Nunu/Strategy

Skill usage

 * Utilizing can enable  to constantly harass with  and heal with .  can also be utilized to trigger  more often, especially if laning with a friendly ranged champion like  or.
 * When supporting as, make sure to be a bully in lane by constantly harrassing with and making the enemy target you. It is easy to use  on cannon minions without taking CS to recover health. If the enemy duo decides to focus you and spend CC, use  on your carry and fight. This strategy is effective, but can be mana heavy, so be sure to regularly power  on full health minions.
 * Due to the high slow and long duration of the slow from, it is often a good idea to get at least one rank early game to help get kills.
 * allows to stay in a lane against ranged opponents, especially against  which can be destroyed with a single . It also allows  to be a fairly effective jungler due to its healing and true damage.
 * is a great jungler but an even better counter-jungler. With, you can steal neutral creeps from the enemy jungler and easily return to your jungle route.
 * You can use to heal yourself if a fight is not going your way, or to heal some health if you are trying to escape from an enemy. It can often help you avoid death if you  a unit while retreating.
 * has a 15 second cooldown and lasts for 12 seconds. It can be cast on an ally or minion (or just yourself if jungling) and you will still receive the same effect. You should try to always have the buff active.
 * Keeping active, you'll need atleast 20% Cooldown Reduction.
 * Combine this with to chase down a fleeing enemy or escape a pursuer without a gap closer.
 * Use on an auto-attack based ally to improve their damage output.
 * Using on a cannon minion can dramatically increase your pushing power.
 * Using on a promoted minion can even secure a kill.
 * One possible effective skill order when playing as a support is to get one level of each skill, immediately improve  to level 3, and max out  as soon as possible afterwards. This leads to a good combination of harass and utility to make him a useful laning partner and contributor in teamfights.
 * Regardless of whether you can channel the ability for its full duration, your ultimate is an AoE slow and attack speed debuff that can easily affect the outcome of a teamfight or small skirmish. Prepare to interrupt  early quite often for partial damage if an opponent is about to escape its range - in midgame, most characters can escape  completely if given its full chargeup period.
 * The full chargeup on is most useful in late-game teamfights or if you have teammates with abilities that can knock enemy champions into its area of effect, such as 's,  , or 's.
 * can be canceled by crowd control effects such as stun/silence/taunt/etc. Be wary of the enemy champions around you. You can use a or  to block crowd control spells.
 * is most effective when it is used alongside other AoE ultimates such as, or.
 * is a devastating tool if you bait a fight into a bush. Unwary attackers can end up rushing into an ambush point or a shrub filled with teammates, being unknowingly slowed by your ult and becoming vulnerable as they are slowed or after the ult saps them of large quantities of health.

Build usage

 * The lore lists as a fighter, but he builds like a cross between a tank and a mage. Ability Power and Armor are in general 's most important stats, as he needs high armor to survive long enough to build up , and ability power for any real kill strength. Most  builds are intended to make him very hard to kill and to keep him on the battlefield for very long periods of time.
 * Thus, building high-survivability items like   is often a good idea.
 * benefits greatly from both Health Regeneration and Mana Regeneration - particularly Mana Regen, because is a source of health. Using a  combined with  lets Nunu use far more abilities than other champions early on. If desired, adding a second  to the initial purchase allows  to cast spells and heal with  almost continuously without running out of mana.
 * If laning, likes to be tanky to be most effective. This puts  very effectively in a role of bottom lane support, with both a single target and AoE slow, and single target haste and AS buff. With his high healing rate using, a good  player can absorb a tremendous amount of damage and still stay in a lane for a VERY long time.
 * The →  →  build path is a good choice for this kind of support laning.
 * Because  is hard to kill and has a movement and attack speed buff, items that have on-hit or on-kill stack effects such as  ,  , and  are good choices for .  In particular, an early   will often stack to maximum early in a well-played game and give Nunu 110 extra Attack Damage for only 1200 gold, helping his laning considerably.    , which stacks Ability Power instead, is a slower build initially but makes Nunu's abilities massively strong by the end of the game.  Stacks are rarely lost when playing correctly.
 * has a movespeed buff using   but will still be outrun by opponents without good boots.   ,  ,, and  are all good boot choices for   depending on playstyle.
 * As the game progresses to the teamfight stage, Ability Power becomes a crucial stat for . With defensive masteries, runes and a, can be a team's tank without any tank items thanks to his high health gain.
 * Because can be interrupted with a silence, stun, etc., a  is a very useful item, blocking the first crowd control application and giving a better chance of completing the channeling.
 * or Spellvamp from items like will increase the healing ability of your  immensely, allowing you to quickly recover after soaking damage.
 * is a useful late game damage item. Using it with before, possibly with , can lead to a very devastating combo.
 * is also an excellent late game damage item for as its passive magic damage bonus will trigger from both  and, and it gives  Ability Power, Magic Penetration, and Health as well.

Jungling
Alternative jungling method with high-level masteries and runes:
 * Starting items:, x5 OR
 * Skill progression: →  →  →
 * Jungling order: Wolves → Blue Golem (Smite) →Gank OR Wraiths → Small Golems → Red Lizard (Smite) → Gank
 * Starting items:, x2
 * Jungling order: Big Wolf ( + a couple of melee hits to kill) → Blue Golem (Smite, leash recommended) → finish Wolves → Wraiths → Small Golems → Lizard (Smite)
 * The Big Wolf is taken out first because of the down time between the Wolf camp spawn and the Blue Golem spawn. This saves a few seconds and allows to hit level 2 after the Blue Golem dies.
 * Good runes to use are Flat Armor Seals, Attack Speed Marks, CDR or AP Glyphs, and flat Health Quintessences.
 * Masteries should either be 9/0/21 (getting CDR+Magic Pen in offensive), 0/9/21 (getting the smite Mastery and the armor, MR and HP in Defensive), or 0/21/9.

Countering

 * is the only single-targeted spell he has. Therefore, buying a can block the spell once every 25 seconds.
 * His laning phase is one of the hardest to counter, due to his spammable and his  that restores his health and gives him a single minion kill and his  that allows him to stay in lane for a very long time.
 * Although he has high survivability he's mostly dependent on his to stay in lane so mana starvation will render him weak. Constant harassment in lane will force him to use his spells when  isn't active, so he'll be left with no sustain apart from  / . That can force him to tower hug or recall if you can harass him under his turret. Because of this, a champions with long range harass are a great lane counter. Examples are  (decent range, and her  can harass him under a turret),  can stop his ult and the range of his  is high enough to easily harass him under a turret.
 * When you see an enemy going to a brush, take care of face-checking it. He might start channeling  if you get too close.
 * can be used to counter the high damage of if a way to disrupt the channel is unavailable.