FOTM Report: God Tier Jungle Nunu Guide

Don't make the yeti angry, you won't like him when he's angry...

In the latest rendition of NerfPlz's Solo Queue Tier List, Nunu made his reappearance as not just another member of the God Tier junglers, but in fact THE God Tier Jungler, securing the #1 spot.

Some of you might be saying to yourself, "No way, Nunu no damage! He cannot carry." But I can safely say he can, because a little less than a week from my tier list update, Nunu's win rate jumped from 49% to the second highest jungler win rate in the game. (See below)

You'll probably also notice that Viktor is absurdly high on the list...some of you will probably be gloating "I told you so's" about that...

So what's the big change since we saw him last? It's his consume coupled with the jungle changes to make the big buffs more potent. In an effort to shift Nunu from supporting into the jungle, Riot's accidentally recreated the ultimate jungle troll from Season 1 reincarnated bigger, badder, and cheesier than ever before.

Heavy Consume Buffs

Check out the numbers on Nunu's level 1 consume bonus from Patch 3.7:

• Consume
  • Damage increased to 600/700/800/900/1000 from 500/600/700/800/900
  • Consume now grants bonuses for 120/150/180/210/240 seconds based on the type of monster consume was used on:
    • Golem-type monsters grant 10% increased size and maximum Health
    • Lizard-type monsters grant Nunu's attacks and spells additional magic damage equal to 1% of Nunu's maximum Health
    • Wraith or Wolf-type monsters grant 15% movement speed for 3 seconds after Nunu kills a unit

As you can see here, from the start he gets an extra 10% HP (43~50 hp at level 1) from starting at blue golem, which grants him two fold:

1. Extremely safe and easy early jungling
2. The ability to be slightly tankier to escape while counterjungling

Counterjungling
With his consume's 17 second CD, it's more than fast enough to be available to head off to red buff for a quick 600 + 520 from smite (all true damage). Against the 1500 hp lizard, this means that a single iceball (85 damage) and about 6~7 hits will steal the enemy red buff right from under their noses.

Prior to the consume buff that was 2~3 more attacks, which could easily be the difference between life and death during an invade.

Not only that, but Patch 3.8's monster experience changes gave Nunu a HUGE surge in power:

• Ancient Golem
  • Base Experience granted increased to 340 from 220
  • Now plays a particle effect to show who the buff transferred to
• Lizard Elder
  • Base Experience granted increased to 340 from 220
  • Now plays a particle effect to show who the buff transferred to
• Young Lizard
  • Base Experience granted reduced to 10 from 40

As you can see here, before the change it was worth clearing the young lizards, and if you didn't then the enemy jungler still had a chance to get back into the game. However, with the big buffs gaining a full 54% in extra experience and the small creeps reduced by 75%, it's now more worth it than ever to pop in and counterjungle.

Even if the entire team comes for you, the Baron and Dragon walls are conveniently placed so that flashing over a wall and wasting two or more people's time will lead to an early game advantage for your team.

Late Game

After picking up an Aegis (Bulwark if they have high AP) and a Locket, Nunu is all but unkillable when he has golem buff on due to the insane 10% scaling that consume gives.

If you feel like you need to do more damage, I suggest either Blade of the Ruined King or Void Staff depending on what kind of resists your enemies have built.

The reason why you would want to choose one of these is that they scale better as a single item than something else like Bloodthirster or Deathcap late game if you don't have any other damage items built up.

If your team has already built up enough damage, then feel free to get something like a Randuins, although I personally find that boring...

Conclusions:
At this point in the game Nunu is by far the safest and most rewarding counterjungler in the game. In a nutshell it goes like this: If you have an extra tank that buffs your AD carry by a huge amount and also has the ability to take the enemy jungler out of the game completely...why shouldn't you win? Nerfplz.

Thoughts on Nunu? Not convinced yet? Comment below!