Nasus is my favorite champion. His weak early game is made up for by an incredibly strong mid game and, if mastered, he can win games by himself. His split push pressure can become unstoppable and, if left unattended, he can take many towers very quickly. I’ve played hundreds of games with him and faced nearly every champion in the game. Last season I climbed to Diamond using Nasus and I’d like to help you improve so you can too.

Abilities

Soul Eater - Nasus permanently gains 10/15/20% bonus life steal.

Siphoning Strike - Nasus's next basic attack within 10 seconds gains bonus range and deals bonus physical damage. If siphoning strike kills its target, Nasus permanently gains 3 stacks (doubled to 6 if the target is a champion, large monster, or large minion).

Wither - Nasus reduces the movement speed and attack speed of his target. This reduction increases over 5 seconds. 

Spirit Fire - Nasus unleashes fire in a circular area of effect, dealing magic damage per second. Spirit Fire also reduces all enemies armor within the area. Armor reduction does not work on towers.

Fury of the Sands - Nasus empowers himself for 15 seconds, gaining bonus health, armor and magic resistance, increased size, and bonus range for the duration. While Nasus is empowered, he deals magic damage to all enemies around him each second, capped at 240, and gains bonus armor and magic resistance each second.

Runes

Before we get into the game, we have to get our runes together. Ideally you would have multiple pages for different situations, but let's get a basic page together first.

Quints – Life steal quints work wonders for Nasus. His passive combined with these quints give him some major sustain and make him incredibly hard to poke out of lane. They scale very well too unlike many other rune options. Combined with the Runic Armor mastery and Spirit Visage they become even better.

Glyphs – The core items for Nasus are Iceborn Gauntlet and Spirit Visage, but more on that later. Combined, these two items provide 30% cooldown reduction (CDR), which leaves us 10% to get from our Glyphs. Take three scaling CDR Glyphs and 6 flat CDR. This will give you 5% flat and 5% scaling.

Seals – Scaling health per level. Along with the life steal Quints, these runes scale extremely well. With the new ultimate change for Nasus, the additional resistances he gains synergize very well with the additional health gained from these runes. Health is effective against all damage types, so having these will help you in all matchups.

Marks – This is where you can be creative. There are several options when selecting Marks that are effective. Nasus’s ultimate and Spirit Fire (E) both do decent magic damage, so taking hybrid penetration works very well. Against hard AP or AD matchups, running magic resist or armor Marks can really hurt their early pressure. If you struggle to last hit under tower, you can also take attack speed or attack damage, but over time try to practice and soon you’ll find you won't need them.

Masteries

There are several options when considering which keystone to take and each matchup comes with new challenges. Let's talk about each option and find the best path to take. Starting with keystones, there are a few things to consider.

Warlord's Bloodlust – Gain increasingly more life steal based on how low your HP is. While not the most effective into the easier matchups, this mastery can make sending Nasus back to base impossible. Into poke champions such as Jayce, Warlord's will let you sustain while you farm under your tower. It can often sustain you early game while you eat up the mana from your lane opponent taking poke. The downside to taking this mastery is that you have to use the Ferocity mastery tree, which is not the optimal path in most situations.

Stormraider's Surge – A big weakness of Nasus is his mobility, or lack thereof. Stormraider's can potentially bandage this problem by giving you slow resistance and a boost of speed. Against squishy lane opponents, this along with Wither can mean they won't get away from you. However, unlike the other keystone options, it provides little to your in-lane survival. It is also very poor in teamfights, as it can only be used once every ten seconds, and any hard crowd control will still stop you in your tracks. Take this into low CC team comps and it can make you unstoppable.

Grasp of the Undying – Gives sustain and some damage based on your max health. The damage from Grasp is minimal, but this keystone scales well into late game. Into melee matchups such as Riven, trading becomes less painful and the additional damage of Grasp can sometimes catch an opponent off guard early game. If you're running Grasp, always try to use the enhanced auto whenever you can and kite backwards from poor trades. If unsure on what keystone to take, take Grasp. The Resolve tree has the most forgiving masteries to work with, so even if you don't end up using Grasp itself often, you will still gain tenacity and other great perks as well.

Always consider which keystone you need to take into your matchup first, and then decide on the smaller options as you build your page to your desired keystone. Most of the time the paths will stay the same, but with experience you will learn what you need more to survive your early laning and stack up. Your mid game is strong, so try to use your masteries to make up for your early faults.

Ferocity

Tier 1 – Take Fury if you need help last hitting under tower. Otherwise, run Sorcery.

Tier 2 – Feast gives some additional sustain, although very little. Expose Weakness is strong if you plan to teamfight.

Tier 3 – Vampirism for additional sustain.

Tier 4 – Battle Trance will increase your damage over time in a fight, which is exactly what we want as a tank.

Tier 5 – Battering Blows for armor penetration.

Cunning

Tier 1 – Savagery for help last hitting minions

Tier 2 – Secret Stash to make your early game potions more effective

Tier 3 – I run Meditation to make sure I always have enough mana to continue pressuring lanes and to stack. Merciless is also good, but I prioritize mana as I aim to knock down towers and objectives, not champions.

Tier 4 – Since I mainly split push with Nasus, I find the value of Bandit to be much higher than Dangerous Game. In lane, trading with a Q strike and then backing off will really add up gold over time. In a ranged matchup, Bandit becomes less useful so you might as well take Dangerous Game.

Tier 5 – Intelligence is good for early CDR for stacking.

Resolve

Tier 1 – Both options are underwhelming early game. Take Recovery if you feel you’ll need all the sustain help you can get or take Unyielding for late game help.

Tier 2 – Seigemaster is exactly what we need to stay strong while farming under our tower.

Tier 3 – Runic Armor synergizes very well with the rest of your kit, however taking Veteran Scars can be considered if you are going into tough burst matchups and won't have much time to sustain.

Tier 4 – Try to take Insight as often as you can. 45 seconds off of Flash and Teleport is a great mastery to have. Again, take Perseverance if you need all the sustain help you can get. If you're going into a very easy matchup, grab Fearless to survive late game burst and stay in the fight even longer.

Tier 5 – Swiftness is one of the main reasons Nasus should be taking a keystone in the Resolve tree. His biggest weakness is his lack of mobility and being kited in fights. Swiftness gives him some much needed tenacity to survive teamfights and also helps with ganks.

Summoner Spells

These are non-debatable in my opinion. Flash and Teleport are going to be your go to spells.

Teleport - For a split pusher, Teleport is absolutely crucial. Being able to apply pressure to a sidelane, but also having the ability to join your team anytime is a must. It also helps your early laning as well by being able to constantly be in lane.

Flash – This spell is just as important as Teleport. There is a reason nearly every champion in every game takes Flash. Ghost can be useful in certain circumstances, but it does not compare to the options that Flash provides.

Items

So we finally made it into the game and we have our runes, masteries and summoner spells ready. We’ve figured out the best options for our lane, but now what do we build?

Starting Items

Cloth 4 -Cloth Armor and four potions are going to be your go-to for nearly every matchup, even AP matchups. With the exception of a few, most AP champions will still harass you with autos and the potions you brought can sustain you until they are out of mana. This same concept works for AD champions. It is also a valuable buy as you can turn the Cloth Armor into a Glacial Shroud.

Doran’s Shield – Great starting item against burst champions and single target damage. The added sustain and HP it gives can mean the difference between life and death.

Early Game

Glacial Shroud – It gives armor, mana and, of course, CDR. If your enemy is AD ability based, this is a great first buy. If the enemy is AD and uses auto attacks frequently, buy an early Ninja Tabi before this item, as they will negate more damage.

Kindlegem – Health and CDR. We will build this into Spirit Visage. If you are struggling to lane against an AP heavy opponent, build Spectre's Cowl first and consider finishing Spirit Visage right away if you are still struggling.

Sheen – Aim to get Sheen as the 2nd or 3rd out of these items. Around the time of this purchase, you should have enough stacks to where the added damage of Sheen can help you win trades now. We will be combining this with the Glacial Shroud, but it can be sat on for a while if you need other items first.

After these three items are purchased you will have a huge spike in power and if you’re close to even with your opponent, you will start taking over the lane.

Mid Game

Iceborn Gauntlet – This item is amazing and I find it far superior to Trinity Force. It provides armor, CDR, and a lot of mana. After shoving several waves with Spirit Fire, mana can become an issue and Iceborn Gauntlet saves us here. You will be able to chain your Wither slow with the slow field of the item to keep your targets where you want them. It also scales well into late game, increasing the slow field with total armor. Compared to Trinity Force, it doesn't do that much less damage. The build path is also much safer and more useful. No Nasus wants to sit on a Stinger while getting harassed in lane.

Spirit Visage – Another core item for Nasus, this is something that you will always build and is one of the best items in the game. It synergizes incredibly well with your passive life steal, gives a great amount of health, magic resist, and even CDR. Consider rushing if you're laning against a difficult AP opponent.

Sterak’s Gage – This item is the best anti-burst item in the game. It can make the difference in a teamfight if you get CC’d and focused. The passive also increases your base damage, which synergizes well with Iceborn Gauntlet’s Spellblade passive. Once you have these three items you will become a monster.

Boots – Don’t forget to build boots! Mobility is a powerful tool, especially for split pushing and escaping a collapse. Take a second to analyze the enemy team and decide which tier two boots you need. Ninja Tabi, Merc Treads and even Boots of Swiftness can all be considered.

Late Game

Focus on itemizing against your enemy. There are many good items to consider. Dead Man’s Plate for extra speed when split pushing. Zz’Rot for applying pressure to multiple lanes. Guardian Angel is one of the best defensive items in the game and can make the difference in teamfights. Randuin’s Omen against heavy critical strike users.

Laning Phase

Many champions can kill you early game if you aren’t careful. Don’t worry too much about hurting them; focus more on keeping yourself alive and healthy. If you end up being engaged on, try to use your minions early game to your advantage. Kite backwards and let your minions do the heavy lifting. Wave management is very important, as ideally you want to get the wave near your tower to discourage ganks and all-ins. If you take damage, try to get that damage to also hurt your minions to get the wave pushing to you. Read your opponent and give up CS if it looks like they will attack you. Experience is the most important thing and you'll learn how much damage you can take over time. Try to use your Q as often as you can to stack, but don’t take too much damage for it. If the wave winds up in a bad spot and they are zoning you, ask your jungler if they can come and help shove the wave to the enemy tower so it will bounce back or reset. Avoid trades until you have around 100 stacks. At that point, you can start going even with your opponent easily enough and can take control of the lane if you play carefully.

Mid Game

Around the 20-30 minute mark is when you’ll be completing your core build. This is when you are strongest. If possible, look to teamfight and make good use of the lack of penetration items/defensive items on the enemy carries. A couple good teamfights can snowball your team to victory. Split pushing is also an option as in many situations you can probably 1v2. As long as your team understands this, they can use their numbers advantage to secure objectives on the opposite side of the map. It is very important when split pushing to have great map awareness. Keep track of enemies to see if they are coming to stop you or if your team is going to be outnumbered in an unavoidable fight.

The average Nasus's minimap.

Late Game

Nasus starts falling off late game, contrary to what most people think. Once enemy carries start getting penetration items and can use Quicksilver Sash to cancel out a Wither, teamfighting becomes difficult. If split pushing is still an option, continue to do so, but keep in mind death timers are very long and if you or a teammate get caught out that could be the end of the game. In a 5v5, playing around your carries can be the safest route. Withering an enemy carry is always the best option, but sometimes isn’t possible. Wither a threat to your carries and use the armor shred of Spirit Fire to increase your ADC’s damage. If necessary, tank spells for your carries to keep them fighting as long as possible. At this point in the game if you manage to survive a teamfight and ace the enemy, you alone should be able to take multiple objectives and possibly end the game.

Stacks, Stacks Everywhere

Below is a stack time guide for the number of stacks you should be aiming for. Brought to you by my friend Osoguineapig on the Nasus subreddit.

Image courtesy of /u/Osoguineapig

Thanks for reading! I hope this guide can turn you into the top dog on the rift. If you have any questions, feel free to ask them in the comments below.

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