Rammus Build Guide

Rammus Build

Runes for Rammus

Masteries for Rammus

Table of Contents

Introduction

1

So why Rammus?

2

Masteries Explained

3

Runes Explanained

4

Items Explained

5

Jungling and Ganking

6

Pros and Cons

7

Summary

8

• Introduction

  Hello, this guide is for jungle rammus. Rammus isn't the most popular pick in competitive play novadays, but it's a very strong pick in soloQ especially in lower elo(x - 1390) because of the amazing AOE damage output and a very good aoe damage output. This is my build or in other words, the build i use. It works out well all the time and has a potential to snowballing to the point, when carrys will kill themselves in those 3 seconds taunt, though that doesn't happen always, but you can shutdown carry's quite easy with nice timing and good positioning. Build mainly focuses on the damage back to other people, so you could kill others without actually attacking them.

  I will explain most of the things in this guide, except for the skill order, because the way i see it, it's really obviuos.

• So why Rammus?

  Well the answer is quite simple, Rammus is one of my first junglers, though i don't play him all that much these days, i do more Riven, Dr. Mundo, Lee Sin, Malphite, Nautilus, Maokai, etc. since they are at top right now, but Rammus is really over-looked. He is a very strong champion that can potentially carry low elo matches, shut down carry's, disrupt Burst Nuker Combos and survive for incredibly long time.

  I myself, played only 9 rankeds with Rammus out of aprox 330 rankeds, but i have a 8:1  W:L ratio and have carried atleast 2 matches with him, I enjoy playing him and really hope to see more good Rammus players, since it is really overlooked right now.

• Masteries Explained

  So, lets start with masterities. The tree i use is common for quite a few junglers, so there's not much explanation here, the basics stay the same, Tough Skin to Bladed Armor is used for jungle speed and safety increase, Juggernaut is for tanking and damage soaking up while not getting stun locked and completely removed from combat, [mastery=Initiator] give you a movement speed boost which if combined with red buff will make it really hard to escape you without buring Flash.  Arcane Knowledge increases your damage through out the game, since all of your skills deal magic damage and Thornmail does so too.

• Runes Explanained

  Everything here is same for most junglers except for Quint's and Seal's, most of the time Jungler's get Quints - Movement and Seal's - Armor, for Rammu's I switched it up, because of two reasons, first is that rammus doesn't really need that much of a movement boost because of his Powerball and the second - the flat health + flat armor give you a nice defencive boost early on  there for allowing you to clear the jungle and still be near the peak of your health to be able to make an easy gank without taking risks and also the Armor Quint's stack with your Defensive Ball Curl and passive giving you some damage to jungle creeps and while ganking. Also, you can switch up Quints with Seal's i just use them this way, because i have them this way and buying Quints health would take a hell lot of IP.

• Items Explained

  Starting item's on rammus are most usually a Boots of Speed + 3x Health Potion, but if you wish you can get Cloth Armor + 5x Health Potion or even Regrowth Pendant + 1x Health Potion though this is not something i do, but it could work.

  
  

  Item's on rammus here are made for the basic tanking and staying alive while dealing decent damage. As with most tank jungler's you rush Heart of Gold for free money and a nice hp boost, but it will be sold later or if you need you can upgrade it to Randuin's Omen which is a really good item on Rammus, but i rarely take it on him. Early Thornmail gives you nice damage boost with your passive and your Defensive Ball Curl, while it also stacks the damages of Thornmail and  Defensive Ball Curl.  Warmog's Armor gives you incredible HP boost which allows for amazing sustain, especially if you take it early on, you can dive without any risk of dying unless you are diving a fed bruiser who does lots of damage and never dies, but that's not something you see every day, because he needs feed.  [item=Force Of Nature] well after Warmog's Armor you're gonna have a very nice health regeneration with that [item=Force Of Nature] which will work out for you even better than life steal. In case of shoes, i usually take  Mercury's Treads for the tenacity but it's not strictly only  Mercury's Treads, you can take Ninja Tabi it is a very strong pick against carry's, especially if the enemy carry is fed.  Other Item's are situational though i almost always pick up a Spirit Visage after [item=Force Of Nature] to increase the health regeneration, but it's not a "must have". Abyssal Scepter works really well on rammus because of the Ability Power which increase the damage of  your Tremors and Powerball though damage of  Powerball isn't all that important, but Tremors gets a really nice boost with the AP + AoE Mr Reduction, the Mr Reduction also increases the damage of your Thornmail and Defensive Ball Curl, because they both deal magical damage, so the damage can be reduced by Magic Resist, but since Abyssal Scepter reduces the Magic Resist, their damage increases. And lastly  Randuin's Omen and Guardian Angel they are both viable, but i would pick  Randuin's Omen over Guardian Angel for 2 reasons, 1- you already have a Heart of Gold, 2- the slow time increase works really well on rammus, especially with Defensive Ball Curl activated, but dont think that Guardian Angel isn't a good item to pick up, it still is really viable since its like a "Zilean Guardian" which is really useful if you have a killstreak and don't want to accidently donate lots of gold or you just dont feel safe. Also there is one more item i couldn't put into the situational list and it is, yes you guessed it, Frozen Heart, if combined with  Randuin's Omen it can almost completely shut down a carry without forcing you to come up to him and taunt him, it also makes you never wonder about mana or "should i use my ult" since with the mana and cooldown reduction it gives, you can safely use it whenever you like, even for farming.

• Jungling and Ganking

  The jungle route is the same as for most mana based junglers:

  1. Wolves
  2. Blue Buff Golem
  3. Wraith's
  4. Red Buff Lizard
  5. Golem's
  6. Wraith's

  The ganking is really simple too main things about how and when to use your skills are:

  ->  Always try to Powerball from behind the enemy, since it kick's him opposite from the way you hit him, and it will get him closer to your team mate.
  ->   Tremors should be used only when you taunt the target for maximum damage.
  ->   Puncturing Taunt should always be used in combo with Defensive Ball Curl or atleast after Powerball, for most damage.

• Pros and Cons

  These are the Pros and Cons of Rammus.

  Pros:

  1.    Shutting Down Carry's and other squishy target's really easy.
  2.    Hard ganking with the 3s taunt.
  3.    Counter Jungling doesn't affect him as much as some other junglers.
  4.    Can win almost any fight against a Attack Damage based champion
  5.    Very good initiator with Flash and Defensive Ball Curl and Tremors combo.
  6.    Team compilation isn't strict for Rammus.
  7.    Can snowball really hard.
  8.    Good pusher with his ultimate.

  Cons:

  1.     First jungle rotation is really dependant on blue, not as much as amumu or fiddle, but he still needs it for speed and easier ganking.
  2.     Build isn't cheap.
  3.     True damage burns Rammus really hard during early and late game.
  4.     Late game damage isn't much.

• Summary

  So to sum up this, I'd like to say that Rammus is a really strong pick in soloQ because of the abillity to carry a match if played well, his tankyness gives him damage which is really insane, he can become a really big threat to enemies, because he can just go in and deal so much damage, by just being attacked.

   

  I hope you liked the guide and it will help you, im open to any kind of feedback and Thank you for reading.