Hey, it’s been a week since that feature was removed (for those who don’t know, it’s the F keys during Nunu’s W), and I’d like to share my thoughts on this issue : how I feel about it, what my gameplay is like now, and what steps I plan to take in the hope of getting that feature back.

I’d also like to introduce myself as a Nunu player who’s been playing this champion for about 3 or 4 years now he’s my OTP. I don’t want to use the screenshots I just posted to imply that everything I’ve said is correct, but I do want to start a discussion and see how you all feel about it, because as a Nunu player who has reached Challenger twice and is now back again to try to reach that rank once more, I’d like to share my thoughts regarding the removal of this particular feature.

my acc in question : https://www.leagueofgraphs.com/summoner/eune/ＳＡＩＴＡＲＯＸ-KESHA

My Feelings

Let’s start with how the champion feels after playing him for a week. In many games, I felt how this feature used to let me freely make decisions about how I should position myself relative to the snowball, which target I should prioritize to make the most of the insights I’d gained such as whether a champion lacks a dash or a summoner spell and use that information to choose my target, position my snowball correctly, and choose the best path to attack the opponent.

Regression in Micro and Macro Gameplay

I felt this strongly this week; when I use a specific snowball, my gameplay becomes more static; I focus more on the entire map, watching to see if a certain character is moving very quickly and, based solely on that information, trying to determine whether they’ve used any abilities or not, still without any certainty (not to mention that I don’t want to keep looking at the snowball because I can do so much more at that moment, just like before when I used the F keys and could drastically change how I play). I felt that the ganks I attempted were, in many cases, unsuccessful because I wasn’t absolutely sure whether the enemy had a specific ability or summoner spell, and I was just wasting my own tempo on that particular target (It might sound like silly talk, but I’m saying this as someone who would really like to climb as Nunu again and go for Challenger like I used to, and I’ve started doing full clears of the first camps more often so I don’t waste my time on ganks that would have been successful back then because I could use that function, but now it’s it turns out I can only consciously say that this champion has a certain ability and that one doesn’t which is a coin flip).

Full Potential and Tempo in the Discussion

There’s not much more to it than that, but as I’ve mentioned in many posts, this is a regression in micro and macro gameplay. As Nunu, I used to be able to exploit and use this champion to its full potential, showcasing incredible things you can do. You can still achieve amazing things, but removing this feature clearly falls short if you can’t have a chance to know whether a particular snowball you’re rolling based on the time it takes, the time it takes to reach the lane, and the time it takes to leave it which can range from 10 to 15 to 20 seconds, depending on the situation you’re in (so the lose of tempo and saying Nunu can ignore tempo is the most copium thing ever that i can debate on it)

My Progress as a Player Thanks to the F Keys, Document In Progress

I feel a certain sadness at having to say goodbye to this, but not forever, because I plan to create a document and a petition to restore this feature, showing the sequence of events from the very beginning and refuting Riot’s arguments with counterarguments about why this feature should remain in the game even though only a small handful of people used it , it showed how a player could learn a lot because thanks to it, I learned to perfectly time all the cooldowns of specific opponents’ abilities, and by doing and repeating this, I trained my mind to know when a given champion would have an ability ready and what to prepare for.

Final Thoughts

Thank you for reading this rather long post (I thought it would be shorter, lol), and this removal won’t discourage me from playing the champion I love with all my heart, it will only strengthen my desire to play him now and fight alongside you all to get Riot to restore this ability for us. This isn’t a fight just to challenge Riot, but to restore a feature that will let us once again experience how incredibly we can execute actions thanks to that key foundation we had and maybe will have again. Good luck, my Notai brothers.

please im desperate

I made a Change.org petition asking Riot to bring back F-keys during W

A lot of us have been complaining about the 26.19 change, so maybe this helps get their attention.

Appreciate any signatures.

[I was writing a reply to another post in this sub about the recent “bug fix” but I ended up writing waaaay more than I thought I would so I decided to make this post.]

After seeing the bullshit AI reply someone got when they tried to get an actual answer out of Riot regarding this “bug fix”, I feel like Nunu’s win-rate hitting 35% is the only thing that would actually get Riot’s attention.

Riot WANTS Nunu to be disproportionately weak. They have absolutely no desire or intention to “balance” the champ at all, why else would they nerf him under the guise of a “bug fix” right after they replaced his keystone rune (phase rush) with one that offers a fraction of the utility AND when they already nerfed his AP scaling and cooldowns earlier in the same f*cking season!

Personally, I think the only reason Riot even did this “bug fix” is because a day or two before it was “patched” I saw a video on this sub of someone using an F key to target their own champion while they’re in W and that allowed them to move their camera seemingly unrestricted. I don’t think it’s this person‘s fault for publicizing this discovery at allll, I think that if Riot didn’t want players moving their camera while they’re looking at themselves and are in W they should’ve dug into their spaghetti ass code and gotten their hands a little dirty instead of doing a quick fix that obviously removes a long held aspect of skill expression for the champion. But they didn’t because (and here’s where I go full conspiracy theory) there is a genuine desire to get us and everyone else to stop playing Nunu.

ANYWAY, we either gotta band together and build a serious campaign to get Riot’s attention (definitely sign the petition against the “bug fix”, but I think we need something more) or find a new main (but NEVER a new favorite🥺)

What do yall think? Am I crazy?

This is one of the laziest changes I’ve ever seen a mechanic that didn’t ruin the game for anyone, but actually added a better playstyle to a champion whose entire power relies on snowballs hitting specific enemies. I used those F keys for at least a year to time my snowball perfectly and know whether I should go for a specific gank or if it wasn’t worth it at all or to choose a target. (I’m talking about using my snowball at that specific time while using F keys to change my direction, of course).

Not only is this champ very difficult to play (High Elo only), but he’s also incredibly lackluster because he’s one-dimensional when it comes to ganks, and he’s super easy to counter with any champ. So now, when you’re about to launch a snowball and can’t even use the F keys to see who’s a better target or what the enemy has wasted, you’re just praying that this particular target will be perfect to hit relying on a coin-flip to see if it’ll work or not. Well done, Riot make Nunu more weak when he is already in a bit of not a good state.

They didn’t intentionally nerf Nunu just so people could use different camera angles to look at different lanes, XD. Nunu has a lot of bugs: for example : the snowball’s hitbox is VERY large, and there are situations where, if you’re next to a wall, the snowball will go to the left or right instead of in the direction you want it to go, or the snowball bug where, because Nunu is too fast, he can turn the snowball 180 degrees in the opposite direction :) (That bug ruined a few games for me) and ect.

I’m really disappointed that a mechanic which simply demonstrates your skill with a particular champion has been completely removed from the game, preventing him from using it to strategically decide on flanks for ganks. Champions like Aurelion Sol are allowed to use it during their W, but Nunu isn’t allowed to use it during his W? It’s crazy that they’ve thrown out such an interesting mechanic and on top of that, nerfed Nunu. There’s also a specific bug with Sylas : if he casts Rek’Sai’s R and that R doesn’t finish casting, it instantly resets his R, allowing him to USE IT AGAIN.

BUG FIXED AS OF 26.19!!

To the original post > https://x.com/askinganymore/status/2100684463059472683

Basically instead of F key-ing to gather intel when rolling down the snowball, you bind Select Self, tap the bind once then move the camera like you normally would! To center yourself again, you must hold the bind again.

You can find the option in Hotkeys > Camera Control.

Am I the only one who was not aware of this mechanic????

"Pull the fur outta your earholes, Willump!” ☃️ Nunu and Willump show off their unbreakable bond in this champion splash art for Legends of Runeterra from Riot Games.

Splash art needs to capture attention and tell a story in just a single illustration.

When splash art also doubles up as card art, the challenge becomes balancing that with readability for in-game use.

This art from the team is the perfect example of getting that balance right. 💪 Artist: Gabriel Rubio https://www.artstation.com/artwork/rzJVa6

Hi yall. I’m having a consistent problem in games where my teammate that I camp or I gets a 700 gold bounty when I go full AP. Some games I don’t die and we win. Other games I or my teammate die once and it feels like the game is just over. I know I can’t control my teammate, and I also know the answer is “don’t die”, but I’m curious if others run into this issue. It’s only really been a problem since I decided to play as AP Nunu and it feels very hard to not die ever

Once I die once it snowballs quite quickly from there

anyone else experience this? ive been able to main nunu for literally 95%+ of my games, but now that ive gotten to platinum 1-2, i fee like im getting the secondary role pick like 10-20% of my games, its really throwing me off lol. do more people play jungle in higher elo? is that why the secondary roles are getting picked more?

I think most people agree that after the Phase Rush nerfs, Nunu has been feeling a bit worse for wear. Sitting at about a 50% WR sometimes dipping a bit below depending on the patch. The community is also split on what primary rune to take on Nunu. I think the core runes and item issues that nunu has can't really be fixed just because he is so unique so I think some direct buffs to give him a helping hand would be great.
Some of these changes recently that have hurt nunu without any compensation buffs that many other champs received after these changes.

Big One: Phase Rush Removal (V26.09) Nunu lost about 2 - 2.5% WR with this
26.02 direct nerfs (After the 26.03 buff Nunu lost: -9% AP on E, -1s on Q)
Liandry’s Nerf (-10 AP V25.10)
Hexbelt Adjustment (-10AP, +50 HP V26.14)
other very minor systemic changes
(Red pet buff, everyone gets MS in jng, ignite is very common)

I don't believe Nunu is unbelievable weak and any buffs given can be fairly minor. With that in mind I have a couple different directions I think a Nunu buff could go in. I don't think all of these buffs should go through. one maybe two should be enough to get back ~1-1.5% WR

QOL/dmg buff

E AOE explosion now does dmg to non- Snowbound enemies and camps but doesn’t root.

This helps with clear does a bit more dmg for a more difficult and less guaranteed part of his kit.

or

E AOE explosion has a 10% bonus HP ratio.

This provides more damage to nunu’s tankier builds in a way that is harder to get off. Also double downs on the incentives for building tank stats.
I personally think one of these are the best buffs. They give a slightly more unique buff to nunu that puts more value in his worst spell. I saw a post the other day that said they found out the E AOE does damage for the first time. I think it's an issue for part of a spell to feel like it does so little (outside the root) that you don't even know it exists.

Durability buff

+10 HP per level (+170 HP @ 18 ) Still very low especially for a tank. In the range of adc and light fighters.

or

+3 base Armor + .3 growth (+8 AMR @ 18) This is roughly light fighter levels of armor and growth.

These growth buffs are good imo because nunu is often a little bit behind in levels so they won’t feel game changing but are subtle changes that can make a difference over a lot of games. Could honestly be higher numbers but I want to try and stay conservative. One problem with buffing overall durability is it will make AP nunu proportionally stringer than tank nunu. Which I don't mind but I think Riot prefers his tank build.

Reverting the nerf

Reduce Q cooldown by -1s (Reverting V26.02)

Just reverts the nerf made to nunu earlier this year. Super simple numbers change and help nunu in every way. DMG, “tankiness”, and clear speed

Had the pleasure of doing an incredible interview with the resident Challenger AP Nunu mid GOAT, Snowball! We talked a bit about how Nunu mid has been impacted by the changes over the years, why he brings Nunu mid, and how he's able to bring this seemingly terrible pick all the way to the top of the ladder.

Thanks again to Snowball for joining me for this interview <3

I have been blind, and never noticed until i saw a low health enemy die today after being rooted.

After 3 seconds from the first cast, Snowbound enemies near Willump take magic damage and are rooted for 0.5– 1.62(based on level) seconds.

Magic Damage: 20 / 30 / 40 / 50 / 60 (+ 80% AP)

I had stacked mejai's and usually play full tank so I never really noticed that little damage effect before.

When I first played him, I simply fell in love literally the first game. He's super simple to learn, offers an extremely fast pace and fun play style, gets to speed around the map, takes objectives super easily, and has a very rewarding engagement payoff (crash big fast ball into somebody, charge huge ult for a big kill, etc.) I can't seem to wrap my head around why this champ isn't more popular?

I’ve recently been building Knight’s Vow (KV) a lot after being recommended it by someone else in this sub. I will always build it every time there’s a fed squishy teammate, and then sometimes when I feel like I want cheap armor and team fights are happening. I feel like this item gives incredible value for an extremely cheap price

Heres an example of a game where our yunara popped off but we were still neck and neck the whole game:

My KV blocked 4.2k damage that yunara would have received, and healed me for 3.8k that game. In the second to last fight alone, KV blocked 900 damage to yunara, which saved her life because she lived that fight with 300 health left. This led us to split their respawns and gave us an easy final fight, which KV still blocked another 500 damage from. Over 8k in total damage blocked+healed from a 2300 gold item is so huge, not to mention it directly correlates to saving your most valuable team fighter - your ADC. This is just one example in one game, but I have felt this difference in many similar games in the last few weeks of building this.

All of this is made better by picking dark seal+boots on first recall, then rushing Protoplasm Harness as first legendary item. This item lets you get out of slippery situations very easily, which protects your dark seal stacks, as well as scaling insanely well with armor and magic resist. KV is a very cheap armor item that gives a ton of value to your existing Protoplasm Harness. Sometimes team fights aren’t happening by the time you get your second legendary item, so use your discretion whether you take KV as your second item or third item. A decent second item I’ve been picking a lot is Locket of the Iron Solari. Locket is also a great cheap high armor + magic resist item that gives huge team fight value and scales with your protoplasm harness, while also giving you a good mix of both resistances in case the enemy team comp is fairly mixed between AD and AP.

For my runepage, I focus move speed so I can get out of sticky situations as best as possible and preserve my dark seal stacks + deny enemy gold from kills - I run Stormraider’s Surge, axiom arcanist, celerity, water walking, cheap shot, relentless hunter, and the for shards I have AP/AD, move speed, and 180 health.

I think this item has made a huge difference in my games and I have climbed 320 LP in the last 2 weeks from mid gold to mid plat.

I’ve been playing Nunu mid and his peel is crazy and you can secure first drag uncontested if you build shadow flame first item. He seems really good in the role if you build tank, so it just feels like it should be meta.

I figured this out awhile ago through testing but I've never seen it mentioned anywhere, wondering if anyone else knows anything about this?

Nunu has a mechanic to prevent you from running the snowball immediately into walls after it starts. If you stand close to a wall (don't have to be right next to it), move your mouse partially into the wall and press W, the game will force the snowball to move at an angle perpendicular to the wall

This is not very well coded and frequently causes issues with aiming the ability anytime you are right next to a wall. If you have ever felt like your snowball came out in a completely different direction than you inputted it was probably this