Nexus Obelisk

Red team Nexus Obelisk on Summoner's Rift. (Chaos)

Blue team Nexus Obelisk on Summoner's Rift. (Order)

The Nexus Obelisk (colloquially the (Fountain) Laser) is a type of turret in League of Legends that possesses the highest structural damage output in the game, both in numbers and function: it deals 2000 true damage per second, through a special damage type ( internalraw) which overrides all forms of damage bypassing.

On Summoner's Rift and Howling Abyss, the Obelisk oversees a team's spawn platform and its form is visible behind the spawn point itself, at the very corner of the map.

Nexus Obelisks are untargetable and are not destructible by any means whatsoever (although they may be pinged). They mainly function as a deterrent to spawn-camping by an opposing team. Spawn-camping is the act of slaughtering enemies behind their own Nexus, immediately after they respawn.

Gameplay

Like all turrets, the Nexus Obelisk's gameplay radius is 88.4 units. On Summoner's Rift, its attack range is 1250, however it may aquire targets in its innate sight radius of 1350, rendering it uniquely indifferent about most enemies' size.^(bug) On the Howling Abyss, its attack range is 1100.

In all of its iterations, the Nexus Obelisk attacks using a single-target laser beam originating from the peak of its crystal. The beam deals  1000 true damage per tick at two ticks per second (i.e., 2000 per second) to the targeted enemy.

The damage type itself is uniquely classified as internal raw damage against champions and raw damage against minions.

Internal raw damage is a damage type that allows for the bypassing of every effect related to damage events in the game, including shields, damage transfers, invulnerability, and undying effects. Furthermore, this damage type uniquely does not trigger combat status on attacked champions

• There are a few specific exceptions to this combat rule, such as Sion's Glory in Death and Kled's Skaarl the Cowardly Lizard being triggered.

Untargetability may drop turret aggression, allowing for passage in any enemy fountain, but will not prevent an attack that is already being executed from concluding due to the turret's windup time.

The Nexus Obelisk does not prioritize champions over other units, even if those champions are in combat with opposing champions; it always targets the closest unit in range. It also ignores the presence of neutral units ( monsters) ( Rift Herald is no longer neutral when summoned).

Effects ignored

The Nexus Obelisk will not acknowledge any of these effects should a champion within range possess them and will behave as if they did not have them. Guardian Angel is not put on cooldown when ignored.

• Resurrection
• Invulnerability
• Undying effects
• Shields
• Damage transfers

Effects respected

• Untargetability
  • A targeted unit will still be damaged if it goes untargetable during its attack windup, but the turret cannot start a new windup against them thereafter.
• Zombie State transition after Death
• Anivia's Rebirth
• Zac's Cell Division
• Kled's Dismounting

Sion's Glory in Death, Zac's Cell Division, Kled's Dismounted Skaarl the Cowardly Lizard, and Anivia's Rebirth will still trigger as normal if they are taken down by the laser. Their new form may be targeted and attacked once again.

• Sion and Kled become untargetable which allows them to avoid damage from new attacks for a short period of time (in Kled's case, only one attack can be dodged at most due to the duration of dismounting).
• Zac spawns new units that can each be targeted anew while he himself becomes untargetable.
• Anivia will imminently keep the aggro on her through the instant transition to Eggnivia.

Strategy

Because of its remote location, incorporating the Obelisk into any large strategy is usually impossible. It simply exists to prevent players from being spawn-killed in their fountain. Nonetheless, it can see significant use at times when a team is on the brink of defeat and conducting a last stand at their Nexus. Champions with displacing crowd control that are able to draw enemies into the Obelisk's range (most notably, Blitzcrank's Rocket Grab) can be used for a quick kill.

Baiting enemies into the Obelisk's range can also achieve the same result. As many players are aware of this trick, this is usually more effective with enemy minions than champions, although their priority system and low aggro range can make this difficult to pull off with large groups.

Diving an enemy fountain is a seemingly nonsensical endeavour, however players will sometimes still want to do so, for example to finish their prestigious Pentakill. For the case of diving with a horde of champions only, it is important to remember that the Nexus Obelisk cannot target multiple units simultaneously, and that it will target the first targetable unit that enters its range; then it will only switch to a new target whenever the current target leaves its attack range, dies, or becomes untargetable otherwise. While whoever tanks the Obelisk's damage is guaranteed to go down to it in a very short time (a very large amount of health is required to survive for more than a couple seconds, not regarding any potential champion-sourced damage), when executed correctly, certain players can be kept alive alive for longer than others.

Unlike regular turrets, champions are not prioritized over minions. One champion-specific strategy that allows for easier diving of the fountain is through Ryze's Realm Warp. A number of allied minions are teleported into the fountain, so that allied champions can freely enter for a longer amount of time without getting targeted, compared to entering with champions only.

Trivia

• The Nexus Obelisk has 2.5  attack speed, but due to a peculiarity with turret attack timings, it only effectively attacks at exactly 2.0 attack speed (for exactly 2000 true damage per second).
• In Spectator Mode, the Obelisk can be selected for the first few seconds of game time. During this small time frame and if selected, the "Obelisk unit" will display 9999 HP and 25 AD. Once champions start spawning, the Obelisk's AD will immediately increase to ~1100 and ramp up from there until reaching its full value.
• Despite not using a visible model a Nexus Obelisk that is considered destroyed will use the turret ruins model from the Chaos faction, facing southwest.
• The Order faction Obelisk has the same design pattern as their respective turrets. The Chaos faction's has a completely different pattern, stance and weapon design.

Media

• Pictures

• Summoner's Rift Blue Nexus Obelisk
• Summoner's Rift Update Nexus Obelisk Concept
• Summoner's Rift Update Blue Nexus Obelisk Concept 1
• Summoner's Rift Update Blue Nexus Obelisk Concept 2
• Summoner's Rift Update Red Nexus Obelisk Concept 1
• Summoner's Rift Update Red Nexus Obelisk Concept 2
• Summoner's Rift Update Nexus Obelisk Models
• Arcade Nexus Obelisk Concept (by Riot Artist Ayhan Aydogan)

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References

Map Features

Gameplay Elements