Nami Swaaaaaaan patch 6.18 (Pros dont know how to nami...luckily :D)
Summoner Spells Back to Top
New Runes Back to Top
Masteries Back to Top
Abilities Back to Top
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Items Back to Top
Starting Items
Core Items
Situational Items
Matchups Back to Top
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AlistarEasy
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AnnieMedium
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BardEasy
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BlitzcrankMedium
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BraumEasy
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FiddlesticksEasy
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JannaMedium
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KarmaMedium
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LeonaMedium
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LuluEasy
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MorganaMedium
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NautilusHard
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SonaHard
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SorakaMedium
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TaricEasy
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ThreshMedium
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ZileanEasy
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ZyraMedium
VS

Alistar
Easy
This matchup is very easy, just harash this cow with autoattacks, your heal gives better sustain. If he is going relic, punish him harder when he goes for a last hit, especially if its a cannon minion. Care for a Flash all in
VS

Annie
Medium
The key here is to survive the all-in. Nami is better at trading. Small trades are in your favor because nami can heal. Annie's auto attack animation is very slow so every time an annie tries to AA, punish her. Try not to get out of position, if you succeed, annie will have to over-extend for her all-in and your chances of surviving are great. You can also get advantage of it and get kills. If you survive the All-in you must try to recover fast, and become a lot more aggressive. Annie is squishy.
VS

Bard
Easy
VS

Blitzcrank
Medium
Just avoid the grab. If he fails you have 18 seconds to party!
VS

Braum
Easy
VS

Fiddlesticks
Easy
All you need to win this matchup is 1 good trade. You will turn fiddlesticks into a passive defender, instead of an offensive bully!
VS

Janna
Medium
Previusly marked as HARD, now at medium because it is hard to win this lane, and you might totaly fail trying to win it. Instead, if you make it a farm lane, there is no way you can lose it!
A good janna + her adc will stay passive, then w8 for you to make a wrong move. If you dont hit Q they will punish you hard. Even if you hit it they can still punish every mistake you make. Thats why janna has the best win rate%. What you should do is push and ward harder than normal. Janna cant counterpush. Be patient
VS

Karma
Medium
All you have to do is land a bubble when karma is overextending for her poke, she is squishy and she builds squishy, so probably a single bubble can 100-0 her if your adc can follow up.
DODGABILITY MODE on? Well...meeeeh. You can force karma aim her poke on you and then try to dodge it, but even if you succeed, your lane partner will be left on his own since you will be playing your own game of dodge-ball!
VS

Leona
Medium
Be aggresive lvl 1. Extra carefull lvl2. Poke is the key. If you succed in early trades...leona will be passive and you can zone or push.
VS

Lulu
Easy
Nami is better overall than lulu. Care not to overextend because lulu will punish you if she lands her slow.
VS

Morgana
Medium
Well...thats hard.(not as hard as janna)..try not to get hit by her Q...CDR is the key here. Start wih 5% cdr from runes and 4-5-21 masteries. That is 15% cdr at lvl 1 wich brings your Q's cd on 11.9s while morgana's E is 21.85s and she wont even get it until her lvl 2 or 3.
So when you dodge a Q, force her E (or force both Q and E) and you have a 10 second margin to do anything you like in lane. After 10 seconds you only worry about the Q since E will be down for another 8-9 seconds.
One other tactic is force the shield on either morgana or the adc and then focus the unshielded champ.
You can also count 5 seconds for the shield to wear off...
VS

Nautilus
Hard
Be carefull! Nautilus counters nami ;) 1 small mistake and you burn summoners, second mistake and you are dead! Try to AA from distance and care for the hook..
VS

Sona
Hard
Sona is always a hard matchup for nami, sona has more damage and better sustain. If you try a lot of trades and stay at least even in HP, you can WIN the lane at lvl 5 since Sona will run out of MANA.
VS

Soraka
Medium
Dont try early trades with the adc, neither soraka. Try to force soraka go aggresive by your passiveness then go all in on her. Dont even bother going for the adc, bubble flash and good luck.
VS

Taric
Easy
Easy lane. Poke hard but keep a distance. If you overextend taric will punish you. In teamfights nami will shine.
VS

Thresh
Medium
Just avoid his grab, then punish him everytime he gets close... he cant reach you.
Always judge your adc's mechanics and his concentration before going aggresive. 99.5% of adc's WILL get hooked after a totaly won trade. This 0.5% is in Diamond 1 :P So if you see he is missing cs or if he is bad at dodging skillshots, play more passive than usual.
VS

Zilean
Easy
Zilean (patch 5.4 updated) has become pretty hard to play, so for now its easy. He need to land 2 skillshots equaly difficult to Namis Q in order to stun something. The slow is strong though. For now, just punish all those new Zilean wannabes!
VS

Zyra
Medium
Zyra's damage is OP right now (6.12) play it safe with heals without trading
Runes 6.18 runes for elo hell Back to Top
Pros/Cons Back to Top
Matchups
I tried rating the match-ups as if all bot players had the same skill. Also i only rate how easy or hard is to WIN the lane. By winning i mean having a significant gold or lvl difference, or forcing jungler/mid/top to help the enemy laners.
Pros
- Aoe stun + knocup
- Hard cc + buffs + heal
- Can disengage
- Wins early trades
- High killing potential early game.
Cons
- Wasting Q is extremely punishing
- It takes skill to play nami
- Runs out of mana if skills are not used wisely
- It takes time to understand nami's full potential and that requires pushing to the limit and making mistakes.
- Nami's initiation is not optimal, and can cost you the game
How to support with nami swaaaan!! Back to Top
Your role...
Some people believe that supporting is all about protecting your adc-team, warding and CCing enemies.......well...i kind of disagree...For me support position is mostly about making things happen, making plays, creating for your team. Its like the Point Guard position in Basketball. In the following parahraphs ill try to break down each of your responsibilities, focusing on playmaking!!
- Warding - Map control. You can only place 3 greens-1 pink. Thats all. Convince your teamates to buy wards!! I am not going to teach you where to place wards. Thats another guide. All i can tell you is to always have a ward on dragon and if you can on tribush. Just do this and your lane will be safer. Make sure to watch the minimap whenever you can! Make it a habbit of yours to watch the minimap. Search for the jungler first, then check if lanes are pushed and enemies miss. A pushed lane to your mid touret and mid missing is a possible danger. In late game you are the one to place the smart wards...Deep wards in their jungle, mid entrance wards...etc. In my opinion warding baron should not be supports responsibility. Remember, convincing your teamates to buy wards and lens is actually more important than placing your 4 wards in the map! And significantly harder to achieve.
- Potecting. You are the player with the most cc in your team. You must try to stop a running udir going for your adc, or heal a teammate dying from ignite. Should you stay behind your adc to do all these??? NOOOOOO. In early game if your adc is engaged on, you must Q enemy adc, self cast E and slow both supp and adc, or even the jungler :P. Use W first to give your adc a boost, then self cast E and use Q while you autoatck, or AA with E first, for increasing the succes rate of Q. In early game you should be able to turn any aggresive move of the enemy team into your advantage. Never be affraid, be in front of your adc, take some damage for him. Never run back if your adc is being hit. AA the shit out of everyone trying to get to your adc. Your aa mechanics should be better than your ADC's! Always orb walk (cancel animation of aa and skills). Offense is the best defence. In late game you must try to Q the enemy apc -adc + R. Then you must protect your adc... If you cc enemy carrys but your adc dies before you start to peel for him...its his fault!!!
- Playmaking!!! This is it, this is nami swaaaan, this is all the fun on playing support!! If you miss this part, playing support will always be lame, its going to be this last pick (pick order) that will make you miserable...You are a playmaker, you are Magic Johnson of LoL or better John Stockton of LoL, your adc is Malone. Dont expect your adc to be Jordan. He will never be... Too many references, why not? Basketball and LoL have a lot of things on common!
- Early-mid game. Laning phase is all about TRADING. Search for TRADES. You must always AA every opponent thats out of position, while he is going for a Last hit, for a trade, or for a ward. If you see the oppening in 1 of these situations use Q, dont hesitate. Never use Q if you dont feel its going ro land...Its like shooting a 3-pointer in Basketball or a penalty kick, you must picture it landing before you even cast it. Your adc should always follow you. If he doesnt, you can still make a clean trade, Q+E +AA+W+AA. If your adc is bad and doesnt follow, then search for a Q when your adc is close, to "force" him trade.That means that you will hold yourself and w8 for the perfect moment. In lower ELO you can start a trade with E first then Q, because ppl tend to make a lot more mistakes and wrong steps. In higher elo you should start with a Q, or E at your adc that has a better position or a gap closer. A succesfull Q is always the best situation cause it means that you will win the trade. If enemies are Full hp, dont go all in, the damage is not enough for 100-0. You should first win a small trade. If you cant take the early advantage in lane...can mean 3 things...1. you are being passive, 2. Enemies have a lot better mechanics. 3 you made mistakes. Always be aggresive dodge skillshots and keep the preasure going. Never stay back after a won trade. Always be the annoying person you always hate to deal with.
- Late game. This is tricky. You are NOT the initiator of your team. You are not leona. I've seen a handfull of LCS teams drop a game because they tried to initiate with nami. You need someone else to start something small and then unleash your power. Chaining CC after an initiaton is Nami's best. BUT there are ways to initiate!! Clear vision and make a trap. Bait enemies on a pink ward, or bait by pretending to be out of position. You can use ulti from a bush, or behind a wall while you click shurelias. Your opponents will have less time to react. AND if you feel GOOD, flash+ Q at the apc or ADC if your team is ready to kill it. This is the ultimate challenge for a nami player. (like Knife in LEON the proffesional) You need a ton of confidence and a pair of Big Balls to land this small bubble :P. Trust me, nothing feels better than catching 2 carrys with a flash+Q on minute 45! Never be afraid to follow a good CC with your ulti. You must do this fast cause the wave travels very slowly.
- Disengaging. Nami is propably the best support for disengaging. Maybe Janna and Zyra are equal. If they run on your team just use R and its over...they will abort! Q alone is also that good. Q their initiator, they abort, then your team repositions... You can also speed up your teamate who's out of position.
- Roaming. Its the new season 5 meta. Roaming is when you leave your lane to gank or assist a gank somewhere else. There are some things you must consider before that. 1 Your adc must be safe (either he recalled or 1 v 1 on bot or clearing jungle camps until the minion wave arives, or with you :P. 2 You have enough vision both for your ADC safety, and your safety (wards on tribrush, enemy jungle entrance, river entrance from mid). 3 Make sure you wont be seen, there are a couple of ways to do that i) vision clearance ii) the person you will gank is absorbed in trading-lasthiting (tunel vision). 4 Check if your laner has lvl 6, you dont want to share his exp and delay his spike. 5 Make sure your teammate saw you and understood your intentions (you dont want to engage solo and die). 7 In general make sure you dont make anyone angry from your team by "breaking" the laning phase rules. Seriusly if you fail people get angry more than usual and its fact, its not their faul! BUT if we succed its you who carried them!
- Lane momentum-setting last hits. You can always AA minions, either to stop the lane from being pushed, or for pushing the lane. If you see the enemy adc-supp pushing the lane, start autoattacking minions. If you got a kill and you want to recall, use Q on minions and aa like crazy. You can also set last hits. This is very important and only high elo supports do it consistnently and effectively. This is more essential while under your tower. Try to learn when a minion needs an additional AA for your adc to last hit it. Or when the lane is not under your tower, use AA to set a last hit. This gives time to your adc to harash, insetad of w8ing for the minion to go low enough for him to last hit.
- Timers announcer. Objectives timers. This should be mostly your junglers job, because he is always involved at taking and contesting all 4 buffs and he is most of the times the one to kill the dragon. If you see a timer that he doesnt, f.e. a sneaky dragon or a buff steal, then call it. write in chat. (OB-TB-OR-TR) + respawn time. OB = our blue...etc
Summoners+ spells. You should always keep track of your adc's and the 2 enemy bot players' summoners spells and all other spells. You should only annouce summoners and ulties. Your adc should always keep track of those in his mind but it never hurts to revise them to him. When you see your jungle-mid coming for a gank, then announce those timers. Cait no flash or Leona no ulti. Whenever you see blitz or thresh miss a hook, "count" those 18sec and become more aggresive.
Ward timers. In s3 you could keep easier track of wards since the vast majority of wards lasted 3min. Now its harder but in high elo it is good to write the time of wards that are being placed. f.e. You see a green ward placed on tribush. You can ping and just write warded, or Ward or Wrd or w/e :P The ward will be off 3 minutes later. You can also help your jungler by giving him the clear path for a gank at bot. f.e Tri clear, lane clear etc...
- Making the calls. In many pro teams its either the support or the jungler to make the calls early in the game. If you feel like a leader, if you strongly feel your calls are correct, and if you have it in you to lead, make the calls! You should never look bossy because lol players, are narrow minded :P
About the Author Back to Top
I am mad4u, call me mad EUW (D5). CaLL me MaD eune, season3/4/5/6, all diamonds. I started playing ranked in season 3 ( the week got released ) I started at silver 4, being a total noob and got to d5, just 1 week before the real season 3 ended. I had ~ 400 nami games, with over 60% win ratio
K D A
KDA 1,5 3,6 15,5 thats 4.8 KDA ratio. season 3 Diamond 3
I had been playing DOTA for many years before i started LoL. My mentality and mindset are ideal for support roles. I feel the need to create plays for my teamates and i am also tired of farming!! Nami is great for this job, her playmaking skills are amazing, throughout the game.
Why pros can't Nami? Back to Top
Western supports have not practiced enough with nami, in different game scenarios, to comprehend when to do what. Ill list some mistakes i ve seen.