Nautilus has four different ways to CC opponents (crowd control). The beauty of older champions is that you don’t have to write a dissertation to explain their abilities!

Let’s start with his passive: Nautilus’ first autoattack on a target deals bonus damage and holds the target briefly. You can attack different targets in succession and hold each one. The cooldown then ticks down for each target until you can use the passive again. A white ring around the target indicates when the effect is ready. The cooldown is surprisingly short and the passive alone offers many CC possibilities.

When Nautilus’ Q is activated, he throws his anchor and pulls the target he has hit towards him – and himself towards the target, so that you can trigger the passive directly. The target remains CCt long enough to use the hook as an ingenious catch tool. Now comes the Spiderman part: If Nautilus hits a wall, he pulls himself to it instead, and the cooldown of his Q is reduced by half. This makes Nautilus surprisingly mobile.

Now for the advanced and most difficult part of his kit: buffering the Q. What does that mean? In League of Legends, very few abilities are actually interrupted when the target using the ability is stun or otherwise CCt. For example, a Yasuo will stop during its E-dash if it is stun or rooted. However, this is not the case with a Tristana W. Similar to Tristana’s W, Nautilus’ Q can also be “buffered”. As soon as you use the Q, it is always cast and nothing can stop you. So if an ability like a Lux Q comes at you, you can aim your Q at a wall just before you get hit. You will be hit and technically rooted, but your Q will still pull you towards the wall because you used the ability before you rooted. This principle can be applied to almost every CC spell in the game.

At the highest level, this mechanic is extremely important in many lane matchups. For example, if you get engaged by Leona, before Nautilus gets hit by her E, you can buffer the Q to disengage and trigger the cooldown of Leona’s Aftershock for free while you still have Aftershock ready. Due to the reduced cooldown, you can then go for a trade with the hook yourself and take the lane. This is just one of the possible applications. For beginners, this mechanic is certainly not that important, as the majority of Nautilus’ strengths lie in the ult and the “normal” Q used. However, if you want to become a master of anchor throws, this mechanic is definitely useful.

I recommend maximizing Q first, as it’s our main ability and we lower the cooldown and greatly increase damage with each point.

Now it’s back to being blunt and simple, I promise! Nautilus’ W gives him a shield and bonus damage on autoattacks! Just press this ability when you’re fighting. You can hold it even if you’re low on life to bait in, but that’s the most you can get out of this. We’ll maximize the W second.

Nautilus’ E releases three waves of water explosions in all directions, dealing damage and slowing you down. The E is best used after you have used all of the other CC to get the most out of the slow.

Nautilus’ ult is one of the best abilities in the game and ensures that you are useful no matter how the game is going and whether you are 10/0 or 0/10. Nautilus selects a target, towards which explosions slowly move. These explosions will reach the main target, damaging it and knocking it up. All other champions hit by the explosions along the way are also thrown up and take damage. If possible, you should always use this ability on the Carries standing behind you, as you will hit the frontline at the same time and the Carries will be forced to retreat. This means they have no influence on the fight for a while, as they know they are about to be thrown up.

So if you hit a target with the Q, it’s best to hit targets that are behind it, as your hit target will still be thrown up by the additional explosions and you ensure that the hit target can’t be helped.