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Discussion about a Nunu VGU

AbiwonKenabi·2/1/2018, 3:51:51 AM·3 votes·3,428 views

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-4_4AAVqVF4w/UXDFIdmhfxI/AAAAAAAAD-M/7v_-co19eP8/s1600/Nunu_Splash_0.jpg

For those who don't know, Nunu is likely going to be the next Visual Gameplay Update after the recently announced Akali. I've been wanting to discuss a possible Nunu VGU for a while now and what it might look like, what would please the fans, etc. This seemed like as good an excuse as any to get the dialogue going. (And if it turns out it's NOT Nunu they were teasing, well, he's going to get updated sooner or later)

So what do we want from a Nunu VGU? Don't be shy, go crazy! Talk about everything you want to see from Nunu, every ability you hate, every little lore detail you love, anything. Gameplay, visuals, lore, a little of everything, discuss whatever you want. The more we express our feelings now, hopefully the better Nunu will turn out.

My thoughts Gameplay This is one of the few VGU Champs recently that I have actually played a fair amount of in the past (not that I'm a gameplay expert or anything). Nunu tends towards the support-y tank playstyle, and he should definitely stay that way. While he doesn't HAVE to be strictly a jungler or even retain the ability wholesale, I think some form of Consume should be kept. His identity as a solid counterjungler and excellent objective controller is a big part of what makes Nunu unique and fun. Thinking about the smart way to secure objectives and the opponents jungle is something both fun and can have a lot of counterplay. His other abilities are pretty take it or leave it. Some team buff similar to Blood Boil would be nice (although the AP they added to it is just silly strong), and he should have some other, icy, slow-y abilities, but otherwise I don't think any single ability needs to be untouched (unlike Irelia's Blade Surge for example). Although thinking about it, his ultimate might be ok. It's interesting enough, pretty counterable, yet the bush hiding, flash ults and positioning give it some fun strategy.

Lore I hope it goes without saying that Nunu should remain the Yeti Rider. It's what makes him unique both thematically and visually. Willump is essential to the Champion of Nunu. He stays no matter what. And don't turn Nunu into a Yeti or something ridiculous either: Nunu is a young boy/adult(?) that rides Willump the Yeti.

That said, I welcome development beyond that. What are Yetis like? Are they intelligent? What's their culture like, or their social structure? Why do Nunu and Willump travel together? The last we heard was a very short blip on "brave boy clinging to Yeti's back" and how evidently Willump has anger issues and they're exploring or something. I'd like to think maybe the Yetis are caught in the middle of this conflict, and Nunu and Willump are acting as ambassadors to prevent them from harm? I don't know, I'm sure there's something interesting here.

Another thematic I think Nunu is suited to is this sort of Little Guy/Big Guy dynamic. Think Rocket Raccoon/Groot. Their banter currently is cute, and I think they are some of the first Champion(s) to have interactions. I'd like to see Nunu talking to Willump even more, but keep Willump's dialogue as happy grunts similar to what it is currently. To differentiate from, say, Kled or Kayn's internal talking, Nunu and Willump banter like best friends or maybe even brothers; they are close and fairly friendly, especially to one another.

"The Yeti knows the way!" "HRMPH"

Visuals I think their general design is ok, the fidelity definitely needs an upgrade. But in general they fit in with Freljord and Willump in particular looks like a creature from Runeterra, especially the design on their current splash. I wouldn't be opposed to design changes, but I just don't know how necessary it is to do something drastic with their design. Nunu is the Yeti Rider, I think he pretty accurately captures that without looking too out of place (other than being super ugly in-game).

With skins: Nunu Bot needs to be as trolly as every, especially the laugh. Also TPA keeps Willump as TPA's mascot, I think that makes for a great commemorative skin.

To Summarize

  • Keep some form of Consume or other objective securing skill
  • Possibly keep some form of his ultimate
  • Nunu is the YETI RIDER, and Willump is his best friend the YETI
  • Something something FRIENDSHIP
  • Lore pretty blank slate, would like to learn more about Yeti culture/biology
  • Would like more banter between the two in-game
  • Visuals free to be changed, as long as they look like a friendly boy and he rides his best friend Yeti

Thanks for reading! I want to hear from everyone else too! What are your thoughts, my fellow Yeti Riders?

EDIT: Just wanted to add some thoughts as we discuss them:

  • Since Nunu and Willump are supposed to be working together, having their animations reflect that would help. As it stands right now, it's hard to tell what Nunu is contributing, and I think some cool (heh) dialogue and appropriate animations would help. Nunu is supposed to be casting the magic, show it!
  • There's been some debate on whether Nunu should be changed to a Yordle or remain a boy. I'm a tad on the fence, maybe leaning towards "remaining a boy"; I've looked at a lot of people's arguments and many feel that Nunu's specialness should come from his bond with Willump, not anything else. I'd love to hear more thoughts on that.

30 Comments

Zombie Slayer2/1/2018, 6:32:40 AM2 votes

I would like to see Nunu be more impacting on the champion I mean the champion is named after him but its only Willump doing the work the whole time Idk how you would show that maybe making the yeti a option only when he gets his ult similar to evelynn's invisibility where Nunu is a sneaky version that can counter jungle and escape people quickly and have Willump become a slower and more front lining tank?

To continue with that idea maybe instead of only getting Willump at level 6 have Nunu order Willump to do simple stuff like attack champs/camps come to him or go in deep and have Nunu be able to dismount and mount on Willump's back when he needs to Nunu being ranged not that long but long enough to not be directly infront of the enemy when he is off Willump's back and have a lot of mobility skills and when he is on Willump the player controls the yeti and has cc and little to no mobility.

A passive idea could be like Sion's or Annie's tibbers where Willump gets enraged and charges at the enemy or the at the camp and after hitting them for a couple seconds Willump runs off into the jungle and Nunu has to go get him it would be shown either as a icon or just seeing ice effects and hearing yeti grunts to give that looking for the yeti/Sasquatch idea that could be explored. He would be in your jungle or your enemies based on where you are when Willump runs away (Blue red buff side would have him run off into the red blue buff side of the map and vice versa and if in the river Willump would just go to the other river).

A ultimate idea could be similar to before but instead having ice shards piercing out of the ground in random areas of the ult knocking people up or large snow balls slowing champions immensely if hit and maybe if people still stay in the area they are hit with a ice blast knocking people away from Willump based on how much camps the Yeti has consumed or champions if they want to make consume work for both champs/monsters or if they were currently hit with a snowball or ice shard. This ult would make Willump run away leaving Nunu defenseless other than the knock back that he is given from Willump.

Also turning Nunu into a yordle could be neat if they want to do it.

Killaburn2/1/2018, 1:54:01 PM2 votes

What abomination is a nunu??

lol jokes aside. I appreciated you and this thread for discussing nunu. First of all you beat me to it, for posting a thread like this for the community and i hate love you for that. Second of all, i like the effort that you've put in this thread specially its paragraph long and you've stated all of my whats to retain from his gameplay-to-his skins. Kudos to you, i wont need to create another nunu discussion thread in the boards but maybe some in the near future. Lastly, I don't oppose making nunu into a yordle though :)

Thanks again for this wonderful thread :)

WOOOOOOOOHOOOOOO2/1/2018, 2:52:32 PM2 votes

I really don’t think they can go wrong as long as Willump and Nunu remain in the game.

Oleandervine2/1/2018, 3:41:26 PM2 votes

I think your ideas sound very good. I also don't think they would EVER consider removing Willump or Nunu himself from the champion design. That would be overly drastic, even for Riot. Nunu's charm comes from his relationship with his yeti, so I think to have Nunu still be Nunu, they can't ever remove Willump.

I like Consume. In it's current state, I think it's a bit confusing and weird with the whole "you get beefier if you've eaten," but if that was moved to be his passive or something, I would like Consume to mostly remain as it is. What I would love to see for it would be to give it the Cho'Gath ult treatment - I would like it to be usable on champions, but be much less efficient than being used on monsters and minions. Blood Boil and Ice Ball are utterly forgettable skills, and I will not be sad if they go. I think that because of their blandness, it offers Riot a very unique blank slate to work with in his kit. I agree with you though, I would like it if Absolute Zero stayed the same, or only got minor changes. If it was able to be cancelled by Nunu himself, I think that would be a good way to modernize it.

Regarding the ability spread of Nunu and Willump, I think there's a interesting dichotomy there. If they made Nunu a magical child, capable of doing freaky shit with ice magic, that would go a long ways towards streamlining his lore and kit, to allow for them to give things like Absolute Zero to Nunu as a spell his model is casting, while allowing for things like Consume to be something that Willump's model casts. That would give us the feeling that they are two separate entities, and explain how the two together are capable of doing crazy ice magic when neither seem particularly magical.

Jackom12/1/2018, 3:47:42 PM2 votes

I'd like the idea of actually playing Nunu himself, in the sense that you play a mage riding a magical beast: you enhance your spells by drawing magical power from willump, but you also have to keep him in check, for he is always hungry. Like, make sure you have him properly fed before a fight, or you risk losing control of him. He'll never leave you alone like skaarl does with kled, but there could be moments where instead of going where you point hiim at, he'll wander into the jungle to eat some animals, and best you can do as nunu is to protect the both of you from any possible danger, while the yeti gets his snack.

With this I mean that the current feeding mini-game has potential, especially in terms of uniqueness, but it could use some more dinamic effects in-game.

Xeneth2/2/2018, 7:06:08 PM1 votes

I'm not really a Nunu player, but splash and concept art always seems to suggest that the rider is the one throwing the slowing icy snowballs, but in game its always looked to me like the yeti spits them out of his mouth, right?

It would be great to see more of the mount/rider cooperation, just in the actual combat/recall/death animations, (because between Sejuani and Kled the actual rider mechanics are pretty well covered)

FlameHalbrdOkido2/24/2018, 6:33:00 PM1 votes

Other reasoning as to why nunu should remain a boy is that we dont have many natural born male magic users

Zoli Ben2/1/2018, 1:54:48 PM1 votes

He needs to be more of a defensive tank and cc he can use to gank.

Valaran Nara2/1/2018, 2:45:06 PM1 votes

With Nunu, I know for a fact that he'll be so scary different, it's not even going to be funny.

I just don't know if it'll be more "applauded" than reviled. Like, I can't imagine them going wrong with a "Mordekaiser" VGU.

But I can see heavy switch ups with somehing like "Nunu" or Mundo

The only thing I think they would keep (or at least hint at) would be Consume. Cause let's face it. People's understanding of the champ is so ambiguous that anything goes and can potentially happen.

QMighty2/1/2018, 4:14:12 PM1 votes

I really hope they don't go with the 'turn Nunu into a yordle' thing that was talked about a long time ago. I think he needs to stay as a little kid. There's just something infinitely nostalgic about the tale of the boy and his dog... or, uh, yeti.