Nasus is my favorite character and my main. I often find that I can really make a big difference on my team with this character. He fills a lot of roles. He farms well, he jungles well, he tanks well. Just a good rounded out guy.
Before I get into the build let me just get a few things that have been bothering me out first.
What Nasus is and isnt:
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#1. You are not a mage, dont even argue. Go build Nasus with AP and see if I am a liar. Nothing scales well. You are not Annie, you are not Viegar, you arent even little Teemo with his AP nastiness. Dont go AP, don't use items with AP.... you don't have the room.
#2 You are not an assasin. You do not get to go SS first, power it up and then run around killing people with 2 hits. I tried this many times and it just doesnt happen. If you are doing it you are gimping your team and robbing them of vital support. Yes, there will be times when you slow someone chase them down and beat them to death, it will happen, you will have tons of kills, but its not how you need to think.
Ok, so what do you do.... you Tank, you have hp, armor, and a sweet ultimate. Use it, keep your team mates alive, beat people to death.
What do you bring thats different? Well first off, your CC ability Wither will save folks and trap them, allowing your team to live and escape and to trap and MuRdER. use it on your focused targets. use it to get people off your team mates etc.
AOE... this ability is very misunderstood in any guide i have seen. The best part of this ability is its huge raidus ANDDDD it LOWERS ARMOR. You will out push aoe caster heroes... hell all champions period... because you LOWER ARMOR. Watch and call me a liar, when you use it guess what... your allies hit harder, you hit harder, your MINIONS hit harder. It amps your whole team and lanes damage. If you aren't spamming and cant spam it you are wrong. Keep it up all the time wherever you are, don't worry I am going to tell you how to.
Skill order:
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One point each in the order below, yes thats all three abilities up front, you need them all first. One SF is enough to start pushing, Wither will catch people who get to close or allow you to get an early gank, and you need to use SS for last hits as soon as you can, its cheap.
1. SF
2. W
3. SS
Also, remember your sheen, Shaco players will have this skill down, use ability, hit, ability, hit, ability hit..... every time you cast sheen activates, use it. Then cast again.
Now.... max SF and SS... your call what order....
Remember, SF makes SS hit harder, and EVERYONE hit harder, its more important than the damage alone [ damage is nice too :-) ]
Finish wither.
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BUILD:
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Ok lets do the build and I will talk more afterward.
This is the order I get them in, its my build, feel free to take or leave what you want, the order could be changed.
(no life steal items, you dont need them with your aura, you need your slots for other items, I always got starks and when I finally got rid of it i never noticed, just get attack speed)
First i get mekis, and 1 point in soul fire for spamming. Now if I am in a lane with anyone, nasty melee, assasins, or ranged I can push them. Always get this first unless you have a team strat.
1. Build mekis to a chalice. Mana problem solved, now go and enjoy owning your lane, CC when they get close, spam your aoe and watch the money roll in.
2. Boots - your a tank, get mercuries for caster heavy or tabi for melee, your call.
3. Sheen - amps your SS, this is a lot of damage and it will help you early, both pushing, killing and charging it. Also you will jungle well at about this point.
4. Last Whisper - 3 reasons, its cheap damage, its AWSOME attack speed, which boosts your life steal. And it scales the best with the game. Check out the armor reduction on this baby with any hero at the end of the game. You WILL notice this items effect. This is when you can really start to tank and kill.
5. Mana manipulator -> then sell your chalice and build a Soul Shroud. NOW you have 15% cooldown, 580 extra health, and 12 mana regen, PLUS you are giving cooldown and mana to your team, which is great support.
6. Snag a glacial shroud to round out cooldowns and tanking. You will almost have your cooldowns maxed, 500 extra mana, and nice armor, oh yeah its on.
(Ok, thats the easy part, now it gets expensive)
OK, at this point you do any order you want, but here are the last 3 items to build.
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7. Glacial to Frozen - > max cooldowns Crazy armor, its your cheapest next item so I do get it but its not the most powerful item so maybe skip it a while.
8. Infinity Edge... you will pwn people in the face with your beefy SS nothing needs to be said about this item.
9. Trinity force... if for nothing other than the slow and 150% damage added to your SS
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And thats it. There are tons of other items you can get, there are lots of builds, this is just my favorite, its a balance of your attributes and I think the biggest mistake folks make with Nasus is focusing on one ability instead of all 3.
Final Thoughts and Tips...
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Masteries.... I dont care, whatever you want. there is no wrong answer, max the damage tree, or go defense, or go ultility, they all have their strengths.... I will play around with it when I finish leveling, right now I am defense for lower cooldown on Cleanse.
Cleanse cleanse cleanse.... the #1 reason I die is stuns/disables.... fear, whatever, use CLEANSE so you can keep attaching and regening HP. Its key to your tank
Save your ultimate for pushing, or when you are at about 3/4 health or so. It gives you up to 600 hp end game, and will just annoy eveyrone around you. If you need some extra dps to round out a kill grab it. BUt dont ever pop it first if you dont need it. It sucks to blow it and waste it. (about 78 sec or 72 sec cooldown with max CD items above)
When you power up your SS and item it some you are a TOWER killing WHORE. You can hit towers for tons of damage with just whisper, sheen and a few last hits under your belt. use your ultimate to kill things around the tower and hit it even faster and harder. Your one of the best tower killers in the game IMO, because you can kill towers and tank at the same time, (other than that tower killing whore Yi)
Ok, so I didn't go to much into abilities other than items and play style but if you have questions I will check the thread. There are a few other guides out there that will tell you the basics on abilities the focus here was items primarily.
Before I get into the build let me just get a few things that have been bothering me out first.
What Nasus is and isnt:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
#1. You are not a mage, dont even argue. Go build Nasus with AP and see if I am a liar. Nothing scales well. You are not Annie, you are not Viegar, you arent even little Teemo with his AP nastiness. Dont go AP, don't use items with AP.... you don't have the room.
#2 You are not an assasin. You do not get to go SS first, power it up and then run around killing people with 2 hits. I tried this many times and it just doesnt happen. If you are doing it you are gimping your team and robbing them of vital support. Yes, there will be times when you slow someone chase them down and beat them to death, it will happen, you will have tons of kills, but its not how you need to think.
Ok, so what do you do.... you Tank, you have hp, armor, and a sweet ultimate. Use it, keep your team mates alive, beat people to death.
What do you bring thats different? Well first off, your CC ability Wither will save folks and trap them, allowing your team to live and escape and to trap and MuRdER. use it on your focused targets. use it to get people off your team mates etc.
AOE... this ability is very misunderstood in any guide i have seen. The best part of this ability is its huge raidus ANDDDD it LOWERS ARMOR. You will out push aoe caster heroes... hell all champions period... because you LOWER ARMOR. Watch and call me a liar, when you use it guess what... your allies hit harder, you hit harder, your MINIONS hit harder. It amps your whole team and lanes damage. If you aren't spamming and cant spam it you are wrong. Keep it up all the time wherever you are, don't worry I am going to tell you how to.
Skill order:
-------------
One point each in the order below, yes thats all three abilities up front, you need them all first. One SF is enough to start pushing, Wither will catch people who get to close or allow you to get an early gank, and you need to use SS for last hits as soon as you can, its cheap.
1. SF
2. W
3. SS
Also, remember your sheen, Shaco players will have this skill down, use ability, hit, ability, hit, ability hit..... every time you cast sheen activates, use it. Then cast again.
Now.... max SF and SS... your call what order....
Remember, SF makes SS hit harder, and EVERYONE hit harder, its more important than the damage alone [ damage is nice too :-) ]
Finish wither.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
BUILD:
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Ok lets do the build and I will talk more afterward.
This is the order I get them in, its my build, feel free to take or leave what you want, the order could be changed.
(no life steal items, you dont need them with your aura, you need your slots for other items, I always got starks and when I finally got rid of it i never noticed, just get attack speed)
First i get mekis, and 1 point in soul fire for spamming. Now if I am in a lane with anyone, nasty melee, assasins, or ranged I can push them. Always get this first unless you have a team strat.
1. Build mekis to a chalice. Mana problem solved, now go and enjoy owning your lane, CC when they get close, spam your aoe and watch the money roll in.
2. Boots - your a tank, get mercuries for caster heavy or tabi for melee, your call.
3. Sheen - amps your SS, this is a lot of damage and it will help you early, both pushing, killing and charging it. Also you will jungle well at about this point.
4. Last Whisper - 3 reasons, its cheap damage, its AWSOME attack speed, which boosts your life steal. And it scales the best with the game. Check out the armor reduction on this baby with any hero at the end of the game. You WILL notice this items effect. This is when you can really start to tank and kill.
5. Mana manipulator -> then sell your chalice and build a Soul Shroud. NOW you have 15% cooldown, 580 extra health, and 12 mana regen, PLUS you are giving cooldown and mana to your team, which is great support.
6. Snag a glacial shroud to round out cooldowns and tanking. You will almost have your cooldowns maxed, 500 extra mana, and nice armor, oh yeah its on.
(Ok, thats the easy part, now it gets expensive)
OK, at this point you do any order you want, but here are the last 3 items to build.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
7. Glacial to Frozen - > max cooldowns Crazy armor, its your cheapest next item so I do get it but its not the most powerful item so maybe skip it a while.
8. Infinity Edge... you will pwn people in the face with your beefy SS nothing needs to be said about this item.
9. Trinity force... if for nothing other than the slow and 150% damage added to your SS
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
And thats it. There are tons of other items you can get, there are lots of builds, this is just my favorite, its a balance of your attributes and I think the biggest mistake folks make with Nasus is focusing on one ability instead of all 3.
Final Thoughts and Tips...
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Masteries.... I dont care, whatever you want. there is no wrong answer, max the damage tree, or go defense, or go ultility, they all have their strengths.... I will play around with it when I finish leveling, right now I am defense for lower cooldown on Cleanse.
Cleanse cleanse cleanse.... the #1 reason I die is stuns/disables.... fear, whatever, use CLEANSE so you can keep attaching and regening HP. Its key to your tank
Save your ultimate for pushing, or when you are at about 3/4 health or so. It gives you up to 600 hp end game, and will just annoy eveyrone around you. If you need some extra dps to round out a kill grab it. BUt dont ever pop it first if you dont need it. It sucks to blow it and waste it. (about 78 sec or 72 sec cooldown with max CD items above)
When you power up your SS and item it some you are a TOWER killing WHORE. You can hit towers for tons of damage with just whisper, sheen and a few last hits under your belt. use your ultimate to kill things around the tower and hit it even faster and harder. Your one of the best tower killers in the game IMO, because you can kill towers and tank at the same time, (other than that tower killing whore Yi)
Ok, so I didn't go to much into abilities other than items and play style but if you have questions I will check the thread. There are a few other guides out there that will tell you the basics on abilities the focus here was items primarily.
