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- About the author - Hey guys, I'm Jai (or jhoijhoi) here on Mobafire, I'm currently Gold Ranked for S3 and this guide is about my favourite off-tank, Nasus. Nasus was my second ever champion (straight after Ashe), and I initially bought him because he was a dog, as I love dogs. - Content disclaimer - This guide is 100% my experience with this champion and a reflection of my own style of playing, not anyone else's. I am just like you, an avid League of Legends fan. - What will this guide cover? - I dabbled with theory crafting, after learning how to build Nasus from the Nasus Master, Hyfe, back in Season One and with collaboration from Warlemming and Patch, came up with my spin on an optimal solo top Nasus. So, without further adieu, welcome to Nihilistic Nasus! Who let the dogs out?! - Last edited - - 19/01/2014

As all champions, Nasus has his flaws/weaknesses and his strengths. If your team is in need of a solo top, Nasus is a reasonable choice due to his natural sustainability via his passive, Soul Eater. He can EASILY out-farm the enemy solo top due to clearing creep waves with level 3 Spirit Fire, or stealing last hits with Siphoning Strike (unless you're denied, but we'll get to that later).

Powerful Pros ⍛ ⍜ ⍘ ⍙ ⍘ ⍜ ⍛ + Snowballer + Natural sustain + Crippling attack / movement slow + Armour debuff + Fun to play

Nasus is pretty straight forward. The only difficulty lies on knowing who to Wither during teamfights (generally speaking, Wither the ADC, or whoever is out of position). He can virtually two-shot any squishy if he has farmed his Q enough, and he's so naturally tanky he's hard to kill. If you acquire Guardian Angel, Locket of the Iron Solari or Sunfire Aegis, your survivability is drastically increased and you become almost indestructible with your lifesteal.

Critical Cons ⍛ ⍜ ⍘ ⍙ ⍘ ⍜ ⍛ - Farm reliant - Easily kited - Easily denied - Easily poked - Heavy mana usage=

Nasus' biggest weakness is if he loses top lane and gets zoned out of Q farm he becomes useless late game. He can be easily countered by other champions (such as Teemo) and a double AP enemy team set-up hinders his ability to build effectively against a late game AD Carry.

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Soul Eater (Passive): Natural life steal is a fantastic attribute for a candidate who would like to jungle, or solo top. This passive allows Nasus to stay in lane forever, as it requires only one auto-attack, or powered up Siphoning Strike to boost his health bar. Coupled with and 3x Greater Quintessence of Life Steal, Nasus' aggressive health regeneration is quite high, allowing him to sustain himself in 1v1 fights.

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Siphoning Strike (Q): Siphoning Strike is a phenomenal ability that scales with farm. It heals you for a huge chuck of health and when a creep, tower or champion is killed with it, stacks damage. So each time you successfully last hit with Siphoning Strike, 3-6 points of damage are added to the damage of the next Siphoning Strike. This damage can snowball crazily; on the other hand, a Nasus who doesn't last hit is not going to scale well at all into late game.

You level up Q first to lower it's cooldown. With an early Glacial Shroud/ Kindlegem your SS is reduced to mere seconds at final level, which means you can get all those minions with your Q. Primarily use this to last hit. Basically you want to use your Q for last hits in order to amp up its damage. This is an "on-hit" ability, so you have to activate it and attack something for the damage to be applied. This ability procs Sheen. Can be used on towers.

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Wither (W): This ability was the highest level slow in the game until the arrival of Thresh. If you're in a 1v1 fight, pop Wither on the enemy, and their attack speed and movement speed become crippled, giving you the instant upper hand in a blow-by-blow skirmish. This ability cannot be used on creeps, baron or dragon.

In a teamfight generally Wither the enemy AD carry - the one who will do the most damage through auto attacks. You don't want to panic and Wither the first champion you see - unless you know Wither will guarantee a kill. Don't feel obliged to ONLY Wither AD champions; remember, Wither is also a movement speed slow. Use this ability to catch up to an enemy, or to escape an enemy.

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Spirit Fire (E): This ability has the potential to do great harm, shredding armour and dealing initial damage and then damage over time. However the drawback of SF, like most AoE abilities, is that champions quickly escape the AoE, meaning you don't deal the full damage of the ability. In lane it is very useful for clearing creep waves, and it can help to lower creep health in order to get the last hit with Siphoning Strike. At level 3, Spirit Fire can kill the caster minions in a wave. The other use for SF is to lower the armour of your opponent, which can make your SS harass more dangerous.

Nasus' Spirit Fire is a great addition in fights, lowering the armour of any enemy champion that stands in it. In lane, it is good for pushing a minion wave, which can leave yourself over-extended, or hugging the tower losing creep kills and experience because it's not safe to be at the enemy tower. Dissuades chasers. Keeps melee champions away from allied minions; an effective way to delay enemy farm. Can outright kill someone if they're on low enough health, and tower hugging. After Withering someone, cast Spirit Fire ahead of where they're walking, so they take more damage (from the damage dealt AND from the shredded armour), or are forced to walk around it. Spirit Fire is useful for clearing small jungle creeps.

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Fury of the Sands (R): Absolutely LOVE this ultimate. Not only does it make Nasus look uber cool as he suddenly transforms into a HUGE *** MENACING UPRIGHT DOG, but he gains more damage depending on the enemy champions around him and gains a huge chunk of health, dealing a lot of damage in an AoE around him.

Don't hesitate to cast your ultimate if your HP is worringly low. This ability is best used in the middle of a teamfight. Ulting when chasing an enemy can net you the kill from the AoE. When the enemy Nexus explodes for your victory, make sure you are visible on the ending screen, pop this, type /d and then /j and you BECOME KING.

Q: Why max Siphoning Strike first?

// This ability is one reason why Nasus is viable. Lowering that cooldown is absolutely vital to grabbing all the creeps he can with it. At lowest level it has an 8 second cooldown without CDR and there's no way you're going to be able to get every creep with it during the laning phase if you don't level it up. A Nasus with no stacks on his Q is a useless Nasus.

Q: But doesn't Spirit Fire do more damage??

// Ideally, you will only want to level up Spirit Fire before Siphoning Strike if you are being incredibly denied. Remember, the reason why Nasus is a crazy snowball champion is because of the stacking damage he gains with his Q. Taking advantage of this no-damage-cap hero separates the good Nasus players from the bad Nasus players. You CAN take a few levels of SF for the armour reduction and to increase your damage if you're up against someone top lane who has no escape from Wither. It's wise to have at least one level of SF once you hit level 3 in order to clear creep waves if necessary.

Q: So when should I max Spirit Fire first?

// It depends on your objective in the game; Nasus can be played as a split-pusher, just farming away and taking down towers when your team is fighting. If you choose to max Spirit Fire first, and insist on spamming it, you are choosing this split-push Nasus play style and you need to keep with it. That means buying or specing for some mana regen, as SF spam eats a lot of mana.

C-c-c-c-combo Breaker-r-r-r With Nasus you will want to Wither the enemy to slow their movement and attack speed (obviously you cannot use Wither on creeps or monsters). Activate Siphoning Strike as soon as possible after one auto attack (allowing for a little extra damage with Sheen to go off from Wither), then smack in the face with a Siphoning Strike. Place Spirit Fire in the direction they're fleeing so they're forced to walk around it, or through it, and auto attack as much as possible until Siphoning Strike comes up. It's up to you whether it's necessary to drop your ultimate, Fury of the Sands.

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Teleport: Gives you awesome map control, and being able to Teleport to wards and other targetable objects (minions, towers, allied objects) is invaluable when you want to gank. It is also useful for backdooring. For example, if all the enemy champions are dead due to a fight somewhere on the map, you can Teleport to a minion push, destroy a tower and run/recall before they respawn.

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Ghost: I run Ghost over Flash because I like the utility Ghost gives me in chasing and fleeing when coupled with Wither. If you're used to Flashing to secure kills or escape being out of position, Flash will always work better for you.

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Flash: Flash is extremely useful for closing the gap on enemies if they're running away, or for jumping over walls to escape from salivating enemies vying for your blood. Flash is a great supplement on champions with no escape mechanism. Flash is a fail safe, as well as being a strong offensive tool. Coupled with Wither, Flash normally can secure a kill.

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THE IDEA BEHIND DEFENSE TREE NASUS // A full defense set up is favourable when playing a champion who primarily will be a tank. It can also help you against a particularly hard lane. A tanky Nasus is amazing and a huge presence in teamfights. Grabbing Doran's Shield + Unyielding + Block , you mitigate so much damage it's unbelievable. 21+ allocated into this tree allows you to bulk yourself up with resistances for great early and late game survivability. If you're up against a heavy AD top lane, you'll find the extra armour from this tree a godsend. Or the MR fantastic against those AP heavy champions, like Rumble or Teemo. Second Wind and Swiftness are must have masteries from the defense tree. Q: Is Recovery better than Enchanted Armor ? // Armour and health share a ratio of 1:1%, meaning that for every 1 armour, you get 1% health. If you have 100 armour, it's like having 100% more health. So the more armour you can get, the better your survivability. Now consider the properties of Recovery : 0.4 health regen per second. Nasus naturally has 8hpr/5 at level 1. Doran's Shield start gives 18hpr/5. You could stack that with the 2hpr/5 for a tiny boost in the first 3 levels of the game, OR boost your defense throughout the game and once you buy armour/magic resist with Enchanted Armor . It comes down to whether you want to increase your early game survivability, or your late game.

OFFENSE EXPLAINED // Generally speaking, Nasus is tanky before wanting damage. He's all about stacking his Q for damage and buying items that will bulk him up. As such, the Offense Tree leaves little to be desired on Bruiser Nasus. The main focus to aim for if spec'ing in this tree is Sorcery for the cool down reduction. I wouldn't recommend progressing any further down this tree, as there are more valuable masteries to be obtained in either the Defense or Utility trees. The offense tree is no longer a good choice on tanky bruiser-esque champions, as you can't obtain armour pen with 9 stand-alone points. Q: What about going 9 points into the Offense Tree for extra AD? // The AD you get from the Offense Mastery Brute Force (1AD at level 2) + Martial Mastery (4AD) is surpassed by 2 whole Siphoning Strikes during the first wave of creeps. I'll let you decide whether more points in Offense is truly necessary.

UTILITY EXPLAINED // From the utility tree, we want increased Fleet of Foot to make up for not grabbing Greater Quintessence of Movement Speed, which allows us to move in on minions to last hit easier, chase and stick to enemies when coupled with Trinity Force/ Iceborn Gauntlet proc and in worse case scenarios, escape better.

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Greater Quintessence of Movement Speed: Always a bonus to have that extra movement. If you start with Boots and these quints, you walk to lane with just over 400 movement speed. CRAZY INSANE. The reason why Quints of Swiftness are viable on Nasus is because of his low auto-attack range and the fact he needs to farm his Siphoning Strike. You need to be able to get in close to a minion to SS it, then you need to get out before the enemy solo top whacks you with a spell or auto-attack.

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Greater Quintessence of Life Steal: The 6% lifesteal + Soul Eater + Siphoning Strike allows you to regain a lot of health with your last hitting, making these Quints viable. Q: What about Greater Quintessence of Health Regeneration? // Passive sustain (regen quints) vs active sustain (life steal). Both serve the same purpose of keeping your health up. As Nasus, you are constantly Q'ing creeps or the enemy champion, which is why I believe that it is worth running life steal quints that scale all throughout the game, rather than health regeneration which falls off at level 6. Health regen quints ARE strong early game, keep that in mind.

Greater mark of armor penetration

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Greater mark of armor penetration: Always fantastic on a primarily auto-attack champion. These runes mean you don't have to solely focus on Armour reducing items in the game, unless you really need to. These are the only Marks I'd suggest, for lane Nasus. Most opposing AD carries/solo top champions will have Greater Seal of Armor and these marks will help penetrate them. Q: Why not Greater Mark of Attack Damage? // Identical reasoning to why I don't go 9 into the Offense Tree. With 9x AD Marks, you get a total of 8AD. You need to last hit with Siphoning Strike only 3 minions in the first wave or two to surpass the damage these AD marks give you. Whereas if you grab armour penetration marks you get a %damage boost that scales throughout the game, on your Q and auto-attacks.

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Greater Seal of Armor: Standard tank seals. Great at all stages of the game and will really help you in teamfights. If you are up against an AD champion top lane, then fantastic, you've already made it harder for your opponent to hurt you with their autoattacks. Riven, Garen, Darius - these champions will beat you in lane. They will rush damage or armour pen (Brutilizer) to squash you. These suggested runes will mean you will be able to take some of the damage they deal to you. If you also start with a Cloth Armor and 5x Health Potions, you will be able to negate almost all their damage entirely.

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Greater Glyph of Magic Resist/ Greater Glyph of Scaling Magic Resist: It's undeniable. As Nasus you may come up against an AP champion. AP champions shut Nasus down. They're often tanky or rely on spell vamp in order to allow them to trade damage in fights. Nasus can't take the spam of most casters, especially manaless ones such as Vlad or Rumble or relentless poke, like Teemo. In order to counter such champions, you WILL need a decent amount of Magic Resist to get you through the first few levels. Deciding between flat and scaling MR comes down to whether your opponent top lane deals a lot of early game magic damage ( Teemo etc). If you are against a flat AD champion (like Garen), you can skip flat MR and go for scaling, which are more useful late game.

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greater mark of armor penetration

This is the page I tend to run when I play Nasus blind-pick. The life steal quints give Nasus aggressive sustain when last hitting or harassing with Siphoning Strike or just plain scratch damage auto-attacks. The armour pen is a nice addition to any unexpected ganks or 1v1 fights, as is the defensive picks of armour and magic resist. This is a well-rounded page for Nasus players, regardless of skill level.

- The Trinket system allows you to pick one of three vision items: , or . Personally I prefer the defense, offense and utility the ability to place a ward gives you, especially early game. Later on in the game it can be beneficial to swap to the Scrying Orb or Sweeping Lens, depending on your opponents.

- I truly recommend starting with this item on Nasus. It gives you a big chuck of health, some nice passive regen and a good "shield" that works well with Block and Unyielding . Coupled with your natural life steal + life steal quints, you will be able to sustain easily in lane. If you are against an AP champion, Doran's Shield is not an optimal start; I'd recommend Boots + Pots.

- For mobility against skillshots, quicker (or safer) last-hits and a bigger health cushion to keep you in the lane if you can't lifesteal. Boots will give you a lot of maneuverability and 600 effective health with those potions. Boots + Pots start is standard on most solo top champions.

- Unfortunately Nasus can be countered by a lot of solo top AD champions due simply to a higher damage output early game. Nasus has two offensive spells readily available in his retinue: Siphoning Strike and Spirit Fire. In essence, Nasus has poor 1v1 damage early game, compared to say, Olaf, Shyvana, Riven or Darius. If you know you will top lane against a very hard-hitting AD champion you need to grab these starting items to withstand the damage they will deal to you until you can damage them back with a stacked Siphoning Strike.

Why a Tanky Build?
The mentality behind a tanky Nasus build revolves around three things: a) Nasus will go solo top to free farm, b) Nasus does not need damage items to deal tremendous damage, c) Nasus primarily needs survivability to be of the most use to the team.

On Spawn > Early Levels
Depending on the enemy solo top, buy the correct starting items (refer to "Starting Items" chapter); if you don't know your opponent/don't know the damage they can deal, start with Boots and 4x Health Potions. Don't forget to spec a Trinket.

Now head off to top lane. As Nasus, you will want to be last hitting every single creep you can with Siphoning Strike, to raise the damage of said ability, and not pushing the wave of minions. You want to remain safe around your tower/your safety zone, and farm freely. Don't go out of your way to harass the enemy, as you are mainly concerned about farming your Q.

First purchases
Every single time the enemy solo top goes to recall, push the wave to their tower with Spirit Fire, whack the tower with Siphoning Strike and then recall yourself. Buy some items ( Glacial Shroud/ Kindlegem, Boots, Stealth Wards), then Teleport (if you have it) back up to your tower if necessary. Save your Teleport for more important matters if possible. Alternatively, you can grab Spectre's Cowl if you're against a solo top AP champion like Rumble or Vladimir; it gives great early magic resist and sustain via damage dealt to you. If you are particularly ahead in CS and kills, purchase an early Sheen for the damage boost.


Sheen is an important component of Nasus' build. I tend to buy Sheen before upgraded boots. Sheen is proc'd by Siphoning Strike, which increases Nasus' damage potential, meaning you can last hit easier and also trade more in lane. Sheen builds into Trinity Force or Iceborn Gauntlet, either of which IS Nasus' most core damage item (not both).


Around about now, you should be deciding which boots to buy, and as Off-Tank Nasus, the decision resides only between Tabi and Mercs. Ninja Tabi is good against a team of a lot of physical damage. Mercs is good against a team with a lot of CC and magic damage.


Entering Mid Game
Early mid game is a different story compared to early game; you should no longer be focused on farming, but on participating in teamfights. You want to be the tank, the damage soak, you need to be focused by the enemy AD, and you can take a lot of hurt. Stand in the middle of a fight, throw down Spirit Fire, pop Fury of the Sands and Wither the enemy AD carry.


So, about now, it should be late mid game and it's time to officially boost your damage via one single item. Either Iceborn Gauntlet or Trinity Force. You shouldn't be wanting a Trinity or Gauntlet earlier than this; you don't want to sacrifice your tankieness for a little tiny bit more damage. The Phage effect from Trinity will be beneficial in chasing, as will the movement speed boost from Zeal. Trinity is a Jack of All Trades item. Trinity is more solo-fight orientated.

Alternatively... Iceborn Gauntlet, which is more team-fight orientated. I cannot stress the amazing qualities of this item. Not only does it build out of Sheen AND Glacial Shroud, two CORE items on early/mid game Nasus, but the slow effect occurs in an AoE! What do you lose though, if you grab this instead? You lose Health from Phage, Movement Speed and Attack Speed from Zeal. It really is a tough decision, but grabbing Gauntlet gives Nasus more team presence in fights.

Late Game > Teamfights
Nasus scales with farm, and thus time; the longer you give him to farm his Q, the more dangerous he gets. This late into the game, you're going to want some more survivability, as no doubt the enemy team has noticed you're doing too much damage to their squishies. Generally a Guardian Angel rounds off the build well. Below are some options of what you can build to finish the game off - choose wisely by deducing what type of damage you want to negate. If they are a primarily AD team, build an item that gives armour and/or health. If they are magic damage heavy, you'll want some sort of MR item.



Armour, Magic Resist & Health
If you need more MR than Spirit Visage, it comes down to Banshee's Veil or Guardian Angel. Basically you have to decide whether you wish to have some health + blocking a small spell, or if you'd rather have significant armour/magic resist bonuses + reviving upon death. As always, it's perfectly acceptable to itemise against the enemy team, so there'll be times when you build both Visage and Veil.

Q: Wait... When do I buy Spirit Visage?

// It depends completely on the game you're playing. It gives you CDR, health, magic resist and increased health regeneration via effects such as life steal. It's a CORE item on Nasus. I like to buy it straight after other core components of Nasus' kit, like Sheen and Glacial Shroud. Depending on the game, that could be early or mid game.

Frozen Heart allows for long term sustain in your lane and gives you what Nasus lacks, Cooldown Reduction, Mana and Armor via the early Glacial Shroud. The other option would be Randuin's Omen. This option is also very favourable, as it also gives some health and armour and a great unique active AoE slow (perfect if you don't grab IceFist). Frozen Heart vs Randuins is a common argument in my comment section, but like the above magic resist comment, it is acceptable to buy both if necessary.

Sunfire Aegis synergises well with Nasus' AoE abilities and with the sticking power of Iceborn Gauntlet; the Fist slows in an AoE and the Sunfire burns whatever gets in range. It's a good choice for health, some armour and some passive burn damage.

Aegis, and it's upgrade Locket of the Iron Solari is a viable choice in terms of team utility. As a tank, I am often at the front of the battle, with my allies behind me. Locket is a beautiful team item due to the regeneration aura and shield active and very worthy of the purchase.





Any other good items?
Last Whisper is a good pick on Nasus, as it amplifies the damage he can deal with a stacked Siphoning Strike. Most games I'd rather be more tankier in order to survive longer and deal more damage through spell rotations and SS-infused auto-attacks, which means forgoing any extra damage items past Trinity Force/ Iceborn Gauntlet. However, you could encounter a game where you need the armour penetration or extra damage, as you're the primary damage dealer on the team. In this case, it is more than acceptable to grab Last Whisper over a defense item.

You can choose to build Nasus in many different ways. Most tank items synergise well with him, and if you go for an item that gives health and resistances, like Guardian Angel, Banshee's Veil or Randuin's Omen, his survivability is increased even more. And if you're really daring/owning, building him glass cannon works well too. My personal build is one I've developed over time and I find it to work well when against a balanced team of AD and AP.

This section will detail who you are most likely to be facing solo top, how they work, and how you can counter them. If you have any suggestions on who to add, comment in the discussion! Basically, long story short:

• If the enemy solo top is AD, build armour (ie physical damage resistance): Ninja Tabi + Glacial Shroud.
• If the enemy solo top is AP, build magic resist (ie magic damage resistance): Spectre's Cowl + Mercury's Treads.

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Akali is a melee hybrid champion who has a passive that gives her bonus magic damage with ability power, and spell vamp with attack damage. Akali's weakness is that she is an Energy champion. If she tries to use all her abilities at once, she's going to run out of Energy. Another one of her weaknesses is that she's a burst caster/assassin. While this may not seem like a weakness, for tanky dps like Nasus, this is a good thing. You are not burstable material.

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Garen is a tanky AD melee caster. His passive, Perseverance allows him to heal up quickly out of battle. Avoid his Spin2Win ability at all costs, as it does monstrous damage. When laning against him, make sure to activate Siphoning Strike before approaching a creep to last hit, because a wise Garen will silence you to limit you getting that 3 damage per SS.

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Irelia is a melee hybrid champion who's passive Ionian Fervor renders her CC-resistant. Try not to waste Wither on her, as it can hurt to use it and need it later on. She can life steal off all things, including towers. If in a 1v1 fight with Irelia, be wary that she can stun you and gain the upper hand if your health percentage is higher than hers (don't be fooled by the health bar!).

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Jax is a melee hybrid champion who's passive Relentless Assault gives attack speed in a stacking manner, so try not to have a sustained fight with him, or Wither him if he jumps you. Jax will often buy hybrid items like Hextech Gunblade and Trinity Force.

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Pantheon is possibly one of my most hated laning opponents. His passive block an incomming attack, which at first is incredibly frustration. What you need to do is auto-attack him once, to remove the shield, AND THEN Siphoning Strike him for huge damage. He will harass from range with Spear Shot and Heartseeker Strike. You need a lot of armour against this guy. Always watch for when he goes MIA, as Grand Skyfall can ruin your allies' day.

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Teemo will outright harass you with auto-attacks infused with Toxic Shot and fire Blinding Darts. He will wait until you activate Siphoning Strike and then blind you, so you miss stacking your Q and CS. It is tough to beat or even run even with this lane. The best you can do is farm under tower and take Double Golems/Wolves depending on whether you're Blue/Purple. Just remember that Teemo is uber squish, you can fight him if he doesn't have his Blind up. Watch out for Shrooms.

- My other guides -

- The end! - I ****ing love Nasus. Can't get more succinct than that :P I hope this guide helped you with your endeavours to nimbly neutralise with Nihilistic Nasus. Please don't hesitate with comments and/or suggestions regarding anything I have outlined above. I will happily respond to any queries. Here ends Nihilistic Nasus. Thank you for reading! Sincerely, jhoijhoi. ⍛ ⍜ ⍘ ⍙ ⍘ ⍜ ⍛ - Side note - Tell me what you didn't like, what could be changed. I reply to every single comment individually, and I always alter the guide in some way to reflect feedback. Those of you who know me, know that my guides are incredibly receptive to good suggestions, and I aim to provide the best possible guide through collaboration with the community. :) Thank you.

Q: jhoi, I was wondering whether...

// Feel free to ask as many question as you can think of. I'll be sure to answer as soon as I can, and post my answer up here for all to see.

Q: How can I make a guide that looks like yours?

// Every bit of coding in all of my guides is available as a template in my universal coding guide, Making a Guide. If you have any coding questions, please post in the comment section of that guide :)

Q: Nasus walks into a bar. There is no counter.

// lel. Whoever told you that is silly. Every champion has a weakness or a flaw in their design that other champions can exploit. With Nasus, his weakness/flaw to exploit is his reliance on Q farm and low mana pool. Champions who can deny him farm, champions who force him to use his mana til he's OOM, champions who camp his lane and cripple his ability to get big - these are the champions who can counter Nasus.