Rumble Build Guide by Staafmixer

Introduction

Welcome to my very first guide written and it is about my most favourite champion in The League: Rumble, the Mechanical Menace. This 'cute yordle sitting on a machine champion' is not only able to absorb a lot of incoming damage, but also capable of dealing surprisingly high magic damage in return. In this guide you can find a recommended item build including my opinion about each item, the runes and masteries you should be using with Rumble and besides general advice on the laning phase. I will be giving some extra tips about how to lane against the most common top laners.

My guide is based on the one made by Sinjustice, hereby I want to thank him for his awesome guide, he's the one that made Rumble become my favourite champion! You can find his guide *here*.

Pros / Cons

Pros:

- Has heat as a resource
- Tons of sustain
- Tanky and at the same time he's able to deal surprisingly amounts of damage
- Can slow enemies really well with Electro-Harpoon when you have Rylai's Crystal Scepter
- Spammable spells
- He has an epic laugh (Spam it!)

Cons:

- Sensitive to early ganks
- Being good in lasthitting is something you will have to master
- Got some enemies on top he can hardly win against. ( :( )

Runes and Masteries

Marks:
Take the Greater Mark of Magic Penetration as marks, I think it is a must for almost all the AP champions to get this, since it gives you that bit more magic penetration, because you need to make your AOE spells deal a bit more extra damage during the game. Seals:
Get Greater Seal of Armor as seals, having some armor is a must, knowing that most champions top are AD and so are most of the junglers. Glyphs:
Here you have to make a choice:
I recommend you to take either Greater Glyph of Scaling Magic Resist or Greater Glyph of Magic Resist when you're against any magic damage dealing top or a magic damage dealing jungler.
If you are against a physical damage dealing champion feel free to go for Greater Glyph of Scaling Ability Power or Greater Glyph of Ability Power.
Quintessences:
Thanks to Sinjustic's guide so I started to use Greater Quintessence of Movement Speed.
In addition to Iniator in your mastery tree I think this is a very good choice. If you start with boots your movement speed will be 392 at the start (and when you have a Janna it's 408!), which is an extremely high movement speed to have at the start.
You can go for Greater Quintessence of Ability Power instead to have a little more damage output at the start.



Since the new masteries of Season 3 I think it's more effective to run 21-9-0 as masteries instead of the 9-21-0 I prefered in Season 2. Especially the Spellsword mastery in the Offense tree together with your overheat passive makes your auto attacks really strong. The 9 points in Defense are there for some extra sustain.


It's still strong to run 9/21/0 instead when you are facing champions you will have a harder time against in general. Your burst will be lower, but due to more sustain you can deal more damage overtime.

Summoner Spells

A must when playing Rumble is:


The other summoner spell could be either:
OR OR OR

Flash is a summoner spell you simply need in order to survive ganks, chase someone or to get out of terrible positions, since you don't have a dash spell. Besides Flash, it's the best to take Ignite with you. There is nothing better than dealing damage overtime with your spells + the damage overtime from ignite.

A few times I saw some people playing Rumble with Exhaust or Ghost besides flash and it did work those games. But I haven't tried it myself though.

Skill Sequence

The order I level my skills:

Maxing your Flamespitter first is a must. This spell is your main damage source.

After that you can choose:

- You can either max Scrap Shield first and Electro-Harpoon after.
- You can either max Electro-Harpoon first and Scrap Shield after. (I prefer this)
- You can skill them equally, so one point in Scrap Shield and the next point in Electro-Harpoon

I prefer to max Electro-Harpoon after Flamespitter, because it gives you that little more damage and kiteability which I like. If you are against a heavy damage dealer, feel free to max Scrap Shield so you can absorb a chunk of damage with that.

Items

The following item build is what I recommend:
(Keep in mind that this is what I prefer, if you don't agree with certain item. feel free to replace it.)

START:
- If you are against any AD get:
+ 5x

- If you feel confident about your lane:
+ 1x

- Otherwise start with:
+ 3x

AFTER:
If you are doing fine in the laning phase the next item(s) you will be aiming for are:
- If you started with cloth armor

- Else or when you bought the item above


If you didn't buy boots yet, do it now!

Now it's time to improve your boots:

- When against a heavy CC team.
- When you don't have to worry about CC. (preferable)

Lets turn your haunting guise in:



You are still a bit squishy, and to solve this it's time to build:



Do you need sustain? Then this is a good idea:



Now it's time for some damage!



AGAINST AD:
When most of the champions in the enemy team are dealing physical damage you need some armor. I recommend to buy the following items in this order:

->

AGAINST AP:
When the most champions in the enemy team are dealing magical damage you need some magic resist. I recommend to buy the following items in this order:

-> -> ->

OPTIONAL:
- Good when you are against heavy AD and need some health.
- Could be an option against any fed AD carry.
- Get this if the enemy AD is a bit fed and is focussing you generally.
- Nice damage from the active.
- Has always been a good defensive item.
- Really good item when enemy team is stacking magic resistance.
- Spellvamp Aura, good for your teammates.
- Build out of Kage's Lucky Pick so some nice extra gold and the active is also effective.

Overheating

I think that Overheating needs a seperate chapter, because lots of people don't really know how to use the passive of Rumble, and it's a very strong passive which you shouldn't underestimate.

So lets take a closer look at his passive: Junkyard Titan

(Innate): When Rumble reaches 100 heat he overheats, silencing himself for 6 seconds to cooldown completely and causing his basic attacks to deal an additional 20 + (5 x level) + (0.3 per ability power) magic damage for the duration.

As you can see overheating gives you an additional magic damage to your auto attacks and makes you silenced for 6 seconds. Being silenced is something you don't want to be, you want to spam your spells and deal a lot of damage. I will explain you right now how you can use Overheating in a very effective way.

Every spell generates 20 heat (The ultimate doesn't generate any heat!) and when you reach 100 heat you will overheat. If you don't use a spell for a few seconds the heat will slowly decrease (faster overtime) to 0 again.

When you're fighting against your enemy and you want to go 'all in'' on your enemy it's important that besides you use your spells to eventually overheat. You can overheat with the following combos to be more effective:

* Q-W-E - You need to have a minimum of 40 heat and a maximum of 55 to do this combo.
* Q-E - You need to have a minimum of 60 heat and a maximum of 75 heat to do this combo.
* Q-W - You need to have a minimum of 60 heat and a maximum of 75 heat to do this combo.

If you are at 60 or 80 heat it might be a wise choice to wait for some seconds to decrease the heat by 5 so you can overheat with 2/3 spells instead.

The reason I'm not mentioning the combo W-E is because, I have the feeling that it isn't really giving you the extra damage that you could do with the other combos.

NOTE #1: I only mentioned the combos where you use more than 1 spell to overheat, however there is nothing wrong with overheating with 1 spell. For example when you are about to kill an enemy that is low hp there is no need to wait untill you can use 2 spells to overheat.

NOTE #2: The reason I'm not talking about the "Danger Zone" part of Rumble (having more than 50 heat), is because ,in my opinion, it's more important to focus on the overheating part than being in the "Danger Zone"

Laning Phase

Farming as Rumble during laning phase is pretty hard, but the sustain compensates this.


Level 1-3

The first three levels you should be focussing on lasthitting with auto attacks and your Electro-Harpoon and try not to fight with the enemy, since your damage output is very low at these levels. The reason why I'm not mentioning Flamespitter to farm is because this spell will make your lane pushed. You are hitting all the minions in front of you in a cone, which makes it also harder to lasthit them. Pushing your lane makes the chance the enemy jungler ganks higher. Lasthitting this way is not easy, but you should improve rather fast if you've played some games with him.


Level 4-5

When you reach level 4 you have all your spells, except your ultimate, which means you can start to play more aggresive. If there is a minion wave that consists of ~ 5 or more minions, focus on farming and do not try to exhange. When this isn't the case, try to poke the enemy with your Flamespitter and Electro-Harpoon while you absorb some damage with your Scrap Shield. (Don't forget about the overheating mentioned earlier!) This is what you have to repeat everytime until you think you can easily kill the enemy and you are sure the enemy jungler isn't near.


Level 6 and higher

Now you reached level 6 the fun starts! You still have to do same mentioned above, but now you can use your ultimate ( The Equalizer) aswell. Always aim the equalizer away from you when you are about to kill someone, so he can't run away and if he does he gets slowed and receives damage from your ultimate. You can also make someone that low that you finish the enemy with your ultimate, since the range of the ultimate is extremely large.

NOTE: I strongly recommend to not use The Equalizer with smartcast. A lot of people having issues aiming well that way. If you are able to use it with smarcast, I'm not stopping you!

Be sure to take a look at the next chapter, where I will be giving some instructions how to play against often played top champions.

How to play against [insert top champion here]

Akali

Laning against Akali shouldn't be that hard. When you are about to hit level 4 you can start playing aggresive. Be carefull when she is throwing a Mark of the Assassin on you, because a good Akali throws one, waits until the cooldown on that spell is gone before she goes in to trigger it and will immediately throw another Mark of the Assassin on you and trigger it again, which deals an insane amount of damage. You can absorb most of her damage with your Scrap Shield and when she goes invisble in her Twilight Shroud simply use Flamespitter and make some random shots with your Electro-Harpoon to harass her.


Cho'Gath

Most of the times you have to play against a Cho'Gath toplane, he is going for a tanky build. He will mostly focus on farming, so you shouldn't really have a hard time against him. What you mainly do during laning phase is focussing on farm at start and when you hit level 4 you start harassing him. You can absorb his damage with Scrap Shield and deal way more damage back with Flamespitter and Electro-Harpoon.


Darius

Darius is well known for being extremely strong 1 versus 1. Starting with Cloth Armor could be a smart choice, if the enemy jungler doesn't have a gap closer or deals physical damage. What you have to do is focus on farming and try to let him push the lane. Try to stay out of his range till he used his Decimate and then you could try to harass him a bit. When you hit level 5 ask your jungler for a gank. When you hit level 6 and Darius is not able to do his ultimate because he is lacking mana, you should be able to fight him. ( Noxian Guillotine has a mana cost of 100.)


Fiora

Laning against Fiora can be tricky. Your first item has to be Cloth Armor and you have to play passive till you reach level 4. The first time you go back buy a Ninja Tabi and when you got this it shouldn't be that hard. When she is using Lunge on you, absorb most of the damage with Scrap Shield and then immediately go back in with Flamespitter and Electro-Harpoon. Don't get surprised by her ultimate Blade Waltz which makes her almost immume for incoming. If you are standing on The Equalizer she still gets damage from that source though.


Gangplank

It shouldn't be too hard laning against him. You can absorb the damage of his Parrrley with your Scrap Shield and you might consider buying Ninja Tabi against him. You can start playing aggresive against him when you hit level 5 and whenever you slow him with your first Electro-Harpoon wait till he will use Remove Scurvy to get rid of the slow and then shoot your second Electro-Harpoon to slow him again. If he will not eat his orange in time then use your Electro harpoon before it goes on cooldown. Dealing a lot of damage in a short amount of time against gangplank is hard, so just harass him bit by bit till you think you can kill him.


Garen

Garen got a nice buff not long ago, however he is still pretty easy to handle. If you are having Greater Quintessence of Movement Speed in your runepage and Initiator in your mastery page and use your Scrap Shield when he is running to you with Decisive Strike you should be able to keep him out of your range. This makes laning against him really easy, because after that you can go in with Flamespitter and Electro-Harpoon and destroy him.


Irelia

Irelia is pretty hard to lane against, and if you make some mistakes early you are going to have a hard time against her. Most Irelia players will mostly focus on farming and jump to one minion after another with Bladesurge. You have to focus on lasthitting and whenever she tries to get a minion close to you, harass her with Flamespitter and Electro-Harpoon.
If you want to kill her or when she starts the fight with Transcendent Blades, use The Equalizer and Ignite on her while you do one of your overheat combos, so her lifesteal wont be effective at all.

If you died to her in lane first, she will have a huge advantage and you will definitely need some help of your jungler in order to get back some lane dominance. Don't take any risks, when you are low on HP go back to your base, because you don't want an Irelia with a lot of kills.


Jax


Jax can be a really annoying and tricky champion to play against. With his jumps and stun he can bully you easily. What I recommend is to start with boots and 3 healthpotions and play very defensive (farm with auto attacks and Electro-Harpoon and ask your jungler for an early gank. Dont start a fight with him before you turn level 6. If you want to fight him, do it with your full combo, so including your ultimate and ignite.

Also getting Mercury's Treads against him is a good idea, since a lot of his damage is magic and it reduces the time of the stun he has.


Jayce


Since the latest Jayce nerf it is not that hard anymore to lane against Jayce. Focus on farming and let him use a lot of spells till his mana is extremely low. When he is low mana it is your turn to fight back. The main thing that is annoying about Jayce is that his knock back turns you the other direction and thus you first have to turn around before your Q hits again.


Kayle


Kayle isn't hard to fight against before she turns level 6. When you turn level 3 you can play aggresive against her. Whenever she uses her slow on you and tries to attack you don't run, but go in with all your spells instead. You should be outdamaging Kayle.

After level 6 you have to be careful of her ultimate. Don't towerdive her, only do this if you are 100% sure it will end well.


Kha'Zix


Kha'Zix is at the moment a very strong champion you don't like to lane against. However, Rumble counters Kha'Zix pretty well. Start with cloth armor and 5 health pots and the first few levels you should be focussing on farm. When you turn level 4 you can play aggressive and the first time you go back to base buy Ninja Tabi. You should be fine with this.


Lee Sin


When playing against Lee Sin, it is either very easy or very hard. If you make a mistake very early during the laning phase, you are going to have a hard time. However, if you manage to stay alive early then you can play aggresive from lvl 4 and easily outdamage him.


Malphite


Rumble counters Malphite extremely hard. Malphite is knows as an AD counter, because he has an AS slow and MS slow. Rumble his damage is based on his spells, so everytime he tries to damage you simply go in with your spells and you should outdamage and zone him easily.


Nasus


Nasus is a champion that needs farm in order to deal damage. You can zone him from level 1 since you are able to outdamage him easily and he got nothing to stop you. You really shouldn't get in trouble against him.


Nidalee


Nidalee can be tricky sometimes. If she is going full AP and you are able to dodge the spears you are fine. If she is building bruiser and she is able to harass you with auto attacks all the time, then it's going to be hard. I recommend starting with boots and play a bit defensive. Be careful when she gets tiger form, because it can deal surprisingly much damage.


Olaf


Olaf is well known for his strong early game due to his true damage. This will be the main problem against him. Try to stay out of his range and harass him with your Electro Harpoon. Starting with boots is a good idea. Also you can try to play very aggressive against him when you reach Level 4.


Pantheon


Pantheon top against can be really annoying. All he will do is throwing spears at you all day, but you will be able to absorb most of the damage with Scrap Shield. Keep absorbing his spears and try to harass him a bit more at level 4.


Renekton


Renekton is a though champion to play against. Just like Rumble he doesn't have mana as a source and thus can spam his spells whenever ready. Always be careful for his stun. If you try to fight him, do it when you reach level 4 and go in with your Scrap Shield to catch the damage of his stun. After that try to do as much damage with hitting your Electro Harpoons and Flamespitter. When he reaches level 6, only fight him when your ultimate is ready!


Rengar


You don't see Rengar top often, but when I see him he is a monster. If you make one mistake he will start snowballing you like a machine. At start be careful by standing near a bush, try to avoid being near them, since he will jump on you with his passive and deal huge damage afterwards. If you manage to survive till approximately level 4 you should be able to handle him. If you didn't manage to survive that long, you will need some help from your jungler to get back in the game. Just try to avoid bushes all the time!


Riven


Riven can be a tricky champion to play against. When playing against a 'not so good' Riven, it won't really be a problem, but when you are against a skilled one you have to watch out! Try not to be the one that starts the trade. Let Riven stun you first and after that she will most likely run away. What you do is catch the damage with your scrap shield and then go in with flamespitter and electro harpoon and it will be most likely that you trade more damage in return. At level 6 you can kill her pretty easily by using your whole overheating combo + ultimate.


Shen


Shen is known as a tanky champion so don't expect him to deal a lot of damage. He will mostly focus on farming so when you got nothing to lasthit try to poke him with your electro harpoons and maybe with some flamespitters. Altough be careful you don't push too hard, because then the enemy jungler will gank you and that might be a champion that does deal a lot of damage. Also when reaching level 6 it is kinda hard to kill him, since he is so tanky most of the time. Focus on farming!


Singed


Singed is just like Shen known as a tanky champion, although he isn't that tanky early game! Try to poke him as much as possible when you got your electro harpoon and flamespitter ready. Try to not get flinged by using the bonus movement speed of your scrap shield when he tries to get close and also slow him with your electro harpoons. As soon as you reach level 6 try to kill him!


Teemo


This little yordle is not that hard to play against. He is well known for being annoying with his overtime poison, but you are Rumble! You got your scrapshield to absorb the damage he does and when he blinds you, you still got your electro harpoon and flamespitter! Try to trade damage when you reach level 4 and it shouldn't be that hard to kill him at level 6 with your ultimate.


Vi


Vi is a really strong champion, but not that hard to lane against. All you have to do is dodging her dash (Q). If you manage to dodge this one you have to go in with your flamespitter and electro harpoons and you will destroy her! If you are failing in dodging her Q's you will have a harder time, but you can still absorb some of the damage with your scrap shield and slow her with electro harpoons afterwards to get her out of your range again. At level 6 when she is trying to use the ultimate on you, it is a good idea to place your own ultimate under you, so you can deal more damage after her ultimate instantly!


Vladimir


Vladimir is an easy champion to lane against as Rumble. Whenever Vladimir tries to do damage on you, simply absorb the damage with your Scrap Shield and after that go in with Flamespitter and Electro harpoons. Start doing this when you reach level 4. This lane shouldn't really be a problem!


Volibear


Volibear is a really annoying champion to lane against. Whenever you try to trade with him, he will walk into you, flip you and then deal more damage in return. It is really hard to win the lane against him, especially with his passive, which you can't outdamage sadly. Mainly focus on farming and maybe ask your jungler for a gank, because multiple people attacking Volibear counters his passive (together with your ignite)!


Wukong


Wukong can be a tricky champion to play against. At start he wont hurt that much and will be focussing on farm and so should you. At level 4 whenever he jumps to you, absorb the damage with your Scrap Shield and then try to guess where he would walk to when he is invisible for a short duration and follow him with your flamespitter and electro harpoons. This way you should be able to outdamage him easily. Also when hitting level 6, it is important to put the ultimate under you when he tries to engage on you!


Xin Zhao


It's not fun to play against a Xin Zhao. Try to poke him when you reach level 4, but be careful that he wont dash on you afterwards. It is very easy to trade with him because of that gap closer. If you aren't behind in farm and kills you should be able to kill him together with your ultimate at level 6.


Yorick


Yorick is a tanky champion that will mainly spam his ghosts during laning phase. Very early in the laning phase you just have to absorb all the damage he does with his ghosts till he gets out of mana. When he is out of mana it is your turn to deal damage! Later when he gets extremely tanky there is not much more you can do than focus on farming. Also don't underestimate the damage he can do!


Zed


Zed is an assassin type champion that can deal surprisingly much damage. What he will mainly do is trying to harass you all the time. You can go in when he used his ghost spell, since that got a very long cooldown and he doesn't have any mobility besides that. Also be careful for his ultimate! This deals suprisingly much damage sometimes. At level 6 you should be able to kill him, it is important you put the ultimate under you, since it is likely he will use his ultimate on you!

Teamfights

In this chapter I will tell you how to be very efficient with Rumble in teamfights. He is not only strong as an initiator with The Equalizer, but he can also catch someone out of the enemy team with the slow from his Electro-Harpoon quiet easily.

If someone else in your team is the initiator:
let him/her engage first and you will have to follow up immediately with The Equalizer. Try to hit as many enemies you can get in your ultimate and don't forget to aim it away from you, so if they try to run away they still get slowed for a long time. Your job is to catch either the enemy AD carry or AP carry, which depends on the game. After you used your ultimate you are going to focus on either one of them with Electro-Harpoon and Flamespitter. You should be dealing a decent amount of damage and meanwhile slowing them so they are'nt able to run away from you and as you're quite tanky you are able to absorb decents amounts of damage. When your first target either dies or gets away you will do the same with your second target.



If you are the initiator:
The best moment to initiate is when you hit someone of them with Electro-Harpoon, since most of the time everyone of the enemy will try to run and the one you hit is not able to do that, which causes confusion in their team. If you managed to do this use The Equalizer on as many enemies you can to slow them. Don't forget to aim it away from you, so if they try to run away from your team they still get slowed for a long time. The best thing for you is to focus the one you have slowed already with Electro-Harpoon and Flamespitter. If that target gets away or dies you will have to focus on their AD Carry or AP Carry. Don't forget that you are the initiator so it is most likely that most of the enemies will be targeting you, so don't forget to take a look at your health bar and get away from the teamfight in time when you are getting low.



If the fight isn't going well and you have to retreat:

Escaping with Rumble isn't really hard. All you have to do is slowing the enemy chasing you with Electro-Harpoon and speed yourself up with Scrap Shield over and over again.

Summoners using my guide

toniocolot

Aelexe

Franky HylNuxx

xG Chaos

Feel free to put your scores in the comments and I will put them here!

Conclusion

Thank you for reading my first guide that I have ever written.
I had a lot of fun making it and I hope that this guide will stimulate people to play Rumble and that people who already play Rumble might have learned something they didn't know before.

The guide is not completely finished yet, soon there will come a lot more content that should really help you in becoming a better Rumble player, so be sure to keep an eye on this guide!

If you have any questions or feedback, feel free to put them in the comments below!

Credits to:
- Fr33stylez for making the awesome banners and giving advice.
- Pruxis for removing tons of grammar mistakes.
- Bananakillerz for amusing me while writing this guide.
- BigJacck for giving feedback about my guide.
- Makahost for giving feedback about my guide.

Greetz,
Staafmixer

Changelog

5-7-2012:
- Changed Randuin's Omen for Zhonya's Hourglass.
22-9-2012:
- Updated till and including Items.
24-9-2012:
- Changed the context of different chapters
- Added Banners
- Added new chapters
30-9-2012:
- Placed new Banners
- Made a small change in the Item chapter
- Completed Teamfight chapter
- Made a start with the ''How to lane against [insert top champ here] chapter
7-10-2012:
- Structure and spelling errors gone (Credits to Pruxis)

10-2-2013:
- Season 3 up to date!
- Added some more champions to play against.
- Small edits

8-3-2013:
- Finished the how to play against Chapter!