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Rammus Build Guide by

[9.4] Challenger Rammus Guide

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Rammus Build Guide By Updated on

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Runes:

Resolve

Aftershock

Demolish

Conditioning

Overgrowth

Precision

Triumph

Legend: Alacrity

Bonus:

+10% Attack Speed
+6 Armor
+6 Armor

Spells:

Flash

Smite

Items

Starter Items

Core Items

Boots

Situational Items

Standard Build

Ability Order

Rammus Passive Ability

Champion Build Guide

Introduction

Hey, I'm Kasugunai and welcome to my guide. I've been playing League of Legends since August 2010 (nearly 10 years!), having peaked Challenger rank 2 in April 2018.

I like writing guides about the champions I've "mastered" along the way so I'm writing a new one for every champion I unlock a level 7 Mastery.

I also upload League educational content in my YouTube channel every now and then so if there's anything you want me to cover more in-depth, feel free to leave a comment and I'll get back to you shortly after!

Getting Started

Before anything else, I want to make it clear that my guides are highly focused on how to play the champion to its fullest and for that I must not go into general concepts such as:

Summoner Spell explanation (99% of junglers take Smite/Flash)
Jungle spawn timers (universal to junglers)
Advanced jungle pathing like vertical jungling and invades (universal to junglers)

Statistics

All statistics used in this guide are taken from Plat+ matches on the previous patch. Why not the current one, you ask?

Current patch statistics lack the needed sample size until 7 days in, not to mention the constant need of updating but the winrate curve throughout the game should stay the same unless direct changes happen.

47.99% winrate from 00:00 to 20:00
51.27% winrate from 20:00 to 25:00
52.62% winrate from 25:00 to 30:00
53.52% winrate from 30:00 to 35:00
52.34% winrate from 35:00 onwards

Runes

Aftershock
This keystone is perfect for Rammus, not only does his damage scale with Armor through Spiked Shell, his Defensive Ball Curl also gets its value massively increased for its duration. Combined with Thornmail later on, this is what allows Rammus to burst high Attack Speed users insanely fast.

Demolish
Not much to say here, Rammus's CC isn't solid enough for Font of Life while Demolish has had its value increased with the addition of Turret Plating.

Conditioning
While Bone Plating might have its uses, on a jungler like Rammus there's little to no use for it, Conditioning has insane value during Aftershock + Defensive Ball Curl engages.

Overgrowth
This is great for any tank and Rammus is no exception. However, against certain comps it might be better to go with Unflinching.

Triumph
This allows you to survive in clutch moments very often and also scales with your max HP which is great for any tank, not to mention any other rune in both first and last row are terrible.

Legend: Alacrity
Attack Speed is probably one of the most important stats early on as it allows Rammus to clear way faster than he would otherwise, because of this I highly recommend you staying away from Legend: Tenacity unless the entire enemy team has massive CC.

Abilities

PASSIVE
ABILITY

SPIKED SHELL (Passive): Strong passive for early clearing that turns into 's main source of damage when combined with his other abilities.

POWERBALL (Q): This is 's engage ability and when paired up with it can go to upwards of 1000 Movement Speed, allowing you to catch anyone off guard. You max this first for lower CD, double damage and slow.

DEFENSIVE BALL CURL (W): DO NOT PRESS THIS BEFORE TAUNTING IN A FIGHT. Really, that's the main issue with this ability. It has really good synergy with and assuming you land a as previously mentioned, and also helps in clearing faster and healthier early on. You max this last since you get little value in each point until you have lots of resistances.

FRENZYING TAUNT (E): This ability completes 's kit perfectly. Not only does it lock down a target but it also makes this target's auto attacks inflict 's damage on themselves, obliterating any high Attack Speed target. Its interaction with is very similar to the one with so as you can guess, this is a great addition if you're looking to punish auto attackers. You max this second to ensure no one gets away from you in the mid game.

TREMORS (R): Mainly used for the slow, this ability stacks its slow every proc, reaching very high slow percentages. Because of its long duration, I like using this as soon as I get in range during for an easier lockdown and higher DPS. You level this up everytime you can.

Items

-OR-

Stalker's Blade > UTILITY
Buy this if you think you'll have trouble reaching your targets, I usually buy this in Diamond level games onwards.

Skirmisher's Sabre > DUELING
Buy this if you think you'll be dueling a lot, this works both as a and a at the same time, I usually buy this in tiers below Diamond.

This item helps with clearing early on and synergizes well with 's stickiness for additional damage. You should buy this as your first item unless you happen to have enough gold for another full item.

This item when in combination with allows you to easily catch enemies out of position. Its utility goes up in the higher tiers where it's significantly harder to catch someone out of position. You should buy this as your second item if you're having trouble engaging on the enemy team.

This item when in combination with lets you melt any Attack Speed focused champion. You should buy this as your second item if you have no trouble sticking to your targets.

This item shines over and in high magic damage tanks and is no exception, in fact I'd say he's its best user right now. You should buy this item when you're in need of Magic Resist

This item's passive works as a replacement to and is the better option when itemizing against Armor, beating and by a reasonable margin. You should buy this item only after and AND if you don't need Magic Resist.

This item is the best option in most games for your final item, it outscales in the later stages of the game, although it only competes with in its category at that point.

This item is very important in late game teamfights if you need to protect your carries, the HP scaling on the shield amount makes it gamebreaking if properly timed.

-OR-

Ninja Tabi > AUTO ATTACKERS
This is our standard buy as it provides more Armor (and Armor means damage!) while also reducing all basic attack damage by 12%.

Mercury's Treads > TENACITY
Buy these boots if the enemy team doesn't have any auto attackers or if you're facing lots of CC. If you need Magic Resist just buy instead as these boots give 0 Magic Resist for its recipe.

Jungle Pathing

There's no such thing as an optimal jungle path but the standard for is: Raptors -> Red -> Krugs into lane gank or contesting Scuttle if available.

Here's a couple of Master+ games from recent patches to help you optimize jungle clearing:

Early Game

's early is not the greatest, he struggles to contest most camps in the early levels, his clearing is also mediocre and his sustain is barely passable.

As with any jungler, you heavily rely on your laners' priority to contest scuttle or invade buffs so if you have an early game focused team, make sure to use that advantage as much as possible because can work just fine early if he's given the chance to, his issue is more than often not doing much on his own, which is a defining early game trait for junglers.

Mid Game

spikes (pun not intended) the hardest in the mid game, and knowing around 75% of games end in this stage of the game, it makes him even more of a threat if left unpunished early on.

So what makes him this strong? Everything.

He can go up to 1000 Movement Speed with his + combo and he can burst enemy carries in the duration of his through his + combo, all of this while reaching obscene amounts of resistances from and .

Even if anyone manages to survive and disengage, very rarely will be punished for this kind of engage attempts due to how long he can live until he gets his team's backup. So as you want to make sure you are the one engaging all the time unless your win condition lies on a carry who's being targeted by some sort of assassin, but this will rarely ever be the case.

It's also very important that you constantly check for purchases on the enemy team as this item will disrupt any attempt at engaging on a target and having this in mind might change how you plan your next moves.

Late Game

doesn't really bring up anything new in this stage of the game so everything that I mentioned regarding mid game still applies here.

While it might've been true in the past that all tanks scale good into the late game, it is not so much the truth nowadays. Conqueror bypasses a significant amount of Armor, making and most tanks fall off in the later stages, but even then he's still a threat with his + engages.

UPDATE: New might be an indirect buff to 's late game so I'll be updating this section next week in case the winrate does go up.