I know it’s only Friday, but I took some friends up on a last minute camping trip so I’ll be gone until Monday. I didn’t want to leave you high and dry on the Champ of the Week, though, and I certainly played enough games with Nunu this week to throw together a conclusive wrapup.

My conclusions are essentially the same as they were a few days ago. Nunu is an absolute blast if you can stomach not being the guy with your name in lights. Not all the time, anyway. While most characters with Nunu’s brand of team buffing and enemy debuffing don’t have what it takes to blow up a target, Nunu’s ult offers him the chance to be the star here and there and that makes him feel even better.

There is one important facet of Nunu’s gameplay that I haven’t talked about and that I rarely cover on the blog: peeling. Peeling is getting in the way of enemies who are trying to get to your team’s carry, just as you are trying to get at the enemy carry. Teams need to be able to do this or else the carry gets burned down and suddenly you’ve come up short on damage. Since Ice Blast has a 60 percent slow at max rank, Nunu is great at peeling. He also has the added benefit of a movement speed buff to throw on the carry, hopefully offering enough of a gap for escape. Nunu can also plant himself between the enemy team and the carry, waiting to use his ult until the enemy overcommits.

In short, Nunu has all of the tools you could want from an allied jungler, so long as your team has enough damage in the lanes. Between your team buffs, your debuffs for your opponents, some very solid damage output and the extra dragon/Baron control offered by consume, Nunu can be the cornerstone of any competitive team.

Nunu currently holds one of the strangest positions in League of Legends. Very few players know how to play him well but the ones that do use him to devastating results. One of the top teams in the world, Team SoloMid, has a player named TheOddOne who is known for his Nunu play. I’ve always enjoyed Nunu, mostly for his simplicity. Also, when I have the chance to charge up that ult in some brush before anyone arrives, I just about jump out of my seat with glee.

So this week I’ll be playing Nunu. My main goals are to learn to effectively counter jungle against a variety of opponents, to focus on a solid farm and assisting my carries with their kills, and to try to assess just how viable his ult really is. Check back later in the week for my impressions of the tankiest Yeti in town.