Rammus is a tanky jungler who is extremely fun to play and very effective if played correctly. Rammus' Powerball and puncturing taunt allow him to feed his carries early game. In team fights Rammus is great at either peeling for carries, or solo killing an enemy carry.

Pros: Strong Ganks Strong CC Able to kill ADC's and assassins Able to destroy towers effectively Fun to play!

Cons: Hard to counter jungle Jungle can be slow Countered by minions!

• Greater Quintessence of Movement Speed: // Movement speed is essential for catching opponents. Even though your Powerball gives a huge speed buff, you need to be able to run people down to puncturing taunt in fights.
  
• Greater Mark of Armor: // Armor gives Rammus early tankiness and damage to make jungling easier. Many players will use Greater Mark of Magic Penetration instead. This is certainly viable, but is not my preference.
  
• Greater Seal of Armor: // Armor gives Rammus early tankiness and damage to make jungling easier.EXPLANATION.
  
• Greater Glyph of Scaling Magic Resist: // Magic resist is harder to come by in season 3. Scaling MR gives more late game resistance. You won't really need the small amount of added MR for early game anyways.

Other than using Greater Mark of Magic Penetration the only other substitutes could be more scaling MR.

Many would look at this build and scoff at it because this build is relatively less tanky than most Rammus builds. I agree, but let me explain why. Rammus' Defensive Ball Curl makes him super tanky for a short period of time. This will make it very hard for enemy champions to kill him during a gank, or during a team fight - unless they focus him. But isn't that what you want to happen as a tank? That the enemy team actually attacks you? If you build too tanky, the enemy team will simply ignore you. Rammus does a decent amount of damage for the duration of his ult, but after that he does very little damage if enemies do not attack him. If you build less tanky, and particularly build a ton of auras, the enemy has two options: attack the "squishy" Rammus, take some damage from his shield, and get rid of those auras, or leave him alone and let him CC one person out of the fight while concurrently buffing his whole team. Either way, you win!

Zeke's Herald

Spirit of the Ancient Golem gives you tenacity, which is huge for Rammus. It gives you health and armor + regen. Perfect item for Rammus.

Boots of Swiftness movement speed is key, even though you have Powerball to boost your speed, the more is better. Rammus needs the speed advantage to run down targets while avoiding obstacles like those pesky minions.

Shurelya's Battlesong this item is awesome for Rammus! If the enemy team is extra slippery and your ganks have not been successful, get this early - it will make a difference. For ganks, the speed boost not only lets you catch your enemy, it helps your teams get there to kill them. Late game this item is great for initiations or for retreats.

Will of the Ancients and Zeke's Herald the goal of this build is to be as helpful as possible to your team. These two items help out your team immensely. Consult with your team mates to make sure that you do not duplicate aura when they could build something more effective, knowing that you were going to build them.

Even in a 1v1 fight these items will help you. Will of the Ancients provides spell power and spell vamp. Rammus' Powerball and Soaring Slam scale off of spell power. Powerball has a 100% AP ratio and Soaring Slam has a 30% per second or 240% over the course of the spell AP ratio. This can be very helpful for knocking down towers and for fighting 1v1. Additionally, Will of the Ancients provides spell vamp, which is triggered off of all of Rammus' abilities (except for puncturing taunt). The item is helpful to you, and even more helpful for your APC!

Zeke's Herald does not give as good of stats to Rammus as Will of the Ancients, but health + 20% CDR is nothing to scoff at. And it helps our your team.

Thornmail honestly I do not always build this item, even if the game lasts long enough. Having this item will deter people from attacking you, which as I said earlier is not the goal of tanking. The best time to take this item is when you find yourself fighting their ADC or assassins during the game. If you are peeling during team fights more than attacking a specific melee target, a better choice is Locket of the Iron Solari.

Remember that the goal of this is to be the most helpful jungle tank you can be. Rammus' abilities alone make him powerful enough without items. That is the basis of this build. Rammus becomes very tanky with defensive ball curl despite what items he has on him. For six seconds Rammus is just as tanky as most other tanks are with much tankier gear than him. If the enemy team focuses Rammus during this time, the rest of his team is wreaking havoc. Additionally, all of the items do help Rammus individually. There may be better items if you were always playing to fight solo - but if that is your goal a) there are much better champions, b) this is a team game!

Alternate items:

If no one on your team is going to build a Runic Bulwark, you should substitute this item into your build.

If all of your ganks are going as planned Locket of the Iron Solari may be a great substitute for Shurelya's.

Normal situation items such as Quicksilver Sash are decent in specific situations.

Tanky items. Warmog's Armor, Spirit Visage, Guardian Angel, Randuin's Omen, etc. These items all make you more tanky. As I argued earlier, you do not want to be too tanky on Rammus. You want to tempt the enemy to attack you. Otherwise you will be alone at the end of a team fight having only effected the one person you focused with your taunt.

Typical jungle route - Wolves, Smiteless Blue (even if your team only does a standard leash Rammus can do smiteless pretty easily), Red - gank mid. If successful wraithes, golem gank bot/top. If not successful, wraiths, gank mid.

My strategy with Rammus is to pick on mid until they want to cry.

When ganking with Rammus there are few tips that are helpful: whenever possible gank from behind. Rammus has issues with minions getting in the way of ganks. This is easier to avoid when not trying to gank perpendicular to the enemy.

Rammus' Powerball gives more of a speed buff as it powers up. There is a fine balance between using it early enough to have a large speed buff to catch the enemy and going too late that it runs out, due to dodging minions.

Flash + Powerball = super surprise gank. Flash + Powerball is the bread and butter of a solid Rammus. You can use flash is so many awesome ways with Rammus. Flash over creeps to secure a gank, flash to an opponent to gank in a very small window of opportunity. Flash to get to a carry during a team fight for a puncturing taunt.

Gank, then gank again. A lot of junglers cannot gank, then turn around and do a gank with all their abilities off CD less than ten seconds later. Even if you are unsuccessful in getting a kill, the laner will be worried about these ganks for the rest of the game.

Give up your buffs. After the first blue buff, you do not need it anymore. Be a team player and help your mid get the blue. After the second red buff, be a team player and give the buff up to your ADC.

Ward. When you go back to buy, if you have some extra money, buy wards. This Rammus build maxes out fairly quickly and remember, you are not as gear reliant as some of your team mates. Ward for your top lane, ward the enemy jungle, ward your jungle. Vision wins games.