Spirit Fire is good though...it's straight up one of the best zoning abilities in the game, if you get good farm on your Q and you zone someone into standing in it you can absolutely wail on them. The order that you level him should be dynamic, he is very flexible in that regard depending on lane setup.

Lorken

New Zealand804 Posts

September 15 2011 09:24 GMT

#42

I don't know how you can say he's weak, Nasus is an amazing champion, but for some reason, I could never make him my main like other tanks. He is just so fun to play though and is an amazing chance to show off my last hitting skills :D

Also, max E first, it helps the team more.

freelander

Hungary4707 Posts

September 15 2011 09:52 GMT

#43

it's not like there is anything hard with his last hitting l0l

Slayer91

Ireland23335 Posts

September 15 2011 10:50 GMT

#44

Max E First is pretty much straight up bad. Like, in lane, you totally open yourself up to their jungler.
Maxing E after Q is arguable, you can use it for dragon fights, but I very rarely notice it making that big an impact. Sure you cast it before you Q someone at the start of the fight for more damage but overall maxing whither is generally more devastating. -4 base second cooldown as you approach 40% CDR is pretty big.

Cloth+5 is arguable. I actually like to use my tp faster so it's up again faster. You rarely need it early unless you die to jungle gank and being able to tp with philo+boots+wards+pots is good. Cloth/dorans shield is needed vs hard lanes though.

Wala.Revolution

7584 Posts

September 15 2011 13:21 GMT

#45

Have you laned vs Rumble before? I think I did about three times, once recently, and couldn't keep up even when speced (MR qunits and blues, 21 def, mantle). He can damage you while creeps are meeting and/or when you attempt to last hit under tower.

On the other hand, Garen is no problem. Armor rues (not the full armor runes), giving up a few cs then letting him naturally push to tower you're free to last hit and later take him on with jungle + ult.

I still think tank/cdr is the way to go except in few games where you're needed early and you can afford to go not really tanky. FH/SR should be enough. I was actually now thinking of make SR early (perhaps after Glacial Shroud if you get that item first and maybe mantle/negatron) because it's cdr and active is far better than philo's gp/5.

Unless I know it's an impossible lane I also have been starting regrowth or boots.

My final items vs a balanced team will be mercs, FH, FoN/QSS, SR, TF, and LW.

EDIT: I also dislike Sheen only for the reasons you said. However if you do rush TF it makes you almost unstoppable split pusher, as with a negatron + mercs there probably isn't anyone who can 1v1 you. And you'll run TP many times anyway.

EDIT2: as for maxing W v E, I think W is better if teamfights happen early. It may sound counter-intuitive, but putting W on anyone will cripple them, and make the AD carry useless if he/she doesn't have mercs (and even with mercs, lol). The slow numbers go up a lot, and having 11 cd with cdr will make it used very often. On the other hand, since I tend to splitpush/farm top forever, having E maxed means more damage because regardless of W level I tend to kill the person if I can. Also better for splitpushing.

Slayer91

Ireland23335 Posts

September 15 2011 14:01 GMT

#46

I've actually ended up bullying rumbles if you don't die early for no reason. You need to make sure your jungler is on top of his game though he can't just let him harass you under tower. You have to let him push if he wants to and rely on jungler. Once you get some mr items and some farm on Q you out harass him because of superior healing.

Wala.Revolution

7584 Posts

September 15 2011 14:27 GMT

#47

lol junglers. I can't say that having jungler putting early pressure on my lane is given.

No surf, not referring to you, if you're alive.

Slayer91

Ireland23335 Posts

September 15 2011 14:47 GMT

#48

You should say "rumble will push, gank him at level 4" or something since every rumble will push.

Eishi_Ki

Korea (South)1667 Posts

September 18 2011 20:50 GMT

#49

I've been playing Nasus for a couple of weeks now and am really enjoying it. I like to think I'm not bad at it either. However, I just played a game where I was solo top and I got absolutely ruined by Soraka's Starcall. I opened Null-Mag mantle 2x pot yet still, I was done by level three and had to get out. ANy recommendations? :/

BouBou.865

Netherlands814 Posts

September 18 2011 20:56 GMT

#50

Did you run TP, 21 in defense and flat MR runes? I also auto attack a little if they push hard.

Slayer91

Ireland23335 Posts

September 18 2011 21:23 GMT

#51

I have no idea how you're supposed to play against soraka, most likely let her push with starcall and call jungler lol.

Eishi_Ki

Korea (South)1667 Posts

September 18 2011 21:42 GMT

#52

21 def and flat MR runes indeed (though I still have two locked slots (lolvl 23). I was running Flash Exhaust (not convinced by TP though I should try it again). I was completely stumped :/

Hexagecz

Czech Republic66 Posts

September 19 2011 05:41 GMT

#53

Nasus got one of the best nuke in game with trinity force and inf blade you can crit for 1,2k and still be very tanky nasusis my favorite champion but he gets shut down early in game

BouBou.865

Netherlands814 Posts

September 19 2011 05:51 GMT

#54

On September 19 2011 06:42 Eishi_Ki wrote:
21 def and flat MR runes indeed (though I still have two locked slots (lolvl 23). I was running Flash Exhaust (not convinced by TP though I should try it again). I was completely stumped :/

Tp real gud tho. Basically you get a free shop early on. If you start Dorans shield/cloth+5hp pots/negatron+2 hp pots you should be able to get a few last hits, pretty much last untill level 5-6 without giving up too many.

At that point you have what, 1k? That means that you can go base, get 2 hp pots and philo or something and then return to lane without missing a lot of creeps. If soraka goes base, you gain a level on her. If she doesn't base, she can't bully you around anymore. It really helps to not get raped in lane imo.

Slayer91

Ireland23335 Posts

November 28 2011 15:57 GMT

#55

Updated. New masteries, cleaned up the whole guide up to "playstyle" and made everything up to date. Mostly using skyyart nasus build or trinity/ga type stuff. Very sucessful in plat in ranked games with Nasus, even though I normally play junglers.

Knowing when to let yourself get zoned and waiting for jungle ganks means it's VERY hard to truly counter nasus who has the runepages to counter their damage. Most real hard counters are just strong early game champs in general and you can lose some CS and still be fine later on. The only things that looked convincing from tournaments were akali and jax who are both great midgame but seem to rape nasus in lane.

WaveofShadow

Canada31495 Posts

November 28 2011 17:56 GMT

#56

Alright, so I gotta ask you: is it possible to beat Riven these days? I never considered her one of my trouble matchups until last night, when I got completely wrecked.

Slayer91

Ireland23335 Posts

November 28 2011 17:58 GMT

#57

What's this beating nonsense? Can you farm against riven? Sure, if you're smart about which farm you get. If you walk into middle of the lane when she's level 3 and try to hit a range creep expect to lose half your hp. Just play defensive if she plays agressive (which she will) she will be wide open to the jungler since wither counters all her mini flash bullshit spells. Last time I played against riven I actually out cs'd her because she can't farm too easily at my tower and lost last hits trying to stop me farming, and she went like 0/3 because she got ganked and I got kills.

Your wither not all that effective for 1v1ing because of her spells and it's usually not worth it just get philo frozen heart and she can't really stop you farming after that.

WaveofShadow

Canada31495 Posts

November 28 2011 22:43 GMT

#58

On November 29 2011 02:58 Slayer91 wrote:
What's this beating nonsense? Can you farm against riven? Sure, if you're smart about which farm you get. If you walk into middle of the lane when she's level 3 and try to hit a range creep expect to lose half your hp. Just play defensive if she plays agressive (which she will) she will be wide open to the jungler since wither counters all her mini flash bullshit spells. Last time I played against riven I actually out cs'd her because she can't farm too easily at my tower and lost last hits trying to stop me farming, and she went like 0/3 because she got ganked and I got kills.

Your wither not all that effective for 1v1ing because of her spells and it's usually not worth it just get philo frozen heart and she can't really stop you farming after that.

I know what 'beat' refers to, trust me.
My mistakes last night were not starting cloth+5 and getting an early Frozen heart (never done that before honestly). We did manage to pick up first blood on her with the help of Wither + exhaust but after that their Lee Sin was dedicated to shutting me out and down completely. By level 8 they were diving me on the tower. Essentially if I had more jungle pressure and played more defensively I might have eventually come out on top, but my farming was so gimped and the other lanes were losing as well so the jungler couldn't stick around. Don't think I had any way of coming out on top of that one but there are definitely things I could have done better. Thanks for the advice.

Slayer91

Ireland23335 Posts

November 28 2011 23:08 GMT

#59

If you're getting tower dived you're taking too much damage from riven or don't have enough armour. Nasus is stupidly hard to tower dive cause of wither and ulti and high defensive stats.

Schmieds

United States312 Posts

November 29 2011 20:55 GMT

#60

Thanks for the update, I found myself going 9/21/0 as well. I just have a couple of questions about items.

Is there any situation in which you'd get Ninja Tabi anymore? The only reason I got it before was because of Nimbleness and because most solotops tended to be AD. And how do you feel about QSS and Banshees? I get QSS because combining it with Shurelya's/Ghost means you never, ever die. Banshee's, on the other hand, probably helps more with overall survivability. Do you suggest ever getting either on Nasus?