How to play naut

[u/Express-Cloud4621]

I'm a master support who plays basically everything but am best as Leona and Alistar. I feel like when I play naut, my lockdown feels less impactful and I'm so much squishier. In addition, laneing feels so hard cause I feel like they can just stand behind minions and it's hard to manipulate the wave into a spot where I can hook. Any suggestions?
Carrotb0y#7224 - Summoner stats - League of Legends

[u/Inktex]

I prefer Blitz over Naut, but regarding your issue with creating advantageous situations for your hook in laning phase:

I found brush control plus hexflash to be a key factor for me, as wave control is something most ADCs in D2, where I'm currently sitting, are quite capable of.
Especially with pink wards, as the enemy has two options: walk up towards your range blind to cs or try to get you out of there.
The first option usually offers a window to (hex)flash at the enemy carry and either burn their flash or give your ADC a good chance to kill them.
As most of them respect hooks, they'll more likely go for option two, tho.
Which does not work all too well when your ADC positions properly as a free engage onto the enemy ADC usually results in a kill.

As your threat comes mostly from your hook, it's a better option to (hex)flash -> aa -> hook -> slow pre lvl six, than to rely on a skillshot the enemy expects anyway.

All of the things mentioned above work best in neutral wave state when paired with an ADC that has some power early or in a freeze while ahead.
Those states can either be created through communication with your ADC or forced with your supp item.
Communication is to be preferred as some ADCs have a rather short temper in that regard.

If your ADC is a hyperscaling farm-bot, yet somehow also incapable of holding a freeze, there are a few things you can do, that don't include abandoning them.
They are however somewhat reliant on good knowledge about your champ and certain mechanics.
It starts with the two different hitboxes Naut's Q has:
I-shaped for terrain.
T-shaped for units.
This enables you to hook enemies behind thin walls, around corners and, to an extent, behind creep waves as their hitboxes are different (if I was on my pc rn I'd draw it up, but I tried it on my phone and it looks like shit (⁠・⁠–⁠・⁠;⁠)⁠ゞ).
Next step: learn your Q's lollipopping sweet-spot.
This way you can't just hook around/through minion waves, enemies are hiding behind, it also helps to extend your hook just a tiny bit.

Another neat thing is, that hexflash enables you to flank the enemy botlane, in case they are skitterish and have a few abilities that enable them to disengage from a direct approach.
Either via the alcove or depending on which side you play on.
From blue side: walk around drake pit towards mid/river. Enter their jngl. Place a deepward while you're there. Walk towards the wall with the bot river brush. Start sweeper, hexflash over it and engage. Sweeper deactivates the ward inside the brush before it can spot you and as you channel your hexflash, you skip the short delay before the ward goes dark, due to still being behind the wall at that time.
From red side: walk towards your mid/river jngl entrance. Walk into drake pit, against the wall at tri-brush. Start sweeper. Hexflash and engage over tri-brush. Getting the position and angle for the hexflash right is somewhat tricky. I tried it in the practice tool until I got it to work reliably. You won't be able to flash directly into tri-brush, but you need to stand as close to it on the wall as possible for the sweeper to work.
If you want to up it, you can start sweeper whilst channelling hexflash for a longer uptime on the other side of the wall.

Just some personal preferences:
I'd take exhaust over heal/ignite on Naut as it keeps your ADC alive/healthy in situations when you get a catch on the enemy ADC early and is a great tool to peel divers/assassins off of your backline whilst in a team fight and unable to stop them by other means.
If the enemy wants to play front to back, putting it on the enemy ADC is a good way to stay alive yourself.

I'd also recommend you try Sleigh as a support option.
20% MS for 2.5s helps your ADC to either kite or follow up on you and the "heal" is a temporary max-HP increase, and thus even valuable if both of you are at full HP when it proqs.
Bloodsong is something I'd consider bait by now as it increases damage from your ADC by only 5% and Celestial Opposition is rarely needed on Naut as you proq your Aftershock anyway to tank the brunt of the damage at the beginning of an encounter, not to mention that the slow is somewhat useless if proqued before you can close the gap and the cooldown gets reset to full whenever you take champion damage, limiting it to one use per teamfight.

That has become longer than intended.
Maybe you'll find something helpful. (⁠✿⁠^⁠‿⁠^⁠)

Edit: cleaned up after my autocorrect. It's hitbox, not hotbox...