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(Enchanter) Nami inflation

13.3 updated

badatnami

February 21st, 2023 ⸱ 64 min read

At a Glance



Quick Nami AP Support Build

Summoner Spells

Starting Items

Best Overall Build

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Introduction

Hi there, I'm Bad at Nami, an EUW Nami main since season four. I managed to peak Masters in S11 thanks to elo inflation, and ended grandmaster in S12.

I am mechanically terrible, but that's the good news. The guide aggregates my Nami (and support) knowledge, and does not require any amazing skill to pull off. I have only ever had good mental and macro on my side, and the latter will be taught in this guide.

There are minor mistakes in this guide, I know, and I apologise. Unfortunately though, due to the size of the guide it is very difficult to keep it up to date since the editor is glacially slow and prone to crashing. I’ve contacted support about it and they say they’re working on features that will help this, but for now if you read something that looks out of date, disregard it.

Feel free to keep an eye on my op.gg for what I am currently up to, I tend to stream my solo queue adventures on Twitch so I’m not utterly alone, and I also have a YouTube channel which typically has very niche Nami content such as trying to get frame perfect bubbles on enemies and the occasional shitpost.

Twitch

General Guide Changes

This section is to track the more important changes to the guide, so that if you are returning to try stay up to date, you do not need to re-read it entirely because that would be absurd. Obviously this won’t contain every change, but a general summary along the lines of “previously it was good to do X, but now I believe Y is better because Z”. The game evolves due to patches, so this should not be a surprise.

13.3

Been a while since I've done any substantial updating, added a few new matchups and a section on anti heal.

12.23

We got nothing at all for preseason, so there is nothing new here. A few minor updates to matchups, but as we all know league belongs to junglers so we can't be too surprised that they get all the fun.

12.21

A little bit of polishing.

Added Maokai matchup.

12.19

There haven't really been many changes relevant to Nami in the past two patches, so the guide is more or less the same. I personally have started to take different runes than my default recommended, however I do not think that they are the correct runes to run outside of high elo. I have included a section about what I run and why I run it in order to explain any apparent disconnect between what I run if you've been keeping up with my op.gg or watching me play, and what I recommend. You can copy what I do if you like, but be aware that the reason I run what I do is I have more experience with Nami, and because high elo is a different game where item powerspikes and snowballing matters more.

Updated a few matchups for counterplay strats I have discovered.

12.17

Electrocute is even more dead than it previously was. You are griefing if you take Electrocute. Hourglass is too expensive to buy in most games, you can only really go it if you absolutely need it now, instead of as a generally good defensive idea.

12.15

Very little substance changes for this update, instead I attempted to reorganise the matchups section in the hopes it would improve the performance of the guide.

12.13

I no longer think Shurelya’s is generally the best mythic for Nami. This is a combination of the change to

Surging Tides
now granting more upfront movespeed allowing you to be more slippery, and the durability patch which made fights last longer and you less squishy.

I maintain that if you are brand new to Nami, Shurelya’s is a good default option while you are learning how to play and what your limits are, but once you are more adept then Mandate will generally be better.



Chemtech Putrifier
is not really the default second item anymore, as it and healing have been nerfed so it is now more situational.

Itemisation is less clear cut and should now be based on the game in question.

I consider Electrocute to be well and truly dead, and you are actively hindering yourself if you take it.

At the moment, I quite like Guardian with Sorcery secondary for tough engage lanes such as Nautilus.

Understanding Nami

I believe that the following is important to understand about Nami and support in general, before we dive in to things like her runes and items:

  • Nami likes CDR, not so much raw AP. She has decent base numbers but fairly weak scaling, so if you are looking to make her more effective you should generally look to prioritise Ability Haste over Ability Power (or magic pen). However...
  • Nami's high mana costs are significant and need to be managed or mitigated. You will struggle if you do not itemise mana, or if you are spamming spells in the early game. If you are looking to play for the early game then AP is fine, Haste is more for scaling in to the mid/late game where you're able to get multiple spell rotations off. The exception here is when playing against very skilled opponents, burst is very important since you will get much fewer opportunities to fight, and fights are a lot cleaner and shorter. In this case, a lot of AP can be good.
  • Nami does not excel at any particular thing. Her strength comes from her versatility, so if you are looking to play her as a primary healer, engager, peeler etc, you will struggle.
  • In solo queue you are the only constant. You should endeavour to adopt a playstyle that consistently gives good results, and if you are good then you should aim to express your skill to have greater influence over the game.
    • 

    Mythic Choice

    For the time being, we'll ignore Moonstone. Riot doesn't care about their lore, so neither do we. Mythic choice will come down to either Shurelya's or Mandate in almost every game, and with respect to Nami the pros and cons are as follows:

    Shurelya's: + Active and passive help to mitigate Nami's weakness as a squishy and immobile champion + Mythic passive is Ability Haste + Active enables picks + Active and passive movespeed helps carries to stay alive in fights - Due to soft caps on movespeed you no longer gain as much value as you once did since

    Surging Tides
    is now a potent but decaying buff. - Lower damage than Mandate - CD can be a bit long for the early-mid game

    Mandate: + Greater burst from the passive, which can trigger multiple times in drawn out fights + No active to manage + Gives a bit of movespeed when allies trigger the mark on enemies, which aids them in fights - Mythic passive gives AP instead of AH - Damage falls off if not ahead (225 damage at level 18 is nothing) unless the enemy team is very squishy - Cannot choose who gets the movespeed, since it is granted to the ally that consumes the Mandate mark on an enemy

    In general, based on the respective strengths and weaknesses of each item on Nami, you will see more value and consistent results with Mandate instead of Shurelya's. This is because:

      • The Shurelya’s playstyle is best when you and your allies need to kite. This could be because the enemy has a lot of divers, or your win condition is to play around an ADC that needs to stay alive and dish out damage particularly against a tank or bruiser. The trouble is that that is not too common nowadays. It’s long been a meme to say ADC is an irrelevant role, but there is honestly truth to it. One of the things that allowed me to become unstuck was one day I just happened to watch an ADC player doing an explanation video of the importance of not dying to the enemy jungler. When the job of an ADC is to avoid enabling an enemy playing a relevant role in the hopes they can make it to the point later in the game where they can match the other roles in strength, it’s not a stretch to say that ADC is weak (at least in terms of carry potential in solo queue). Which begs the question, why put so much effort in to enabling your ADC, when you could get better results playing around someone that is able to do more with less? And that’s generally how my games tend to go; the win condition is not to play around my ADC and instead jungle and/or mid. Generally Mandate tends to be better with the meta mid/jungle champions, and so generally it is best to go Mandate.
      • Allies with First Strike are amazing with Mandate since they can apply and trigger the mark instantly with First Strike, and there are quite a lot of meta First Strike users.
      • AP heavy builds tend to mean you have more impact in a game, and if you’re a good player then exerting greater influence over the game will be beneficial to your climb. You are the only constant in solo queue after all.
      • You and ADCs don’t really need Shurelya’s to stay alive anymore, generally speaking. The durability patch changes mean you don’t just die if looked at wrong, so it’s not as devastating if you’re getting dove on. This is of course not to say you should be positioning recklessly, but the days of an assassin being able to kill you with a mediocre combo are largely over.

      

    Moonstone: + Negate poke + Can help to keep allies alive if Shurelya's movespeed is unlikely to make a difference - Nami is not meant to be a dedicated healer - Healing reduction is all over the place I can probably count on my hands the number of times I have gone Moonstone since the item rework and did so because I believed it to be the correct choice. It is very niche and I would not generally recommend it, because Nami is not meant to be an exceptional healer. She has one ability in her entire kit that heals, and the only shielding you'll ever do is the tiny one from Aery. There is no reason to pick Nami with the goal of being a healer, unless you consider yourself above being a dirty Soraka abuser. It can be legitimate to flex in to being a healer if the game demands that you need to keep your allies healthy, but it is quite rare for that to be your win condition as Nami.

    Conclusion You should try to consider what mythic will give you the most value in each game. The default choice should be Mandate, however you may get more value out of other mythics in the following scenarios:

    Shurelya's:

        • You and your allies need the on demand movespeed to avoid being picked. E.g. Bard’s
          Tempered Fate
          is a pretty devastating pick tool for you if the enemy can follow up.
        • Your win condition is to play around a hypercarry ADC that just needs to kite and DPS freely, especially in to tanks. E.g. you are playing with a strong Vayne that just needs to be able to chew through the enemy team.
        • The game has gone on extremely late and Mandate is not particularly impactful. Often in the extreme late game when everyone is full build, Mandate does very little and your ADC should be able to pump out damage as long as they’re safe.

    

    Moonstone:

        • You are playing in to a poke composition with strong disengage or reasons not to dive the backline. E.g. playing against a strong poke mage with a Janna or a Lulu that is able to shut down your allies' aggression.
        • It is a priority to keep yourself and your allies healthy to prevent execute and/or reset champions.
        • You are supporting someone such as a Kalista that just needs to stay alive in fights but does not benefit from Shurelya's movespeed.

    Runes

    Aery with Inspiration Secondary is what I consider to be her best overall page. Runes are, of course, matchup dependent, and I cannot possibly cover optimal runes for every matchup in the game, so instead in this section I explain each rune that may be worth taking (or may seem good but actually aren't) and leave it to up to you to optimise as necessary.

    If you've locked Nami with 25 seconds to go until game start, pick one of the pages below now and come back for more information later.

    "Current" is what I personally run at the moment, which you may notice is slightly at odds with what I say elsewhere in this guide. Nonetheless, this is because the recommended setpus are ones that I believe the average Nami player will get the most use out of. I go Domination Secondary for Ingenious Hunter, but I am unsure if I think this is optimal. You can copy the page if you want, but I do believe that in low elo it is better to take a more well rounded page.

    • Standard Page
    • Tanky
    • smd Blitz/Nau
    • Current

    Precision - Keystone

    All are rubbish.

    Precision - Tier 1

    

    Triumph
    Nami has a very small health pool so you do not get much value even if low on health. Rarely will you want to go Precision Secondary, and even if you are going Precision you will get more value out of Presence of Mind.

    

    Presence of Mind
    Mana option should you need to go Precision secondary. Gives ok ish mana regen in lane, and good mana regen in teamfights, PoM is for when you feel you need extra mana sustain in lane, as it is the second best mana option behind Manaflow Band.

    Precision - Tier 2

    

    Legend: Tenacity
    If you are against high CC comps which is hard to avoid, you may get more value out of going Precision Secondary than you would with Inspiration.

    Precision - Tier 3

    

    Cut Down
    Similar to Yuumi, you have low base HP and so will usually get a fair amount of extra damage in to most matchup, but not much. If you had to pick a T3 rune in Precision this is the one you would get the most value from, but since you'll never take Precision Primary if playing seriously, you'll never have a reason to pick this.

    Domination - Keystone

    

    Electrocute
    It was never good in my opinion, and it has beenspecifically removed as an option by Riot. Do not take.

    

    Predator
    You do not need to run faster towards enemies, and it is inferior from a damage perspective to Electrocute.

    

    Dark Harvest
    Damage keystone with less damage than Electrocute. Do not take.

    

    Hail of Blades
    Another meme keystone on Nami.

    Domination - Tier 1

    

    Cheap Shot
    Little bit of extra damage with
    Tidecaller's Blessing
    , if you do not need the sustain from Taste of Blood in your lane, this is best in tier. Note that you need to hit a target again after you apply the slow, as it does not trigger on the first empowered attack.

    

    Taste of Blood
    A little bit of extra sustain for tougher lanes, but not enough to consider if you otherwise weren't going Domination. Also a decent option if you think it highly likely you are going to max
    Tidecaller's Blessing
    and play aggro.

    

    Sudden Impact
    You have one dash, Flash, with a cooldown of up to 5 minutes, to get 6 Magic Penetration for 5 seconds. You do not need me to tell you how OP this is.

    Domination - Tier 2

    

    Zombie Ward
    All of the different AP stacking runes in this tier give the same amount of stats, but you will most reliably stack Zombie Ward the quickest. Gives up to 30 AP, not worth taking unless you are already going Domination.

    

    Ghost Poro
    The safest option for getting free AP. It's also the best early broadly speaking since you'll get the most AP from it in the first few levels (you can get a stack for when your ward expires, and a stack for when the enemy walks in range of the Poro), however you do tend to get stuck a bit in the early-mid game and don't hit 10 stacks for the bonus AP. If you don't think you'll be able to clear wards, and if you don't think you'll be able to stack Eyeball, go Ghost Poro.

    

    Eyeball Collection
    Less preferable than Zombie Ward if you are after the AP, however if you do not think you will be able to contest bushes to stack Zombie Ward, or if you think the game is going to be a complete fistfight fiesta, this is better.

    Domination - Tier 3

    

    Ingenious Hunter
    One of the only reasons to actually consider going Domination. 50 Item Haste is huge, especially since it affects Item Passives like Mandate too. If you believe ahead of the match that you will likely build multiple different items with cooldowns and you think you'll get more value out of having them available more often than you would Cosmic Insight and Future's Market, go Domination Secondary for this.

    

    Relentless Hunter
    If you think win condition will be to constantly roam, Relentless can be nice, but it was heavily nerfed due to abuse on Junglers and roaming mid laners, and now only will make you move about 10-15% faster out of combat.

    

    Treasure Hunter
    I do not generally value Treasure Hunter, as the purpose of it is to snowball and acquire expensive items earlier on. But you do not have expensive items you need to buy, and even in the realistic best case scenario of double killing the enemy bot lane before first back, you get a grand total of.... 150 gold. Which is less than what
    Future's Market
    gives you access to. However, in high elo this actually matters, plus you can better co-ordinate roams to pick up stacks on mid/jungle. Avoid unless you are playing in high elo, or competitive.

    Sorcery - Keystone

    

    Summon Aery
    Probably Nami's best keystone rune.

    Sorcery - Tier 1

    

    Nullifying Orb
    A small magic damage shield, there is no point even against a double AP bot lane. Do not take.

    

    Manaflow Band
    A near-essential rune, without this you will struggle with mana problems. Always take unless you're not putting points in to Sorcery.

    

    Nimbus Cloak
    Can be nice, but never better than Manaflow.

    Sorcery - Tier 2

    

    Transcendence
    A little bit of extra CDR in the early and mid game, as well as a little bit of cooldown refund after a takedown. Generally the go-to option for this tier.

    

    Celerity
    Never take.

    

    Absolute Focus
    At best this gives 30 AP, with the condition that you are above 70% hp and level 18, it does even less throughout the game. Outclassed by Transcendence, I would advise against taking it if you are trying to play optimally.

    Sorcery - Tier 3

    

    Scorch
    For an aggressive early game, or to buff your base damage in order to break a shield, for example.

    

    Waterwalking
    Nami does not walk and cannot use this, 0/10 useless rune.

    

    Gathering Storm
    Free stats for when you do not think you will get good value from Scorch.

    Resolve - Keystone

    

    Guardian
    Long cooldown for very little shielding, doing only marginally more than Aery. It does offer you a bit more tankiness since Aery does not shield yourself, however you will normally end up getting much more value out of proper positioning and itemisation. If you do go Guardian be aware that casting
    Ebb and Flow
    and
    Tidecaller's Blessing
    on an ally will "ready" Guardian on them if it is available, similar to if you were close to them.

    I sometimes take this in to scaling lanes where the enemy is very threatening early, such as against a Blitzcrank.

    Resolve - Tier 1

    

    Font of Life
    None of the runes in this tier are particularly good, it's the best of a bad bunch since you can easily apply it, but because you do not stack HP you do not heal your allies for much. However, it is healing, so if you have an item such as
    Staff of Flowing Water
    that applies a buff to allies when you heal them, this will easily spread it across your team in fights.

    Resolve - Tier 2

    

    Conditioning
    An alright rune, does nothing early game but makes you a fair bit tankier in the mid/late game.

    

    Bone Plating
    Makes you a little bit harder to burst in an early all in, however it only lasts for 1.5 seconds and only reduces damage from the champion that triggered it. This means that if engaged upon by the support the ADC will still do full damage, and most engage supports won't combo fast enough for you to get full value from the damage reduction. For example, if hooked by a Blitzcrank you will only get value against the damage from his
    Rocket Grab
    and
    Power Fist
    due to how slowly he attacks, and you're probably going to be dead anyway since you'll be very out of position. Bad in to ranged matchups due to the long second cooldown and how easily it can be baited.

    Resolve - Tier 3

    

    Revitalize
    A bit of extra heal power, but honestly not much. Preferable as the tier 3 rune if playing in to low CC compositions.

    

    Unflinching
    Tenacity and slow resist that is decent in to hard to avoid CC.

    Inspiration - Keystone

    

    Glacial Augment
    Nami is a ranged champion with unreliable hard CC, and doesn't really like stacking heal/shield power or AP. Do not recommend.

    

    Unsealed Spellbook
    It's the best Inspiration Keystone, but ultimately a meme.

    

    First Strike
    The amount of additional damage and gold you gain is tied to the amount of damage you do, so you never actually gain that much from this rune. Do not recommend.

    Inspiration - Tier 1

    

    Magical Footwear
    I believe it is normally very important for supports to rush tier 2 boots, so being physically unable to do that just to save 300 gold is bad.

    

    Perfect Timing
    Not great, but best in tier and can be ok if you know that you will rush Hourglass as a second item to counter enemy divers, but ever since the cost was increased this just doesn't happen anymore.

    Inspiration - Tier 2

    

    Future's Market
    Probably the best rune in the game and it has a dedicated section at the end of the Runes notes. I highly recommend it, particularly over
    Biscuit Delivery
    .

    

    Biscuit Delivery
    I believe that biscuits on Nami is a noob trap. The sustain is negligible and will almost never make a meaningful difference, Cookies are mainly taken for the additional 150 mana. It is outclassed as an option for mana, and prevents you from taking
    Future's Market
    .

    Inspiration - Tier 3

    

    Cosmic Insight
    Slightly lower Summoner Spell and Item CDR. Nice, but not gamebreaking and generally taken as the best option in Inspiration besides
    Future's Market
    .

    

    Time Warp Tonic
    For very hard lanes you need the extra health sustain in.

    Shards - Offensive

    Flat AP is typically the way to go, however if looking to scale and be more of an Enchanter, Ability Haste is the preferred option.

    Shards - Flex

    Usually Adaptive Force is the go to, however if you're in a lane where there is heavy threat from a particular type of damage, you can take a defensive shard to be a bit tankier. Lanes where the damage is near exclusively one type such as, Cait Senna, Draven Pyke, or Ziggs Lux, are good candidates for double defensive runes.

    Shards - Defensive

    Armour or MR depending on what you need. Never health, you get a decent amount of health from support items, and you have healing. You get much more value out of resistances and having a higher effective health.

    Future's Market Gaming

    As I've touched on several times, I genuinely believe Future's Market to be one of the best, if not the best, rune in the game, particularly on supports (and sometimes on jungle).

    Supports operate on reduced economy, and you can run in to problems with inventory space in the mid game whilst sitting on components. FM goes a long way to mitigating this, and it offers you the flexibility to buy items you otherwise couldn't which is great for acquiring or pushing a lead. Having almost 200 more effective gold on your first back is huge, especially if it's the difference between getting an important item or not.

    Consider the difference between completing Mythic vs sitting on the components because you recalled with 500 gold. Yes you need to pay 50 gold to use it which seems bad as a support, but:

      • You are not forced to use Future's when shopping. If you're in base and there aren't objectives coming up, or you wouldn't hit a significant spike by using FM, then you can just choose to not use it.
      • The amount of pressure you can get from a FM purchase are usually far more impactful than being down 50 gold, and if it means that you get a kill or assist you wouldn't have otherwise, you and your team just earned than 50 gold and then some.

    And if it means you win a teamfight you otherwise wouldn't have because you had more CDR or anti-heal? If it means that the enemy has to take a bad recall timing, or just concede a few minions? If you got a successful roam off with the tier 2 boots you managed to get on first recall?

    If you're the type of Nami player that has been playing with Cookies, please give Future's Market a try for a few games instead and welcome to the world of tomorrow.

    Summoner Spells

    • General

    You generally want to take

    Ignite
    because it helps with winning lane, which you normally should be looking to do in Solo Queue. Helps deny healing, however falls off pretty hard since the damage scales with level while you'll usually be the lowest level in the game. When you're out of lane and you have
    Ionian Boots of Lucidity
    ,
    Ignite
    basically just becomes targeted anti heal and extra damage on a ~2.5 minute cooldown. This extra damage is also useful against stealth champions, since it reveals their location every second.

    If your win condition is to counter assassins/divers and/or keep a carry alive, then

    Exhaust
    is alright. Usually you sacrifice lane presence for it, which is why I dislike taking it.

    Take

    Heal
    if you are looking to do what you'd look for from
    Exhaust
    , but your partner is taking Exhaust themselves. Can also be a good option against Pyke, since
    Ignite
    does little to secure a kill on him, and he is pretty useless if you can keep yourself and your allies healthy.

    Skill Path

    • Generic

    Nami

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    Once again, there are too many variables in a game of League to pigeonhole the skill order in to such neat categories as "vs ranged" or "vs melee". Instead I will explain why you would look to make certain skilling decisions, and leave it up to you to decide when to deviate from the normal setup.

    Level One

    Generally, you will look to take

    Ebb and Flow
    first. It gives the strongest lane presence at level one, and allow you to gain an early advantage most reliably. Nami's W is what gives her very strong presence in early laning, and you usually give up a lot if you do not take it.

    You would take

    Aqua Prison
    if you are guaranteed to land it and it will give you a considerable advantage for doing so. For example, if you are invading and you have someone else to set you up so the enemy cannot just flash it, the first blood may be worth conceding your level one influence in lane.

    You no longer ever take

    Tidecaller's Blessing
    at level 1. The problem with
    Tidecaller's Blessing
    is that it only does marginally more damage than
    Ebb and Flow
    if you use all 3 stacks, and does not also grant healing to establish a HP lead. Also, since
    Ebb and Flow
    can bounce to a third target, no matter how much AP you have you'll pretty much always be doing less damage.

    Level Two

    Generally you will get the most value of

    Tidecaller's Blessing
    , since it is usually far more reliable than
    Aqua Prison
    . It is hard to land
    Aqua Prison
    against competent enemies without CC setup, unless they have exploitable movement.

    For example, you may take

    Aqua Prison
    at level two if you are against a
    Nunu & Willump
    , since
    Biggest Snowball Ever!
    makes him move in a very predictable manner that he cannot easily change. Or, you may be against a
    Pantheon
    support who jumps in on you, which you can respond to by throwing Bubble on yourself, counteracting his ability to follow up.

    Level Three

    Generally you will get the most value out of a second point in to

    Ebb and Flow
    , however if you think you need to take the other ability you did not take at level two, then do it.

    Level Four

    Whatever you haven't taken so far.

    W Max or E Max?

    As mentioned previously,

    Tidecaller's Blessing
    does only marginally more damage than
    Ebb and Flow
    , and is less consistent unless you're in an all in or heavy trade. You will typically want to default to maxing
    Ebb and Flow
    , however if you do not need the healing and you are looking to force all in fights, the extra damage and stronger slow from
    Tidecaller's Blessing
    can be better.

    For example, you may be playing with a Samira against a bot lane duo that has little ability to poke you down. Samira tends to heal for a lot, so your healing will do very little, and she loves to all in and do damage.

    

    Tidecaller's Blessing
    max can also be potent against a Yuumi, since she can negate your
    Ebb and Flow
    poke and you usually beat her by forcing all in fights.

    Don't forget, that you can also put a few points in to

    Ebb and Flow
    before maxing
    Tidecaller's Blessing
    .

    Item Builds

    You know the drill by now. League is too variable and all that. We've also already discussed Mythic Choices, so this section will focus on discussing other items, but a summary is included for the Mythics.

    • Generic

    Early Game

    In the early game, you will usually look to rush

    Ionian Boots of Lucidity
    . Movespeed is valuable on supports, particularly immobile ones like Nami, and it is a cheap option for CDR.

    You should not rush

    Bandleglass Mirror
    , as
    Ionian Boots of Lucidity
    give better stats for Nami for the same price. Mirror gives you:

    • 20 AP
    • 10 AH
    • 50% Mana Regen

    Lucidity boots gives you:

    • 20 AH
    • 45 MS
    • 12 Summoner Spell AH

    You get more Haste, are harder to catch, and will have more impact over the game.

    You will generally always make your first purchase tier two boots, unless you know you will look to buy an expensive boot, or if you really need to get an early Mythic spike. The only reason you can opt to rush Bandleglass first is if you do not plan on completing tier 2 boots before getting your first item.

    From there, assess the game state.

    Second Item and Midgame Itemisation

    You are the support for the team, consider who you should play around on your team and who you need to play around on the enemy team, building accordingly.

    Items

    This section is broadly organised by how useful options generally are, with the more useful items at the top of a list. Note that an item being further down the list does not mean it is bad, just that it is rarer for the item to be the optimal choice.

    Boots

    Ionian Boots of Lucidity
    - Best all around option for boots.

    

    Mobility Boots
    - Somewhat of a meme now, but if you think you are able to play for the map and roam, then these can be good. Always an early game option though, look to swap these out in the mid game.

    

    Plated Steelcaps
    - If the enemy team is heavy with physical damage.

    

    Mercury's Treads
    - If the enemy team has a lot of magic damage and CC, particularly if the CC is difficult to avoid. You should not be purchasing these boots only for the MR unless it gives you good value, since they give you the same amount of MR as a
    Null-Magic Mantle
    .

    

    Boots of Swiftness
    - Budget
    Mobility Boots
    , but the additional movespeed that is not lost in combat can be really nice. I usually find myself buying them when I don't quite have enough for Lucidity boots, since the tier two boot power spike is very important usually as a support.

    Mythics

    

    Imperial Mandate
    - Best overall choice for Nami, choose unless you have a compelling reason to not.

    

    Shurelya's Battlesong
    - For when you have a hypercarry ADC that just needs to stay alive and safely hit the enemy, or if you need the on demand movespeed to avoid important abilities such as Bard ult.

    

    Moonstone Renewer
    - A very niche choice for when you want to buff up your allies but don't care about the movespeed from Shurelya's. For example, a Kalista gains little value from movespeed, and is able to ult you to stop you from being dove.

    General Itemisation

    Chemtech Putrifier
    - Few champions actually like building anti-heal, particularly as a rush item, so if anti heal is necessary, buy Putrifier and your allies will be able to itemise better. However, you may have noticed that in the build summaries I typically just include
    Oblivion Orb
    and not either complete item. This is because both are pretty underwhelming, and currently it is normal to buy the Orb pretty early and just sit on it until you have nothing better to build. For Chemtech you're spending 1500 gold to get 10 AP and 15 Haste and if that doesn't disappoint you greatly then consider how that is pretty much a weaker
    Fiendish Codex
    for almost double the price. If you're fed you can also go
    Morellonomicon
    , but the cost is otherwise prohibitive.

    

    Mejai's Soulstealer
    - If you're new to Nami or not having a very good game, obviously don't go for this, but otherwise it's 1600 gold for up to 145 AP and bonus movespeed. Because Nami will get a lot of assists, you're generally breaking even if you do die in a fight since 5 assists is equal to the 10 stacks ou lose on death.

    

    Mikael's Blessing
    - Active can be really good when playing in to cleansable, high impact CC. Also gives a respectable amount of MR and Heal Power.

    

    Redemption
    - This is placed higher than Staff and Ardent, but I'd like to stress that it is only because it is more generally useful than the two, since it gives more favourable stats and the effects of the item do not depend on who is strong on your team. It is a generically good third or fourth item.

    

    Vigilant Wardstone
    - Once you're level 13, you can look to buy this since it gives quite a lot for 1100 gold and allows you to hold pinks. It allows you to ward more, and counts as a Legendary item for your Mythic passive. In an extremely late game you should replace this with a more expensive item unless you need the pinks.

    

    Zhonya's Hourglass
    - When there are a lot of assassins and bruisers running around, this can be a problem for you. Hourglass gives decent armour, haste, and you can be a pain to kill if the active is used properly. You mainly want to buy it for the active though, there are better items for armour and haste, the active is just generally very good, but it is now quite an expensive item which you will only get if you need it and can afford to delay other items.

    

    Zeke's Convergence
    - Cheap armour item when you do not value the active of Hourglass.

    

    Staff of Flowing Water
    - Good when you're looking to buff allied casters.

    

    Ardent Censer
    - When you have allies that really like attack speed. The on hit damage isn't that great, and you have a hard time really using heals and aery to get proper value. This is a particularly niche purchase most of the time.

    

    Frozen Heart
    - Heavy armour item that gives mana and CDR. Passive is eh unless enemy team have a lot of AS reliant divers.

    

    Banshee's Veil
    - MR option when you would not get value out of Mikael's.

    Matchups and Synergies

    This section is not exhaustive, metas evolve, and some people just generally like to play off meta. Either way, it is important to know your enemy, so use resources such as op.gg to determine their likely skill order and how they'd like to play, use a Wiki to look up what their abilities do and their cooldowns, and use a service that gives live game data so you can check what their runes are. For example, a lot of melee supports are much more threatening if they have

    Hextech Flashtraption
    and they will look to aggressively use their
    Flash
    to make you use yours, and then threaten with Hexflash.

    These resources are helpful from a general perspective, even against meta champions, but I have compiled additional notes that are not necessarily obvious when reading their abilities. You can use this information to help play against them, but the best way to learn how to beat a champion is to try playing them for a few games yourself.

    Because of how the site modules work and to avoid repetition, all ADC/APC matchups are included in the "Synergies" section, notes for them include insights in to how they work since it is important to know what your bot lane partner can and wants to do, and the same applies if you are facing them. If a champion is played as both a support and an ADC/APC, then they are included based on their most popular role.

    Finally, note that just because I recommend a choice of item or summoner spell, does not mean you should always go it in that particular matchup. They are only one champion of five, and you also have to think about the general bot lane matchup as well as the 5v5. They are recommendations, but if you have a good reason to ignore them and make a different choice, that is completely valid.

    Threats:

    0

    0

    0

    0

    

    Nami Tips and Tricks

    I'm not going to do a bunch of mental gymnastics to explain why actually, Nami is a very complex champion and actually she takes a bunch of skill to master and anyone that makes fun of Nami players just doesn't how much depth she has.

    She isn't quite as braindead as certain other supports, and she can be punishing if you mess up even slightly. But truth be told, most of the challenge when it comes to Nami comes from being a good support and player from a general perspective. That'll come in the next section, so for now let's look at the mechanics of Nami and things to keep in mind when using her abilities.

    Passive
    Surging Tides

      • Gives decaying movespeed for 1.5 seconds whenever any ability interacts with you or an ally. If your ultimate,
        Tidal Wave
        , touches an ally, they gain double the value.
      • You can use this to try make skillshots easier to dodge. For example, if you see a Pyke begin to throw his hook, you can instantly gain your passive by self casting
        Tidecaller's Blessing
        and using the movespeed to make the hook easier to dodge.
      • The movespeed can be useful to engage/disengage. Use it to get in range of an enemy to trade or pick them, or get away from an enemy and kite backwards.
      • If you are trying to optimise movespeed granted to allies (or yourself), stagger your abilities slightly since the movespeed does not stack. If you cast an ability on someone who already is affected by
        Surging Tides
        , then the new application will be granted to them and the previous buff will no longer affect them.

    Q
    Aqua Prison

      • A very easily dodged ability by decent players if they are not CCd or forced to move predictably. Therefore if you are trying to land Bubble on an enemy, you should do so when they are either CCd or moving predictably.
      • Bubble takes a second to cast and land.
      • You do not always have to land it, it can be alright to throw it in a manner that forces the enemy to walk away from where they want to go, such as towards your allies who are able to punish them for doing so.
      • It is a Suspension, not a Knockup. This means that the duration is reduced by Tenacity.
      • For the purposes of hitting allies to apply
        Surging Tides
        , the AOE is slightly larger.
      • Your most reliable way to land Bubble is to first knock them up with
        Tidal Wave
        , as it knocks them up for half a second and then applies a strong slow. It is not guaranteed, since they can use a blink or a fast dash after the Knockup ends, but most champions are vulnerable to this combo.
      • You can use the slow from
        Tidecaller's Blessing
        or
        Exhaust
        to increase the likelihood that Bubble will land, however it is not necessarily reliable. If you could be easily punished by the enemy in the time Bubble is down should it not land, then it is often better to hold it and threaten with the fact it is off cooldown. The way to maximise the likelihood that you land Bubble if using the slow from
        Tidecaller's Blessing
        is to cast Bubble as soon as the attack hits, since it slows for one second, and Bubble takes one second to land.
      • Use champion specific animations to go for Bubbles. For example,
        Caitlyn
        's
        Piltover Peacemaker
        freezes her in place for about half a second for the cast time and it is quite a telegraphed ability. If you look for the Bubble then, she will often be forced to
        90 Caliber Net
        away, or be hit by the Bubble. (Video)
      • Where possible, try to play around CC (or the stasis effect from
        Zhonya's Hourglass
        , Video). It is hard for enemies to avoid Bubble when they are physically unable to dodge it.

    W
    Ebb and Flow

      • This ability bounces up to twice between allies and enemies, but must bounce from ally to enemy, or enemy to ally.
      • The bounce radius is ever so slightly larger than the initial case radius. If you find yourself just out of range of an enemy then you can cast
        Ebb and Flow
        to still hit them.
      • Be aware that this has a small cast time, which can get you killed if you are running away and enemies are close behind you.
      • The healing from this ability isn't as much as you would expect, and it has a high mana cost in the early game. You should be trying to get more value out of a cast, unless healing is urgent, such as through stacking
        Manaflow Band
        , getting additional bounces, or stacking
        Spellthief's Edge
        .
      • This is a targeted ability and so will cause aggression from enemy minions, unless the enemy is hit by a bounce. If you don't want to draw minion aggro, then self cast so that the enemy is hit by a bounce.
      • The damage and heal are modified by up to -15% per bounce, meaning subsequent bounces are weaker. The amount that it is modified by decreases with AP, and starts becoming stronger when you have over 200 AP.

    E
    Tidecaller's Blessing

      • Empowers yourself or allies for their next 3 abilities or basic attacks, and for each unique attack or ability, consumes one stack to deal bonus damage and slow. Persistent or DOT attacks, eg
        Miss Fortune
        's
        Make It Rain
        will only apply the damage and slow once.
      • Empowered AOE abilities will apply reduced bonus damage to minions.
      • The bonus damage is complicated, but the important thing to note is that whoever receives the buff matters for calculating damage, as it uses their Magic Penetration, even though it's sort of your damage. All that maters is that when it comes to situations such as doing Dragon or Baron, to maximise damage you should generally give the buff to your allies with Magic Penetration.
      • Due to the instant cast and it applying
        Surging Tides
        , you can instantly use it to give yourself (or an ally) a burst of speed without interrupting your movement.
      • Only
        Ebb and Flow
        meaningfully interacts with this, as
        Aqua Prison
        and
        Tidal Wave
        both apply stronger CC to enemies. You can cast
        Tidecaller's Blessing
        first, then use
        Ebb and Flow
        to apply the slow to an enemy from up to 800 units. This is longer than your autoattack range, as well as almost every other champion in the game, allowing you to safely put a bit more distance between yourself and an enemy whilst healing yourself, or slowing an enemy to allow you to chase them down for empowered autoattacks.
      • You can cast
        Tidecaller's Blessing
        while an autoattack or an ability are already in flight, and the attack will still be empowered. In lane, enemies will be less likely to run away if you appear to just be autoattacking them, so if you autoattack them first and then cast
        Tidecaller's Blessing
        while it is in flight, you're more likely to get a good AA ->
        Ebb and Flow
        -> AA trade which uses all three empowered stacks of
        Tidecaller's Blessing
        .
      • An empowered autoattack will activate
        Manaflow Band
        , but not
        Scorch
        , and not
        Cheap Shot
        unless they are already CCd.

    R
    Tidal Wave

      • It's slow and relatively thin with a half second cast time, so it can be difficult to actually land. You never really want to ult in the open in full view of the enemy, unless you do not need to land it and using it as a zoning tool or team speed buff is sufficient.
      • Offensively,
        Tidal Wave
        should ideally be used in a chokepoint, or as a secondary engage after one of your allies has initiated.
      • Defensively,
        Tidal Wave
        should be used to counter an engage or dive attempt by the enemy team. Combo with
        Aqua Prison
        whilst they are CCd to try extend the CC duration.
      • You cannot ult +
        Flash
        to reposition it and negate the cast time.
      • It slows for longer the further it has travelled, and takes about 3.25 seconds to travel the full length. This doesn't really end up meaning anything in practice, but there you go.

    General Support Tips and Tricks

    This section will be more general and abstract, and not necessarily specific to Nami. It will touch upon how you as a Nami player should be looking to play, however some of it will be transferrable to other supports, especially Enchanters. Once again, League is a game of innumerable variables which I cannot cover in one concise (or as concise as I can be) guide. We will be talking mainly about concepts, and it is up to you to take what you learn and apply it to specific games.

    Want a starting point that doesn't involve so much reading? Here.

    Pre Game

    The game starts in Draft phase, and you should take this seriously. As Draft plays out, take a look at both your team and the enemy team and consider factors like:

    • Do we win 2v2 early? Are you supporting a
      Draven
      in to
      Vayne
      Alistar
      and are able to (and need to) stomp early, or are you supporting a scaling ADC in to a dominant early lane where your goal is to survive in to the mid/late game?
    • How can you beat the enemy bot lane and when? Nami's strength is her versatility, and you are generally able to adapt to any matchup and try win. Consider whether the enemy has good sustain, or you might be able to establish a lead by aggressively trading and sustaining with
      Ebb and Flow
      . Consider what the enemy needs to do to be able to kill you. Consider if there are any particular spikes you need to wait for before you win, and play arounmd them. Consider if the lane is honestly just doomed and whether the win condition is to play for roams.
    • What are my best Summoner Spells? There is little point taking
      Ignite
      in to a lane you're just looking to scale in since you only get significant value out of
      Ignite
      early.
    • How can I optimise my Runes? Would you get more value out of swapping out a particular Rune for another in the same tier, and are your Shards correct for how you will be playing?
    • How do the picks of the enemy team influence how you will need to play?

    Try to consider these sorts of factors, because they can drastically alter how you will need to play the game.

    Before Minions Spawn

    You can

    Stealth Ward
    and recall to get a
    Oracle Lens
    which will be off cooldown at 1:30, you want to recall no later really that 0:55 and place the
    Stealth Ward
    whilst recalling, so you can get to lane or leash jungler on time. You don't need to do this, but it is helpful for fighting for lane control, as you can try to deny the enemy’s vision using the
    Oracle Lens
    . Placement of the ward can be very important though, and you generally have three options:

    • In the middle lane bush in botlane. This is good against ranged matchups, since control over the middle bush generally allows you to control the wave and hit level two first. 
    • In the river bush. This is good in to matchups that could sit in the closest lane bush (or in tri bush if you are on blue side and need to help your jungler), and try to take a fight when you walk to lane after leashing. Against someone like
      Pyke
      or
      Nautilus
      , this is a very quick way to lose the lane, since they will either chunk you and force you to concede the lane, or kill you. By placing a ward in the river bush, you are able to know that it is safe to take that route to lane. This ward is also helpful against a scary level two ganker such as
      Jarvan IV
      or
      Nunu & Willump
      .
    • On a camp of the enemy jungler so you get more information about their early pathing.

    Level One and Two

    Nami's level one is quite potent thanks to

    Ebb and Flow
    , and being a ranged champion. You are generally able to win trades thanks to
    Ebb and Flow
    damaging enemies whilst healing you to mitigate their retaliation, however this is matchup dependent and you should be limiting trades to play around this cooldown. Nami has a low base AD, so if you are trying to just trade autos with other supports you can end up losing the trade, and you will lose auto for auto trades with ADCs unless you can abuse minion waves to help you with the trade.

    Your goals at level one are generally as follows:

    • Establish wave control
    • Establish bush control
    • Take favourable trades to try gain an advantage over the enemy
    • Hit level two first where possible and press this advantage

    There are few situations in the game where you will lose a trade at level two if the enemy is still level one. The only time I can ever recall this happening was a game where I played

    Singed
    vs
    Irelia
    , and in fairness to the
    Irelia
    she played it really well by right clicking me hard. If you are level two while the enemy is level one, then you have better stats, an extra ability, and this advantage is doubled in bot lane simply because you have another person with you that also has these benefits over the enemy.

    By playing around this and pressing the lead while you have it, you can obtain a significant advantage in the lane either by killing the enemy, or just getting a lot of damage on them and forcing them to expend a lot of resources. If you are yet to properly play around this in your games as a support, I promise you that games will become so much smoother early on if you just learn and implement this one strategy. So let's.

    The first thing to understand is what it takes to hit level two as a bot laner. You need the experience from all of the first wave, and the three melee minions of the second wave. Therefore, step one is to have an advantage with the wave by the time the second wave arrives. This is doubly important if you are against a support that has a

    Relic Shield
    or
    Steel Shoulderguards
    , since they have the ability to execute two minions from half (or 30% for ranged champions like
    Thresh
    ) health. You don't want to over-push the first wave, since then your remaining minions will run to the enemy tower where they can safely and quickly be killed, negating your advantage. If need be go in to the Practice Tool, and practice managing the wave while uncontested. Your goal is to start killing the enemy minions faster than yours are killed, but not so fast that they push to the enemy tower before the second wave arrives. You won't have complete control in a real game since you will have your ADC to worry about, but you should have some idea how to manage the wave to gain a minion advantage by the time the second wave arrives.

    Once the second wave arrives, you want to desperately try kill the three melee minions before the enemy does the same to your wave, so that you can hit level two before them. If you are confident you will hit level two first, start walking up as the third melee minion is close to dying, and begin trading. If the enemy does not respect that you will be stronger, then as you hit level two you will almost certainly win the trade.

    It should go without saying that if the opposite seems to be happening and you do not think you will hit level two first, then back off and wait for the wave to push in to you. You need to learn when to cut your losses and retreat, because otherwise you can very easily lose the lane, since you're now on the receiving end of the strategy.

    If the enemy bot lane does respect that you will hit level two first, then you can walk up and simply threaten them away from the minion wave because you are level two and they are not. The goal now is to deny Gold from killing minions, Experience from being near dying minions, and getting favourable trades against enemies while they are not able to fight back.

    Be careful though, there's a good chance that your ADC will not walk up and threaten with you. The enemy bot duo may be level one, but you're likely 1v2 against them, and also it's never good if you get pulled under tower by someone like a

    Blitzcrank
    .

    If your ADC is good, they might look to perform something called a Cheater Recall, by amassing a large wave through a slow push of the second wave, followed by a hard push when the third wave arrives in order to crash the wave at the enemy tower. You are then able to recall, get a small item such as

    Boots
    while they get a
    Long Sword
    , and you both top up on health and mana. You then are normally able to get back to lane with your item and resource advantage, whilst missing minimal minions. You should then be able to use this advantage to re-establish lane control, freeze the lane in an unfavourable position and force them to take a bad recall, be zoned, or promise unspeakable acts to their jungler to come and fix the wave.

    Chances are though that your ADC won't do this, but you should still be aware if they are trying to do this, and support them in doing so.

    Wave Management

    Playing around minion waves in lane gives numerous advantages.

    • Minions do quite a bit of damage early on. If you have more minions than the enemy and trade with them, if they attack you with an autoattack or a targeted ability, then they will cause your minions to attack them and take a fair amount of damage if they do not disengage. Keep in mind that the inverse of this is true, if you are trading in to an enemy in their minions, you can end up taking a significant amount of damage in return.
    • Correct management of waves can give you an opportunity to set up plays where your enemies are forced to react later than you, or they are significantly punished. This is a concept known as Tempo, and an example of this we’ve already discussed is the Cheater Recall.
    • You can set up a wave state that the enemy is unable to farm, or even soak experience. In the early game, denial of experience in particular can be extremely punishing when the XP required to level up is quite low, and you’re able to properly exert your lead over the enemy as a higher level champion. 

    At the start of the game, minions will more or less deal the same amount of damage to each other if left alone. Throughout the game the winning side will get stronger minions that deal more damage and take reduced damage from enemy minions, but we'll focus on the early game where wave management matters the most and is almost exclusively down to the position of minions and how you and the enemy are hitting the opposing side's minions.

    For obvious reasons, if you kill a minion in the opponent's wave in a neutral lane state (i.e. the minions have met each other about the same distance from their Nexus), then you will have one more minion than the enemy wave. If you did absolutely nothing from then on, your minion wave would kill the enemy minion wave and start pushing towards the enemy's side of the lane. This is because you established a wave state where your minions had more HP and damage output than the enemy's, and so will prevail in an even fight.

    If the minions meet on one side of the lane, then the next minion wave for that side will reach the fight sooner, and temporarily have the numbers advantage that was talked about in the previous paragraph. Consider the image below. If equal minions met where the red line is, then they are closer to the red side, and vice versa for the blue side. When the next wave arrives, it takes less time for the red minions to reach the red line than it would the blue minions, so the red wave has several seconds of being much stronger than the blue wave. This means that over time the red wave would become larger, and end up pushing towards the blue side. (If you didn't work it out, the green line represents a neutral lane state where it would be difficult to know which way the minions would push).

    Once a wave is pushing, it will usually continue to do so until it is influenced by either a champion, or a turret. Now that we understand how minion waves behave, how do we apply this as a support? there can be a lot, but we'll just go over the main ways here for now:

      • Create a big wave through a slow push. If you create a big wave through slowly pushing the wave and then finally crashing it on the enemy tower, then the enemy will be stuck dealing with it and present you with a window for the immediate future. We've already discussed an example of this, the Cheater Recall. By pushing a large wave in to the enemy tower, they have to take quite a bit of time to actually clear the wave, in which time you are able to recall and get back to lane without missing much. Their next wave meets the big wave at the tower, whilst yours ends up on the enemy side of the lane, before pushing to you, causing you to miss out on very little. You can do something very similar with a large wave, but instead of recalling, you can use this time to roam or help your jungler, without being easily punished.
      • Freeze the wave to deny minions to the enemy. As already discussed, waves will normally continue to push if they have the numbers advantage, and you can exploit this by allowing a wave to push towards your side, but slowly kill the minions so that it remains more or less in the same position. This means that the enemy has to walk very far up in to the lane, leaving them vulnerable to pressure from you or your allies. This forces them in to an undesirable position, because they have to choose between being unsafe, or just falling behind.
      • Keep the wave on your side of the lane to deny space to the enemy bot lane. Some champions such as Leona are a lot less scary if they just cannot reach you, and if you keep the minion wave one your side of the lane close to your tower, then she is physically unable to do anything beyond diving or roaming.
      • Crash the enemy wave and look for good roams. You should ideally never roam when the wave is pushing towards the enemy. It puts your ADC in a very awkward position, since they are the one that has to overextend or fall behind, and if you are not there to back them up because you're roaming, they will often just die in that 1v2.

    Keep in mind that these don't just apply to bot lane. As the team's support (and you are, there are three other team members that are not the ADC who you can help) you can exert a fair amount of pressure simply by going to another lane and helping with the wave, such as to allow your mid laner to get a good reset.

    Favourable Trading

    Trading in lane should generally be done to gain an advantage over the enemy. There are some exceptions to this, for example if you know your jungler is pathing towards you and the enemy's is pathing away, then you can trade aggressively and take trades that are not necessarily in your favour, but make the enemy very vulnerable to a gank. But of course, you can lead a horse to water, but you can't force your jungler to apply their hands to their keyboard and mouse, so for now we will focus on how you can trade in a way to gain advantages over the opponent.

    The main resources that you (and enemies) have available are:

      • Time (also known as Tempo)
      • Health
      • Mana
      • Cooldowns
      • Positioning

    Keep in mind that Nami has the ability to convert mana to health through

    Ebb and Flow
    , something most champions can't do. If the enemy has poor sustain, especially if they are squishy, you can aggressively trade and then sustain back up by healing yourself, then proceed to zone the enemy now that you are stronger.

    In lane when there is no reason not to, such as that it would put you in danger, the enemy is able to trade autoattacks back, or there is something more important to do such as establishing wave control, you should be autoattacking enemies early on. Remember that it causes enemy minions to attack you, even if you were previously unseen. If possible, step out of a bush before you attack, as you can quickly enter the bush to stop minions attacking you, as long as it is not warded. Since

    Ebb and Flow
    is a targeted ability, make sure you are aware of this too when looking to harass with it. You should look to autoattack the enemy when they are looking to attack a minion, which is usually rather telegraphed in the case of the enemy ADC who wants to go for last hits, or the enemy support if they have
    Relic Shield
    or
    Steel Shoulderguards
    and they're walking up to the wave for a cannon.

    As mentioned earlier, you should look to speed up your trades and reduce the chance of scaring the enemy off before you get in range by casting

    Tidecaller's Blessing
    while an autoattack is in flight, then following it up with
    Ebb and Flow
    and a final autoattack. This may not be possible if you need to cast
    Ebb and Flow
    to speed yourself up and get in range, but where possible use this combo.

    Unless you lose the early fight, fight for control over the bushes. Just existing in a bush unseen makes you far more threatening since it is not immediately obvious to the enemy what you are doing. Consider how much more threatening a

    Blitzcrank
    is when he's sitting in a bush, compared to when he is in plain view. This is why you should ideally run straight towards the bushes when you get in to lane, and start testing how the enemy will respond. Don't do this if you obviously lose the fight, in which case just focus on wave control.

    The last concept to talk about for trading is something called "Parallel Positioning". This means you try to stand in line with your ADC, otherwise they are unable to back you up in a trade. Granted, they may not back you up in a trade anyway, but it's better to be aware of it and present the opportunity. Otherwise, if the enemy bot lane are standing in line with each other, then they can easily focus you and you will lose the trade.

    Denying All Ins

    Nami is squishy and immobile, so your best bet to deny an all in is to just not be vulnerable in the first place. You shouldn't be frontlining in fights, you can attempt to manage the wave in lane to deny space for the enemy to engage on you, that sort of stuff. But of course, it's not always possible to avoid the enemy engaging on you or your allies, and what then?

    Your most potent response to most forms of engage is to throw

    Tidal Wave
    at the enemy, since it is the hardest for them to avoid at short range. It may be your ultimate and so has a long cooldown, but a lot of the time
    Aqua Prison
    is simply not enough to mitigate an engage reliably. Against enemies that are simply too fast to stop with
    Aqua Prison
    , such as
    Rell
    or
    Rakan
    's engage, if you see it coming, you need to react with
    Tidal Wave
    without hesitation.

    Sometimes, it is not possible to respond to an engage with

    Tidal Wave
    , after all it requires you to be level 6, or it may be on cooldown.
    Aqua Prison
    is your next best option, but as mentioned before there are quite a lot of engage combos in the game that happen in less than a second, and therefore cannot be denied using
    Aqua Prison
    even if it lands. Since most engage champions don't have that much extended follow up, and/or build tenacity, you are usually better off attempting to use
    Aqua Prison
    on the enemy that would follow up on the combo. Try to cast it such that it would land just in front of the enemy, as then they are forced to walk backwards or to the side, which delays their follow up and allows you to try wait out the CC and attempt an escape. I would like to stress that this is not guaranteed and you are likely to die if you find yourself in such a situation, so you are better off respecting the engage before it happens.

    Your last resort is to attempt to use the movespeed from

    Surging Tides
    , and the slow from
    Tidecaller's Blessing
    to put distance between the enemy and their target. Or
    Flash
    , if that target is you.

    Jungle Tracking

    In the early game, it can be very effective to keep track of the enemy jungler based on how many camps they have done and where they started. If you know what they can do based on what they've already done, you can make educated guesses about where they'll be and when, which can inform how you play.

    This is only really effective early on since jungling is at it's most linear in the early game, but that can be enough.

    The two main pieces of information to keep in mind are:

      • Every jungle camp that is fully cleared gives 4 CS. The 3 Wolves? 4 CS. Gromp? 4 CS. Crab? 4 CS. The 10 Krugs? Believe it or not, 4 CS. If you press tab when the enemy jungler appears on the map, you can know how many camps they have done since you last saw them.
      • To hit level 3, a jungler needs to clear 3 camps with only one being Raptors or Wolves. To hit level 4, a jungler needs to clear all 6 camps (or 5 camps with a few baby Raptors and the Crab).

    Given we know whether or not a jungler has done Red or Blue because they grant a buff, and in which order because we can see the buff durations if we click on them, we can guess what amps they have done, and based on that we know when they are likely to do next. For example, if we see that they have 12 CS with a Blue buff, we know that they have done all three camps on their Blue side. If the Blue side is their bot side, then we know that they do not want to be bot side for the immediate future, as there is not much for them to do unless they are looking to invade your jungler's Red side.

    If we know that they are unlikely to be on the bottom side of the map, then we can play aggressive for a short time, confident that the jungler will not show up to interrupt our fun.

    Likewise, if we know that the enemy jungler is pathing towards us, we know that we need to be careful and respect the threat, otherwise we could die and be in trouble.

    That's the short version, since we only really need to know the basics as a support, but I would recommend looking up how to improve your awareness in this area.

    Roaming

    Roaming should be something we prepare for, as discussed in the Wave Management section, because otherwise you can very easily end up in a situation where your ADC is getting screwed over, so even if you manage to get a successful roam it's not necessarily net positive.

    We should look to roam when there is nothing to do bot lane, such as after we have recalled or died and we do not need to head bottom straight away since nothing requires our attention there. In this case, try and set up vision around mid lane, or get deep wards in the enemy jungle in high traffic areas if it is safe to do so. Do not forget that you are squishy and immobile, so if you run in to the enemy jungler or support, you could just die.

    If possible, you can also look to play with your mid or jungle to try and get a kill, or execute a macro strategy such as helping the mid laner fix their wave so that they can get a good reset.

    It should go without saying that these options are available to the enemy support too. Make sure you communicate with pings with your allies to let them know when they need to respect the possibility of a roam, but unless you see them before they do it and they are not significantly ahead of you in tempo, don't follow them. Help allies if the fight comes close to you, but your roams are not very potent, and you should normally instead try to punish the enemy ADC if the roam is bad.

    Mid Game

    Once you have taken the enemy bot lane tower, you should normally try to rotate and swap with either top or mid, preferably the latter. You prefer as a support to be in the mid lane, as you are able to more easily roam and influence the whole map, but this is not always possible. If you have a mage for a mid laner that cannot safely side lane, such as a

    Lux
    , then they probably won't want to sit in a side lane. In this case, or if your top is losing, it can be better to rotate top instead.

    You want to identify who is strong on your team that you can play around, and who you need to avoid on the enemy team. Do not try to play around your weak allies, you are an enchanter, and it is generally a bad idea since you can just lose even with a numbers advantage against a strong enemy.

    You want to try and secure objectives and allow your allies to safely do what they want where possible. Be it getting wards to allow your splitpusher to safely side lane, allowing your ADC to siege a tower, or setting up picks with on enemies. Your job is to adapt to what the team needs, control vision, and avoid death where possible.

    Make sure you are setting up plays ahead of time, otherwise it can be no good. You should be looking to recall and stock up on wards about a minute before a major objective such as Dragon or Baron is going to spawn, if you think there will be a teamfight for it. Where possible, try to refrain from using big cooldowns before these anticipated fights, unless doing so means there will be no fight. For example, don't use

    Tidal Wave
    to get a pick a minute before a Dragon if it means it wont be up for that teamfight and the enemy will just respawn and join the fight anyway.

    Late Game and Teamfighting

    Think about how you win and lose teamfights, then play around it, and don't waste cooldowns if it would stop you from playing around you win/lose. This isn't anything particularly out of the ordinary, if the game has reached this point then you want to be doing more of what you've done so far. The playstyle of a squishy enchanter doesn't suddenly deviate from playing in the backline protecting and empowering your allies just because you're 30 minutes in and Elder Dragon is spawning.

    How Me Improve????

    How many times can a Yasuo OTP die in a match? I, and other higher ranked players, tend to get asked what can be done to allow you to improve as a player, but the truth is that it depends. A stranger who has never seen you play cannot hope to know what you are doing that is preventing you from climbing, it is primarily on you to take responsibility for your improvement.

    That means reviewing your matches after you have played them and being critical about how you are playing. The only person who is losing out here if you're Silver 2 after 372 games when you placed in to Silver 4 but you're convinced it's your teams that stop you from getting higher is you. So look at your games after they happen. Think about when you take a bad trade and how it could have been better. Think about how you could have realistically avoided dying when it happens. Think about the opportunities that you missed because you were physically unable to recognise they were there, and try to be better in future.

    Use Practice Tool to train how you execute on mechanics and concepts, or use ARAMs and URF to practice dodging skillshots. Play other lanes so you actually understand what they want to do, so you can play around this in your games.

    If you genuinely think you're not doing anything wrong, or you cannot figure out how to improve, then you can use one of the hundreds of coaching services available where a better player will likely be able to point out numerous mistakes you are making that you didn't even realise were a problem. Those coaches will generally want monetary compensation for their time, however I will say that I do on occasion do free reviews for active viewers of my stream. Check it out if you are interested, link is towards the start of the guide.

    Skins

    The order within a tier matters, but they're more or less the same in terms of quality.

    S Tier

    • URF Nami - Cozy and adorable. Summons manatees with her joke, and is only a 750RP skin. 10/10.

    A Tier

    • Bewitching Nami - Pretty cute with neat particle effects. Also has hat.
    • Cosmic Destiny Nami - I was gifted this by my boyfriend so I'm obligated to put it here. Autos feel clean and it's quite nice to play with, looks pretty good with chromas too.
    • Koi Nami - Pretty dang solid, especially considering it was her release skin.
    • Splendid Staff Nami - Gives her feet.

    B Tier

    • Deep Sea Nami - Hideous, but in a good way.
    • Base Nami - Respectable.

    C Tier

    • SKT Nami - It's a 1350RP skin, and not even that good.
    • Program Nami - Also a 1350RP skin, also not that good.

    Trash Tier

    • River Spirit - We waited almost 2 years for a new skin for Nami, and hooooooooooooooooooooo boy, that was what we got? Yes I was salty. The skin? Trash. The VFX? Trash. The splash? Trash. The joke fish? Trash. The recall? Trash. The only redeeming feature is it makes every other skin look comparatively better.

    Closing Remarks

    Thanks for reading the guide if you've got this far, and good luck out there.

    NamiSupport
    AUTHOR
    badatnami

    2 Comments

    Share your thoughs, feedback, comments...

    1
    Sebby 7 months ago

    Splendid Staff Nami with the white chroma is her best skin, keep coping.

    badatnami
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