Welcome to my Jungle Amumu guide. It's my first guide here on Mobafire although I've been visiting this site for a long time.

First of all, I'll tell you one thing about my preference when playing tanks, even more if you don't have any taunt skill like Shen or Rammus: you have to do some damage to be always a nuisance for the enemy team, so they may get confused and try to focus you (which is good). This is somehow a psychological taunt, but even if you don't get focused during teamfights, you still will be right there doing impressive dmg to be a tank. This works for both low and high ELO; usually that psychological taunt we are talking about happens in low ELO games, but like I said before, even if you don't get focused you can dish out nice damage, which happens in High ELO (99% of the time they all run into your carries as they should).

So the thing is, we build a Tank Amumu guide with good dmg output (mostly AoE which is even better!) all along the game, being capable of taking hard punishment and being a threat to your enemies.

Pros:

One of best tanks out there
Almost all his dmg is AoE based, which is GREAT in teamfights and jungle camps
Good ganker with Bandage Toss stun and AoE root when 6+
Gets stronger as the game goes on
Game-breaking Ultimate which synergizes really good with Randuin's active
His passive adds even more MR reduction, combined with runes and Abyssal Scepter
He's a ****in mummy kid!

Cons:

Weak autoattacking, which is only useful to apply your passive
Kinda slow (purchase to counter it)
All your damage is magic based, so MR on enemies cut your dmg by half (we get Mpen from runes and Abyssal to make it less troublesome)

Ok, let's get down to bussiness. You already know Amumu does magic dmg with all his skills and Sunfire Cape, so Magic Penetration Marks are a must-have on him.

For Seals , I like going flat armor, as this guide is focused on Jungle Amumu. Some junglers get dodge seals but I don't like going dodge on amumu, I'll explain it: His E, Tantrum, which is the major source of damage in teamfights along with Despair, gets it's cooldown reduced by 0,5 sec each time he's hit. So if you get dodge seals along with dodge masteries, you'll have like 10% dodge chance, which means you won't take all hits from enemy champs and MINIONS and your Tantrum won't be up as fast as if you had no dodge. If you're gonna lane with Amu, I strongly recommend going Mp5/lvl seals as you won't have blue buff and we are not going phylostone in this build. This paired with Meditation mastery is enough to keep your mana up always you need it.

That being said, Glyphs offer much more versatility. A strong choice is going MR/lvl , 24 extra MR at lvl18 is not bad at all. But if you feel you'll have enough MR with Banshee's Veil and Abyssal Scepter, you can go Magic penetration , which gives you a bit more dmg and help against those MR stacking champs or even carries with a BV which is quite common. Also and are ok.

Finally Quintessences are much like glyphs. Flat HP is good on any champ, Magic Penetration along with marks and glyphs give you 19,35 flat Mp, almost like having . Flat AP for early game damage boost is also a good choice.

This is personal preference. I go 9/7/14, getting some AP, Improved Smite, CDR and Mpen in offensive (all good on Amumu), some resistances and Hp/regen in deffensive, and standard utility masteries till improved Flash, spending two points in improved buff duration.
Going 9/0/21 is still viable and I love that 15% less CD on flash and smite, but remember you are a tank after all and you need some mitigation.

Skill Sequence is standard on any Amumu jungler, taking 1 point in Despair to start jungle, maxing E then, one point at lvl4 in Bandage Toss to gank, then max W and finally Q. Of corse, ultimate at 6,11 and 16. Some ppl like maxing W before E and it's not that bad. Main reason is, when you use your E you stop for a while to cast it, so your enemy may outrun you. Maxing W along with your Sunfire Cape dmg is great, but I like the burst from Tantrum.

Not much to say about this. Smite is a must on Jungle Amumu, and almost any jungler (I think every jungler should take it no matter what). Flash has many uses for Amumu: better positioning to land Bandage Toss while ganking, Curse of the Sad Mummy in a teamfight, it also allows you to towerdive to let your allies get that kill and flash out alive.. If I had to choose another Summoner Spell it would be Ghost, but Boots of Swiftness gives me enough MS. Exhaust is also great to disable an enemy carry, which is great on a tank. But you know, you only have one slot, as Smite isn't negotiable.

If you're going to jungle, take this. It allows you to jungle faster, counterjungle effectively, ensure or steal buffs/dragon, and can be still useful against certain enemies like Heimer (works on turrets). As Amumu you need it to be able to jungle.

Flash. This spell is ok on any champ. It allows carries and supports being safer in teamfights. If they get focused they always can flash out and keep doing dmg/support. This allows meles having a much needed escape mechanism or a tool to get closer to their enemies. As Amumu, you need to be close to your enemies to land all your skills, specially . Sometimes is enough, sometimes it's not.

As said before, Amumu has to be close to their enemies to make his dmg. This helps chasing, escaping, getting faster to a lane/dragon/baron... It has many uses, but we solved this problem by buying . We need flash over this.

I love this spell. Not only for it's slow, but for it's debuff. It's gamechanger when properly used. Being able to shut down an enemy carry dmg for a few seconds while you focus him or someone else is great. This is another way you can protect your carries. If you're in lane, I reccomend taking this along with flash.

You don't want to get the kills. It's damage is ok, you could get a few extra kills but trust me exhaust fits better in your role. Let your carries get the kills, not you. They will thank you, you will thank'em later when they carry.

I'm not a fan of this spell since you can trade a in-game which works even better (Cleanse doesn't remove or ). If your enemy is that stupid to waste their CC on you and not your carries/support, it's pretty much a win for your team.

Ghost fits better on Amumu imo. It has its uses but I need much more Flash/Smite/Exhaust.

Same as Teleport. It has its uses but I can't afford having it instead of Flash/Smite/Exhaust.

These are for supports.
These are for trolls.

We get to the most important part. Like I said before, I like being able to do some dmg with tanks, sometimes there's nothing better you can do to help your team than doing dmg. However your main purpose is to soak up dmg for your team, protect your carries and disrupt enemy team as much as possible. So itemization has to be wisely chosen. This means you can't always rush your Sunfire Cape, or buying Randuin as your 4th item. You have to be constatly looking at enemy team builds, who's getting fed, who's doing most of their dmg, if it's magic or phys. based, and then make your decision.

CORE:

So we start with cloth armor and 5 health potions. We know early game as a jungler is gank, gank, gank. That's why I rush a , it gives a nice HP boost and some armor which helps you and even allows you to towerdive if needed, and the icing on the cake: 35dmg per second, which synergizes so good with your W. I think Sunfire Cape is an early game item and it should be bought as your first or second item, because it's damage is nice early game but becomes less effective as the game goes on. If you feel you can't get that sunfire that early but you still dont need any MR, buy your first. If you feel you need MR, I'd go HoG, Negatron Cloak, then finish Banshee's Veil and maybe later go on Sunfire. I dont like rushing pure HP items or pure armor/mr items early on, some ppl rush Warmog/Thornmail/FoN, maybe it works for Morde but trust me, as Amumu you don't wanna go over there with 1k HP because there's a Trynda out there and you are so afraid about him so you rushed Thornmail, because Malzahar will eat you alive with his combo and you will say OMG OP MALZ KILLS EVEN TANKS LIKE ME IN 2 SHOTS NERF THAT.

By midgame we have , , and if everything's ok, maybe you could even finish . Now you're pretty bulky, got nice HP, some armor and some MR. Next item is up to you. Need more armor? Finish that HoG to a . Need more MR? Go on with . If you need nothing but your team is losing, look what would they need more: an AoE slow which disables AD carries and slow entire enemy team, or some extra Mpen for your team which also boosts your own dmg nicely.

So endgame is up, we got . Now you are tanky as hell and you have nice CC and some dmg. 6th item is completely situational. At this point, you're probably going teamfight over teamfight. If you feel enemy team ignores you completely, you can go which boosts your dmg output a lot. Maybe you need even more CC and some survability, is your item. If you're getting focused or dying a lot, is a strong choice. works great against heavy AD team as well as against heavy AP... But I usually get Rylai, GA or Rabbadon. Once you have your build finished, buy some elixirs and Oracle.

If you feel your team lacks map awareness by endgame and that's what will make you win or lose teamfights, leaving your 6th item slot to stack wards and placing them at strategic points is worth it. Same goes for buying oracle to kill wards or mushrooms, but this is not restricted to endgame.

Laning build is almost the same, sometimes I like going Doran Shield, Cloth armor + 5 or boots + 3 . If you know you're gonna win your lane, go boots as it helps you chase your enemies if you needed as well as escape if you get ganked (you shouldn't, buy wards and problem solved unless you're facing a jungle nocturne, in which case you have to be always alert). Doran shield is standard choice, some health boost, some regen, some armor, this is your item if you think you'll need the regen but you still wanna have that extra health boost to be able to face your enemies and not hide under your tower. Cloth armor + pots is good if you know you'll lane against two physical dmg champs. It also demoralizes enemies who see you taking a pot everytime they try to hurt you, getting back to almost full health. From there on, same build, it depends more on enemy team like I said before.

Well I won't make this too long. I usually start at blue golem, sometimes I go straight their golem if they got no jungler or user. This is something you'll have to be worried about. Good users will disrupt your jungle often early on, and ruin some ganks. Most of the times they will throw it on your nexus at the beggining, then on your blue buff, golems or wraiths. In this case I like going their Blue even if it's risky, but they won't expect it unless they warded it.

If you went their Blue, you'll want to take their wolves as well and then move to your wraith camp, red lizard (smite), twin golems and gank top/mid, or go back to your wolves, wraiths again (smite) and recall. If you went your Blue is pretty much the same, just start there and move to your wolves, wraiths, red lizard, twin golems..

Of course always call your mid lane to pull golem, even if you go enemy camp. Some cover there would be great as well.

If you don't feel comfortable starting at Blue, I'd recommend going wraiths (smite the big one), wolves, then Blue (smite will be up if you wait a few seconds before you go for it).

This is all by now, remember it's my first guide but feel free to make any suggestion, constructive criticism is welcome as well. I'll be updating this guide often, so I hope you enjoy it and forgive me for my bad english!