Thanks to Searz for the awesome guide format!

I will not go through what the abilities do. It can easily be learned by reading the ability tooltips and simply using the spell.

Mouse-over any items or abilities to see their tooltip.

Also, if you are new to jungling and would like an in-depth look to how jungling affects your team and how it affects the way the match turns out, look no further than Xenasis' amazing jungle guide!

Legend

(for any abbreviations you don't understand)

I decided to take an AP route on my Nunu build while still having enough durability to not absolutely melt in team fights. One of Nunu's best aspects, aside from being a tier 1 jungler, is the fact that because of his ability ratios and the high base damage on them, he can build defense early game, AP mid game, and stack on more defense late game. This not only makes him deal insane damage, but it also makes him very difficult to kill.

Now on to the important part, jungling. Why jungle Nunu? Because it rocks. He is a tier 1 jungler and should be played as such. Laning as Nunu is only a good choice for lower level players. Other than that, Nunu should be in the jungle. His ganks are phenomenal, his jungle speed is tremendous, and he is one of the best counter-junglers that the game has to offer. Not to mention that he can start at any camp, doesn't rely on either Red Buff nor Blue Buff for ganking (although they are essential for a speedy jungle, but that's standard on every jungler), and he is very difficult to counter jungle.

This is my personal favorite, offering bonus xp gain, increased buff duration, and a minimal CD on Smite.

Recommended:

Stay away from:

Q > W > Q > E > E > R > W > W > E > E > R > E > W > W > Q > R > Q > Q

I choose this skill sequence because you only need 2 levels in Consume to be able to jungle, so the rest of the points are spent by maxing Ice Blast for better ganks, and keeping Blood Boil closely behind because that is also a fantastic ganking tool. Not only does it affect you, but it affects you AND the person you use it on should you choose to use it on someone else.

1: Ruby Crystal 2: Boots 3: catalyst the protector

4: Mercury's Treads 5: Rod of Ages 6: Banshee's Veil

7: Abyssal Mask 8: Rabadon's Deathcap 9: Guardian Angel

This item order provides essential stats depending on what phase of the game you are at. Early game durability, mid game damage, and late game durability. This order is pretty much what you can expect to use every time, but you may need to grab an early Banshee's Veil or Guardian Angel.

Ability Usage:

- Consume allows Nunu to be a very effective jungler due to its healing and true damage.

- You can use Consume to heal yourself if a fight is not going your way, or to heal some Health if you are trying to escape from an enemy. It can often help you avoid death if you Consume a unit while retreating.

- Due to the high slow and long duration of the slow from Ice Blast, it is often a good idea to get at least one rank early game to help get kills.

- You can choose to interrupt Absolute Zero early for partial damage if an opponent is about to run out of range.

- Ice Blast before Absolute Zero with a Rylai's Crystal Scepter or summoner skill Exhaust can lead to a very devastating combo.

- Absolute Zero can be canceled by crowd control such as a stun/silence/taunt/etc. Be wary of the enemy champions around you.

- Absolute Zero has one of the largest ability power ratios in the game (x2.5) - thus making him a very sturdy caster. Stacking up on ability power will greatly increase its damage.

- Utilizing Visionary can enable Nunu to constantly harass with Ice Blast and heal with Consume. Blood Boil can also be utilized to trigger Visionary more often.

- Nunu's Absolute Zero is most effective when it is used alongside other ultimates such as Curse of the Sad Mummy, Grand Skyfall and Idol Of Durand.

- Nunu can be built as either ability power, tank or a DPS. It is recommended to not have mix of all three.

- Consume allows Nunu to be an effective jungler at level 1.

- If Absolute Zero is used while in the cover of the brush, no enemies outside of the brush will be able to see the ground animation, making a nice surprise burst.

Build Usage:

- By combining a caster Nunu with a spell vamp item like Will of the Ancients Nunu can become impressively resilient, healing over a hundred hp from a single Ice Blast and potentially fully healing with Absolute Zero if enough enemies are caught in its area of effect.

- Spell Vamp also works quite effectively with Consume, getting the heal from Consume and the spell vamp heal for doing 500-900 true damage to the minion.

- With defensive masteries, runes and a Rod of Ages Nunu can be a teams tank without any tank items thanks to his high hp gain.

- A Banshee's Veil is a must have item for Nunu when channeling his ultimate to avoid sudden stuns or silences.

Nunu is a tier 1 jungler because he can do any path that he wants, and is an amazing ganker.

I'll be showing you the aggressive path. This path gets to level 4 and then starts ganking. This is Nunu's best route in my opinion, because he is such a strong ganker.

For more info on different path types and how they work, watch this video:

Play Video

Start at blue buff. If you can, have someone leash it for you. If not, you should still be fine. Once the fight starts, wait until it hits you twice, then Consume it. Continue to attack and Consume it until it is at around 470 health, then Smite. You should level up. Get a point in Blood Boil and move on.

Next up is the Wolf camp. Just Consume the big one and auto-attack the rest, using Consume when you can.

Next up is the Wraiths. Consume the purple one and the auto-attack the rest, Consuming when possible. You should level up here. Get another point in Consume and move on.

Next up is red buff. The strategy here is very similar to that of blue buff. Just walk up and Consume it, then auto-attack and use Consume when you can. Smite around 540 health.

Next is the double Golem camp. Just Consume and auto-attack one, and then do the same to the remaining one once the first one dies. You should level up once again. Grab a point in Ice Blast and recall.

Buy boots and a sight ward, then head out to gank.

Counter-Jungling

As for counter-jungling, just watch the video above! But, I'll go into a bit of detail just in case.

Start off with boots, a ward, and some potions.

My preferred starting point is wolves, as they can be taken care of quickly. Consume the big wolf and just beat on the others.

Next, you have to decide what to do.

Did they start at Blue Buff? Go steal their wraiths and ward their Red Buff, use Smite on the big wraith to save time.

Did they start on double Golems? Go ahead and steal their wolves and ward their blue. Be sure to use Smite to save time.

Another strategy is to kill their blue buff if they don't start there and then take 2 of his wolves, MAYBE three if you have time. Be sure to get a CV to check if you can take the whole camp. After that, drop a ward at your blue, then go to wraiths then red then golems. They are likely to attempt to steal your blue. Get a teammate and go make him regret that. After that, whether you killed him or not, go take his Red Buff. From here on out, just ward his jungle and take his camps from time to time.

Be extremely cautious, as his team may come to help, and it doesn't always go as smooth as I make it sound.

Nunu has quite the interesting role in teamfights. I find that most of the time, I end up scaring people more than anything. I Flash in and ult and everybody panics and uses their summoner spells and escape abilities. Once they do that, my team capitalizes on their panic and starts to clean house. But basically your role is AP burst/support/off-tank. You want to burst out as much damage as you can, and after that, start tagging teammates with Blood Boil and tagging enemies with Ice Blast. Nunu can easily control the flow of battle. He can keep enemies out and get allies in. Any experienced Nunu player will be able to quickly immobilize someone and get his carry there to wreck them, all in just a few seconds. It's almost as easy as tagging your carry with Blood Boil, then just hitting everyone with your Ice Blast so that they can't get away. It takes a bit of coordination, but when pulled off correctly, devastation occurs. Nunu is an AP sustained DPS early game, an AP burst/support mid game, and he is an AP burst/support/off-tank late game, as mentioned above. With some practice, teamfights can very easily be turned in your favor, so long as the enemies are completely fed. Nunu's best point goes to mid game in my opinion. Early Dragon kills, ganks all over the place, and a character who can make him and his team unstoppable. He has a fairly weak early game, much like Nidalee.

Well, I sincerely hope you all enjoyed the guide. And make sure you leave a comment telling me what you like, don't like, and if this new format is good or not! If you ever want to play a few games, add me. My IGN is ShadowReign757.

Make sure you rate and comment on my other guides as well! I have a guide for the following characters, just click on the name for the corresponding guide!

Garen

Warwick

Master Yi