Nami ADC was actually a thing that was being played in high ELO Korean Solo Queue. It showed up for about a week in Season 5, but I decided that I wanted to test its viability.

In this game, I decided to build how I would build Caitlyn early. I started Dorans Blade, went BF Sword, Runaan’s Hurricane and then finished Infinity Edge. I have had a lot of success with this build on multiple occasions. You hit a decent early power spike when you complete your Runaan’s. It allows you to maximize the effectiveness of your Tide Callers blessing, hitting multiple targets. I would blindly play Nami ADC for a while, not really knowing what I was doing. All I knew was it was working.

Here is the runepage that I used in the video:

After looking further into the pick that I genuinely enjoy playing, I have found the most effective build path, runes, masteries, and ability sequence. Here is what I have found to be most effective on Nami ADC:

Nami ADC is a pretty niche pick. Your abilities are really what enable you. You have an incredible amount of self peel, leaving your support open to be a damage threat as well. I have found Sona is the best support for Nami. Levels 2 through 5 can be rough, but Sona and Nami can sustain each other through the laning phase. She can also poke while you farm and get your items. Before level 8, your base damage is lower than most utility AD carries. However, at level 8, she has higher base AD than Ashe or Varus.

You can use your Tidecaller’s Blessing auto attacks to win early trades in lane. The damage on hit at level 1 is 25, that’s like having a Frozen Mallet for 3 auto attacks every few seconds. You can also use your bubble as an offensive tool if needed. If an enemy walks up to grab a creep, throw a bubble and punish them freely.

It is clear that cooldown reduction greatly benefits Nami ADC. I have found that rushing Essence Reaver works the best in most situations, and Doran’s Shield helps you minimize the bleeding in the early stages of the lane. The changes to Doran’s Shield makes Nami ADC almost legitimately viable.

By rushing Essence Reaver, you’re sacrificing early attack speed. What it allows you to do, however, is get that early AD that you are already behind by picking Nami ADC. The cooldown reduction that Essence Reaver gives will help your laning substantially. Running scaling cooldown reduction on your runes allows you to essentially max out on CDR upon completing Runaan’s. That’s when the real fun happens.

At max CDR, your abilities have very low cooldowns, and your autos do surprising damage. You can keep someone constantly CC’d while dishing out respectable damage. After that, you’re free to go infinity edge, and watch your damage skyrocket and your enemies rage.

Runes and Masteries are a very important factor in the success of Nami ADC. She actually has decent scaling potential, so scaling runes suit her nicely. This runepage gives her everything she needs in the early game, and even into the late.

Warlord’s Bloodlust is the best mastery for Nami ADC. She doesn’t have the best mobility, only self peel. Warlord’s speed buff is a very valuable addition to her kit, allowing her to have another escape tool if her abilities are on cooldown.

Here are the Runes and Masteries I recommend for Nami ADC:

Before you give Nami ADC a try, make sure your REGULAR specs are on point!

New Rune System 2017

ADC Mastery Guide 2017