Nami is one of the most dominant supports in League of Legends. Her ability kit can either be used offensively or defensively, to set up kills for her ADCs or keep them safe.
But if Nami builds ability power items, she gets extremely effective at taking down her enemies’ HP bars too.
AP Nami can surprise you with the amount of damage and healing she does. All of her abilities scale with ability power and have decent ratios for an enchanter support.
Yes, AP Nami can’t one-shot enemies the way LeBlanc can, but she is a powerful carry if you keep hitting all her spells.
That said, it’s also possible to play Nami as an off-meta mid laner. The build I’m going to discuss below offers a fun playstyle regardless of your role preference, but mid is the lane I usually take Nami on.
Now, let’s discuss how AP Nami fits in League of Legends and check which runes and items you’ll need to make the build work!
Is AP Nami a Viable Build in League of Legends?
Building AP items on Nami has two benefits – it increases the potency of her heals and the amount of damage her abilities do.
With more AP and larger heals, Nami is simply better at keeping herself and her teammates alive. Her magic damage can also be overwhelming at times, especially to squishy enemies.
To put it simply, it’s not strange to build AP items on Nami. Since all of her abilities scale with ability power, players have always tried off-meta builds on Nami on Summoner’s Rift, ARAM, URF, ARURF, and so on.
Nowadays, AP Nami isn’t the most common playstyle in LoL. However, you can definitely use it as an off-meta support playstyle that’s bound to surprise both your teammates and your enemies.
Nami is a great champion overall, with tons of crowd control and team-benefiting abilities. AP items simply buff her strengths and increase the effectiveness of her CC, damage, and healing.
From my own experience, I’ve done one-shots with a full AP Nami build on champions like Miss Fortune or Varus when fed.
Similarly, I’ve saved my teammates from unbelievable situations thanks to the enormous heals that the bonus ability power gives.
And if you’re not convinced yet, I’d recommend you play a testing game of AP Nami on Blind Pick or even ARAM and see how you like it. You might be surprised!
Now, let’s talk runes and items!
AP Nami Build – Runes
- Dark Harvest
- Cheap Shot
- Eyeball Collection
- Ultimate Hunter
- Manaflow Band
- Scorch
Dark Harvest
Even though Summon Aery is a reliable keystone for Nami overall, the one that fits the best with her AP playstyle is Dark Harvest.
Dark Harvest offers insane scaling for the late game. It allows you to collect the souls of your enemies when you damage them on low HP. And each soul stack increases your damage the next time you do the same.
In other words, Dark Harvest boosts your burst potential, especially against enemies around 50% HP.
Cheap Shot
Cheap Shot is rune you can abuse on Nami day and night! It works fantastically on any champion with a crowd control effect in their kits and Nami has plenty!
So, Cheap Shot grants bonus true damage to enemies that are in CC (stunned, slowed, or knock-up). And each time you land Nami’s bubble or ultimate, Cheap Shot will activate (only 4 seconds cooldown).
It’s a great rune overall and you’ll get tons of value out of it as Nami.
Read Also: Full AP Sona LoL Build Guide
Eyeball Collection
Eyeball Collection isn’t too impressive but it does help you scale faster.
With each champion takedown, this rune increases your ability power by 2. It works on eyeball stacks and when it’s fully stacked, you get 30 bonus ability power.
This isn’t much, but it does improve Nami’s mid game overall.
Ultimate Hunter
In the 4th row of the Domination rune page, Ultimate Hunter is our choice for AP Nami. And it’s obvious why.
Ultimate Hunter grants tons of ability haste, especially when it’s fully stacked.
The way to do this is to get at least an assist from all 5 of your opponents because each unique champion takedown increases the amount of cooldown reduciton you get from it.
Nami is an easy champion to stack Ultimate Hunter with. Just use your W – Ebb and Flow when roaming around and you’ll get your assists in no time.
Read Also: Full AP Blitzcrank One-Shot Build
Manaflow Band
Manaflow Band is a lane-focused rune that you’ll also need to stack up during the early game.
What Manaflow Band does is that it increases your maximum mana by 25 when you hit an enemy champion with an ability.
This effect has a cooldown but when the rune is fully stacked, it also grants bonus mana regeneration.
Since you’ll be spamming Nami’s abilities during the entire game, you’ll definitely need the mana benefits from this rune.
Scorch
Scorch goes very well with Manaflow Band and it helps you dominate the laning phase too.
Scorch burns your target for extra magic damage when you hit them with an ability, overall improving your trades.
And no matter whether you’re playing AP Nami as a mid laner or as a support, Scorch will prove a helpful rune early on.
Read Also: Full AP Janna Build Guide
AP Nami Build – Items
- Sorcerer’s Shoes
- Luden’s Tempest
- Shadowflame
- Lich Bane
- Rabadon’s Deathcap
- Void Staff
Sorcerer’s Shoes
Even though you can go for Ionian Boots of Lucidity on Nami as well, Sorcerer’s Shoes will always be the best choice out of the two.
The bonus magic penetration is really important for keeping your damage up during the early game as Nami. It will help you establish control in the lane and dominate your opponents.
Luden’s Tempest
As far as the choice of mythic items goes, you’ll want Luden’s Tempest in your inventory in 99% of the games as AP Nami. Here’s why.
Not only does Luden’s Tempest give all the necessary stats, (ability power, ability hate, mana, and mana regeneration) but it also increases your burst damage.
Your abilities will do extra damage at the start of your combo and help you bring your target’s HP closer to the Dark Harvest proc.
Read Also: Full AP Soraka Build Guide
Shadowflame
There are two major reasons why Shadowflame is a core item for AP Nami.
First, the item builds with Hextech Alternator which gives you even more damage up front. And it’s a great tool for quickly bursting down an enemy
And second, Shadowflame is an anti-shield item in LoL that gives you even more magic penetration against shielded enemy champions.
So, always buy it!
Lich Bane
Speaking of core items for AP Nami, Lich Bane is among them too.
With Lich Bane, you enhance your basic attack to deal extra on-hit magic damage after you use an ability. The item perfectly synergizes with Nami’s E – Tidecaller’s Blessing which also buffs her auto-attack.
In other words, simply by activating Nami’s E, your next auto-attack will do a surprising amount of damage that can’t be dodged!
Read Also: Full AP Leona Build Guide
Rabadon’s Deathcap
Since Nami’s base damaging numbers aren’t too impressive (she’s a support after all), Rabadon’s Deathcap is one of the most valuable items you can buy on her.
With Rabadon’s Deathcap, Nami’s healing and damage get a huge buff. With 120 bonus AP and a total increase of the stat by 35%, Nami starts to deal serious damage to all opponents.
And the sooner you buy the item the better!
Void Staff
Void Staff is your last must-have item on AP Nami. And the real reason why we want it is for the bonus magic penetration it grants.
All of Nami’s magic damage gets seriously enhanced with Void Staff in her inventory, so make sure to get it, especially in the late game.
Read Also: Full AP Karma Build Guide
Situational and Optional Items
There are tons of situational and optional items you can buy on AP Nami.
For example, Liandry’s Anguish and Crown of the Shattered Queen can be good choices, especially when you’re up against tanks or assassins.
For defensiveness, Banshee’s Veil and Zhonya’s Hourglass are your go-to items, so choose between them.
And if you need to combat healing in League of Legends, Morellonomicon is there for you.
Conclusion
As for your skill order, you want to max out your W first on Nami. This is your main damaging spell early on and the healing part of it is essential for your survival. Next, you should max out your Q and then your E.
If you want to actually see how AP Nami plays out, I can recommend you watch this YouTube video.
It will show you the strengths of AP Nami and how you should approach the gameplay from the laning phase until the enemy Nexus is cracked.
Good luck!
