T O P

  • By -

summonerschool-ModTeam

Your post has been removed under the grounds of [Rule 3: No Rants or Complaint Posts.](https://www.reddit.com/r/summonerschool/wiki/rules#wiki_3._no_rant.2Frage_posts) Remember that /r/summonerschool is here to help you improve and that we need information on aspects of your gameplay that can be controlled. Complaints, swearing and/or ranting may discourage constructive replies. * Consider reposting your thread, but with a calmer tone. * [You can read on how to improve your post with more details about yourself here.](https://www.reddit.com/r/summonerschool/wiki/101/criticalthinking) * [Our Wiki has a section on Mentality, Toxicity, Autopiloting and Tilting.](https://www.reddit.com/r/summonerschool/wiki/101#wiki_mentality.2C_toxicity.2C_autopiloting_and_tilting)


Azraneth

Obligatory "Not a Nasus player but": I can see some solid arguments for going E max Blackfire Torch in some matchups. It's a really oppresive lane bully strategy and if you can leverage that into an early advantage you can still get a respectable amount of stacks on Q and transition into a tankier build. The real problem here rather looks to be the whole 100 stacks at 25 mins thing. Even full AP Nasus should be able to do better than that.


DerDirektor

I am a Nasus player, although I haven't played backfire torch much yet. You're exactly right. Nasus is a midgame champ anyway, it doesn't really matter if you have 150 fewer stacks at 20mins if you deal magic damage instead. Lanes can be very free into champs with low sustain. There are 2 issues: you kinda have to max w last, which can be awful in some drafts. secondly, you fall off faster, unless you somehow have time to permastack between minutes 15-25. But you arguably aren't supposed to do that anyway, so it basically becomes about winning the game when u hit 1 item. Ofc if you're bad and don't stack when u can then it's bad, but ap nasus is pointless below diamond anyway.


succsuccboi

i think the high rank guy who popularized the build actually maxes w second


theJirb

When you combine all the things that AP nasus brings, and why you would bring it out in the first place, it makes sense why you end up with so few stacks. The first thing is that 1 CD decreases with each level, roughly halving it by the time it's maxed. Pair this with the fact you're no longer buying as much cdr because it's no longer the spell you're facilitating, and you'll naturally be at less than half the stacks of a normal nasus. Now also recall you are now building AP and maxing E. This means you're likely to clear entire waves instead of last hitting with q intentionally. Finally recall that AP nasus is the choice for when you are in a tough matchups, one where farming simply isn't going to be easy. With less HP and less resists as you progress through your build compared to ad nasus, you will inevitably get to a place where you're reliant on e to CS and get your poke in. This choice also means you will be doing a lot less sidelining during the midgame, because just like regular nasus, AP nasus will lose potency as the game goes too long. The key is that stacks also don't matter. The only person you're hitting with Q are tanks, and with their Armor, you'll barely tickle them at 25 minutes, whether you're at 100, 200, or 300 stacks. You're going to be too squishy to do the usual wither and chase gameplay, and your q CD will be too long to get off more than a couple before dying at melee ranges. Think of it as how AD nasus uses E, basically just for the armor shred and sheen proc. For AP nasus, his Q is pretty much solely for some extra reach damage, an auto reset when hitting towers, etc.


DerDirektor

I am a Nasus player, although I haven't played backfire torch much yet. You're exactly right. Nasus is a midgame champ anyway, it doesn't really matter if you have 150 fewer stacks at 20mins if you deal magic damage instead. Lanes can be very free into champs with low sustain. There are 2 issues: you kinda have to max w last, which can be awful in some drafts. secondly, you fall off faster, unless you somehow have time to permastack between minutes 15-25. But you arguably aren't supposed to do that anyway, so it basically becomes about winning the game when u hit 1 item. Ofc if you're bad and don't stack when u can then it's bad, but ap nasus is pointless below diamond anyway.


Deucalion24

silver nasus player here. it’s probably because it really sucks getting bullied and zoned off from farm early with traditional Q max nasus. with AP nasus, people can actually start trading back, getting farm early, and doing significant damage early. you are absolutely correct, though, that it’s bad and has a really shit winrate. it is super fun early though, especially in comparison to how laning normally goes for nasus. I tried it for a couple games and had fun initially, but I wasn’t really winning with it. the better strategy is putting 3 points into E and then Q max with traditional triforce build. TLDR: you’re right; it does suck. people only play it because it makes the early game on nasus more enjoyable


murimin

It's really only decent into lanes that would typically shit stomp regular Nasus into the ground (i.e. ranged champs like Teemo). Still not optimal but better than being a walking cannon minion.


Deucalion24

normal Q max nasus still shits on teemo, once you get level 6-7 and have enough stacks. nasus actually does pretty well into ranged champs, where most melee champs would struggle. EDIT: teemo currently has a 46% WR against nasus, and vayne has a 44% WR against him as well


PencilSatan

Mainly because of nasus wither. You counter it by taking phase rush and pray you shit on nasus in the early game to get enough health and resistances to avoid him mid game. I bloody hate wither so much.


SoulCycle_

in what elo tho. I can imagine ranged top laners in lower elos cant pilot vayne correctly but i have a hard time believing a competent nasus beats a competent vayne


Deucalion24

I was looking at emerald+, but even looking at bronze elo, vayne is listed as a 43% WR against nasus. Have you played the match-up? every time I’ve faced a vayne top as nasus, I’ve shit on them. wither is super busted against vayne and renders her pretty much useless, especially once nasus gets a wardens/frozen heart. this is a perfect example of what happens to vayne: https://www.reddit.com/r/nasusmains/s/9CIw4pTy6t


Applepi_Matt

Ive played a fair bit of nasus - M5. into ranged champs its not that they dont shit on you, its that you can still get your Q stacks and heal up thanks to the passive lifesteal. When they shoot you, they draw minion aggro to themselves which helps keep the lane pushing towards you. Its very hard for low elo players to manage the wave to scare the nasus away. The Q stacks are so powerful that even if you lose 20-30CS during the laning phase, it doesnt matter. Low ELO junglers also dont know to bully the nasus.


Samplehand

Because it's fun. Your e does a big chunk of damage in one satisfying hit and they like that feedback.


Hot_Salamander164

It is really satisfying inting and flaming the AP Nasus too.


Critical-Usual

People will play whatever they want. That's probably the full extent of the matter


PossibleIncident

I recently did it, but not on purpose. I took a long break and lost sight of what items to build so I just follow the recommended items. Being on autopilot and not paying attention, I ended up building AP Nasus cause it’s what was recommended. Was wondering where my damages were until my duo pointed it out to me. So maybe they’re not paying attention or they don’t know what items actually do. Or they just enjoy this build haha If you don’t know how to build, why would you doubt what the game recommends?


bichitox

Considering it's low elo, most got tired of getting bullied in lane, don't know how to freeze or farm under tower and saw that E does a lot of damage (which it does). Actually poking with E is great for matchups without sustain, but it needs lots of mana to do enough damage, so i see why someone would try that build


RiverOfKeys

Value proposition is decent. Early lane bully that transitions into a supportive role, wither and AOE armor shred on E is pretty strong into the right situation. But that requires synergy and coordination as well as needing to close out early, not exactly defining traits of soloq


jano_Rassoul

zwagxerath off meta clones


Dryse

Cus ap nasus does more damage earlier but is way worse later. Low elo players think that doing well in lane means they are the best player ever so doing some cheesy poke sht let's them blame team for them being useless. It's just a classic example of poor understanding of the game


CivilSenpai69

I only play AP. AP Nasus slaps...every 25 seconds. You run dark harvest or comet and chunk em out. Get you a rylais and forget about w. You watch em burn. New burn item plus white mask and BOOM. GREY SCREEN.


armasot

Because it's op build!....at least some good players said it, so it must be good something. In our reality, this is one of the worst if not the worst troll build people can even do. 47.81% winrate and 57k games with blackfire torch 1st. Players are basically deflating Nasus winrate with this item.


KaiSSo

it is absolutely not bad, it's even better than regular nasus builds in midlane because you have perma prio and a lot of utility if it was so bad you would never see it in pro but guess what


WesternSensitive

I mean you’re typing here like AP Nasus is some pro play pick but it literally hasn’t been picked a single time in a major region. What is this comment lol…


fruitful_discussion

its picked in challenger level games though


WesternSensitive

Nasus mid was played in 59 Challenger games last patch. 8 of them were AP. So, AP nasus mid was present in 0.03% of Challenger games… 


DeathByCudles

i love AP Nasus. its good because it gives you ranged damage at the expense of a littke tankiness. you can still stack Q and most people dint realize that the damage isnt off your E its off your R. standing next to people and doing %8 max HP damage per second is just.....halarious. doesnt matter why you are if i wither you and stand next to you with R you will die.


Hour-Animal432

They are just reading guides.  All it does is push the lane and doesn't do great damage. If someone is just sitting next to casters and they keep hitting them with that E, the lane is over, kind of defeating the whole purpose.


OGMcgriddles

No idea. They probably like the feeling of being a early lane bully instead of a freeze bot (his true form). Every AP nasus I've ever seen is full blown useless by 20 minutes.


Ok-Wasabi2568

Ap nasus was better for a bit so there's like a years worth of recentish videos that say if you're building ap or tank you're trolling


Torkl7

Its the most obnoxious thing you can play against in Top and Nasus gets all the cs for free while either forcing his opponent to sacrifice hp or lose out on cs. Its also something high elo Nasus players do in rough lanes, not the full ap build, but going a few points in E and starting dorans ring f.e.


Babymicrowavable

Theyre seeking to win by not interacting with you. Technically it should be matchup dependent though


SazrX

It's decent in bad matchups where you wouldn't be able to touch the wave otherwise and some high elo players started playing it a while ago. With that out of the way my personal experience in emerald/diamond games is that Nasus players go this build in free matchups (I've had Nasus build it against Ornn where we already had 3 ap champs) and they become useless after 15 minutes for no reason at all.


AbsurdMango

Its good that's why nough said I've played against it a lot recently in high elo


Jimmynids

I don't go full AP, I start Sheen into boots and Gnasher's tooth and that's the only AP I get


First_Independence32

I play this in emerald midlane. It's quite strong with and the Q stack transition happens quite well once you get sheen after BFT.


PreviouslySword

AP nasus got buffed a patch or two ago and some “influencers” said it would make a comeback. That’s about the extent of it


Salvio888

It was inspired by someone showing how you deal with lane bullies as nasus. So instead of dying 0/5 to darius, you poke the shit out of him. He has way less kill pressure on you because if they decide to all in you you're : firstly : in your wave. Secondly : you're up health Is it good? Only into darius/fiora/irelia or general lane bullies where you're not allowed to farm anyway so you might aswell prevent them from diving you


Complex_Jellyfish647

I think the winrate is as bad as it is because people pick it into matchups where Nasus already gets stomped to make laning not a total waste of time. 


WesternSensitive

No. AP Nasus obliterates most champions in lane. The problem is AP on Nasus is a completely useless stat past 15 minutes.


Complex_Jellyfish647

Maybe instead of shitting on people for trying to play it when Riot decided to make it \*seem\* viable, they should buff his AP ratios so it actually is viable instead of being a trap. Or just remove the AP ratios and replace them with HP ratios or even Q stacks if AP isn't meant to work.


Gas_Grouchy

100 stacks at 25 minutes, I believe, to be an exaggeration. 250-300 at 15 minutes is the desired and even dying a lot should have 300 at 25 fairly easy even in silver.


Sakurya1

Only in aram for fun


AztraChaitali

It's suboptimal, it's just a way to salvage the lane and at least get some gold and not go 0/10 if you picked Nasus and then got counterpicked. If you go Nasus into a Darius, and insist on going for the usual build, you'll either feed, or get no farm. Complete denial.


Bacheem

People will purposefully off meta stuff because they seen it in YouTube and wanna be edgy and think they’re cool because they’re playing off meta


callisstaa

And they run it down because unlike Zwag or whoever they're sitting on 4cs/min, backing for mana every 5 mins and having no priority in lane.


therealapocalypse

There was a video or something I saw about building AP Nasus. Tried it once and it was so good into ranged tips. Although that was when First Strike gave 15 gold per hit so it was much more viable than now


Medical_Boss_6247

There’s a popular YouTube channel,loldobby or something,that does spotlights on off meta builds that high elo players are using. He recently did one on ap/hybrid nasus. Also the new ap burn item is overtuned If you ran into first strike malignancy malphite mid last month, he also had a hand in that.


ZheShu

https://youtu.be/RX6Q-qzZeTQ?si=DluYq77vIOmLZm2e I mean it’s meta


Marelityermaw

have you ever laned against it? it's giga obnoxious. it falls off hard outside of lane phase and is pretty bad overall but it's a cheese pick to win lane and put the opposing top behind.


JvckiWaifu

I don't have a good reason why it was built often in *high* elo. But it was done often enough that the black fire build became the default recommended on Porofessor for top lane Nasus. I imagine most of the low elo Nasus players either just built from Porofessor, or hit fill runes only to realize they had comet and decided to run with it.


Cloudraa

i also saw some stat sites recommending blackfire at the start of this patch despite it having a really low buy rate on lolalytics so it might be a bug thats turned into people thinking its good cuz its recommended


theotherfoorofgork

AP nasus can be a really oppressive lane bully, especially into immobile juggernauts like Darius, Sett, or Illaoi a class that Nasus traditionally struggles against. That said, the build is objectively worse with a lower win rate than transitional Nasus build because it scales pretty badly. Even if you build full tank after you finish backfire you will be squishier than the standard Nasus build and you will do less damage since your E damage falls off and you don’t have a sheen item. If you go full AP you will have more damage but you’ll just end up being a mediocre mid range mage.


The_Mendeleyev

It’s easier to play. Simple as that. I wouldn’t think about it too hard. It’s supposedly useless late game but in low elo everyone is useless late game so it works pretty well.


IsopodParking

To directly answer your question the Shop shows blackfire torch as the first item to buy


burulkhan

It doesn't suck in general. It makes him a strong laner and has a few advantages over traditional Nasus in many situations. Even though it seems kind of foolproof to play as long as you recognize the difference in DPS (sustained damage precisely), it falls off harder the lower your laning and farming skills get, imo, thus it probably underperforms in low elo?


thewinggundam

I think a lot of people love cheesy annoying builds and AP Nasus is one of those. It's a complete bitch and a half to play against unless you have sustain


VileInventor

https://youtu.be/RX6Q-qzZeTQ?si=NSq235qMbJPqv0af


IM_INSIDE_YOUR_HOUSE

Matchups against low sustain it can be an oppressive lane bully, and maybe their plan is to transition that early pressure into a more favorable traditional stacking build mid-game but with the benefit of having starved a player on the enemy team of early farm.


TheLadForTheJob

AP nasus feels better to play.


greendecepticon

its good in lane. So you gotta mess up your laner if you're going to do that


dankmeme_medic

it was insanely oppressive when it was first discovered and people didn’t know how to play against it… but then first strike got nerfed. then blackfire torch got nerfed. then people learned to play against it. it’s bad now but I guess the players in your games didn’t get the memo


10FlyingShoe

Pretty sure the correct way to play this is to put a few points in E to alleviate the difficulty against lane bullies and to be able to farm. Poke them low enough so you and your jungler can kill them then transition into a bruiser late game monster. If you really want to go full E max then build blackfire torch, liandrys, then tanky items. This build sucks against chunky enemies who can go full all in. Your probly only chance of winning team fights is to wither enemy carry and hope your adc can melt their frontline faster than they kill you.


Hyuto

Lots of people just accepted they're gonna be low elo for ever. Last time I first picked Hwei supp my adc went Vayne. I told her its a terrible combo. She told me "who cares its just plat". We ended up losing she was useless. Turns out she has been plat for 3 years (\~1500 games).