Why not ADC Nami?
Well yeah... I know what you're thinking. ADC Nami WTF?? But I just had some thoughts and theorycrafting on this one and I was really surprised with the results. I couldn't find a real point that speaks against an ADC Nami or at least not one she can't compensate for.
First of all her more important stats:
- A 550 range on Autoattacks which is pretty standard on ADCs
- A base MS of 340 (which would be pretty fast for an ADC)
- Base AD of 48.3 and +3.1 every Level (a bit above Average on most ADCs)
Now about her Abilities and scalings:
- Can buff movementspeed to herself
- Built in Auto Attack steroid and Slow
- Ablility to heal herself while doing damage to the enemy
- Lots of CC
Now basically this means that she has the stats of a normal ADC (a bit less health but more MS/AD), A skillset that doesn't scale with AD itself but it's very viable for an ADC since you can Hunt down an enemy and you can also escape more easily than most other ADCs without gapclosers. Also her Autoattack animation isn't too slow which makes lasthitting easier (it's about 10% faster than a Kog'Maw AAMissle).
I've also already tried it in some normal games and one ranked game and surprisingly I've never lost a lane or game (usually with a supporter which has some additional CC). With leona you can lock down an ADC for about 5-6 seconds if done right.
Now As already mentioned I don't really get why this champion isn't played as an ADC more often?
What are things that speak against an ADC Nami?
Best Answer
Here are a couple of items that make Nami NOT a stellar ADC:
No AD scaling in abilities
Little lane ability (ie, High attack/ability range, wave clear, area damage)
A slow moving CC ULT. Typically CC ults are not very useful for ADC.
Long cast time on abilities
Think of ADCs that do well in Ranked play (Jinx, Lucian, Caitlyn), they have increased range with auto attacks and/or abilities, a damage dealing ultimate, and relatively short cast times (to get back to auto-attacking).
Now think of ADCs that don't do as well (Ashe, Quinn). These champions have little range above their auto attacks, or little wave clear, and ultimates that are undesirable for various reasons. (Quinn's puts you in melee range, Ashe's doesn't deal a lot of dmg because of scaling, etc.)
All of that being said, Nami would be probably be a good substitute for the second list of ADCs, but is lackluster compared to the first list.
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Is Nami ADC?
Nami excels at enchanting her ADC partners with her skills and providing them great mobility and peels. Nami can open up a fight with her ultimate. Once Vayne sees an enemy is hit with it, she can pop her Ult and kill that enemy. Nami can enchant her with her items and E's ability to give Vayne more speed and damage.Which ADC is good with Nami?
These are generally Lux, Kayle, Nunu, Janna, Morgana, Oriana, Sona, Soraka and Zyra. But it all boils down to skills in the end, as a good Nami can obliterate a decent Sona. Miss Fortune has great synergy with Nami as MF's slow allows Nami to easily land her bubble.Does NAMI scale?
Nami is a champion that scales very good with cooldown reduction because it will reduce your ult Tidal Wave and you can spam Ebb and Flow quite often during teamfights. This is the max cooldown reduction you can get with items in game.NAMI TOP GO SPLASH SPLASH guide
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Images: Ann H, Meruyert Gonullu, Anna Tarazevich, Thirdman