[4.1b] Nunu & Willump Guide - Nunu in Lane - (WIP) comprehensive Nunu mid guide
Nunu in Lane - (WIP) comprehensive Nunu mid guide
Pros
- Unique and fun to play!
- Goes where they pleases
- Actually quite strong
Cons
- Tricky to get used too
- Weak build flexibility
- Sometimes confuses your teammates
Nunu & Willump Build
Best Build Guide for Nunu & Willump
Item Build Description
Additional information on the items
General build tips:
Despite the vast arsenal of self peel from Nunu, his kit means that he have to fully commit to deal enough damage to be a threat to enemy carrie, especially if they itemize against you. This goes both for ability usage and itemization, Nunu needs appropriate, high damage items, while landing enough abilities to one shot enemy carries then use the same utility provided by his abilities to get out of situations.
One of the issues I see people getting into AP Nunu do is building them like a bruiser, such as
Rod of Ages
into
Riftmaker
, while bruiser AP Nunu works in certain situations it’s limited by his fast, burst oriented ability combo with long downtime where lack of consistent follow up damages limits his effectiveness as the fight goes on. As a bursty AP melee champion, you should generally want to unload your damage and move away, wait till your cooldowns up then rinse and repeat with your next ability rotation. Overstaying your welcome in Chaotic teamfights is never a good idea especially when Nunu’s [nunu and willump:2] allows them to weave in and out of fight at their pleasure.
If situation demands it, such as when your team lacks a frontline and drafted a tank dependent comp, it could be a good idea to build full tank instead.
Game start - always go for
Amplifying Tome
First item - [mana boots] provides early damage, pen, the crucial movement speed and mana regen that lane Nunu thrive on. Build
Glorious Enchant
when available as its a core enchantment for Nunu
First major item - commonly
Infinity Orb
, [rabadon’s deathcap] or [Banshee’s veil]
[infinity_orb] is an amazing early item on Nunu as it synnergises well with [mana_boots] to provide excellent early kill threats, the extra movement speed in its build path also speeds up Nunu’s roams and enhances their ability to hit their [Nunu_and_willump:2].
[Needlessly_large_rod] could be a good transitional items against CC based matchup, such as
Lux
or
Morgana
, where you’re flexible to finish [rabadon’s deathcap] for similar kill pressure in lane and in roam, or transition into an early [Banshee’s Veil] if they play their CC around you well and you had to focus on lane kills.
Build ideas
[rabadon’s deathcap] within the first 2 items grants Nunu a significant power spike, the extra ability power paired with [mana boots],
Infinity Orb
or other AP items makes his kit a lot less forgiving when targeting enemy carries, allowing one or two abilities to be dodged while still having enough damage to secure a takedown or a recall. In addition, early Dcap enhances Nunu’s utility by boosting [nunu and willump:1] heal and [nunu and willump:ult] self shield.
Cosmic Drive
helps Nunu to weave in and out of fights with the CDR lowering their ability downtimes, it’s movement speed helps them to get away during or after a fight, and make map wide plays. It is a great third item unless if team comps call for something else.
Generally nunu rely on item spikes and their rapid burst allows them to delay building antiheal after 1 or 2 items, as the added damage and utility makes up for not having antiheal before so (unless if enemy has champs like
Soraka
and either of you roams a bit), but after having enough damage it would be a good idea to build a [oblivion_orb]
Void Amethyst
or
Void Staff
as third item will help when enemy itemizes against your burst with items like [mercury’s treads], [wit’s end],
Hexdrinker
or [maw of malmortus].
Quicksilver Enchant
is a very situational defensive item, in situations such as facing CC champs such as thresh, that focuses on you,
Quicksilver Enchant
can get you out after you’ve unloaded your combo. However
Glorious Enchant
is far better even against opponents with CC as it’s the only way outside of [ghost] to land a charged [nunu and willump:2] that can’t be dodged by simply walking away.
Nunu & Willump Runes
Best Runes for Nunu & Willump
With runes you generally want to pick either
Phase Rush
or
Electrocute
, the former allows better disengage but is less forgiving in landing abilities, while the latter makes ability usages more forgiving.
Personally when starting up I’d recommend going with
Electrocute
as it gives Nunu better kill pressure.
Phase Rush
is generally better as Nunu can be a lot safer and macro oriented with this rune, however care have to be given on when to proc this rune as proccing it early in their combo may hinder its usage in disengaging.
going
Phase Rush
gives away fair bit of early game lane takedown pressure for utility and escape, however generally it is just as good by forcing lane opponent out of lane and fighting for prio especially for Nunu’s roaming nature. Once Nunu gets [mana boots] and progressing towards the first item they’re able to look for takedowns even without
Electrocute
if they lands enough abilities.
Normally my personal choice is
Pathfinder
,
Sweet Tooth
, [demolish] or
Nimbus Cloak
, and
Bone Plating
or
Second Wind
Pathfinder
is crucial on nunu, as it allows them to withdraw their lvl2 gank on contact and get back laning only missing a single minion, in addition,
Pathfinder
also helps Nunu make global plays in general and boosting [nunu and willump:2] travel speed and distance.
[sweet_tooth] helps boosting Nunu’s eco and resources when roaming, which they should do a lot.
[demolish] is a great rune on Nunu as [nunu and willump:passive] grants them rapid early game sieging speed, combined with [demolish] Nunu can generally secure 2 plates when they forces out a recall, and generally sneaking in a single plate before enemy jungler paths mid to cover. However in games where this is less likely to happen, with enemies that are sticky or with good wave clear, such as
Ekko
, grasp
Yasuo
,
Yone
,
Nimbus Cloak
grants Nunu great utility, able to stick onto enemies or get out of sticky situations.
I’d like to go for
Bone Plating
or
Second Wind
when I want to put my focus in winning the lane, or staying in it.
Second Wind
helps to withstand poke champs such as
Orianna
while
Bone Plating
is a game changer and allows you to actively trade onto melee matchups such as
Pantheon
or
Fizz
, in addition, it helps surviving burst damage when misplays are made against champs such as
Lux
and
Yone
Skill Order
How to distribute skill points
Summoner Spells
When to take which summoners
Combos
Learn how to maximize the champions potential
Lane trade / short range engage combo.
When trading in lane try to fully charge [nunu_and_willump:3] if possible.
When banking / looking for kills release [nunu_and_willump:3] early if needed to secure the root and proc [Phase_rush]
Long range engage / gank combo.
If [nunu_and_willump:2] is unlikely to hit, cancel early and try to find a root with [nunu_and_willump:3]. [nunu_and_willump:2] can be used to chase and gapclose to get into [nunu_and_willump:3] range, where the snowball itself doesn’t have to land.
When engaging on root champions such as
Lux
or
Morgana
with [nunu_and_willump:2], try to get in range for [glorious_enchant] to proc before cancelling [nunu_and_willump:2], sidestepping the root.
Lane ult cheese combo
After lv5 a good play could be going all in your lane opponent with [nunu_and_willump:3] followed by [nunu_and_willump:ult] to trade for summs or looking for a takedown if you’ve baited their flash earlier, as enemies in this state does not have defensive enchants or full items, and nunu ult does fair bit of damage with [mana_boots] and item components.
Try to do this in a minion wave as clearing the wave with ult also allows you instant prio.
Object securing combo
use it when your team has control over objective, practice predicting damage loaded onto objective and charge up [nunu_and_willump:ult] preemptively, release it followed by [nunu_and_willump:1] to outdamage smites.
Be cautions of using it aggressively, as you’re very squishy.
If enemy can consistently interrupt your ult, try charge it later and chomp the objective with an insta cancel.
Nunu & Willump Matchups & Counters
Detailed information on how to play matchups and counters
Pantheon could be considered a counterpick by some however Nunu’s kit can be played to make his life much harder.
When laning, try to take passive trades when possible, charge up your [nunu_and_willump:3] before pantheon uses his
Shield Vault
, use the root to navigate around his
Aegis Assault
to unload your combo.
Try to save up your [nunu_and_willump:ult] for counter roams, charge it up of pantheon decided to
Grand Starfall
near you, or use it to peel when he engages.
Try to fight for lane prio and prevent him from roaming after 6, if he’s ahead your life will be much harder. For the same reason don’t try to make over risky plays such as risky dives, play safe, pressure on and you can outscale him.
Event Horizon
Dark Binding
Death Lotus
Shunpo
Command: Attack
Command: Dissonance
Valkyrie
Heroic Swing
Soul Unbound
Light Binding
What should Nunu mid do?
A good nunu mid player should play around 3 key strengths:
- Great early game potential with fast LV1 shove and super early ganks ([nunu and willump:2],
Pathfinder
)
- Amazing mobility with [nunu and willump:2] allows them to make cross map plays, be everywhere at once, and sneak in unexpected recalls as you can get back to lane much faster.
- Decent blind pick where Nunu are quite unexpected as midlaners, you’ll have situations where enemy mid counterpicks your support while enemy jungler counterpicks Nunu.
Plus Nunu mid is extremely fun to play and effective even when behind thanks to their utilities.
Early game
Generally early game of Nunu differs from different matchups:
- Midlaners who can’t contest your early shove (mages such as Veigar, Lux and most melee champs)
You’ll wanna start by pink warding your sidelanes brushes, the best spot is your tribrush. however you should always prioritize lanes that opponent is likely to push or play aggro (e.g. enemy Cait Senna bot or Fiora, Vayne, Draven top). (in some situations you may want to ward brushes near mid instead, if enemy is likely to intercept you)
With top lane, if enemy wards and clear your ward, gank from another angle if you were to do an early roam.
When minions almost hits the lane, start rolling a [nunu and willump:2] towards enemy caster minions, use creative angles such as from river lanes, for when enemy tries to bodyblock you or try to interrupt your snowball with CC abilities. If it connects, which is most of the time, you should one shot all caster minions, then slap the melee minions down. Immediately back out of vision and look for a roam based on lane states. (This is about what 80% of games I’ve played starts like)
If enemy intercepts your snowball, lane normally instead.
‘For LV2 ganks, do not try to force it, if enemy has vision or backs off, try to cancel your [Nunu and willump:2] before you leave river and walk back to lane, this way you’ll only miss 1 minion (or less). If you walk back after leaving river, you’ll miss 2 or 3 minions and likely be behind in XP, therefore it’s crucial to make sure there is a decent chance before commiting as sometimes it’s a point of no return.
Once back in lane try to push out the next 2 waves into a reset, then look for takedowns with [nunu and willump:2] or more shoves and roams.
In this scenario, your goal is to acquire prio and get your sidelaner/jungler ahead through roams and skirmishes.
- Midlaners that you can’t shove against (TF, Akshan, ADC midlaners)
Try play safe, taking [nunu and willump:3] lv1 for CS is a valid option, play the usual melee vs ranged matchup, feel free to give some cs so you won’t get too low. Look for all-in’s down the line.
In these situations, play as standard melee assassin vs ranged matchup, its a slightly disadvantage towards you as you’ll not have that early map impact Nunu usually excels at however you should have plenty of takedown pressure after 5.
Mid game
Play around your jungler, objectives and your mobility.
Try to clear waves and use [nunu_and_willump:2] to create uneven fights around the map.
Look for isolated targets and predict when enemy Carrie’s are likely to take waves then build up a [nunu_and_willump:2] for takedowns, the dream scenario is use your mobility to make enemy carries paranoid whenever they show up on the map.
Your [Nunu_and_willump:2] now becomes one of the most flexible abilities as it can be used to shove waves, force takedowns, and secure objectives with little counterplay.
Charging up a [Nunu_and_willump:ult] on an objective followed by an instant [nunu_and_willump:1] should be able to outsmite any objective.
If there isn’t much happening on the map (which is quite rare) stay out of vision.
Late game
Try to use your mobility to push out sidelane where you can rejoin fights rapidly.
In teamfights, you want to flank with [Nunu_and_willump:2] through brush, onto side or back of enemy comp, try to combo if you can, or back off rinse and repeat.
If you see any isolated squishies on sidelanes, go straight toward them unless there are objectives or teamfights.
Try to control visions, and stay out of vision as much as possible to make your engages less predictable.
WIP
Gonna write some stuff about other subjects or my experience with Nunu but let’s get this guide online first ;)
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