r/nasusmains

I'm a new league player and have really enjoyed nasus jungle.

I have been going tri force / prototype then jak sho and other defence items.

I'm wondering if anyone has had success focusing on the life steal potential instead of stacking armor / resistance.

If lifesteal only procs off attacks does that mean in order to rely on lifesteal you would focus on ad items?

Also does the q scale off anything? On a website it says it scales of critical stats but not sure what that means or if it's worth worrying about. Thanks!!

Started playing league in March 2026. Instantly gravitated to Nasus. I used to run a tank build with appropriate runes- but stacking just to get smacked up felt wrong. Idk the point of building trinity on him anymore. Die in 10 seconds vs 7.

I love running lethal tempo, essence, fiend hunter, and mix and match assassin items. It feels like playing a different champ entirely. I’m not spending all my time stacking and I find I end games around 500-700 stacks without trying to Q down every wave. Plus hitting that first auto Q and seeing the enemy champ lose 70% health feels amazing.

But. I also realize I’m in low elo. What might I be missing from this play style vs an actual tanky Nasus?

Played mostly Jungle, but could get wins in mostly any role I played in, this champion is all about resilience and focusing on stability, I could turn bad games into wins even when behind. Here's some tips I gathered during my time learning the champion:

1. Every enemy matchup is hard until level 6, he's not a early game champion even in the Jungle;
2. Ward the other side of your Jungle at 0:40 to spot if you're going to get invaded on the other side(happens a lot specially against high elo junglers);
3. During my full clear tests, the best runes were CDR, ADAP, TENAZ(almost the same as taking AS one, loses 1s, still finishes 3:14~15) - RED>Krugs>Chickens>Wolves>Gromp>Blue(Reverse the clear if starting on the other side);
4. If invaded give up the camps on this side, you will only win if the enemy is very bad(which is rare in diamond 2+), just go to the other side and farm, don't try to invade their jungle your camps will spawn faster than theirs and you'll get XP back based on your lower level(Rubber Band XP is OP);
5. Don't try to scuttle if the enemy jungler is there, you will lose if it's an 1v1;
6. Level 6 is your goal during the early game, when you get there you're 100% Online and then try to get more ganks/dives during that time;
7. Only gank if it's 100% sure your team will get the kill, if not don't even try;
8. Try to find ganks when you have ghost up, this is your anti-kite pass, mostly no one will stop you from getting to the enemy carry;
9. Item order is: Start: Gustwalker(always)>Sheen>Protoplasm>Trinity(Iceborn if you're the only Tank)>Jakshoo>Situational Items are Visage(if against 2+AP and they build anti-heal), Randuin(against 2+ Crit dealers), Bramblevest(only if they have 2+ healing champions and don't upgrade to Thorn until it's the last item), Nature's(vs Lillia/Brand+ champs that build Rylai/AP DoT), Deadman's(enemy AD is weak and is the only AD dealer), Frozen Heart(vs On-Hit/Poke Ezreal, Ashe, Varus, Irelia, Jax), Bandlepipes(My personal favourite: you have 2+Auto Attackers i.e.: Jax/Irelia Top and ADC bot);
10. Try to consistently keep your camps farmed, the faster you clear the faster you stack, try to reach these milestones: 5m=90~/10m=200~/20m=400~/25=500~(these are my averages, a lot of stuff happens, negativelly mostly during the early, but your decisions matter a lot during the game, so think carefully before making a play)
11. If there's an objective and the game is even and you don't have Ult, concede to the enemy team, only make plays with Ult available, if you have Ult+Ghost surely go for every objective, 1v2s are very possible with both up;
12. Most of the trades you'd probably lose are winnable with proper spacing so train this a lot during your sessions, this especially in my opinion is the difference between an average Nasus to a Good Nasus(Abuse the range you get from empowered Q and your Ultimate)
13. W the strongest Auto Attacker on the enemy team, not only the ADC, doesn't matter if you W the ADC if there's an 8/0 fed Irelia in the enemy team;
14. Your main goal during Team fights is neutralizing the strongest AA-DPS, W then you have two choices, If you can run then down without being kited, go for it, if not, protect your carries at all costs, 2-3 damage dealers in your team are already at advantage just because of my favourite concept of this game: STAT CHECKING;
15. Your ult + W are the gods of Stat Check, you can basically win fights by W the carry and Ulting; You become a Wall for your Team while doing from half of their HP to almost 80% of their health just by Aura Farming if they dare to get close to you, if they take dmg from all the duration of your Ultimate;
16. From 30min+ the clock starts ticking, here you must find a way to end the game ASAP, Nasus isn't like Veigar/Senna that scales, just because of one thing= Range. Why? When it's 40mins~ everyone will be level 18 for sure, the enemy ADC and APC will have Dominiks and Void Staff, GA, Zhonyas, they can stall you long enough in the late game, remember if you're Ultless you're screwed, if they survive the hell you give them during those 15s, they win and the problem with that are Death Timers, if you lose a fight during the 40min milestone, it's almost a minute of respawn time and it's GG GL next game;

These are all the tips I can get from memory, hope you find these useful, if you have any questions, want to discuss any point or even add more tips I'm all ears 😃

My profile and Oikaton's Guide which helped me a lot when I was learning upvote if you wish it's very good and has good information, I have some matchup conditions that I disagree from personal experience, but I think It can be different for each player and skill;

It's my first Reddit Post, Thank you all 😃

Edit: Just realized I'm currently TOP 1 Nasus in my Region! I'm Japan's Dogekage!
Edit2 Item Set Copy and Paste on ItemSet to Import directly to your Client!: {"title":"Jungle","associatedMaps":[11],"associatedChampions":[75],"blocks":[{"items":[{"id":"1102","count":1},{"id":"3364","count":1},{"id":"3057","count":1},{"id":"3009","count":1}],"type":"Early"},{"items":[{"id":"2525","count":1},{"id":"3078","count":1},{"id":"6665","count":1},{"id":"3110","count":1},{"id":"3065","count":1}],"type":"Common"},{"items":[{"id":"4401","count":1},{"id":"3742","count":1},{"id":"2524","count":1},{"id":"3143","count":1}],"type":"Situational"}]}

Even I'm 600stack, 1000 stack etc I can't just make team fights. Should I only split push? Even my team loses hard?

I’ve been playing some Nasus recently and I find him pretty fun, but man after trying Smolder I just can’t get over how bad our Q feels.

Smolder gets AOE, a cone burst, and then a burn on his Q as he gets more stacks alongside more damage.

Nasus just gets more damage and nothing else. I really wish he’d get an AOE upgrade or something to get stacks faster by clearing wave faster.

https://preview.redd.it/52zh1qapm5zg1.png?width=957&format=png&auto=webp&s=d50b8f6c4ff809f92fdc0e39fcc9b75bdc2124ab

wondering how often this happens

Y'all's champ is an annoying broken dog

Personnaly i go 2-3 tank item (mostly force of nature and randuis or frozen heart)according to their comp, going full tank can't be bad but after a certaim time of the game, they starting building anti mr, pen magic and armor, that why i go offensive item and pray to not get one shoot by adc

I go rancus or sundered sky, mostly rancus because of the pen armo, that very good if the late game hit and good again tank,i feel i do a lot of dmg, sundered sky mostly if i'm fed

Passive:

Life Steal: 12/18/24% >>> 16/20/24%

Ability Q:

Base Damage: 40-120 >>> 40-100

Extra range: 50 >>> 60

Stacks per cannon/Large monster: 12 >>> 6

New: Hitting an enemy champion grants 3 stacks.

Ability W:

Initial slow: 35% >>> 30%

Max Slow: 47-95% >>> 40-70%

Cripple: 75% >>> 50%

Cooldown: 15-11s >>> 17-13s

Removed: No longer point and click single target.

New: Nasus strikes a curse on an area (Range: 650, Cast time: 0.25s, Radius: 350) and affects every enemy within. For each enemy affected Nasus gains 20 mov speed and 10% tenacity for the same duration. (Only enemies in the area during the cast are affected and the duration remains 5 secs)

Ability E:

Armor Shred: 30-50% >>> 20-40%

Initial Damage: 50-170 (+60% AP) >>> 40-120 (+90% AP)

Damage per tick: 10-34 (+12% AP) >>> 10-30 (+15% AP)

Cooldown: 12s >>> 15s

New: Gain extra 10 radius per 100 stacks and armor shred lingers for 1 sec after leaving the area. When entering the area Nasus gains a shield equal to the number of stacks for 3 seconds.

Ability R:

Bonus Health: 300/450/600 >>> 100/250/400 (+50 for each 100 stacks)

Bonus resistances: 40/55/70 >>> 20/35/50 (+5 for each 100 stacks)

Stat Changes:

Health: 631-2399 >>> 640-2400

Armor: 34-113.9 >>> 36-114
Magic Resist: 32-66.85 >>> 34-68

The goal of this rework would be to give him a little more skill expression with his W and make him scale better into the late game where a well placed W could make him a lot more impactful. Right now he peaks in mid game and falls off hard once people complete their builds and he gets killed before even landing a Q. Now he could get higher durability and tenacity to actually chase the target.

Also tweaked the stats and the Q stacking and passive to make his early game a bit more manageable and not get completely zoned with 0 chances to stack on minions. Now you could actually retaliate if the enemy is between you and the minions.

Maybe it's a dumb idea or not very well balanced but leave your feedback. I made it mostly for fun.

In mid, you take phyiscal and magic damage, so the dual resistances make sense. Resistances also scale better into late game and synergises better with Nasus's lifesteal. Also, it's getting buffed from 110 to 130 hp next patch.