Weird Picks #56: Nunu Top

Nunu is one of those champions that was released so long ago that his kit is starting to look like it needs a major rehaul. Meanwhile, he still fits a very niche role against auto-attack reliant top laners like Aatrox and Teemo, and can easily dominate against low sustain lanes with his annoyingly low cooldown harass and near infinite sustain.

Weird Pick #56

Nunu Top

July 2016

Introduction

How to Play

Runes: Grasp of the Undying, with Demolish, Bone Plating and Overgrowth, then Celerity and Gathering Storm out of Sorcery
Abilities: Q, E, E, W then prioritize R > E > W > Q
Core Items: Rod of Ages
Spirit Visage
Iceborn Gauntlet
Mercury's Treads
Warmog's Armor
Banshee's Veil
Void Staff

Why It Works

Easy Early First Camp

By playing Nunu, players can quickly take a jungle camp at level one and proceed to lane. Although you might be low to start, Nunu can quickly sustain back up via his Consume. If you decide not to take a level one camp, then go with Ice Blast instead. Note that you should target gromp or golems for speed and safety.

Good Against Attack Speed Reliant Champions
Against attack speed reliant champions, Nunu works amazingly well. Champions like Teemo, Aatrox, and even tank Fizz have an extremely high amount of trouble getting through Nunu's near impenetrable defense and sustain, and the attack speed reduction allows Nunu to take away their prime source of damage during fights.

Excellent With/Against Auto-Reliant Marksman
Although every marksman is auto-attack reliant to some degree, the return of champions like Caitlyn and Jinx instead of Lucian and Ezreal mean that Nunu's attack speed buff is more relevant than ever during mid to late game. Additionally, Nunu's massive attack speed slows work just as well against the same champions.

Potential Pitfalls

Difficulty Carrying
Although Nunu does a good amount of base damage and scales well, by building pure defense it means that he has relatively low damage as you play into the late game and enemy teams start building Aegis. You can alleviate this by building Void Staff, but generally Nunu ends up in many wet noodle fights.

Bad With Burst Teams
Although Nunu does well on a kite team, he does poorly when he's placed on a full engage type of team since his burst damage is not high and his peel is relatively avoidable. As a result, he does need a very specific set of conditions to work well after laning phase is over.

Conclusions

Nunu Top definitely has a place in the meta, but needs to be carefully chosen and not picked into every team. Nunu in general is also a somewhat niche character in every role, and is not particular overpowered right now. As a result, feel free to play him for fun, but he is not a universally dominant champion as of this patch.

Suggested Rating: Tier 3