Hey guys. I'm not very well known at all but I have been doing a decent bit of playing as nautilus since the change to the jungle and the items.
Anyway, I feel that all of these changes have been really nice to nautilus, and when you need to fill the role of tank and cc, I think nautilus in the jungle can fill that role again.
As we know, nautilus has been very weak compared to other jungle champions, especially toward the end of season 2. Some people still played him as support due to his great cc, but you were laughed at if you played him jungle =P

With this build, I hope to show that nautilus' issue with bad clear times has been fixed, thus making him, in my opinion, a great jungler. His ganks are amazing, especially after level 6. After level 6, if you can land your Q onto an enemy, your team is pretty much guaranteed a kill, or at the very least, the enemy champ will blow everything to get back to their turret.

As with all forum posts, any constructive criticism is very much appreciated. Also, if anyone has some other great ideas they've tested in the new jungle, please feel free to post it here in hopes that this nautilus guide gets better.

Lastly before the build, if this becomes a strong enough build, and becomes what I and some of you members would call ideal, then I will post it on other sites.


Runes: I haven't tested runes all that extensively. I've had great success with standard jungle runes. Alacrity reds. Resil yellows, Warding blues, and either str, movement speed, or gp10 quints.

Masteries: I'd love to hear what everyone is thinking for masteries right now. My current set up is 8/ 21/1
Before i get flamed, yes I know this is odd. I also know that after a lot of testing, this will probably be considered wrong. However, I feel the 1 in utility to lower the cd on flash is amazing.

The 8 in offense are: 2/4 fury 4/4 sorcery 2/2 butcher
This gives a little more attack speed which nautilus desperately needs in the jungle. I also love the cdr being in the first tier. Nautilus best jungle ability is his W, which is on a fairly long cd. lastly 2/2 butcher for obvious reasons.

The 21 in defense will probably be tweaked a bit as there are so many choices.

Right now, mine are as follows: 4/4 Durability 2/2 Tough Skin 3/3 Hardiness 3/3 Resistance 1/1 Bladed Armor 1/1 Veteran Scars 3/3 Juggernaut 3/3 Legendary Armor 1/1 Honor Guard

A lot of these are the same as season 2 but the tiers are in different order. I like the idea of legendary armor and I'm using it as of right now.

Again, if anyone has suggestions for these masteries feel free to post.




Items: Now with sorcery being tier 1 in the offense tree, it is very easy for nautilus to have 40% cdr with blue buff by lvl 10
This is due to a lot of new items that are AMAZING on nautilus

First thing is Machete and 5 hp pots. This allows nautilus to do a full clear and be at almost full hp by lvl 4. This makes for a pretty scary ganker.

First back i get boots and if gold permits, a Spirit Stone
It's like a philos for junglers. Perfect

When you get enough gold, get a spirit of the ancient golem, this makes nautilus pretty tanky at early lvls, letting him gank free, sometimes even dive if his ult is up.

After spirit of the ancient golem I get boots of mobility because nautilus is so slow it hurts.

Next a glacial shroud. This glacial shroud I normally build into Iceborn Gauntlent. It's a new aptank item. Armor, mana, ap and cdr. I'm not too crazy about the passive, but the raw starts are great!!!

Next item to build is a runic bulwark, especially if youre the only tank on your team. This item really helps in team fights. Between this item and your cc, all of your squishies behind you should be absolutely safe and healthy =D

The next items depend on their team comp, where most of the damage comes from etc. I tend to lean toward items such as a frozen heart, abyssal scepter, or even a zhonya's if your team needs a bit more damage.


Start wolves, then blue. Max your W first, then E, then Q.

There are obviously some downsides to Nautilus. While his clear is pretty good now, he's susceptable to counter ganks. It's also possible to fall far behind if you attempt to gank lanes and dont come away with anything to show for it. But nautilus is unique in that when he can land his Q and then combo with his ult, whatever lane you ganked will almost always come away with a kill.

Finals words: Nautilus can fit a good team that needs cc for their comp. The new jungle and items are great for his clear time, thus giving him more time to focus his attention on ganking. I urge everyone to try nautilus jungle sometime. It's much better than it used to be. Again, any comments and constructive criticism are greatly welcomed and appreciated.

Reserved for updates

I too am a fan of Nautilus; however, I haven't gotten around to jungling him in season 3. He was a slow jungler in season 2 but as you said he possesses amazing gank potential. In season 2 I would build him Merc Treads, RoA, Warmogs, then either FH or randuins, and abyssal or force of nature, last item never got to.

In season 3 I'm not sure what to build because there are so many new items, I'm not even gonna play ranked until I know what each item does and when to use it, who each item is good on, etc.

Good luck creating a Nautilus resource!

thanks bud! I used to also be a fan of FoN but it's been removed.

I like the frozen hearts passive, and if youre the only tank and they have heavy ad, i believe Frozen Herat is still great. But if thats not the case then I believe Iceborn Gauntlent could be a better choice right now.

Either way its all still theorycrafting. Thanks for the reply. I'm looking forward to more

bump for more feedback

Have you tried 0/15/15 masteries? Aiming for health+armor+monster dmg reduction in defense, and MP5+GP5+starting gold+bisuit in utility?

ill definitely give it a try
im afraid it might make it difficult for jungle clears early game, but i can definitely see how it can make for a better late game

I gave it a bit of a try and while it helps his mid game a little bit, it does make his jungle clear and ganks a little less powerful. However, the two reasons I probably won't use it in my build is the fact that you don't get the deep defense perks that are great on a tank like nautilus, and once your items are done, if you go into the cdr in utility, it's really easy to go over the cdr cap of 40%

It definitely has its perks though. Early on if your blue is stolen or you gave it to a mid that REALLY uses it to roam or score kills like karthus or evelynn, you don't feel like your shield is on cd forever.


Thanks for the feedback so far everyone, keep the theorycrafting coming =D


Edit: If you're going to be losing out on gold because of a shyvanna or lee sin, 0/15/15 or even 0/9/21 can be a huge help with the gp5 mp5 and exp boost. These can help you not fall too far behind and still be useful come mid game. However, if you are in control of your own jungle, the utility masteries can be a bit of overkill and I believe sometimes the points can be better used somewhere else.


Also like to note, if you know your going up against a strong counter jungler, don't pick nautilus in the first place =P

0/23/7

10% CD Reduction on summoner spells is amazing for smite, plus movement speed and the 15 second reduction on Flash.

I also build(built) heavy HP, mostly because of Naut's W. It sucks missing out on the nice AP and attack speed, having the great survivability and increased damage from his W, not to mention the faster Smite, your clear times should hopefully be somewhere near what you're looking for. That and, y'know, the bonus movement speed is great.