This guide is for Amumu on Dominion, in particular played at lower-mid Elos (I'm currently 1670 and rising with about a consistent 73% winrate).

My build is based on flexibility, to be able to do decent in 4v4, 3v3, 1v1, etc. So the build is generally less tanky, but you are able to win even dueling many champs.

Masteries are pretty straightforward. 9 are put into offense because the 10% magic pen is more useful than what you could get elswhere. 21 points are put into defense, distributed in the manner I find most useful.

Magic pen is the most useful marks you can get. I get hp per level seals because I find it is easier to tweak armor/mr via item purchases. Lots of the items you want don't give hitpoints, and defenses are less valuable with a low HP amount.

Sometimes you will face very few AD champs, sometimes very few AP champs. So you might regret getting armor runes over HP runes. You want to customize your defense against which enemies are more fed. I.E., if they have an annoying 10 kill AD Shaco, and a 2 kill LeBlanc who is fighting at bot lane, you want more Armor.

The Runes are all per level, it is debatable whether you want flat armor or flat HP runes for early game. But so far I have found the tradeoff to be worth it. In the first battle I still have 1050 HP and solid defenses, making myself hard for the enemies to kill compared to my 700-900 hp lower defense teammates. The point at which flat and per level break even is about level 10-11, so you don't have to wait too long for per level profit on Dominion.

To make intelligent Rune Choices you have to understand the philosophy behind tanking.

There is a balancing game you play, making it inefficient for the enemy team to focus you, yet still being effective when they don't. Other than his incredible Ultimate which is initially on a huge cooldown, Amumu only has 1 stun (also with a sizable CD). Hence, you need to have sizable damage. Even if you die 'pretty quick', It's still better than your teammates dying even quicker (or getting stunned).

I start with a Ruby, Sapphire Crystal, and boots. Without the Sapphire Crystal you will run out of mana very quick, and be irrelevant offense wise. The 200 HP from the Ruby is very useful early, and is a good defense vs AP and AD damage. You will also quickly build into the Catalyst the Protector. With the rapid level rate, the 250 HP and 200 mana per level will give sustainability for less recalls, buffered by picking up health packs.

Next build into Mercury's Treads, which you want 90% of the time for the tenacity. Occasionally boots of Mobility can be an okay choice if your team is backdooring points a lot more. But the Treads are the safer choice and help more with straight up battles.

Next I build into Deathfire Grasp. I start with Kage's Lucky Pick if the team is doing well, it gives some extra gold in the long run. Otherwise you can build into Fiendish Codex first, the most use you get out if it at this stage is it allows your Ultimate to be up for more battles. Deathfire Grasp is incredibly good. It gives you that extra bit of burst Amumu otherwise lacks. If an enemy champ does not have MR, with your bandage Toss, Tantrum, and Deathfire Grasp, you can easily get an enemy champ below 50% HP in an instant, at which point a teammate quickly disposes of them (or you finish them off more gradually).

After Deathfire Grasp, I start building up either Armor or Magic Resistance, whichever is more needed (usually Armor). This means Odyn's Veil or Warden's Mail. Warden's Mail is an incredibly useful item. 50 armor is beefy, 20 health regen will add up, and slowing attack and movement speed when champs attack you is just what a little mummy likes. Build the Heart of Gold and Cloth armor when you can, and get Randuin's Omen (awesome Item). Odyn's Veil is also great, it is probably 'the' best defensive MR item, and gives you some extra burstiness with its active. Perfect.


So that's the core Build. Randuin's Omen, Deathfire Grasp, Mercury's Treads, and Odyn's Veil. Afterwards Abyssal Scepter and Sunfire Cape are often good choices, one gives more damage + Magic Resist, the other gives more damage + Armor. Will of the Ancients is also nice, giving you and nearby champs more AP and spellvamps. You could also quickly get Kindle Gem or Spirit Visage to get your CD to jump from 28.1% to 38.1% (at level 18)

Sidetrack - Randuin's Omen vs Frozen Heart/Sunfire Cape/Thornmail

Why pick Randuin's Omen? Well here's why I find it preferable over the other items.

Frozen Heart - there are so many champs you fight that won't be affected by the attack speed debuff aura. Ranged AD champs, any AP champ, and even Melee AD champs tend to use lots of abilities. Randuin's applies a stronger slow, although only when people hit you, and only on 35% of hits so they have to beat on you a bit... but this will apply to ranged ADs also.

You will also not need the CD or mana from Frozen Heart, with the other items you purchased.

Sunfire Cape - 45 Armor and 450 health is certainly useful, but compared to Randuin's Omen which gives 75 Armor and 300 Health your defense against AD champs will seem lackluster. With Sunfire you may be forced to build another armor item to get a solid defense. Furthermore just like Frozen Heart, auras are more circumstantial on Dominion, quicker battles, less participants. However if you find you need more Armor after Omen, Sunfire Cape is definitely a good choice, as the Omen just makes Sunfire Cape stronger (more defense = more longevity = AoE damage).

Thornmail - Even though this item is good for getting a ton of armor fast, the damage/utility from Thornmail is just way too low (magic damage applies on basic attacks only). As Amumu, you can easily get your magic damage from your abilities.

Notice that in the core build you have 3 active item abilities. this is what truly makes Amumu the "combustible Mummy". In under 2 seconds, you can apply 6 separate abilities, 4 of which are AoE.

Bandage Toss -> Curse of the Mummy -> Tantrum -> Odyn's Veil, Deathfire Grasp on focus target -> Randuin's Omen to apply slow after your Curse is wearing off.

I highly suggest you create hotkeys for these items and consistently put the same items in the same slots. For me it works like this:

Press 1 - Odyn's Veil
Press 2 - Randuin's Omen
Press 3 - Deathfire Grasp

Deathfire Grasp is also on smartcast, meaning I just need to hover the cursor over my target and press 3. So sometimes I will be mashing 3333 while chasing my target with my mouse, to make sure I don't 'miss'.

At game start, I put one point into all 3 abilities. Alternatively you could put 2 into bandage toss and 1 into W, if you don't expect to get into close up battles.

From then on, I basically always max Q, then W, then E. E is circumstantially more useful than W if you are fighting against basic attack AD champs a lot. But otherwise, you'll get more damage out of W, largely just because the range is 50% larger (300 AoE vs 200 AoE for the E).

The focus of this guide is not so much on how to Play Amumu or play Dominion. There are plenty of more general guides which explain this much better than I could. But here's some tips -

1. You will often be the initiator, but don't feel you can't fall back after you take some hits. This build is not a dedicated tank, it is just a tanky AP champ which takes some focus away from squishy allies.

It is much better to fall back at 30% health and get another bandage toss after it cool downs. Q is your strongest non-ult ability by far.

2. Try to stick with teammates. Your kit is not for soloing, it is much better if you have teammates beating on the enemies when you stun them.

3. Don't forget to often do melee attacks. Your passive reduces the magic resist of any champion you hit with a melee attack. This not only can significantly increase your damage output, it can also increase the damage of your teammates. Once you get your basic attack cooldown memorized, you can still run around most of the time, dodging and avoiding attacks, while doing the occasional headbutt + Tantrum.

Well, I might add more to this article later. But that's enough for now!