Nunu Build Guide by RazRio

Introduction

This guide will be covering the details of how i play a Jungle Nunu tank. A simple guide, yet effective to use. Imo Nunu is the best and easiest jungler in the game, his well known for easy countering against enemy junglers as well as controling his jungle zone well. I love playing tanks, my specialty towards this game is the ability to play tanks well and understand the role in which makes you a viable player for a team.

Pros / Cons

Pros

- Best early game jungle counter
- Able to sustain HP and nice damage in the jungle with
- Strong ice slows for ganks/fights
- Works very well for your your team especially the AD carries
- Very tanky champion
- Possibility enemies will immediately focus you when you ult (both pro/con since your doing your job as a tank to grab your enemies' attention and also could be easily taken down before your heavily tanked).
- 450 IP price


Cons

- Ult could be easily interrupted
- Possibility enemies will immediately focus you when you ult (both pro/con since your doing your job as a tank to grab your enemies' attention and also could be easily taken down before your heavily tanked).
- Not much endurance from enemy CCs.
- Difficult to land spot on initiations, mostly have to blow your andto initiate.

Runes

x8 I take these just for boost of attack speed. Stacking full alacrity would be fine, will also trigger Nunu's passive Visionary more faster. If you decide to go with the alacrity marks I suggest you stick with Desolation Quints.


Greater Mark of Desolationx1 I find that Arp is pretty nice for Nunu as his attacks on creeps are just basic attacks to build up for his stacks, therefore giving him more damage toward the creeps. Just prefer Deso/Alac marks over Magic Pen. Early level damage between Nunu's auto attacks are better than his consume while jungling, his consume has a long CD which allows his auto attacks to do more damage during the wait time of his consume, it's why I prefer Deso/Alac over Magic Pen.


x9 Armor is pretty essential for pretty much all junglers.


x9 I use these runes for late game MR, you can use glyph of warding if you want early MR.


Greater Quintessence of Desolationx3 i use these quints for more damage, like the marks, alacrity quints will also be ok. Fortitude quints will also be viable if you want sustainability in the jungle.

x3 This is a great choice for junglers, why? Speed for ganks along with your boots or Blood Boil, faster travel from camps to camp, faster counter jungles and of course fleeing away. I find myself using this Quint more often for most of my junglers such as Udyr, Rammus or Amumu.

Items

Starting Items:


Early boots are nice for Nunu as it will be even easier for him to steal enemy creeps.

One HP pot should be ok for Nunu because of consume, gives a good chunk of HP for him.

Now getting this early ward is pretty essential to keep your enemy creep steals safe, usually you would place this near the bush of your enemy red buff, to keep vision in that area during your golem camp steal.

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A different starting item choice for Nunu, if you prefer to regenerate hp more over mobility, grab a pedant.

That extra hp pot, just use it if your around 60% or below.


Secondary Items:


I usually build up Gp5 items first, starting with Philo Stone as I will be playing as a full tank and this item is perfect for gathering gold while you need some time to roam around for ganks.

I build this next Gp5 item after Philo, if i need a quick boost in speed I grab my next Tier 2 boots. This item wasn't as good as it use to be, it also gave some extra armor and was stack able which made it pretty OP, it's still good.

I grab this item for almost all my tanks, it's a good item, gives MR + Armor + HP and its fairly cheap. Can sell this item for better ones late game when the game is still going on and when you finish your core items, might not be bad to invest it in something better.


Core Items:


Build this item first if there is a lot of magic damage being done or a lot of CC, I also tend to build this item most of the time for Nunu's ult, gives a chance you will be able to block some interruptions.


I tend to build this next after for more HP/Armor, great item, expensive but worth it. The damaging passive will also slightly make up for Nunu's weak AoE creep wave clearances.


Before i start building my HoG into a Randuin I can sell my Philo Stone for for more room or I can optionally build it into a Shurelya.

Optional Items:


I build this if there is a lot of CC or heavy magic damage, I tend to grab these boots most of the time, sometimes I build my boots into Merc treads before my HoG if its urgent same with Ninja Tabi if one of these boots are needed early (build this anyway for your core if there is a relatively sustainable amount of enemy CC or Magic damage). This or Ninja Tabi should be one of your core items.

Build these boots if there are heavy physical damage, gives armor/dodge pretty much what you need against them. This or Mercury's Treads should be one of your core items.


Nice CD Reduction, allowing you to consume/ice blast more often. Also gives a few HP/MR which is pretty ok.


This item is great for tanks, once you are difficult to take down this will just intimidate your opponents to not bother to mess with you. I tend to get this item once I gather all my core items, sometimes I grab this before them to keep my unstoppable force alive.

If there are a lot of magic damage you can get this for both the MR and damage increase for ice blast/ult. You can get this if you think you will need to be doing more damage for the team.

Great against Physical damage, has nice CD reduction and most of all the armor/attack speed reduction is spectacular against physical damage.

Gives a powerful punch of MR/HP reg I really recommend this item against major magic damage.


You can decide to build your Philo Stone to a Shurelya's or you can sell it to quickly build your Randuin or something more important for the extra slot needed for one of the item builds.

Great item against CC, consider buying this if your enemies' have a lot of CC.

Consider buy this if there is massive enemy AD damage going on.

Good tanky ap item if you think you're going to need that extra ap.

Consumables:


I usually only just buy these items when I have finished my core items and have nothing else left to buy for just an extra buff.

Buy a maximum of 2-3 of these during your jungling phases on your extra slots. I would prioritize wards over health potions though for the extra slots because your will heal for a good amount.

I find them pretty useless since i have my blue buffs. Just practice on conserving your Mana if you must donate your blues for other teammates. Buy them if you feel you should really need them. Your passive will help save some Mana.

Wards are really important in this game, Control Map = Win. Buy them as often as you can during open item slots and leftover gold. Ask your team to buy wards too, don't let them get to comfortable with you buying all the wards.

Nice item against enemy stealth/ suspected wards.

As a tank you should be the one buying the oracles since you will not be easily taken down as the rest of your team. Risky buying the oracle and being the one to be in the center of the team fights but with your items you should be bulky enough to have it all worth while.

Summoner Spells

In this section I will be showing you the good, ok and bad spells for a jungle Nunu tank.

Good


Smite is a must need for all junglers.


Flash is a spell that will work well for all roles, it can provide the role of unexpected escape mechanisms, initiations, interruptions,chases, kills etc. I use this spell for pretty much all champions.


Ok


You can swap flash for ghost if you'd like too since it provides you speed to catch up to your enemies, (can always be slowed and countered)quick initiations and chase downs. I still recommend having flash, you can flash in and ult to initiate that way or flash in and ice blast, while ghosting to your enemies will give your position away.


I really don't recommend teleport but using this skill sometimes have its purpose. Quickly getting to your lanes and clearing the pushing minions, or a teleport to a lane can get you to initiate/help in a fight.


If there are a lot of CC you might want to use this spell as Nunu does not have a cc countering based skill, other than his slows his pretty much rendered useless against cc.


You can use this spell against a heavy AD team, and Exhaust works well as it can give early gank domination. Using this spell over flash means that you will limit yourself on capabilities on escaping when getting caught. So probably best if you are looking to counter jungle quite a few times to use flash, and for early lane ganks, I recommend exhaust.


After the Heal buff this spell has now become a really good spell although not recommended for junglers.



Bad


Leave this to your support.


Grab the blue buff.


Don't need.


Shouldn't be dying much.

Masteries

Ok, so i've redone my masteries and I find that this is a sustainable solution, this build has a great focus on movement speed, along with your Blood Boil you will able to counter jungle quicker than usual. You can however skip Blood Boil to slot in another skill, E prefered.. Still you would be able to counter jungle well.

Skill Sequence

Passive. Visionary This passive isn't all that great for laning but really helpful in the jungle, as you are lacking blue buffs this passive will allow you to save a good amount of Mana.(alacrity will proc this nicely)
Q. Consume This is your main source of damage towards creeps/minions.
W. Blood Boil (BB)Excellent boost of attack speed for your AD carries, make sure you use this on your teammates in dire situations to save them or allow a chase towards an enemy, pushing turrets and proccing passsive also.
E. Ice Blast (IB) Nice slow, use this for ganks/initiations or keeping the main threat damaged in large fights or chasing down the left overs.
R. Absolute Zero (Ult) This ult is amazing has an AoE slow and and a large quantity of damage if the ult goes on for a good amount of time. Though this ult will come at a high price of easily being interrupted, having a Banshee's Veil will help quite a bit getting interrupted.

1. You want to put a point in Consume first since its your main source of damage for jungling
2. Blood boil next and this is the skill you will need to quickly counter some of the enemy jungling creeps (check Creeping/jungling section for more details) and getting some visual spots in enemy territory
3. Grab Ice Blast and start ganking when there are easy opportunities or continue to jungle if no one is in need off it
4. Put another point in Consume for quicker jungle damage/sustainability
5. This is when you should start maxing Ice Blast
6. Grab ult (Absolute Zero)
7. IB (Ice Blast)
8. IB
9. IB
10.Start Maxing Consume after Ice Blast, prioritize ult before both of course.
11.Consume
11.Ult
12.Consume
13.Consume
14.Start maxing out BB (Blood Boil)
15.BB
16.Ult
17.BB
18.BB

Creeping / Jungling

Counter Jungling(please make sure you have visual on where your enemies are first if they're starting at blue I suggest to counter jungle, if they're starting around the red area you could continue with the normal Nunu jungle route, you are also able to invade there blue though if you'd like too and ward theire blue, gather your team to assist you)

I follow Theoddone's Nunu jungle counter route as it is very effective (please make sure you have visual on where your enemies are first if they're starting at blue I suggest to counter jungle if they're starting around the red area I prefer you continue with the normal Nunu jungle route). Once you grab your Starting items and level your first, you want to head over to your blue buff camp and gather your team to cover you and leash. When you have gained the blue and finished off the minor creeps (level ) head over to the wolf camp and eat the biggest wolf. Now once you have done all this and quickly go to the enemy wraith or small golem camp or wraith camp depending on which jungling champions you are up against (List of where to go depending on the champions).

Wraith Camp:(Should always be on)]If you are heading to the wraith camp, eat and kill the biggest wraith (you can finish off the small wraiths if you feel you have enough time) and head to the enemy red buff bush, make sure you use the route through back of the baron area and ward the very edge of the enemy red bush to have vision of the bush and the red buff. Than continue your way to the small golem camp and eat up one of them(kill the other golem if you have time) and head back to your jungle safely. Continue your jungle route from your wolves. Or you can gank top if you see an opening.

Small Golem Camps:( Should always be on)If your heading to the small golem camp you can go through the area behind baron or the tri bush near top(you don't want to be spotted near the wraiths and make sure you are not spotted going through the tri bush when there are passing minions) and head to the red buff bush and ward to the very edge of it to have vision on the buff and bush. If you see the enemy jungler just about to do red or just started you should wait to steal with smite or quickly run around the top tri bush and eat the closest small golem if you see him already ending the red buff than head back to your jungle. Continue your jungle route from your wolves.

WARNING: Take routes depending on the enemy junglers.


The champions here will be able to clear through the jungle area pretty fast, so I recommend warding the red buff bush and getting atleast one small golem against these champions. Be wary of Gangplank/Nocturne/Skarner their jungle routes will most likely differ to other junglers. You can steal the wraith even against these champions be very careful, I suggest quickly warding the bush between the second mid turret and the wraith camp if they're not there yet and consume the big wraith head over to the bush near the red buff, ward the edge (go through route behind baron)and then quickly head to the golem.

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These are the champions that would take a bit more time getting the jungle through so cease the opportunity to take on their wraiths and/or golems.

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These are the videos of Theoddones' Nunu counter jungle tutorial I have learned a few of nunu's jungle expertise from this video. Give the credit to him, his Nunu counter jungle videos are well detailed

This is the basic jungle Nunu route you should take if you have no possible options to invade or counter there jungle.

Team Work

Teamwork is really important and one of the main components to a successful win in this game and almost in every other. Your role in your team is to support the team with ganks and tanking fights for the team. Assist the team with initiations for fights with /, / or / depending on the different situations. Using almost every time you have a chance to on your AD carries will benefit them more than any other teammates, nevertheless you should be using it on your teammates during the right situations from trying to save your teammate or chasing an enemy down this skill is great for the team. While tanking for your team make sure they are in position first to take advantage of your initiations from your orice blasts. You are here to tank to keep your team from ceasing the opportunity to burst out there damage, get into the center of the fight and ult and aim for whoever is going for your most valuable players, try and keep them off as much as possible with your auto attacks/skills. Communication is also key let your team know who to aim and it's also important to keep your rage to yourself you don't want them to know your losing your confident in them. I know it's sometimes stressing if you have a noob, but the more pressure you put on them the worst they become, keep that in mind for rank games :)

Make sure you and your team are warding quite often, buy some / occasionally if your enemy stealth is a threat and enemy wards. Another way a jungler can also support his team without ganks is the ability to destroy enemy vision, you can buy early oracles to destroy their wards rendering them blind on the map. These are some of the ideal places on where you and your team should be warding.

Farming

Nunu's jungle/lane farming comes from his and basic auto attacks. can also be used to farm if you have his passive on or just the blue buff for early levels ice blasts could consume a large amount of Mana without the blue buff. Other than that his farming abilities are pretty weak and ways of clearing large creep waves from lanes will be the use of his ult. Make sure there wouldn't be any team fights happening soon but clearing quick creep waves with this ult is pretty much the way to go, don't use this option to often, use it in situations like an urgent need to clear a lane. Also the damage from Sunfire Cape will help.

Summary

This is pretty much all the details on how I play my Nunu. Fun/Strong Champion to play and don't let the 450 price mark fool you hehe. So get out there and have fun with Nunu :)

Please leave a comment on your feedback and vote, would appreciate it :)