EPTNunu: The Yeti Rider
Nunu should only be played as a jungler, eventually transitioning into a support/tank role in the late game. He's definitely one of the best overall junglers with great speed, safety, ganks, and counter jungling capabilities. He's a little useless in the late game but he can definitely punish bad positioning and team play with his ult.
The Build:
Runes:
Flat HP Quints
Armor Pen. Reds
Armor Yellows
mr/lvl Blues
Nunu is not very reliant on runes, so I go for a fairly standard tanky page. It helps clear the jungle at full life for ganks and I just like to be tanky in general.
Masteries:
There are 3 choices you can go here.
1. Defensive Heavy
1/21/8
This is my preferred route, just because I like to be very tanky. The downside is that you lose the monster buff duration increase and your smite recharges a lot slower.
2. Utility Heavy
1/8/21
This is a completely acceptable route. You give up a little bit of tankiness to be a much more efficient jungler.
3. Defensive/Utility Mix
1/16/13
This gives you access to Veteran's Scars and monster buff duration increase. A good balance between the other two.
Your choice really depends on your play style and preferences. Do you want to be a better jungler or a better tank?
Summoner Spells:
Ghost and Smite.
Don't be a noob and grab flash because flash ult never works.
Skill Order:
I still stand by my QWE -> R > E > W > Q. Most people max w first, but I really do believe that 50 or so extra damage is worth the 10% movement speed. Max w first if you really want to.
Item Build:
1. Cloth + 5 Pots
or
Cloth + 2 Pots + 1 Ward
I pretty much start every game this way. You won't use all 5 pots in your first run, but it will still be useful in subsequent clears or you can always sell them when you need to finish an item. I get a ward if I want to try to steal their red or blue or I'm afraid of getting stolen myself.
2. Heart of Gold + Boots
Also super standard, not much to comment besides the fact that HoG is obviously amazing.
3. Banshee's Veil
or
Rod of Ages
The standard is just to rush the banshee's veil. I go for a Rod of Ages (or even two) if I get a lot of successful ganks. People say AP on nunu is worthless because you only have one consistent offensive spell, but you do have amazing ratios and RoA makes you pretty damn tanky.
4. Tank, tank, tank, tank.
Depending on the enemy team comp and whoever is dominating, get the appropriate items. Finish your Randuin's or Force of Nature or whatever makes sense.
Gameplay
Early Game:
Jungling with nunu is super flexible since he basically can do whatever he wants with his skill set. I'll just outline a few basic strategies that I use frequently.
1. Safe and Easy
Blue -> wolves -> wraiths -> red -> golems -> level 4 gank.
Really easy route that sets you up nicely for a full life gank with level 2 ice ball. If no lanes are gankable sometimes I make a feeble attempt at someone to try to bait a summoner's spell or get a little damage on the enemy to help out. Then I just make my way over to my wolves when they respawn and then get my wraiths again.
Throw in a wraith jack in the beginning if you are feeling saucy.
2. Red steal -> golem jack -> level 2 gank.
Don't do this unless your team has CV and you can see them all at their blue. Even then it's risky because it gets foiled if they take the long route to get to lane. But it does set-up a pretty devastating gank with ice ball and red buff from behind that's very difficult to see coming when it works.
Mid Game:
Here it's mostly about dragon control, ganking, and covering lanes. Remember always get a pink ward for dragon and go for it if bot pushes to the tower or gets a kill. If a solo dies at a lane, it's your job to run up there and cover it. Nothing is worse than losing an early tower because then your jungle is extremely vulnerable.
Late Game:
Late game is simple. Permahaste your carry, permaslow the most useful person you can reach on the other team. When things get crazy run in the middle and push R.
The End.
Old out-dated build:
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Nunu: The Yeti Rider
Preface
Nunu is known as one of the fastest junglers and has a pretty strong level 4 gank. Though he functions very well in lane, he should be exclusively used as a jungler because he scales quite poorly in the late game. This guide assumes you are an experienced player and you have a general sense of what Nunu is capable of.
The Build
Runes: Arm Pen Reds and Quints, Dodge Yellows, Mres/Lvl Blues
You can change around the runes to however you like since Nunu is not very dependent on runes. I don't like movement speed or aspd runes because my jungling speed is mainly dependent on how fast Q comes back. Mana is not an issue with Nunu's passive and you should have blue most of the time. I can see the argument for CDR yellow and blues or flat armor yellows if you want them.
Masteries: 1/8/21
Standard jungling setup. I get SoS and Awareness.
Summoner Spells: Ghost and Smite
Smite is non-negotiable. Flash can be used if you like flash ult shenanigans. I use exhaust if they have a bunch of ranged carries or melee dps types and no one wants to pick exhaust.
Skilling Order: QWEE -> R -> E -> W -> Q
1 point in q and w are enough to jungle. Maxing e is critical as it is your main ganking tool.
Item Build:
Opening - Cloth Armor + 5 pots
There are a lot of variations of the opening depending on your play style and the enemy team. Personally I like this because it keeps me at full life for when I'm ready to gank. I can't fault you for getting a ward but long sword is definitely the wrong opening. It doesn't make you jungle faster and your life gets precariously low.
1st Return: Lvl 1 Boots + Ward
If you are successful with a gank you can get a Madred's Razor.
2nd Return: Wriggle's Lantern (or whatever parts you can afford)
After this point, the build diverges depending on the enemy team comp and your team comp. Basically if your team is lacking tankiness you need to build tanky. If your team needs AP damage, build some caster items. The most common item I get at this point is Rod of Ages. Good tank items in order of preference are Banshee's Veil, Sunfire Cape, Force of Nature, and Randuin's Omen. Good caster items in order of preference are Abyssal Scepter, Zhonya's, and Lich's Bane. Remember to use your head, look at the opposing team's damage sources, look at what your team is lacking, and base your items on that.
A standard tank build against a diverse team with good CC might look something like this:
Cloth Armor + 5 Pots
Lvl 1 Boots + Wards
Wriggle's Lantern
Rod of Ages + Lvl 2 Boots
Banshee's Veil
Sunfire Cape
Force of Nature
Early Game
My standard jungling route is Blue -> Wolves -> Wraiths -> Red -> Golems -> Gank.
You can fool around with the route by going into the enemy jungle or getting an early red for a level 2 gank or something, but I feel like level 4 is your best shot of getting a gank.
The First Gank: After you grab the golem, you have to look at what lanes are being pushed, the health of the champions, and finally the summoner spells of who you can gank. If both lanes are being pushed or your teammates are at low life, just b or offer to cover the lane. If you decide that it is a good opportunity to gank, it's not a difficult process. Type ahead of time that you are going to gank, pop ghost, slow with E, auto attack, and E again whenever it is ready. If it works, great, if not, at least you will force them to b early. One thing to notice is that if they have flash you should just run up and auto attack until they flash or else they can dodge your ice ball and get away.
After you get your second round of items, get a ward to cover dragon. Without double buff or Wriggle's Lantern, you are too weak to solo dragon.
Mid Game
At this point just jungle whatever respawns and cover lanes. When I get level 6 I look to gank again. When I get a second round of buffs I look to dragon if it seems like a good time or just gank again. You should be mostly roaming around at the map looking for good opportunities at this time.
Third round of buffs should go to the rest of your team.
Late Game
At this point you are basically a support/tank champ. You don't have big damage outside of your ult so your job is to make sure your carry is permanently W'd. When a team fight occurs your job in to get in the center and push R. Use E on their squishies and keep spamming W on whoever needs it.
Closing
As with any jungler, a guide can provide very little for becoming good at jungling besides a starting point. Jungling is a skill that takes a lot of practice to develop your own style and the required instincts. There are many other guides on TL that talk about jungling so look into those if you want to get a lot better at this aspect of the game.
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