Thoughts on the Nunu Rework from a (Former) Nunu One Trick

So, Nunu has not been doing well after the rework. The champion is certainly more capable of initiating and delivering high-impact CC. The E delayed root combos nicely with Absolute Zero. And yet, as Meddler has confessed, even after the period that they expected new players would ramp up their mastery, Nunu is still struggling and has poor win rates. So, what really changed about Nunu that made him less effective? There are two big aspects, which I will discuss here (also why, after the Nunu rework, my interest in League crashed into the ground).

Reason Number One - Tanks are Not Juggernauts

Before the rework, Nunu's recent changes indicated that Riot was taking him in more of a juggernaut direction. Rather than giving him hard CC or improved durability, which modern tanks are expected to have (Nunu was previously the only tank in the game who could not proc Courage of the Colossus or Aftershock), Riot was giving him on-hit damage and mobility with the changes to his Consume. An interesting take, and it was removed to give him higher base AD after a time, which meant that Nunu synergized even better with items like Trinity Force and Titanic Hydra. For a time, that's how I played him. Grasp of the Undying, Titanic Hydra, Trinity Force, Spirit Visage. I called it the "Bitch Better Have My Money" Nunu, because it was all about pimp slapping. And sure, I was successful (even out dueled a fed Vi at one point when I had basically no kills because of counterjungling).

But then the rework happened and, I was honestly concerned they were going to lean full in to this new Juggernaut package. instead, we got the current version of Nunu, with a knock up, a root, and the same giant AOE slow. So, why is he failing to tank properly?

Nunu's base stats were mutilated during the rework, with champions such as Karma, Zoe, and Twisted Fate having higher base health than him at level 18. On top of this base stat nerf, Nunu also completely lost his ability to stack up his Q and gain up to 10% maximum health, resulting in his final build losing about 800-1000 health overall after the changes to his kit.

In exchange for this, Nunu received durability in two ways: He can now use his Consume on champions, which gives him a small burst of healing, and he also gains a low base but high scaling shield while he channels his ultimate, which decays over 3 seconds after he starts channeling. So, how does this work out in a fight?

Often times, Nunu's channel will immediately break about 0.75 to 1 second after he begins his channel. If you plan it poorly and you start channeling during the animation of someone else CCIng you, you can actually have it broken about 0.25 seconds after you start channeling. So then you get the shield and it immediately begins decaying. That's fine, right? You played poorly, so the enemy team gets to exploit your weakness.

Well...not really. No other warden or vanguard in the game has a skill floor on their DURABILITY. Durability is an expectation of playing tanks, not a skill test. You pick tanky champions BECAUSE they are durable. And sure, Sion's Soul Furnace can pop quickly, or Maokai can be held in place so he can't get the healing off his Sap Salve, but those champions have either ridiculous high scaling health (Sion, also pre-rework Nunu) or just good base stats (Maokai).

Look at other champions who are tanky, have low stats, but rely on their abilities for durability. Amumu has passive physical damage resistance. No skill required, you just build armor and take points in your E and you are automatically tankier. Malphite has a 10% max health shield that needs to be broken, he doesn't even need to press a button to put it up. And while it's up, his armor is tripled. Nautilus and Sion both rely on a shield, but that shield does not randomly start decaying after they get hit with CC. Eating CC is actually supposed to be something tanks TRY to do.

So, Nunu has bad base stats and he is required to take a lot of damage and then start healing up with his Q, which is what juggernauts do. Juggernauts want to stay in fights longer so they can deal a lot of damage, and recovering from a burst of damage with a burst of healing so they can keep damaging is their bread and butter (Darius, Illaoi). Nunu is not a juggernaut, and he needs to survive long enough to channel his ultimate and while he's moving with his W. He has to be able to reach the enemy team with his W, in other words, he has to push through their CC (he's immune to slows) and damage. But he can't have his channel shield while he's moving, and he can't Q to heal while he's moving. So...it's just a poor design overall. The time when you need tankiness the most, during your initiation, it's not there. And if you manage to get there, you get a small boost to your durability with a big shield that starts decaying immediately..but you already took a big chunk of health during your W push. You don't act as an effective front line in this way.

Reason Number Two - Ice Doesn't Slow, Apparently

The biggest thing that was quietly removed from Nunu's kit during the rework was not his Consume health buff. It was not his auto-target E. It was not his AP amplification or his on-hit damage. No, the biggest thing, the core part of Nunu's identity that was taken away from him, was both of his attack speed slows.

For those that did not play Nunu before the rework, Nunu was one of very few champions who could inflict an attack speed slow on the enemy team. It's actually one of the reasons why Master Yi countered him so hard, because he was very reliant on an attack speed slow to keep himself alive during channels and fights, and Master Yi's Highlander allows him to ignore that.

Both Nunu's Ice Blast (E) and his Absolute Zero (R) inflicted a 25% attack speed slow for their durations. Living through a 3 second channel required a lot of effort, and a 25% attack speed slow went a long way to keeping the enemy from killing you. With that removed, it's much easier for someone like Irelia or Darius to simply auto you to death during your channel even if they can't interrupt it. A big shield means nothing if you have to build a lot of health to make up for your lack of base health and you don't have any resistances. Channeling Absolute Zero does not give you the bonus armor or MR from Aftershock (and when you W in and miss your knock up, you don't have time to E three times and get a snare for it). So that big 1000 health shield just disappears quickly under pressure. And you die.

Meddler's attempt to resolve this by giving Nunu a bigger heal on his Q against champions does not solve the problem. Nunu doesn't need to live for a long time after his channel, he needs to live through his channel. Give him his attack speed slow back on Absolute Zero, at least, and replace the shield on his ultimate with some good base stats like Sejuani or Alistar.