I created this guide in order to show all of the different and successful ways to play nunu.
On this page I am going to show a brief over view about the character Nunu in general.

The next page is Nunu Tank, then Nunu Mage tank, followed by DPS nunu (Yes, it works) and last but not least, jungling Nunu.

This is a guide that doesn't go into super detail about every little thing. It is to show how you can play Nunu lots of different ways so that your team can be well rounded.

The masteries, runes, skill sequencing, etc are all displayed on the different nunu tabs above.
1- Tank
2- Mage
3- DPS
4- Jungle

Visionary
Nunu can cast a spell for free after 7 attacks.

- Proper use of this can really help with any mana problems early game. Once you attack 7 times, then harass with no worries of mana. Keep in mind that this also works with your ult.

Takes a bite out of target minion, dealing 500 / 600 / 700 / 800 / 900 damage and restoring 125 / 200 / 275 / 350 / 425 (+100% of ability power) health.
[nextcol]
Cooldown 35 / 30/ 25 / 20 / 15 seconds | Cost 60 mana | Range 100

-Great for healing and farming. It can really save you if you are solo laning, etc.

Increases an allied unit's attack speed by 25 / 35 / 45 / 55 / 65% and movement speed by 11 / 12.5 / 13 / 14.5 / 15% for 15 seconds. Nunu also gains the effects of Bloodboil if casted on an allied unit.

Cooldown 20 seconds | Cost 50 mana | Range 700

- This is a skill that is commonly over looked. But it really can create wonders. With a click you and an ally can gain so much AS and MS. Blood Boil on your DPS carry and it can turn the tides of battle. I also use this skill whenever I am trying to run to a team fight or back to my lane, etc.

Ice Blast
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 40 / 45 / 50 / 55 / 60% and attack speed by 25% for 4 seconds.

Cooldown 6 seconds | Cost 75 / 85 / 95 / 105 / 115 mana | Range 550

- A great ability for harassing, chasing, and running. The slow is really great and it can help you either save a life or take one.

While channeling for 3 seconds, slows nearby enemy units' attack speed and movement speed. After channeling, enemies caught in the area are dealt 625 / 875 / 1125 (+250% of ability power) magic damage.

Cooldown 150 / 120 / 90 seconds | Cost 150 mana | Range 550

-Last but not least, the mother of all AoE nuke ults. 625 damage plus a slow at level 6 is great right? Right. But it only does that dmg if the champions stay in the ult. Sadly, most people are smart and they know that this ult does a TON of dmg. So most of the time I have found that it is hard to hit anyone really. So... I am going to talk about times to ult in order to help you all out:
1- Team fights. Everyone clumped up? Focused on killing your carries and not avoiding this nuke? ULT! Chances are there are going to be more than one people focused on killing your carries and not running from this ult.
2- In bushes. This works really, really well. But requires precision, patience and coordination with allies. Go in a bush. And start up channeling your ult while an ally baits them into the bush. Then BOOM! The enemy team won't see you ulting until it is far too late.
3- Saving your team. Even late game people are so focused on getting out of your ult and not chasing after a low hp ally that they will stop chasing just to escape from all of the dmg that you will do to them.
4- Ult whenever you feel. Once you play nunu for a while you can kind of get the hang of when to ult and when to not ult. The CD isn't long whatsoever so feel free to use it even if it won't exactly land a kill. Use you yeti instincts.
This is an excellent time to ult when in the bush with the team fight going on all around you[/Center]

No matter what type of Nunu you play, these are always good all around summoner spells for nunu:

Good:

• Flash There is nothing more fun than flashing into a lane and ulting to completely throw the other team off. It's a great summoner spell and I never enter a game without it.
• Teleport Let's face it, you are slow. This will help you either push lanes, save them, or be there for your team when they need you.
• Ignite If you build Magey then get the mastery point so that you can get that AP bonus. IF not though, it's ignite. Use it against those annoying mundos, use it to do that last lil bit of DMG for a kill, whatever. Not my favorite summoner spell but it works well.
• Exhaust Slows, blinds, causes people to do less damage. Beautiful. A perfect combo of this on a carry+ your ult= a very large chance of a kill.
  
  Eh ok:
  
  
  • Clarity If you utilize your passive well enough you won't really need this too often. With nunu I like to have a little bit of mana regen runes so I really don't ever need this.
  • Heal You have your own heal, Consume , But I know sometimes this heal is all it takes to live long enough to survive your ult if you are being targetted.
  • Ghost If you need Ghost then you aren't utilizing your Blood Boil well enough. It is nearly the equivalent of ghost in my opinion. However, it can sometimes be used by Nunu properly
    
    No no Nunu:
    
    
  • Clairvoyance Let the support get it. You have no world wide ult that will be able to kill anyone if you clairvoyance on them.
  • Cleanse It seems to me like Cleanse is doing less and less with every patch. I don't really like to trust it. If you need a cleanse that removes ALL debuffs from you then grab Quicksilver Sash It works way better
  • Revive If you are playing correctly you shouldn't be dying too often. And even if you do you are way too slow to be able to catch up to wherever the team fight may have been.

You have an ult that does a ton of DMG no matter how you build. But commonly I find that I am killed whenever I ult, therefore my ult doesn't go off/ does no dmg and it was a complete waste. Sometimes, Defense is the greatest offense.

With this Nunu tank build you will be able to live long enough to tank EVERYTHING and still get your ult off. Granted, When playing this game there are some things/ items that you need to build situationally.

Ok. This is your core build:

or

Now keep in mind that depending on the opposing team you may need to get more MR, Armor, Whatever.


Grab a Ruby Crystal to start off the game.

Now, I find it super annoying when I am about to ult and everything is going great then the second after I ult- BAM- A stun, taunt, hit up, whatever. And the ult is cancelled. This is why Banshee's Veil is so important.

Soul Shroud works great with Nunu. Because I sometimes find myself mana thristy with this tank build this really helps to offset that. Plus, it is an aura so you are doing the job that all tanks should do which is helping your carries.

Randuin's Omen is an amazing item for all tanks. It gives a tank character everything you need. Also, don't forget to use that active!

Now, Depending on the team, get either Force of Nature or Thornmail next.
FON really helps for AP teams.
I personally like Thornmail better however, because I love to hurt them back while I am ulting and they are attacking me.

Last but not least, Sunfire's Cape Armor, HP, cool passive. Need I say more?

AGAIN, KEEP IN MIND THAT TANKS NEED TO BUILD ACOORDING TO THE OPP TEAM. DON'T BUILD STRAIGHT ARMOR IF HALF OF THE OPP TEAM ARE CASTERS.

In my opinions, either the tank or the support ABSOLUTELY NEED TO WARD. Don't make your carry be the one to ward. They need their valuable gold for other things. So it is your job as a Tank/ Support to ward.

This shows all of the places that need to be warded.

Early game it is a good idea to ward your own bush that leads to the middle lane as well as enemy buffs if there is an enemy jungler.

Mid game make sure that Dragon is warded

Obviously, Baron and Dragon are the most important to ward late game

I build my Nunu Mage more of a hybrid. This allows me to do a lot of dmg and stay alive.
It is really easy to maintain Mejai's Soulstealer stacks this way.

You must keep in mind that you only have 2 abilities that will do dmg to champs however, your Ice Blast and Absolute Zero

Your core build:


Again, grab a Ruby Crystal first.

As soon as you can try to get Mejai's Soulstealer so that you can begin stacking.

If you aren't farming too well then grab a Kage's Lucky Pick

Or, if you are doing fine money wise then simply Get Rod of Ages x 2!
Rod of ages is not a Unique item. Therefore you can just keep stacking these! Rod of Ages is absolutely PERFECT for Nunu mage tank. You get tons of AP and an insane amount of HP. Because Nunu has sick AP scales once you get these two items you should be doing crazy amounts of DMG.

Follow that up with Banshee's Veil As always, you need that Banshee's Veil in order to block people from trying to mess with your ult.

Next, Once you have enough gold to get a Needlessly Large Rod get it. Then once you do that build it into Rabadon's Deathcap By this point you should be doing a TON of Magic Damage.

Finish the build off with either Sunfire's Cape, Guardian's Angel, or any other item you feel is necessary. By this time you should be dealing lots of damage. If the game isn't over then there is obviously someone on the other team that is doing an equal amount of damage to your team. Build your last item to try and counter that.

NUNU DPS?!? Yes, Nunu DPS. You have a slow, and a super MS/ AS Ability. It works trust me.

The only difficulties I have ever had with this build is mana. But that can be over come by using your passive to its full extent.

Note: There are a whole lot of you that are taking this build WAYYYY too seriously. It is possible. I have played tons of games as a DPS Nunu and I have been very successful. However, I am still working on the build as well as the guide so please cut me some slack until I have figured out the best way to play Nunu DPS.

For now, I am only putting this in here as an alternative build if you need to balance your team out.

Core build:
Sunfire's Cape

Yet again, Start off with a Ruby Crystal

Build this into Phage, then get Sheen And finally Zeal building these 3 items obviously into Trinity Force This item is the backbone to this entire build. It gives you everything that you need to be a Nunu DPS

Pick up Boots of Swiftness

Then the Black Cleaver This will give you lots of AD and some ArP

Next, Madred's Bloodrazor Need I say more?

Ok. Now here is where you need to make some choices. You can either get:
Bloodthirster or Infinity Edge
Blood Thirster gives you Life Steal but IE gives you more AD as well as some crit.

Sunfire Aegis

Nunu is an amazing Jungler. With Smite and Consume you can take down the jungle super easily.

Ok. To begin grab Cloth Armor and 5 Health Potion

Grab a point in Consume

Then head to your Mana Golem.

Right from the start use a Health Potion and Consume Him. Your Consume does 500 dmg at the start and heals you about 100 HP. But the CD is pretty long. Try to keep all of this in mind.


Use another Health Potion (s) as needed

This will be the hardest one to get I assure you. Level up your Blood boil then go to:

Wolf Camp
Use all of your abilities whenever possible. Since you have the mana buff you won't really have to worry about mana yet

Wraiths
Attack the little ones and Consume The big one in order to kill it in one hit.


Golems
Again, Consume and Blood Boil Whenever possible. By this time you should be around level 3. Put a point in Ice Blast

Lizard Buff
By now you should know what to do. This won't be nearly as hard to get as the mana golem was.

Their Mana Buff

Then once you get to level 6 Gank (assuming you have full health now via feast)

In order to Gank you can either Flash to the middle of the lane or Blood Boil Whatever. Try to get to the very middle so that they can't run around your ult then ult while your team mates help bash them. Follow up with Ice Blast and Blood Boil Whenever possible.

After you Gank go B or help whoever is solo laning so that they can go B for a little bit. I try to get Wriggle's Lantern and I ward around dragon.

Once you have done this just continue the cycle until you get to around level 8. At this point you should be able to solo dragon.Do that for a nice amount of Gold and XP

Try to gank as often as possible

Level 1- Consume
Level 2- Blood Boil
Level 3- Consume
Level 4- Blood Boil
Lavel 5- Iceblast
From there make your Consume priority until you get it to level 3. By that time you shouldn't really need it anymore.
Blood Boil comes next
And finally Ice Blast

Depending on how you build you may want to level up Ice Blast more often than Blood Boil

As far as Items are concerned I get the typical Cloth Armor and HP pots... Nothing new there

From there I usually build into one of the above 3 builds based on my team comp.

Ok. Now after you have read the guide/ looked at the builds you may be wondering... What build should I use?
The build that you use should be depended upon many things:
1-Whatever runes you have available
-If you don't have good DPS runes available then don't maybe don't build DPS as him.
2-Your team compostion
-If you have 1 heavy tank and 3 DPS champs then a mage nunu will prob work the best
3-Your playstyle
-If you are used to running in first and soaking up tons of damage then tank is the way to go

As you can see I started off with a Ruby Crystal in almost every single one of my builds. This means that up to mid game you can be built as basically anything. I find that being flexible can really help win some games. Yes, you may have your runes/ masteries set up dif but that won't matter all that much

For instance say you buy a Ruby Crystal and head to your lane. For this game you have your masteries set up on being magey. You get to level 3 and then the opposing team gets first blood on one of your team mates who happened to be your only tank. Then, Rage quit. Well, some one has to take that position if you are even going to want to stand a chance.

Normally, this could be hard to overcome. However, with the flexibility of Nunu you can simply turn what was going to be a Rod of Ages into Warmog's Armor Easy right?

If there is a jungler and no one really wants to solo lane then pick Nunu and help your team out because it is super easy to successfully solo lane as Nunu.

It doesn't matter what build you go with, but I would suggest getting Consume first.

This will allow you to heal yourself and farm minions at the same time. From there I would get Ice Blast then finally Blood Boil After that, I usually prioritize Ice Blast For harassment.

As long as you are constantly harassing and healing with your abilities you should have no trouble staying alive. The only problem is, you can't simply spam your abilities. Because if you do that then you will have both mana and health problems.

Once you get to level 6 try to start looking for times when your enemy is playing dangerously so that you can coordinate an Absolute Zero / jungler gank of doom. Get your jungler to either taunt, stun, whatever and then pop your ult. It should be an easy kill if not two.

From there either go b or keep laning. Begin your build and tele back in. Keep in mind that the longer you stay in your lane then the more levels ahead you will be from your enemy. So even if they both die/ go b you don't have to leave the lane just yet

Winning team fights with Nunu is simple and it really is your shining area.

1. Blood Boil your main DPS carry.

2. Go for their carry with Ice Blast

3. Depending on your build of course you may need to do dif things:

Tank-Initiate with Ult

Mage/Dps- Harass with ice blast until you find a good time to ult

4. After your ult is over with continue the first 2 steps until your team has either won the team fight or backed out. Remember that your Blood Boil Increases MS so feel free to use that on your teammates in order to chase or run.

Nunu is amazing at the twisted Treeline map. Because it is smaller, there is more action and less travel time. Which helps nunu in 2 ways:
1- More action means that you are going to rely less on minion kills. Personally I find Nunu a semi-hard champ to farm minions with because he has no real AoE abilities (Aside from his ult of course)
2- Nunu is pretty slow. Which is why he relies so heavily on his own slows as well as Blood Boil With a smaller map he can get to the action much more quickly.

Personally, I go with my mage- tank build 90 times out of 100 at Twisted Treeline. The reason for this is that you can do tons of dmg as well as stay alive.

Next, you should go bot lane. All you need to do at Twisted Treeline is harass and farm whenever possible during the laning phase.

If you have harassed successfully and the enemy champs in your lane have low hp call for a gank. Simply Ice Blast The target enemy and Blood Boil the champ that is coming to gank. If all goes right you should have a pretty easy kill.

Twisted Treeline is my favorite map to play because it is so fast paced and full of team fights. This gives nunu TONS of times that he can ult successfully.

Make sure that you have warded in good tactical spots
Then, simply have your team mates bait the enemy into the jungle where you are lurking with your ult ready to go.

Again, you should get some pretty easy kills by playing tactically.

By now you should be well informed of all of the different ways to play Nunu.
I play him all of the time and I build him using all of these builds depending on my team composition.

If you have any questions/ Comments then comment below. Or you can find me on the servers as "joker44"

I am still trying to improve on my item builds, runes, gameplay, etc. So it would really help me if you would offer constructive criticism instead of simply voting down on it. Thankyou have fun

I figured I might as well put this in here if there are any of you who prefer the way that I had the guide/ builds before

5/27/11

Replaced Warmog’s Armor with Soul Shroud in the tank build.
Also added Randuin’s Omen and made FON/ Thornmail options
Replaced Void Staff with a second ROA in the mage build
Replaced SOtD and Last whisper with BF sword and Sunfire’s cape in the DPS build
Changed the beginning items for the jungle build
Edited the Guides

6/5/11
Added pics of ultimate, jungle route, and warding locations
Added ward chapter
Added a 3v3 Chapter

8/21/11
Updated the Jungling guide picture

9/7/11
Updated the format of guide
Fixed some minor errors

1/3/12
Got rid of stacking Kage's lucky Picks
Updated the new masteries
Changed starting items on jungle build
Got rid of all dodge runes