Nunu Build Guide by Skurry

Introduction

Hey guys and fellow supporters!

Today, I'll show you how to play Nunu as a support. First off, who am I?

My summoner name is Dullis and I play on the EUW-server. I have played this game for 2 and half years, but I'm not super experienced. My rating is between 1300 and 1400, but I don't play much ranked.

One thing I know for sure, is how to play Nunu support. Support has been my main the last 1 and a half year, because I have usually been better at supporting than other things in games. Nunu has been my main for as long as I can remember, maybe 1 year, and I decided to make a guide because no one else had done it...

I will say some of the reasons why Nunu support is so strong and why you should pick him as a support. Nunu is a solid pick and I encourage all support players to know how to play him!

I'm currently updating items and the item build description, so please use the cheat sheet for now!

Pros / Cons

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Pros + Movement Speed buff and debuff + Attack Speed buff and debuff + Self-healing spell + One free spell every 5th attack + AOE-spell and massive damage if pulled off + Naturally mobile and tanky

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Cons - No shield or heal for allies - No escape - Hard to pull off ultimate - Low range on spells - Melee - Not originally a support

Runes

Greater Mark of Armor (8,2 armor at lvl 1) - armor = less dmg taken + don't build armor early. You need to take some chances to win your lane.
Greater Seal of Armor (~12,7 armor at lvl 1) - you need this to take less damage when harrassing and protecting your carry.
Greater Glyph of Scaling Magic Resist (~16 magic resist at lvl 18) - you need this to take less dmg from mages and magical attack, when tanking and using your ult.
Greater Glyph of Magic Resist (4 magic resist at lvl 1) - vs early magic damage in lane and teamfights.
Greater Quintessence of Gold (3g/10 at lvl 1) - you won't be farming and you need gold, 'nuff said. You can get about 1 ward every 4 minutes with this passive gold gain.

This is what I use and what I feel is most useful for Nunu as a support. You can also choose to go with more AP, Mpen, more MR or even Movement Speed.

Masteries

UPDATED FOR SEASON 3!

Summoner's Wrath : Because reducing Armor and Magic Resist by 10 is quite huge early game, and it works well with Ice Blast and Absolute Zero.

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Unyielding : Reduces damage from ALL sources. Very useful against poke lanes, because you take less poke.

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Block : The reason why I go 13 points in the Defensive tree. AD-Carries does less damage to you, early especially, and also all other auto-attacking champions

Summoner's Insight : Reduces the CD of your beloved Flash, which is important because Nunu lacks escapes!

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Meditation : This will make it easier to consistently buff your AD-Carry with Blood Boil and have enough Mana to protect with Ice Blast.

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Mastermind : Reduces the CD of both your Exhaust and Flash by 10 percent! Exhaust = 189 seconds CD || Flash = 261 seconds.

Biscuiteer : I take this to get the Explorer ward, which is useful in invades or early 2v2s.

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Greed : As a support, you REALLY need 4 points in this one. 2 gold/10s makes up for a ward every 6th minute.

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Wealth : I take 1 points in this, because 25 gold gets you one extra ward.

Summoner Spells

- Great spell to win 2v2s in botlane and defend your carry against anticarries in teamfight.

- Should always be the other choice. Great spell to escape, initiate and position yourself with.

Other choices:

- If your team doesn't have any sustain and other heals, and you're playing against a poke team... This should be your second choice, instead of Flash (because of no heal to your carry)

- Your team is not thinking that much and and the enemy team has 2 or more champions that rely on getting health back!

Item Build

You get good sustain, both in terms of health and mana. The two wards are there to stop an aggressive lane or jungler, and secure brush control.

After some laning ("bloodboiling"), you go back to get Philosopher's Stone and more Sight Wards - Philo is just great because a lot of cheap mana regen and hp regen + gold per 10. You should always have ward at dragon and in your lane. Your AD Carry will thank you for refreshing them and letting them farm.

After getting 1 gp10, I usually get Boots of Speed. The mobility is much needed when playing Nunu and will allow you and your lane to be more aggressive and effective, both in teamfights and skirmishes bot lane.

At this point of the game, Sightstone will make you spend less money on wards and more money on bigger items. The next big item for you is Aegis of the Legion! It provides HP, MR, Armor and some HP/regen for you and your team, and can really decide the outcome of an enduring teamfight.
NOTE: Make sure nobody else on your team has it, because you can then go for other items!

While working towards Aegis, you should buy Ninja Tabi or Mercury Threads. Ninja Tabi is the best pair of boots you can buy, since it blocks physical damage (unofficially 50-80% of damage in matches are AD). This is also a cheap buy and it helps you lane vs the other AD carry. However, if the other team runs double AP or a team with lots of CC, Merc Threads is the boots to buy! MR and CC-reduction really helps a lot...

Kindlegem is the next item I build, because you can build it into two different items. The CDR is most important to give your team more ultimates and your carry constant Blood Boils, but some HP is also good.
The Enchantmen: Captain is also worth upgrading your boots to. It makes your team more mobile and is worth the money.

Then go for Zeke's Herald (to get your team better health regen and some AS + reduced armor around yourself) instead! You get HP from both of these items and they also bring auras and actives for teamfights. The rest of the items are hard to get as a support, so the items I presented in this text should be your goals! GOOD LUCK!

Always leave one spot to buy WARDS when you go back, and get Oracle's Elixir when you have your main items and you want map control.

(Most games will be done by now!)

The last item/items can be a lot, so just pick an item you want from the list below:

Other items that fits well on Nunu:

(CDR, regen, CDR and MS buff to your team is always useful to make your team win) and

- This item was one of my favorite before, but as it stands right now it's not good. It's a early or lategame item, you should not buy it in midgame (because of cost and space). The Armor and MR helps alot, but 2,6k is not something supports get every game.

- I used to think this was the ultimate item on Nunu, but I don't think it's worth that much. You will get interrupted when you meet a well organized team. Anyway, focus on getting this if the enemy team needs to land some abilities to start their combos.

- makes your skills do even more damage.

- gives your team some AP and Spell Vamp, should be used if your team is 2 or more AP's and they don't want to buy it. Could be built instead of Zeke's Herald

- gives yourself HP and your team mana regen and CDR. Great for heavy AP teams

- nice if you're not planning on getting Shureliyas or other CDR items and want to reach 40%

- provides AP and MR, in addition to lowering nearby enemies MR.

- good if you have your carry or top going in hard and want to slow down the enemy team. Can also be used by a mana hungry lane!



There are more choices that I don't know about, so just try out whatever your want...

Skills

I start with W/E in lvl 1. It depends if you're counter jungling or playing it safe. You will start with W most games. Then, I get E/W every other level, because these two skills are both good for both defence and offence. After testing another game, I found out that putting a point into Q is crucial... Of course, always get your ult in lvl 6! Very important.
I max W first and E right afterwards.

R>W>E>Q

Nunu can cast a spell for free after 5 attacks.
Nunu's passive is okay to have when you can afford to hit their carry or support every time you harass.

Nunu's Yeti takes a bite out of target enemy minion or neutral monster, dealing 400 / 525 / 650 / 775 / 900 true damage to it and restoring 125 / 180 / 235 / 290 / 345 (+100% of ability power) of Nunu's health.
It isn't that important when supporting, but can help you to hold the lane and sustain yourself or it can even be used as a second Smite. Always use this spell on a Siege Minion (the big one) when sustaining yourself, to not steal farm from your carry...

Increases an allied unit's attack speed by 25 / 35 / 45 / 55 / 65 % and movement speed by 11 / 12 / 13 / 14 / 15 % for 15 seconds. Nunu also gains the effects of Bloodboil if casted on an allied unit.
Blood boil is awesome! It gives a lot of attack speed to the carry and himself, in addition to movement speed. This is the skill that your carry should always have, because it lasts for 15 seconds! With some CDR it's not hard at all!

Nunu throws a ball of ice at an enemy unit, dealing 85 / 130 / 175 / 225 / 275 (+100% of ability power) magic damage and slowing their movement speed by 20 / 30 / 40 / 50 / 60 % and attack speed by 25% for 3 seconds.
Also very good (even though it got nerfed). It doesn't only slow the opponent, but it also reduces the attack speed. Use of this spell can be vital against carries that rely on attack speed and movement speed ( Vayne). You can also harrass pretty hard versus other support that doesn't heal (or wastes mana on it), but be careful to not use all of your mana. Always hit their carry with this in lvl 1, to use some mana and make them somewhat scared.

While channeling for 3 seconds, slows nearby enemy units' attack speed by 25% and movement speed by 50%. After channeling, enemies caught in the area are dealt 625 / 875 / 1125 (+250% of ability power) magic damage depending on how long Nunu channeled for.
His ultimate is sometimes really good and other times not that good. It does a lot of damage, if Nunu manages to channel for 3 seconds. That's hard, because it's so easy to cancel ( Soraka's silence or Taric's stun)
This ult is not only good when fully channeled, but also interrupts the other teams movement and attack speed. Use it when you can, but save for teamfights, even if it's not possible to finish it...

Tips for pulling it of:
Stand in a bush and bait your enemies into it by throwing Ice Blast at them. Start channeling as soon as they are coming for you. When they enter the bush, they use approximately 1 second to understand and about 1 second to react. So you will hit it most of the times. This could easily turn a gank to your favor, so play quite aggressively when your ult is up!

To end his ult early:
RIGHT CLICK where you want to go and Nunu ends his ulti early. As easy as that! It's no need to channel it if no one is inside!

Playstyle

Lvl 1:

With Ice Blast, you should try to hit the other carry at lvl 1. If you want to, you can also take Blood Boil if the lane is hard to harass or just for safety.

Lvl 2-5:

Then, after getting Blood Boil, simply buff your carry with it whenever you can and take every opportunity to be extra aggressive with E and auto-attacks.

Lvl 6 to Midgame:

When you have your ult ready and some HP, you should try to stand in the brushes and lure them into your "trap". Buff your carry, slow the enemy carry and protect yours. If the opponent jungler/mid comes bot to gank, don't be afraid to use your ult (as in the video above). It's much more important that your carry stays alive, than you!
Also, in this phase you should ward around dragon and maybe kill some wards with Oracle's or pink.

Midgame (teamfights:

-Always stay with your team
-Have map control and use it to help your team do the right things
-Stay with your carry!
In teamfights, always be defensive! You're not jungle-Nunu or AP-Nunu, you're support-Nunu! Buff your carry and let someone else do the initiating. Find the enemy carry and if you can, slow and debuff him. Use your ult when you can hit the most important players and make sure your team follows your every step. -> Support, mid and carry.

Lategame:

Play safe, don't go around the map without vision. Place wards in important places and make sure you can help your team from your position. When your team decides to group, you go with the carry. At this phase of the game, your ult does insane damage if you're able to pull it off. Make sure you do that!

Nunu + AD carry

Nunu can be used in 3 different lanes: Poke lane, Kill lane and "Protect the Carry"-lane. He does not have any sustain, so he have to either play very aggressive, passive or something in between. The lanes I have mentioned below are those I feel are the strongest, but there are so many possibilities.


Miss Fortune
Kill lane and Poke lane
She has a movement speed passive, a spell that improves the attack speed, a ring of bullets that slows and an AOE-ultimate. With Nunu, she gets even more MS and AS ( Blood Boil, + a slow and an ulti that can synergize with her ulti ( Ice Blast and Absolute Zero. The harrass this lane gives early game is ridiculous!

Kog'Maw
Poke lane and "Protect the Carry"
Nunu is good at protecting the carry with Ice Blast and Absolute Zero. Kog'Maw can debuff the enemy carry with resistance debuff, he deals % of targets maximum health which makes him a very good late-game carry, he can slow and his ultimate are badass missiles. With Nunu, his Bio-Arcane Barrage procs even faster with Blood Boil. This combo also has a double slow, that makes even more Living Artillery and Bio-Arcane Barrage land.

Vayne
"Protect the Carry" and Kill lane
Vayne has good damage with Tumble and Condemn, Silver Bolts that does % of health damage when hitting the same target 3 times and Final Hour for chasing and escaping and killing. With Nunu her Silver Bolts stack faster and she gets even more mobility and AS with Blood Boil. Also, Nunu can protect her early with his nuke Ice Blast and Absolute Zero, which can also turn fights in your favor.

Ashe
"Protect the Carry"
Ashe get critical strikes from her passive, she can slow with Frost Shots, her W can clear waves and her global ultimate stuns. This is not the best lane possible, for Nunu, even though he provides a lot to Ashe. She can slow people more due to more AS and MS from Blood Boil. They have 3(4) possible slows in this lane, which works against weaker lanes. Their ultimates work great together and Nunu is also able to protect Ashe to some extent

Tristana
"Protect the Carry" and Kill lane
Tristana has an even better attack speed boost, a slowing jump and an ulti that knocks someone back. With Nunu, she gets even more attack speed and a nice boost of movement speed. Her ulti can help Nunu land his ult, so this lane should win. Double slow also makes this combo hard to escape from, Tristana should hit Rocket Jump after Ice Blast...

Twitch
Kill lane and "Protect the Carry"
Twitch is an incredibly strong AD-Carry right now, due to his recent buffs early game. He deals stacking true damage on each hit, and he can become invisible and kill someone fast like an assassin. His Venom Cask slows, he has a nuke that uses the stacks from the passive and he gets range, AD and piercing bolts to targets near. With Nunu he can kill people even faster and easier. MS and AS both is very good on Twitch, as he can get more stacks and damage onto them. The double slow and enormous burst on Absolute Zero can surprise anyone.

Nunu can also be used with these champions:

Caitlyn, Ezreal and Graves! Because Blood Boil makes more Headshot's available (thanks to Zastlin145), Ezreal can hit someone with Trueshot Barrage in Nunu's ultimate for maximum AOE and Graves can burst down someone who is slowed by Ice Blast.

Match-ups

As I mentioned before, counterpicking is very important. Below, I will explain some of the bot-lane support match-ups:

Nunu is weak against:

Blitzcrank
Difficulty: Hard
He's got 3 spells to cancel your ult with (Q, E and R). Blitz has insane earlygame damage and since you lack shield/heal, it's hard to sustain your carry through laning phase. If you're getting hooked, there's not much you can do to counter their damage. A good Blitz will pull you in and let his AD-Carry kill you, without chance of escaping.

Tips: Play very defensive and always ward the brush Blitz is standing in. Buy a Vision Ward to apply pressure and ask for jungler ganks. Nunu + Vayne could work vs most Blitzcrank-lanes.

Alistar
Difficulty: Medium - Hard
As I mentioned with Blitzcrank, Alistar also has skills to cancel ulti (Q and W). He's got potential to kill in a lane and also provides heal for his carry, this will make it hard to win the lane. His ultimate can avoid a lot of damage from your lane, so going Kill lanes is not very good.

Tips: Have the brush warded and try to poke him, without getting engaged on. AD-Carries with long range, poke and cc could work.

Leona
Difficulty: Hard
Leona is also a tanky support, with a lot of CC that can cancel your ult (Q, E and R). She is the definition of a kill lane and Nunu is not the best option as he lacks sustain and ability to peel for his carry. Combined with any aggressive AD-Carry, she can kill in one combo.

Tips: Ward the brush and play careful if she use her shield. Poke her when she can't initiate and avoid the middle of her ultimate. Poke lanes are good!

Janna
Difficulty: Medium
Also a good pick vs Nunu, even though this lane is more even. She can protect her carry from Nunu's E with her shield. Janna can cancel Nunu's ultimate with Q and R. She can also negate the movement speed buff from his W.

Tips: All sort of lanes work vs her, it just depends on the skill of the AD-carry. Try baiting her shield by walking towards her and hit her if she shields her AD. Don't engage to hard, because she can turn the fight.

Zyra
Difficulty: Medium - Hard
Good early harass and poke, which you can't sustain well against. Can keep you at range with snare and cancel your ulti with her ulti. Hard to play against, because she can use her plants to ward brush and poke.

Tips: She is weak and fragile, and something you can use to your advantage. Dodge her Snare and initiate on her. Care for her plants and passive, and don't engage on her after level 6 without clear advantage. Kill lanes or Poke lanes work, but don't go "Protect the Carry" against Zyra! Eat her plants with Q!

Nunu is strong against:

Sona
Difficulty: Easy
Sona is way too weak to take on an aggressive Nunu. She doesn't have enough sustain to negate the damage of Nunu + AD carry, so she have to play very passive. When playing against any lane with Sona, always focus Sona! Her ultimate can ofc cancel Nunu's ultimate, but that doesn't really matter if you buff your AD with W and hit 1/2 E's...

Tips: Kill lane!!! Don't eat too much poke and engage with care after level 6. Tristana!

Soraka
Difficulty: Easy
Soraka also lacks the survivability to keep Nunu at bay. She has good heals and silence for your ultimate, but apart from that she can't do much to you. Should be the focus if you get the chance, and if the AD is too hard to catch..

Tips: Kill lane!!! Don't get harassed by her E too often and tell your carry to go for her. Miss Fortune!

Taric
Difficulty: Easy - Medium
Not much of a problem, the AD-carry should counter this by picking someone with escape. He stuns and reduces armor, so you just have to go aggressive on the other AD when he goes in. Your AD carry will win trades in the long run with W on, except against Cait and Urgot. Make sure to focus Taric if his AD is too defensive (standing too far away).

Tips: "Protect the Carry" and "counter-Kill lanes could work. He has sustain, so just play careful. He does have a strong presence early-mid, but not so much late. You deal more damage than him...

Supporting Tips

As you should have done, before reading this guide, is to learn all the support basics ( I like Xpecial's way of presenting this). Below, I will talk about some stuff that can improve your "supporting" and general gameplay when playing supports:

Tip 1 - Counterpicking:

First of all, try to counterpick their carry! I rarely play games where this is needed, but I always think about this anyways. Nunu is a good choice if the other carry depends on attack speed, mobility or is more squishy that other. (Vayne and Kog for example). But if you're playing vs Corki or Ezreal, where this is the case, are other supports better (Soraka, Janna and Sona).

Tip 2 - Buff/drake timers:

A good way to have a good map control, is to control the buffs. The buffs are worth a lot (in numbers: Blue/Red = over 2000 gold), which a lot of people don't know. So if you can get these buffs (Red/Blue) repeatedly, you will have a huge advantage.

The respawn times in Summoners Rift are:
Blue buff: 5 minutes (after 1:55)
Red buff: 5 minutes (after 1:55)
Dragon: 6 minutes (after 2:30)
Baron: 7 minutes (after 15:00)

Tip 3 - Wards

People who haven't played much support tend to buy no wards and too many wards. Don't do this! A support should have items and shouldn't use all their money on wards... 1-2 wards each time you back (+ pink if you're going to take dragon). Lategame, you can buy 2-3 wards each time you back.
If you play against Blitz, Ali or Taric: ALWAYS ward the brush in the lane and play safer than usual. If you play on purple side, you should ward in between the bushes in river. If you play on blue side, ward tri-bush if not pushing and in between tribush and riverbush if pushing (Will add pictures soon). Only ward inside the bush in river if they have someone who can camp a lane well or champions with no CC.

These are some good places to put wards in early game:

Summary

Thanks for reading my guide! :)

I will be adding new features and updates as the game developes. When I find out about new and better ways of playing support Nunu, I will tell you guys about it first. If you have anything to add, write a comment below or send me a msg in game (Dullis at EU)

Update log:

1.1 Made the guide, with simple text and some information
1.2 Small changes to item build, to make it better.
1.3 Made some points more clear, easier to read
2.1 Added pictures of skills, runes, items and champions
2.2 Fixed some of the pictures and added more space in the text
3.1 Changed some items, but still some more work to do
4.1 Redeveloped the guide, made more consistent changes
4.2 Added bigge pictures and two videos of support Nunu
4.2 Added playstyle chapter and adjusted masteries
5.1 Remade masteries to not waste mastery points and made some changes the build in general
5.2 Fixed errors from 5.1, added pics
5.3 Rewrote some sentences in item build and changed the name of the guide to a more proper one
5.4 Updated masteries once again and added a link to another support guide
6.1 Changed best AD+Nunu carries and wrote more about his ultimate (requested)
6.2 Updates all over the guide :) Now close to perfection, in my eyes
6.3 Small adjustments to item build
6.4 New summoner spell + new pics
6.5 Added more help to Abilities
7.1 Spelling mistakes and added a new chapter; "Improve your supporting"
7.2 Added a link to a good guide in the newest chapter
7.3 Small changes in masteries and item build
7.4 Fixed some wrong numbers
8.1 Huge update after some weeks
8.2 Fixed the build order and AD+Carry part. More accurate now
9.1 Added a new section (Nunu vs other supports) and fixed grammar in the first parts of the guide. Also changed the skill sequence to match my recent playstyle.
9.2 Skills chapter is now more detailed and rename some other chapters
10.1 Little update after some months
10.2 Updated item sequence
10.3 Doing some small updates
10.4 Continued doing that
10.5 Added one more counter
11.1 Changed masteries and runes for S3!!!
11.2 Runes updated!
11.3 Added ward placement and changed itembuild
11.4 Fixed something in the first paragraphs
12.1 Huge item rework!
12.2 Added Pros/Cons
12.3 Fixed errors
12.4 More fixing
12.5 Last update today! phew
13.1 Huge update in terms of guide appearance
13.2 Added Headers to almost all sections of this guide

Patch updates on Nunu:

v1.0.0.146 - 2012-08-29
Ice Blast: Slow duration reduced to 3 seconds from 4

V1.0.0.143:
Visionary: now grants free cost spells even if spells were ranked up while the buff was already active.

V1.0.0.142:
Visionary: attacks required to activate reduced to 5 from 7.
Consume:
Damage increased to 500/600/700/800/900 from 400/525/650/775/900.
Damage dealt to Dragon and Baron increased to 100% from 50%.
Cooldown reduced to 16/14/12/10/8 seconds from 18/16/14/12/10.
Absolute Zero:
Minimum damage if interrupted increased to 12.5% from 0%.
Maximum damage if interrupted increased to 87% from 70%.

V1.0.0.140b:
Fixed a bug where Absolute Zero was revealing Nunu when cast from brush.

V1.0.0.139:
Added a range indicator to Absolute Zero.
Now gains 1.25 magic resist per level.

V1.0.0.134
Fixed a bug where Absolute Zero's slow did not grant assists.

V1.0.0.133:
Fixed a bug where Absolute Zero's slow did not grant assists.

Sejuani Patch (v1.0.0.132):
Base attack speed increased to .625 from .613
Attack speed per level increased to 2.25 from 1.08
This is a nice buff, even if it doesn't affect Nunu that much. You can auto-attack more ofc!

I want to say thank you to all you guys that tried my build and read my guide, I appreciate it!

Will update more in two weeks :]