It's time for me to eat a little bit of humble pie and talk about support Nasus, a concept which I initially spurned due to several bad but unrepresentative experiences. Support Nasus is actually a fairly frightening partner for many popular carries. It's counter-intuitive, as Nasus is best known for his carry potential, but his utility is actually significant enough to make him a potent support.
The key to support Nasus lies in Wither and Spirit Fire. The former ability is an incredibly potent slow, affecting both Movement Speed and Attack Speed to significant degree. Not only is it powerful in laning, but throughout the game it will shut down any carry who forgets to grab Cleanse or a Quicksilver Sash. The latter ability is the single strongest Flat Armor Reduction ability in the game, removing an incredible 20 armor with only one rank, and scaling up to 40 at maximum rank. The degree to which Nasus both decreases an opposing carry's damage while improving his own makes him a scary support.
Because of these factors, Nasus works best with high physical damage carries, and is best used against carries who depend heavily on auto-attacks. Champions like Miss Fortune, Twitch, Graves, Caitlyn, or Draven become absolutely terrifying when Spirit Fire is placed properly. It's therefore important to be very judicious when placing Spirit Fire; haphazard placement will dramatically reduce Nasus' effectiveness.
Nasus needs to be built similarly to any all-in support. While his two most important abilities are ranged, hanging back is a gigantic waste of his potential. He should be in the thick of things, and as a result he prioritizes items like Locket, Aegis, and other items which make him tankier while providing team utility. Cooldown Reduction is also extremely important for support Nasus, as capping it yields very high uptime on Wither and Spirit Fire, dramatically increasing his teamfight contributions.
Obviously in a supporting role Nasus will not be able to stack Soul Siphon very much, but even with limited stacks he can contribute significantly to a tower push. Soul Siphon's auto-reset also allows him to quickly dispense with wards if his AD is attentive. While not his most defining feature when supporting, it's not a useless ability.
Nasus' ultimate, however cannot be underestimated. By simply standing near opponents he can deal significant damage while also gaining AD. Even with just one rank it deals nearly a third of a target's health in damage over the duration (even Baron and Dragon). With Health stacking a common itemization path, Nasus' ultimate is extremely potent.
Overall support Nasus is not mainstream. It's likely that his use will be met with derision, fear, and loathing by those afraid of the unknown. Still, when playing among friends or simply defying the jeers of solo/duo queue, support Nasus can be surprisingly effective.
Showing posts with label Nasus. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Nasus. Show all posts
Tuesday, March 5, 2013
Monday, February 18, 2013
Patch Day: 3.02
I'm much later than I wanted to be with this "patch day" analysis, but better late than never. Some people think Quinn will be coming out before 3.03, but I'm not so certain. For now, let's focus on what the patch notes themselves say.
There are a lot of quality of life changes and bug fixes this patch. While many champions have been affected, most of those changes aren't notable enough to be analyzed here.
Akali's passives no longer require a set amount of Attack Damage or Ability Power to activate. This is extremely useful for players who don't have many runes or rune pages, as it allows them to avoid dedicating an entire page to Akali. However, the best page for jungling hasn't changed; Spell Vamp Quintessences remain vital for sustain, Ability Power Glyphs remain vital for clear speed, and Attack Damage Marks remain vital for both.
Nasus' entirely balanced and not in any way abusive crit glitch has been fixed. Though I mourn the loss of my overpowered and unfair crits, it's entirely understandable. In return, Nasus gets some extremely valuable buffs. The mana cost reduction on Q is extremely useful for both laning and jungling, allowing him to farm his Q without worrying about mana. The cast and attack range changes on his ultimate may not seem like much, but being able to spam Wither from 900 range makes Nasus a nightmare for any carry not rocking Cleanse or Quicksilver Sash. He may not be able to one shot bots in Coop vs AI games anymore, but he's still significantly better off than he was a few patches ago.
According to LoLWiki Riven's new passive is actually 20-50% of total Attack Damage, not 15- 45%. The original numbers were probably too much of a punishment at early levels, and slightly too little later on. This should have the desired effect, as even at level 9 (when the passive reaches 35% of total Attack Damage) the new passive should be slightly stronger than before due to base Attack Damage.
There are significant changes to items as well this patch.
Cooldown Reduction got shuffled around a bit. Athene's Unholy Grail, Spirit Visage, and Zeke's Herald all saw increases, while Deathfire Grasp, Glacial Shroud, and Iceborn Gauntlet all saw decreases. This was one knob Riot very consciously turned to help balance overused and underused items.
Armor and Magic Resistance became cheaper. Stacking Health was the best option not only because it was cheap and easy, but because defensive stats were costly and difficult. In some cases items had their stats increased, and in other cases they had their costs reduced. Riot obviously wanted to make non-Health defensive items more competitive.
Liandry's Torment was modified slightly. Previously damage over time abilities or repeated casts munched some of the passive damage from this item. It's an old problem that used to plague Teemo and Nautilus, but no longer. The change, and the damage increase, should help make this item strong against Health-stacking opponents. Blade of the Ruined King received buffs as well with the same goal, but Riot is already playing around with a different iteration due to the insufficiency of the changes.
Ohmwrecker has been modified to try to appeal more to supports than tanks. Despite that, the gold cost is extremely steep. A lot of the cost comes from the Ability Power, which is arguably less than useful for supports. Riot seems to have forgotten that they nerfed the Ability Power ratios on supports long ago, making Ability Power a largely undesirable attribute for a role centered around ability actives and team utility.
All in all, not the most exciting patch, but a good one nonetheless. You'd think I'd be more thrilled about the Akali changes, but as I primarily jungle Akali rather than lane it didn't change all that much for me. It's the lane Akali players who can now run Magic Penetration who should be excited.
There are a lot of quality of life changes and bug fixes this patch. While many champions have been affected, most of those changes aren't notable enough to be analyzed here.
Akali's passives no longer require a set amount of Attack Damage or Ability Power to activate. This is extremely useful for players who don't have many runes or rune pages, as it allows them to avoid dedicating an entire page to Akali. However, the best page for jungling hasn't changed; Spell Vamp Quintessences remain vital for sustain, Ability Power Glyphs remain vital for clear speed, and Attack Damage Marks remain vital for both.
Nasus' entirely balanced and not in any way abusive crit glitch has been fixed. Though I mourn the loss of my overpowered and unfair crits, it's entirely understandable. In return, Nasus gets some extremely valuable buffs. The mana cost reduction on Q is extremely useful for both laning and jungling, allowing him to farm his Q without worrying about mana. The cast and attack range changes on his ultimate may not seem like much, but being able to spam Wither from 900 range makes Nasus a nightmare for any carry not rocking Cleanse or Quicksilver Sash. He may not be able to one shot bots in Coop vs AI games anymore, but he's still significantly better off than he was a few patches ago.
According to LoLWiki Riven's new passive is actually 20-50% of total Attack Damage, not 15- 45%. The original numbers were probably too much of a punishment at early levels, and slightly too little later on. This should have the desired effect, as even at level 9 (when the passive reaches 35% of total Attack Damage) the new passive should be slightly stronger than before due to base Attack Damage.
There are significant changes to items as well this patch.
Cooldown Reduction got shuffled around a bit. Athene's Unholy Grail, Spirit Visage, and Zeke's Herald all saw increases, while Deathfire Grasp, Glacial Shroud, and Iceborn Gauntlet all saw decreases. This was one knob Riot very consciously turned to help balance overused and underused items.
Armor and Magic Resistance became cheaper. Stacking Health was the best option not only because it was cheap and easy, but because defensive stats were costly and difficult. In some cases items had their stats increased, and in other cases they had their costs reduced. Riot obviously wanted to make non-Health defensive items more competitive.
Liandry's Torment was modified slightly. Previously damage over time abilities or repeated casts munched some of the passive damage from this item. It's an old problem that used to plague Teemo and Nautilus, but no longer. The change, and the damage increase, should help make this item strong against Health-stacking opponents. Blade of the Ruined King received buffs as well with the same goal, but Riot is already playing around with a different iteration due to the insufficiency of the changes.
Ohmwrecker has been modified to try to appeal more to supports than tanks. Despite that, the gold cost is extremely steep. A lot of the cost comes from the Ability Power, which is arguably less than useful for supports. Riot seems to have forgotten that they nerfed the Ability Power ratios on supports long ago, making Ability Power a largely undesirable attribute for a role centered around ability actives and team utility.
All in all, not the most exciting patch, but a good one nonetheless. You'd think I'd be more thrilled about the Akali changes, but as I primarily jungle Akali rather than lane it didn't change all that much for me. It's the lane Akali players who can now run Magic Penetration who should be excited.
Friday, February 8, 2013
Jungler: Nasus
With Nasus' Siphoning Strike now granting double the stacks when killing large jungle creeps, Nasus is now a powerful jungler (especially if you have Crit runes).
What makes Nasus so strong is that his damage is largely independent of his itemization. So long as you properly last-hit with Siphoning Strike as you jungle you'll be able to hit like a truck. This allows Nasus to build tank items early without being ineffective during ganks, skirmishes, and fights over objectives.
You do want those early tank items to sport Cooldown Reduction. This enhances both Nasus' offense by allowing for more Siphoning Strikes, and his defense by increasing his Wither uptime. Nasus with Cooldown Reduction is far, far scarier than Nasus without. For this reason my first items are typically Glacial Shroud and Kindlegem, which I later upgrade into Frozen Heart and Spirit Visage.
The next priority for Nasus is to become unkiteable. The best way to do this is to build Spirit of the Ancient Golem and Swiftness Boots. Between Tenacity, reduced slow effectiveness, and Wither spam, running away from Nasus is extremely difficult. Nasus lacks gap closers, so it's easy to get kited if you aren't prepared.
It's only after completing all of those items that I begin to consider offense. Against an Armor-stacking team Last Whisper is extremely effective, and also cheap. Nasus' doesn't stack Black Cleaver fast enough for it to be a worthwhile investment, and you should already be capped or near-capped on Cooldown Reduction anyway. Infinity Edge is currently an excellent option against Armor-light teams, though when and if Siphoning Strike's interaction with Crit is removed that will change. Most games you won't reach this point, or if you do there won't be much of the game left.
The most critical skill required to jungle Nasus is last-hitting with Siphoning Strike. Failing to judge its damage properly is fatal. The better you do early, the better you'll do later, so focus heavily on making that first clear smooth and effective, it'll carry through to later clears.
As the game goes on, realize that Nasus is a monster when it comes to objectives and towers. With his monster 14-20% Life Steal and auto-resetting Siphoning Strike Nasus can easily solo Dragon; just drop a pink ward, wait for a nearby lane to recall, and go. Towers provide little obstacle as well, falling quickly if left unguarded.
In team fights either spam Wither on the enemy ranged AD carry, or use it as a peeling tool for your carry. Nasus is just as happy to take chunks out of a bruiser's health as he is chasing squishies. So long as you keep spamming Wither and smacking people around you'll have a ton of presence.
Jungle Nasus is strong enough to use just about any rune/mastery setup you can think of. All you need to do is pick what fits your playstyle, and scatter your enemies like the sands of the desert.
What makes Nasus so strong is that his damage is largely independent of his itemization. So long as you properly last-hit with Siphoning Strike as you jungle you'll be able to hit like a truck. This allows Nasus to build tank items early without being ineffective during ganks, skirmishes, and fights over objectives.
You do want those early tank items to sport Cooldown Reduction. This enhances both Nasus' offense by allowing for more Siphoning Strikes, and his defense by increasing his Wither uptime. Nasus with Cooldown Reduction is far, far scarier than Nasus without. For this reason my first items are typically Glacial Shroud and Kindlegem, which I later upgrade into Frozen Heart and Spirit Visage.
The next priority for Nasus is to become unkiteable. The best way to do this is to build Spirit of the Ancient Golem and Swiftness Boots. Between Tenacity, reduced slow effectiveness, and Wither spam, running away from Nasus is extremely difficult. Nasus lacks gap closers, so it's easy to get kited if you aren't prepared.
It's only after completing all of those items that I begin to consider offense. Against an Armor-stacking team Last Whisper is extremely effective, and also cheap. Nasus' doesn't stack Black Cleaver fast enough for it to be a worthwhile investment, and you should already be capped or near-capped on Cooldown Reduction anyway. Infinity Edge is currently an excellent option against Armor-light teams, though when and if Siphoning Strike's interaction with Crit is removed that will change. Most games you won't reach this point, or if you do there won't be much of the game left.
The most critical skill required to jungle Nasus is last-hitting with Siphoning Strike. Failing to judge its damage properly is fatal. The better you do early, the better you'll do later, so focus heavily on making that first clear smooth and effective, it'll carry through to later clears.
As the game goes on, realize that Nasus is a monster when it comes to objectives and towers. With his monster 14-20% Life Steal and auto-resetting Siphoning Strike Nasus can easily solo Dragon; just drop a pink ward, wait for a nearby lane to recall, and go. Towers provide little obstacle as well, falling quickly if left unguarded.
In team fights either spam Wither on the enemy ranged AD carry, or use it as a peeling tool for your carry. Nasus is just as happy to take chunks out of a bruiser's health as he is chasing squishies. So long as you keep spamming Wither and smacking people around you'll have a ton of presence.
Jungle Nasus is strong enough to use just about any rune/mastery setup you can think of. All you need to do is pick what fits your playstyle, and scatter your enemies like the sands of the desert.
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