For explanations of runes/items see the notes above.

In my opinion, Nunu & Willump has transferred some of his old supportive power in favour of tankiness and teamfighting power. He lost his Blood Boil, which was a large component of his supportive kit, and his snowball, but in return gained two forms of hard crowd control. This lets Nunu & Willump be more reliable to play in solo queue as he is now less reliant on a good ADC to carry him late game. He also gains extra damage to champions through Consume, which is now able to damage champions (albeit weakly). Nunu & Willump can still support his team through strong objective control, as he still has the Consume + Smite combo, enabling you to secure any objective.

Rune choices are similar but instead of Guardian we now take Aftershock as Guardian cannot be activated at range anymore, and Aftershock is easy to activate with either Biggest Snowball Ever! or Snowball Barrage.

Early in the game, you want to be able to quickly clear your jungle to apply pressure on the map either through ganking or counter-jungling. Start at your bottom-side buff and request a leash from your allies to speed up your clear even further.

Preferably, you should always be looking to gank lanes as Nunu & Willump can actually gank effectively thanks to his new forms of crowd control. However, you can still look to counter jungle if no lanes are suitable.

When approaching a gank, if the enemy laner has no dash in their kit, you can run into the lane with Biggest Snowball Ever! to surprise them with your increased movement speed. This will likely force a flash which allows you to regank later on for a kill. IF the enemy does have a dash, you should instead walk into the lane (ideally from behind) and use Snowball Barrage to root them. You can then use Biggest Snowball Ever! at point blank range for some extra crowd control. Don't forget that you can also use Consume on them for some damage. If possible give the kill to your laner to help them snowball.


You should always look for an early Drake kill; you can solo it with three levels in Consume. You should buy an upgraded jungle item before attempting the Drake as otherwise you can be left dangerously low on health, allowing the enemy to kill you and take the Drake for themselves. Be wary of their bot lane or jungler approaching the pit. Place a ward behind the Drake pit if you are Red Team, or in the narrow gap to their blue buff if you are Blue Team. You may want to buy a control ward to place in the dragon pit to ensure that the enemy does not have vision of you. Make sure that both your mid and bot lane have enough lane pressure to push in the enemy laners to prevent them from roaming over to you while you are killing the dragon, as early game Nunu & Willump is not very tanky and prone to getting killed with the combined damage of an enemy and the dragon. Save your Smite until the end so that you can nuke the Drake in case of a potential steal, unless you are confident no one will steal it or you are low on hp. You can do roughly 1100 true damage early game with a Consume + Smite; this means you should secure the Drake every time.

As laning starts to finish and grouping occurs, you have more opportunities for your ultimate Absolute Zero. Try to bait out CC before using it, and almost every type of Crowd Control in the game will cancel it, reducing the crucial movement slow and damage. Your ultimate will almost always force a Flash. Keep your slow zone for as long as possible - you are a supportive jungler, not an offensive one. Allow your allies to get kills if possible.

Always look to gank lanes to help your allies, and siege enemy turrets quickly with Call of the Freljord's attack speed. This will open up the map to you and allow you to more safely take objectives and take control of the enemy jungle, depriving their jungler of gold and experience.

Look to take Rift Herald as well as the second Drake. You should strive to secure EVERY epic monster for your team. If you have recently killed their top laner/jungler, ask your top laner to help you kill the Rift Herald for increased speed. Ideally you should take the buff for yourself as you can roam the map and activate it when most suitable. If the first mid tower of the enemy is still standing you should look to use the Herald mid lane to siege and open the map for your team.

Although Nunu & Willump's kit is less supportive than it used to be, it is still beneficial to buy Knight's Vow and Locket of the Iron Solari, as Nunu & Willump as a pure tank is outclassed by champions such as Sejuani and Rammus. However it's not ideal to rush these as you will be more squishy than if you rush a couple of tank items.

By this point you will be incredibly tanky. Look to take Baron with your team whenever you win a teamfight; even if the enemy jungler is alive he shouldn't be able to steal it as you have Consume + Smite. In teamfights, always use Snowball Barrage on the opposing carries to lock them down for the kill. Bind Knights Vow to the carry of your team (likely the ADC) and try to protect them as much as possible as they are your win condition. Use Absolute Zero in the middle of the enemy team if possible and around choke points to limit their escapes and force Flash. Absorb as much damage as possible (including CC, as you will have more opportunities to cast your ultimate without it being cancelled).

Locket of the Iron Solari is great to provide your teammates with strong shields. You can also purchase Knight's Vow to defend your carry even further. You are very offensively limited besides your ultimate. Always look to cast Absolute Zero near their carry to deal huge damage and force them to focus you.

Try to get towers and inhibitors. Always look to pressure lanes by building waves along with super minions. This gives you more opportunities to take Baron and close the game out as the enemies will be constantly forced to split and clear waves.