LoL Wild Rift Nami Build & Guide (Patch 5.0) - Runes, Counters, Items, Ability Analysis

S+ Tier

Class: Support

Recommended Lane: Support

Best Nami Wild Rift build guide for Season 11 Patch 5.0 of WR. With our Nami guide you will learn which items to build, runes to select, skill order, who counters Nami, and how to use abilities properly.

Recommended Builds

Starting Item

Boots

Core Items

Complete Build

Runes

Starting Item

Boots

Core Items

Complete Build

Runes

Nami uses her Tidecaller staff to summon the strength of the oceans themselves. Nami is an Enchanter champion who uses her abilities to control the flow of battle. She has an all-around utility that can be used offensively or defensively and is useful for both engaging and disengaging.

Nami Wild Rift Build Recommendation

Here are Item Build Recommendations that works on this champion and which are the best build for Nami Wild Rift in this patch.

Support Tidecaller

Protect Enchant [This item has been removed from WR]

This is the standard Nami Wild Rift build which mainly focuses on using items that help her team by granting buffs. Spectral Sickle/Black Miss Scythe will be her starter item, giving her gold each time she damages an opponent. Protect enchant on the other hand boosts her healing for a duration. However, you can also opt for Redeeming Enchant.

Tsunami Bringer

Alternatively, you can pick this Nami Wild Rift build that helps her team and simultaneously allows her to deal damage. With Imperial Mandate, she can then inflict magic damage after immobilizing targets with her bubble and ultimate.

Runes for Nami in Wild Rift

Aery – Can be used both offensively to add damage to your poke or defensively to add a shielding effect to your heal.
Weakness – Increases damage to champions you have slowed or knock-up. This is very easy to activate on Nami because of the slow from your E, Tidecaller’s Blessing.
Loyalty – Increase your and your nearest ally’s dual resistance.
Pack Hunter – Increase your movement speed and grants you and a unique ally bonus gold on takedowns.

Spells

These two are the best spells you can equip for Nami Wild Rift.

Exhaust slows down the enemy and reduces their damage output. It is a useful spell for protecting your carry against burst damage assassins and it can be used to secure kills as well.

Flash is necessary because Nami has no natural escape mechanism which makes her an easy champion to pick off. You can also do surprising moves with Flash in combination with your abilities.

Skill Order

2nd, Ebb and Flow, is maxed because it is Nami’s main source of damage and heal for trading. 3rd, Tidecaller’s Blessing, is maxed second because it is a good way to help your ADC and other teammates during the mid game. 1st, Aqua Prison, is maxed last as it is unreliable as a source of damage. Get a point in your Ultimate, Tidal Wave, whenever possible.

Abilities

Surging Tides

Passive

Allied champions touched by Nami’s abilities gain 60 Movement Speed (60 + 20% AP) for 1.5 seconds.

Aqua Prison

Active

Fires a bubble, dealing 75 magic damage (75 + 50% AP) and knocking up for 1.5 seconds.

Ebb and Flow

Active

Launches a stream that bounces 3 times between allied and enemy champions, healing allies for 55 (55 + 30% AP) and dealing 65 magic damage (65 + 50% AP) to enemies.

Can hit each target once. Healing and damage values are reduced by 15% each bounce.

Tidecaller's Blessing

Active

Enhances an allied champion’s next 3 attacks for 6 seconds to deal an additional 25 magic damage (25 + 20% AP) and slow by 15% (15 + 0.05% AP) for 1 second.

Tidal Wave

Active

Sends a wave, dealing 150 magic damage (150 + 60% AP), knocking up for 0.5 seconds and slowing by 50%.

Slow lasts for 2.4 seconds, increasing with how far the wave travels. Allied touched gain double the effect from Surging Tides.

Abilities Analysis

Innate: Surging Tides

All champions touched by Nami’s abilities gain bonus movement speed. Even Nami’s offensive abilities, her 1st, Aqua Prison, and ultimate, Tidal Wave, grants the passive.

Spam your abilities on allies after they replenished their life in the base so they’ll have bonus movement speed to go back to their respective lanes faster.

Q | 1st: Aqua Prison

Aqua Prison is a slow-moving bubble that damages and knocks up enemies hit in a small area.

It moves so slow that champions can easily avoid it by simply waking away from it. The best way to hit a moving enemy with it is to target the enemy’s backside because they’ll be forced to move forward and be hit by you and your ally’s attacks but if they move backward, they’ll be stunned instead.

Of course, it is easier to hit enemies with Aqua Prison if they are slowed by your or your ally’s abilities like when you use your 3rd, Tidecaller’s Blessing, and it is much easier if you use this ability as a follow up to other crowd control abilities like your Ult, Tidal Wave.

W | 2nd: Ebb and Flow

Ebb and Flow is a targeted ability that bounces from one champion to another. It damages enemies or heals allies and it can only bounce from an enemy to an ally to another enemy or from an ally to an enemy to another ally.

Another thing to note is that its damage or heal value decreases with each bounce when Nami’s AP is below 200. After her AP reaches 200 and up, the damage or heal value increases instead. Nami will reach 200 AP after three or four items depending on her build.

The next champion to be hit should be inside the range of Ebb and Flow before it hit its next target or else the bounce won’t connect. Ebb and Flow have a relatively fast animation so keep in mind the position of your allies and enemies if you don’t want to waste a bounce.

If you want to make use of Aery’s shield, target yourself or an ally first. If you want extra damage, target an enemy first.

E | 3rd: Tidecaller’s Blessing

Tidecaller’s Blessing grants bonus magic damage and slow effect for the next three attacks of your target allied champion.

The three bonus effects are represented by three floating orbs on your target and will disappear one by one as it is used.

Tidecaller’s Blessing’s effect applies even when it is cast while your target’s attack is midair which makes it a good tool to assist on your marksman’s last hitting.

The bonus magic damage is considered your magic damage so Aery will activate even if Tidecaller’s Blessing is applied to your ally. It will also activate your item’s effects like the slow from Rylai’s Crystal Scepter or the burn from Liandry’s Torment.

R | Ultimate: Tidal Wave

Nami sends a wide, slow-moving wave that damages, knocks up, then slows enemies it hits. It also grants double the effect from Surging Tides to allies.

Because of the double movement speed bonus, you can use Tidal Wave as a “Rallying” Ability which allows your team to out-speed and run down your opponents.

You can surprise your enemies by casting Tidal Wave parallel to wide walls to hide its animation.

Nami Early Game Guide

Nami is an enchanter with amazing offensive capabilities. She is a support who can literally control the flow of battle thanks to her kit.

In the early game, she and her ADC can trade favorably thanks to the damage and healing of her 2nd, Ebb and Flow.

Her 1st, Aqua Prison is a constant threat in trades as it can knock up for a pretty long time but it has a long cooldown and it is pretty hard to hit so only use it when you are sure it is going to hit because the enemy would be more confident in trading with you when they know that your 1st, Aqua Prison is on cooldown.

Use your 3rd, Tidecaller’s Blessing on your ADC if you see them positioning to hit or trade with the enemy. Once an empowered attack connects, you should look to use your 1st, Aqua Prison because attacks with 3rd, Tidecaller’s Blessing slows the enemy therefore, the enemy will be easier to hit with skill shots.

Nami Late Game Guide

In the middle and late game, Nami can rally her team using her ultimate, Tidal Wave. Use it at the beginning of clashes to speed up your allies while knocking up and slowing down enemies that will get hit by hit.

Always remember to cast your buff 3rd, Tidecaller’s Blessing on your ADC and also use W, Ebb and Flow on them to activate your Censer buff.

Follow up on your ally’s crowd controls with your 1st, Aqua Prison to secure kills.

Synergies

It is highly recommended using Nami Wild Rift with the following champions as they synergize well with her.

Draven is a great lane partner for Nami because he can utilize her buff, 3rd, Tidecaller’s Blessing, to the fullest even in the early game. It goes the same for her 2nd, Ebb and Flow because Draven wants to force trades and his lane pressure makes it harder to evade her 1st, Aqua Prison.

Tristana is another aggressive ADC who can utilize Nami’s abilities to the fullest. If Nami can land her 1st, Aqua Prison while the enemy has an 3rd, Explosive Charge, it will most likely be a successful kill.

All Nami Wild Rift Counter Champions

In this section, we’ll tackle some of Nami Wild Rift Counters.

Nami is an immobile champion without a disengage or dash so she is particularly vulnerable to Blitzcrank’s Rocketgrab which is currently the only hook spell available. Make sure to avoid it and harass him whenever he misses his 1st, Rocket Grab.

Leona is the bane of enchanters with her extremely effective early game all-ins. The only chance of surviving her combo is by anticipating when she will enter and countering with your 1st, Aqua Prison.

Pros & Cons About Nami

Here are some pros and cons if you are playing with Nami in Wild Rift.

Pros

Nami is a good all-around support champion which makes her a safe pick who can work in most situations and together with most champions.
She has great mobility that she can share with her teammates and that makes her capable of influencing the tempo of the game to become faster by making her team play more aggressively. She can also make the tempo slower by making disengaging easier through the bonus movement speed.
Nami’s kit is all of everything that a team needs. She has knockup, heal, damage, slow, and an ultimate which grants almost all of that in one ability.

Cons

Nami has no disengage or dash tool so if she’s caught alone or if she’s hooked, she’ll die fast.
She has no good initiation ability. Yes, she can rally her team with her ultimate, Tidal Wave, but it isn’t anywhere as good an initiation tool as compared to say, Malphite’s Unstoppable Force or Alistar’s combo.
Nami is a jack-of-all-trades-master-of-none type of champion. She has no real kill pressure on her own and she cannot tank and create space for her team.

FAQ's About Nami in Wild Rift

How good is Nami in Wild Rift?

Nami is a (Tier S+) champion. She is a safe pick in most situations and her utilities and crowd controls are a big help in lots of situations.

What role / lane should I play with Nami in Wild Rift?

Nami is an enchanter support in the Dragon lane who excels in giving offensive support to her allies in team fights.

What abilities do I level up with Nami?

What items should I build with Nami?

Nami’s core items are Rod of Ages which allows her to scale into the mid game with ample amounts of HP, mana, and AP and Ardent Censer which grants her healing ability with additional magic damage and attack speed to her and those she heal.

What Runes should I use when playing as Nami?

Aery can be used both offensively to add damage to your poke or defensively to add a shielding effect to your heal. Her other runes are Weakness, Loyalty, and Pack Hunter.

List of all Wild Rift Champion builds

Last updated on January 16th, 2023