Top Team Comps #136: The Long Game (Nasus & Smolder)

Lose the first fifteen minutes on purpose. This team comp hands over the early game, farms through it, and then never gives the lead back once the items land.

Top Team Comps

The Long Game

Nasus · Bel'Veth · Kassadin · Smolder · Milio

Lose the first fifteen minutes on purpose. This team comp hands over the early game, farms through it, and then never gives the lead back once the items land.

Four of these champions get permanently stronger every time they farm. Nasus stacks Siphoning Strike [Q], Smolder stacks Dragon Practice [Passive], Bel'Veth turns every large monster she kills into attack speed she keeps for the rest of the game, and Kassadin turns levels into a champion nobody can catch. Milio is the only one here doing something else, and what he's doing is making sure the other four live long enough for any of it to matter.

Team Composition Score Card

AOE DamageC

Crowd ControlB

Diving PowerB

Dueling PowerS

InitiationC

Poke PowerC

Pushing PowerA

SustainA

SynergyA

WaveclearB

Difficulty

Power Curve

Early GameF

Mid GameC

Late GameS

Super Late GameS

SAmazing AGood BAverage CBelow Average FBad

Check out how to play it below!

Champions

TOP

Top Lane – Nasus

Nasus doesn't have an early game and he doesn't want one. Every last hit with Siphoning Strike [Q] is permanent damage, so a Nasus who gets left alone under tower for twenty minutes walks out of the lane as a problem no amount of armor solves.

JNG

Jungle – Bel'Veth

The fourth stacking champion, and the one whose stacks genuinely never stop. Death in Lavender [Passive] converts large monsters into permanent attack speed, and Endless Banquet [R] keeps adding true damage every time she eats a coral. Nasus and Smolder eventually run out of things to do with a lead. She doesn't.

MID

Mid Lane – Kassadin

For six levels Kassadin is the worst champion in the game, and he knows it. After that, Riftwalk [R] stacks turn him into something that arrives on top of the enemy carry whenever he feels like it and leaves before anyone reacts.

ADC

Bot Lane – Smolder

Smolder's whole kit runs on stacks. Every takedown and every minion pushes Dragon Practice [Passive] higher, and once he crosses the big thresholds his basic abilities stop being poke and start deleting health bars from a screen away.

SUP

Support – Milio

Milio's job is to make sure the scaling actually pays off. Cozy Campfire [W] hands Smolder extra range on top of the range he already has, Warm Hugs [E] shields and speeds whoever's getting dived, and Breath of Life [R] cleanses the crowd control that would otherwise end the game early.

Key Concepts

• Farm beats fighting. Trading a kill for a wave is a bad trade in this comp, and trading three deaths for a drake is worse.
• Concede what you can't contest. Give up the drakes, keep your towers, and make the enemy spend fifteen minutes proving they're ahead instead of proving they can end.
• There's exactly one thing you don't concede. Bel'Veth's real form comes off Void Coral from Baron, Rift Herald and the Voidgrubs, so contest those specifically, even in the stretch where you're handing over drakes without a fight.
• There's a real moment when you flip. Around three items on Smolder and Kassadin's second big power spike, stop hiding and start forcing fights before the enemy finds a way to end.

Countering

Nobody beats this comp late, so don't try. Four of the five are weak before their items land and none of them can start a fight, so invade, dive, take towers, and close the game before any of the stacking matters.

Here's an example team that may succeed:

TOP

Top – Riven

Beats Nasus in lane badly enough that his stacks never get started.

JNG

Jungle – Lee Sin

Takes every void objective before Bel'Veth has a coral to eat, and dives two solo lanes that have no way to punish him for it.

MID

Mid – LeBlanc

Kills Kassadin before he hits six and roams the second the wave is gone.

ADC

Marksman – Lucian

Wins bot lane at level two and keeps winning it before Smolder has stacks.

SUP

Support – Pantheon

Bullies the lane early and roams mid to make sure the scaling never happens.

What do you think about this team composition? Got ways to improve on it? Better ways to beat it? Comment below!

Browse the full League of Legends team comps archive.