Don’t Make the Yeti Angry: Nunu in the LCS
Riot·6/12/2014, 6:23:02 PM·0 votes·3 views
When Nunu is strong, he is the true terror of the jungle. However, he hasn’t seen that much play since his last set of buffs in the 3.8 patch, when he was briefly a god-tier jungler. He was almost permanently banned in professional play until his subsequent nerfs, and has seen little play in the LCS since. That is, until recently, when LMQ picked him up and used him to great success.
What makes Nunu a strong pick, and what is different about the hybrid Chinese-American style that makes him more enticing?
You can’t talk about Nunu without talking about his jungling strengths - and his weaknesses.
Nunu is a type of jungler we don’t see much anymore: a control jungler. He excels at managing the jungle at full health and mana, while being able to pressure objectives at a moment’s notice.
Sustainability
The ability Consume gives Nunu more health than he could ever need when he chows down on a jungle monster, while his passive Visionary ensures that Nunu doesn’t run out of mana constantly. The two combined mean that Nunu is always ready to act. Even if he’s taken a few hits recently, he need merely step in the jungle briefly to heal up.
To make matters better for him, Blood Boil is consistently up, allowing him to always have a mobility buff, and move about the jungle quickly.
Objective Versatility
Nunu takes jungle objectives - buffs, dragon, baron - more easily than most champions, due to the true damage and sustain from Consume. It certainly doesn’t hurt when an ally shows up to get the attack speed buff from Blood Boil, which can be cast on both ally and Nunu himself simultaneously.
He also excels at taking down uncontested towers - again, thanks to Blood Boil. As LMW jungler NoName notes, this makes him “a great champion when teams decide to swap lanes”.
Nunu’s true strength lies in his ability to control zones. This what makes him so strong in AD Carry-centric compositions: His kit is all about making your AD Carry’s job as easy as possible, while making the enemy AD Carry and assassins’ jobs far more difficult.
The most obvious way he does this is with his ultimate, Absolute Zero. When most people think of Absolute Zero, they think of the massive damage that comes at the end of its channel. However, that explosion is really just the - pardon the pun - icing on the cake. Any enemy champion who stands in Absolute Zero loses half of their movement speed and 25% of their attack speed.
Even without his ultimate, Nunu has a second bit of zone control: Ice Blast. Essentially, this is a single-target Absolute Zero that can slow an assassin trying to dive his ADC, or simply drop an enemy ADCs damage and mobility. He excels at keeping squishies safe, especially against opponents with less than stellar mobility.
Ice Blast from the Past
For LCS watchers, Nunu may seem like an outdated champion revived by an unusual set of circumstances. But in China, the yeti has been alive and kicking, although steadily falling out of favor. What makes China different? China, as a region, is extremely ADC-focused, something which suits Nunu’s skills particularly well. It should come as no surprise then that Nunu’s only NA LCS win was by LMQ, and against the Rush Hour bot lane - Doublelift and Aphromoo - of CLG.Boil and Consume – The Perfect Recipe
You can’t talk about Nunu without talking about his jungling strengths - and his weaknesses.
Nunu is a type of jungler we don’t see much anymore: a control jungler. He excels at managing the jungle at full health and mana, while being able to pressure objectives at a moment’s notice.
Sustainability
The ability Consume gives Nunu more health than he could ever need when he chows down on a jungle monster, while his passive Visionary ensures that Nunu doesn’t run out of mana constantly. The two combined mean that Nunu is always ready to act. Even if he’s taken a few hits recently, he need merely step in the jungle briefly to heal up.
To make matters better for him, Blood Boil is consistently up, allowing him to always have a mobility buff, and move about the jungle quickly.
Objective Versatility
Nunu takes jungle objectives - buffs, dragon, baron - more easily than most champions, due to the true damage and sustain from Consume. It certainly doesn’t hurt when an ally shows up to get the attack speed buff from Blood Boil, which can be cast on both ally and Nunu himself simultaneously.
He also excels at taking down uncontested towers - again, thanks to Blood Boil. As LMW jungler NoName notes, this makes him “a great champion when teams decide to swap lanes”.
Absolute Control
Nunu’s true strength lies in his ability to control zones. This what makes him so strong in AD Carry-centric compositions: His kit is all about making your AD Carry’s job as easy as possible, while making the enemy AD Carry and assassins’ jobs far more difficult.
The most obvious way he does this is with his ultimate, Absolute Zero. When most people think of Absolute Zero, they think of the massive damage that comes at the end of its channel. However, that explosion is really just the - pardon the pun - icing on the cake. Any enemy champion who stands in Absolute Zero loses half of their movement speed and 25% of their attack speed.
Even without his ultimate, Nunu has a second bit of zone control: Ice Blast. Essentially, this is a single-target Absolute Zero that can slow an assassin trying to dive his ADC, or simply drop an enemy ADCs damage and mobility. He excels at keeping squishies safe, especially against opponents with less than stellar mobility.