The First Step To Joy
Samira's joyous sister!
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January 9th, 2023 ⸱ 16 min read
EDIT AS OF January 9th 2023: Ravenous hydra rush sucks and you shouldnt be doing it, stop. It's gooda s a 5th or 6th item option if youre AHEAD and that is it. there's nothing else worth mentioning as Jaksho got nerfed too so theres no reason to bother with that anymore as anything but a tank or juggernaut.
Most if not all of this info will hold up for a long time until major changes to items/runes come along or something so even if this does become a bit outdated from lack of updates for the most part it will likely be accurate while I focus on things other than league.
I am a triple flex role player that has peaked diamond and consistently play at around plat-diamond games, formerly a warwick mid one trick that has been playing ADC and support for the entire season! I am by no means the best Nilah in the world or anything, but I have confidence I know enough about her kit and how she plays to talk about her like this with consistent KDA and CS per min. If you have any questions you can contact me through discord for actual conversations; Yiger#6198
Quick Nilah AD ADC Build
Matchups: Threats & Synergies
Matchups are still a work in progress, will be quite a bit until i have every adc mu listed, apologies! I will try to list them on difficulty if possible when I have the time to think about it and edit through what I can!
Runes (Loadout)
Lethal Tempo is still currently best with the BORK build but if you PREFER conq go ahead and use it instead.
BLOODLINE > ALACRITY ALWAYS! Bloodline gives you lifesteal and 100 hp, alacrity is only 18% atk spd which isn't enough to warrant using it over bloodline or tenacity.
- conq
- LT (better)
- no heal/shield
- heavy cc
Summoner Spells & Items Loadout
Ghost is super strong, especially with Nilah who can get kited pretty easily even with the gap closers provided, Ghost allows you to chase down and have safety if need be. The summ is just broken period and many people have been using it, like Vayne f.e.
Exhaust is obvs for hard engages with good burst damage like Draven, Tristana, Samira, etc.
Heal for poke lanes like xerath, Velkoz, Caitlyn, Varus.
Cleanse for things like Veigar, Pantheon, Lissandra, etc.
Skill Path
Nilah
Item Builds
Let's talk about Nilah's build, shall we?
Bork rush is very strong after a lot of testing other opinions, I've come to the conclusion bork > sb > ldr > ie is her current best core build in the game with LT. Common things like Essence reaver after shieldbow HAD popped up in the past or storm razor, or bloodthrister. ER is unnececssary entirely, stormrazor is good and not a bad option but Phantom dancer outclasses it basically every way possible. Bloodthirster is too expensive as a second or third item on Nilah.
Why Bork rush? This is because of the fact you are a melee champion, you can abuse this HEAVILY and has been seen that you are having mostly better games with bork rush damage wise which you need for snowballing the early game. You may not have the shield anymore but you still have lifesteal which is procced by bork passive and your autos. You lose out on q and r healing and passive armour pen but quite frankly, that's fine early game. They aren't important that early on honestly, especially compared to the damage you find yourself doing with Borks passive, plus the movement speed steal really helps at times. The good stats saves you any trouble of feeling too weak and the passive works on minions and monsters as well. Shieldbow second tends to have a lot more value as its better as the game scales onwards. Ldr after shieldbow is because we dont need phantom dancers passive or stats due to it being replaced with better more optimal options such as generic flash ghost and bork rush into shieldbow.
Staring Items? Dshield feels very strong on Nilah as she's a melee and gets full value, poke is no longer that bad of an issue for you to deal with (even though it's still pretty bad). Dblade is a good option as well but it won't do much if you get poked at all, and is more of an item to go vs double engage bot lane which isn't common.
On generic build you can opt out of deaths dance or bloodthirster for spirit visage or force of nature depending on your comp and enemy comp. If you have enough healing/shielding from allies like a soraka/sona/yuumi/rakan/taric (assuming youre being pocketed) then spirit visage. Otherwise go force of nature into 4+ ap comps. There is also mercurial schmiter for cc comps.
- current best
- Kinda preference
Synergies
- Top 5 best
- A tier supports
- n/a
- n/a
- n/a
Absolutely amazing support duo with him going glacial augment, he has burst, shielding, healing, engage, peel, disengage, etc. He's a jack of all trades and that's perfect for a champion like you! (Samira included) Rakan can dash to you, and you can dash to him, ABUSE THIS MOBILITY! Number 2 spot.
Also an amazing support duo, he has shielding, healing, engage, disengage, and peel. He has some decent damage too from his passive which means more heals if he can hit passive. Please play around taric pressing his r to insta win fights, SAVE YOUR W FOR BEFORE HIS R FULLY ACTIVATES, this is so you dont die before you're invincible! Number 1 spot.
After a lot more testing, this combo is DEADLY. Every piece of braum can help us in some way, he may not have natural shielding or healing but this champion alone is pretty disgusting with his damage, peel, and cc. He can follow up with your mobility somewhat, and this giga chad champion COUNTERS almost all of the champions that counter you due to his shield. He synergizes with you because he makes laning phase and fights you normally wouldn't win a breeze. Number 3 spot.
Amazing synergy but this heavily relies on thresh carrying the lane through making good decisions, hitting his abilities, and knowing his champion overall. A good thresh is godly for us surprisingly, but I'd still only put him at number 5 spot.
Just a really good champion that synergizes with your kit very well, and you synergize with her too, amazing combo. Zero flaws. Just make sure to play accordingly when she uses her abilities. She's the number 4 spot.
An oppressive lane bully that heals you, and you synergize will for her cause of your passive. She can abuse the slow and silence in her kit while giving you a lot to work with. Your w can save her too like it does Sona, as long as your enchanter is alive they will have teamwide impact and that is very important for them, to stay alive, you amplifying that is godly.
Great overall, nothing bad to say about her and shes fairly self explanatory. Only issue is your support might fall asleep mid match from how simple and boring this champion is.
Sona fixes your issue of having a short e, same with other enchanters with movement speed buffs. It feels great to play with and sona's that build correctly with w max first and tear rush are amazing to lane with, she has decent poke in lane too and your e w can save her ass if she gets caught out, you both synergize well with each other.
Good for a safe laning and powerful lvl 6 engage, she has great synergy with your kit in everyway possible.
What's not to love with her? Amazing synergy, lovely design and animations, she's water based as well so you can all chat about water bending the lane, all while being hyper aggressive. She can poke somewhat, provide peel, provide engage, disengage, and sustain. She's pretty close to being top 5. It's hard not to get value with her unless the nami has no clue what she's doing or youre both counter picked which can be unfortunate but youre rarely dying with nami and tower diving nami nilah is kinda ?XD so youre fine even if its a losing matchup, just play safe!
Grey health abuser. Thats.. kinda the entire broken part of this synergy outside of his mobility and impact outside your lane. If he perma roams you're pretty fucked, but if he plays with you and allows you to proc your passive with his passive you're gonna have a very good sustain lane with hardcore engage potential. Hard not to get value out of this combo.
Also a close contender for top 5 but he has no healing or shielding unfortunately to abuse, if he did he'd be top 5 easily.
Heals, poke, damage, root, and shield. It's, almost everything you want! her issue is she's a bit immobile outside of her e and she has no reliable cc outside of her q slow. It can be a struggle sometimes if she doesn't hit her w. This lane can be pretty safe though with her q sustain and your passive however, so you can both usually have zero deaths in lane but you can easily be dived unless YOU play it very well or if she hits a w and r.
Naut is just a good champion. Not much else to say really. His shield synergizes with you which is a pretty nice bonus, but otherwise hes just amazing at roams, engage, and peel.
Similar to Naut but requires more skill to pull off as he's harder to be good with in general, but he does technically have a shield if his passive goes off. His lock down cc is very nice too and can carry matchups like lux caitlyn if he manages to hit one of them and you're in follow up distance. It's just very dependent on how you both play lane with each other.
This is my favourite off meta support to play personally, basically how she works is she will poke lvl 1-3, then immediately lvl 4+ her damage falls off and she will rarely use her q. She's maxing e then w to maximize your resistances, and mobility. You have amazing synergy with your ults as well! Her shield is pretty big as well, for sure a very good combo if played correctly, but early 2v2s can be a bit dicey, just scale with her and you'll be good!
THIS CHAMPION,,, God he's so busted, but gladly he synergizes with Nilah very well, you may be asking if you weren't here during sylas support meta, "Wtf is this pick?" WELL, he goes glacial augment, he has reliable engage, he has a slow, he has a heal, and steals support ult usually unless adc ult is cc (ashe, varus, etc.) He can have some good peel and is hard to tower dive too. He's really strong and you'll love having him if he doesn't troll your lane.
This champion is actually really good as a support, but I unfortunately haven't had the chance to have this as a support so I can't say anything from personal experience. BUT! He has healing, engage, disengage, and somewhat peel. His passive exists too which helps with surviving tower dives.
Good pick, very solid, nothing crazy but she synergizes well using her shielding, sometimes her tether heal, and her great poke damage. Her shield + movement speed is the core to the synergy though and is pretty bonkers as she scales on, especially with shureleyas.
Pretty good overall, there is an issue though, Janna kinda struggles if she doesn't have a good Q pop off, but she has shielding, healing, and peel/disengage. Rarely does she have a good q engage with Glacial, but it does happen and can result in kills.
Despite her not being a good support, she synergizes with us very well and her broken r is great too since wee frontlining for her so she can increase r range almost always, she gives you heal/shield synergy with your passive, and her e cc can be handy, her q is useless outside of wave control unless she goes proper damage sera which is gold hungry. She's better mid and bot lane over support, but she does work well with Nilah.
Just a good champion with good synergy with most adcs, it's never bad to have a morg unless the player piloting her is bad at morg, which would be unfortunate. But hey, even if morg is bad or having a bad game, she still has her e and r combo to secure 2v2s with you, you have to let her know you want to engage though, you can engage with e1, then have her e you, she either flashes and r's by then or hits q magically, you damage whatever target is high prio, and you have e2 and w still too for the fight, its easy to fight with and strong too!
Good situational pick with heavy lock down, safety, and damage. Not a bad support at all and provides you with a great amount of peel, and her good amounts of damage helps secure kills, its similar to lux in a way pre 6, though lissandra plays a dangerous game due to her low range, so if it isnt a good engage you'll likely both die, she doesnt have room for mistakes till lvl 6 and hourglass.
- Mid tier
- low synergy
- ZERO SYNERGY
Champ is just in a bad spot but he has his passive to help with laning. Nothing he does very majorly impactful and you're likely better off with other tank supports.
Good peel and cc, good ult to follow up on a engage after your r. He's nothing special and champ is weak but he's got a decent amount of synergy.
Hard engage with great cc and peel, other than that? Nothing really.
He would be lower down in this list but he has a heal for you both, peel, and if he gets a good angle, a good engage with a stun and slow.
I tried really hard to find a reason to put Rell in A tier but the champion is unfortunately pretty okayish, she can be used into most comps and a good rell player will help you carry games hardcore, but the issue is, if youre behind and lose lane, youre doomed and she cant do a lot, and your counters are her counters as well mostly, so while you do synergize nicely, she has a good amount of issues, same with leona. Good hard engage and peel, but not much else.
WIP, not enough info but he doesnt seem to have anything like naut and blitz does. He has his r and his grey health + shielding, thats really it, he can get a pretty nasty engage here or there but he is pretty telegraphed and just pretty decent overall, not bad but not good perse either.
One of the better mage combos, but still need more match time with him to be honest. He has crazy damage, poke combo, and can basically frontline with his tankiness through heals, hp stacking, slow through rylais and r is pretty insane too. Unfortunately he offers not a lot of peel or disengage out of him popping r to be scary for a nanosecond. Unless of course enemy is braindead and engage on him with his r up, then go to town on them and get free kills.
Kayle support...? in s12? god, how i praise the people who still use this. Kayle support was a pick in s10 and early s11 before they gutted her w with high asf mana costs while abusing guardian when it was still good. She can still somewhat synergize with you with her r, w and q while providing some damage too. But she can't perform into a lot of bot lanes unfortunately anymore, but she can do well into specific matchups.
Pretty good support with an amazing damage combo. She has high mobility, damage, and her charm is a great form of cc with nilah due to making them walk towards you both. She also has a self heal with your passive will proc sometimes, though not very often due to how her passive works which is a big downfall, though it can still get stuff done.
Situationally? She's A tier, can even rival S tier(top 5), but into most comps/games shes a B tier, still providing a lot of good utility in many ways. Never a bad support to have around if piloted correctly.
He has his healing and minimal cc, that's really about it. Good damage in teamfights later on but eh.
Has capability of carrying lane solo and getting fed and winning the game, outside of that he just provides a stun if he hits it. Pretty useless outside of his high damage, his teamfight 6+ is insane late game though.
He allows you to freely freeze wave and cs or even push. He makes the lane pretty boring but his entire champion is pretty boring as is, you'll be fine to just.. keep.. farmin- zzzzzz.....
Xerath but if he was a cooler colour, cooler design, cooler lore, and cooler kit. Your lane has more impact now and you can make a few more plays into a few more comps, but you still have a lack of passive abusing and peel usually. His slows and knock up are pretty awesome to have with his high burst damage though, so not too bad!
Only reason she isn't with Ashe is because she actually has a form of engage and peel. If the person piloting zyra is good, your lane will.. actually be pretty nice, sometimes fun. But don't get your hopes up seeing one, barely anyone plays her and most that do are horrible at her.
Just.. Just dodge if you have this as your support please. Save your mental health and just dodge please. This pick exists to troll you, and many other adcs.
Just really bad, he can have some times where he shines and gets a solo kill but hes basically just playing the game on his own. You have chances to follow up and get kills though, so he's not completely useless, same could be said with ashe r but at the end of the day, all he has is a single engage and damage.
I will be updating this guide accordingly when possible for matchups and synergies whenever I have the information needed for each champion THIS INCLUDES OFF META ADCS AND SUPPORTS AS WELL!
