Hey guys,
This is my first guide on MOBAfire and I would love your feedback! Anyway on with the guide..

What do you get when you combine Ghost, Exhaust, Smite and the strongest utimate in the game into one champion?
Nunu.

This guide is all about building Nunu as an AP caster/chaser with some survivability.
Basically you'll end up as off-tanking/supporting/nuking/slowing ball of fur.
This does not talk about jungling effectively with him at all. I suggest you close this window and look at something else if you want a jungling Nunu.

You will have over 3.2k health, around 300AP, and approximately 100 MR and Armor.



Note: Spoon's Kissing Booth for all your imaging needs :D He made that awesome guide header <3

Pros - Great laning prowess - One of the best chasers/gankers in the game - Insane damage potential with Absolute Zero (Nunuke) - Amazing survivability - Good support - Cheap (450IP) - Awesome jungler (not covered in this guide)

Cons - Easy to shut down - Consume cannot be used on enemy champions - Not a good farmer - Mana intensive early game (use Visionary appropriately to solve this)

Flash: Great spell to dive in and launch Absolute Zero

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Ignite: If a gank fails due to someone getting away with 50hp, you're going to be kicking yourself that you didn't take this.

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[Exhaust]:So your Ice Blast doesn't have enough of a slow? Guaranteed ganks with this spell.

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Ghost: Your Blood Boil effectively does this. If you still don't think it's enough, then get this. I prefer any one of the above 3 over this though.

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Smite: If you're going to be jungling. Consume + Smite = Dead dragon.

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Clarity: If you are really having trouble managing your mana early game, then take Clarity. Although you are probably not doing something right if you need this with the item build I'm suggesting.

space Insight quints and marks will give you the extra oomph to your every ball of ice.

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Resilience seals will give you some armor and we're going to need it since we're focusing on AP with our items.

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Focus glyphs will give you the cooldown necessary to put your enemies on perma-slow.

Note: ThN3wChrn0 has commented that a Greater Seal of Scaling Mana Regeneration would be viable to use. I agree with this, but I think the Visionary passive makes up for the mana costs and I prefer being slightly tankier since we don't build armor. It's up to you though! Thanks for the feedback :D

Visionary
Free spell casts every 7 hits
This allows you to harass easily while maintaining high levels of health and mana. AA (Auto Attack) minions until you see the icon pop up and then ice blast your laning opponent to harass them. In the early laning phase, this helps you keep up your ice blast usage (negating its ridiculously high mana cost)
Consume
Consumes a minion and heals yourself.
This ability is what gives you the great survivability as you can snack on minions/pets as you run by them to recover some health. It is also very useful to take down neutral creeps or just farm for gold in general. However, this ability has no use whatsoever when fighting Champions so is low priority for skilling.
Blood Boil
Temporary buff to attack and movement speeds.
This little buff is very useful during teamfights to both chase down, finish off and escape in teamfights. Using this significantly increases your attack speed and movement speed. An important note for this ability is that when casted on an ally, you still get the benefits of it. So if you can find an ally to cast it on, do so. It's better to have you and an ally with that buff rather than just you. It's a team game :) Don't be selfish.

Of course if you're really harassed in battle and are looking for the quickest route of escape and can't find it in you to be able to cast on an ally, simply press Alt+W to self-cast it on yourself.

In a team chase or fight, cast it on your team's DPS or AD character and let them wreak havoc on the enemy. You can help their chase/cause by Ice Blasting the target as well.

If you and your teammate are both decent players, you would get a kill 90% of the time.
Ice Blast
Slows enemy movement and attack speeds.
This is going to be your most useful ability throughout the game as you can slow down opponents by insane amounts, which lets you finish them off or escape from them. Use in conjunction with Blood Boil for finishing off champions or for a quick getaway. It has a very high mana cost and can get you low on mana (LoM) or Out of Mana (OoM) early in the game, so use wisely. Keep an eye on your Visionary passive, and you should be fine.
Absolute Zero
Channels for a short time and deals massive AoE damage.
This is the most devastating ability in the game, bar none. Once you have this leveled to level 3, it deals 1125 base magic damage PLUS a staggering 2.5 per ability power point.

If you build at least some AP like I'm about to tell you to, you might have anywhere between 200-450 AP end game depending on how you build. 450*2.5 = 1125. Add that onto your base 1125 magic damage and you get an insane 2250 magic damage.

Important notes about this ability:

- You can't move when you are channelling this (3 seconds). If you do move, you only deal a fraction of what you would have if you channelled for the full 3 seconds.
- Your channelling will be cancelled with any stuns, silences, fears etc you are hit with. You won't deal any damage and you are likely in the middle of a teamfight stunned and surrounded by enemies. Not a good position to be in.
- Your range for this AoE nuke is decent. Enemies caught within the area are slowed and struggle to get out of the area before your channelling is finished. If you think the enemy champion is going to get out of the AoE circle before you finish chanelling - Release early by moving or pressing R again to deal some damage to them instead of just dealing it to thin air.
- The AoE circle will not be visible to enemy champions if you are in the bush, so activating it while you're in the bush is much more effective as it will take a while for the enemy champions to realise they are in the middle of an ult AoE, if they realise at all.

Use this ability when you at least have one champion that you can definitely nuke. It's not worth using this on minions as the cooldown is just too long.

Since that holy grail of 2250 magic damage is so high, you might be thinking that you can pwn those low health champions in one move, I'm sorry to tell you that's not true. Most champions would have around 25% magic resistance which means you'd deal only 75% of that 2250 which is still a hell of a lot. Just keep that in mind before you go launching into a battle thinking you can one hit kill every champion there.

Try to keep track of the number of stuns, silences etc that enemy champions cast in a team fight, you would be best off to launch your nuke after a few have been cast to reduce the chances of your Absolute Zero's channel being cancelled.

The first items I buy are:
Health Potion
Mana Potion
Sapphire Crystal

This should leave you with 0 cash. (Good job, we successfully utilised our cash. Now we're thinking like an accountant!)

I'm against Doran's Ring early on because it builds up into nothing whereas a Sapphire Crystal can be used to build up into a Banshee's Veil later on in the game. Being a Nunu, you're not going to be earning as much gold as a carry or a great farmer would and I think it is wise to use your coins effectively.

The health potions provide you with the survivability you would need if you happen to get low on health and the mana crystal helps to ensure that you don't go LoM in conjunction with Visionary.

Now having done that, after you lane for a while and build up some cash, build up to a Catalyst the Protector so that you get the passive working for you during the laning phase.

After that, I would spend some cash on buying a Boots. You should be able to gank with ease at this point.

Next you should be building a Banshee's Veil. Some Nunu's build Rod of Ages if they want to build more AP, I would not recommend this unless the other team has to have almost no CC and you are supremely confident that you will not get CC'd for 3 seconds. We want to be able to launch our Absolute Zero without being interrupted. It's up to you though.

Personally, I like to build up the Ionian Boots of Lucidity before finishing off my Banshee's Veil so that I can spam my Ice Blast quicker. The CDR helps with finishing off enemy champions as you can now Blood Boil and Ice Blast nearly non-stop, so that the time between the effects wearing off and you being able to cast it again is minimal. Perma-slow, anyone?


So now that you have your basics down, I would recommend building AP items.

If I got a Banshee's, I like to go ahead with my AP boosting and build a Rabadon's Deathcap for the insane amounts of AP it gives you. Or if you can't find it in you to save up for that, try a Void Staff.

It should be late in the game at this point and you should be adapting to the game. Remember no build is perfect for every game. Adapt accordingly.

Depending on how the game is going, build a Spirit Visage or Will of the Ancients. The latter assumes you have been doing reasonably well and don't need the extra survivability at this point. After you've built one, build the other. Both of them should be providing quite hefty boosts to your Consume. Feeling low on health? Try Consuming one of those tasty minions. I guarantee it won't go to your thighs!

That should be your six items, from now on just buy elixirs and hope your team can pull together to win!

As a sidenote:
I like to build the Abyssal Mask if I chose Rod of Ages instead of Banshee's to help my magic resist.

Other items that you should consider purchasing are:

Glacial Shroud - This puts your CDR at extreme levels. I don't think it's worth it to upgrade to Frozen Heart, there's just better ways to spend your coins.
Mejai's Soulstealer = Nunu doesn't die much if played right but he doesn't get many kills either. He doesn't snowball quickly but this is viable if you don't expect to die much. Just be patient. It might also help if you're not earning much gold.
Morello's Evil Tome - The CDR, MP5 and AP make it an all-around great item. Personally I don't build this, but if you like this item, go ahead.
Deathfire Grasp - For more nuking. I would buy the items in my build over DFG but builds are meant to adapt and so if you are facing a Warmog's heavy team for example, this item works wonders.

Your number one objective when laning is to harass the enemy champion/s so that they can't get anywhere near you or the minions without fear of being Ice Blasted. As a Nunu, you will dominate almost any other Champion 1v1 in a lane, exceptions being characters like Ashe and Miss Fortune. Ranged characters have an advantage over melee characters during the laning phase.

However, you will rarely get to solo a lane and will have to pair up with a partner. It's good to pair up with DPS champions and carries as they can finish off what you do after you Ice Blast them. Support champions like Morgana and Janna also have good synergy with Nunu as they can protect him if needed and provide a ranged attack.

As an added note: Morgana's Black Shield on Nunu and Amumu's Curse of the Sad Mummy to hold people is great help to getting Nunu's ultimate off for some mass damage. A good pair of Amumu and Nunu is one of the worst combos you can face.

When you're in your 2v2 lane, the champion you should target is the DPS squishie. The slows on them really take away their strengths and make them quite useless. If they can't deal high amounts of Damage per second, then what are they good for?

Ganking is a strong point for Nunu. Sneak up behind enemy champions and ult so that they have no safe route of escape. One way, they have your ult to get through, the other way, your allies. It's lose-lose for them. Just be careful that you don't get stunned or get out of your depth. It's not wise to sneak up behind 5 rampaging enemy Champions and try your ult. You would likely get slaughtered in a second. The next bit might sound like I'm contradicting myself, if you do however feel you can get off a full ult on 3+ champions, then a Nunu sacrifice might be necessary. If you do this right, you should be able to get the champions caught in your AoE either dead or very low on your health so that the rest of your team can finish them off. Your death for the death of every enemy is a small price to pay. Just be smart about it. In some cases it IS worth it.

Something I can't place in a proper section:
- When you respawn in your base on the summoner's platform, activate Blood Boil right before leaving it. You get a handy speed boost as you run off to battle. The mana is also regenerated by the time you get off the platform so there's no reason why you shouldn't be doing it. The cooldown on Blood Boil is also relatively short so you would have it ready by the time you get to battle.

There's not much more to say that I haven't covered in the abilities section.

Nunu's prowess as a Jungler is amazing. This guide focuses on using Nunu as an AP caster. However Nunu has the best counter-jungling abilities in the game. His high damage with Consume makes him amazing at stealing buffs and getting in and out of the jungle quickly. It's essentially a pocket Smite.

I don't have extensive experience jungling with Nunu and don't want to lead you down the wrong track, so here's a link to a couple of great jungling guide:

Full Support Jungle Nunu - A Comprehensive Guide
Nunu the AP Jungler

This is the bit where I add in the things you guys have shown/suggested to me.

The following screenie is from hunter212yy (Summoner name: TehTemplar):

Glad to see you doing so well.


I've also had various suggestions to add Morello's Evil Tome into my build. I have listened to you and decided to add it in to my items section :D


Love you guys!

And you've reached the end! Congrats to you, if you managed to sit through my boring chatter. Not many people can xD
Criticism would be very welcome. Please leave your thoughts in the comments section :D
I'm going to make it so that you have to comment if you wanna vote if I'm not getting any comments! FEEDBACK NOW PPL! I watch this screen eagerly for them.

I'll try to update this every time I think of something :)


Also.... since you're going to be a Nunu, here's some fancy terms you might want to use a Nunu player:
Nunuke - After you nuke and get your multi kill.
Nunub - For when you start off!

^^ Very lame jokes but it makes me smile :)

Cheers!