Nunu is a champion that is distinguished by his unique playstyle. He is a strong early-game jungler who can make an impact as he hits level 2. To make Nunu consistently strong having a great build is essential. In light of that, today we will cover the best Nunu builds, that challengers use to dominate their games.
The items
Hextech Rocketbelt
Hextech Rocketbelt is a core item for Nunu. It’s mainly bought for its utility. The item is especially strong in situations after you have used your W, it increases mobility which is amazing for closing gaps, and escaping tricky situations.
Shadowflame
Shadowflame is one of the items with the highest amounts of AP (120), and it’s a great buy for AP Nunu. It also gives 12 magic penetration stacks, which scale pretty nicely as you continue building AP.
Rabadon’s Deathcap
The Deathcap is quite an expensive buy, however, the amount of AP increase does more than just justify the price. Deathcap will give you flat 140 flat AP and a 40% overall AP increase. This is by far the largest power spike of this build and it will make you pop carries like they’re nothing.
Zhonya’s Hourglass
Having the 3 previous items completed will make you quite a threat which can make you get some unwanted attention from the enemy team. However, the Hourglass is a perfect solution to avoid getting targeted.
Having Hourglass completed will allow you to engage in fights, kill, or deal significant damage to carries, and then peace out for a few seconds in the Statis. The time spent frozen in time will be enough for enemies to shift their focus, and your allies to cover for you.
Void Staff
Void Stuff is another generally good item, it increases magic penetration by an impressive 40%. This is a must-have for a full AP build. The item is especially great against enemies stacking resist, but it is good against low-resist targets as well.
Boots
For the AP build, no boots can be greater than Sorcery boots. They provide extra magic penetration, and that is pretty much the only stat you will want to force when playing AP Nunu.
Build Tips
Nunu is a utility-heavy champ. He does not require too much gold to make an impact, therefore, you should not be too focused on farming camps. To make the best use of the champ, you will want to gank as much as possible while having a balanced farm.
A good start to try with Nunu is an early bot lane gank. After finishing your red, you can go straight to botlane and roll one snowball straight into the enemy. There will be a lot of times when you might get a kill, but in most cases, you will get a flash-off, which is still huge.
Nunu AP Build Runes
- Dark Harvest – Great for scaling and increasing damage
- Cheap Shot – Good pick to increase the damage after impairing enemies
- Relentless Hunter – Grants additional movement speed
- Eyeball Collector – Solid damage bonus
- Celerity – Enhances all movement speed sources by 7% (W synergy)
- Waterwalking – Increases movement speed when in the river.
Final Thoughts
Nunu is a unique champion who excels at spamming ganks and gaining early leads. The best build for Nunu is the full AP build, it’s great for bursting carries and taking objectives quickly. The core items of this build are the Hextech Rocketbelt, Shadowflame, and last but not least Rabadon’s Deathcap.