2015-07-06: Guide created.

2015-07-07: Name change and grammar corrections.

The aim for this guide is to build the complete and extended Amumu guide where you can learn the basics about his abilities, how to build but also dig deeper and learn more about counters, ganking and teamfights.

The main thing I want to get across is the combination of Rylai's Crystal Scepter and Liandry's Torment since they go so well together along with Despair (hence the build's name). I haven't seen anyone else showing the potential of this combination yet.

Amumu at his core is weak early but compensates for it highly in the mid and late game, similar to Ryze in that sense. Keep in mind that Amumu isn't a champion for snowballing and might not be optimal for climbing solo queue, espiecially not on a higher level. However, the more kills and the more farm you have the faster you'll get to your late game, which you dominate.

Many Amumu guides tell you to be the tank and soak up as much damage as possible. I would say that this is one way of playing Amumu, but not this guide's way. I will teach you to carry your way through solo queue as I have in Season 5 starting off with 22 wins and 2 losses. This is not only an effective way to climb but also a very fun way of playing with game changing abilities.

But who is writing this guide you might ask? I have been playing League since 2012, I am an Amumu and Vi main playing in Platinum V with a 62,1% win rate on Amumu. I started playing Amumu back in Season 3 playing him only AP in normal games, but I started to main him in Season 5 when I saw how well some items goes together with his abilities.

I also want to make it clear that this is a work in progress that I will try and adjust the information to the current meta, if you have any constructive feedback please leave a comment and don't forget to vote :)

Credit to jhoijhoi's Making A Guide for the layout and all the tips!

Pros

+ Percentage damage (good in this meta) + Game changing ultimate + Heavy cc with Bandage Toss and Curse of the Sad Mummy + Great initiate with Bandage Toss

Amumu is a jungler with high potential. Someone who masters Amumu's skillshots is a pain for any opponent. And the counter jungling that is done is out of fear for the late game. If there's any worse feeling for an AD carry than getting hooked by Blitzcrank it would be getting hit by a Bandage Toss.

Cons

- Crucial to get first blue - Weak early game - Easily counter jungled - Often banned in lower leagues - Team becomes very vulnerable if you miss your Bandage Toss

The downside of Amumu is his weak early game. Starting off your jungling route the opponent always has the upper hand and if he feel like coming in and messing with you and perhaps stealing one of your buffs, just accept it and keep jungling, stay focused on your high impact in the mid and late game. Another thing to note is how crucial it is that you don't mess up late game. Because if you do, it might cost your team the game. One missed Bandage Toss or Curse of the Sad Mummy is all it might take. As a jungler you need thick skin, because you're usually the one getting all the blame and when you're playing Amumu your mistakes are very obvious.

• Greater Mark of Magic Penetration: This build largly relies on having a lot of Magic Penetration. The AP scalings on Amumu's abilities aren't great. However, as with many tanks ( Zac, Dr. Mundo and Elise), they scale very well with Magic Penetration (especially late game).
  
• Greater Seal of Armor: The early flat armor together with the 21 points in the defensive mastery tree gives Amumu the early stats he needs to still be relevant and not instantly die to an invade.
  
• Greater Glyph of Scaling Cooldown Reduction: Because of high cooldowns and since cdr isn't a part of the standard build, this will give you 15% cdr at level 18. An alternative would be Greater Glyph of Magic Resist, but cdr is better.
  
• Greater Quintessence of Ability Power: Even if Amumu's abilities benefit more from Magic Penetration we can't ignore Ability Power. It is stronger for the first clear and is important to not be far too vulnerable.
  
• Greater Quintessence of Magic Penetration: I have played many custom games figuring out which Runes would be optimal for my jungle route. This gives me the most Magic Penetration with enough Ability Power to not make me too vulnerable for invades in the jungle. The Magic Penetration also improves Bladed Armor and the Cinderhulk passive, even if this has very small overall impact.

For Amumu there's no other choice than smite and flash. It's just a no brainer.

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Cursed Touch (passive): When you do a basic attack on a champion you lower their Magic Resist. When you gank, try to do a basic attack ASAP before Curse of the Sad Mummy to maximize damage output (especially if you're ganking an AP lane).

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Bandage Toss (Q): Throws out a skill shot in front of him, damaging and travelling to the first person hit.

This is your initiate and your escape. Try cathing the carries out of position, late game that will mean their death and most likely a won team fight. You're going to want to max out Bandage Toss second. The cooldown will be reduced by half from rank one to rank five which is very significant and important in the mid game team fights. You'll get the chance to initiate more often and use it multiple times in a fight, or perhaps to flee over walls.

• Great initiate.
• I strongly recommend you to have this spell on smart cast.
• You can use this ability to jump over walls (to enemies or jungle camps as escape).
• Aim for the high priority target, the biggest threat.

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Despair (W): Creates a pool around you dealing a percentage of the enemy's max health as magic damage.

This ability does much more damage than expected, especially in the tank meta. Also your damage to dragon and baron will be excellent. You're going to want to max out Despair last. Despair's damage early game is pretty low, but as the game goes on people get more health which makes it scaling great into the late game, when it will be maxed out anyway. The other abilities are much more important for Amumu's early game.

• Try to stay in the middle of the enemy team damaging as many as possible.
• Still does damage when Zhonya's Hourglass is active.
• Great damage against high health targets.

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Tantrum (E): Does damage around Amumu. Tantrum passively reduces basic attack damage towards him. Every time Amumu is attacked the cooldown of Tantrum is reduced.

Max out Tantrum first. The damage is great for fast clearing and the damage reduction increases for each level which is really helpful early on aswell.

• If you're fighting enemies among their minions you'll be able to use tantrum very often, increasing your damage output significantly.
• Use as often as possible
• When chasing, alternate between doing basic attacks and using Tantrum.

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Curse of the Sad Mummy (R): An aoe around you dealing damage and stunning all enemies within it.

This ability is what changes games, good use of it will ensure you your win, a missed one may result in the opposite. There are different ways of getting in that perfect ultimate. What I've come to realize is that the best way of using Curse of the Sad Mummy is usually not right after Bandage Toss. Be patient and don't hesitate to use Flash to get into the perfect position.

• Use flash to get in a good position to use Curse of the Sad Mummy.
• Try to chain it with your team's cc to lock down key targets.
• When stealing baron or dragon, use Curse of the Sad Mummy to stun the enemy jungler to make them unable to smite.

In all of the ranked games I've played with Amumu I haven't gone with anything else than Mercury's Treads. However, there are two other options, Sorcerer's Shoes nad Ninja Tabi. They are more situational though. If I'm up against an all AD team without CC which could make it troublesome I could consider Ninja Tabi. If I'm very ahead and the enemy team doesn't have much CC I could consider a pair of Sorcerer's Shoes.

The reason I pick Stalker's Blade is because the pvp aspect of it is very strong. If you're ganking, fleeing or simply counter jungling this is a very strong item. Amumu is weak early on and some extra utility and damage is helpful. The Stalker's Blade - Cinderhulk upgrade is the option for tanks. The passive helps a lot with clearing the jungle and the bonus percentage health is perfect with the other other items in the build.

There are multiple great things about this item. It gives a great amount of both health (even more with cinderhulk) and AP. But apart from that it slows when dealing damage with spells. This is what makes Despair so strong. Even if it will only slow by 15% it will serve it's purpose. Not only will it make it very easy for you to stick to your target and almost guarantee the follow up Bandage Toss to hit. It will increase the damage output insanely. This is where Liandry's Torment comes in. If nothing is changed from the pbe the slow will be increased from 15% to 40%, which will be significant. It will be extremely helpful even if you go full tank besides it. The 40% slow will only last for 1 second instead of 1,5 seconds. But this won't matter much when you have Liandry's Torment the dot will slow for the target by 20% for 4 seconds.

The stats the item provides is great for Amumu, the health, ability power and the magic penetration on top of that makes the item very viable already. But Liandry's Torment will also deal 1% of the target's current health every .5 second. Now let's do some maths: Despair will deal about 7% of the enemy's total healh every second (level 18 and full build). With despair active you're always going to have Rylai's Crystal Scepter's passive slow on them. Liandry's Torment's damage is doubled when the enemy's movement is impaired! 7% + 2 x 2% = 11% of the enemy's hp (7% max hp and 4% of current hp) every second with Despair only!

When our core is established we want to get some defensive stats in, and most often starting off with armor (if the mid laner isn't very fed). This is the first item you won't build every game, I pick it up in about 80% of my games. Don't pick this if you're far behind, your team will most likely benefit from getting some extra tankiness in that case. If your AD or AP carry is very far ahead it's probably wise to also ignore this, in that situation peeling is more important for your team (you will have to get a feeling for the situations when switching it up is wise). With this item you can remain in the enemy team, and even when you activate it Despair continues to deal damage, about 20% of their total health which will be very unexpected. Also, the active is a great way of staying alive after getting the carries to back off. This leaves some time for your backline to finish their tanks off.

The magic resist is definitely good and a magic resist item is definitely needed somewhere in the build. The passive, however, is what makes it so great. It is very benefitial for you and your AP carry.

I mostly pick this item when I'm behind, instead of Zhonya's Hourglass or when we don't have any other tank in the team. The health and armor is of course great for obvious reasons. But I want to discuss the passive and active. The passive is really strong versus attack speed heavy teams and hyper carries in particular. The active has many uses, as a follow up slow after your ultimate, as peel for your marksman and chasing.

As with Randuin's Omen I usually pick it when my team is behind. You get health you wouldn't get with Abyssal Mask along with a very helpful spell shield

I just recently started to pick the Enchantment: Captain upgrade. Initially it seemed insignificant but the speed of your teams follow up is great!

I pick up homeguard in many of my games, especially if I'm behind. The ability to quickly get back and support my team is very helpful.

I would consider buing this item if the enemy has no long range physical damage wave clear. This is highly situational though and is more of an item for ranked team. The aura and active is nice however.

More of a defensive item, if your team is very squishy this might be something to consider because of the aura and the active shield. However, your support will most likely buy this item.

If I'm up against a disengage team, Janna for example, I would consider this item. It can also really help if you have more of a pick composition, with a Blitzcrank for example. The stats are alright aswell.

When the enemy team has AD carries who relies on their attack speed. If I'm up against a Jinx, Zed, Tryndamere and Shyvana then this item is a no brainer.

Up against a double marksman team? This is your item. Enough said.

The jungling has changed significantly in Season 5. Let's recap some of the general things we should keep in mind while jungling.

Smiting jungle camps

You will have two charges on your Smite, try never to leave yourself with no charges left. You might lose dragon or baron on it. So use it wisely.

Gromp: Does damage to anyone attacking you.
A good target to smite early on, helps with clearing.


blue sentinel: Gives mana.
Try not to smite this, unless you're in a situation where it's needed. For example in an unwanted team fight in the jungle when you have no mana.


greater murk wolf: Spawns a spirit that will patrol the area for up to 90 seconds.
I would not recommend smiting this unless you're in the enemy jungle, there it's great for keeping track of the enemy jungler. Even better than warding.


crimson raptor: Can see invisible wards and champions when spotted by an enemy ward.
This is normally where you want to spend your smite charge. This will let you know if you've been spotted when ganking, doing dragon or invading.


red brambleback: Gives health.
Better early on, but has it's situational uses late game if you need health. For example, if Malzahar's space aids is doing damage to you this might save your life.


ancient krug: Every sixth attack will stun the enemy.
Better for meele champions, but it can have it's use, very situational.

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JUNGLE ROUTE BLUE SIDE

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JUNGLE ROUTE PURPLE SIDE

These are the different routes I use when I gank, I'll add a short explanation for each route (I plan on making a video version of this in the future when I have enough footage). Anyway, ganking with Amumu is pretty hard before level six. Try to walk up to your target, keeping your Bandage Toss up. This creates much pressure and will most likely result in a burnt flash, them having to leave lane or even a kill. When you gank this early most of the damage won't come from you, try helping the lane do as much damage as possible. Try to always walk in front of your target, spacing your attacks out.

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BLUE SIDE

In my games playing on the blue side I tend to gank top and mid more than bot lane. Being able to walk around and coming up behind my enemy makes everything more controlled and a very small risk of missing Bandage Toss.

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Top

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Mid

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Bot

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PURPLE SIDE

In my games playing on the blue side I tend to gank bot and mid more than top lane. For the same reason as on Blue side.

Top

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Mid

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Bot

When it comes to team fighting Amumu shines, but is also where your mistakes may lead to a loss - and you will be the one to blame. I'm going to break it down for you so you have an idea of how to handle the situation.

Positioning

First of all, you need to have correct positioning before and during the team fight. Your main objective is of course to initiate on the carries, try to kill them and make them deal as little damage as possible in the fight (this includes zoning them out).

Your positioning before the fight should always be in the front of your team, after all, you're the tank. Try to have an angle on the enemy team, this makes it easier to initiate on their carries rather than their front line.

In the actual fight you should try to stay with the enemy carries, when patch 5.13 hits (if nothing changes from the pbe) this should be pretty easy once you get your slow going. Your goal is to get them out of the fight, one way or another. If they die or flee, you've done your job. However, with the build you're going for it shouldn't be very hard taking them out. If you initiated with Flash + Curse of the Sad Mummy then you still have your bandage toss up, walk up to the most fed enemy carry, use it and stick to them.

Initiating

The first thing you have to think about is which enemies possibly could mess up your engage, let's take Janna as an example. Her [monsoon is your worst nightmare, so you will have to try and keep track of if she has it up or not. If she has it up but you still want to engage I would recommend doing the Flash + Curse of the Sad Mummy engage rather than using Bandage Toss + Curse of the Sad Mummy. Why? Janna wants to time your engage with her ult. Using Flash instead of Bandage Toss gives her less time to react. I use this reasoning for most disengage champions and compositions.

The goal is of course to hit as many as possible with Curse of the Sad Mummy. However, it's very hard to tunnel vision on this, leading to initiating without your team mates being able to follow up. So keep that in mind.

When it comes to initiating there are two ways of doing it, one is using Bandage Toss and following up directly with Curse of the Sad Mummy, note that you won't get this oppertunity very often. If you aren't properly positioned when you have initiated, don't hesitate to Flash before ulting. Usually it will happen if you get to initiate from the fog of war, for example over a wall like in the video below.

The other option, and the most common, is to Flash right before using Curse of the Sad Mummy, this gives less time for the enemy team to react and catches the carries off guard, the video below shows this aswell.

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Bandage toss + ult
Play Video

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Flash + ult
Play Video

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BLUE SIDE


PURPLE SIDE

Whenever you're up against a strong jungler early I would advice you to ward, avoid them and farm up. Play smart, you will outscale them late.

Counter Analysis One option to avoid him is banning, and out of your counters I have listed he would be the one I would ban. I try to avoid him at all cost, if he wants to take my red I only contest it if I get help from my laners. Lee Sin falls off hard late game though, so push through it.

Counter Analysis He can make your jungling very hard early on. My best advice would be to keep entrances warded. Keep in mind that Shaco can take dragon early, so try to keep it warded (you can ask for help from your bot lane with this aswell).

Counter Analysis She is very strong throughout the game, probably the only one of these three who can 1v1 you at any point of the game (depending on their build). However, your impact on a teamfight is better than Shyvana's. Try to play your game and avoiding her. However, when you've turned 6 you shouldn't doubt going for fights over dragon.

TOP

Synergy Analysis The combo with Kennen is just amazing and is probably one of the better champions you can be teamed up with. Curse of the Sad Mummy is a great set up for Slicing Maelstrom and the other way around.

Synergy Analysis Rumble is probably my favorite champion to be teamed up with. The team fight control and the ability to split up the enemy team is alomst unbeatable. Rumble should just lay his ultimate in the enemy's escape route.

Synergy Analysis After the update on Black Cleaver Wukong has gotten a lot stronger. He is great to combo with, ganking is a breeze after level six aswell. The combo gives great potential for early, mid and late game.

MID

Synergy Analysis Vulnerable to hard cc, which requires her to have lockdown on the enemy team... Curse of the Sad Mummy. Try to make mid lane snowball, your combo with her will most likely win you the game.

Synergy Analysis She brings so much utility to the table for your team. The shield, speed up and ult combo is wonderful. In this case it doesn't matter too much who does the ult first, you can set it up for each other. I really like playing with an Orianna because of the speed up and the ability to to choose fights which is crucial when playing Amumu

Synergy Analysis I am personally not a great fan of Annie, I find her kit to be too one dimensional with no real variation when it comes to playstyle. But in this case I have to make an exception. If you get a hit on carries late game, they will die. The damage from Summon: Tibbers is just insane. Combined with her stun aswell leads to some great potential combos (also works to have her as support).

SUPPORT

Synergy Analysis The spell shield is great for initiating and Soul Shackles for following Curse of the Sad Mummy up. Her ability to create picks with Dark Binding is great and very easy to follow up on.

Synergy Analysis The potential cc-combo of Curse of the Sad Mummy and Stranglethorns is very strong. The combo, when pulled off correctly, is very strong though.

Synergy Analysis My duo queue partner mains Thresh, and I really like the combo. It's not the ult combo that I like with Thresh, but that there are so many potential plays. You have a new way of ganking with lantern, which makes it much easier since Amumu is pretty slow. When you're tower diving or retreating from a failed team fight you have a safe way out with lantern. He just offers so much to a team and you as a jungler.

Extended list:

• Malphite: Curse of the Sad Mummy + Unstoppable Force is an old classic combo, very feared in lower leagues. The cc is insane and if the enemy team happen to stack up - they're dead.
• Fiddlesticks: Curse of the Sad Mummy + Crowstorm is way too much for an enemy team to handle. Building Abyssal Mask is probably good to get before Zhonya's Hourglass since it will help fiddle out so much.
• Ziggs: Curse of the Sad Mummy makes the enemies stay in place long enough for Mega Inferno Bomb to hit for sure. This alone might kill carries.
• Brand: Curse of the Sad Mummy gives time for brand to get off his full combo on priority targets.