I'm a newer Nasus player who is just starting to get a handle on him. I've been playing him primarily as a tank. Get last hits constantly with Siphoning Strike and otherwise conserve your mana and stay in your lane for the first part of the game. Early rank 2 or 3 Wither can be used to save someone or help a gank. You shouldn't need to use Spirit Fire to farm early, so it is only used to help damage/debuff while they're withered in a gank.

Later on you'll make a much more consistent use of both Spirit Fire and of Wither. Mid-game Spirit Fire can be a great farming tool (Make sure you're still finishing things with Siphoning Strike though) as well as a powerful ganking tool. Don't forget that the armor it removes can be more damaging to an enemy champion than the actual damage it does.

Late-game you're a tank. You get in first, stay in as long as you can with Fury of the Sands up and dealing damage with your cloaks, Siphoning Strikes that hit like a truck, and Spirit Fire. Don't be afraid to duck out when you need to.

Summoner Abilities: Heal + Cleanse
Masteries: 9/21/0
Runes: Health or MR/Armor for Yellow, Health for Black. Red can be Armor Pen, Critical Strike Chance, or Damage. Blue there doesn't seem to be a really ideal choice. You could go with Mana Regen or Cooldowns for primary... or you could just go for more Health/MR/Armor.

1. Siphoning Strike
2. Wither
3. Spirit Fire
4. Wither
5. Wither
6. Fury of the Sands
7. Spirit Fire
8. Spirit Fire
9. Spirit Fire
10. Spirit Fire
11. Fury of the Sands
12. Wither
13. Siphoning Strike
14. Siphoning Strike
15. Siphoning Strike
16. Fury of the Sands
17. Siphoning Strike
18. Wither

Items:
1.) Regrowth Pendant
I find in medium/high ELO games that this adds a lot of consistency. Getting a Meki and 2 health pots is nice, but it leaves you open to harassment early. Being unable to fuel up your Siphoning Strike leaves you in a weak place for the rest of the game.
2.) Upgrade Regrowth to Philosopher's Stone and get Mercury's Treads
The Philosopher's Stone early gives you the health regen and mana regen you need, and it also provides a bit of income. I could go with a Chalice here instead for mana... but it seems like it is overkill for the mana Nasus needs. The Mercury's Treads can be replaced with Ninja Tabi if the enemy team is much more physical attack oriented.
3.) Sheen
You'll be upgrading this later, but for now it will help you wreck people with Siphoning Strike as well as have a bit of an easier time farming with Siphoning.
4.) Banshee's Veil + Sunfire Cape
In whichever order you feel you need. These significantly contribute to your health and your armor/MR. By this point you should be getting to the higher ranks of Spirit Fire, so you can clear entire waves very quickly with your Sunfire + Spirit Fire. Banshee's + Mercury's + Cleanse makes it really ridiculously difficult to stop you.
5.) Upgrade Sheen to Trinity Force
You can do this by snagging Phage first if you're already needing to make a trip back. This item was practically made for Nasus. The 50% stronger Phage effect makes your Siphoning Strikes hit really really hard, the movement slow combined with your counters to CC, high movement speed, and wither allow you to keep almost anyone from escaping. The extra crit plays in nicely with the already devastating Siphoning Strikes, and the extra health brings you up to 1300 from items so far.
6.) Aegis of the Legion
More Armor, more MR, more health. More importantly, however, is that it also gives some survivability to your teammates.
7.) Warmog's Armor or Guardian Angel.
If the game lasts this long then you'll have to decide on which one you want. They're both good choices.


Anyhow, been having pretty fair success with this build. It farms better than a lot of the tanks, is very durable and hard to stop, and with sheen/trinity combined with Siphoning Strike it packs enough of a punch to wreck DPS-heavy champions in the middle of a team fight. It also does very well as a chaser, and the damage from Fury of the Sands + Sunfire Cloak + Spirit Fire is considerable.

Nasus really doesn't need any gold/five items with leveling Spirit Fire a good bit to start, you can already farm to the exclusion of your teammates in a lane with ease, and bypassing the gold/five items let you get to more useful items.

What I normally aim for is:
Chalice
Ninja Tabi
Trinity Force
Guardian Angel
Last Whisper
Bloodthirster

Depending on game flow I get the Guardian Angel or Bloodthirster, then finish with Last Whisper and whichever I didn't pick first.

You have middling HP values, exceptional effective HP though, absolutely crushing SS hits and the ability to easily push.

This build doesn't take full advantage of SS like a serious damage/armor penetration stack build.
This build doesn't survive like a full on tank build with Force of Nature, Aegis, and a Sunfire would.
This build does provide solid staying power and respectable damage at the same time, a hybrid build for a hybrid champion.

Okay first of Sheen is pointless. All its good for is its passive and there are a ton more passives that are better and give you better things. All Sheen gives you is mana and ability which is pointless for Nasus since his ability ratios are .2 and .01. Also trinity force is the most pointless item and biggest waist of money. it gives you lots of passives but if you want the passives buy the real items dont combine them. It is the worst item in the entire game.

Dreadstone...

Sheen/Trinity Force affects SS hits.

I'll let you think about that.....

My opinion on Nasus is to go for Siphoning and Wither first. I really only get Spirit Fire early game if I'm being harassed heavily by ranged opponents. As stated above, killing enemies with Spirit Fire are enemies that aren't killed by Siphoning Strike, and also any smart opponent will just run outside of Spirit Fire due to its start up time. Spirit Fire is better late game to place at a team battle where opponents are more likely to stand their ground, if they run, hey that's free hits for your team, and you can benefit from its damage and armor reduc. Getting over 300 bonus damage Siphoning Strikes is great, works on towers too, but you need to focus on last hitting with Siphoning early to achieve it.

For Items, Brutalizer and Sheen early are great. Cooldown reduction and the bonus damage from Sheen make it easier to build up Siphoning Strike and Armor Penetration makes the occassional harrassing hit from Siphoning that much more painful. Late game, depends on your matchup, if they're CC heavy, I'd think a tank build is better so you can survive for the duration of your ultimate, if they're not, then DPS would be better since your lifesteal can keep you alive as long as you can keep hitting em.

Im building Nasus this way right now:

Doran's Shield
Boot > Mercury (always mercury, its the best boot and there's always a disabler)
Aegis
Sheen

About the skills, first point in SS and thats all u need to put in SS, at least untill u maxed the other skills.


Thats are the basics, next i usually go for Banshees or Tri Force. If Stark's is needed, someone else should do it .
if u are going out of mana, its because u pick the wrong masteries tree, go for the mana regen in the utility tree, it will be enough for SS at early, in mid-late the mana from sheen solves