Introduction
Pros / Cons
Rune explanations
Masteries
Items and Alternatives
Skill Sequence
Summoner Spells
Jungling
Team Fights
Early Game
Mid Game
Late Game
Summary
Bonus Tips and Trivia

Introduction

Hello and welcome to my Nunu build. This is an AP jungling build, which is probably the best way to play him in my opinion, due to his amazing damage as an AP carry, and also his Consume spell, his passive, and Ice Blast are great for jungling. Please be sure to rate and comment, and be sure to address any problems you have so I can help. Please test this build at least once before voting. Thanks to Karlyr for help on items, Freki for runes, and big thanks to mrdudguy for help on runes, items, and helping me clean up my guide in general.


Pros / Cons

Pros

Great jungler
Amazing burst
Durable
Consume and Smite are the perfect combo
Has a slow
Support
Haste
Heal
You eat squishies alive


Cons

After you use Absolute Zero your only good damage source is Ice Blast
Banshees Veil or Sivir's Spell Shield block your damage source significantly
Cleanse or Flash gets people out of your Ult relatively easy
Your Ult can be canceled by a stun, snare, taunt, and other disables
Tanks who stack Magic Resist are a pain


As you can see, Nunu is not hard to counter, but only the tank will really be trying to counter you (Even though others may grab a Force of Nature or something). Most squishies and carries will continue their regular build, so only the tank should really be giving you much trouble (Of course you can't forget about really tough DPS champs like Mundo, Olaf, or Sion).


Rune explanations

I'm running with Magic Penetration Marks, Mana regen per level Seals, Flat CDR Glyphs, and Flat health Quintessences. These runes help any mana issues you may have when you don't have blue buff, make your spells hit harder, and make it possible to start on Blue Buff without taking heal.


Masteries

I follow a standard 9/0/21 mastery build. I recommend this because you get cooldown reduction from both the Offensive and Utility mastery trees, plus the increase on buff time and exp bonus are very nice. If you are starting on blue buff and want to go back to heal less then a 0/21/9 or a 0/9/21 mastery build with Heal as a summoner spell might be a good choice, but it reduces your effectiveness as an AP carry for your team.


Items and Alternatives

Please do not buy these items in the order seen here, please follow the build above.

Doesn't reduce damage taken by too much, but every little bit helps.

Gives you the great passive, but thanks to consume, there is no need to make it a Wriggle's Lantern, that is unless you feel you need the lifesteal and free ward.

Some early CDR to use Consume faster for slightly easier jungling.

Magic Penetration is nice and some good Ability Power also.

This is an all around good item for any AP champ, and gives you plenty of AP.

A very nice 100 AP and gives you the amazing passive and 50 armor.

Gives you some health, mana, and Ability Power, plus it gives you more over time.

Great to prevent slows and other types of CC, and harmful spells in general.

Alternatives:

The passive is great, plus all the bonuses such as the Ability Power you get from it.

Gives you some good Ability Power, and the passive of Tear of the Goddess. I don't use this because you should have plenty of mana from Banshee's Veil and Rod of Ages.

Magic Resistance and Ability Power. Plus it basically gives you 20 Magic Penetration, only in aura form

Great item if you are doing really good and feel you can hold the stacks. If you can you get some nice cooldown reduction.

Nice cooldown reduction and Ability Power, plus a nice passive.

This is a good support item for other AP casters on your team and good for you also.

Jebus McAzn brought it to my attention that Nunu is blessed as one of the few junglers who doesn't have to start with Cloth Armor, I just start with it because it's my preference. This is very useful for the bonus HP you get and helps in the building of Rod Of Ages.

Gives you the movement speed and some very helpful Magic Penetration.

Keeps you from being CC'd too hard.

http://eu.leagueoflegends.com/board/showthread.php?t=228 Yes this DOES stack with Ice Blast, and is very effective. Bonus health, nice AP, and a slow that DOES stack with your Ice Blast. I don't grab it though, as the slow from Ice Blast should be enough to get a kill.

Good AP and MP5. Also good for CDR.

You may have noticed that I put basically every AP item in this list. That is because nothing is really bad on Nunu, he is just that flexible.


Skill Sequence

I use this skill sequence because is the perfect jungling spell, but two levels in it is all you need, I level Ice Blast first for the nice damage it gives in ganking and jungling, and Blood Boil as it is great for ganking and jungling. Blood Boil lasts longer than the cooldown, so you should try to have it on all the time.


Summoner Spells

Smite: Pretty obvious why you would take this. Seriously, Consume + Smite at level one is 945 damage to blue buff or golems. That is awesome. But Nunu is still an effective jungler without Smite, so feel free to replace it.

Flash: Can get you in to use your Ult, or get you out after. Great spell.

Alternatives:

Heal: Can save you many times and lets you stay in the jungle for longer..

Exhaust: Can keep people from escaping your ultimate and you already have 2 slows, add exhaust and it's hard to escape you.

Cleanse: Gets you out of bad situations where their team has a lot of CC.


Jungling

Thanks to Consume, Nunu is easily the easiest jungler in the game (Did I mention that it's easy?). The way I like to use goes like this:

Go to Blue Buff. Once it spawns and no one is ganking you, Consume then Smite it (I use these two as soon as the fight starts). Use a health potion right off the bat so you have good regen throughout the fight. This fight can come down to you having very low health (like around 20 health left) before you are able to consume for the killing blow, so this may take practice. You will most likely need to use another potion to deal with the remaining lizards.

Next for the wolves. Simply Consume the big wolf and auto-attack the rest, using consume to keep your health up.

Next run to the Double Golem camp. Consume one and Smite the other. Then auto-attack and consume to finish them off.

Now go to the Wraith camp. Consume the purple one and, like all the other camps, just auto-attack while using consume.

Now for Red Buff. After Wraiths, your Smite should be on a cooldown somewhere around 15 seconds, give or take a few. Simply wait until the cooldown hits 6 or 7, then engage the Red Buff lizard. This fight can also be a pretty close call, so using a potion is recommended here. The jungle can be cleared using 3 potions instead of 5, I put 5 in the item order in case someone new to Nunu or to jungling in general looks at my guide.

Recall and buy your Madred's Razors.

Now for Dragon. Note that before you decide to kill Dragon, you should probably check all lanes to see if a gank opportunity has arisen, or if a lane needs to be covered while your teammate goes back to base. Before you kill Dragon, make sure you have Blue Buff, and make sure you have full health and mana as well. I killed dragon at level 9, although it may be possible earlier, depending on how lucky you get with your Madred's procs. You can also do it earlier depending on how much help you get. When I did this, I ran in and used the Consume and Smite combo, and kept Blood Boil on at all times while using Consume and using Ice Blast, and I may have accomplished this due to lucky procs on Madred's, and I had my Ionian Boots of Lucidity, so the CDR may have led to faster Consumes and helped me do it.

As I said before, clearing the jungle only requires a minimal of 3 potions, so if you feel confident, grab 3 and save yourself some money.


Team Fights

In Team Fights team work is key to winning, so make sure your team has some sort of plan. Once the tank initiates, run in and use your ult. Most will turn and run, but by being slowed they are going to be barraged by attacks from your team. Once the ult goes off, Ice Blast the squishiest member of the enemy team. Always be sure to keep Blood Boil size on your hardest melee carry, and if an ally is dying and trying to escape, Ice Blast the person chasing, then use Blood Boil on your ally so he/she can escape. Your burst will have hopefully injured them nicely and made them retreat, and also hopefully picked up a few kills. As Nunu you are likely get more assists than kills.


Early Game

Grab your and x3-5 and run straight to blue buff, then follow the guide given in the Jungling section.


Mid Game

Start your ganking and be aware for ganks, as this is where they are the most common. Ganking is as easy as using Blood Boil on your ally then using Ice Blast to keep the enemy slowed for your ally to beat on them. If you want the kill really bad, or there are multiple targets and you want both dead, then use your ult to help get the kill(s). Also now is the time to ward Dragon and even Baron later on.


Late Game

Team Fight time. Your ult is the game changer in team fights, and your job is to deal nice damage with Ice Blast, while keeping Blood Boil on your carries. Baron should be warded ALWAYS, and should be done by your team at some point. Fighting 1v1 with someone isn't the best idea with Nunu, so try to stick with a reliable damage dealer. If the situation appears where you are stuck in 1v1, don't worry. You are a durable damage dealer with a nice escape mechanism via Blood Boil. Hopefully you have most of your build. (At least your , , , and . The game doesn't usually last too much longer, win or lose. But if it happens to, and you complete your build, well, the enemies better have a lot of MR.


Summary

This build is an effective jungle build (For me anyways) that I enjoy and have had success with and I hope you had success with it also. Anything in this build that may be similar to some other build is completely coincidental, as I have not looked at any other jungle Nunu builds.
Thanks for reading, be sure to comment and rate.


Bonus Tips and Trivia

Just a section that I decided to throw in for your entertainment, and hopefully you can learn some interesting things from the "Tips" section. Enjoy.

Tips:

Ability Usage:

- Consume allows Nunu to stay in a lane against ranged opponents, especially against Heimerdinger's turrets which can be destroyed with a single Consume. It also 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. Use him in collaboration with Anivia to dominate AoE damage in a lane.

- 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, especially if laning with a friendly ranged hero like Ashe or Tristana.

- 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.

Trivia:

- Nunu is the name of one of the developer's dogs. He also uses it as a pet name for his wife.

- Nunu's joke is a reference to Theodore Roosevelt's famous quote, "Speak softly and carry a big stick."

- Nunu's taunt is a reference to "The Hulk."

- In thermodynamics, "absolute zero" refers to a state where the temperature of a system is at the lowest possible limit: approximately -459.67 degrees Fahrenheit, -273.15 degrees Celsius, or zero Kelvin.

- Nunu's dance is a reference to Michael Jackson's famous Moon Walk.

- Nunu was designed by Guinsoo.

- The Yeti's name is Willump.