Low-luminosity type II supernovae (LL SNe~II) make up the low explosion energy end of core-collapse SNe, but their study and physical understanding remain limited. We present SN,2016aqf, a LL SN~II with extensive spectral and photometric coverage. We measure a $V$-band peak magnitude of $-14.58$,mag, a plateau duration of $sim$100,days, and an inferred $^{56}$Ni mass of $0.008 pm 0.002$,msun. The peak bolometric luminosity, L$_{rm bol} approx 10^{41.4}$,erg,s$^{-1}$, and its spectral evolution is typical of other SNe in the class. Using our late-time spectra, we measure the [ion{O}{i}] $lambdalambda6300, 6364$ lines, which we compare against SN II spectral synthesis models to constrain the progenitor zero-age main-sequence mass. We find this to be 12 $pm$ 3,msun. Our extensive late-time spectral coverage of the [ion{Fe}{ii}] $lambda7155$ and [ion{Ni}{ii}] $lambda7378$ lines permits a measurement of the Ni/Fe abundance ratio, a parameter sensitive to the inner progenitor structure and explosion mechanism dynamics. We measure a constant abundance ratio evolution of $0.081^{+0.009}_{-0.010}$, and argue that the best epochs to measure the ratio are at $sim$200 -- 300,days after explosion. We place this measurement in the context of a large sample of SNe II and compare against various physical, light-curve and spectral parameters, in search of trends which might allow indirect ways of constraining this ratio. We do not find correlations predicted by theoretical models; however, this may be the result of the exact choice of parameters and explosion mechanism in the models, the simplicity of them and/or primordial contamination in the measured abundance ratio.
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