Hey summoners! Welcome to my first guide here in MOBAFIRE, i really hope you guys enjoy it.
I'd like to say i'm not really into all these forums stuff, and my guide may not be as organized or customised as many of other guides out there, but this guide is focused on trying to share with you guys my experiences with Rammus, on the most simple way. Before we start, i'd like to say sorry for my terrible english, i'm not American, so i'm sure there will be a lot of mistakes, still i can speak some english. I'll try to fix these mistakes as soon as... I find then?
Also, if played with this build, or read my guide and found it helpful, please gimme a vote up, it really help me and cheers me up. Even if you don't like it, or you think it could be better with some other iten, tell me. All feedbacks are great!

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philosopher's stone

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Rammus is the best tank on the game, on my oppinion. He is also a GREAT jungler, because of his amazing ganks. The first time I saw him, I said "OMG, it's Bowser". That said, I HAD to buy him.



I realized he was a... different kind of tank. He wasn't like Dr. Mundo, for exemple, who'd just buy 3 warmog's and go where he pleases. No, Rammus isn't about lots of hp. You just stacks lots of armor, or MR.




After lots of matches, some of them amazing, other ones terrible, I finally found the way that works best for me. And now I'm here to change my experience with you guys. What does it has different from other Rammus guides? You'll see!




I'd like to thanks a lot to Jhoijhoi and her AMAZING Making A Guide. Almost every BBCode, organization and general stuff that makes this guide looks clean(or not), it's because of her. So, thanks!

Now, let's stop talking and start this guide!

wholetbowserjoin

Pros + Easy to play + Can jungle + Amazing skins! + Puncturing Taunt is one of the longest CC's on the game + Exceptional tank + When Defensive Ball Curl is activated, become more tanky then almost any other tank

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Cons - Hard to Master - Not good farming - Lower status then most of tanks when Defensive Ball Curl is deactivated - VERY OFTEN banned on rankeds.

wholetbowserjoin

9/21/0

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Greater Mark of Health: Our best pick here. You'll want this early health, it really makes all the difference on a possible early first blood. It's also great when jungling. Greater Mark of Armor: Another good choice. I don't think it's best then Fortitude, because we'll pick armor at Seals, but if you want even more armor, you can have it here.

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Greater Seal of Armor: Our best pick at seals. Seals give the best deffense, and we'll want that early armor, both if you're jungling or laning. Greater Seal of Health: As you guys can see, Seal of Fortitude gives more health then Mark. But while seal also has a great armor, mark's armor is ridiculous. So I really think it's best to get health at Mark, and armor here, with seals. But if you just want to have more health, go on and pick these. They are great, though.

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Greater Glyph of Ability Power: Rammus's Powerball deal magic damage(+100% ability power). His Defensive Ball Curl repels magic damage. And his amazing ultimate, Soaring Slam, deals magic damage too(+30% of ability power). So you can see why AP can be a little useful for him. His magic damages aren't enough to build a AP Rammus, but you don't know what to use at Glyph, you can use this one, they can be a little helpful at all. Greater Glyph of Cooldown Reduction and Greater Glyph of Scaling Cooldown Reduction: Rammus's skills have a bit long CD (but his ultimate). This CD can help you, because you'll want to use your Defensive Ball Curl a lot. It's your opinnion if you want to pick CDR/ level or just CDR.

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Now i'll show you the most Viable Summoner Spells, plus some others you can use. Any other Summoner Spell that i don't talk about here, it means he just don't work with Rammus, and you SHOULDN'T USE THEN!

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R>E>W>Q. Always level up your ultimate when you can.
You maybe asking why max E instead of W. You'll want your Puncturing Taunt at level 5, to have all its 3 seconds of duration. Defensive Ball Curl is a good skill, but your taunt is more important, it's your CC. It's important laning, and even more jungling, because your taunt make your ganks AMAZING.





Spiked Shell: Your passive it's ok, but 25% isn't much. Many people think you can just stack a lot of armor to deal great damage, but YOU SHOULDN'T DO THAT! If your enemy has AP champions, you'll build MR, doesn't matter if your passive only convert armor.

Powerball: This skill makes your ganks amazing, and can make you move through the map really quickly. You'll use this to start your combo. When ganking, use it, and WAIT A WHILE. This skill keep acelerating, so when it starts you isn't really that fast. Then you keep acelerating, until you become really fast. Then roll to your enemies. If there are minions on the way, flash! The best tips I can tell you about it are at the Summoner's Spells section... flash + powerball.

Defensive Ball Curl: That skill make you the amazing tank. +150 armor and MR? OMG! Always use this when you're in a teamfight, or when you're being focused. Don't forget that this kill also RETURN the damage you take, +10% of your total armor. So this is your skill that makes you "nuke" your enemies, while you don't tank any damage! After your taunt, ALWAYS USE IT! There's something I gotta tell, that for sometimes happened to me. Imagine there's a weak turret and you know you can destroy it. Your enemy is there, but you know he can't stop you. You go there and start tank your enemy while destroy the turret. So you activate Defensive Ball Curl. But there's a problem, your shield also deals damage! So the turret will aim at you. Maybe many of you will think that's obvious, but for many centuries i didn't realized that. I'm kinda lazy.

Puncturing Taunt: Oh, Rammus's taunt. Believe me, many people hate it. One of the longest CC's on the game, plus reducing enemies armor... Just amazing. After rolling to your enemy with Powerball, taunt him and turn on Defensive Ball Curl, and watch your enemy's death! Your taunt are a lot helpful on teamfights. Try to taunt the enemy's AD Carry, so your team can quickly focus him and kill. But be careful! For exanple, you can't taunt your enemy's tank. When your taunt is already maximized, you can easily taunt someone and bring him to your team. Another important thing: Taunt someone who is attacking your turret! He'll attack you, and your turret will aim him. This is the mistake most of people who don't know Rammus do: Even if he's weak, you don't want to attack his turret! People think can ignore him and destroy the turret... but you'll have a little present for him, hum?

Soaring Slam: Your ultimate is really good. Rammus create tremors around himself, dealing damage per second. Isn't a damage like Kennen's or Fiddlesticks's ultimate, but it's really great in a tank. In a teamfight, you'll activate it, and your enemy's might cry! But I think the best it's because he has a short CD. You can use him even in a normal gank, against only one enemy, to be sure you'll kill him. The cooldown is short, so there isn't a real problem. Now, there is something many Rammus's players don't know: Your ultimate can deal damage to turrets! Yeah. Look, Soaring Slam is ready to use, lets destroy a turret! Be careful if you use this against a turret and you hurt someone, turret may aim at you!

Well, now it comes what is most important at Rammus. I'm talking about knowing your enemies, and building items that'll counter them. I'll explain the main items, and why I usually pick them, plus another items I'll pick to counter my enemies (believe me, it's pretty hard in a match I made my build exactly like that. It always about enemies, and so my items are always different).

• Mercury's Treads: This are the boots I usually pick. Tenacity itself is great, but if my enemy has only one AP, and he is underpowered, of course I won't pick those. But in a normal game, with likely 2 AP's, farmed, of course I'd pick those. Also if I know my enemies has a lot of CC's, I'm sure going to pick it.
  
• Randuin's Omen: This item is AMAZING for rammus. You'll want to rush this item. It'll give you enough health to tank enough only with your armor and MR, until you buy your Warmog's Armor; 75 armor is also great. His active is amazing too, and has a short cooldown, so you can use it almost every teamfight. He also has CDR, but 5% sounds ridiculous. But still it's something, additional with your blue buff, should be enough. This is probably the item I most buy as Rammus, like 99% of matches.
  
• Thornmail: Just the highest armor on the game. His passive is amazing too, making your enemy's AD carry cry. Against a heavy AD team, you should buy this.
  
• Force of Nature: Highest MR on the game. This item also has a GREAT health regen, plus movement speed multiplier. It's also a great item for another thing, that many people don't know. It's the best item to counter Madred's Bloodrazor. Yeah, many people think Bloodrazor is the great answer to kill tanks, but FoN can counter it. You see, bloodrazor deals magic damage, and FoN has the highest MR on the game. Plus your health regen, you should be fine against that Teemo spamming Bloodrazor.

Now, it's when my build changes. There's no right item I can tell you, but I'll show all your choices.

• Guardian Angel: Amazing item for survivability. It gives both armor and MR, plus his amazing passive. Sometimes, I pick it if i'm needing quickly armor AND magic resist.
  
• Frozen Heart: Almost the highest armor on the game. Thornmail has 100 armor, Frozen has 99. But Frozen also has many other atributes. 500 mana, 20% CDR, and an amazing aura that reduces enemy's attack speed by 20%. It's just an AMAZING item, but I usually pick it if thornmail and Randuin's armor aren't enough, not because of all it's effects. Still, it's an amazing item, for your 4th place as item, or to replace thornmail.
  
• Banshee's Veil: I usually pick this item if Force of Nature's MR isn't enough for me. It also gives you a good health and mana, plus it's great passive. One of the itens I pick against heavy AP casters.
  
• Warmog's Armor: Highest health on the game, and some health regen.. Plus it passive, that increases your health and health regen every minion or champion you kill(stacks at at +350 health). At all, it's an amazing item. But Rammus, as I think i already said before, isn't the tank you stack lots of health, so you should only pick this item late game, at 5 or 6 place on your items. Of course if you feel somekind low health you can just pick your Giant's Belt.
  
  Sunfire Aegis: It's a ok item. I usually don't pick it. Why? You see, sunfire gives you 450 health and 45 armor, and he comes from Chain Vest and Giant's Belt, that gives you 430 health and 45 armor, and together they cost only 1810. Sunfire costs 2610. You'll pay that 800 coins only for this fire passive? I don't think it worth it! But it's likely, if you're late game, you have lots of money to spend and you just need even more armor (even after that Thornmail, Randuin's Omen, Frozen Heart and Guardian Angel!)... So you can pick it. I don't want to say it's a terrible item. His passive is good, and can help a lot on teamfights. I just don't think you should spend your early money with it, as you would spend a lot of money in a item that... wouldn't be enough to tank.
  
  Aegis of the Legion: Maybe you think I'm crazy buying this item. But tank IS a kind of support. This item will give you 30 armor and 39 MR, plus a aura that gives to your allies 12 armor, 15 MR and +8 damage. It isn't much, but it's a pretty cheap item that gives you health, armor and magic resistance, plus an aura. And believe me, all that auras can make all the difference in teamfights!
  
  
  

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  5 gp items
  
  Heart of Gold and philosopher's stone: You'll want this item, as most as any other tank. When laning, you shouldn't kill creepies, so you'll need these to have your money even not killing creepies or champions. When jungling, you need them if all your ganks fail (and this will happen sometimes).

Now, I'll explain my rote while jungling with Rammus. I'll also give many basic tips. If you consider yourself a "pro player", or you know how to play jungle, go on and skip this chapter.



Start at wolves, with Cloth Armor and 5x Health Potion, leveling up Defensive Ball Curl first. There's no need of leash at wolves, but your mates can help you killing it, if they don't stole one of the wolves. Then, go to Blue Golem, ask someone to leash it, and kill it (you may need use of 1 potion here). There's a important thing here: Only activate your shield when the golem is attacking you. When I first went jungle rammus, people would leash, and while the golem wasn't attacking me I activated my shield. So when he attacked me, it was already on cooldown. Finish him with your Smite, and level up Powerball.

Remember to use your Powerball to move around the jungle more quickly, but i'd advice you to use ontime to reach the monster you're going, or you'll have to wait it's cooldown, and you would waste your time. Kill lizards, go back to wolves and kill then, drinking 1 more Health Potion. You should be level 3 now, then level up your Puncturing Taunt. Go kill Red, using another potion, and after killing it, level up your taunt again. Now you're able to gank. After ganking, you recall and should have money at least to buy your philosopher's stone.
Remember, when you're jungling, always buy Health Potion when you recall.

REMEMBER: The best tip I can tell you about jungle, not only with Rammus, it's all about be on the right place at the right time. Doesn't matter if you're going to kill Red, or any other monster, if your team needs you, roll to there as quickly as you can. If there's a lane with both enemies weak, you know you can kill then, GO THERE! If someone needs to recall, hold his lane for a minute. That's how you'll make your difference. Because, after sometime, if you don't gank anywhere or kill any minions, you'll start beeing underleveled, and we don't want that.




As I explained at Powerball section, activate your rolling ball for a while, wait until you're really fast, then go. Flash through minions if you need. If the enemy has a ward, you can: Start rolling where the ward can't see you, then go really fast. You can go on the second bush, near to the enemy's turret. You can even roll THROUGH the enemy's turret, and gank then on their back.

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There's also another thing: Knowing your allies skills, AND your enemy's skills. If you're still a novice, this can be a problem, but i'll give you an example. I'm going top lane, while my ally is a Irelia against a Yorick. Likely almost all the time, Yorick is controlling your mate, and the lane. So I'd wait Yorick use his Omen of Pestilence, his only CC, that can slow you. So I'd say for my Irelia to stun(or slow) him with her Equilibrium Strike, and then I roll to Yorick, taunt him and activate my Defensive Ball Curl. And then, he dies.

Mates, the guide is over. Remember, it's still on work, and I'm adding things. I'd like to thank you for spending your time reading this. I want to apologize for my terrible english, I'm not american, and I don't really know where are the mistakes, but I'm sure there is a lot of grammar mistakes. I'll fix then ontime I found them. I also would be really glad if you spend more time voting on my guide and commenting, because all feedback are great! If you want to say something, if you think there's something missing, anything, just tell me and I'll answer you, and maybe add what you're saying. I hope this guide help you all! See ya!