God I have planned to write this for weeks, but I have had so much to do. But, today I had planned to play borderlands 2 which is not released yet,,,,, so here we go a Old good Champion in League of Legends Nasus.
Anyway I really like Nasus, because he has a clear unique gameplay in League of Legends, based on a very simple idea: Good farm = win. Which can be rephrased to good economy = win, its a very general clear game plan when playing Nasus, which can be recognised from many different games e,g SC2.
However, I do recognised that Nasus is in itself very limited, in the regard of his varied gameplay there is none, so it don't feel he actually is that fun compared to for example, Shaco who features many different gameplays. But, comparing to for example other especially Mid game character I have reviewed earlier I will only consider Nasus Top performance which is what is fun with him anyway.
Aesthetics:
I am quite fond of Nasus aesthetics. I think its a very coherent design.
First of all hes an Anubis right, or whatever that mythical humanoid is called. Jackal Human?
Here's a typical Image of Anubis also, note the staff he is holding remind you of anyone?
Cynocephaly is the word for it apparently, which means dog headed. The thing is that there is not many fables of Cynocephalies, except Anubis from the Egyptian Mythology. Tell me if I am wrong but I am pretty sure in Unlimited Saga(Squre Enix game) they even call the Jackal humans, the race of Anubis. And in the game there is no note of Anubis a god etc, they have chosen to call the enemies, citizens and 1 playable character lumping them in as the Anubis Race.
What does this mean in Nasus case? Well, when I look at Nasus I think Anubis, I don't think Cynocephaly. That's why the design of Nasus is so coherent.
And we do have this skin..Note that Nasus forth ability is Called Fury of the sand, who lives in the sand? Egyptians.
So when we are playing Nasus, we are basically playing Anubis. I like it quite a lot. His skill is all about decaying the enemy. With his slow that increase over time = Decay. That he can desecrate the ground, typical death god powers. The ultimate that decays everyone around him and makes him stronger, his passive gives him passive life steal, again absorbing the enemies.
And finally as we all know (I assume everyone reading this nows the basic of Nasus) his Siphon Strike that increases in damage after each kill.
If there is one thing that is so amazing with Nasus gameplay is just that he will be so ridicules late game, you know after killing a lot of stuff and absorbing them, until he is the last one standing.
But, yeah coming to that shortly, Nasus is feels very coherent, looks good etc. I like it.
9/10 - 1 minus because--- it is kinda uninspiring that he is not simply called Macleod as he is so similar.
Gameplay:
OK, lets not lie, Nasus is the Highlander of League of Legends 100% from his Q ability Siphoning Strike. Thing is that is such an important game mechanic I am will therefor talk about it last. Still I have to say, Nasus slow is kinda interesting, the ultimate is kinda cute but really its the Q that creates his whole gameplay, so lets just cover the others first( But, well they do have a nice coherency).
Nasus can play Jungle and Top. However, he is never played Jungle Basically. I do it sometimes but its rare. The good point with Jungle is his strong slow and that he can farm safely.
Nasus passive is called: Soul eater, which is plainly a life steal passive. Its a very boring passive. But a very good one, it makes him much more sustainable in the jungle or at top. And late game, the player can heal huge sums very quickly from his damage.
Nasus, W is called Wither. Wither is a one of the absolute best slow mechanics in the game, if not the best. It reminds me of Dazzles(Dota) poison. as it increases the affect over time. Wither is an interesting ability, especially for the opponent hit by it. For Nasus and his allies it gives some dynamic choices, preferably the others will CC while the opponent is not maxed slow yet or gain distance while waiting for the larger slow. But, I like it mainly as from the one being hit by Wither. This means its a lot about trying to time it correctly, for example running and using a Teleport mechanic just when the hard slow hits. To make sure people cant get you and so on. (Really reminds me of being poisoned by Dazzle in that situation). Its a pretty nice ability designed.
His third ability is really pale, it is aesthetically coherent as I explained earlier. However, and I do feel the world Pale suits perfectly. Its called Spirit Fire, and its just an area of effect spell that makes it deal damage over time. It does not at all fit into the gameplay coherency. I am sure you can ask anyone who have ever played Nasus, and they would say its just there, you will cast it because of the armor reduction. But the damage is very mediocre, it really gives the feeling of “whatever I might as well use it”. This ability could be a lot of other mechanics instead, or the armor reduction could be done in another way. (hmm again it reminds of Dazzle, I had never even thought about that until right now when I am writing this, that's whats happen when you analyze stuff you like it less and less).
Basically I will gave Nasus one minus in his score purely from how little sense this ability does.
His ultimate, Fury of the Sands. Is a pretty neat ability. Gaining extra health, and he absorbs health from enemies around him. Furthermore, some of that damage death is turned into attack power. Pretty good ability for tanking and team fights. However, it still is there mainly to empower his Siphoning Strike.
So what is Siphoning Strike then? Siphoning Strike is a like many other abilities a self cast buff, that enchant the next normal attack. However, for each kill of anything performed with the ability it gains +3 in damage. Note! its very important to understand the user has to land the kill with the ability itself and not just kill something. This ability is the core gameplay of Nasus.
First of all, this affects the gameplay in the sense, that the user will constantly charge it up and last hit minions with it. This is quite different from any other spamable Q empower attack, sure with other champions. For example, Wukong the user can easier last hit with his Q. But with Nasus, its a decision, it becomes a dynamic choice. Do you want to deal damage to the enemy or do you want to keep improving the ability for later.
Already here, I like this ability more then the rest of the typical Enchant abilities. But the real thing with Nasus is that he is top, top is about farming. And keeping the other person from not farming.
Top is mainly won by having the most creeps killed not by killing the other person. Sure if it happens its great, but usually both will farm. And then come down late game to fight for their team. Nasus, is the epic farmer. If a user manages to get a high cs, given its mainly last hit with Q hes amazing.
It gives such a unique gameplay feel to it, because when I play Nasus. I run around constantly not killing creeps, which is crazy with any other champion of the creep have low life. But with Nasus, I let them live so I can only finish with Siphon Strike. And then I want to say top for ever, Nasus is that kind of character where you just farm, and farm and then in the late game you instantly kill everyone 1v1.
Furthermore, Nasus is really good as champion that, the user can build full tank and still do huge damage. However, as lot of people would whine on me otherwise. Nasus sucks, he sucks a lot. IF he cant farm a lot. This I think its a further good game design. This instantiates, a very forced play for the users facing Nasus. They have to gank him, they have to force him to have a trouble top, for example counter picking in draft etc. So in situations where it might be easier to gank Bot for the jungle, he/she instead goes top to prevent Nasus farm, dynamic choices is the key to a nice gameplay. And for the Nasus user its a lot about, thinking “should I go and help the team or should I keep farming”.
Lasly to consider is that Nasus is really weak at top. He can be beat a few champions but for the most part, its really troublesome playing her. This makes the whole play session be very interesting, as the user you really grow with Nasus.
Nasus really embodies the top gameplay. Very nice, very nice indeed.
8.5/10
There can only be one top gameplay as Nasus, one clear negative is the E ability spirit fire. And he is kinda of imbalanced, either he cant do anything top and becomes useless or in other games he crushes 5 people alone (so is he is both under and overpowered-_-).
-- Oh, when I wrote this the spelling checker keeps wanting to rewrite Nasus, it wants it to be Nazis instead.
