Nilah is the newest champion in League of Legends, and she is a very unique melee bot laner. So that you can quickly check what you actually have to do, we have listed the best build and runes for you here.
Nilah is the 161st champion in League of Legends and similar to Bel'Veth, she's super unique. Nilah has super high mobility and sustain, which she also needs as a melee fighter in the bot lane. So that you don't completely int your first games, we want to give you a helping hand with this guide. We give you the best build, runes and which matchups are best and worst for Nilah.You can find more champion guides here:
Nilah Champion Guide: Runes and Items
Which Runes Should Nilah Use?
As with any ADC, your auto attacks are your greatest strength and deal the most damage. However, Nilah benefits from longer fights, and it is important that the runes reinforce this. That's why Conquerer is best with her. After that, it's best to take Triumph, Legend: Bloodline, and Last Stand. These runes give us the most damage and sustain... exactly what Nilah wants.For the secondary rune path, it's best to go in a defensive direction. For this reason, we go into the Resolve tree and take Conditioning and Overgrowth. These runes may not help us in the early game, but will give us more life and resistances in the late game.
Which Items Should Nilah Use?
Nilah loves damage and lifesteal. This can be seen in the items she uses. Your first item should always be Immortal Shieldbow. This is easily one of the best items for late game ADCs and forms a good base for the other items. Also, the shield can help you stay alive, which is very important for Nilah in the early game.As with any ADC, there's really only one choice of boots and that's the Berserker's Greaves. As an ADC, you want to use auto attacks as often as possible, and that's only possible with these boots. Shieldbow and the boots give us enough attack speed for now, so we want to stack as much damage as possible after that. And there's no better item for that than Infinity Edge. The item gives us extremely high attack damage and crit damage and is a must-have for all auto attack ADCs that want to go in the crit direction.
We round off the Nilah build with more damage and above all, with a lot of lifesteal and survivability. The two best items for this? Bloodthirster and Deaths Dance. The two items give us even more Attack Damage and a lot of Lifesteal and help us stay alive longer. To finish off the build, let's take Phantom Dancer. Phantom Dancer's Movement Speed Boost is a huge help especially for Nilah since she doesn't have that much range. The item helps us to stay within close range in case the opponents want to run away.
How To Play Nilah
Nilah has very little range and is extremely weak level one. She is very easy to poke, so you will have to play very passively the first level. It is extremely important not to lose too much life in the beginning. It's better to sacrifice some farm than take unnecessary damage. Q is the first skill you should take and is also the skill you level up first, as this skill can help you farm and give you a little more range.Depending on the support you have, you can play level two or three much more aggressively. A level three all-in is a bit safer and more consistent because then you have access to all your skills. Thanks to Nilah's passive, you should be able to get to level three before your opponents, and once you're level three, you should go all-in. If you're playing with an Engage Support that has a lot of CC in its kit like Nautilus, then you're almost guaranteed to kill one of the enemies in the bot lane, or at least get both Flashes.
If you don't get a kill in the early game, don't worry, as Nilah scales extremely well into the late game. But before we get to the late game, let's look at the mid game. If you've won your lane, then you should take advantage of your lead and try to speed up the game by going for Turrets, Dragons or Heralds. When you've finished building your Infinity Edge, you'll deal an incredible amount of damage, and you should take advantage of that. She's an extremely good fighter, so try to force as many fights as possible if you can. Actually, that's what every good ADC should do in the mid game.But you can't always win your lane and every now and then, something can go wrong. If you lose your lane, then Nilah plays like any other ADC. You just want to become a farm vacuum and collect as much gold and farm as possible. Depending on how strong or weak your team is, it's best to avoid fighting until you reach your three item power spike. Like I said, all ADCs are pretty much the same in that regard.
Let's get to the late game and teamfights. The late game plays much like the mid game and depends on whether you are leading or behind. Nilah's uniqueness is mainly expressed in teamfights. Unlike most ADCs, Nilah doesn't want to be in the backline, but in the middle of the action. Nilah can force teamfights and engage on opponents with her ultimate, which traditional ADCs want to avoid. She would prefer to be between all five opponents where she can dash freely. As in all fights, you want to identify your opponent's carry and then one-shot him. Surprisingly, she plays very similar to Akali.
Good & Bad Match-Ups For Nilah
Nilah hates poke champions and champions that have extremely long range. Supports like Lux and Karma can be a nightmare for Nilah as she can be constantly pressured. In general, no ADC likes this, but it's even worse with Nilah due to her short range. ADCs like Ezreal and Caitlyn should also be avoided. Much like Lux or Karma, Ezreal can constantly poke you with his Q and if you want to engage on him, he can just get away with his E. With Caitlyn, it's more of a reach. She can auto attack you all the time if you want to farm and if she places her traps well, there's nothing you can do about it.
Let's move on to the good matchups Nilah has. As you can imagine, Nilah is extremely good against champions that don't have that much range or are very squishy. Understandably, champions that don't have as much range can't poke Nilah as effectively. Champions who don't have that much health are extremely easy to one-shot by Nilah. She is a champion that can deal a lot of damage, and if she has an aggressive support, she can keep killing you in lane. No one likes playing against an ADC that has been fed.
And that was the complete Nilah guide. She's definitely a very unique bot laner, but if you can adjust to her short range, you'll have the time of your life on the Rift. So far, she seems to have taken to the Rift quite well and many feel she's a bit too strong. Will she be as strong as Bel'Veth? We'll probably see that in the next few days.