Nilah breaks all the fundamentals of an ADC champion design. She’s a dashing melee fighter that also plays like an assassin and nothing at all like a marksman. And so, finding the best support champions for Nilah in the bot lane is not always easy.
So, which supports work well with Nilah?
Nilah synergizes the most with two types of supports – enchanters and tanks. Enchanters have lots of shields and heals which Nilah can double the value of thanks to her passive. And tank supports usually provide great engage and set up the team fight perfectly for Nilah.
Depending on your own playstyle, you can either go for an enchanter or a tank with Nilah in the bot lane.
Generally, enchanters are a safer option due to their range and the fact that they can stay in the backline and simply heal/shield. On the other hand, the tanks I can recommend for Nilah are all for aggressive players that look to establish control in lane early on.
And so, here are the best supports for Nilah in League of Legends!
The 7 Best Supports for Nilah in LoL
7. Nautilus
The most obvious benefit that Nautilus offers Nilah is crowd control. This champion is notorious when it comes to chain-CC which makes the whole process of securing kills with Nilah a piece of cake.
One thing you have to remember is that Nilah isn’t the best early game ADC in LoL. And because of that, most players pair up Nautilus with ADCs such as Draven or Tristana. However, if matched against squishy opponents, Nilah and Nautilus can reign terror from level 1!
During the laning phase, Nautilus and Nilah usually play for level 3. This is where Nautilus can look for hooks and immobilize an enemy for several seconds. On the other hand, Nilah can quickly dash to the primary target, dish out damage, and even protect Nautilus with W.
Many players forget that Nautilus can also trigger Nilah’s passive, granting her a shield each time he uses his W. He doesn’t necessarily need to have a shield that he can cast on allies to do this.
However, my advice is to always play Nautilus with Locket of the Iron Solari if you’re with Nilah. The additional shield will prove super valuable throughout the game, especially when it comes to important team fights.
Nilah and Nautilus can also synergize their abilities and create the perfect setup for a fight. For example, Nautilus can always engage first and knock up a few enemies. Then, Nilah can swoop in and grab everyone with her ultimate ability.
All in all, Nautilus is a fantastic tank that works great with Nilah and I totally recommend you try them out together!
Read Also: Top 5 Best ADCs for Seraphine
6. Janna
If you’ve spent some time with Nilah, then I’m sure you get happy when you see a Janna support. Janna is simply an amazing enchater and she’s fantastic at keeping Nilah alive throughout the match.
So the key quality that Janna offers is overall safety. Starting from the laning phase, Janna can shield Nilah every couple of seconds. And each time she does so, Janna triggers Nilah’s passive which grants both of them shields in turn.
Additionally, Janna has two different crowd control spells in her kit – a knock-up and a slow. Both of these effects can keep Nilah’s opponents away from her or set up an engage. So depending on the flow of the laning phase, Janna can help Nilah both offensively and defensively.
After level 6, Nilah’s safety almost doubles thanks to Janna’s R – Monsoon. This ability is great for countering enemy junglers, for pushing enemies away from Nilah, and for triggering Nilah’s passive which grants bonus healing for both of them.
One thing that Janna really lacks is damage. Of course, Janna can always go full AP and try to help out Nilah as much as possible. But for the most part, Janna is there only to keep Nilah alive so she can do all the damage.
The items that I can recommend here are Shurelya’s Battlesong, Moonstone Renewer, Stuff of Flowing Water, and Ardent Censer. All of them are helpful to Nilah in one way or another, so make sure to get them in your inventory.
5. Senna
Unlike the rest of the supports in this list, Senna’s playstyle is much closer to that of a marksman. She’s an aggressive laner that can punish early game mistakes such as bad trading and spacing.
And so, Senna can make the laning phase of Nilah a very pleasant experience. By always being in the enemies’ faces, Senna can draw all the focus on her and let Nilah safely farm. Senna is simply amazing at trading early on
One of the tools that make Senna an excellent laner is her Q – Piercing Darkness. It’s a spell that costs little mana and can heal both Senna and Nilah. And with Nilah’s passive – Joy Unending, the ability does much more healing with each cost.
Practically, all Senna needs to do is spam Q during the laning phase in order to keep both of them alive.
Other than safety, Senna offers a lot of damage. Because she’s very close to an ADC, Senna builds AD items just like Nilah. Her auto-attacks scale with the number of souls she collects, so her scaling is fantastic for the late game.
In other words, if Senna and Nilah win the early game, they’re going to have enough damage to 2v8 the game.
AP Senna is a very off-meta build, but it’s always another option you can try out.
During a late game team fight, Senna is pretty good at keeping Nilah alive. When Nilah dives into the enemy team, Senna can cast her ultimate to cast a massive shield onto Nilah. In return, Nilah can shield Senna with her W (Senna also has her shroud) so both champions are good at disengaging too.
Read Also: The 7 Best Synergy Bot Lane Partners for Senna
4. Sona
Before Nilah was added to League of Legends, Sona’s win rate was near the bottom of the support ladder. However, it spiked way up with Nilah’s partnership, and thus Sona became one of her best supports!
One look at Sona’s kit makes all the benefits obvious to us. First of all, Sona’s W is a heal/shield on a very short cooldown. She can practically spam it during the laning phase and trigger Nilah’s passive in order to keep both of their health bars near 100%.
On top of that, Sona is amazing at poking, especially the melee bot laners such as Pyke or Yasuo. Her Q is an easy-to-proc ability that doesn’t even need to be aimed, so it’s a reliable way to help Nilah with damage.
When it comes to setting up fights, Nilah and Sona synergize there too. For example, Nilah can engage first and pull the enemies close together with her ultimate. This makes it easy for Sona to stun all of them with her own ultimate too. But this can work the other way around as well.
Sona can also speed up Nilah and grant her enough movement speed so she can engage or disengage successfully, depending on the situation.
What I like a lot about playing Nilah with a Sona support is getting all the additional benefits from her items. Moonstone Renewer and Stuff of Flowing Water are the two best ones, but Chemtech Putrifier can also be very helpful.
All in all, Sona is a great support for Nilah and you should definitely try them together.
Read Also: Top 5 Best ADCs for Sona
3. Yuumi
If you’re looking for an enchanter for Nilah that you can always perform on, Yuumi is your pick. She’s an efficient healer and a truly broken champion if you get ahead.
Of course, Yuumi’s biggest strength is healing. Once attached to Nilah, Yuumi can use her E to constantly heal up Nilah and prolong her life even during the most critical moments.
During the laning phase, Yuumi’s heal actually consumes a lot of mana and you need to be careful about its usage. However, once the mid game kicks in and you have your mythic item, you can your Zoomies many many times.
Yuumi and Nilah may struggle to get early game kills. This is because they don’t have any hard CC spell and their engage comes only from Nilah’s dashes. However, level 6 is the time when the two champions can set up great 2v2 fights and almost always win them.
So, taking the laning phase slowly and methodically is key when you’re playing Nilah and Yuumi. Engage only if the enemy team is super squishy or your jungler is there to help you take them down. Otherwise, it’s much better to focus on farming and scaling.
A great thing about Yuumi is that she picks up two useful Summoner’s Spells instead of one, usually an Exhaust and an Ignite. Both of these spells increase your chances of winning the fights and are great tools
As for items, one of the most helpful one that Yuumi can get is Mikael’s Blessing. It removes crowd control from Nilah and lets both of them escape sticky situations. And it’s vital for a melee carry such as Nilah!
2. Taric
Taric is the second tank champion I want to recommend you play with Nilah. Fortunately, he’s also an amazing enchanter so he fits Nilah perfectly.
Nilah and Taric have synergy in nearly everything. During the laning phase, Taric can use Q and W to heal and shield Nilah, activating her passive in the process. This doubles the value of the shields and heals for both champions so their safety is never low.
Additionally, Taric boosts Nilah’s armor passively just by being near her. And this is a very helpful stat for her, especially early on. With a lot more armor, Nilah can endure more hits from ranged ADCs. Also, she’ll be a lot tankier in late game team fights against assassins and AD bruisers.
Because Taric’s stun can be cast also from Nilah’s positioning, these two champions can have some fantastic synergies.
For example, Nilah can dash forward and Taric can her enemies through her. This sets up the scene nicely for Nilah’s ultimate, so it’s a great way to start the fights.
But one of the most powerful things that Taric can do is actually casting his ultimate on Nilah. It’s a 2.5-second invulnerability effect that makes Nilah immune to all incoming damage.
Not being able to die while dishing out so much damage is honestly broken, so make sure to give your Nilah some of that Taric love.
Read Also: Top 5 Best ADCs for Taric
1. Soraka
And finally, we have Soraka – the best support pick for Nilah in nearly all aspects.
First of all, Soraka is the best healer in League of Legends. Her W – Astral Infusion is a reliable spell that can always top Nilah’s HP. Each cast significantly heals Nilah’s lost health, especially with her passive increasing the heal for both champions.
Additionally, once Soraka reaches level 6, she gets access to her other heal – Wish. Wish is a global ultimate that heals every ally regardless of their positions on the map which also includes Nilah. And this also procs Nilah’s bonus-healing passive!
So, Nilah’s safety is the highest when she’s paired up with Soraka. This is also due to the fact that Soraka has a silence on her E, often making the ganks by the enemy jungler laughable. She can simply drop her E behind her so she and Nilah can run away safely.
One thing that Soraka can’t give Nilah is damage. She lacks any serious damage output and can’t really help in that regard. She almost never builds damage items so it’s all up to Nilah to secure the kills for herself.
However, Soraka builds other items that are helpful for playing Nilah. Moonstone Renewer improves the overall healing as well as Redemption. Ardent Censer and Staff of Flowing Waters are both important for Nilah’s performance too, so Soraka should always get them.
So if you know how to play Soraka well, you can have tons of success in solo queue whenever you have Nilah as an ADC!
Conclusion
Being one of the most unique bot laners in League of Legends, Nilah has weird synergies with many different champions. And arguments can be made about her being a good partner even with off-meta supports such as Orianna and Lee Sin.
However, I dedicated this guide to the 7 most effective supports for Nilah, regardless of the patch or the meta. These 7 picks synergize because of their abilities, so they can always be good picks for Nilah.
That said, I hope you found this post helpful! Good luck!
