Tanky Bruiser Top
Researched, pending verificationItems
Starting
Cloth Armordefault: vs an AD lane
Health Potionx5 with cloth, x1 with shield
Doran's Shieldalt start: vs heavy poke
Boots
Ninja Tabivs AD or auto-attackers
Mercury's Treadsvs AP or heavy CC
Core build path
Iceborn GauntletSheen proc amplifies Siphoning Strike
Spirit Visageamplifies Soul Eater's healing
Warmog's Armorthe health pool
Randuin's Omenshuts down AD carries
Situational
Buy these only when the game calls for it. They are not part of the core path.
more damage over tankiness
Trinity Forcein place of Iceborn
vs heavy attack speed
Frozen Heart
vs AP burst or CC ults
Banshee's Veil
vs an AD crit carry
Thornmail
split-push insurance
Guardian Angel
Summoner spells
Flash
Teleportor
Ghost
Max order
- Q
- E
- W
R at 6/11/16. Early W point at 2 for the slow; W maxed last.
| Ability | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Q | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | |||||||||||||
 W | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | |||||||||||||
 E | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | |||||||||||||
 R | 1 | 2 | 3 |
Runes
Marks
9/9
9× Greater Mark of Attack Damage
Seals
9/9
9× Greater Seal of Armor
Glyphs
9/9
9× Greater Glyph of Scaling Magic Resist
Quintessences
3/3
3× Greater Quintessence of Attack Damage
Masteries
Offense / Defense / Utility
Offense
9
4/4
2/2
2/4
1/1
Defense
21
4/4
3/3
3/3
2/2
1/1
1/1
3/3
3/3
1/1
Utility
0
Notes
The definition of a scaling juggernaut. Nasus does almost nothing for the first fifteen minutes except last-hit with Siphoning Strike and hide behind Wither, and then he becomes a problem no amount of kiting solves, Q-ing carries out of existence and pushing towers in seconds while nearly impossible to kill through Soul Eater and Spirit Visage. Siphoning Strike is always maxed first, since more ranks and a lower cooldown mean faster stacking, but the point in Wither at level 2 is never skipped: it is his only disable and his anti-gank tool, and the slow is already strong at rank 1. Against an attack-speed-reliant lane, some max Wither second instead of Spirit Fire. Beat him by punishing his weak early game and ending before he comes online; let it go late and the dog wins.
Not hand-checked yet, so treat these values as provisional. Source: Season 3 MOBAFire community guides (2012-2013), cross-referenced against MetaSRC League Classic 3.13 data (corroborates 9/21/0 and the Iceborn / Spirit Visage / Frozen Heart / Trinity Force core).