With the goal of expanding the jungle champion pool to give players more options for one of the roles that has a huge impact on the match, especially in the laning phase, Riot has been continuously buffing and adjusting champions to help familiar names in specific positions like Darius, Morgana… to effectively enter the jungle.
The next name, yet another champion originally designed as a Support, is Nautilus – the Titan of the Depths, introduced into the jungle in patch 11.11.
Overall, Nautilus can be considered one of the most versatile tanks in League of Legends, having been very popular throughout recent seasons, despite undergoing many adjustments. It would be hard to find a champion that is both sturdy, has plenty of hard crowd control, and can deal area damage like Nautilus. If this champion enters the jungle, it will be an extremely annoying matchup whenever he goes for a gank or initiates a fight.
Nautilus’s E – Depth Charge will now increase damage to jungle monsters by 150%, allowing this champion to clear the jungle faster to assist other lanes. Not to mention, from Q – Dredge Line to R – Depth Charge, all are initiation skills that provide crowd control and deal significant damage. A successful gank or counter-gank with a Nautilus jungle can yield many advantages in terms of structures, as this champion is very hard to take down and only needs to have half health left to tank for teammates while securing Dragon, towers, or Baron…
The rune page for Nautilus in the jungle will still prioritize the primary path of Resolve. Aftershock will be a necessary rune for any Nautilus player, as this champion has so much hard crowd control. Adding in Bone Plating and Condition will provide Nautilus with maximum durability, turning him into a true tank in team fights while also facilitating snowballing or ganking. The secondary path will be: Domination – Sudden Impact – Ultimate Hunter to allow Nautilus’s abilities to be used more frequently and effectively.
The item build will still prioritize making Nautilus as tanky as possible. Therefore, players should follow the optimal path: Mercury’s Treads, Frostfire Gauntlet, Sunfire Aegis, Abyssal Mask, Thornmail, and Gargoyle Stoneplate.
In general, Nautilus in the jungle is a unique and quite strong matchup in ganks, team fights, and snowballing. However, since this champion is quite sluggish, players need to make appropriate calculations and ensure maximum safety to avoid situations where they have to dive towers or initiate fights without being able to escape, leading to being burst down too quickly and losing advantages for the entire team.