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Nunu & Willump Build Guide by

Nunu, The Reaper of the Jungle

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Nunu & Willump Build Guide By Updated on

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Spells:

Smite

Flash

Items

Standard Starting Items

Standard Counter Jungle Nunu Start

BOOTS AND ENCHANTMENTS

Luxury ap items

My Core items

Aura/support jungle

Situational Armor Items

Ability Order

Nunu & Willump Passive Ability

Attention !

All i ask is for you to take your time and read my guide if you're interested in jungle nunu. Do not downvote/flame/troll it without even testing this guide. I know it may not be the flashiest guide but i've been playing Nunu jungle since early season 2. I know what works with him and what doesn't work well. Remember this is jungle Nunu not Support Nunu or even Lane Nunu.

Introduction

This is an Ap offtank Nunu guide, he is effective throughout the game but most people tend to think AP nunu becomes useless late game. late game Nunu will provide strong disruption and team fight control with his Ice Blast and Absolute zero, Nunu will also provide strong utility to allies with his blood boil. Besides his strong team fight control and utility he is also a strong counter jungler considering his consume does true damage to minions and monsters, this is what makes him so effective in the jungle.

Summoner Spells

Just take and since you'll be jungling. If you don't prefer then you can take .

: Its summoner spell you need! Although Nunu does have his , is always a useful Summoner Spell to have and helps prevent objective or buff steals.

: It helps with everything from escaping to chasing, taking flash will provide you with safer counter jungling and objective control. If you don't take flash, take ghost instead.

:I find ghost more useful on Lane Nunu since it makes ganking difficult when you pop it. Your blood boil will give you that movement speed you want if you're running away and if they chase you can just ice blast the nearest one to decrease their movement speed an attack speed.

Pros / Cons

First lets start off with the pros and cons of Nunu.

Pros

+ High AP ratios
+ Good sustain.
+ Strong team fight control with absolute zero.
+ Strong dueling with elder lizard buff on Consume.
+ Has strong buffs and debuffs.
+ Strong counter jungler.
+ Spammable slow(ice blast)
+ Gold Efficient

Cons

+Ultimate can be cancelled easily.
+Needs jungle creeps for bonuses from his consume.
+Damage falls off late game against tankier targets.
+Relatively low dps without elder lizard buff on consume.

Masteries

This setup is designed to give you a balanced set for you in the jungle for durability,clear speed and counter jungling, taking damage in will allow you to deal four more damage to minions and monsters. Considering Hunters Machete deals ten true damage plus a increase damage amount by ten percent. This makes it more convenient for in your jungle.

Runes

Precision

Fleet Footwork

Phase Rush

To be honest theres a whole bunch of runes you can use on this guy! Nunu is a very optimizational champion in the jungle. Depending on the runes you use this will make it clear what are your intentions in a match of yours. I use many rune sets on nunu, I usually use this rune page nowadays for him. Taking a few points just gives extra magic penetration in to negate whatever magic resist they have. I use movement speed quints to roam the map faster for ganking and counter jungle the enemy quicker.

Runes

Precision

Fleet Footwork

Phase Rush

This is more of a Objective jungle nunu. Using this will primarily mean you plan to be that extra support for your team by warding the map often providing assistance to lanes in need and counter jungle your opponent with your team. Just remember this is usually used with teams with good communication which is often used in competitive play or team rank games. I don't often use this in solo que.

Runes

Precision

Press the Attack

Lethal Tempo

Phase Rush

With the improvements into your dueling is now better. You can take a bite out of a jungle monster and you'll instantly become much stronger than you were before. Using this rune set you know you have potential of killing the enemy jungler and others who come in your way.

Ability Explanation

Visionary

(Innate): After 5 auto attacks, Nunu's next spell will have no mana cost.
Helps you sustain your mana while jungling. After the fifth hit your next ability cost no mana. Usually i save this for my ice blast since it cost the most mana because i will be focusing on leveling it early game.

Consume

ACTIVE: Nunu commands his yeti to take a bite out of target enemy minion or neutral monster, dealing true damage to it and restoring Nunu's health. Nunu gains a bonus depending on what Willump consumed. Consume does not need to score the killing blow to trigger the bonuses and the individual bonuses stack.
TRUE DAMAGE: 600 / 700 / 800 / 900 / 1000[
HEALTH RESTORED: 90 / 130 / 170 / 210 / 250 (+ 75% AP)
BUFF DURATION: 120 / 150 / 180 / 210 / 240
ROUGH ROCK CANDY: Nunu's increases his maximum health and size by 10%.
ORNERY MONSTER TAILS: Nunu's attacks and spells deal 1% of his maximum health as bonus magic damage.
SPOOKY MYSTERY MEAT: Killing a unit grants Nunu 15% bonus movement speed for 3 seconds.

This is what makes you such a strong counter jungler, its like have a second smite for you. Taking objectives and buffs is much easier when having a couple points in consume. So i suggest like take two points in it early.
Buffs:With the buffs they gave to Nunu in patch 3.7 it made Nunu extremely powerful when he has his buffs on his consume. Due to these buffs dueling and counter jungling is much more easier. Now there are some junglers and champions you can just beat to death with your auto attack just from the buffs from your consume. When having the red buff you can duel better its basically having a Elixir of Fortitude and an Elixir of Brilliance on you.

Blood Boil

ACTIVE: Invigorates an allied unit by heating their blood, increasing their attack speed and movement speed for 12 seconds. If cast on an ally, Nunu also gains the effect of Blood Boil.

Increases your movement speed and attack speed. Helps you move around the map more quicker you can also target this on allied champions and minions! This is really good in giving your adc and other champions a boost in movement speed and damage per second. You should always put this on your auto attack reliant champions in battle.

Ice Blast

ACTIVE: Nunu throws a ball of ice at an enemy unit, dealing magic damage and slowing their movement speed by a percentage and attack speed by 25% for 3 seconds.

One of your important spells in ganking it provides a movement speed slow and an attack speed slow. It has a 1.0 ap ratio. So that means whatever ability you have you'll be hitting that champion for the total amount. Getting ap for this spell makes you hit hard. But later on in the game your damage will off verse targets with decent magic resist.

Absolute Zero

ACTIVE: Nunu starts channeling and begins to sap a large area around him of heat, slowing all nearby enemies movement speed by 50% and attack speed by 25%.
After channeling for 3 seconds, he deals massive damage to all enemies caught in the area. If the channel is cancelled or interrupted early, it will deal between 12.5% and 87.5% damage, depending on how long it channeled before being cancelled.

Two things you should take too consideration.

You have to be aware of what champions in the game that can stop you from fully channeling your ultimate. For an example if they have know that he can just you if use your near him. So just try to keep track of those who can stop your ultimate There are many ways nunu can get a good or successful ultimate down. As the video showed that was a successful bait that lead the enemy team to enter Nunu's fully channeled .

You can use your ultimate as a counter gank,defensive ultimate, and offensive ultimate.

Counter Gank: The act of stopping an enemy gank, with little to no detrimental effects on your team.

So an example of a counter gank is to use your ultimate as a defensive hult to protect your allies. If the enemies truly wants to kill your comrades they have no choice but to run thru your ultimate or burn some sort of cc on you. This is both a counter gank and a defensive ultimate. The act of a offensive ultimate is just to use purely to try to kill enemies within the radius.

Core Items

-50 Ability Power, 10 Cooldown Reduction, 10 Mana Regeneration. UNIQUE Passive: +20% Spell Vamp. UNIQUE Passive: Butcher: Damage dealt to monsters increased by 25%. UNIQUE Passive: Reduces the cooldown on Summoner Smite by 20%

This item is too good pass up, it works well with all your spells beside your blood boil. There's only a few reason not to build this,it would probably be the intentions you for the game you are in. It could be you have intentions of being more of an aura jungler or even tank for your team. If so i would probably get Will of the Ancients instead if you have an ap and or and top.

-60 Ability Power, 450 Health, 450 Mana. Passive: Your Champion gains 18 Health, 20 Mana, and 2 Ability Power every 1 min. Bonuses cap at +180 Health, +200 Mana and +20 Ability Power. (Not included in stats) UNIQUE Passive: Valor's Reward: On leveling up, restores 150 Health and 200 Mana over 8 seconds.

Nunu has one of the highest base healths in the game with Rod of Ages you will easily have around 3k health. It scales well with you in health,mana and ability power. While it is expensive and it sometimes may take awhile to complete it. If im having alot trouble during a game as nunu i will not build this but rather look for another optional item that will provide me a bit durability. By the way this is an item i personally like on nunu.

-50 Ability Power, 300 Health. UNIQUE Passive: Eyes of Pain: +15 Magic Penetration. UNIQUE Passive: Dealing spell damage burns enemies for 6% of their current Health as magic damage over 3 seconds, dealing 1% of their current Health as magic damage every .5 seconds. If their movement is impaired, they take double damage from this effect. 100 max damage per second vs monsters.

Your and applies slows so taking this item increases your damage dealt to the targets who you . Its a nice buy but i would buy it if my team needed more damage output beside themselves.

Situational Items

Sometimes you will have to ignore your core build and build based on the enemy team.

Against AD Heavy Teams

-70 Armor, 500 Health. UNIQUE Passive: Cold Steel: If you are hit by a basic attack, you slow the attacker's Attack Speed by 15% and their Movement Speed by 10% for 1.5 seconds. UNIQUE Active: Slows the Movement Speed of nearby enemy units by 35% for 2 seconds + 1 second for every 100 Armor and Magic Resistance you have (500 range). 60 second cooldown.

I generally get this if they have champions like Vayne or a melee carry if they begin to hit hard. I find this item useful since if they do begin attacking me there movement speed are slowed by ten percent and attack speed slowed by 15 percent. This is a good item but kinda selfish too, if you want to be more of a team player you can get or just get both if you're wealthy enough.

-95 Armor, 20 Cooldown Reduction, 400 Mana. UNIQUE Passive: Reduces the attack speed of nearby enemies by 20% (1000 range).

More of the team player version of omen. It does not provide any health but it does provide 95 armor, an aoe attack speed debuff,20% cooldown reduction. I usually get this if we truly need it while the cdr helps Nunu i wouldn't put it on my core list because truly it is a situational item.

-100 Armor. UNIQUE Passive: On being hit by standard attacks, returns 30% of damage taken before armor as magic damage. A minimum of 15 damage must be received.

If i get this it probably means they got hard hitting ad carries and casters. It provides a good amount of armor and returns 30 percent damage you take from them. This is an awesome item but only built it if they got hard hitting carries. Its a great inexpensive item but you usually see people buy this late game. If your getting this early then the physical carries on there team must of got snow balled way to early!

-A good item but i would say this is more for lane Nunu but i would get it later in the game for more aoe damage.

AURA/SUPPORT JUNGLE

Usually i get a few of the items i listed in AURA/SUPPORT JUNGLE if i'm confident in my teams abilities and power then i can just go more of the support jungler. Solely relying on my teams power and increasing it with the aura items I have.

-360 Health. UNIQUE Passive: Ward Refresh - Starts with 5 charges and refills each time you visit the shop. UNIQUE Active: Ghost Ward - Consumes a charge to place an invisible Sight Ward that reveals the surrounding area for 3 minutes. You may have a maximum of 3 wards placed from this item at once. 1 second cooldown.

You should ward deep in the enemy jungle and even ward for some of your laner's if needed. Getting this will provide your team with good map coverage this usually allows your laners to play more passive/aggressive.

-250 Health, 10 Health Regeneration, 10 Mana Regeneration. Passive: +10% Cooldown Reduction. UNIQUE Active: Nearby allies gain 40% Movement Speed for 3 seconds (600 range). 60 second cooldown.

I use to get this often in season 2, but nowadays mainly supports build this as their secondary item after Ruby sight stone. If your team has a hard time getting to those slippery targets or escaping from the enemy team in tight situations then its a great choice to pick this up if your support doesn't already have this,

Zeke's Herald- 20 Cooldown Reduction, 250 Health. UNIQUE Aura: Nearby allied champions gain +20 Attack Damage and +10% Lifesteal.

I generally get this if i decide to be more aura jungler and if my team is heavy in psychical damage. Its a good item but quite expensive so get it later in the game do not try to rush it unless your AD comrades are snowballing.

-35 Armor, 10 Cooldown Reduction, 300 Health, 10 Health Regeneration. UNIQUE Active: Shield yourself and nearby allied champions for 5 seconds, absorbing up to 50 (+10 per level) damage . 60 second cooldown.

Its a good buy and quite cheap i don't mind getting it if i need a bit more durability. It provides a good amount of health for its inexpensive cost. It has a great active its sorta like a mini barrier for your allies. Its a great item to make those close saves and soak up damage.

-50 Ability Power. UNIQUE Aura: Gives nearby allied champions +30 Ability Power and 20% Spell Vamp.

Get this only if you have more ap on your team. It gives your team an extra 30 ability power and 20% spell vamp so it boost your team in power and gives sustain. While i usually get Spirit of the spectracal wraith over this. is a non selfish version of spirit of the spectracal wraith. Its a great item but i would only get it to boost my team's power level assuming if most of us are mainly magic damage.

-40 Ability Power, 40 Magic Resistance, 6 Movement Speed Multiplier. UNIQUE Active: Hunt - Summons up to 2 invulnerable ghosts for 6 seconds to seek the two nearest enemy champions. If they touch an enemy champion, they slow his Movement Speed by 40% and reveal him for 2.5 seconds. 120 second cooldown.

A very inexpensive item that gives good amount magic resist and ability power considering its cost. I consider this item more a utility support item since its active but i usually tend to get this if i have enough gold to buy it after i have my finished core items. The active is really good and strengthens your ganking don't be afraid to build it early if you decide to get kage pick first for a gold per time Kage's Lucky Pick.

-20 Armor, 300 Health, 30 Magic Resistance. UNIQUE Aura: Legion: Nearby allies gain 10 armor, 25 magic resist and 10 health regen. UNIQUE Aura: Grants an additional 5 Armor, 12.5 Magic Resist, and 5 Health regen per 5 to nearby minions.

A great item to get to increase your teams armor and magic resist. I generally get this if we need the extra durability and if they have a good amount of area of effect damage. Its a great item and you should never considered it a bad item to get on your self. Make sure your support,top laner or your self get this item.

Luxury Ability Power Items

When I say luxury i mean only get this if you got gold to blow. I only these these items when i snowball hard. Getting a luxury item you know you're making a big investment and you believe the game is highly in your favor and there's little chance of the enemy team coming back.

- 60 Ability Power, 20 Cooldown Reduction, 40 Magic Resistance, 15 Mana Regeneration. UNIQUE Passive: Restores 12% of your maximum Mana on kill or assist. UNIQUE Passive: Mana Font: Increases your Mana Regeneration by 1% per 1% Mana you are missing (Does not stack with Chalice of Harmony).

this is more for lane Nunu to be honest i would get . While it provides good stats i would only get this if i had the exact gold amount as you won't run out of mana as much once you have . As it does provide 40 magic resist you can get the same amount from which is much cheaper and provides more utility for your team and even 40 ability power.

-120 Ability Power. UNIQUE Passive: Increases Ability Power by 30%.

When i have those stomp games i buy this. It boost your ability power by 120 and increases your current ability power by 30%. If your to afford after a couple trips back then go ahead. It will increase the damage of your ganks and increase your snowball lead.

-70 Ability Power. UNIQUE Passive: +35% Magic Penetration.

If you're stacking in ap then it isn't a bad buy. But buying it would probably be after i buy Liandry's Torment synergizes with his spells so well.

-30 Ability Power, 70 Armor, 10 Cooldown Reduction, 500 Mana. UNIQUE Passive: Spellblade: After using an ability, your next basic attack deals bonus physical damage equal to 125% of your base attack damage to surrounding enemies and creates a field for 2 seconds that slows enemies inside by 30% (2 second cooldown).

If you want some durability,cdr and ap then pick this item up, its a great item if you can afford it. I usually get this if i want more durability but still want ability power. It's kinda like a frozen mallet with its unique passive for ap bruisers. Its a good buy but i would probably put this in my core if i was lane nunu.

-20 Ability Power. UNIQUE Passive: Your champion gains 8 Ability Power per stack, receiving 2 stacks for a kill or 1 stack for an assist. This effect can stack 20 times; you lose a third of your stacks if you die. At 20 stacks (160 ability power), your champion gains 15% Cooldown Reduction.

Nunu can snowball by getting kills or assist. I usually snowball in assist when i play nunu. But its a bold statement when you Mejai's Soulstealer while this item isn't really expensive item each time you die you lose stacks. If you're sure you won't die and your snowballing pick this up early to strengthen your dominance

Your and applies slows so taking this item increases your damage dealt to the targets who you . Its a nice buy but i would buy it if my team needed more damage output beside themselves.

-70 Ability Power, 45 Magic Resistance. UNIQUE Aura: Reduces the Magic Resist of nearby enemy champions by 20. Range: 700

This item i would probably get late game if they were ap heavy. It lowers their magic resist by 20 increasing your team's damage. Its a great buy but usually if you have an ap mid or top they would build this item if not i will build it.

Jungling/Ganking

Early Game

You should be clearing securing your red buff after your finish your blue. Your first back buy should be spirit-stone and boots of speed, consider picking up a sight ward to ward for an allied lane or dragon.

Ganking early

[/highlight] Getting early ganks can result in success or failure. Often this will give your and you lane the lead or disadvantage.

Successful gank

[highlight]Good kill trade [/highlight]your allied laner gets first blood but dies to the turret dive the enemy laner doesn't get the kill because he did not hit him.
Forcing enemy to recall[highlight]some times if your gank gets the enemy relatively low they will have recall to base. This benefits your laner since he will be getting gold and experienced some times the laner and you can even get a early tower uncontested[/highlight]

Bsd Gank

The gank will result in your laners death and or you. [highlight]This can often happen if you get counter ganked,taking too much damage from minions and or turrets. [/highlight]

You waste time in a lane that's already warded. [highlight]While you're sitting there the enemy jungler could be taking an early objective(such as baron) or even be counter jungling you.[/highlight]

You get a bad trade for a kill.[highlight] If your adc gives up first blood to the enemy adc in exchange for the enemy support this wouldn't be good as the enemy got an extra 400 gold from getting first blood.[/highlight]

[title] Early counter jungling[/title]

You would usually want to do this if you know your faster than the jungler or know where they are. If so depending on their jungler's route you would do the opposite of their path. You should also be taking the enemy camps that provide the most exp.

[title]Vision in their jungle[/title]

Having vision in their jungle early can provide your team insight where is the jungler and the other laners(mid and top could be roaming). Warding can potentially hurt the chances of the enemy jungler in having any successful ganks early. Junglers like(Relies on early/mid game ganks to snowball) thrive from this and if there are deprived from this, it can impacts their presence late game.

Team Work

Dat Blood Boil

You have to blood boil the right champions. FOcus blood boiling the carries such as the range ones and melee ones. You should also be blood boiling the allies that need the movement speed increase to run/chase enemies.

Absolute Zero Late Game

You'll be using your ultimate most of the time as a defensive one to stop champions from closing the gap to you carries.

Make sure the enemy team is totally blind by purchasing vision wards and oracle elixirs. If they behind to face check bushes you can land a couple good blind ultimates from the bushes.

Objective Control

With your consume at later levels taking objectives such as Dragon and Baron Nashor will be a breeze with your team. You and your support should provide wards near Baron Nashor,river and dragon to provide vision for your team. If its needed feel free to get an Oracle's Elixir to deny vision around the map. Having a oracle is also important to deny vision on baron and dragon to increase your teams control on it.

Empire Ultimate

If you get the opportunity try to make your team bait the enemy team in a unawarded area. You should channel your ultimate a second or two early in hopes to get a full channelled ultimate! This can be a game changing point if you do this successful.

Junglers you may encounter

-Newb proof champion can cancel your with his and and has good dueling with crowd control. You can counter jungle him though he isn't fast during his first clear and spends much more time trying to gank lanes. Ward your allied lanes early and spend your time in his jungle when he is camping a warded lane.

-Just too much crowd control on this guy, if the alistar player is good you'll probably never good a full ultimate. But if you see this Alistar in the jungle its pretty easy to counter jungle him hes pretty slow due to the constant nerfs they gave him. You'll have killing potential on him too! Give that alistar hell ;)!

- Hes a great disrupter your probably only gonna get defensive ultimates on him. Hes quite fast at jungling. So only counter jungle him when you have vision of him.

-One of the best counter junglers beside Nunu she is extremely mobile. She can kill you its best if you stay out of her way. Only counter jungle her if you know exactly where she is. One of her weak points are that she is weak at ganking pre six. Try to take advantage of that by putting pressure on the map early and counter ganking her!

- He is able to counter jungle quite well too and kill as well! With his he can do bonus damage to you if you're isolated. If best you try not to duel him and if he counter jungling you get your team to help you deal with him.

- Eh pretty much similar to Kha'zix at later levels you can deal with him though.

- Just another assassin like Kha'zix he has killing potential on you but at early levelings during his clears he will be relatively low unless he has plans on counter jungling you after one of his buffs. He isn't strong at ganking pre six and truly shines mid to late game. Armor is a good item to buy against him because he is mainly psychically damage, make sure you get a item like or something to help you deal with him.

- Not the best of counter junglers but she is quite fast if you get in her way she can kill you. Its best if you counter jungler her when you know where she is.

- Hes like you(counter jungling and sustain) but with better dueling just stay out of his way and only counter him when the opportunity arises.

- Hes like shyvana only counter him when the opportunity arises.

- Just don't even think about counter jungling him alone. Ward your jungle and passageways to try to deny him out of any early ganks thats where he shines. If you successfully do this it should be a 4v5 since shaco utility falls off late game in team fights.

- Hes pretty easy to counter jungle him. He shines once he hits six but you you can delay that by taking his buffs and camps. He's pretty durable so your gonna have to think of some creative ways to kill him.
His clear time pretty good but it will leave him on a bit of low health. Counter jungling him isn't too hard and you should be able to kill him if he decides to 1v1 you. But he has a lot of cc that can cancel your ultimate.

- His clear speed is pretty good due to buffs on his but you can clear faster and counter jungle him quite well. He probably be hard to kill but if you get the chance to kill him in his jungle don't let it walk away. Btw he has massive cc so you may not get a lot of good ultimates when he is around.

- Similar to Nautilus he isn't bad in the jungle and has a decent clear speed. Doesn't have any cc that cancels your ultimate. Usually takes so you have potential of killing him pre six.

- Can snowball relatively easy make sure you don't make any mistakes around him once he gets he has killing potential on you.

- Usually plays the role of the tank for the team but can build damage and be a threat. If he does so he has great killing potential on you,though you're still able to counter him try to deny early ganks by warding near wraiths and for your top lane.

- Not a fast jungler but he gets the job done and makes up for it with his awesome ganks. Counter jungling him is no problem he just has a lot of cc and can stop your ultimate with his Arcane Smash.

- Hes on the same boat with zed. Counter jungling him isn't much of a problem just don't do anything stupid that will allow him to snowball.

- Hes a slow jungler, counter jungling him is easy. But once he hits six () assisting lanes becomes easier for him. Try to deny major sources of exp in his jungle.

Fiddlestick-His ganking excels once he hits six. He is easy to counter jungle but he has good sustain and can cancel your ult with his silence and fear. I recommend to get to reduce the fear time of his .

- Similar to Fiddlesticks but he can gank once he hits three. He doesn't have sustain however compared to fiddlesticks so killing him isn't hard. are good item to get if he keeps on Puncturing Taunt you.

- A pretty fast jungler she can kill you too but she isn't a strong counter jungler. s reveal her if she is near an area. Try to work with your team and try to deny her of any early ganks because thats how she excels the most.

-His clear time is pretty fast he can kill you if he is going AP Amumu at later levels. But counter jungling him isn't a problem as you are faster. Make sure whatever side you are on, try to work with your laner(s) by denying him blue buffs early as he is a mana dependent jungler which this can affect his farming and ganking.

Summary

Guide still improving :)

Nunu is a fun champion to play in the jungler and easy to learn but hard to master. If you're interested in learning the jungle you should try Nunu as he is a good jungler to start with. Even once you hit higher level of plays he is still effective.

If you have some questions of feedback feel free to tell me it ill make corrections if i find it necessary.