Riot Buffs Nunu’s Kit to Make Him More Viable
In the preseason, Nunu has struggled due to a lack of a compatible keystone rune and overall weakness. However, Riot’s balance team has made some changes to his kit on the PBE to address these issues. Instead of changing the rune, they have decided to buff his abilities, potentially making him not just viable, but actually good.
These changes are not just simple stat buffs, but instead introduce new features to his kit. One of the changes is that Nunu’s basic attacks will deal magic damage after becoming Well Fed through Consume. The on-hit damage will scale with five percent of his AP, making his basic attacks more threatening and improving his ganking and clear speed.
The most significant change is coming to Nunu’s Blood Boil ability. After casting it, both Nunu and the ally he targets will receive a 40 percent boost to maximum AP, in addition to the attack speed buff it already provides. This means that Blood Boil can potentially grant more AP than a Rabadon’s Deathcap. However, there is a cap, and the boost will only provide 40 to 120 AP depending on the ability’s rank.
These buffs not only make mage or mage-bruiser Nunu a viable option, but also open up more possibilities for him in other roles, such as mage-tank support. This allows for an AP carry in the bot lane instead of the traditional marksman.
These changes are currently being tested on the PBE and are expected to go live in approximately two weeks, barring any reversions or alterations.
Correction Jan. 12 10:30am ET: Fixed an error related to the Blood Boil buff.
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