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Rammus Build Guide by Dragonshea

Top Respect The Rammus! Top Lane Vanguard Guide

Top Respect The Rammus! Top Lane Vanguard Guide

Updated on May 18, 2017
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League of Legends Build Guide Author Dragonshea Build Guide By Dragonshea 22 0 2,446,131 Views 15 Comments
22 0 2,446,131 Views 15 Comments League of Legends Build Guide Author Dragonshea Rammus Build Guide By Dragonshea Updated on May 18, 2017
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Choose Champion Build:

  • LoL Champion: Rammus
    Main build
  • LoL Champion: Rammus
    Situational Jungler Build
  • LoL Champion: Rammus
    Vs Ap heavy team
  • LoL Champion: Rammus
    Siege Beast

Spells:

LoL Summoner Spell: Teleport

Teleport

LoL Summoner Spell: Ghost

Ghost

Threats & Synergies

Threats Synergies
Extreme Major Even Minor Tiny
Show All
None Low Ok Strong Ideal
Extreme Threats
Ideal Synergies
Synergies
Ideal Strong Ok Low None

Introduction

Introduction




Hey there. This Rammus Top lane guide is for those that want to play the master of Taunt in the Top Lane instead of the Jungle. Rammus is a powerful Counter to any AD and AS heavy team or a must pick for any tank meta as he can stack damage with defensive stats well.

About me: I Am a devout Rammus player and mostly play Rammus as top laner instead of a jungler (since that not really my style) and I checked out Mobafire for Tank/fighter(Or Vanguard-Juggernaut as of 19-04-2016's Riot post on class, http://euw.leagueoflegends.com/en/news/game-updates/gameplay/dev-blog-classes-subclasses) guides but there weren't any I decided to make one for those who want to play Rammus in this way and break the meta.

The guide will help anyone that want to or struggle to play Rammus up top and learn the ropes on how to deal with threats while making full use of your strengths and advantage as well as tips on how to play as Rammus more offensively, rather than a jungling Tank. Detailing how to rock the top lane and to be threatening presence in team fights, stonewall snowbally champions well, lock ADC's and unleashing 20 magnitude earthquakes on both the towers and the enemy team.

So anyways, Rammus is tank with a good ganking and CC kit along with an one of the strongest AoE Ults that is rivaled few in the game. What makes Rammus shine in fights is his ability to taunt and force an enemy to damage themselves when attacking him with Defensive ball curl up, Making him a monster in against any AD champions or squishies or in team fights lock down a Carry.

However Rammus can be considered a "tank carry" being very week in early game but a monster in the late game. So this guide will be about being an AoE monster that specializing in charging in and initiating Team fights while wrecking clustered opponents with Wit's end, Sunfire cape and your Ult.
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Abbreviations(for newbies)

DBC: Defensive Ball Curl
FT: Frenzying Taunt
TH: Titanic Hydra
SFC: Sunfire Cape
AoE: Area of Effect
AD: Attack Damage
AS: Attack Speed
AP: Ability Power
MR: Magic Resist
MS: Movement Speed
CC: Crowd control
CD: Cool Down
Steroid: An ability that increases your stats
Nerf: Reducing the effectiveness of an ability, passive etc.
Buff: Increasing the effectiveness of an ability, passive etc.
Gank: Surprise attack.
Squishies: Target with Low defensive stats
snowball(ers). Champions that grow exponentially stronger the moment they gain an advantage, becoming nearly impossible to stop.
Resistances: divided into two types: Armor and Magic resist(MR). Armor reduces physical damage while Magic resist reduces magic damage (obviously)
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current updates and tip videos

Note: Still need to do some cleaning up.

Current Update 7.10: First We got the tank update, now we got the Rammus update. Rammus is getting some yuge changes on the PBE that is gonna make him a bit more viable in the game, now our spiky badboy is getting some crazy changes.

Here are the patch notes far: https://pbs.twimg.com/media/C-2d0ZHXYAAW15b.jpg:large

Passive: The magic damage seems nice, it will make Wit's end a good item for rammus to use now due to his new E

Q: MUCH shorter CD per rank and the slow is good, the only issue is the canceling of his Q by CC

W: Epic but with some drawbacks: Rammus being slowed means he needs to choose between rolling or standing his ground vs enemy fire. the fact that it now scales now means he can get some INSANE power from his resistances as it the formula is (Total armor+20)*1.7 at max rank as Rammus now increases his total resistances by 20 + 50%/55%/60%/65%/70%. This means if you have 200 armor, you will get 374 armor which is higher than 74 more than what the old DBC gave you at max rank with the same amount of armor.

E: If Rammus ever gets wit's end or even Crazy *** rageblade with this up. All I am gonna say is: ADC in 2017!!!!! now Rammus will gain AS after he taunts his target and it will refresh while his abilities are up, meaning that DBC and Tremors will prolong the AS' duration. Meaning that Rammus is now have better jungle clears and chop anyone to pieces.

R: SWEET ALAH, YHWACH AND BUDDHA IT'S FINALLY HAPPENED!!!. Rammus Ult has finally become a siege beast ability against towers, it now deals double damage to towers and other structures. on the flipside it deals less damage to champions but with the slow it now has better teamfighting potential, you also no longer need to get rylai's anymore to slow anyone. Definitely a buff to it.


The Bad: Top Lane may still be a bad idea for now but with the changes to your abilities, and doran's shield. Rammus might be viable again, time will tell. But one thing is certain, if the top lane has a lot of AD damage, Rammus will **** on them


The Good: Rammus's Actually got a lot better now since he now properly leans towards being a magic damage dealer, his magic damage from his passive can be insane when combined with wit's end and some armor and since his W increases his armor far more than it previously did provided he got some resistances. His E now increase his AS can can deal some serious damage if he can get a seconds mauling his target.

The In Between: Tank Items have now lost some HP in return for Higher resistances, this means that you now gain more damage from armor as it's higher, it's makes it harder for raw damage dealers to put a dent into you but true damage dealers will have a much better time dealing with you and other tanks.

Extra update(getting personally here): As for this guide. I am happy to see this guide has gotten over 2 million views, I am happy to see the support and the few votes I have gotten. So to the rest of you guys, I thank you, not just that, but for the first time(on 27/12/2016) on MOBAfire, has this guide become the number one guide for Rammus. F!ck yeah and thanks again for the support and votes.


Anyway here are some video of some other Rammus champs.



About Phylol's Video(getting a wee bit salty here):

Now Phylol's video is a very good video about countering rammus specifically and that is the best way to counter Rammus, You are going to be vulnerable when your DBC and Taunt is on CD and you properly can't bait or chase without Powerball, so if you are committing to a teamfight you have to pick the right moment and have your allies behind you when you do so.

But here is the catch. Rammus is a powerful AS punishing tank. And as Phylol mentioned, "you are a walking Thornmail" And people are f%#"ing scared of that, you need to think about modding it in a way to match them as it's their natural weakness. Taking damage from their own attacks while you survive. But you need to realise that kitting is STILL your biggest weakness. you have to make sure that you stick to them for that you should also get Frozen mallet. And you also need to realise that a smart "caster AD" like Lucian who relies on Piercing light and dashes. you have to dodge his Q but also eat his Q, but would still screw you over if someone like him picks Elixir of Wrath instead of someone like jinx.

So in short what you need to have an anti-counter to those that want to counter you and Counter, what you need is Grievous wounds, MR shredding and sticking power. Armor is not a problem as you are ******* rammus
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Role.

As Rammus your Goal in the game is to be as disruptive and annoying as possible to the enemy them by CC'ing Squishies, split pushing lanes and destroying towers. As Rammus is a tank with good damage both from his passive and AP scaling of his Q and ult. So you are gonna be a beast that makes full use of his tank/fighter role getting any form of damage from your defensive stats by any means.

This means that You are a Defensive Juggernaut, well more like a vanguard similar to Skarner in that you get a few offensive Items but build full tank afterwards but your kit align more towards defensive with some offensive abilities. Unlike actually juggernaugts like Garen, Darius or Sion who have defensive stats for ensure they survive long enough to kill their enemies too much, your defensive stats will be used both for that and to empower your offensive might, giving you an edge over them in that aspect. Meaning your goal is to be able to alternate between attacking and defending, so if a Talon or Rengar is gonna jump a squishies, you stick to them so you can taunted them, while you and your Carries deliver a brutal counter attack. And if the team needs someone to initiate, then don't be afraid to roll in and attack while the enemy team wails on you as they are getting picked off by your own mates.

In teamfights,thanks to DBC, Rammus can survive long enough to deal several of not all of his ult ticks while having the enemy team wale on him as your team ruin them. As long as you get at least 2-3 kills off. If you should die in the onslaught, it's all good. What is not good, is getting kited or having the enemy team jump you without the help of your teammates as you will have died for nothing.

Finally, Rammus has strong (melee/centered)AoE damage potential, meaning you are a walking reking ball of pain. For that reason getting Getting Bami's Cinder, Thornmail and wit's end is a must for Rammus because he now Scales well with AS and can shred anyone he taunts and can steal more MR to survive.
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What is a Vanguard

Vanguard Champions are one of Two tanks in League (the other being Wardens), Vanguards are offensive tanks that have powerful initiation power and can have deal some damage while being able to wreck havoc enemies that are grouped up or other of position, allowing them to single out dangerous targets and kill off the enemy team one by one. Vanguards posses the potential to deal some serious damage, but not as much as juggernauts, but can be build to be similar to them on some level (I.e AP Malphite) and can provide enough damage along with a great deal of durability to leave a serious dent in the enemy team while ADC's, assassins and mages can finish of the weaken targets

The Key to playing a Vanguard is to know how to make plays( starting fights and killing your enemies effectively.) meaning that the threat a Vanguard jumping and attacking anyone that breaks formation or just about anyone will make it will make people afraid and when they do initiate, it forces the enemy team to make a difficult choice, kill the vanguard and waste all of their CD's, or ignore it as they continue to F!ck sh!t up and pray you can take out his team before killing them.

This is a perfect description of Rammus as He loves to roll into the enemy team, activate DBC, taunt the ADC and pop off his Ult and watch as the enemy team panic as he just came in like motherf!cking reking ball.
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Pros / Cons

Pros

+ Good initiator.
+ Armor grants AD allowing you to deal good damage
+ Insane Base Armor(the highest in-game at 104.5 at Lv 18) making him a strong counter against Last whisper.
+ Deals good magic damage due to high scaling and from armor thanks to passive and FT.
+ Powerball and taunt give you a powerful single target CC combo
+ Defensive Ball curl reflect damage of auto-attacks, hurting AD melees and ADC's, especially AS based champions like Jinx or jax. A lot.
+Deals "Death by a thousand cuts"(the damage combined form Thronmaill, DBC, AA, FT and Tremor will shred nearly any enemy.)
+Can Tank and destroy Towers easily thanks to his ult.
+Powerful AoE ult that slows his targets.
+Can burst down squishy targets surprising well.
+Good at split pushing thanks to Powerball.
+Taunt increases AS.
+Rewards passive and counter-offensive play
+Hit's hard and quickly, moves fast and can take a beating. the quintessential "Lightning Bruiser"
Rammus is one of the best damage dealing tank in the game which can with the right items turn him into a defensive based juggernaut and when taunting your target while using DBC you will be dealing tons of damage while forcing them to hit you back with auto attack even with Life steal. In solo fights you can dominate quite a lot of melees and in team fights taunting the enemy carry will pretty much give you team enough time for to wails on him/her and secure a kill as your E also increases your AS: Powerball is your "swiss army knife in the game and has tons of uses. Tremor is a nightmare both because it can slow enemies and because in team fights as Rammus can use it mid-powerball to demolish an entire team when they are close to each other thanks to it's slow and knock up.
Cons

- Very weak early game.
- Easy to gank, no escape tools apart from powerball which is slow at start.
-High Cd on powerball at lower ranks make it unviable to use in close combat as you risk your only escape ability.
-Tremor is a self AoE and will alert smart players due to it's visuals
-Powerball ends when hitting Minions or when CC'd
-Champions or items that reduce armor will also reduce your AA damage. I'm looking at you Renekton and Vi.
-Without armor, Rammus will have poor damage, Magic damage heavy comps will hinder him, badly.
-: DBC will slow Rammus so he needs to make a choice between rolling or guarding.
Rammus weakness is that he is very week in early game in fact he is atrocious at the start. Most champions will wail on him and Powerball is better as a ganking tool rather that as an escape tool. Defensive ball curl is the only ability that is close to an offensive skill as it grants Armor and damage through your passive, and when it is on CD you're most vulnerable. Frenzying taunt has a short range which requires you to be at melee range to use it. All of these weaknesses make rammus predictable and sometimes bad chasing ranged champions, kiters and champs with good escape abilities or those with a higher base speed. Rammus is also very Item dependent and most of his advantages comes from items(I.e, Sunfire capes is needed for split pushing). Also Rammus goes most of his damage from being attacked and thus need a lot of health and some Hp regen to survive in fights.
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Spells



Always get Flash no if's, no but's..... But as of Patch 6.10. Ghost has gotten a powerful boost allowing you chase MUCH better. So get Flash if you can to surprise and ambush your target, and get ghost if you need to chase your target better in lane.

Teleport is also a good choice on rammus as he is able to put a lot of map pressure thanks to his mobility. Also, teleport is a great help for when you get killed and need to get back in the fight ASAP. in mid and late game. It can be a lifesaver, especially if you teleport to wards and other objects to turn the tide of a teamfight become the Ace master.
Ghost just go a massive buff, reduced CD, and MS per Lv, since rammus is more of a mover than a dasher like Lucian and Irelia. this help you stick to your target for when you need to taunt or roll into them.
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Runes

Runes

Precision
Fleet Footwork
Phase Rush

Runes



  • Greater Seal of Scaling Health:Scaling health is actually more effective on rammus than flat armor seal and Armor quints are better than seals. So stacking scaling health will be better in the long run as Rammus is a late game beast, considering he has the highest base armor in the game.
  • Greater Mark of Attack Speed:Because Rammus's abilities scales with AP rather than Ad as well getting bonus AD he gets from his armor. Itemizing can be a pain but using AS runes will help out, Rammus may not scale that well with AS but it's better that AD or Armor Marks as they will have an impact for the whole game instead of certain stages of it.
  • Greater Glyph of Scaling Magic Resist: Magic damage wouldn't be a problem at the start unless you are fighting someone with a lot of early magic damage as you naturally gain MR as you level up. The glyphs will be a great help in the late game when you are fighting Mages and other AP Champions
  • Greater Quintessence of Armor:The Extra armor will be a great help to you at the start of the match and you'll pretty much be starting out with a free cloth armor and you get all the armor you need from the get-go.

    You can also replace one of the armor quints for Life steal or MS ones if you feel bold enough.
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Masteries

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Skills

Spiked Shell
This is what makes Rammus who he is. the bonus Magic damage gained for your armor helps to make your auto attack hit harder. combined with DBC you will quite a lot of damage to your opponents and wreck more frail target like support or ADC's. In the last game with wit's ends and the extra armor, you will be able to deal some serious damage.

Powerball
This is Rammus's Swiss army knife of an ability and it has tons of uses with a creative mind. For one, the main use of Powerball is to charge in and gank your opponent with or to chase them. What makes it a "swiss army knife" in your kit? it the uses. it can be used to CC, damage, Chase, last hit, instant AoE you name it. When ganking you need activate this ability early to let yourself speed up rather than start when you're about to appear to catch your opponent. timing is everything with Powerball and if you hit a minion or time your Powerball too soon or too late you will mess up, badly. Secondly you also need to learn when to time Powerball because using DBC during powerball will cause it to cancel prematurely after one second and visa versa, because the two are mutually exclusive. But since the CD you wouldn't be using it a lot apart from chasing or ganking. so be careful when using it in a unorthodox manner.

IMPORTANT NOTE!: In regards to the tooltip while it stats that you do gain up to 235% at the end of the ability at Lv 18. You actually moving slower that you would think because of the caps in movement speed. The soft cap reduces any MS gained above 415 by 20% (meaning to you need 93.75 MS to reach the hard cap of 490), which then further reduces the MS gained by 50%(meaning you only get half as much MS when above the 490 cap). So, at the end of Powerball with tier 2 boots you think you will get 893 MS at lv 18 with tier 2 botts ( (335+45))*(2.35) ) in truth, your actual MS with Powerball at the end of the channel is (893 − 490) × 0.5 + (490 − 415) × 0.8 + 415= 676.5

Defensive Ball Curl
This is the bane of melees and the closes ability you can have that you can call an "attack" ability or a "steroid". You want to level DBC as first because It's your main ability to use when fighting or trading. It very powerful because you get extra armor(and damage via your passive), MR and you deal damage back to anyone that hits you, so use it when you are attacking or being attacked. playing passively is the best way to gain the most mileage out of it. Always use DBC when trading and stop when it's about to expire as you will be vulnerable when it's on CD

Also. Remember that DBC Procs per hit. Which means that AS based champions take more damage that champions that hit hard but have less AS. So a Champion that a lot damage in few blows can get away with bursting you down so be careful of that if you are behind.

Frenzying Taunt
FT is Rammus's Trump card(no puns intended Shaco) and when executed right, It. Will. Wreck. Havoc on ADC's.this is the Ability that will help you lock down Carries and make them attacking you.

Offensively it will guarantee that you get some extra hit in or even kill your opponent when you have the edge. And it also reduces the armor of the target leaving them even more vulnerable to attack for the duration meaning a coordinated attack will massacre the taunted opponent.

Defensively it can save your own carries and other frail mates from certain death and make whoever pulled that move look like a noob as the ***kicking commences. this is one of your strongest weapon. and I can't stress how important a well timed FT is.

Tremors
Tremor is one of the best AoE's in-game for two reasons; Scaling and Turret killing. This ability is why no one who lane's against Rammus should underestimate him. Anyone who lane against Rammus should NEVER leave their lane after Lv6 or get near him. Because Rammus will kill turrets and champions alike and the scaling is what also make it a terror, at 240% AP or 30% per hit you will hit hard and in teamfights you will be a force to be reckoned with. at times you may get a triple or even a quadra kill if things go well. A rammus with Rylai's is an enemy teams worst nightmare in Teamfights as you slow them as well, leaving them at the mercy of an Assassin or a ADC.
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Skill Sequence

Code:

Ability Sequence Order


Ability Sequence
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18

> > >
You want to level DBC as fast as you can with FT being leveled second. Power ball is level last because of it's the only ability that costs more mana per rank. DBC is need to be ranked faster becauase you NEED the extra armor and MR because Rammus is frail at the start. FT doesn't need be level fast because it you don't need to lock down any carries yet and it's still strong at lower ranks. And as always Level your ult asap.
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Item and stats(Long section)

Priority


Stats Priority: HP=Armor > MR > AD > MS.

Item Priority: > > (Pick one or an alternate item) / > (Pick Both Thornmail and an MR Item, but take the one you need the most first) / MR Item( ) > (Pick one or an alternate item) / /

So for Items you want to Priorities Armor and health as you need it to tank with and some MR as well do balance your defenses out. But rushing MR is only becomes a concern if you are faced with a lot of magic damage then get some early MR. AD and AP is not really a concern as you will be having a lot of AD from your passive and that you have high AP scaling. Once you have at least one completed armor item (pref Sunfire) and have either boot's regardless of tier as well as Null-magic mantle or spirit visage. You should aim for a damage item, which will happen mid game when you are tanky enough to get some damage to compensate for your damage, which begins to fall behind at that stage.

Getting MR is very important as Rammus even if you wouldn't get any AD form it as many people make the mistake of stacking too much armor (which personally is a f¤#!king noob move )because as much as you need armor to deal damage, you also have to know MR is crucial for your survival. Especially now since the Mage update has finally come.

Planing your build path


Rushing Thornmail like your life depends on it!


In the early game you should be aiming to rush Bami's Cinder because you need it for farming. as you are a poor farmer unless you are hit with DBC. Make sure that you make a plan for getting the right items for the match. However if you are facing off against a Jax, Riven or Fiora regardless if they are snowballing or not. You have to get thornmail ASAP and then some HP. First of all they rely on dealing a lot of damage and to snowball in order to win the game, without that early advantage they can be very mediocre at best and trash at worse. Also, it's extremely important that you have DBC up when trading so as you can reduce some of the magic damage taken. you can also be bold and use your taunt to prolong the trade and force them to flee you.

When to focus on offensive for the mid game


If you have a strong jungling or support tank. then you should try and prioritize offense a bit earlier as you have more damage in your team. so you should get your first offensive item second if you don't have a tank or a tanky team compilation, otherwise you should make sure you have a reasonable balance of defensive tanks as well as focusing on the stat that is most important for the match. But remember, mid-game is where anything goes and nothing is set in stone like in the late game, meaning you could go from nearly full offensive to a mix of offense and defense and so on.

choosing a semi-core item


If you are ever in doubt about choosing a semi-core item, you have to ask yourself, "What to I need the most to counter the enemy them" to do that you have to at least have some knowledge of the champions you are fighting against. If it's hard to initiate then take Hextech protobelt, If you want to slow enemies that have poor mobility with your ult to get a guaranteed kill, then get Rylai's, need to have some consistent AA damage and have an long range cleave on top, TH is for you, If you need to tank better and have the means to recover fast of I survive an ambush, then you should be warmog.

Of course there are other reasons you need the aforementioned Items and if only one or none of the four are needed, then you should replace them with one of the situational Items.


Early game Items


As mentioned, Bami's is needed for faster wave clears and farming, it's also scales well with your ult indirectly as you will be dealing extra AoE damage with it, you can if you want or have to, not upgrade it if you are in a rush to get thornmail.

More armor, more damage. Thanks to your passive, you also get a free longsword(10 AD) with it.

if you ever face a lot of magic damage or have to deal with a mage top (Ryze, Lissandra and F"#!king Teemo) get this

Spectres is important for two reasons. To give you some more Health and MR, and to allow you to build towards Spirit visage or Banshee's Veil. the latter which you will need if faced with casters with powerful CC or deliberating abilities. so get this mid game will be a great help against mages or if you get poked a lot.

Core Items


This is Rammus's keystone item. Armor, health and Immolate. These three are your main core stats you need for all game, no excuses. as mentioned, Immolate will help you out with farming as it deals 50% more damage to non champions.

With Spirit Visage, you will get a lot of HP regen thanks to TH and the item itself as well as the 30% bonus. Making this a strong item to get if you don't have to worry about blocking abilities and need some good regen.

Abyssal is a good one for when you need some extra MR and HP if you need to fight a lot of Mages and especially if you are part of a AP heavy team as well. You will also gain a MR reduction aura which can demolish anyone with your ult. Thanks to the changes it has gotten in the tank update its now more viable due to giving HP.

Finally, An MR item that reduces the damage from poke champs. any mage that is gonna deal a lot of sustain damage are gonna be in a sorry state after you get adaptive helm.

Most of the time I take these because you need to be mobile in team fights and the longer you are out the greater the chance of you carries will die. you will also be get some early MR as well which will be a great help for balancing out your defensive stats.

Boot's of swiftness Personally I prefer to have Mercury's but Boots of swiftness can be a good item if the enemy team has a lot of slows, mostly because the movement speed gained is crazy, and you gain better resistance to slows, which can be a lifesaver when you are rolling and get slowed.

If the enemy team as a lot of AA and AD based Champions, get this and watch them fall. As you are a powerful counter to them, Tabi will making you even more powerful against them.

Rammus + Thornmail + DBC = ADC death guaranteed. Don't mess with this bad boy as it's a must have for rammus because of his passive. But don't take it first as you to have completed your mid items as you need health as well to make it work as it doesn't give you any. Because rammus has so much base armor. getting mid to late game as you will melt ADC's when you taunt them. without any runes or talents, the damage you will reflect with thornmail alone against an ADC with 250 damage will be: AD*0.15+B.armor*0.25(250*0.15+100*0.25=25+37.5=62.5) which is quite a lot of damage for an ADC to take when attacked at high speed.

Final Items/Semi Core



Titanic Hydra or TH is one of the best items for rammus and a great addition form the juggernaut patch(5.16). Because it scales with health and your passive grants AD with armor. Getting this as your second complete item after sunfire cape will increase your Damage potential massively as you need it for wave clears and pushing. Rammus is a notorious split pusher and with this you will become a monster pusher. using DBC>TH Active> AA will lead to some serious AoE damage as the Armor gained from DBC is added to your AD.

At the end of the game you should get Warmogs as the health regen, especially with spirit visage will be through the roof. if you ever survive an attack you could just return for some more.

Man, many of you may ask why the hell buy Hextech Protobelt for rammus, and I say it's the dash, AP and HP. Being able to dash in, off load the payload and then ult is gonna be insane, making it much easier to initiate. Rammus sometimes needs to use flash catch people off guard make fights happen, but with this he doesn't need to worry about that as you can Powerball during the dash and then taunt as the items active stops you for a sec and so does powerball allowing you to cancel the effects.

Situational Item



Get Locket of the Iron Solari if you want to play a more support role and give teammates some Big *** shields in teamfights, which is good for when you are going in balls deep or if you have to peel and make sure that you can reduce a big chunk of an assassins burst. the small bit of armor is always welcomed.

Zhonya's Hourglass can be a real troll item to get as you not only get some AP and armor(which means more AD) but also a stasis active which you can use to make yourself invulnerable and get yourself alive for longer.

This badboy will give you a lot of mobility and it's momentum passive will make sure that you deal a butt load of damage when you hit with full stacks. considering that you have Powerball, the sheer speed will catch enemy champions off guard as you hit them with your first Auto attack.

Need mo' pushing power or halt a wave, get ZZ'rot Portal, having played as the New Yorick(and he is a boss, try him out sometime) I can tell this is a powerful Item for when you need establish lane dominate, oh and the extra armor along with MR makes a powerful all around Item for Rammus as he gains equal resistant's while also getting some damage on top

I haven't tried this badboy out but feel free to try it out on Rammus (Will be updated after some testing). But having a Shield and an buff to your damage while it's up is a god sent then getting jumped on or fighting in teamfights as you will be needing some extra durability and with DBC and Banshee's veil, You may as well be Immortal. So get this if you so if Talon or LB jump you going all Assassin, you can send them Assassout.(I know, Bad puns A la Sans)

Got a princess in need so saving while she kicks ***? Get this, if you want to be an even more better peeling monster get Knight's vow as you get healed for 12% of the damage your selected target does while you take 12% of the damage they get. With good teamwork you can utterly mess up anyone that tries to rek your homies while their offensive power helps to keep you alive.
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Jungling.

Well for starters I am not really playing Rammus as a jungler but if you are ever going the traditional route, then here is a quick guide one doing it as a juggernaut because to be f#@3ing honest there are way too many (and MUCH better) jungling guides for rammus so I am not gonna waste my own and other's time on it. What I will do however is at least help people that want to apply my top guide to the jungle the best I can for two reasons:

One: You want a more offensive Rammus.

If that is the case. Than you can look forward to the fact that a jugg Rammus with either Titanic Hydra or Rylai's will rekt the enemy team, especially since TH scales well with Cinderhusk.

Two: Top is taken.

If that is the case or if you have to deal with a comp with a better top, so dude rushed to be top, Yaddi Yadda, then I really want to help on this one.

Anyway. Because I wanted to make the runes as optimal for rammus as possible you shouldn't worry about changing them. what is to be worried about is what Items and masteries you will be needing. for starters since you can customize your masteries so you should be going 0-12-18. and take Runic affinity, merciless and dangerous game, as you will be in the thick of things and you can thank the carry for killing and topping you up on mana and health, instead of grasp of the undying, you should be going for strength of ages or bond of stone. the former will make you a bit more tanky from the get-go and make you soak up some of your friends damage and the latter will increase your and your allies HP grow and heal you with each kill after you have max stacks.

Item Wise, you have to realise that you have one item slot less as you will be jungling and you need the jungling item if your going to do so at the start of the game. On the bright side you can now buff your smite to deal damage or to ward off your paranoia a bit with tracker's knife and you can now get Deadman's plate, so no real need for Boot's of mobility. On the flip side you will only have a little less HP and max level with a(or my) full build. so you have to center your items around it and gaining a bit more health. Lastly since you will have a(n even more) limited build path, you should leave out Warmog's as your two armor items will be needed for the damage, so will a MR item and a "health" weapon such as Rylai's or Titanic hydra. meaning you will miss out on an insane amount of HP regen.
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Early game and Trading.

Role in the top:


In early game you are goal as rammus is make sure that you do not die. although as Rammus, I have bounced from near loss. You can't afford to die too much. Your goal is to make sure that you farm as well as leveling fast enough to reach Lv 6 and gain your ult. be extremely careful when you are fight ranged or mages as rammus at this stage can't risk being poked down too much, however make sure you use DBC right about when they attack, you usually have a split second to active DBC and reduce the damage you will take. Because of Rammus lacks an efficient gap closer because Powerball will telegraph your attack to your opponent, you can use it to scare them off of you. when trading make sure to use FT and DBC as a combo to deal damage to your opponent, while protecting yourself from harm.

Chasing for the kill:


Don't chase unless you're damn sure you can score a kill. Always keep your distance from your opponent when DBC is off CD as you will need it when they start trading or when they fight back. A good way of harassing the hell of them is to Powerball>DBC>FT that way you deal a **** load of damage and force them out of lane for a while or pop a potion while you farm without worry of counter attack. be careful of pushing them back to their turret as you will be vulnerable to ganks and that you might be blocked off by either the jungler or enemy top laner, leaving you in a very sh"¤y situation.

Become a wall of pain:


Use your advantage as a tank to win the lane as you will need to stonewall(Playing as defensively as a means to upstruck and hamper your opponent) as much as possible. another advantage is to use the fact that you will get items build faster as tank items cost less so leaving the laning phase without a lot of cs is not that harmful to you overall but can still hurt you if you don't farm enough. Stonewalling is damn important against snowballers like riven or jax as they NEED to get an early at advantage and you are mid-late game beast so stalling them will be a kick in the nuts.

Tag teaming in the top:


When your jungler is coming up to gank your opponent. make sure that your ready as well lock them down while the two of you attack your opponent. Rammus's kit ensures that a well executed gank will kill your opponent so team coordination is and will be vital. whenever you reach Lv6 don't be afraid to use your ult to destroy enemy turrets. the faster the better.

Btw here is a good link that describes tips for top laning in more detail: http://www.themittani.com/features/lol-10-tips-top-lane?page=0%2C1
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Mid game

Mid game begins:


At mid game your goal is to push and help out with kills and turrets. being tank based means you need to be protecting your mates from harm while punishing enemies for daring to attack your buddy(assuming they are, well you get the drift). You should at this stage have Sunfire, tier 2 boots and Null-magic mantle/Spectre's cowl completed while on your way to build TH or Rylai's. When pushing you're actually better at killing waves when you don't have minions with you as they will focus you and you can kill them with DBC, especially with Sunfire or Thornmail, since you deal more damage from being attack then attacking. when going one on one. make sure you are aware of who you're fighting. going up against a feed champ or one when a natural advantage is suicide and you'll just end up feeding.

Bringing down the tower like a boss:


Also you need to destroy towers or at least damage them a lot. You will be tough enough to tank towers so don't be afraid of drive if you can get the kill. Ulting under the tower if the enemy is "hugging it, means that you will be damaging both, so if you are lucky to get out in time you will have not only killed your opponent, but you also have dealt some damage to the tower as well, meaning that you are a step closer to victory. Rammus ulting towers and then powerballing when the enemy team comes to kill you and failing to do so is one of funniest and satisfying thing you can do the troll their team as some of them that can't lock you down will just try and damage you as they watch their tower crumble. Rammus is one of the most fastest champs, and with TH, thornmail and SFC you can apply a lot of pressure on the enemy team by split pushing, even better yet with ZZ'rot and Banner of Command.

Choose your battle wisely:


If you are roaming and pushing you have to make sure you aware of the champs you are fighting against and if the place is warded. You get a sweeping trinket if you like as you move fast and you can over more ground before it runs up. As you are a good pusher and tank, you are gonna have to make some decisions that will affect the outcome of a match, some epic, others disastrous. To Push or tank, knowing what needs to be done is necessary and having good map awareness is key to this, so teamfights happen and teleport is on CD you have know if you can save your mates of it's better to push a bit and give your team and yourself some breathing space to recover. If you are gonna initiate, you have to take people by surprise. A good Rammus comes up from unpredictable angles and then crashes into the enemy team. if your mates are fast enough, we will also attack as you just give them an opening to kill off the enemy team.
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Late game

Endgame



by this time the only item missing is Thornmail or spirit visage and Warmog's. team fights will be happening a lot now. this is the time were Rammus really shines. you're strong enough to kill squishes easily. Make sure you target carries and lock them down and kill of the enemy team or if your team is getting jumped that you lock down the carries that attack support or other team mates that are vulnerable. use power ball as a AoE attack to help disrupt your enemies if all of your other abilities are on CD and when they are all clumped together.

Your objective at this stage of the game is to destroy/kill: enemy team>enemy inhibitors>Baron=Elder Dragon. Killing the baron or elder dragon while the enemy team is alive can score them a lot of kills during or after the Boss fight or worse, the kill on the epic monster. Which is a massive Noob move so don't do it if you haven't won a team fight or scored an ace.
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Special Thanks

I want to thank jhoijhoi for making the guide help and others who contributed to it as well as all how made the BBcode guide. And Thalose because I couldn't have make my guide without using yours as an template to based mine on. so thanks you very much, all of you.
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