Nautilus is an extremely strong jungle ganker right now that transitions very well into late game. His clear times are very admirable and he can hold his own against counter junglers and still not be pushed back too much. He is also one of the few very viable AP junglers, such as amumu and maokai (the later of which can really go either way). What makes him stand out though from them is the fact that he is not reliant on blue to jungle well, in fact past the first blue you'll never really feel your mana dwindling. This lack of reliance on blue makes him very well rounded and able to hold his own in this very AD dominated jungle. Aside from being very strong jungler he also has a very fun move set. Each of his abilities feels useful at every part of the game and each ability is really cool (I'll get into that in detail in the abilities section). In this guide I hope to cover some of the things to keep in mind as an Anchor jungler, and hopefully give a good starting point for truly amazing Scuba play. My opinions are not definite and are subject to change the moment anyone gives me the slightest idea why I'm wrong, but from my testing this is what I've felt was good. Now on to why you should or shouldn't.

Pros:

• Very strong ganks from the jungle do to his amazing kit.
• Dat passive makes me hard as a rock.
• Is impossible to ignore as a tank, as his AoE damage is enormous.
• He's huge, like really big, you-can-probably-just-tank-by-leaving-your-sprite-over-smaller-squishies-my-god-he's-big
• get's you around the world and back on a seven second CD at lvl one with no CDR if you hit a wall.
• His voice is really cool to listen to (unlike veiger and his chalkboard-nails voice)
• I'm sorry but can you fly? He can.....
• Very early safe turret dives. Between and using ] to get away you barely get hit.

Cons:

• As a tank his starting hp feels pretty low.
• No form of wall cross outside of flash making him at a disadvantage in certain positions.
• Without a hard peel it's difficult to get people off your squishies sometimes.
• When your shield is down you have a massive damage decrease.
• As a tank you'll die eventually, it hurts your pride sometimes.
• goes on full cooldown if it hits nothing which makes it hard to chase if you miss hard.
• Need to be in peoples faces to do stuff, which makes you weak to kiting.

This is my first guide and it is deeper than nautilus himself (pardon the pun) so put on your reading glasses.

I'm currently very fond of 0/21/9 as it covers a good amount of the important things that are needed to tank and jungle successfully. In the defense tree I focus on armor and taking as little damage jungling as possible, as all the strong counter junglers are AD this will keep you fairly safe while clearing your path. I take Enlightenment obligated as his cooldowns(ult makes me sad) can feel very long at times and you want to be able to get those spells off as soon as possible. Initiator is always a good choice as he isn't the fastest chap and you need to walk up to the enemy to gank effectively. The utility talents are mostly to enable me to be unreliant of blue, which makes a great gift to your AP mid early. Taking scout instead of recall is favorable, because as a jungler you will be putting down a good amount of wards, and as nautilus you don't often have to recall do to high sustain. Your a jungler take runic affinity, 'nuff said.

I have experimented with 9/21/0 as well but I find that it makes you a little more reliant on blue and you lack the 15 seconds on your only way to get over walls. I find the 4 AP to be very underwellming on all accounts, even more so considering that Nautilus' abilities don't scale that well with AP. On the other hand the CDR is a welcome choice as I have previously stated, every second counts as an AP. Other than that magic pen is magic pen, always good and hard to find.

As I build him tanky I have yet to test 21/9/0 or 21/0/9 to see how either works but I doubt either would be too safe.

I can't, in good confidence recommend anything else for Seaweed. is necessary for objective control and clear times, if you are a jungler it is a huge sacrifice to take anything else. There is nothing in the game as cheap and reliable to steal baron, and a good baron steal can win a game. gives you what you severely lack, a wall cross. Almost everyone runs flash and if they don't it's because they have a built in flash mechanic. Nothing rivals it's ability to gank, chase, or escape. If you insist on me bashing the other choices though here I go.

Are you planning on support jungle?
You don't hurt for mana, and this just isn't that strong a choice at this skill level
You seldom get one CC at a time and if you do you definitely don't need this to get away.
You already have so much slow and snare, this is just over kill.
<-Take it
Lotsa turrets in the jungle,huh?
See above^
If you need to use this the chances are you are under so much slow it won't help.
It's strong, just not enough to give up the other two.
I like the double DoT for top, but it's just not worth trading for.
PROMOTE BLUE FOR PROFIT!!!
Honestly I've never tried this....
Nautilus=Karthus?
<-Take it
GET EVEN BIGGER!!!!
As a jungler you are often moving around, if you really need to be somewhere you are probably already there.

Nautilus� first basic attack against a target deals bonus physical damage and immobilizes the opponent briefly. Staggering Blow cannot trigger on the same target more than once every 12 seconds.


Oh god this passive, I can't love it enough. This passive is so strong when ganking, a snare is nothing to laugh at, even more so one that damages like this. The thing to remember with this is that it has a 12 second internal cooldown per target, which means you can tag multiple people with it is you are quick enough, making you really good against duo bot. When jungling I like to tag each mob once with this passive before zoning in only on the big mob, the increased damage can be useful. This passive is just good, I love it and you should love it, end of story.





Nautilus hurls his anchor forward. If it hits an enemy unit, Nautilus drags himself and the target together dealing 80/120/160/200/240 (+75% of ability power) magic damage and stunning them briefly.If the anchor hits terrain, Nautilus will drag himself forward and the cooldown is reduced by 50% (7/6.5/6/5.5/5).

Cost: 60/70/80/90/100 mana

Cooldown: 14/13/12/11/10 seconds

Range: 950


This is your gap close, part Amumu Q, part Blitzcrank Q. When ganking this is NOT your lead, saving this for the escape is optimal as it has a dragging component. That said I have found that you can bypass that rule if your target is close to a wall, throwing it so it pulls you to the wall not them. Doing this will close the gap and activate the half cooldown, which means you can use your whole combo and your Q will be up when you need it only now you caught them earlier(provided they lack flash, in which case I'd caution to do this). This ability is also your go to escape, with it's short cooldown and huge range you can use it to teather across the screen to saftey. When turret diving I save this to get out of tower range after diving, taking fewer hits from the tower. Keep in mind the Q activates on towers and inhibitors as terrain, which can help you travel. Also note that there is a small stun, so it can interrupt that pesky channel and save a life(confirm?).





Nautilus surrounds himself with dark energies, shielding him from the next 80/130/180/230/280 plus 10% of his bonus health (+10% of bonus health) damage for up to 10 seconds. While the shield persists, Nautilus' basic attacks apply a damage over time effect to all units around his target. The effect deals 30/60/90/120/150 (+40% of ability power) magic damage over 2 seconds.

Cost: 80 mana

Cooldown: 26/24/22/20/18 seconds

Range: 350


This is your main damage source and mitigation source all in one. With this you can clear a jungle virtually unharmed past your first clear. While this is on your autoattacks now basically scale with, but gives you a DoT version of tiamat to boot. The issue with this ability is that it is only damaging while the shield is up, which means if you get focused out of it your damage goes down by a huge amount. This gives the enemy an incentive to attack you though, which helps fufill your role as a tank, if not they all suffer. Another thing to note is that each swing activates the 2 second DoT, which resets, in other words there are certain AS points where attacking too fast may be a DPS loss on the DoT (though this will almost never come up, just a fun fact). An important and overlooked fact about this ability is that it is a AA reset, meaning if you autoattack first then activate it you get higher DPS. Also this skill scales on two separate stats bonus HP for the shield amount and AP for the damage, meaning if you are getting focused you can invest in HP to get more out of it, conversely if you aren't getting AP will make them want to focus you.




Nautilus slams the ground, causing the earth to explode around him. Each explosion deals 60/100/140/180/220 (+50% of ability power) magic damage to units in the area and slows them by 30/35/40/45/50% for 2 seconds. This slow diminishes over time. A unit can be hit by more than one explosion, but they take 50% less damage from additional explosions.

Cost: 60/70/80/90/100

Cooldown: 10 seconds

Range: 400


Trusty multi-hit AoE slow, this skill is your most reliable source of damage. The interesting fact of this ability is the multi-hit property, if the enemy runs from ground zero they can take an extra hit that can end up translating into huge damage. I like to lead my targets a little before using this skill so that they have to walk through it when they try to get away. The issue with this is that 10 seconds is a lot of time, so make sure you hit or you may not get another chance in a gank. This combined with your W though makes you very strong at clearing creep waves, making your push powerful.





Nautilus fires a shockwave that chases an enemy champion. This deals 125/175/225 (+40% of ability power) magic damage to enemies it passes through and knocks them into the air. The shockwave explodes upon hitting its target dealing 250/350/450 (+80% of ability power) magic damage, launching them into the air and stunning them for 1/1.5/2 seconds.

Cost: 100 mana

Cooldown: 120/100/80 seconds

Range: 825


This ability is very cool and strong, a homing pulverize is never a joke. This is your other form of interrupt and your biggest single target nuke. Using this ability in a team fight can be devastating everyone taking that sort over damage and getting knockup is a huge advantage if your teammates can carry through. The key to this skill is maximizing the targets, you need to be able to chose which target will hit the most enemies. When using this ability note the wave has a slow-ish start-up but will build up speed quickly, plan accordingly so they don't move out of the way of their friends. My big issue with this skill is it's cooldown is long, don't waste it on a kill if you don't need to.

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I personally prefer the W over the E but I have seen people focus the E, as the slow increases per lvl, but IMO the larger shield amount for longevity and the damage overall on the W for better jungling.

My preferred jungle path is starts with Regrowth 1 pot. As stated above it gives good sustain and translates quickly into your next item. You want to start at wraith taking your W as your first spell. You start by smiting the big wraith and using your W to clear out the small wraiths, spreading out the passive. After you finish wraiths you move onto wolves, making sure to activate W after the first auto attack as an attack reset. After finish wolves take E as your next spell, moving onto Blue. Depending on how it went you smite should have a couple seconds left on CD, start Blue with E and continue as normal until low enough to smite, being sure to use the potion if your HP drops too quick. From blue go wraiths, double golem, then Red if you didn't dip too low, taking W at lvl 3. Upon clearing Red go to wraiths and get to lvl 4, taking Q. With your Q you can either recall and buy or start looking for ganks. At this point how you continue is up to you, keep ganking or just keeping killing camps. Once you have your Philo you no longer need Blue so make sure to give it to your AP mid when you can.


Another path I've been experimenting with is starts with Regrowth 1 pot as well. Instead of taking W first you want to E to start. With a good leash start by taking wolves. After taking wolves need to have Blue leashed as well. After finishing Blue you should be at lvl 2, as your second spell you will take the Q. At this moment you should try and gank the adjacent lane(top if your blue, bot if your purple), with your one l lvl advantage and heavy CC you should be in a strong position to get a kill or spend their summoner spells. Continue jungling starting at wolves after your gank and move onto wraiths, keeping an eye on available ganks. Continue clearing as normal, ganking anytime you have a chance. Grab W at 3 and focus on leveling E for more slow.

Too be added

In conclusion there are small tricks you can watch out for to turn your great Nautilus into an amazing Nautilus. Nautilus already lends himself to strong jungling, you just have to keep in mind his subtleties. If you have any suggestions, or just think that I'm wrong, leave a comment, so I can cry myself to sleep.