Nautilus is a AP based Tank with huge amounts of survivability and CC options. He can easily intiate a fight and target specific champions during the fight to lock them down. Nautilus can be played either in the Top lane or as a Support in the current meta, but previously has been played in the Jungle. Let's take a look below to the Titan of the Depths.

Pros:

- Good survivability
- Great base stats for armor + MR
- Good initiation using Q (Dredge Line) and his ultimate (Depth Charge)
- Great peeling for your carries using passive and slows
- A lot of CC using Q, E, R + Passive
- Fits most team comps

Cons:

- Tough laning phase in Top lane
- Can get kited or peeled off of easily
- Heavily relies on team for follow-up
- Long cooldowns (excluding E) and large mana costs

Abilities of Nautilus

Nautilus has a large variety of abilities that offer a lot in team fights. He specializes in initiating teamfights, locking down the enemies, and staying in the fight for a long time.

His passive is:

This passive is crucial for Nautilus' teamfighting and laning phase CC output. During teamfights, Nautilus can auto-attack champions to immobilize them and keep them rooted for a second. Due to the cooldown meaning you're not able to proc the passive on the same champion repeatedly, it is vital to always switch targets as you want to try to root and inconvenience the entire enemy team. This passive works well with your Q, W, and Ultimate, which will be discussed later on. For laning phase, Nautilus can use the bonus damage to last hit minions easier due to his low attack damage. He can also poke down the enemy laner every few seconds when the passive goes off cooldown.

His Q:

Nautilus' Q, Dredge Line, is a great ability and is one of his most vital skills to land. If landed on an enemy champion, you can auto-attack to immobilize the champion and lock them down for a second which allows your team to follow up. If you hit a piece of terrain you will pull yourself towards it and reduce Dredge Line's cooldown by 50%. It is important to note the following three things. Q has a large width + hitbox meaning you can accidently hit terrain, you cannot use this over walls and it drags you both to a location. It does not drag the enemy to your cast location. Dredge Line should always be used with care in teamfights. Always be sure that your team can follow up and be sure not to miss it as it does have a long cooldown of 10+ seconds. This ability should be maxed last.

His W:

This is Nautilus' most powerful ability. It allows him to survive for a long time in enemy teamfights, as his W can shield him for more than 600 HP in most games. His W should be used as often as possible during teamfights as its damage is still plentiful during teamfights and laning phase. Popping the shield on will allow you to tank a large number of abilities and let you frontline better to initiate the fight. This should be paired with your passive auto-attack during laning phase to trade and to not lose too much HP during the trade. Note that this ability has a 18 second cooldown but lasts for 10 seconds meaning you do not want the shield to break quickly. This ability should be maxed second.

His E:

Riptide is the ability that you will be using the most. It does have a short cooldown that is less than five seconds at rank 5. This ability should be maxed first. Its damage is plentiful and its slow is just adding onto the annoyance of this champion. The short CD and decent damage and slow allows Nautilus to trade easily, provide damage and slows during teamfights, and be a really big pain in the rear. Farming with this ability is also a very good method of wave clear, although the damage will not instantly one-shot the wave, it will still deal a good amount of damage and make it easy to clean up. Use this ability in the middle of teamfights to slow and deal damage. It is an ability that you will want to spam as much as possible. Just be sure you do not run out of mana.

His Ultimate (R):

Depth Charge is a simple point and click ability that is a bit more difficult than it seems. Since it follows the selected target, the shockwave will seek out the target knocking up anyone in its path. It is vital to use this ability wisely. You may use it to knock up the enemy team's backline or hard focus a specific carry on their team such as Cass, Draven, etc. Knocking up as many people is most likely the most effective solution in my opinion. Depth Charge has many other ways of being used. In some cases, you may need it to finish off a running target or to peel for your carries. Just remember to use this ability wisely and coordinate with your team on who you are knocking up.

Combos:

Top Lane

The standard teamfight:

Nautilus in teamfights should always initiate with Q and auto-attack to proc the passive root. This keeps the target locked down for a while for your team to poke them down. Secondly, hit them with your E and keep your W up to survive during the fight. Depth Charge the enemy backline or a large clump to knock up everyone in the area. Your team should have enough damage output by then to kill most of the team. In teamfights, just keep on using Riptide (E) and maintain your CC and distribute it throughout. Remember to just rely on your team, be the frontline that initiates, and CCs the enemy team.

For single target lock downs for ganks etc.

Q > W + Passive Proc > Ult > E

This allows the enemy laner to not escape for 3+ seconds and should allow your jungler or mid lane to kill the CCed person.

Support

Botlane Brawls

Nautilus in 2v2s botlane is a very reliable source of CC to your ADC. Use your Q to help inititate a fight. Use W to survive in the fight and to provide some damage to the enemy carry and support. Constantly spam Riptide (E) to slow the laners down and deal a good amount of damage. Try to use all of your abilities effectively by focusing a specific target and consistently spam them with slows and CC from your passive and Riptide. Using your Depth Charge (Ultimate) is situational in bot lane. Using it to initiate may force the enemy lane to retreat if you use it first rather than Q. I personally use it after landing Dredge Line (Q) to hit and knock up the enemy ADC. Just remember that in bot lane, you provide a lot of CC, damage and slows to your ADC and you should always be on the same page with him/her.

Teamfights

Nautilus can provide a lot during teamfights. You should always initiate with Dredge Line (Q), follow up by using Depth Charge (Ultimate) which procs your Zeke's Convergence which slows the entire team. Next, constantly spam your Riptide (E) and use other actives when necessary such as Redemption or Locket of Iron Solari. Just remember that in teamfights, you are a tanky initiator that can start teamfights and have a good impact on them.

Items

Top Lane:

Starting Builds - Doran's Shield + Potion

Doran's Shield's update has made it a key item for many tanks and even AD carries. It provides good last hitting for Nautilus and generous amounts of HP regen. Starting it allows you to stay in lane longer.

or

Doran's Ring + Potion

Doran's Ring is a very common first item for Nautilus and other AP Tanks such as Maokai. Doran's Ring provides AP, HP and Mana Regen which is all vital to Nautilus' kit. The Mana Regen gives Nautilus more time in lane as he can spam Riptide (E) more frequently and effectively from the AP.

Core Items

Your final build should look something like this:

OR    OR

Boots: Both Ninja Tabi and Mercury Treads are great items. It mainly matters on the team for which one to get. Tabi provide armor and reduction to incoming auto-attack damage. Mercury Treads provide MR and Tenacity. For heavy AD comps, get Ninja Tabi and for heavy AP or CC based enemies, get Treads.

Sunfire Cape: Sunfire Cape is a key item for tanks to build. It is essential as it gives a hefty amount of Armor and HP. The passive also slowly applies damage that helps you farm and trade in the lane. Using this in teamfights is great as it provides a slight damage boost because in most cases, you will be in the middle of the fight. It goes great with Abyssal Mask.

Abyssal Mask: Abyssal Mask is a great item for AP based tanks such as Amumu, Maokai and Nautilus. It provides a lot of MR, HP and CDR. The Unique Passive it provides is 10% increased Magic Damage to nearby champions. The passive it gives goes well with most AP based champions and gives tanks a slightly larger damage output. It combines well with Sunfire Cape as Sunfire does deal Magic Damage which will give it a slight damage buff.

Frozen Heart: Frozen Heart provides Nautilus Armor, Mana, CDR and a unique passive that reduces nearby enemy champion's attack speed. It's a great item for Nautilus because, as mentioned previously, you will be in the middle of the teamfights which will make Frozen Heart's unique passive more effective.

Gargoyle Stoneplate or Righteous Glory: Both items work well for Nautilus. Both of these items provide Nautilus better initiations and survivability with each. Gargoyle Stoneplate allows Nautilus to become very tanky with a lot of Armor and MR. Righteous Glory gives HP, Mana, Armor, HP Regen and 10% CDR and a unique movement speed active. Getting Righteous Glory with the other items will go over the cap for CDR so you may need to adjust the build to the situation. Both of these items are great, in cases such as you being chunked down too hard while initiating would make you get Gargoyle Stoneplate and cases where your team cannot intiate due to the enemy team running too fast then get Righteous Glory.

Situational Items: Some Situational Items for Nautilus would be Rod of Ages + Locket of the Iron Solari + Hextech Protobelt or Thornmail. All of these items are situational to the specific team you might be facing. Both Rod of Ages and Hextech Protobelt will give Nautilus more damage and some HP but won't give you full tank status. Locket is a great choice but lacks HP and other stats. Thornmail is always a situational item for any tank as it only applies when being auto-attacked.

Support Build:

OR

All of these Support items are all benefited by Ruby Sightstone's Unique Passive of reducing active item ability's cooldowns by 10%. Getting any other active such as Righteous Glory or Gargoyle Stoneplate may also be effective in some cases.

Face of the Mountain is the standard tank support item as its Unique Active allows you to shield an ally for a decent amount which is useful in lane and teamfights.

Ruby Sightstone provides the Unique Passive of reducing CD of active items, provides HP and most importantly provides Wards.

Redemption is a new must have support item in almost every single game. It provides good stats such as HP, CDR, a passive that increases heals and shields by 10% and the Unique Active ability that heals a large area and deals damage in that same large area. Redemption can heal more than 400+ to each allied champion standing inside. Popping this active will increase survivability on your team and help your team maintain its health bars before or during teamfights.

Zeke's Convergence is an item to use with your AD Carry as it links both of you together to trigger Zeke's Convergence's Unique Passive. When you cast your ultimate near your linked ally, you have a frost storm sorround you that slows and burns the enemies inside the radius for 10 seconds. This passive is great in teamfights as it furthur progresses your heavy CC and slows. Combining this and your Riptide (E) will slow the enemies near you by a significant amount. Not only is the passive great for teamfights, but the item provides Armor, MR, Mana and 10% CDR.

Locket of the Iron Solari has always been a great item for teamfighting and brawls. It provides a good amount of Armor and MR. The Unique Active provides a shield of allies near you from 60-434 HP + (2-36% of your Max HP). The Unique Active is almost like a Karma Shield + Ultimate. It gives your team a lot more tankiness and survivability in team fights. Using this item can turn around fights as it can shield very important abilities such as Orianna Shockwaves and other AoE impact abilities.

Runes and Masteries

Masteries:

For both roles as a Top laner and Support, you want to take Courage of the Colossus

For Support Masteries, it should be the same. Just switch the 4th Cunning tab to Bandit for gold income.

Runes:

These are my preferred runes for Nautilus. Many people like to play around with per level runes or flat runes. Some people have difference preferences with Runes as Nautilus. Personally, having Per Level Health and Magic Resist runes are essential for the late game as it is a huge spike of 300 HP and 24 MR. Flat Armor is good for the early game to reduce poke during lane and armor is plentiful late game so it is not a problem. Play around with your personal style of runes. There is no perfect set to play on but yours.

In Conclusion

Nautilus is a great choice for heavy CC, slows and other forms of initiation. He provides a lot for a team and can be a pain to deal with. He is a champion that heavily relies on his team to follow up and be on the same page with. Playing Nautilus is a great pick for teamfights and should be used accordingly. Just remember, Nautilus is a huge titan in heavy armor with a large anchor, you should be intimidating and be willing to drag them down to the depths. Have fun making the enemies flash away from your anchor and your ultimate!

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