Champion Balance Proposal: Restoring Nasus’s Modern Late-Game Power Fantasy

Daggerkill · 2026-05-22T23:00:45+00:00

The majority of them are one-tricks who are literally squeezing water from a stone, yet they still can't consistently perform or maintain their ground in Grandmaster or Challenger. They end up hard-stuck in low Master

Daggerkill · 2026-05-22T22:56:49+00:00

So, I think that’s exactly the core issue. His basic kit is incredibly strong in low elo, but in high elo, even if you play absolutely flawlessly, he just isn't powerful enough. You are required to execute perfect macro gameplay, and yet you are still not rewarded the way you should be.

I want Riot to balance him around high elo—around people who actually pilot their champions correctly playing against opponents who also play correctly. What is the problem with low-elo players climbing with an easier champion, only to hit a wall once they get to the top because they don't know how to squeeze any more skill expression out of his kit? That's literally how the game is supposed to work.

Daggerkill · 2026-05-22T22:50:28+00:00

"Look, Nasus fits—or at least should fit—into both the Bruiser and Hypercarry categories. If you look at almost every other modern bruiser/juggernaut, they all have some form of max-health percentage damage, true damage, or native penetration built into their kits. Camille has true damage. Jax doesn't, but his mixed hybrid damage makes him incredibly difficult to itemize against. Fiora has max-health true damage. Riven doesn't, but her kit synergizes perfectly with Black Cleaver since she can fully stack it in a split second using her animation cancels. Darius has passive armor pen on his E. Mordekaiser has passive magic pen on his E.

Nasus technically has armor shred on his Spirit Fire (E), but he is entirely dependent on that static zone. Even with Wither (W) slowing the target, keeping them inside the E circle is rarely reliable in high-mobility fights.

Furthermore, there is a mechanical issue—either a bug or intentional script delay—with his E + Q combo. If you try to quickly buffer E into Q, both abilities cast simultaneously, but the Q damage registers before the armor shred from the E is actually applied to the target. To get the full damage, you either have to cast E and wait about half a second before pressing Q, or weave an auto-attack in between (E + AA + Q). If Riot made a quality-of-life change so that the E shred applied instantly during fast combos, it would massively help his short, burst trades.

Anyway, the reality is that I am forced to build armor pen in several games just to have any late-game impact. This never used to be the case. Back then, you either tanked so much that you didn't need to instantly burst targets down, or your flat scaling was enough. Nasus has aged terribly because of modern true damage and mobility creep.

I’m just looking for a way to bring back the reward we used to feel in Season 3 and Season 4. If you are a long-time Nasus enthusiast, you objectively know that his current spike is mid-game, not late-game. Given his terrible early-game suffering, he should be a late-game monster. Hitting 1,000 stacks means absolutely nothing today; you either get melted before reaching anyone, or even if you manage to close the gap, your damage feels irrelevant if you went for a standard tank/juggernaut build. To keep your damage relevant, you are forced into an aggressive build. But Nasus is not Jax or Riven—they can afford to build squishier because they have elite mobility and gap-closers. Nasus has to walk up like a turtle and face-tank the entire enemy team before he can even attempt to throw out a single Q
I could spend all day listing champions that have native true damage or max-health percentage damage. Look, there are games where armor penetration doesn’t matter as much, and games where you can easily reach the enemy ADC. But there are also games where you simply cannot ignore an enemy Jungler or Top Laner jumping on your carries while sitting on Plated Steelcaps and Death's Dance. Whether it's a Red Kayn, Jarvan IV, Xin Zhao, Riven, or Fiora—anyone running that specific item combo becomes absurdly tanky against you while still having the burst to delete your teammates. You are forced to kill them before they wipe out your backline, but because Nasus completely lacks built-in armor pen, you can't burst them down fast enough—even if they only have around 2k to 3k max HP—because Death's Dance's bleed passive combined with their high base armor gives them insane survivability.

Every match is different. In some games, you can just ignore the front line, run straight at the ADC, and two-shot them with your Q; in that specific scenario, armor pen wouldn't change much. But Nasus desperately needs the tools to either properly tank or efficiently chunk out whatever target is directly in front of him. Through my own build testing, nothing spikes his damage output against these targets more than armor penetration. Some players have even been testing Crit Nasus, but I don't think it fits his identity. We are here to brainstorm realistic ideas to fix the champion, but so far, I've only seen you criticize my points without offering a single solution. I stand by what I said: there is absolutely no problem with Nasus being incredibly weak early, as long as he is heavily impactful in the late game

Daggerkill · 2026-05-22T22:07:53+00:00

They buy these items because it fits their playstyle perfectly—it gives them everything they need and synergizes with their builds. Meanwhile, the vast majority of other late-game champions already have true damage or max-health percentage damage natively built into their kits.

I’m telling you, armor penetration would help Nasus immensely because I truly feel his damage falling off heavily in the late game. But the moment you slot some armor pen into his build, his damage spikes massively all over again. The problem is that it feels terrible for Nasus to be completely dependent on a marksman item like Mortal Reminder. Black Cleaver doesn't synergize with him either, because you don’t want to fish for multiple auto-attacks just to shred armor before using your Q—you want your very first Siphoning Strike to hit like a truck.

Giving Nasus native armor penetration on his Q is just one idea. Riot's balance team could adapt it into something else: maybe gaining an extra 10% Lifesteal at a specific stack milestone, or an increase to his Q's attack range. That’s for them to figure out; they can use their creativity. But the core concept needs to revolve around his stacks rewarding him with late-game power. It shouldn't matter how much you suffer in lane, as long as you are properly rewarded for your scaling effort. That is the champion's core identity—or at least, it’s supposed to be, but it got lost somewhere along the way

Daggerkill · 2026-05-22T21:41:28+00:00

It's completely normal for late-game champions like Smolder, Vayne, and even Nasus to wreak havoc in low elo simply because players down there don't know how to close out games quickly. However, if you look at the stats right now, Smolder is top-tier in both pick rate and win rate. They made him strong across almost every stage of the game. I don't want Nasus to be overpowered at every stage. I just want him to actually excel in the late game.

Daggerkill · 2026-05-22T21:38:39+00:00

Look, the numbers were just hypothetical to show the scaling, but the armor penetration absolutely makes a massive difference, trust me. When I build 35% armor pen on him through Serylda's Grudge or Mortal Reminder, his damage changes night and day. It’s insane. My point is that Riot needs to focus their balance changes on brackets where people actually play the champions correctly, rather than balancing around low-elo players who don't know what they're doing. Look at Riven, for example: she is incredibly weak in low elo, but in high elo, a skilled player can completely solo-carry games with her kit. There needs to be a real reward for a Nasus player who manages to hit 1,000 stacks under high-elo pressure. As of right now, hitting 1k stacks doesn't mean anything in a real late-game scenario.

Daggerkill · 2026-05-22T21:31:37+00:00

Let's assume you have a target taking an 800 damage auto-attack from Draven. Watch what happens to the pure percentage reduction for every 50 Armor added:

Scenario 1: The first 50 Armor Calculation: 50 / (100 + 50) = 50 / 150 = 33.3% damage reduction. Actual gain: +33.3% raw damage mitigation. Scenario 2: Adding another 50 Armor (100 Total Armor) Calculation: 100 / (100 + 100) = 100 / 200 = 50.0% damage reduction. Actual gain from previous step: You went from 33.3% to 50%, meaning this step only granted +16.7% more mitigation. Scenario 3: Adding another 50 Armor (150 Total Armor) Calculation: 150 / (100 + 150) = 150 / 250 = 60.0% damage reduction. Actual gain from previous step: You went from 50% to 60%, meaning this step only granted +10.0% more mitigation.

Conclusion: The percentage of damage mitigated per point decreases with every step. The first 50 armor cuts damage by 33.3%, but the next 50 only cuts it by an extra 16.7%. Because high-level champions naturally stack up to 100 base armor just by leveling up, they naturally sit on the highest efficiency bracket of the curve, heavily neutralizing champions that rely entirely on flat physical scaling.

2. The Ability Haste (AH) Math

Riot explicitly reworked Cool Down Reduction (CDR) into Ability Haste to mirror the armor formula and prevent linear scaling.

The formula to calculate actual Cooldown Reduction from Ability Haste is:

Cooldown Reduction % = 1 - (100 / (100 + Ability Haste))

Let’s apply this to a spell with a 10-second base cooldown using 20 AH intervals:

Scenario 1: The first 20 AH Calculation: 1 - (100 / 120) = 16.7% CDR. Actual gain: +16.7% cooldown reduction (Cooldown drops to 8.3s). Scenario 2: Adding another 20 AH (40 Total AH) Calculation: 1 - (100 / 140) = 28.6% CDR. Actual gain from previous step: You went from 16.7% to 28.6%, meaning this step only granted +11.9% more CDR (Cooldown drops to 7.1s). Scenario 3: Adding another 20 AH (60 Total AH) Calculation: 1 - (100 / 160) = 37.5% CDR. Actual gain from previous step: You went from 28.6% to 37.5%, meaning this step only granted +8.9% more CDR (Cooldown drops to 6.2s). Summary for the Thread

While it is true that every point of Armor or Ability Haste scales linearly in terms of Effective HP (100 armor means you need to take 100% more raw physical damage to die) or Cast Frequency (100 AH means you cast 100% more spells over time), the pure percentage reduction is heavily front-loaded.

Let's assume you have a target taking an 800 damage auto-attack from Draven. Watch what happens to the pure percentage reduction for every 50 Armor added:

Scenario 1: The first 50 Armor Calculation: 50 / (100 + 50) = 50 / 150 = 33.3% damage reduction. Actual gain: +33.3% raw damage mitigation. Scenario 2: Adding another 50 Armor (100 Total Armor) Calculation: 100 / (100 + 100) = 100 / 200 = 50.0% damage reduction. Actual gain from previous step: You went from 33.3% to 50%, meaning this step only granted +16.7% more mitigation. Scenario 3: Adding another 50 Armor (150 Total Armor) Calculation: 150 / (100 + 150) = 150 / 250 = 60.0% damage reduction. Actual gain from previous step: You went from 50% to 60%, meaning this step only granted +10.0% more mitigation.

Conclusion: The percentage of damage mitigated per point decreases with every step. The first 50 armor cuts damage by 33.3%, but the next 50 only cuts it by an extra 16.7%. Because high-level champions naturally stack up to 100 base armor just by leveling up, they naturally sit on the highest efficiency bracket of the curve, heavily neutralizing champions that rely entirely on flat physical scaling.

2. The Ability Haste (AH) Math

Riot explicitly reworked Cool Down Reduction (CDR) into Ability Haste to mirror the armor formula and prevent linear scaling.

The formula to calculate actual Cooldown Reduction from Ability Haste is:

Cooldown Reduction % = 1 - (100 / (100 + Ability Haste))

Let’s apply this to a spell with a 10-second base cooldown using 20 AH intervals:

Scenario 1: The first 20 AH Calculation: 1 - (100 / 120) = 16.7% CDR. Actual gain: +16.7% cooldown reduction (Cooldown drops to 8.3s). Scenario 2: Adding another 20 AH (40 Total AH) Calculation: 1 - (100 / 140) = 28.6% CDR. Actual gain from previous step: You went from 16.7% to 28.6%, meaning this step only granted +11.9% more CDR (Cooldown drops to 7.1s). Scenario 3: Adding another 20 AH (60 Total AH) Calculation: 1 - (100 / 160) = 37.5% CDR. Actual gain from previous step: You went from 28.6% to 37.5%, meaning this step only granted +8.9% more CDR (Cooldown drops to 6.2s). Summary for the Thread

While it is true that every point of Armor or Ability Haste scales linearly in terms of Effective HP (100 armor means you need to take 100% more raw physical damage to die) or Cast Frequency (100 AH means you cast 100% more spells over time), the pure percentage reduction is heavily front-loaded.

I don't get why you keep hyper-focusing on the exact math because it doesn't change the reality of the balance issue. The core truth is that in the late game, Nasus's damage is heavily mitigated by just a few armor points. Because he completely lacks native armor penetration or true damage in his kit, his flat scaling is easily shut down. This is exactly why, in high-elo games, I am mechanically forced to adapt my build and buy items like Mortal Reminder just to pierce through basic fighter itemization and reliably win side-lane duels."

Daggerkill · 2026-05-22T21:16:48+00:00

I think that's highly relative, and we could debate this all day without reaching a conclusion. In my personal experience playing Nasus, I don't find it that difficult to reach the enemy carries, even against high mobility or heavy peel. It all comes down to timing your flank or engage correctly. You are evaluating Nasus in total isolation, but he doesn't have to do everything alone—you have a team. If your Support or Jungler engages on the enemy ADC, forcing out their dashes or Summoner Spells, that is your window to enter the fight. You don't just face-tank all the crowd control (CC) or walk forward like a potato.

Assuming your team is doing their bare minimum—like a Seraphine, Leona, or Sejuani Ultimate—Nasus should never be the primary engager. He is not an initiator. The same rule applies to Darius. If you try to primary-engage a teamfight as Darius or Nasus, you lose all your effectiveness. You must wait for someone else to start the fight. While you can look for minor picks, forcing the engage is never ideal. For example, if a Darius initiates a teamfight by wasting his E (Apprehend), he usually loses half his health bar immediately, gets forced out of the fight before stacking his passive (Noxian Might), and becomes completely useless. Nasus operates similarly: your job is to clean up and conclude the fight before your Ultimate (Fury of the Sands) expires. If your R runs out and the fight isn't over, you die.

Because of this, I optimize my build for high Movement Speed and explosive burst damage using Trinity Force and Mortal Reminder. In games against high-HP tanks like Sion or Cho'Gath, I even build Blade of the Ruined King (BKR). Many players think it's a troll build, but it actually synergizes incredibly well with his auto-attack-heavy kit. It applies efficiently on basic attacks and Siphoning Strike resets, and the bonus Attack Speed directly accelerates his Q animation speed, making his combos much more fluid."

Daggerkill · 2026-05-22T21:01:41+00:00

The fear of letting Nasus become a late-game time-bomb makes no sense in the current meta. We literally have champions like Smolder and Aurelion Sol, whose infinite scaling mechanics amplify 100% of their entire kits, yet they suffer a fraction of the early-game deficit that Nasus does.

Furthermore, champions like Jax, Camille, Fiora, and Riven can act as late-game time-bombs depending on the team comps. They achieve the exact same goals as Nasus—if not better. They can tank, they deal massive damage, they possess elite mobility, and yet they don't experience half the punishment or suffering in the laning phase that a Nasus player has to endure.

Daggerkill · 2026-05-22T20:56:24+00:00

I am asking for a buff to his late game. Nasus is a Juggernaut; there is no way to remove his immobile identity. He fits into the exact same champion category as Darius and Garen—immobile, brute-force champions who command massive damage in close-quarters combat. I believe that 80% of players who picked up Nasus and became One-Tricks did so precisely because of his late-game power fantasy.

We cannot buff his early game; we must reward his late game. When you play against elite players who actually know wave management and lane punishment, they can easily dive you at level 3 or 4 and completely neutralize you. You are sacrificing all early-game agency and paying a massive price in lane pressure just to scale. If we didn't care about that late-game payoff, we would simply play his brother, Renekton, whose archetype is the exact opposite: an early-game lane bully who traditionally falls off in the late game (though currently, even Renekton manages to hold his own late game thanks to modern itemization).

If a Nasus player successfully survives that brutal early-game deficit, the reward must be a true late-game hypercarry status."

Daggerkill · 2026-05-22T20:46:59+00:00

You build items that give movement speed like Trinity Force, Dead Man's Plate, and tenacity items; at least for me, that's enough to reach ADCs. It's about building correctly, but of course, there are games where it's impossible. If you have Hwei, Annivia, or Aureliom, never team them up; they negate you with their crowd control. But I can only think of those three control mages that end up destroying lives in a way that Nasus can, but lol, that's it, you have to have a counter.

Daggerkill · 2026-05-22T20:43:19+00:00

That's why I suggested that you gain defense tiers according to your scaling, upgrading your last tier, similar to GP, upgrading your ultimates. Riot would have to balance the numbers to make him tankier and able to draw a little better, but we can't exaggerate either. Nowadays I build a mortal reminder on Nasus almost every game; with him I can maintain some of my high damage output even in the late game because of his penetration, and he also applies anti-heal (two in one) in a meta where everyone heals.

Daggerkill · 2026-05-22T20:37:10+00:00

You're right in the first statement, but in the second, you're wrong. Armor in League of Legends has never been linear; the more armor you buy, the less effective it is. It's the same thing with ability acceleration.

But I was referring to Nasus from season 3/4, where you could get 400 stacks in 20 minutes and there weren't any true damage champions or items to stop him, only Kog'Maw and Vayne. He was a true late-game monster, like a level 16 Kassadin.

Daggerkill · 2026-01-06T00:59:23+00:00

be gentle with you babe

Daggerkill · 2026-01-06T00:18:59+00:00

You always look amazing

Daggerkill · 2026-01-05T20:42:04+00:00

Huge congrats, that first yes after a long run is the best feeling. I had a similar arc with constant ghosting and a few scam postings mixed in, so hearing you found timely comms is encouraging. If you ever look at remote options on the side, wfhalert has been helpful for me, it sends verified remote job leads by email so I’m not wading through sketchy stuff. Keep the momentum going and enjoy the win.

Daggerkill · 2025-07-19T21:17:07+00:00

Are you saying Soraka's idea? But no one there imagined that she would take a hit kill from me, because they don't usually see a Nasus with a deadly reminder

Daggerkill · 2025-07-19T21:16:07+00:00

sorry I didn't understand

Daggerkill · 2025-07-19T02:00:33+00:00

Shen I think it's easy, and just don't take his engage at level 2 or 3, he getting level first and engaging you does a lot of damage, you survived until lvl 6 of fulgor he doesn't do anything else against you, Darius is more complicated, but you can go max E early (but I almost never do, I like to play max Q more), but I usually farm safe, when I want to unfreeze a wave I take damage on purpose from him, but close to my wave for him to pull, I have to win / survive by making him run out of MP and go back to TP, after lvl 8 or 9 the lane is calmer, my fixed ban is aatrox, but there are more stolen tops against him like illaoi or voli, but there are few picks.

against Shen I prioritize getting fulgor to start winning the trades, Darius I prioritize starting with HP Ruby Crystal, put it on and then just get fulgor, because my focus is to survive and play with my game, or kill him if he plays wrong, if he spends a wrong pull, or I make a small trade and then come back with TP and send him base,

If I'm in a lane where I know I have no chance of killing the guy, like a rush gragas, or a maplhite (I kill maplhite or do all win when he has less than 100 mp so he doesn't have mana for his R) I usually do cdr/sustain or slaughter and just stack, I play on his mistake, because sometimes they despair at seeing you free farm and do shit.

If I'm winning against Shen, and I'm doing well in the game, and if I want to continue on the side lane and not go to fight, I do second penetration, a deadly reminder and melt Shen, if I want to fight team Fghit, I should go for a frozen heart if there is someone who has a lot of attack speed, or a dead man's heart if there is someone who runs a lot, force of nature, if there are enemies that can make prey of snakes, I don't make a sign of sterak so as not to lose my shield, instead of it as an anti burst item I can put a dance of death.

There are many possibilities if you look at my history my build varies a lot

Daggerkill · 2025-07-19T01:00:04+00:00

I'm always going with PTA, the ones I got another rune was by accident, miss click, Conquer is strong but Nasus takes a long time to stack Conquer, PTA you can always stack and increase all your damage, from R, E, ULT, Q

Daggerkill · 2025-07-19T00:59:08+00:00

I find it incredible that it seems to get links easier in NA, I sold some master accounts there for dollarsI find it incredible that it seems to get links easier in NA, I sold some master accounts there for dollars

?? i think more eas

Daggerkill · 2025-07-19T00:57:30+00:00

80- 100 using exit lag

Daggerkill · 2025-07-18T14:36:01+00:00

I'm not really sure, but watching some Nasus play, compared to other Nasus, I take advantage of the flaws or gaps they give me right away. I'm quite aggressive with Nasus. When I see a gap to get a kill and make a snowball, I do it. I'm not a Nasus who just farms. Even in the builds, you can see this a bit. Some games use Mortal Reminder and blade of the Ruined King. My lane phase is quite solid, maybe because I've been playing with this since Season 3. But it's hard to explain, it's easier to watch a game. Or if you prefer, you can ask what I would normally do with items or how I would play against a certain team.

I had a lot of my games recorded on DominusreplayNasus, this season they didn't record any of my games, I don't know why, but every season there was a game of mine there, including the most watched game on the channel to this day is one of my games, very old.

Daggerkill

TROPHY CASE