Hello, my dear old Fellows,
welcome to my second (try of a) guide in this forum.
This is about (as you can read) Rammus, a quite forward tank, that I particuarly like because of his mixture of being a tank and gaining AD at the same time.
I hope that I have actually learned from my last guide, and this one will be a better one for the start.

If you should have anything to add to my guide, just let me know in the comments and (maybe) I'll include it. If you should ever have a problem with anything to do with my guide - be it the presentation, or the Items I chose to include, or a chapter that you are missing - just contact me via mail (should work on this Website) and I will try and correct the point (but please do so, before you actually vote on my guide^^).

WARNING: THIS GUIDE IS NOT REALLY USEFULL IN RANKEDGAMES, BECAUSE YOU WILL (MOST LIKELY) BE PLAYING SOLOTOP THEN!!!

Edit: You can actually build Rammus like this in a solo-top lane, I've tried it out and actually played quite well (10/10/57)...

So, well, I'd say, let's get started on my guide...

In this guide, I have now included Runes, although I actually really don't use them (to be honest: I'm still collecting money for Campions...).
But I think that these Runes will get you at least through the quite hard earlygame with Rammus without risking too much of his lategame tankiness.
The problem in crafting a good runepage for any Tank is, that actually only the Quints and the Seals grant you lots of defensive stats, and therefore I put my main focus on them.
I know, that the Glyphs and Marks aren't the best, that I could choose, but look at it this way:
The Glyphs I chose, help you very much in early game, for granting you one additional use of your Defensive Ball Curl and in lategame reduce the CD of your Ultimate, which allows you to take down towers more easily (or initiate teamfights).
And the Marks are actually very unnessecary on Rammus, because he isn't so much into dealing damage. But just for the sake of me loving to go into a 1v1 fight in the jungle (after taking down a tower), I chose do let Rammus deal a bit more damage in a fight...

The Masteries should be very self-explaining: I just got everything that is really usefull on Rammus in the defensive tree, and then chose to go for the Utility tree, rather than for the Offensive one, just for the reason, that you won't be able to get great results with 7 perks in neither the defensive nor the offensive tree. And because I had the Defensive tree maxed out, I chose the Utility tree (makes sense, doesn't it?).

Now you might ask yourselves "why didn't he put all his perks into the defensive tree then?". That is easily explained. The perks I spent, I spent on usefull stuff, such as the Resistance slot, rather than using my perks for creating a somehowjunglertankcandonothing Rammus...
Why I didn't actually spend a perk on Safeguard: to be honest, I don't really know! I think, that with my build, you should be able to takedown towers in about 10-15 seconds (maximum) and therefor it doesn't really play a big role, how much damage you take, because you should have your minions all around you anyways! But if you feel like it, just try out your own combination of different Masteries and find one (or two) that fits your playing style.

Oke, this is the chapter, in which it often gets bloody and not so nice on this Website.
Before I start to actually talk about why I chose that kind of build, you should be aware of the fact that you may (actually to some point you should) not agree with my build, because it doesn't fit your style of playing Rammus. Feel free to tell me what you would build differently while playing Rammus. And yes, btw. it is a general build, it my not apply ingame, because your enemies team is full of APCs. If it should be like this, just change some parts of the set, that don't fit (but actually I don't really get why you would play Rammus then anyways, but never mind).
So, I guess I will just hold the Item Chapter the way I did in my last build, because that is actually just my style of writing.

Starting Items
This is actually a part, where you don't really have a choice of what do buy. I don't really care, what your first item (aside the Health Potions) is, but bare in mind, that about every third player starts off with boots (even in ranked games). If you should not buy a pair of them, you may end up being chased to death, unable to escape (unlikely to happen, but happened to an opponent of mine once while playing Rammus).

If you should choose to not buy shoes, I would recommend you to buy the Cloth Armor, because it provides you with two very usefull earlygame stats: Armor and AD (just a little bit, but a very usefull bit) and can be built into nearly every defensegranting-item you will need to buy (perferringly Ninja Tabi). This can allow you to actually land the first blood, or assist it, because you simply have an advantage over your enemies.

And last but not least, I have a word to say about Sight Wards. You should definitely get at least one of those if you should plan to go for a highlevel PvP-Game (which you probably do), because the actual chances of beeing ganked by their jungler within the first ten minutes are very high. The Sight Wards might prevent the enemyteam from getting a (moreorless) free kill on you.

Building Strategy
I've been playing Rammus alot in the last few weeks, and I didn't come to notice, that there are (depending on the situation) lots of different strategies on what to build first. If you should run into a team of enemies, that consists of many ADC (or just champs that deal lots of physicall damage) you might consider getting your build on the Ninja Tabi finished as fast as possible. If you should still have problems with your HP melting down, buy yourself some HP rather than getting more and more armor, because otherwise you can and will get into trouble in the Midgame. This also leaves you some options open, on what you should buy yourself next (because you will only buy first level items like Giant's Belt).

If you should actually run into a team with good (earlygame) APC like Veigar you might get going and buy some MR over the armor, because you won't actually be any good in the later gaming, if you should die one time after another.

I would also fairly recommend you to buy yourself shoes as early as possible, because you as the tank have a very big job to do in the early game (notice: Doesn't have to be stated true in ranked games). Just being there faster than the enemies will allow you, to protect your teammate from quite a lot of damage.

And last but not least, the Sightstone should always be part of your build, if you consider to play a straight forward tank (in a duolane), just because it allows you to place wards throughout the whole game, can be upgraded to Ruby Sightstone and is in my opinion quite cheap, it really pays off after you have placed 10 wards (notice: you can't place more than 2/3 at a time, therefor place them in strategically important places, that your jungler hasn't yet covered).

So, here comes the part, where Rammus should be at his weakest point: not too much (natural) HP and the enemy caster is up on a killingspree (happens quite often to my team...).
If you now start to use your money in a very HP efficient way, you should be able to actually (at least temporarely) tank the enemie's attacks.

I chose to put a Randuin's Omen in the first place of the construction, because it is a good alround item which grants you 500HP and a huge bunch of armor, which you will need later on in the game. Also it comes with a nice actvie slow, along with the passive slow. I know that some of you will think, that the passive slow is actually of no real use, because you will fight APCs and Casters in generall in the midgame, but believe me, even Casters will try to land (at least a few) AAs, which will then slow him down. Also if you should find yourself in the key position (the victim) of an enemy gank, you can use your Puncturing Taunt to slow down the caster of the enemies (perferringly one without a gapcloser ability). But I would recommend that strategy to only be used if the active effect of Randuin's Omen should be on CD.

The part with the Ruby Sightstone I think I explained in the previous chapter, but I can state it one more time: This item is an extremely usefull Sight Ward generator, that also comes along with a small boost in terms of HP. Also you can place up to 3 Sight Wards at the same time, which makes it very easy to see an enemy gank coming. So I would definitely recommend buying this item, if you can afford it...

And now to finish off the Midgame Build, I recommend to start working towards a Runic Bulwark and therefor buy yourself the first parts of the Aegis of the Legion.

If you follow these instructions, I assume you will get through the hardest phase of the game, quite safely.

In this phase, you more or less just finish off your Aegis of the Legion and buy yourself a Warmog's Armor.

Although this should be quite self explanitory, I will just give you a (relatively) brief explenation.

Buy yourself the Aegis of the Legion to find a way of at the same time stacking your armor and MR, your allies armor and MR and to gain some HP (which is in my Tank builds always an important part of playing them). This Item can be upgraded to Runic Bulwark which is (in my oppinion) one of the best defensive items, just because it grants you access to all the stats I have stated above.

And the Warmog's Armor is just another item to enormously boost your HP and therefor make you more efficiant at taking down towers. Also it comes in with a passive Health Regen boost, which is very helpfull if you don't want to rush back to the base after every fight (just go off into the jungle, the Armor will do the rest^^).

This is the part of the game, that is the most fun with Rammus, because you will actually be able to see the enemies ADC rage on time after another.

To start off, you just complete your Runic Bulwark for about 1000 Gold, which you will actually earn very quickly through the number of assists you will get. Alternatively get yourself the upgrade Homeguard for your boots first, if you should get into trouble at your own base, or you just need to rush into fight more quickly (the boots comes in handy with your ability Powerball).

After that, I recommend to rush yourself a Sunfire Aegis, because it is actually quite cheap and grants you HP, Armor and through that also AD (nice passive bro...) and also a damage ratio per second (stacks to quite a lot of damage throughout fights).
If you should try to build your Atma's Impaler earlier (which I wouldn't reccomend), you would basically sacrifice the very nice boni of Sunfire Aegis for basically nothing: You lose the bonus HP and damage per second, and gain a bit of scaling AD and Armor... NOT WORTHIT!
Also, you are not a champion, that is reliant on Crits, and therefor you will do as I tell you to and build the Impaler last. Aswell, this leaves you the option of replacing it with a Guardian Angel which is a very usefull item, if you are pushed into defense way to often.

Yeah, and through that, you should actually be able to moreorless survive the whole game (not literally). I hope that the item guide was helpfull so far, and yeah, go on and try it out (but don't miss on reading my other chapters!!)

In this Chapter, I will just list the Pros and Cons of my build, and briefly explain them.

Pro my Build
You will be able to survive the very hard midgame quite well.
This build allows you to not just tank their AD reliant, but also the APCs of their team, what makes it effective in the Mid- and Lategame.
You will tank almost every damage in the lategame/engame phases
You can basically tank the hell out of your enemies, by just not dying, due to your skillset in combination with your build.
You will not only get assists!
This is the part of Rammus that I find the most fascinating: he can tank the entire enemy team, and still win every 1v1 in the lategame. That is a very unique skill to have in LoL.

And on the Contrary
You won't be the one, that is the most relevant for the game!
If you should die, your teammates will be able to fight on. I listed this on the counter part, because it makes you actually not care as much about your HP anymore (some weird psychological effect) takes out some of the fun of the game, and will show in the rewards you get out of fights.
You won't be focused down!
Again, standing for itself, this is a very nice thing. But only if you were a Carry. And you are not. You are the tank. You want to absorb the damage! Luckely you have your Puncturing Taunt...
And finally:
You had to read through my guide, to get to this point. While we're at it, I just want to excuse myself for (eventually) wrong spelling, grammar or terms. I actually talked to these errors in my text, but they just wouldn't go away...
Oh, yeah, and sorry for my weird sense of humour...

Throughout the whole game, you might come into sitiuations, where you might think: "Damn! Now I would have needed the other skill maxed out! Why did I even perk the skills like that?!"

To prevent questions like these (ingame and in the comments) I will just briefly try to explain why I (nearly) always perk like that.

First of all, Rammus is a Champion, that only has one completely "non utility" spell: His Ultimate! Although Soaring Slam has such a short cooldown (when compared to other Ultimates, that can actually match up in terms of damage) you will still not have it more than once in a minute, which leaves you with the question of how to perk.

If you perk your Defensive Ball Curl first, this gives you a bit of the earlygame survivability you need, because most champions will only be able to use one skill against you at level 1, what leaves them with only AA (autoattacks). That's when your Spell comes into play: You gain armor, and "reflect" some of the damage dealt to you back to the enemies! This is the Skill, that I have actually focused my whole gameplay on.

Next I would recommend to levelup your Powerball. Even if you might just need it to escape or to reenter the lane quickely, it is more than usefull, because mostly I have wittnessed players taking down a level 2 Rammus that had perked Puncturing Taunt (one level) too early and therefor gave them the firstblood bonus moreorless for free. This bonus can actually make a huge difference, as I often notice in Custom Games, because you will just need to get the one kill, and after that have the upgrade for your boots secure already (or a Vampiric Scepter, or another Doran's Blade etc.). And (actually just to have your basic skillset completed) I would then levelup Puncturing Taunt which (when used in the right way) is a very funny tool in the earlygame (especially with Warden's Mail) because you can taunt the enemies into attacking YOU and not the turret, and through Warden's Mail, a squishy Champion with great AS will be down in an instant. It's even more fun if trolling them with the following Combo: (beneath the turret) Defensive Ball Curl -> Puncturing Taunt -> Powerball (-> Exhaust). This will allow the tower to take several hits on your enemy, and you to deal quite a bit of damage aswell.

So basically, I would max out the Defensive Ball Curl first, because it has the lowest cost on Mana, and is effective to take down towers (grants Armor and therefor...). After that the Powerball, because it is the only (non-Ultimate) spell you have, that actively deals damage (and btw. it helps when going off into the jungle and kill the Ancient Golem for the blue-buff). And then comes the Puncturing Taunt last, because that one is just a PURE utility spell, that I personally just use (in the earlygame) to either do a "tower-finisher" (killing them through the tower), interrupt them from casting spells or channeling (eg. Meditate of ´ Master Yi) or to just save a teammate from certain death.
And for when to spend a perk into the Ulti? Just level it up, as soon as you can.

But to be honest, this skill sequence is very situational, because Rammus is a champion, that can be played in a huge amount of different variations.
If you should figure, that for some reason, you want to spend your perks on maxing out Puncturing Taunt first, just go on, it won't harm you. But be aware of the fact, that you should always concentrate your gameplay on ONE part of Rammus. It is no good, if you play a half-hearted tank-caster mixture, that has neither good tankiness through his skills, nor does he deal loads of damage (happens quite often to beginners with Rammus).
Special thanks at this point to Meyjhe for showing me the problems with that part in my guide ^^

This Chapter is about my choice of summoner spells (which I would choose, and why I would do so) aswell as stating alternatives and how to use the Spells effectively.

Teleport

: This is one of the coolest summoner spells for tanks (at least in my oppinion). If you didn't experience a good tank with Teleport so far in LoL, just picture this: You are fighting off three enemies of the bottom lane in the lategame, while your teammates are pushing through the mid. Rammus (or any tank) has done his job there, destroyed the tower, and now teleports to your tower. Now, the potentially dangerous 3v1 is turned into a fair 2v3, during which, you will actually take down one of the enemies ADC (he is most likely to attack an enemy tower).
This is a scenario, which I have very often gone through, and it is almost as effective as Shens Ultimate...

Heal

: Self-explanitory, why to use this on a tank. When to use it is a whole different story though. If for myself tend to use it as sortofa last-hope ability, directly before I am about to die. This triggers one of either two effects/situations:
1. You escape the enemy team with about 100HP (a lot in the earlygame, but nothing in the lategame). Now you have the choice, of either recalling or using a potion. The problem with the Health Potions directly used after Heal is, that you have a reduced amount of incoming heal. This makes it even worse, if your teammate now decides on using Heal aswell, which would therefor be a total waste. The only true option is to recall (the amount of damage healt by the base is not reduced). This shows us: HEAL IS A SAFETY ABILITY!!
2. You simply don't make it. This makes the choice of what to do a lot more simple, because you actually only have one: Get back to the fights quickly!

Flash

: This spell stands for itself. You may escape a lot of difficult situations through this spell, that by the way also works whilst being in any of Rammus' stances...

Ignite

: Again, a very nice spell, only this time, it is a completely offensive spell, that you should cast, to either finish an enemy off, that is trying to hide beneath a tower, or to initiate a fight against a Support. This works well, due to the secondary passive of Ignite, the reduced amount of healing (same as grievious wounds). I personally just use this spell to finish off enemies, but I actually haven't met too many supporters in the League, so far...

Exhaust

: Just as I have stated, it's a nice allrounder tool, to either escape, KS, or to just finish an enemy in YOUR turret. There is nothing really more to say, except for a little hint on the usage of Exhaust: Use it only if you either are certain that you will die otherwise or the enemy would escape (depending on the purpose of the usage).

And that would actually be my favourite 5 spells on Rammus. Theoretically you could actually use every spell with him, but I think, that these are the 5 most effective spells to play in combination with Rammus.

So well, for the summary of my guide, I have thought of stating and add a bit to the pros from the Pros/Cons chapter.

The benefits of my build are definitely the extreme tankyness of Rammus throughout the whole game, and his extreme survivabilty due to his skillset.
Definitely, he is one of my favourite Champions so far in the League, and you should (if you followed my guide) develope such an admirement for Rammus that you will NEVER be able to play another fulltank effectively...just joking, but this set is just epic. I've been using it since the middle of December, and haven't lost too many matches from that point on...

I hope you liked the guide, enjoyed reading it (eventhough it might have taken you a while to get down here). Don't forget to send me your adjustments for my guide, I am open for any type of critisism, aslong as it is constructive. If you should give me a downvote (of course I doubt that :P) please leave a comment, on what you are missing in my guide, to help me improve my next ones.

Well, then it's the end of my guide now,
I hope we will see each other in LoL sometimes maybe (perhaps someone trying out my guide?)
sincerely and with best regards
yours
dsphhz