Using Master Yi and Nunu...

71389310_DEL·Oct 10, 2015·1 votes·561 views

I recently purchasedandfor jungling ( my first two ) and have found I like their themes but am struggling with their playstyles. Of the two champions I seem to be doing best with Nunu; farming my gromp or krugs and red or blue depending on which of the two are closest to botlane before marching taking the buff I neglected before and seeing if I can make my first early gank. What I'm lacking with Nunu is knowledge of counter-jungling to help put myself above the other jungler but by comparison I'm much worse off with Yi. With Yi my clears are weak, ganking pre-six is something I've learned to avoid and I really have no clue how to get involved in teamfights/how to stay alive during them. I'm here seeking advice on the best way to learn what I'm lacking with these two champions and am hoping for your help; feel free to ask me questions about my gameplay with these champs if you think it will help you give better advice.

TL;DR: How do I counterjungle with Nunu and how do I teamfight with Master Yi?

Current runes/masteries: For Nunu and Yi I'm using the same runepage: attack speed marks/1 quint, armor seals, mr glyphs. Nunu's masteries are all in the defense tree while Yi's are in offense focusing on attack speed and damage.

7 Comments

FlahertyOct 10, 20151 votes

With Yi you are an assassin that works best cleaning up kills. In team fights don't go in first and wait for their hard CC to be blown before you Alpha Strike into them and focus their squishy carries first. Make sure your ult is activated right before you go in or if you are far behind your team and need to catch up to be in the fight.

71389310_DELOct 10, 20151 votes

What do I do if my team has no hard CC or is simply ( for whatever reason ) hesitant to engage at all? In my games as Yi thus far I can't remember my team engaging when I'm around; I suppose they might have but I just don't remember. Is it okay to split-push with Yi in these situations?

FlahertyOct 10, 20151 votes

You have to tell your team to engage if that's the case. You can split push but if they send more than 1 person to stop you you're pretty much screwed unless you run away. The best thing is to communicate with your team because just waiting for someone to do something usually won't end up well.

magic poleOct 10, 20151 votes

counter-jungling safely requires good map awareness (although regardless of that knowledge, nunu can escape quite easily with W+E)... Wards are your best friend when counterjungling, so you can see the enemy jungler approaching before s/he sees you. 1 or 2 points in consume should be sufficient. Max snowball first so you can chase/escape better and also it will be much more helpful if you decide to do some early ganks.

try to drop an early trinket to find out where the enemy jungler starts. you can also guess this information based on which champion they are using. For example, amumu or fiddle will most likely start blue since the mana helps them clear. An auto-attacker might be more likely to start krugs or red. With nunu, it's fun to try and get or guess this information, take your leash camp for level 2, and immediately steal their closest buff. Trinket where the jungle would probably come from during their clear. You now have timer and can take this buff every time it comes up if convenient.

other than that first interaction, pay attention to the minimap. if their jungle shows up on the map, you can now immediately invade safely with that knowledge of his whereabouts. still pay attention to the enemy laners in case you crossed a ward and they are collapsing on your position. Smiting enemy wolves is great and can keep you safe or simply give you the enemy jungler's position when s/he enters blue side of jungle.

also, nunu isn't the strongest ganker. not to say you can't gank, but they aren't super effective as all you have is ice ball and autos. If you can gank while having the red buff, your ganks will be much easier. But overall, nunu is king of counterjungling; if you can simply starve the enemy jungler (often leave 1 small monster alive so that when they do return to the camp, they will have wasted time walking there for the measly 20g), your job will be done. The jungler will be poor in gold and xp. This is especially satisfying against devourers and can basically make them useless if you manage to delay their sated past 25-30 mins. ESPECIALLY against devourers, make sure you take crabs and dragons. That will delay their stacking immensely. if you're up 20-30+ cs on the enemy jungler mid game you're doing great.

Then late game just peel for your carries with E and R. Buff adc with W. R is better used to peel disengage than engage. good luck, nunu is such a pest it's so much fun. Oh ya, you can usually just use Q as smite and save actual smite for the counterjungling. I wouldn't invade without 1 charge of smite at least, otherwise your clear will be much slower and increase the likelihood you are discovered. Lastly, when you do baron or drag, check Q and smite damage. add that up, when the monster at that HP, smite + Q at the same time and there's almost no chance for it to be stolen.

i don't know why i typed so much lol hope it helps

71389310_DELOct 10, 20151 votes

Please don't feel weird about typing so much!! You gave a lot of detailed information I look forward to trying in my next few games with him and for that I'm thankful and if anything I just want to ask you more questions ( builds, match-ups, etc. ) because you seem to know a lot about Nunu.

Currently I've been taking item 3715 then item 3717 to help my clears and make my duels a bit better. I build tanky but have also thought about buying a item 3091 or item 3115 as a last item ( I've never gotten far enough time-wise in a match to test this though ) allowing my attacks the bonus true damage and the magic damage stacked with a red buff on a target in the fight- sort of like a "on-hit" tank.

magic poleOct 12, 20151 votes

i personally prefer item 3713 because it let's you stay topped off and take camps much more quickly.

nunu isn't really great at dueling, especially after level 6 or so, although you could keep someone occupied via your tankiness and slows if you can trust your laners are paying attention and can collapse before the enemy laners. but, between the massive slow on snowball and your speed buff on W, you really don't have to duel anyone if you don't want to, which is why i find item 3715 unnecessary. Let's say a LeeSin with item 3707 finds you looting his jungle. He WILL kill you 1v1. But just Snowball him and W yourself, and you're out scott free. I use this example, because it's kind of a worst case scenario: if he lands Q, you might actually die to him. But pretty much any other jungler will be unable to keep up with your speed/slow early on.

I'd rather stay topped off and counterjungle more quickly with item 3713 . You could use item 3721 if you want...but it tends to show your intent to live in the enemy jungle, and also it has no benefit when you take your own creeps. Try it out if you like, I've definitely had great outcomes with it, but overall i feel is the most consistently useful and reliable of the upgrades for nunu specifically.

hm, I've never built either of those but i could see them working. However, I would only think wit's end is viable if you have 2 heavy AP damage dealers on your team. Otherwise, i think just getting tankier would prove more useful. Nashor's I think would be more consistently useful, but i have no experience with that.

Perhaps consider item 3151 if you want some extra damage. It will boost the damage of your aura from item 3751 as well as your E and R. You also proc the double effect with both E & R, and it will help you shred tanks (I think this will be useful as you will most likely be front line in teamfights...that is, smacking tanks and more resilient fighters and also peeling for your carries. I believe nunu is most effective when peeling and working closely with his carries via W (specifically ADC), rather than diving the enemy carries (as he really doesn't have enough damage to kill them on his own)).

anyways, kudos on picking up nunu. He's one of the more unique champions imo, and I seldom see him played. I think it's awesome that his passive, Q, and W really have little use against enemy champions, yet he can still heavily influence a game. Definitely requires a different style and use than your typical early gank or farm heavy late game junglers. objective control is unparalleled except for possibly a summoner 11 Chogath