Guide · Top

Nasus Guide

the Curator of the Sands

Fighter

Tank

Tier A Top

Nasus, the Curator of the Sands, is a fighter and tank champion of medium difficulty. Across our 1025 analysed ranked games, Nasus is mostly played in Top (66% of its games), and more rarely in Mid (26%), with a 46.1% win rate in that role: tier A among Top champions (#8 of 48, ranked by win rate). Nasus's damage is mostly physical (75%): armor is the best defensive answer against this champion. Win rate varies with game length: 51.5% in short games (under 25 min, 206 games) versus 41.9% in long games (over 35 min).

Updated Oct 10 2026 · Patch 26.21

Average KDA

4.4 / 5.7 / 5.3

ratio 1.7

Damage / min

718

CS / min

7.0

Gold / min

398

Kill participation

33%

Vision / min

0.71

Averages measured over 674 Top games played with Nasus, from our ranked Solo/Duo data collection.

How to play and combo preview

Written guide · based on the official ability texts

Nasus is a fighter who gains power through Siphoning Strike: every target killed increases the damage of his next strikes. Wither heavily slows a champion by reducing their attack and movement speed, Spirit Fire reduces armor, and Fury of the Sands gives him health, range and resistances.

The trade

Q AA AA

When: An enemy is within range.

Wither slows the enemy (attack and movement speed), Spirit Fire reduces their armor, Siphoning Strike hits for heavy damage.

The team fight

When: A team fight is underway.

Fury of the Sands gives you more health, attack range, armor and magic resistance and reduces the cooldown of Siphoning Strike: cast it before entering the brawl.

See all 3 Nasus combos: key order, when to cast them, cooldowns →

Laning phase

Take last hits with Siphoning Strike: it is your main source of power. Your passive gives you a life steal bonus against your opponent, which makes your lane more durable.

Common mistakes

Missing last hits with Siphoning Strike: it is your scaling.
Forgetting Wither on the enemy carry.
Entering a fight without your ultimate.

Riot's official tips for playing Nasus

Paying attention to last hitting with Siphoning Strike will have a large impact at the end of a game.
If you're solo, Spirit Fire is a great way to farm a lane. It can be bad if you're in a lane with 2 and you push too far. Find the right balance between Siphoning Strike last hits and AoE farming.
If you have low defenses, people will focus you down even during your ultimate. Try buying some survivability items even in your DPS builds.

Build, runes and summoner spells

The most-played core build is Spirit Visage, Trinity Force, and Frozen Heart (117 games, 52.1% win rate).

Spirit Visage

Trinity Force

Frozen Heart

117 games · 52.1%

50 games · 52.0%

50 games · 52.0%

Skill order

Max order : Q > W > E50.0% · 70 games

	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15
Q	●			●	●		●		●
W			●					●		●		●	●
E		●												●	●
R						●					●

The order shows which abilities reach rank 5 first; the grid shows the most-played level-up sequence with that order (measured over 88 games).

Starting items

Doran's Shield

Health Potion49.1% · 53 games

Doran's Ring

Health Potion

Health Potion57.9% · 19 games

First completed items, in order

Trinity Force

Frozen Heart

26 games · 65.4%

Laning phase (averages)

At 10 min: 3218 gold, 63 CS, 4665 XP. At 15 min: 5122 gold, 102 CS, 8168 XP.

Summoner spells

Ghost + Teleport49.2% · 299 games

Flash + Teleport41.0% · 178 games

Flash + Ghost45.4% · 172 games

Most-played runes

Fleet Footwork + Resolve

46.8% · 487 games

Primary tree · Precision

Triumph75%

Legend: Haste99%

Last Stand96%

Secondary tree · Resolve

Second Wind91%

Unflinching72%

Shards

Ability haste95%

Health scaling85%

Health scaling80%

Stormraider's Surge + Inspiration

39.7% · 73 games

Primary tree · Sorcery

Manaflow Band94%

Transcendence92%

Scorch89%

Secondary tree · Inspiration

Approach Velocity90%

Biscuit Delivery81%

Shards

Adaptive force73%

Adaptive force75%

Health scaling70%

For each row, the most picked rune among the games played with this page (share of games in brackets).

Which items to build against the enemy team?

We sort every game by the enemy team's damage. These are Nasus's completed items and their win rate in each situation; "▲" marks an item that does at least 3 points better than its usual win rate.

Mostly magic-damage enemy team52.5% · 196 games

At least 50% of their damage is magic

Trinity Force 55.7% ▲

Spirit Visage 50.4% ▲

Frozen Heart 56.2% ▲

Force of Nature 60.0% ▲

Iceborn Gauntlet 53.3% ▲

Thornmail 55.0%

The item that stands out most is Trinity Force: 55.7% win rate, +7 points versus its usual win rate.

Mostly physical-damage enemy team43.4% · 173 games

Less than 35% of their damage is magic

Trinity Force 47.8%

Frozen Heart 54.7%

Spirit Visage 45.1%

Iceborn Gauntlet 43.6% ▼

Thornmail 31.0% ▼

Randuin's Omen 40.0%

No item clearly stands out in this situation: the usual build remains the reference.

Balanced enemy team43.6% · 305 games

Mixed physical and magic damage

Trinity Force 43.2% ▼

Frozen Heart 48.1% ▼

Spirit Visage 43.9%

Iceborn Gauntlet 49.3%

Thornmail 48.1% ▲

Jak'Sho, The Protean 42.3%

The item that stands out most is Thornmail: 48.1% win rate, +3 points versus its usual win rate.

Counters and matchups

Who counters Nasus in Top

Garen Nasus: 55.0%20 games

Garen has the edge in 45% of the 20 Top duels against Nasus. See the Garen guide.

Yone Nasus: 62.5%16 games

Yone has the edge in 38% of the 16 Top duels against Nasus. See the Yone guide.

Who Nasus is strong against

Yone62.5% · 16 games

Garen55.0% · 20 games

How to play against Nasus

While transformed by his ultimate, Nasus is stronger than most champions in the League. Engage him only if you have a clear advantage.
Max rank Wither is a very effective counter to Attack Damage characters, so try to avoid getting caught alone by it.
Nasus is prone to being kited. Try not to engage him at full Health.

Riot's official tips.

Win rates measured over direct same-role duels; only matchups with more than 15 games are listed. See all of Nasus's matchups.

Nasus Top: what our games say

Laning phase against the Top average

Measure	Nasus	Top average	Gap
Gold at 10 min	3218	3580	−362
CS at 10 min	63	71	−8
XP at 10 min	4665	4754	−90
Gold at 15 min	5122	5655	−533
CS at 15 min	102	111	−9
XP at 15 min	8168	8297	−130

Measured over 88 Nasus games with a timeline; the average covers 82 champions played Top in our ranked games.

Win rate by game length

short under 25 min51.5 %206 games

medium-length 25 to 35 min44.3 %375 games

long over 35 min41.9 %93 games

Best result: short (under 25 min). Only groups of at least 30 games are shown. A gap of several points shows the phase where the champion is the most reliable.

Nasus in another role

Role	Games	Win rate	CS/min	Gold/min	Most-built items
Mid	269	46.8 %	7.4	412
Jungle	82	54.9 %	6.4	425

Roles where we have at least 40 Nasus games.

Abilities

PassiveSoul Eater

Nasus drains his foe's spiritual energy, giving him bonus Life Steal.

QSiphoning Strike

Nasus strikes his foe, dealing damage and increasing the power of his future Siphoning Strikes if he slays his target.

WWither

Nasus ages an enemy champion, decelerating their Move Speed and Attack Speed over time.

ESpirit Fire

Nasus unleashes a spirit flame at a location, dealing damage and reducing the Armor of enemies who stand on it.

RFury of the Sands

Nasus unleashes a mighty sandstorm that batters nearby enemies. While the storm rages, he gains increased Health, Attack Range, damages nearby enemies, has a reduced cooldown on Siphoning Strike, and gains bonus Armor and Magic Resistance.