League of Legends (LoL) Question: Is jungler Nunu viable ? [season 3]

Is Nunu is viable in the season 3 jungle. Yes

Would I rely on him to carry a solo queue game in season 3 ? Depend.

The way I see Nunu, he's a tanky utility jungler. What I mean is, he can peel for your carries, and you can boost any champ that is reliant on attack speed. So, if you can put your blood boil on Jax, Irelia or a good AD carry, he can be a great asset on your team.

Problem is, you can never know if the Jax, or the AD carry of your team is competent. If they aren't great, I feel like it's really hard to have any impact in the late game as Nunu.

The way I see it, he's better in a team premade, because you are sure if your carry can really carry with your help or not.

TL;DR: Nunu is great for a 5 man premade with a carry reliant on attack speed, not so great in the randomness of the solo queue.

Jungle Nunu is viable in Season 3, but not optimal.

Building off what Zelrack said, Nunu is very team reliant and is not always ideal when dealing with the random nature of solo queue. If you are duo queuing with a friend who plays someone who scales well off attack speed then Nunu can be a great choice, but Nunu is a better support when it comes to solo queue.

Also (and this is my personal opinion) Nunu just gets out classed by other Junglers. Yes, Nunu has speedy clear times and is amazing at counter jungling but there are usually better jungle options than Nunu. If you want someone with a speedy clear time, why not take Lee Sin who can start red and gank a lane at level 2? If you want a counter jungler, why not take Shyvanna or Shaco who both (like Lee Sin) can start red then gank and can counter jungle just as well as Nunu.

Plus when it comes to being a tanky jungler, Nunu has tough competition. Champions like Amumu, Nautilus, Cho'Gath, and Maokai all offer more to their teams late game than Nunu and have easier, and stronger ganks. Basically Nunu has to run out of the jungle and hit with an enemy with an ice-ball to have a shot at a successful gank whereas champions Amumu, Nautilus, and Maokai can just latch on to an enemy champion.

Long story short, Nunu is a great champion when used in an organized team but can be outclassed in the jungle and can find difficulty in solo queue.

starting machete ward and pots is the smart way, and going 0/9/21 .

one mistake a lot of people make is the need to upgrade machete. While spirit of the ancient golem is okay, it isn't as optimal as warmogs or sunfire or randuins.

Nunu has the highest base hp at level 18 in the game, and in this meta, hp is broken. This is one of his upsides, because you can buy support items and get huge in health.

however, his counter jungling has been merged because of not being able to 1-shot big wraith. As another option, many people max q first to become a bigger annoyance. Maxing q is situational, but extremely potent when the situation arises.

as for warding at the start of the game, you may want to ward the path from wolves to wraiths. (assuming they start blue) This will allow you team to know where the enemy jungler is. If the enemy jungler does not pass your ward, this means he is either trying to steal your camp , or ganking.

remember, if you cannot counter gank, just take the enemy's camps while he is ganking. If you set him back in farm, he will not want to gank.

recent bloodboil nerf hurt a lot, he may not bring enough utility as a jungler, and be played as a support instead.

IMO, he's more viable bot.

Yeah really viable take satart machete + (pot if you want)
then lv1 consume
you can down wolf + blue + red instantly with some practice
lv 2 take Blood Boil will make it even fun
then lv 3 take Ice Blast to start ganks
some people will say machete isn't that good ...well you can up it into Spirit of the Spectral Wraith
that with the Ult Absolute Zero mean a lot
aftrt it's my personal view some like him more suppor/jungle or even cast DPS/support
greetings