These aren't the OMG GREATEST EVAR INSTAWIN champions. But if you're looking for something new, something different, here are a few I rarely see played but always have fun with. They have weaknesses and counters, they aren't easy wins, they aren't Poppy/Kassadin/Lee Sin's calibre. But they are viable and I've won with them all, and they are fun.

Amumu
The build: CDR, AP, tanky, items like...
- Kindlegem
- Rylai's
- Sunfire
- Morello's
- Frozen Heart
- FoN
- WotA

Why it works:
- 1:1 ratios on Bandage Toss and Curse of the Sad Mummy.
- 78 second ult (down from 130, at rank 3) with maxed CDR.
- Tremendous CC to defend points, and lock down targets for your allies, combined with decent AP burst.
- Tanky, and awash with AOE damage from Despair, Tantrum, and Sunfire Cape, making him a good point defender.
- Landing Bandage Toss feels awesome all the time, every time. Especially when you build AP and it chunks someone down.
- Shutting down 4 enemy champs with your ultimate is the best.

Where to play him:
- Top lane. Fight smart, with your allies. Land your bandages. (If you can't land bandages, play someone else.) Run around crying and hugging your Sunfire blankie. Don't expect to 1v1 strong carries, and don't waste your ult, but don't underestimate your own damage either.

Nunu
The build: AP, CDR, tanky. Items like...
- Prospector's Ring (you need to start with something for mana regen)
- Deathcap
- Void Staff
- Hextech Revolver -> WotA/Gunblade
- Spirit Visage
- Frozen Heart

Why it works:
- 1:1 ratios on Consume and Ice Blast, and 3:1 ratio on Absolute Zero.
- Insane healing from Consume + spellvamp.
- Kite and harass like a beast with Blood Boil + Ice Blast.
- 3.6s snowballs with max CDR.
- 54 second ult (down from 90 at rank 3) with max CDR. Don't fret: This is faster than Flash.
- Wiping someone out from full health with a fully channeled ult is the best thing.
- Push waves with Consume + AP snowballs.
- Consume > H-28G Evolution Turret.

Where to play him:
- Bot lane. Max snowballs, with a rank in your haste, and become the definition of lane harassment. Run in, throw a snowball, run back. Consume big creeps. Throw more snowballs. Ult like a boss. Harass your enemy out of the lane with snowballs, or just kill them. Some matchups unfortunately shut Nunu down, in which case you can switch to...
- Top lane. Blood Boil your AD carry. Throw snowballs. Harass people with snowballs. Save your allies with slowballs. Sustain and clutch heal yourself with Consume. Ult like a boss.

Sona
The build: AP. Items like...
- Sheen (core)
- Deathfire Grasp (get this also)
- Lich Bane
- Rylai's
- Deathcap

Why it works:
- Dual-target nuke with Hymn of Valor.
- Power Chord + Sheen = autoattacks that nuke.
- 60 second ult (down from 100, at rank 3) with max CDR.
- Considerable utility: heal, haste, free stats, clutch saves with Crescendo.
- Bait and kite with Aria and Song of Celerity.
- Nuke squishy carries down with DFG + Crescendo + Hymn + Sheen/Power Chord autoattack. Nobody expects it from the quiet ones. Bonus points if you stun them in turret range.

Where to play her:
- Top lane. Max Hymn of Valor, rush Sheen, and chunk enemies down. Heal allies with Aria. Get free support points by mashing of QWE. Shut down tower dives with Crescendo. Run from Poppy and Irelia with Song of Celerity. Kill everyone else.

Post yours! Or tell me how wrong and worthless mine are.

funny about Amumu, I've done a few pure AP/CDR builds - nukuamumu - and its just a blast. The 1:1 ratios on his Q is op.

Well, not that unusual, but except me playing him, i rarely see him, so it might be EU, or just general consensus, but my experience makes me believe the following

AP Ezreal
The Build/Runes
Runes will like AD Ez, armor penentration,cdr, needed for the early mystic shot.
- Start out with sheen and Q at LVL 2, this makes Ez shoot Mystic shot for 200 right from the start. Keep Leveling Q so Mystic shot will not fall behind in damage up until you get lichbane.
- Get Ionian Boots,
- Rush Lichbane
- Deathcap
- Other AP items as situation requires(maybe even rageblade as a very strong AP item when stacked)

Why it works:
1k nuke at 1 second interval at 1100 range. With proper positioning you can easily wear down a defender or attacker without ever being in any danger. Nearly everything is flashable, so the only one reliably chasing you is Kassadin.
With a reasonable amount of AP full combo can hit for over 4000 damage(manage to hit all skillshots on 1 target). Landing all mystics enables the full combo to be up very fast after use.

Personal moment of glory: Triple kill from botlane shooting enemies at windmill with Barrage. AP Ez ulti is not funny for the enemy

Where to use:
Bottom/Roamer. Mystic shot is very useful for counterpushing if you carefully aim it. Enemy hero, else targed ranged minion. Effective way to keep everything up to moderate push under control. Won´t work against heavy pushers. With reasonable AP the big minion can be one-shotted too with mystic. At this point Ez becomes a very strong roamer, having a full combo rotation available every 7 seconds, not counting mystic shot reduction, being able to hit enemies in the shroud and far from beyond walls.

I feel like I keep saying this, but AP Ez is another champ I think hextech sweeper is core for. You know where to flash for a kill. You know where to aim in the fog. Your team gets a full 4 seconds to see what all those top champs decided to do after they got hit for gobs of damage from your ult. And of course, if you hit an invis with one of your skillshots, they'll never get away.

I keep skipping on it actually, because the one skill where it would count most, mystic shot, won't proc the sweeper. So for long range it's ulti, or else you will be coming dangerously close.

I've actually done AP ez in a team with 3 other ADs top so I just built pretty standard with AP/level runes, deathcap/lichbane ionian +DFG so everyone was pretty heavy on armor and light on magic resist. I built a last whisper instead of void staff next and boy was that effective. I think I ended the game with almost 600 AP (ap/level runes) forgot how much AD, base+40. The Q scaling is a bit retarded imo, pretty much 1.2 AP scaling with lichbane.

My personal pet peeve, I've never seen anyone build glass cannon Amumu and not feed like hell.

Consider:

- Synergy: Amumu is a sustained AoE mage, with high base damage and built in mpen. Building him tanky negates these advantages and hurts his main strength (standing on people and crying them to death)

- Skillset: Q and E have good scaling because one has a minute plus cooldown, and one is a fairly slow skillshot that's extremely difficult to land from beyond point-blank range.

- Communication: Amumu is mainly a tank, trollbuilds notwithstanding, and if you pick him and say nothing in lobby, people WILL assume that you are playing tank. They get in game and, TROLOLOLOL, suddenly that role is completely unfilled. At least don't let it be a surprise.


Er, sorry for the off topic - I'm just sick of seeing this build on my team, I wouldn't even consider it 'decent'.

IMO a properly built and played AP Ezreal is better than AD on Dominion. Most Ezreal's I see do well, but die when they get impatient and get into autoattack range too often. AP Ezreal removes that incentive while still hitting hard.

Amumu: CDR is definitely beast on Dominion for AoE ult champs. Unfortunately I've seen some AP based amumu's fail really hard. I've seen some classic tank amumus debuff really hard and enable quite a pain train for his AP teammates.

Nunu is pretty sick against the ever popular ranged ADs, though Vayne remains obnoxious as ever with her KB and Tumble to put down distance. He's not too bad starting bottom lane, but as you said he shines when paired with an auto-attacker, simultaneously crippling their AD while boosting your own. You need a team that cooperatively lures people into a brush initiated Absolute Zero trap. Lichbane or Tri-Force may be a better option than Void Staff with that CDR, general lack of defensive builders, and given his melee & haste. It's pretty cool that you can swizzle him a little more sided towards AD or AP, depending on who your matchup is and how you want to counter them.

Sona: Any build that does not max CDR is wrong to me. The strategy is an assassin combo that can only be pulled off once per ~60 seconds off the ult, while Kassassin dances on your corpse and Akali scoots her skanky tuna all over your face. IMO, Sona is always best paired with champs who can exploit the hell out of both AP and AD ratios: Morde, Akali, Ez, etc. as well as champions who can really use the speed boost due to no flavor-of-the-year dash mechanic.

It is a fun combo, but I wouldn't call it decent. She's just too freakin squish, having some of the lowest base stats of any champion. I don't think I've ever seen a LB/Tri build work in anything but super low ELO, so I'd have to chalk it up to trololololo.

Boring Anecdote: Perhaps maybe a year ago, typical build of Mercs, Soul Shroud, DFG/Tome, WotA, pairing with Gunblade Morde was absolutely disgusting. It is no coincidence that there are currently rumblings on the forum complaining of Spell Vamp aura stack. Try Hybrid Gunblade team with CDR/WotA support Sona and see where it gets you. Unfortunately I haven't touched her much since Morello & Shurelia forcibly gangbanged her, and the Dominion (de)buff seems to be like the judge ruling that it was consensual.


Tank Heimer

Perhaps not that different, but I've come across occasional tank Heimers that were just incredibly difficult, to nearly impossible to push off a defended point. Typically core Frozen Heart, Rylai's, and FoN and/or Abyssal (MR debuff for turret damage)

I've recently discovered the joys of Kennen

Hybrid Kennen
Items:
Zerker Boots + Dagger > Stinger > Bildgewater Cutlass > Hextech Revolver > Gunblade > Nashor's Tooth > situational items(usually HP)

Why it works:
This build gives Kennen a moderate amount of AS, AD and AP. It lets him stun somebody(sometimes a group of people) multiple times in a single engagement. The AP gives his skills a threatening amount of damage, and his AD+AS makes his autoattacks painful...not to mention every 5th attack does a percentage of his AD(which also triggers his marks). This build also has a leech, to help a tad with his survivability.

Where to play him:
Where ever you would play an AP champ. I find this build can't fill an AD spot, but it can fill an AP spot.

****Also note that despite how long I've played LoL, I haven't played a whole lot of Kennen, so I'm not sure how optimal this build actually is.

AD Eve
Items:
Boots1 + 2 Longswords > Boots of Mobility > Brutalizer > Ghostblade > PD > Vamp Sceptor > IE > situational(usually Stark's to take advantage of her shredding)

Why it works:
With AP Eve, I always felt helpless if my front-loaded burst didn't kill something, and I felt useless since I couldn't engage enemies in skirmishes. With AD Eve, you still have all the benefits of playing this champ, but now you can eat carries and low health tankies alike.

Where to play her:
Play her as a roamer/scout. At the start of the match, go towards top via the speed shrine, but instead of going to windmill, go towards the enemy speed shrine. Cut off their mid-capper and tie them up. Under many circumstances, you should either kill them or maim them to the point where they won't be able to clean up top if your team won Windmill. From there, the map is your playground, but I highly recommend ganking their bot every minute on the minute(or as much as possible).