Champion Update Concept: Nunu

I will be posting a conceptual kit for with the goal to make him a more interesting champion and to better use his identity along with Willump. I do hope aspects of this kit have not been posted before, if they are, feel free to add a link to them and give full credit for coming up with the idea first.

Disclaimer: I am fully aware that this concept is merely recreational and may serve at best as inspiration for Riot's dedicated design teams. This work is not intended to be rewarded in any way, and I encourage anyone to use this material to come up with more awesome material for Nunu or other champions. It is also noted that the complexity of the kit may or may not be possible based on Riot's own way of coding and designing of champions and abilities.

Nunu

Overview Nunu's current abilities define him as a counter-jungler, with most of his utility coming as a champion who can secure jungle objectives earlier thanks to Consume. Beyond this role, his kit lacks purpose and identity, with his passive Visionary being severely underwhelming and his ultimate very hard to pull off without requiring to be in a bush and hope for more than one of them to face-check without a ward. I personally disagree to have to resort to the lack of clarity around bushes to be able to use a champion's ability. Nunu's new kit allows him to take advantage of one of the things he is unique from many other champions: He is actually two champions in one. Nunu will be able to separate and act cohesively with Willump for a time for some cool interactions with the jungle and enemy champions. Nunu will also possess a different health bar than Willump, being a percentage of the champion's max health and marked with a different color in the last health bars of the overall champion. This is something never done before on a champion, with the closest being 's Thick skin. I will also be bold enough to attempt to give Nunu and Willump a signature spell from the three possible, the third one being the ability to separate at will for some awesome plays. His new ultimate is inspired in his current one, but further evolved to emphasize his role as a counter-jungle specialist.

Passive - Inseparable Bond Nunu will gain a percentage of Willump's health as his own, with the added amount of both being his maximum health when they are together. If separate, when Willump's health is depleted he will become immobilized and untargetable for a time. If Nunu has not been killed during this time, Willump will rampage towards Nunu, knocking aside enemy champions in his path and recovering some health when they are reunited. All of Nunu's abilities are at full strength when performed together, with weaker versions of the spells if performed separately.

His passive is core part of his identity and I tried my best to balance it so that he can have opportunities to both outplayed and be countered. When playing with him, it is important to time when to detatch from Willump to avoid heavy CC and have a second chance at living. On the other hand, it is important for enemies to predict when Nunu will separate so that they may lock and kill him due to his lower health.

Q - Frost Bite (Willump' signature ability) If separate, Willump will bite the closest enemy, prioritizing enemy champions and jungle monsters to deal physical damage (true damage to monsters and minions) and increase its health regeneration significantly for several seconds. When reunited, Nunu will empower Willump's bite, dealing bonus magic damage and slowing enemy champions for an amount. An enemy cannot be bitten twice every five seconds (one bite is love, two is cannibalism).

This ability has proven to be troublesome for Nunu in the past, with the need to make it low on cooldown to be effective in the jungle but preventing it to be used against champions because of its true damage and healing potential to be extremely strong. I have yet to find a good balance for this one, and I would appreciate if you could give me your insights on this as well. I do believe, however that this ability has a very defined weakness since it has to be performed at melee range for it to work.

W - Team Work (Ability to separate) Nunu will jump out in the direction of the cursor, gaining increased movement speed for a few seconds and the ability to auto attack in range with snowballs. Willump can be controlled and will attack an enemy if selected while pressing W, if no enemy is selected, Willump will attack the enemy closest to Nunu, prioritizing enemy champions. After a few seconds, Nunu can recast Teamwork to jump back to Willump.

This ability is very important for Nunu, which allows him to jump out of danger if the situation is unfavorable. He also can increase his damage output in the jungle by having both of them auto attacking at the same time. Furthermore, Nunu can jump walls and obstacles when separating and joining Willump and this will allow for some great plays for experienced Nunu players. However, his cooldown to recast this ability can also work against him, since Nunu only possess a fraction of Willump's health and can be easily killed by enemy champions if used incorrectly. Once Nunu dies, Willump will die as well.

E - Frost Magic (Nunu's signature ability) If separate, Nunu will leave a trail of frost magic behind him as he moves, applying a small slow to any enemy champion that walks on it. The slow will grow stronger the more time the enemy champion walks on the path, capping at a flat amount after being on the path for a long time. If reunited with Willump, the trail will become an aura that will damage and slow enemy champions for a flat amount every # seconds.

This ability is very important for Nunu, since it will be his only way to reliably cc his enemies. It is important to note that Nunu does not possess a way to engage an enemy champion from a distance, and using Nunu's trail to cut an enemy champion from behind is risky given to his limited health. This is intended since Nunu is best suited as counter jungle specialist rather than a ganker and his ultimate will further solidify his role as the "mess with the other guy's jungle guy". Mana costs and cooldown are up to anyone to balance this kit.

R - Breath of the Freljord (Because junglers are feeling 'a lil too safe') Nunu will channel for a few seconds, absorbing natural energy from his surroundings. When fully charged, Nunu and Willump will unlock Breath of the Freljord for # seconds, gaining increased movement speed for the duration of the channel. When activated, Nunu will blow a blizzard that will instantaneously freeze a jungle camp for # minutes, (half the duration for dragon and baron camps). Frozen camps are unable to move and invulnerable to damage until they thaw. If Nunu is separated from Willump, the blizzard will cover an area in front of him, freezing monsters and slowing enemy champions. If Nunu and Willump are reunited, the blizzard will blow outward from Nunu in a bigger area, dealing increased magic damage to enemy champions and slowing them for the same amount.

This ability unlocks Nunu's full potential as a counter jungle specialist. Is their Xin Zhao ganking too much and not clearing his jungle? Freeze his buffs. Is the enemy team snowballing out of control and are attempting baron? Freeze braron. Are they diving your poor and engaging your team every time? Blow them to pieces and slow them so they can't move around you. It is the ideal improved version of Absolute Zero but it has a catch: Breath of The Freljord's channel is long and its charged state only lasts for some time, so you will need to know when to use it and where to be at the right moment, just like a counter jungler must know where to be to counter an enemy gank.

Final comments I know it is a long thread and I apologize if there is anything that is not following the rules and policies of the forum. I will modify it as soon as possible if given notice. I also would like to ask for any feedback from fellow players, Nunu experienced players and any Riot team members. I would love to see everybody's ideas even if they don't align with what I idealized for Nunu's kit. Every comment that adds positively to the discussion and creates even more awesome ideas for the design team to analyze is welcome. If it's too broken, too underwhelming, does not fit your concept of Nunu or you simply have something even more awesome, feel free to share! [slayer-pantheon-rainbows]