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So as we all know Nunu Midlane has become almost synonymous with trolling and running it down, but in patch 10.13 Riot buffed Nunu in a couple of key ways that make him not only viable but actually a very good midlaner now.

Firstly, they buffed the AP ratios on his Q Consume. The damage to champions now scales better with AP and the healing from minions and monsters now also scales better with AP

Secondly, His the Shield his Ult Absolute Zero grants now scales with AP, a massive 150% AP as well.

This buff to champion damage, sustain and also survivability when building AP mean that Nunu Midlane with a hybrid AP/Tank build is a great pick

DOMINATION

We start with Domination because we don't have the poke to justify the Sorcery keystones Summon Aery and Arcane Comet and we want more damage in a solo-lane than as a jungler, so Phase Rush doesn't quite cut it. Inside domination we have a number of useful runes as you shall see, so the choice as an AP mage is Electrocute and Dark Harvest. The general consensus is, and I agree, that Nunu simply cannot proc Electrocute often enough to be worthwhile, because in fact you don't have the in-lane kill pressure for it. Instead we take the scaling Dark Harvest which is more damage in ganks and keeps us more relevant later on.

We take Cheap Shot because Nunu has tonnes of movement impairments so we can reliably proc this throughout fights. Taste of Blood is more poke focused with a short cooldown that won't give us much sustain at all compared to our Q - Consume and we have no reliable way to proc Sudden Impact.

Our next choice is between Eyeball Collection and Zombie Ward. Do not take Ghost Poro as you will not stack it quickly enough. My usual advice is, the higher your rank, starting about mid-gold, the more useful Zombie Ward is. Before this the enemy simply does not ward reliably enough for it to stack and be useful. Into plat and further though Zombie Ward is great because your frequent excursions from lane mean you want good vision control and may encounter a Control Ward or ten to kill

Last but not least we take Relentless Hunter. This is simply to make our ganks even more effective and ensure we lose as little time as possible roaming so we can be back in lane to catch our waves and CS as soon as possible. Without it you will fall behind further in CS as your ganks take longer and they may well be less successful too. Some people like Ultimate Hunter but personally I find it unnecessary. The choice is yours but my advice is definitely Relentless Hunter

SECONDARIES

For our secondaries we will usually use the Sorcery tree with Celerity and Waterwalking. These both go great with Relentless Hunter and your W - Biggest Snowball Ever! to give you awesome roam potential. In my opinion they are a must have and I play this secondary tree every game.

That said, my playstyle isn't your playstyle, and for those who like to fight in lane more and/or have mana issues, my suggestion is to take the Precision tree with Presence of Mind and Coup de Grace. Presence of Mind offers great mana sustain while also giving us an extra 500 maximum mana and if that wasn't enough it also gives us some of our Ult charge back on both kills and assists. This means you get great Ult cooldown reduction when ganked as your Ult Nether Grasp can almost guarantee kills in 2v1 situations, especially early on, and also your AoE damage means you rarely miss assists in teamfights, further ensuring you get lots of Ult cooldown back due to a high kill participation

For the sub-runes take double adaptive and a defensive choice to suit. Pretty simple!

Boots of Swiftness The core boot choice on Nunu. It gives you more damage and as a Midlaner with this build, you need damage. If the enemy has a typical teamcomp and the matchup isn't very hard, I will take these.

Ninja Tabi The first and most common defensive choice. Personally I only build these into full AD comps but I always build these into full AD comps. Even when ahead these are just a fantastic build when the enemy are all physical damage auto-attackers and bringing your own damage down a little to absolutely nuke their damage is an awesome trade, so don't be afraid of this even when you're ahead.

Mercury's Treads Great into heavy CC, it's the best way to buy tenacity on Nunu and because you won't be getting any from the runes these must be on your radar if the enemy has lots of ways to lock you down. That said they're a rare build for me unless I'm very behind and simply trying to survive and not feed.

Hextech Protobelt-01 This is Nunu's one and only truly core item in midlane. It's a must buy as it gives you the AP to stay relevant, a little mobility and a fair amount of waveclear, which is necessary to get you roaming and doing your job properly. I build this first item every game.

Dead Man's Plate The second core item for Nunu, and one that I build all the time, even into AP laners, though you should forgo it into truly full AP comps, is Dead Man's Plate. This gives you armour, health, damage and movementspeed and these are all fantastic on Nunu. Truly not a single stat is wasted here making it a very efficient item!

Spirit Visage The last core item on Nunu is Spirit Visage. It gives health, MR, Cooldown reduction and health regen, which are all great, but the real reason you buy it is the passive. 30% increased healing. This is huge with your Q - Consume and gives you great sustain in both lane and fights. While I build Hextech Rocketbelt first item every game, I will generally build Dead Man's Plate and Spirit Visage in an order that suits my lane matchup (AD vs AP damage). Into easy AP lanes, build Dead Man's Plate first anyway.

Thornmail • Great into sustain and healing heavy teamcomps • Procs passive • Also great into auto-attack heavy teamcomps

Gargoyle Stoneplate • Good into mixed damage teamcomps • Need to be teamfighting to proc passive for double stats • Cheap item but a niche pick

Abyssal Mask • Gives a variety of stats • More offensive option • Solves mana issues

Frozen Heart • Really nice for cooldown reduction (20%) • Massive armour bonus (110) is great into AD teams and assassins • Aura can reduce attack speed of entire teamfights

Randuin's Omen • Great into Critical Strike heavy team comps • Examples: Yasuo, Tryndamere, Jhin, Caitlyn and many more • Not useful outside this, niche pick

Adaptive Helm • Great into damage over time champions and ability spammers • Examples: Brand, Teemo, Malzahar or Ziggs, Neeko, Fiddlesticks • Not useful outside of this, niche pick

So you're a lane Nunu now, and you might be thinking that this means you should forget everything you know about jungle Nunu. Not so fast, your midlane revolves around roaming, ganking and objective control. You need to be active, trying to roam bot or top as much as you can by shoving in your wave and leaving your laner to cs under tower while you achieve something elsewhere

Waveclear can be achieved by circling your W in lane to make it max size and then cancelling it (by reactivating W) right when it is on top of a pile of minions. It will explode and deal triple the damage of rolling over them. Protobelt also helps for decimating backlines and Q can secure canons easily.

Once cleared you should be looking for gank opportunities. If none arise, you should be considering which objectives (Rift, Baron, Dragon) you can help with. Again, if none arise, try stealing scuttle or nabbing blue buuf (if it is safe).

Into the mid and lategame you build tankier, and you'll want to be with your team. Your waveclear drops off and you become even worse in 1v1s so try not to split push too much unless absolutely necessary. You become even stronger with your team though, especially with your ADC as you can apply peel, CC and significant damage.

The enemy cannot see your Ult when you are in a brush with no vision. This can confuse them long enough to get a significant charge time and do a lot of damage


Cancel W early by reactivating it to explode your snowball in a wave. This is a necessity for waveclear.
Turn your W inside your own lane to build size and get even better waveclear.

Be proactive and look for opportunities to gank side lanes, steal scuttle and otherwise be present around the map. You're fast! Use it!

Be very conscious of objectives like Rift Herald, Drakes and Baron, your Q deals true damage to monsters based on ability level and if you max it first (which you always should) then you can out smite the junglers from Level 4 to Level 17. This means you can control and secure objectives with your Q.

Thanks for reading!I really hope this has been helpful to you and if you're got any questions come hop into my twitch stream or my discord server and I'm sure I can help you out!