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.

Thought: Critical Strike Runes

Critical Strike runes are generally considered to be a cheese, used only for luck-based wins during laning. However, when I made a spreadsheet to compare physical damage runes on AD carries I was surprised to find that Critical Strike runes were actually one of the best late-game rune options. In fact, the only runes which provide more damage than Critical Strike late-game are Attack Speed and AD/Level.

In retrospect it shouldn't be all that surprising. Critical Strike is one of the key scaling factors which make AD carries scary late-game, but is the only one which is directly affected by Critical Damage. Meanwhile Critical Damage is itself utterly dependent upon Critical Strike, and Armor Penetration is devalued by Last Whisper. These factors give Critical Strike an edge in the late-game.

It's not enough of an advantage to make Critical Strike the best mathematically, but it's possible to argue that Critical Strike is the best overall. Attack Speed is only better on paper if the carry has no Attack Speed steroid or external buff, and requires the player be able to continuously attack in a fight. Even though it's hands down better than Critical Strike in all scenarios late game, AD/Level is nearly useless early on. Because Critical Strike is a rare steroid, does not exist as a buff, and has early game value it can be far more valuable than Attack Speed or AD/Level.

The big downside to Critical Strike is the RNG game you play during laning. If you do not crit, which is possible, you're at a disadvantage during trades. Moreover, your last-hitting can be screwed up by errant crits on creeps. It's risky to run Critical Strike and right now most players, even pros, are very risk averse.

Still, Critical Strike runes are very much worth considering on AD carries. If you're going to be aggressive early, but still want late game strength, Critical Strike runes are the best option available.