potential: 10/10
Teamfight presence: 7/10
Self peel from farmed Nasus : 7/10
Type of damage: Long CD Physical Burst
Matchup: FAVOURS YOU

This matchup is by far the one I've got the biggest experience in playing. Not only because a lot of people try to counter Nasus with Riven, but also because If I see enemy locks Riven top I lock my Nasus with 0 hasitation. I have played against hundreds of them and I consider this matchup as a favourable lane. This lane was far worse in season 3 (before the s4 tank masteries) and before the Riven nerfs, but I still could find at least dozen of champs back then that countered Nasus way harder than she did. After her nerfs and tank masteries tho this lane aint hard. At all. Unless you really mess up and give her an early kill or she gets help and gain an adventage. This can give her just enough money to build offensive items to take you down in 1 combo and that's what Riven wants - to be able to combo you down.

I remember once when I picked Nasus delibaretly to counter Riven and I got flamed like holy sh*t, because people still live in the past and believe that things they learnt 1 or 2 years ago are still correct right now. It's not truth. The truth is - assuming none or next to none jungler presence - this matchup requires an extraordinary Riven or subpar Nasus for it to go in the girl's favour.

I will explain shortly why. The only way Riven can win this matchup is by killing you very early and snowballing of that. She is very mobile, has a nice shield, a stun and her amazing bunny chops called Broken Wings.

Till 6 this lane is somewhat tricky, but if you pick your Q-stacks carefully you should have no problems surviving it. Also, during her harass attempts / all in attempts on you she pushes like a storm, so let her do that and farm under turret. She can't kill you in 1 combo, unless you walk up next to her when she has level adventage over you :) If you play it safe avoiding her and going only for safe Qstacks I dont see why you should die 1vs1 against her early. There is also a key information here - Riven CAN and WILL kill you in 1 combo if she gets 6 before you and catches you outside of turret range (hell, even under it).

That's why this part is KEY to handling a Riven lane. When Riven is about to get lvl 6 you HAVE TO recall to base, buy armor and Teleport back to the lane. If she is bad, she will stay. If she is good, she gonna go shoping too. If she stays, wait till you also get lvl6 and bait her to blow her CD's on you. But this time do not run - accept the challenge and go balls deep. Without items and with you having armor the first blood is yours and by the time she comes back to lane you should have enough stacks to deny her and win this lane. If she is good tho, she will back the moment you back and you will proceed with the dance. She will try to stop you from farming and you will play def and wait till you get enough stacks to kill her. Riven has problems stopping armored Nasus farm, cause her CD's are too long to push you out succesfully if u are smart. Additionally, if u get enough stacks and she blows her CD's into air you can easily kill her because she is really squishy without her shield. She also has 0 initial sustain so that works in your favour too. Furthermore this is by far my favourite matchup to bait turret shots. Riven's dashes are hard to fully control and its pretty easy to play with her around the edge of your turret reach, manipulating her into eating some turret shots in a harass attempt. I even killed some Riven's without backing, because they ate too many turrets shots and felt safe at 30% because they counter you, lol.

There is one thing certain about this lane. If you by any chance give her an early adventage (you die early, or she gets a kill on your jungler or roams mid and gets a kill or two there etc) she will wreck you. Hard. No lube. If she has enough damage to take you in 1 combo you die. That's it. If she doesn't - she dies. A simple lane. A lane I really enjoy playing, because most Riven will do several kill attempts on you before they acknowledge you are stronger than them (giving you an early 2 or 3 kills). However, a smart Riven can survive against a nicely stacked armored Nasus quite long because of her dashes and stuns, but that rarely happends. Most of them go yolo at you trying to kill you until you get ridiculousely fed :)))

Also, in teamfights Riven is very dangerous, even when behind, so don't underestimate her damage. She might not be able to take you down, but she can blow your squishies into oblivion really fast if you let her loose. Focus her down first.

Start: Cloth Armor + 4 Health Potion
Early build order: Rush Chain Vest if possible into / Kindlegem / Glacial Shroud // [[Sheen] later.

Rumble

Early laning difficulty: 6/10
Post 6 laning difficulty: 4/10
HP / mana sustain: 6/10
Gank assists: 6/10
Snowball/Roaming potential: 6/10
Teamfight presence: 6/10
Self peel from farmed Nasus : 7/10
Type of damage: Sustained Magic AoE damage (with burst and dot damage ultimate)
Matchup: SKILL MATCHUP

He used to be a strong counter for the doge. Since new s4 masteries that's no longer the case. You can outsustain his harass. Hide behind minions to avoid his skillshot based slow (he can cast it twice in a short timer). Before 6 mitigating his damage ain't that hard, but there is so much bulls*it going on your screen that you might find it tough to stack against him early until u get used to all the flames, noises and stuff.

Personal note :
He has probably the most ridiculousely annoying skin called "Ultra-Galaxy Rumble", the skin is so loud and so annoying i find myself muting LOL when playing against the Rumbles who use it. To all you Ultra Galaxy Rumbles out there - I HATE YOU! I FREAKIN HATE YOU! I REALLY DO!

On a more serious note, his damage is high but sustained, so you can play pretty safe till 6. If he takes you down below 50% however and u are out of potions you should strongly consider backing to base to buy some MR and next bunch of pots. The problem is also his ult. It deals incredibly high damage and you gotta move out of it ASAP or you gonna die. If you ever played World Of Warcraft you have probably already learnt the most basic rule of the game - NEVER STAND IN A FIRE. This applies to Rumble matchup too! Quite frankly it's probably the most important thing about this lane. Also, his ult not only burns you if u stand on it but also leaves a DOT that ticks for a lot of damage too. Basically, if he ever takes you below 50% and he has his ignite up you should strongly consider backing out of the lane.

He is as annoying as only a yordle can be (look : teemo), but he scales a lot worse than you. Rush MR, watch his consisent dmg, dont go in if your low. Later on you dump on him hard. When teamfights break out he is still a threat, especially if he lands his AoE ultimate in a good spot.

Start: Ruby Crystal + 2 Health Potion / Null-Magic Mantle + 1 Health Potion
Early build order: Rush Spectre's Cowl if possible into Spirit Visage and Sheen later on.

Ryze

Early laning difficulty: 5/10
Post 6 laning difficulty: 5/10
HP / mana sustain: 3/10
Gank assists: 8/10
Snowball/Roaming potential: 7/10
Teamfight presence: 8/10
Self peel from farmed Nasus : 7/10
Type of damage: LOW CD MAGIC BURST
Matchup: SKILL MATCHUP

He also gains stacks as you do, but he stacks his Tear of the Goddess. His damage scales of maximum mana, which means he scales nearly as good as you. Maybe not indefinetely, but he scales not only with gold but also with the spells he uses. He is a ranged AP champion with godlike endgame. He has a great snear that can assist ganks quite nicely and also stop you from killing him. His ult grants him dmg and movement speed and is a low CD spell. Late game he is similar to you. A great Tank with owesome damage... but he is also ranged. He also has a great passive that make him overload after casting 5 spells. This also determines when to engage him and when to avoid him. The worst moment to go for him is when he has 2-3 stacks, the best when he just dropped out of his overload state.

The problem for Ryze his mana hunger early, so if you build some MR you should be able to outsustain his harass and stack yourself as fast as possible. After 1st back this lane becomes noticably harder, but lvl6 is the moment when u get some adventage back.

On paper he has all the tools to destroy you, but his early mana hunger, the fact that you can anticipate when he is dangerous and when he is not works in your favour. He is probably one of those champs that are annoying to lane against, but still very doable.

He is also very vulnerable to ganks, as he can stop only 1 person at a given time. He is nice at controlling 1 champ, but two is a problem for him. Also he has zero hp sustain until he builds some spellvamp, so you can try to take adventage of it. Ganks help great deal with that. If he just came back to the lane and he gets low HP, he probably won't back again. He also won't have the balls to harass you as he is risking his life then. This means even if Ryze doesn't die during the gank, he might loose enough hp to be afraid to come in your reach (which is good for you, because you can stack yourself pretty fast then).

If he is good he will give you some troubles until you get some MR and probably after first back too, but you should have enough MR to farm thro it until he gets oom. He is not the beast he once was, but you should never underestimate him too.

As both champions work really similar - both have a prolonged arming time and ( Nasus fires up a little bit faster - but is melee, when Ryze is ranged) I consider this a skill matchup. I might change this rating after having more material to analize, as Ryze isn't as popular as he used to be.

Start: Ruby Crystal + 2 Health Potion
Early build order: Rush Spectre's Cowl if possible into Spirit Visage and Sheen later on.

Shen

Early laning difficulty: 3/10
Post 6 laning difficulty: 1/10
HP / mana sustain: 7/10
Gank assists: 7/10
Snowball/Roaming potential: 5/10
Teamfight presence: 6/10
Self peel from farmed Nasus : 7/10
Type of damage: Sustained Low Damage Magic Harass + hybrid all in
Matchup: FAVOURS YOU HARD

This lane favours you hard in terms of stacking (I only once had a problem stacking against Shen - he was 21/10 instead of a tanky 10/21 and I was inexperienced Nasus so I wrongly rushed armor instead of magic resistance. I still won the lane, but I had big problems to stay on lane early.

Apart from that 1 game, every Shen I met was a failure in terms of stopping my farm. Every single one. 350,400,500 stacks, you name it. The only problem with this lane is his insane roaming potential, he can get virtually anywhere on the map and come back quick to defend his turret from you. A good thing is that he doesn't really snowball (if u compare him to other champs), but he can help to secure early drake or snowball his bot lane to carry the game for him. He can get also deceptively tanky, so he is never an easy target to take down. Add to this his insane taunt, which makes him a great gank assister.

Apart from all the good things a Shen can do - he won't stop you. Even if he gets ahead in terms of items, he won't be able to keep you away from farm. Remember that his harass when he throws his knife is magic damage not physical, so if you want to make it less effective you should get a quick Null-Magic Mantle. I personally prefer to rush early Sheen, Kindlegem and Glacial Shroud to stack fast and ruin him later.

PS. Don't let him taunt you under turret. Just don't.

Shyvana

Early laning difficulty: 6/10
Post 6 laning difficulty: 4/10
HP / mana sustain: 5/10
Gank assists: 5/10
Snowball/Roaming potential: 8/10
Teamfight presence: 8/10
Self peel from farmed Nasus : 8/10
Type of damage: Sustained Hybrid Damage
Matchup: FAVOURS YOU SLIGHLTY

This matchup slightly favours you, but it can go very wrong at many points of the game. Shyvana might not be the champion I would pick to counter Nasus, but she is an adversary you gotta watch our for. You got the advantage at start, cause she can't really kill you if you don't walk up next to her. She is melee, she relies on attack speed which works in ur favour. However a good Shyvana can be hard to play against early and hard to kill later on. If she takes ignite she is very dangerous to you and if she takes TP she is very dangerous to your botline.

I got a fairly good grasp on the matchup as I played both Shyvana and Nasus at least dozen of times in this encounter (I used to main Shyv top, before she got so popular then - now she again dropped in popularity :))

This lane, if executed properly as Nasus is his win. It puts you in favoured position, as Shyvana pushes like a storm and has no hard CC's to force you to fight back. If she ain't at your turret its easy to force her to be there - Shyvana has really hard times to freeze the lane and zone you at the same time. The reason is simple - the moment she tries to chase you activating her AoE speed thingy she is most likely pushing the wave hard.
Shyvana's big powerspike is at lvl6, so you cannot feel comfortable against her until you get a respectable amount of stacks. You should avoid all ins, until u get both armor and MR and a lot of stacks, especially if she runs ignite. Shyvana is a great deuler, has natural build-in tankiness and she shnowballs damn hard if you give her an early adventage. She has 0 cc's (apart from her ult, which has build-in displacement) so you should be controlling her a lot during the laning. Also, if you decide to fight her without having a clear adventage, be sure to dodge her Flame Breath first before engaging her. It will reduce her damage significally. Also remember, she might build tanky, she might build AD, but she always deals both physical and magical damage (its roughly around 60% physical and 40% magical damage!).

She is also one of the most dangerous divers in the game, so if you are low under your own turret and her jungler comes they might easily dive you and walk out alive so you gotta pay special attention to that. If you don't screw up at any point during the first 6-10 lvls (depends how quick u stack), get some armor and mr she becomes a nuisance. She is still hard to kill, if she has any brain (she should rush some armor against you). She is a great pusher, owesome teamfighter and if your ADC doesn't have any 'oh sh*t buttons' (like Varus, Jinx or MF) a fed Shyvana is your marksman worst nightmare. No carry likes a dragon chasing them, ask them if you do not believe :)

Anyways, if you let Shyvana get too much ahead of you early, you gonna melt when the dragon sneezes. OUT of the WAY!

Start: Cloth Armor + 4 Health Potion
Early build order: Pick 1 of the following for starters : Chain Vest / Glacial Shroud / Kindlegem / Sheen.

Singed

Early laning difficulty: 4/10
Post 6 laning difficulty: 1/10
HP / mana sustain: 7/10
Gank assists: 4/10
Snowball/Roaming potential: 5/10
Teamfight presence: 6/10
Self peel from farmed Nasus : 10/10
Type of damage: Sustained Magic and Dot Damage (poison)
Matchup: FAVOURS YOU HARD

There are two things you should do straight before the start of the laning.
**This is critical and it's matter of your life and death**
1) You say to yourself LOUD, at least 3 times - I WILL NOT CHASE SINGED. So it gets stuck to your head - even if you get annoyed and feel like chasing him. DON'T LISTEN TO YOUR INSTINCTS HERE - I KNOW YOU WANT TO CHASE HIM - DON'T.
2) After that you are almost ready to go, but you gotta remember to tell your jungler to NEVER EVER come top.

When it comes to the laning its fairly easy. First few lvls his poison will be dangerous and you will find it hard to sustain yourself thro it, especially if he flips you repeatedly into his poison and minions when you go for your Q-stack. Anyways, you still should be fine, playing defensively, picking your Q-stack minions carefully in such a way that he cannot flip you every time u want to stack. After getting Null-Magic Mantle and lvl 6 it gets so easy that it should be forbidden.

At this moment he can't do anything to you apart from being really annoying. So just relax and treat him like a fly that's not worth your attention. If he flips you over into his minions just walk away back to your side. Hit some minions to heal back on the way. If he tries to poison you, step out of it. If he wants you to chase him - do NOT do it. If he tries to farm between your turrets - let him and get your stacks. He is just a fly. You can sustain everything he can dump on you easily. Just dont let him flip you into his minions too often early and don't be reckless.

You can kill him sometimes, but in many cases he just baits you to chase him. A good Singed can win if you start chasing him if he is at least 30% (even if you are 100% hp or near), so I only chase if I get a ridiculous amount of stacks and Singed happends to be below 20% in my proximity. If you happen to kill him treat it like a bonus. The aim on this lane - min 400 stacks / 20 mins (if u done less you are doing something terribly wrong or there was too much chaos on your lane during the first 20mins).

Null-Magic Mantle, Kindlegem, [Sheen]] Glacial Shroud Spectre's Cowl are your best friends early in this game.

PS. To all the Singed mains reading this. I LOVE YOUR PROXY - GIEF ME MOAR!

Sion

Early laning difficulty: 4/10
Post 6 laning difficulty: 3/10
HP / mana sustain: 7/10
Gank assists: 5/10
Snowball/Roaming potential: 5/10
Teamfight presence: 7/10
Self peel from farmed Nasus : 5/10
Type of damage: Reasonable CD physical damage
Matchup: FAVOURS YOU HARD

Sion is very popular top lane nowadays, but Nasus is one of his few counters.
He is an owesome tank and scales really good with just defensive items into mid game making him really tanky, but he has no tools to stop you from farming.
He has nice stun, but it has an arming timer, so not really hard to move out of it, especially after getting boots (before getting boots if he uses it I recommend moving on the side or behind him, rather than trying to run back - cause then it wil probably hit you). Some ranged harass when he kicks a minion into you, but its not anywhere near enough to push you out.

To push you out or kill you, you would have to repeatedly, time after time stay in his stun zone, when he is performing it or simply get ganked :) I always get a lot of stacks in this matchup, but if Sion is smart he will build rly tanky and focus on ccing/zoning you from his carries in the teamfights. Can be tricky at times there, but it's definetely a favoured lane.
Rush Kindlegem and Glacial Shroud into Iceborn Gauntlet. Getting Boots somewhere in between can make this lane hell lot easier.

Swain

Early laning difficulty: 7/10
Post 6 laning difficulty: 6/10
HP / mana sustain: 7/10
Gank assists: 5/10
Snowball/Roaming potential: 7/10
Teamfight presence: 7/10
Self peel from farmed Nasus : 7/10
Type of damage: Heavy Sustained Magic Damage
Matchup: FAVOURS HIM

Swain isn't a good matchup no doubt. He will make ur laning problematic early. To farm without dieing you need to avoid his root Nevermove. It has a short arming time so in many situations you can walk out of it if you react fast enough. It's not easy to land for Swain, but if he does he might kill you early. Watch out for it.

This lane used to be a lot tougher and although Swain got buffed in many areas, he is now easier to handle as Nasus. Swain is overally a lot easier to farm with, he scales better into later stages, but is reasonably easier to play against at early levels.

His Decrepify got changed, previously it focused you until you got out of its range (after that it disapeared). At the moment the ticks aren't so high, but the Raven does not despawn after you walk out of its range. After you do that it's gonna prioritize your minions instead. This means his Raven gonna push the lane hard if you walk out fast. After you walk out of it you can safely walk back into its range. It won't pick you up unless you have Swain's E - Torment ticking on you.

He used to be a hard counter with his Torment paired with Decrepify dealing stupid damage. Now the main source of his dmg comes from Decrepify alone, Torment adds a little extra, but nowhere close to the previous version. This means you can control his dmg quite fine by walking out of Decrepify - hence it's so important to avoid his Nevermove cause if he lands it on top of you with Decrepify and Torment ticking - you are pretty screwed. It's essential to avoid his root, dont risk farming if you are low hp early, don't move predictably, stack safely and you may win this battle.

When dueling him after six you cannot kill him without a lot of stacks solo, because to kill Swain you either need ignite or a lot of burst, which you just don't have until you farm up. To kill him you need Spirit Visage with around 250-300 stacks, so don't try any yolo actions until you get close to these numbers (unless he makes something really dumb like diving / gets oom / you get help from your jungler).

My Start : Ruby Crystal + 2 Health Potion or Null-Magic Mantle + 1 Health Potion
Early build order : Spectre's Cowl -> Kindlegem

Talon

Early laning difficulty: 6/10
Post 6 laning difficulty: 1/10
HP / mana sustain: 4/10
Gank assists: 5/10
Snowball/Roaming potential: 7/10
Teamfight presence: 5/10
Self peel from farmed Nasus : 6/10
Type of damage: Medium CD Physical Burst
Matchup: FAVOURS YOU HARD

Talon is a champion that is designed around exterminating squishies. The difficulty of the early game reflects this. The moment you stop being squishy this lane becomes a walk in a park. Rush early armor and stack yourself up. Even tho you should comfortably farm in this lane, you might have some problems killing him due to his ult making him invisible and giving him 40% extra MS. In the early game he might become dangerous if you don't pay attention. It gets somewhat tricky at times, so better play it safe till you get some armor. I don't think you should have any problems handling this lane that way, but you should spamping everytime when he is gone roaming (even if you think he went back shopping).

Start: Cloth Armor + 4 Health Potion
Early build order: either Chain Vest or Glacial Shroud + 1 or 2 Cloth Armor into Sheen / Kindlegem

Teemo

Early laning difficulty: 8/10
Post 6 laning difficulty: 3/10
HP / mana sustain: 3/10
Gank assists: 4/10
Snowball/Roaming potential: 5/10
Teamfight presence: 4/10
Self peel from farmed Nasus : 4/10
Type of damage: Sustained Physical/Magic/Hybrid + DOT Damage
Matchup: SKILL MATCHUP

Welcome to your legendary adversary!

The type of damage is in most cases mostly magical (as most Teemo's go AP) with addition of some AD damage from his AA's. He can also build AD and then the damage shifts the other way round. Very few teeemos build hybrid damage, but these are probably the most annoying ones. Checking enemy players rune pre-game and building accordingly to his item purchuases is mandatory in this encounter.

Teemo is a go to champion for many players who get forced into the lane with the dog. In the right hands he can deny you hard early. The thing is - many players who pick him aren't used to playing teemo on a regular basis. They will make plenty of mistakes, letting you farm from time to time early slowly digging their own grave. A great Teemo player can shaft the doge pretty hard, but 95% of them don't. Also, if they make a mistake and let you get even a considerable amount of stacks (around 200 is enough) and don't get big farm/kill adventage they are shafted pretty hard. 1 kill is sometimes not enough for them to handle a semi-fed Nasus in a typical lane. On the other hand - one mistake that gives Nasus an early kill completely shafts him (for example you get a good gank).

There are some obvious bad things about this lane :
1) Teemo is a ranged champion that can move pretty fast
2) Most of his damage comes from his autoattacks so he doesn't need mana to be deadly
3) He has a blind that makes you miss your Q as its related to your auto-attack
4) He deals hybrid damage (mostly AP in most cases, which also sucks)
5) He has build-in global taunt that makes you swear at him and if the rage ain't contained can and will force you into a reckless premature attempt to kill him. Ignore this inner voice of yours whispering "KILL HIM!!! KILL HIM NOW!!!".
6) His Shrooms give him huge vision, can turn a fight completely around and piss you off even further.

On the other hand you get plenty of room to work in :
1) Teemo has absolutely no HP sustain outside of pots, he can't even get one later into the game, unless he goes AD (Spellvamp doesn't work on him).
2) He is very squishy and blows up really quick, when focused.
3) Your Wither shafts him badly.
4) He has 0 cc's (unless you walk into a shroom).
5) Everybody hates him! (if he loses the lane to you he will be flamed as hell for picking Teemo and being a noob - argues in enemy team nearly guaranteed).
6) If you die against Teemo you give him adventage but you can still catch up. If a Teemo dies to you, he probably won't be able to come back to the game.

Point 6 is very important when judging how good is Teemo against Nasus. He really ain't that good as people think. Simply because he needs to be perfect at his actions, while Nasus can allow himself some margin of mistakes and still come out on top.

When it comes down to any tips, when playing against Teemo - first one is PATIENCE.
The plan is to be patient enough to score enough stacks to kill him easily.
He will probably get a big lead in farm pre-6, don't worry about it! He really needs a huge adventage to ruin you. Buy a lot of pots, buy defenses. When you go back to base, buy more defenses and more pots. The longer you survive, the closer you are to winning this lane. Don't engage him prematurely, try to bait his blind before going for a planned Q-stack. Play safely.

Second is understanding how Teemo works. If you got a good amount of HP you can farm fairly okay under your turret so it is highly advisable to let him push. If he doesn't push tho this means he knows what he is doing. Teemo needs plenty of room to kill Nasus as he deals sustained damage. What Teemo wants is the lane to be near his turret or at least near mid, so he not only pokes you once or twice, but he has the space to chase you and hit you several times in a row. If that happends you need to Wither him before it's too late. Losing half hp in 1 Q attempt is not cool. Try to avoid that.
When you feel you got enough stacks and that you are ready to take him, wait for him to use his Blinding Dart then go all in. Using Ghost in the process is advisable.

Playing safe is enough to win this lane in 95% of encounters.
The other 5% are the extraordinary hamsters (or are the games you totally missplayed).
In these games Teemo will shaft you hard early and loose later or shaft you early and win the game. All depends on the quality of the player and the presence of your/enemy jungler. Even a good Teemo player can't do anything to you, if u get a good gank for example and enough time to farm up. Also pay attention to what summoner's spells is he picking!

Start: Cloth Armor + 4 Health Potion /
Early build order: Defenses (his build will tell you which)

Trundle

Early laning difficulty: 5/10
Post 6 laning difficulty: 5/10
HP / mana sustain: 10/10
Gank assists: 5/10
Snowball/Roaming potential: 7/10
Teamfight presence: 10/10
Self peel from farmed Nasus : 5/10
Type of damage: Sustained Physical Damage with Burst+Dot Ultimate
Matchup: FAVOURS HIM

First I will talk a bit about his skills as Trundle is not a very popular pick and if you aren't playing LOL a lot, you might not know what his abilities REALLY do apart from the visual effects :

His passive King's Tribute gives him sustain in lane and teamfights. Works on both minions and champions, so if Trundle scores a kill or assist he heals for a considerable amount.

His Q Chomp - is a bite that STEALS some of your attack damage and transfers it to Trundle, whilst slowing you down slightly. It's his main harass ability with a really low CD.

His W - Frozen Domain, grants him extra MS and huge lifesteal. Very effective for chasing down people or running away.

His E - Pillar of Ice slows everything around it and can block your way out if casted in the right place and moment (especially effective if you are running next to wall or in thin passages in bush (like the one near red/wraiths (this way can actually be completely blocked) so you should refrain yourself from positioning and fighting (also in teamfights) in this kind of places, because it may lead to your death / defeat.

Finally his ultimate called Subjugate. This spell synergizes with all of his kit really great and makes him so broken in duels. It steals 40% of your armor and magic resistance and transfers it to Trundle. It also leaves a DOT that steals 20% or more (depends on lvl) of your HP (aprox half instantly and half with the ticking dot) and transfers it to Trundle!!. This means that Trundle can kill you if you are at 20% without your ult up without even getting to your melee RANGE [!!!!!] and can win any all in with you even if you have a hefly hp adventage!

This game differs from many others. As Trundle doesn't have a real gapcloser, the early game stacking is a battle of skill and aproaching minions, when he can't reach you or taking CS without him taking too much of your hp. One thing you should refrain ureself from when playing against Trundle early is pushing. If you push he might have enough room to chase you down and kill you, although Wither is a pretty effective tool to contain him.

The problem with this lane is simple. You cannot fight Trundle.
You just can't. The only way to fight him is to get ridiculousely fed, when he is not or fighting him when his ult is on CD (it's like 1 minute cooldown so you wont have too much room to exploit that). So if he ults, I recommend that you just Wither him and RUN.

I will explain it by example : I assume you both have the same maximum health. If you have your ultimate and decide to fight Trundle with his ultimate up when you are 100% health and he has 40% health and Blade of the Ruined King, he transfers 30%+ of your HP to himself (20% immidietely, 10% as a DOT). Assuming your ultimate gives you 10% hp (I know its a flat number) your effective HP is 80% and his is 70%. You loose 40% of your armor in this fight, he gains 40%. That's why Trundle's all in is so broken. You could try to lifesteal thro it, but his lifesteal is simply higher and BETTER than yours and he will probably run an Ignite against you. That's why I will stress this up even more : DO NOT DUEL HIM WHEN HIS ULT IS UP.

The only time you can try to take him in 1on1 with his ult up is if u get a lot of stacks and he builds zero tankiness, then you might get some chance of killing him fast enough. Remember a good Trundle will simply bait you to think that you are stronger, show you that you got adventage in a 1on1 and use his ULT the moment he gets to roughly 20% hp and you are for example 60%. This totally twists the fight around giving him the edge he needs and assures him that you won't run away from him (cause you probably gonna think, he is almost dead im over 50% I will kill him!). Wrong. You are gonna die.

A bad Trundle will blow his ult prematurely giving you plenty of time to retreat. Ultimate management is the most complicated thing about the Troll King. It requires owesome anticipation, unique kind of rhytm and specific gameplay to fully utilize him. That's why he ain't really popular in solo queue.

Apart from the laning phase, which slightly favours you if you play safe and patient there are the teamfights. And in these Trundle will make your tankiness look pitiful. You can get a lot of stacks and get focused down in teamfights first and just melt in seconds.

You may think that if you loose 40% of your armor/mr you should build straight damage instead of tankiness - that's a mistake many people do. If you do that he will just utterly destroy you and dump on you during the lane. Follow your standart path, try to bait his ultimate in both laning and teamfights. If you do that, you can win the game against him.

I would start Cloth Armor + 4 Health Potion into Glacial Shroud and extra Cloth Armor, later Sheen / Kindlegem

Tryndamere

Early laning difficulty: 7/10
Post 6 laning difficulty: 3/10
HP / mana sustain: 8/10
Gank assists: 5/10
Snowball/Roaming potential: 8/10
Teamfight presence: 6/10
Self peel from farmed Nasus : 8/10
Type of damage: Sustained Physical Damage (gets spiky when rage bar is full)
Matchup: SKILL MATCHUP

In a big shortcut this lane is exactly the same as Riven from strategical point of view: don't die till lvl 6, get safe stacks, TP back to base to get some armor before he hits lvl 6. Come back to lane. Farm lane and farm Trynda :D

In bigger details :
There is one important thing u need to know about Tryndamere. When his rage bar is full he gains a big chance to crit on every attack. When that happends and he has higher lvl than you early (lvl2 vs lvl3) he can kill you if he gets lucky with just few of his auto attacks. Don't let him surprise you like that and if you are lvl below him go only for stacks that you consider safe.

The important thing about this lane is the lvl 6 powerspike. In a typical lane Tryndamere will hit lvl 6 when you are 5 and if u haven't bought armor yet, you don't want to be anywhere near his proximity (under turret or not - doesn't matter).

The plan for this lane is slowly regaining control of it. If you don't let him kill you and snowball thro that or he doesn't do twice ur amount of cs you should be able to slowly push him away from farm and off the lane. You should occasionally check how much your Q's hit him for. If it's quite a lot (as he won't build armor) you can try to zone him from minions, which will make him harmless, cause he needs to hit something in order to build up his rage. If he doesn't do that, he does a lot less damage and he cannot sustain himself (as his heal depletes his rage and its strength depends on how much rage he has at that specific moment). If you zone him and he aproaches minions you gotta come up and hit him again so he doesn't have time to generate rage. You should have no problems getting nice stacks in this matchup, but if he is good, he will be really strong too.

Killing him is somewhat tricky due to his ultimate and his gap closer, which is really big and can help him go thro cliffs/walls/trees. It's like a build in flash, but a bit slower. You will distinguish a bad Tryndamere from a good one, if you cannot kill him, even tho you get adventage. A good Tryndamere will be strong in a game vs you, cause he will farm early and play def waiting for ganks later. If you go for a kill it's best to bait this ability or just have a lot of room to chase him down. Also, if you both go all in, you gotta remember that you have to not only survive his ult when he is at 0%, but also take down around 15% of his health after the ult, because every decent Tryndamere will use heal near end of it (from a full rage bar). Remember that, when you are calculating wether to keep fighting or retreat when he ults.

Tricky lane and taking into account his insane mobility, sustain and his amazing ult I rate this lane as harder than Riven overall.

Only viable start : Cloth Armor +4 Health Potions.
Items to rush : Glacial Shroud + 1-2 Cloth Armors or Chain Vest
Items that make this hell lot easier Doran's Shield, Ninja Tabi

Udyr

Some old Nasus guides claim that he is a good counter. I read it, when I was learning the champ and met him only once top, even tho I played over 1000 games with Nasus. From what I recall his damage early was quite high, but I didnt die early and I wrecked him later.
Due to low amount of data, I am not gonna rate this matchup.

Vayne

Early laning difficulty: 9/10
Post 6 laning difficulty: 6/10
HP / mana sustain: 7/10
Gank assists: 6/10
Snowball/Roaming potential: 8/10
Teamfight presence: 8/10
Self peel from farmed Nasus : 9/10
Type of damage: Sustained Physical Damage, Every 3rd consecutive attack true damage
Matchup: FAVOURS HER HARD

I was hasitant how to rate this matchup untill I learnt how to play her and started taking her top to check how viable it is. I gotta say she is pretty hard to play and requires a lot of skills to play against gap closer champs. Taking into account that she is very squishy, she isn't really that good top, because ganks can screw her hard.

Anyways, my first game as Vayne top was against.... Nasus. And from that game she remains my go to champion when playing against the dog. She really screws him hard. She is ranged, has a gap closer on low cd and a hard displacement. All that is really annoying, but it wouldn't be that hard if not the below :
1) %hp damage every 3rd attack - this means, if she builds for true damage (rushes attack speed) she doesn't care how much armor or hp you build.
2) She has a build-in chasing mechanism - this means, if u come in her range she has 0 problems packing 3 shots on you in a row (contrary to Gnar for example).
3) insane scaling
4) the hard displacament can stun you if you stand against a wall.

Stacking against her is a living hell. I mean it. If you want to stack for more than 60 seconds without burning 5 potions meanwhile, you need to either push her out or kill her. I'll be frank here - unless she is really bad you won't be able to do that without help. You don't have stacks to kill her early and if she knows what she is doing you won't get them this game. You need to ask your jungler to help you. Either she comes and you kill her or he zones her and let you farm up a bit.

You need that in order to stand up against her, otherwise - you gonna die a lot or get thrown out of the lane all the time.

My advices :
- don't stand up against any wall/terrain when you are laning against her (turret included)
- if she stands up at wall you shouldn't engage her, cause she is baiting you to come to quickly Tumble and stun you with Condemn
- be afraid if she buys some armor with attack speed early, you won't have any chance dueling her then. If she has ignite ask your jungler for a babysit.
- if she stalls lane near her turret WATCH OUT. If she has enough room to chase you down you are as good as dead if you won't Wither her in time. If she tries to chase you always Wither her, or she is gonna kill you.
- do your best to avoid getting hit 3 times in a row.

The things you should be counting on :
- high skill cap - a lot of people take Vayne top and has no clue what to do or how to build against Nasus.
- she is really squishy and top is a really long lane. If she pushes there is a big chance that you can secure a kill if your jungler ganks for you.
- there is a chance their team won't have tanks if she is picked for top.
- if you manage to farm up early (due to jungler zoning her few times or her not being overly agressive) you might have a fighting / farming chance.

But don't get your hopes up - last 3 Nasus players I met top as Vayne went afk..... Two of them didn't hit 100 stacks by 20 mins. I got lucky with next to none jungler presence, but she really is a hard counter. She doesn't slow you down, she just cuts you off.

Only viable start : Cloth Armor +4 Health Potions.
Items to rush : Chain Vest and Glacial Shroud / Kindlegem later.
Items that can make this lane easier Doran's Shield, Ninja Tabi.

Vi

Early laning difficulty: 6/10
Post 6 laning difficulty: 2/10
HP / mana sustain: 4/10
Gank assists: 7/10
Snowball/Roaming potential: 7/10
Teamfight presence: 7/10
Self peel from farmed Nasus : 5/10
Type of damage: High CD Physical Burst + True damage
Matchup: FAVOURS YOU HARD

Not a usual laner, Vi is known for being a deadly jungler, but nearly nobody plays her top lane. Why? Well, she has some really big issues when playing top.
1) element of surprise is gone, so even if she locks you down its still 1vs1, not 1vs2.
2) her biggest damage move ( Vault Breaker)is a skillshot that is hard to land in normal laning conditions.
3) she is a hard pusher and if the lane is frozen near your turret she cannot risk using her Vault Breaker, cause in a kill attempt she might roll under ur turret if she misses it and you get a free kill.

Playing against Vi isn't that hard. She has big and powerful CD's and is dealing a lot of damage even without items (especially in that early game). If you play recklessly early u gonna die. Simple. You should just let her push the lane, get safe stacks and try to freeze it near ur turret. If that happends Vi is helpless, because you just removed one of her key abilities - Vault Breaker. If she risks using it near your turret range she can easily suicide, so the lane positioning is critical in this lane. After getting some stacks you just walk over her. A very favoured lane.

Start Cloth Armor +4, into Glacial Shroud or Chain Vest if you are having troubles. Later on Kindlegem and Sheen.

Vladimir

Early laning difficulty: 7/10
Post 6 laning difficulty: 5/10
HP / mana sustain: 8/10
Gank assists: 7/10
Snowball/Roaming potential: 7/10
Teamfight presence: 7/10
Self peel from farmed Nasus : 7/10
Type of damage: Sustained Magic Damage with bursty/dot ultimate
Matchup: FAVOURS HIM HARD

Ah, Vladimir.
The vamp of top is really annoying to play against as Nasus. He shouldn't completely deny you in this lane at any point, unless u feed him but you will eat a portion of damage every time you come into his reach. His damage is consistent and predictable, apart from some burst and dot when he ults you.
Outscaling him into late game is not an option, as he is a better teamfighter than you, has AoE damage and is a typical late game champion.

So he is stronger than you early and late. What do you then?
First thing you can do is count on getting help. Ganks can turn this lane in your favour pretty easily. Although that's not really reliable way of handling Vlad, as he has a jungler too.

If you wanna win vs Vladimir in lane your goal is killing him around midgame, before he becomes that tanky unkillable monster he can become. Basically if played properly, you can win the mid game and snowball of it.

One important thing to know if you wanna kill vlad solo is his mechanics. He stacks Tides of Blood for damage. So if you click on him you see how many stacks he has. If he has 4 stacks you should never engage him, unless you got a gank and ur ahead. You should always aim at going all in when he has 0 stacks up. Best case scenario his lolpool is on a cooldown too, but that rarely happends :)

Early game is all about stacking as fast as possible without dieing, the problem with Vladimir is that you need a lot of steady sustain so you either need to start with a lot of pots or a vial. Build that into early magic resistance.

To kill vlad in mid game you gotta wait for that 1 occasion when :
1) The lane is somewhere near your turret, giving you room to chase him
2) You got a healthy amount of stacks (200+), 40% CDR (For fast Q's), some base Magic Resistance ( Spectre's Cowl or Spirit Visage) and possibly a Sheen
3) you are at least at 80% HP he has at that point (counting before you ult).
4) 3) He has dropped his Tides of Blood stacks to 0

If that opportunity ever araises you should go balls deep and pray you got enough stacks to take him down.

Would be nice if his trollpool was on cooldown too, but let's be realistic here - I doubt he gonna be stupid enough to burn it, unless he is an idiot.

Anyways, this lane favours him hard.
If you die early, he will be stronger.
If he has better jungler, he will be stronger.
If you don't stack fast, he will be stronger.

Focus, aim at the midgame, never engage him on 4 stacks. Goodluck.

Volibear

Early laning difficulty: 6/10
Post 6 laning difficulty: 5/10
HP / mana sustain: 6/10
Gank assists: 6/10
Snowball/Roaming potential: 7/10
Teamfight presence: 7/10
Self peel from farmed Nasus : 5/10
Type of damage: Sustained Hybrid and %HP damage (over 50% is physical tho)
Matchup: SKILL MATCHUP

Although Volibear might not be popular top pick nowadays he is very much viable.
He has a speedboost connected with flip similar to Singed called Thundering Smash, nice passive that heals him for 30% of his total health when he gets below 30%, an ability that slows you while fearing all the minions/monsters in his proximity (especially useful when he goes for you and there is a lot of your minions around) and his Frenzy . This makes him a really good dueler, especially vs Nasus who also deals sustained damage.

Frenzy is also deadlier if you get lower on hp, so your main goal is to try to stay at high hp lvls during the laning phase. Stacking against Volibear gets fairly easy if you are next to full health, but stacking when you are below 50% is very risky.

The problem with this lane is simple - he doesn't fall off at lvl 6 as most of your adversaries do, because he has a really powerful ultimate during which you get hit by Physical, Magical and %HP damage from frenzy. He also enjoys prolonged exchanges at which Nasus exceels at, but he doesn't suffer due to bad early game.

If you play this game smart, buy a lot of pots and keep your hp lvls quite high during the laning you shouldn't have problems stacking against him, you will eventually outgrow him if you play good enough. Just try not to let him flip you too often, especially when there is a lot of his minions around. This may lead to your undoing.

Start Cloth Armor +5, into Glacial Shroud or Chain Vest if you are having troubles. Later on Kindlegem and Sheen with Null-Magic Mantle somewhere in between.

Warwick

Early laning difficulty: 4/10
Post 6 laning difficulty: 3/10
HP / mana sustain: 8/10
Gank assists: 8/10
Snowball/Roaming potential: 7/10
Teamfight presence: 7/10
Self peel from farmed Nasus : 3/10
Type of damage: Sustained Hybrid Damage
Matchup: FAVOURS YOU

Warwick is more of an utility pick than a threat on his own. He has nice sustained damage, high levels of sustain and a point and click lockdown ultimate and that's about it.

He doesn't have tools to deny you in lane, he has only 1 CC, which is his ultimate and it got nerfed pretty badly recently. You should have no problems stacking really fast against him, just remember that his main harass ability (which also heals him) deals MAGIC damage, so getting an early Null-Magic Mantle makes his harass a lot less effective. He is also very deadly both as a roamer and as a gank assistant due to the nature of his ult. Puting all that aside - you will get lots of stacks, but you will need crazy amounts of em to kill him if he decides to stack armor:) If he goes for damage however he has nothing to protect himself from you, apart from his ultimate, which still ends with him being next to you. At that point 200 stacks is enough to wipe him out from his very existence.

Stacking might be very easy in this matchup, but the problem is his utility. He can lock down key targets easily during teamfights. That's why even a bad WW is never useless. On the other hand, if he gets fed he gets nearly unkillable as long as he can stand and hit his targets for sustain.

Start Cloth Armor +5, into Glacial Shroud and Null-Magic Mantle. Later on Kindlegem and Iceborn Gauntlet.

Wukong

Early laning difficulty: 7/10
Post 6 laning difficulty: 3/10
HP / mana sustain: 3/10
Gank assists: 8/10
Snowball/Roaming potential: 7/10
Teamfight presence: 9/10
Self peel from farmed Nasus : 6/10
Type of damage: Reasonable CD Physical Burst
Matchup: FAVOURS YOU

Yet another utility pick for top lane, that is bigger threat for your team than you.
Wukong is a champion that excels in 5/5 scenarios, especially paired with Yasuo or Orianna. He doesn't have the tools to stop you, unless you feed him. He has a gap closer, but it has quite a cooldown, invisibility and a trademark ultimate everyone who play lol know about.

During the laning phase you should be fine with stacking, he might be a little overwhelming early if you try to ignore him. Treat him like Riven. Play extra safe early, get armor, CDRS, stacks and show him why are you called THE CANE. Most Wukongs build damage first and that's what make this lane easy. Get some armor, 40% CDR, 200 stacks, Sheen, a pink ward. Then just go and kill him. Without a pink ward you will fail tho.

Anyways this lane is pretty straightforward and you should have tons of stacks and possibly a kill or two when you leave it.

Start Cloth Armor +5, into Chain Vest. Later on Glacial Shroud/ Kindlegem and Sheen. Remember that Vision Ward is really handy, if you are planning to go for the kill!

Xin Zhao

Early laning difficulty: 7/10
Post 6 laning difficulty: 2/10
HP / mana sustain: 5/10
Gank assists: 5/10
Snowball/Roaming potential: 7/10
Teamfight presence: 4/10
Self peel from farmed Nasus : 3/10
Type of damage: Reasonable CD Physical Burst
Matchup: FAVOURS YOU HARD

People who take him top lane probably didn't play LOL for 2 years or so. After 10 milion nerfs he became garbage top laner, as he needs to be really far ahead to dominate anyone. He can still work in a jungle, where he has element of surprise on his side, thus he can ninja some kills off the lanes and snowball hard enough to carry.

Anyways, Xin Zhao is absolutely rubbish laner. He has some nice burst early game before you get some armor, but nothing a good Nasus should be afraid off. Yes, he has build-in armor penetration, but his skills were so nerfed that you shouldn't have any problems surviving the damage. Just avoid getting knocked up by his Three Talon Strike several times in a row and your fine. Play safe till 6, after 6 it's a free farm really. If you decide to go for him, he has only his ult to get away from you and that move has quite a cd. When you get some nice stacks and armor you just wreck him. No lube.

Warning - not updated fully for the current season - Xin Zhao have been buffed apparently (more crits !) I didn't meet one top yet, so the guide remains unchanged. I advise caution if paired against him.

Start Cloth Armor +5, into Chain Vest and Kindlegem. Later on Glacial Shroud and Sheen.

Yasuo

Early laning difficulty: 7/10
Post 6 laning difficulty: 2/10
HP / mana sustain: 4/10
Gank assists: 7/10
Snowball/Roaming potential: 9/10
Teamfight presence: 4/10 or 10/10 (depends on knockups)
Self peel from farmed Nasus : 3/10
Type of damage: Reasonable CD Physical Burst
Matchup: FAVOURS YOU

Yet another squishy wannabe top champion. Similar to Zed or Talon - Yasuo is great at destroying squishy mages, if he comes top you will make him suffer.

The plan is simple, play really carefuly till 6, get armor and destroy him. Also a warning: If you die to him during first 5 lvls, similary to Riven he can snowball out of control and stomp you. So don't die in first 5 lvls!
To achieve those goals avoid getting knocked up by him in the lane early. You can see when he has it up, then you can see a little hurricane around him. It's a skillshot so if you don't move too predictibly, he's gonna miss it a lot. Also, if you get low on hp, just go back and tp back to lane. Don't risk it, cause its simply not worth it.
Remember when he moves (regardless if its walking or dashing) he is charging his shield up. You can see the charging bar where other champion have their resources, if the bar is full, this means he has a shield up worth around 15-20% of his health. Keep that in mind when you go for a kill and he starts kiting. If he kites you long enough to get the shield back he can totally twist a fight (assuming you aren't a monster already :D).

Basically all you have to do is surviving first 5 lvls, getting armor before he gets his ult up, tping back to lane. The lane becomes a lot easier to handle then and you can even kill him without having a lot of stacks if he is too reckless. later on, when u have like 200 stacks all he can do is hope you gonna let him live, because you wanna stack. He will count on that, try to play def but he has no tools to do that. Eventually he will go roam or feed, because he can't do much more. Very favoured lane.

Also, watch out if they have Malphite or Wukong jungle. If they do, they might combo you down 2vs1 quite easily. Warding is mandatory when playing this matchup.

There is also an important thing to remember : Yasuo can come back from being really bad to carrying a game. All he needs is Statik and IE to delete your carries, try to always focus him first, even if he is behind. Don't give him opportunity to get back into the game.

Start Cloth Armor +5, into Chain Vest. Later on Glacial Shroud/ Kindlegem and Sheen.

Yorick

Early laning difficulty: 6/10
Post 6 laning difficulty: 3/10
HP / mana sustain: 7/10
Gank assists: 4/10
Snowball/Roaming potential: 5/10
Teamfight presence: 4/10
Self peel from farmed Nasus : 3/10
Type of damage: Magic constant spam damage thro ghouls (till he goes oom) / hybrid in melee combat
Matchup: FAVOURS YOU HARD

This is one of my favourite lanes by far, all the records of stacking I ever got were against Yorick. He is your bonus farm distributor and treat him as such. Try to cs minions with aa's and Q his ghouls (it will require a little bit of practisse as they loose hp when they follow you, so the timing can be tricky at times). Whether its ghoul or minion, you should have opportunity to stack your Siphoning Strike every single time the cd comes up.

During the laning the early game can be a little bit overwhelming in terms of his harass. Especially if u try to ignore his ghouls and farm minions. Don't do that! Kill the ghouls before they stack up too much and deal enough damage to push you out. Keep it under control. Every single time I am against Yorick in the early game there comes a breaking point when I think I won't sustain much more of his harass, but at this point he becomes oom and gotta go back to harass me again (which takes him time while i stack) or he can stay in lane but without harassing so hard, but just farming and harassing occasionally.
Anyways, whatever he picks - it's a win win situation.

If you survive thro his initial harass, this lane becomes walk in a park and a farmfest. All you need to win the lane is some basic MR like Spectre's Cowl and capped CDR with Kindlegem and Glacial Shroud. With 40% CDR u stack like a maniac if he decides to stay in lane.

Remember, if you go for a kill early, Yorick can be deceptively tanky, even without tank items. I like to have 300 stacks in this matchup before becoming agressive, but you can kill him earlier if you want.

Early build order : Spectre's Cowl, Kindlegem and Glacial Shroud.

You reached level 6, but enemy has advantage and whitled you down? You have 30% hp and all you need is around 100g to get back to base, buy the stuff you neeed and tp back?

Don't wait under your turret and pray for enemy to let you cs there.

Activate Fury of the Sands, throw your Spirit Fire on the creepwave and Wither enemy champion. Most enemies will think a jungler is coming and you are going for gank assist and will back off and let you get those few precious CS you are lacking to get what you wanted.

Playing vs strong lvl 6 enemy AD like Riven, Trynda or Renekton?
Go back to base before 6, get early armor, go back to lane. Farm at will.

If enemy has no initial sustain and overextends to harass you behind your mobback?
Wither him, move out of his range and let the creeps punish him for being too bold.

The lane is stalled near middle of your lane and enemy zones you?
Move back under your turret and pretend you are about to teleport back to base. Most enemies will start pushing hard then so you will loose the creeps. Cancel the teleport, farm the lane. You can go for big wraith / Golems also to achieve this.

Baiting turret shots
If you manage to freeze enemy minions just in front of your turret you have the opportunity to bait enemy and let him soak some turret shots for free. Make sure none of the enemy minions are inside your turret reach then pretend you are going for last hit and move away last second. Many melee champions in a harass attempt will try to hit you even if you move inside your turret range again. Requires some experience and a good 'feeling' of the turret's range. It's most effective against champions with little or none early sustain and hard to control dash like Riven, but can be also good against champs like Renekton or Olaf.

Behaviour after killing enemy laner - gank or not.
It's simple - EXPLOIT THE GOLEMS if you are on the right side and let enemy push meanwhile when he gets back! If executed properly that's your 30 stacks! I tend to exploit that a lot over the course of the games I play.

DECEMBER 2nd 2014

Preseason 5 didn't really affect Nasus laning against AD champions at top - he is still a very strong pick against most of them.

On the other hand the removal of Negatron Cloak and increasing the Null-Magic Mantle cost was an indirect nerf to Nasus early game against AP champions.

I will shortly explain why.

720g was a really nice goal early game and the Negatron Cloak itself gave all you needed to sustain yourself thro the early laning. Null-Magic Mantle gives less MR and you will probably build it the same moment you used to build the Cloak. This means you are probably entering lvl 6 laning phase will less MR that you used to before this patch. Also starting with Null-Magic Mantle is impossible now due to its cost.

The item that would make your laning comfortable early is now Spectre's Cowl. Sadly, from what I've been testing the 1200g cost for the new Spectre's Cowl is an aim nearly unachievable if you are playing against a good AP carry player (we are talking about the amount of money gathered before 1st back). However If you do try to achieve the 1200g goal you are putting your own self at risk of entering a level 6 exchange without visiting the shop.

Riot failed to achieve their goal with this change. If they wanted to create 'I need MR now' item, why didn't they make Null-Magic Mantle cost 300g and give a little less MR than now? You could start mantle + 5 hp pots and build Negatron Cloak out of two mantles.
This would make the AP solotop champions a lot less toxic than they currently are. The way the changes went are totally off for me, but guess that's Riot :)


DECEMBER 23th 2014

Riot realized their mistake and gave us back the Negatron Cloak. Sadly they didn't put it back as a building item for Spectre's Cowl so my stance on the change is the same as before. This is an indirect nerf to Nasus against AP opponents.

It's been a while since the introduction of a Turbo Chemtank item. I was hasitant whether it's worth to pick it up, but after some testing I got to a conclusion that this item is brilliant! Second ghost with an additional CC with some hefty hp. I build it literally in every single game now :) Go try it out! It's owesome!


DECEMBER 28-29th 2014

- added Maokai, Pantheon, Renekton, Rengar, Riven and Rumble matchups.
- patched out nearly 50 typos I found out and some minor mistakes in the guide itself. Also managed to patch out the bloody Negatron Cloak from the early build section (thanks rito!)
I will have problems finishing this guide before new year as i planned, but I will do my best.


January 2015
- added Ryze, Shen, Shyvana, Singed, Teemo, Talon matchups (13 left).
- removed Chain Vest from the early build order (since they changed the recipie for Warden's Mail its better to get for example early Glacial Shroud and two Cloth Armor or just rush Warden's Mail. I actually consider this a buff against AD champions, cause u dont have to get 720g to get more tanky against them. If they somehow push you out earlier you come back to lane tankier, which works in your favour :)

February 2015
- added Swain and Trundle matchups.
- tweaked Ryze and Renekton matchups accordingly to their current strength.

March 2015
I am sooo lazy, I know it. I should end this section long ago.
But hey! Tryndamere and Vayne matchups released. Also Udyr got a honorable mention. Tweaked Lissandra to reflect her mana problems if she decides to harass you early game (got some more games against her).

April 2015
- Added a bit of runes flexibility, as there are games at which they come in handy.
- Vi, Vladimir, Volibear, Warwick, Wukong, Xin Zhao, Yasuo, Yorick and Sion matchups released. Matchups section is finally closed (for now :>)

April 2016
- done updating the guide for the current season
- added Ekko and Illaoi matchups

April 2017
Crucial gameplay update regarding itemization and runes in s7.