Nasus, the Curator of the Sands

1. Champion Overview: Nasus for Top Lane

In this guide, we will be looking at one of the hardest scaling champion, Nasus the Curator of the Sands.

Pros:

1. Nasus scales infinitely. This means that the longer the game goes, the stronger nasus gets. Thus, there is no limit to how strong he can become.

2. His W (Wither) generally causes Auto Attack reliant AD Carries to become useless for 5 seconds.

3. His ultimate gives him increased health and does percentage damage which gives him more survivability and allows him to control objectives better.  

4. Nasus’s passive although heavily nerfed, still is one of the best passives in the game because it allows him to stay in lane for long periods of time due to the high amount of sustain it gives him.

Cons:

1. Nasus however has one of the weakest early laning phases in the game.

2. Nasus is incredibly easy to kite and with proper CC he can actually be rendered useless.

3. With great peel, Nasus will never be able to reach the backlines of the team.

4. Nasus requires to stay in lane for a long time to farm up his Q and has trouble doing so against ranged champions who constantly harass him.

2. Suggested Masteries & Runes

Masteries: 

After the season 4 changes to masteries, it hurts Nasus to run 9/21 because it does not give him the % armor penetration anymore. Instead, it is much more beneficial to run 21/9 because of the % armor penetration it gives him. He is still innately tanky with the 3% maximum health increase. Generally, Nasus eventually builds mainly tanky items so lacking tanky masteries is not a problem.

Runes:

The attack damage and armor pen. synchronizes well with the 6% armor penetration you obtain from the masteries. After the Nasus nerfs, it is crucial to run life steal runes to keep up his sustain during the laning phase. Running flat mr and armor runes will also give him that edge of tankiness to survive the laning harassment.

3. Summoner Spells: Flash, Ghost & Ignite, Teleport

Choice 1:Ghost/Flash

-Generally, people who play Nasus runs ghost because it allows him to reach the back lines faster and because he is so easily kited down. 

-Flash. (Flash is actually better in some cases because sometimes, ghost will not get you completely towards the carries you want to destroy. This is where flash comes in handy because it allows you to instantly teleport to a location you want to reach.)

Choice 2: Teleport/Ignite

-Generally, Nasus players will always run teleport because it allows them to reach the lane faster and not miss out on any opportunities of stacking Q. Teleport also allows Nasus to have more global objective control than his lane opponent. 

-Ignite can sometimes be the better choice against certain champs like Mundo, Swain, as it reduces the amount of healing they receive. Running ignite will also give you a stronger 1 v 1 and helps much more than running teleport.

4. Skill Order: 

Explanation: 

Maxing Q is a must because it increases the damage of your Q and makes last hitting much easier. You then want to max W for the maximum amount of slow on enemy AD Carries and also to prevent ganks from being successful. However, you can also choose to max E for more wave clearing potential.

Suggested Build:

Nasus’s primary damage comes from his Q, so as long as your Q is stacked you aren't really in the need for building damage items. However, Trinity force is extremely helpful because activating Q procs sheen, dealing more damage and allows you to stick on the enemy ADC easier.

1. Spirit Visage

2. Mercury Treads

3. Frozen Heart

4.Trinity Force

5. Randuins Omen

6. Banshees Veil (If Heavy AP) or Warmogs (If Heavy AD)

Starting: Dorans shield + 1 pot gives you the maximum sustain at the early laning phase.

Mid: By mid game, you will probably have a decent amount of Q farm along with a tanky item and halfway through completing trinity force.

End: By the late game, you should have all these 6 items and you will become the unstoppable beast!

Main Counters:

1. Teemo
-Teemo is one of the most annoying champions to play against as a Nasus because he will constantly harass you every time you come in to last hit a minion. His blind dart actually blocks the damage from your q so try to avoid engaging in long fights with Teemo. Eventually, once you finish your spirit visage, you will be able to ignore some of Teemo’s partial damage, however the amount of poke he will do will always remain the same.
2. Riven
-Riven is an incredibly hard match-up for Nasus because not only does she have incredibly strong early game damage, which Nasus lacks, but she also scales really well into the late game just as Nasus does. Nasus will have trouble farming his Q early on because of the amount of harass Riven will be dishing out. Rushing Sunfire or Ninja Tabi will alleviate some of the pressure, but avoid fighting long skirmishes unless your Q is heavily stacked.

6. Commentaries and Thoughts

Nasus is one of the best late game champions in the game because he is able to scale infinitely. As long as Nasus is able to stack his Q, he will eventually be able to three shot the carries and win every single team fight. Nasus is one of the few champions in the game that is able to successfully win a 1 v 5 in the late gaming phase. However, his early game is incredibly weak. Playing as a Nasus, you need to play really safe early on and simply farm your Q. My name is TabIo (Capital i) and I am currently ranked Platinum 4 in the preseason of season 4 and this is my guide for running Nasus in the top lane. Good luck on Summoners Rift!

7. Nasus Montage

Featuring: casperleexd