League of Legends - Rammus Guide

Rammus is a strong anti-physical tank that has incredible map control, a long taunt and a defensive shield that reflects damage to attackers. By combining his skills Rammus becomes a strong initiator and valuable asset to any team line-up. He is also a capable jungler which is covered in this guide.

This Rammus guide aims to be a basic and simple introduction on basic strategy that should be adopted when playing Rammus, it is recommended for people just starting to use Rammus.

Abilities

• 
  Spiked Shell (Passive) This passive helps Rammus deal some powerful damage with his auto-attacks to help his jungle speed and gank potential.
• 
  Powerball Powerball is an amazing map control skill and makes Rammus an extremely strong ganker combined with his taunt.
• 
  Defensive Ball Curl Rammus's shield gives him a very strong armor and magic resist boost and also reflects damage similar to a Thornmail. This skill works well with his passive and allows Rammus to jungle.
• 
  Puncturing Taunt A single target long duration taunt that synergises perfectly with Rammus's Defensive Ball Curl and Powerball ability. It also reduces the targets armor, allowing physical allies to pick them apart easily.
• 
  Tremors (Ultimate) Rammus's built in sunfire cape that also deals damage to towers, making him great at quickly destroying them. This ability works great when activated in the middle of a team fight, damaging every enemy (enemies that stay in the area for the full duration receive lots of damage and it has the potential to hurt them all.)

Ability Order

Generally the best way to level your abilities is:
Tremors(Ult) > Puncturing Taunt > Defensive Ball Curl > Powerball

Grabbing Defensive Ball Curl first allows you to jungle from level 1, while grabbing Powerball at level 2 allows you to fly around the jungle while also dealing more damage. Taking a second point in Defensive Ball Curl at level 3 is recommended to increase your jungle speed. Maxing Puncturing Taunt first is a must as it increases the taunt duration, followed up by Defensive Ball Curl for the armor/magic resistance increase, leaving Powerball till last.

Runes

Red (Marks) - Armor Penetration
Yellow (Seals) - Armor
Blue (Glyphs) - Magic Resist // Mana Rgeneration
Purple (Quintessences) - Flat Health

Armor Penetration increases your damage in the jungle and increases your overall speed, it also gives you strong damage during your early ganks. Running Armor seals is a must to increase your survivability (and damage) in the jungle. Magic Resistance Glyphs give you some extra magic resistance but can also be mana regeneration if you find yourself low on mana often. While Health on Quintessences increase your early game survivability.

Summoner Spells

 

Best Summoner Spells:
-Flash
-Smite

Standard summoner spell choices for Rammus should be Flash and Smite. Flash is amazing on Rammus as it allows you to pull off numerous tricks with Powerball (like flashing over minion waves for surprise ganks). While Smite is a must for any jungler.

Other Good Summoner Spells:
-Exhaust
-Teleport

Rammus has other summoner spell options available to him, if you don't jungle as him. Exhaust gives your team an added form of crowd control and is also very effective at shutting down an enemy. You can also run Teleport to improve your team's map presence.

Masteries

Jungle Rammus should be run as a 1/21/8 champion, boosting his tanking ability while giving him increased experience and improved smite (important for jungling)

Item Build

 
Final Item Build:
-Mercury's Treads
-Sunfire Cape
-Banshee's Veil
-Aegis of the Legion
-Thornmail
-Randuin's Omen

Steps/Reasoning:
-As Jungle Rammus you want to start with a Cloth Armor & 5 Health Potions.
-First trip back you want to get onto building your boots, which should be Mercury's Treads. While also picking up an early Heart of Gold is a strong choice.
-Your first core item should be a Aegis of the Legion, this provides great stats to your team. Don't build this if someone else is going to build one.
-Next you want to build towards a Sunfire Cape, this provides a nice armor and health boost along with boosting your area of effect magic damage from Tremors (also helps with farming).
-Your 2nd and final core item is Banshee's Veil, this item solves Rammus's mana issues, provides more health and gives magic resistance along with the all important spell block.
-From here your items are not set in stone (as with all tanks), you should look at building a Force of Nature or an Abyssal Scepter for magic resistance.
-On the other hand for armor you want to consider Thornmail and Randuin's Omen.
-As a tank it is important to not only analyse the enemy team as a whole but who is doing well on the enemy team, as this will affect your final build and the order.

Alternatives:
-Abyssal Scepter (A strong magic resist item that also has a great aura for your team)
-Guardian Angel (Gives you a bit of both resistances and the ability to revive)
-Force of Nature (A must have against caster (AP) heavy teams)

General Rammus Tips

• Rammus is a very strong initiator, you want to Powerball into the enemy team, taunting one of the carries and then activating your shield and ultimate.
• Rammus's taunt is extremely powerful due to its long duration use it to shut down the enemies damage dealers and support in team fights.
• Rammus like Shen can quickly come to his allies aide, be aware of the map. You can Powerball in to turn the tides of the battle.
• Your ultimate can be used to farm large minion waves during mid-game as its cooldown is reasonably low.

Early Game (1-6)

• Your standard jungle route is Blue Golem > Wolves > Wraith > Mini-Golems > Red Lizard. See the video on this page to see it in action.
• With good communication you can easily kill people in lanes, target a single champion and use your Powerball and taunt to disable them while the person in lane kills them.
• Be aware of the status of mid lane at all times, you can quickly Powerball into middle lane for a gank. Ask yourself the following questions: are they low health? do they constantly over extend? Is my ally healthy or powerful enough to grab the kill? Does the enemy in mid have Flash or another escaping tool?
• You should also begin to analyse the enemy team, what is their team composition and who is doing well. This will help you decide what boots to grab, who is your primary target to taunt (thus taking them out of the fight) and what your final build will contain (this can still change as the game goes on, but begin to think about where it most likely needs to be end-game)

Mid Game (7-12)

• Pair up with your carry and co-ordinate ganks on lanes, enemies without Flash or other escape skills are best. This should get you a tower or two and also gets your carry some easy gold, making them stronger.
• You should always be thinking an item ahead, if you do die be sure to check the death recap to see where most of the enemies damage was coming from and build to defend against this.
• Be sure to be near your team so you can protect them. Also keep a close eye on your carries as they farm lanes, Rammus is a great anti-ganker with Powerball and taunt, you can often save your carries from a gank and escape yourself.

Late Game (13-18)

• Focus on correctly initiating team fights with Powerball and your taunt.
• Always be in front of your allies, use your positioning to prevent your carries and support characters from getting poked.
• Taunting the enemy carry or support champion is your primary goal, taunt has a low enough cooldown that you can often get two or three taunts off per team fight.
• Always be on the look out for enemies that wonder off by themselves and co-ordinate a gank for your team.
• Stay in team fights and absorb as much damage as possible, sometimes you will have to die for the greater good of the team. 

Video Guide