How to win lane as Nautilus against Lucian · 57.14% win rate over 35 Emerald+ games · Updated 2026-07-27
| Stage | Favoured | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Level 1 | Even / skill | Lucian's Lightslinger double-shot wins the raw auto trade before your kit is online — your passive root only helps if you can reach him, and at 1 you can't. |
| Level 2 | Lucian | His Q poke plus Lightslinger out-damages you while you have no all-in yet — last-hit at range and don't trade into the double-shot. |
| Level 3 | Lucian | Lucian still owns it until your full combo lands — he pokes with Q and holds E to break any early Dredge Line attempt. |
| Levels 4-5 | Nautilus | Your shield and Riptide slow scale up and your Q cooldown drops — bait the E dash, then Q-pull into passive root flips the trade. |
| Level 6 | Nautilus | Depth Charge is a homing, undodgeable knockup that ignores his E — all-in on his dash cooldown and chain the CC for the kill. |
| First item | Nautilus | Your tank stats and CC chain still beat his first-item burst — keep forcing fights the instant his E dash is down. |
| Two+ items | Nautilus | You hold up into 2+ items because your lockup and durability outlast his low-range kite — just engage from fog so he can't dash your Q. |
Levels 1-3 are his — Lucian's Lightslinger passive turns every Q-W poke into a double-shot that out-trades you before Dredge Line, Titan's Wrath and Riptide are all online. Don't walk up to last-hit into a free double-shot; soak with Titan's Wrath shield up and farm at max range. The whole early game is about eating poke patiently and waiting for the one Q-hook that lets you punish him.
The full Nautilus vs Lucian report continues with the mid-game plan, the late-game and teamfight plan, every power spike to play around, and the win conditions for both sides — plus cooldown tracking and the live enemy-jungle tracker inside the app.
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Playing the other side? Lucian vs Nautilus guide →
All Nautilus top lane matchups →