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Choose Champion Build:
Spells:
Exhaust
Flash
Ability Order
Junkyard Titan (PASSIVE)
Rumble Passive Ability
Do I want to play Rumble?
There are plenty of guides out there for prospective Rumble players to choose from, each with their unique builds and playstyles. I have no intention of telling you a specific method of playing Rumble- I made this guide with a few things in mind:
-
- convincing players unfamiliar with Rumble to give him a try
- assisting current Rumble players with a more flexible, adaptive framework on which to build upon
- explain the mentality most suited for Rumble to play well.
So... do you want to play Rumble?
22 bans in Dreamhack?
An ultimate that, when properly used, can decimate the opposing team in a teamfight?
Just as capable of soloing top as


The answer is yes, for all of these questions.
Rumble is a very skill-intensive champion, and is at his best when he lanes with a predetermined partner. Communication over voice-chat utilities with your lanemate such as Mumble, Ventrilo, Teamspeak, or even Skype can lead to well-executed plays.
As a solo queue champion, however, Rumble is not as impressive- you can hope to soft-pick Rumble in the champion select, and ask to lane with whoever has a stun / snare.
However, you should always find time to practice Rumble. His ultimate is a tough one to master, and playing against bots often does offer much opportunities for full-blown teamfights- try to get into as many teamfights as you can as Rumble, and focus on the proper timing and placement of


Rumble is heavily dependent on AP and magic penetration to deal significant amounts of damage, and his Q ability,


His passive,

When Rumble exceeds fifty Heat, his Q, W, and E abilities are granted additional power, and when he reached the cap of one hundred, he is silenced for six seconds, and his melee abilities deal extra magic damage based on his level and ability power.
Regardless of your playstyle, the careful maintenance of Rumble within the range of 50-75 Heat is integral to any build. His abilities constantly have increased effect, and he is capable of overheating on short notice.
Rumble is at his best when laning with certain champions, even better when you are communicating with your lanemate, and your choice of laning partner is where your playstyle diverges. If your lanemate is a ranged carry such as
Vayne, Rumble serves as a support pusher- that is, he weakens the creep wave with his
Flamespitter, and allows his laning partner to easily last hit the minions to gain an overwhelming advantage in gold.
If you happen to lane with a partner that has crowd control abilities, such as
Lux or
Ryze, Rumble can take advantage of their snaring or stunning abilities to deal overwhelming amounts of damage with
Flamespitter, and with proper play, maintaining Rumble's heat in the 50 to 75 range, you will be able to spam all of your abilities and easily earn first blood using Rumble's
Junkyard Titan Overheat.
For example, I recently laned with a
Morgana in a normal queue 5v5. By using
Flamespitter on the minion waves, allowing her to last hit, as well as earning her two assists with the combination of
Flamespitter,
Dark Binding, and
Junkyard Titan's Overheat, by level eight she had already acquired a
Rabadon's Deathcap. Despite the game being a 3v5 and an eventual loss due to two of our summoners disconnecting, we were able to make the game last over an hour and defend through three Baron-enabled pushes, while maintaining our K/D/A at 21/9/14 and 16/14/13 respectively.
During mid-game, which for Rumble is after you destroy the tower in their lane, preferably around level six or seven, you should begin to push another lane, initiating the push by attempting to gank the most vulnerable enemy in that lane. Proper usage of
The Equalizer as an initiation spell will lead to a sudden drop and continual DoT of the enemies' health, with both the slow from
The Equalizer's AoE and hopefully the
Bilgewater Cutlass you purchased with some gold earned from your early-game kills can easily catch an enemy off-guard.


If you happen to lane with a partner that has crowd control abilities, such as




For example, I recently laned with a






During mid-game, which for Rumble is after you destroy the tower in their lane, preferably around level six or seven, you should begin to push another lane, initiating the push by attempting to gank the most vulnerable enemy in that lane. Proper usage of



If you are solo-queuing, soft pick Rumble and wait for your opponents to select their champions. Ask if you can lane with a ranged caster with a decent crowd control ability to try for first blood, or, if you prefer, if you can lane with an AD carry that isn't taking mid to feed them last hits and hopefully lead to complete late-game dominance.
An ideal team composition should be an AP caster, AD carry, support, tank, and optional jungler/off-tank. If you are missing a tank, please don't take Rumble. Your zeal for playing a champion you enjoy is admirable, but poor team composition often leads to easy defeats and a disappointing match. While it is possible to build Rumble geared towards survivability, he cannot be played as a true tank, as the only crowd-control ability he has is
Electro-Harpoon, which is nearly useless in teamfights and drawing aggro from your squishier champions. Rumble can fit the support, AP caster, and off-tank roles well, however, and if your team is missing any of those slots feel free to play Rumble.
Advanced players capable of maintaining a Heat gauge at 50-75 at all times can also try the AP DPS Rumble build, maximizing the advantage offered by
Junkyard Titan's Overheat and dealing significantly more burst damage.
An ideal team composition should be an AP caster, AD carry, support, tank, and optional jungler/off-tank. If you are missing a tank, please don't take Rumble. Your zeal for playing a champion you enjoy is admirable, but poor team composition often leads to easy defeats and a disappointing match. While it is possible to build Rumble geared towards survivability, he cannot be played as a true tank, as the only crowd-control ability he has is

Advanced players capable of maintaining a Heat gauge at 50-75 at all times can also try the AP DPS Rumble build, maximizing the advantage offered by







To be perfectly honest, I would consider this immensely overpowered were it not so easy to avoid this move. Like




Regardless of whom you are laning with, you should harass your opponents with





As you are harassing champions early game with your


Using the brush to sneak behind an enemy can help you get the full three seconds' worth of damage off of

Another









Unless you are playing a more tank-like version of Rumble, which I don't recommend, as the only CC he has is the slow off of his
















Once again, the AP ratio is deceptively high- you fire two harpoons, each with 50% AP scaling, and landing both gives you a 1:1 AP ratio. In Danger Zone, your Electro-Harpoon's true AP ratio is 1.3.
A 1.3 and 1.755 AP ratio on two regular abilities. Just sit there and think about it for a second.
NOTE: If you suspect that you are laning against a ranged champion with a strong presence, (for example,







Your usage of


Now, the Equalizer's AP ratios are 50% on the initial strike, and a continuous 20% for the five seconds spent in the AoE. Just as in




NOTE:

Flat magic penetration and health runes help Rumble's early game harassment immensely, and the scaling cooldown runes reduce



As for the masteries, it's reasonably simple. 9/21/0 is the way to go, best complementing Rumble's classification as a tanky caster. The nine points in Offense are clearly to get the 15% magic penetration offered by Archaic Knowledge, and the rest boosts Rumble's early laning presence. The point in Defensive Mastery helps Rumble ignore more creep aggro during the early harassment phase, and AD DPS Rumble puts Ardor to full use.
On all my builds of Rumble, I prefer










NOTE: There are two offensive Rumble builds and one support build in the brief champion summaries on the top of this guide. They are, in this order, AP Caster rumble, AP DPS Rumble, and Support Rumble.
- The first time you recall after level six, purchase your
Elixir of Brilliance. Right before you use
The Equalizer, use your elixir. The cooldown reduction will have your ult prepared for any teamfight, and the additional ability power will help your attacks hit harder.
- If at any time you are facerolling them,
Rabadon's Deathcap is an excellent item to choose. Rumble's AP ratios are 1.755 on a full Danger Zone Flamespitter, 1.3 landing both Danger Zone tazers, 0.52 on a Danger Zone
Scrap Shield, and 1.5 on
The Equalizer. And yes, you should always have your Heat gauge in Danger Zone.
- Regardless of whether you are in combat or not, spam your abilities to keep in the range of 50-75 Heat. As you walk to your lane at the beginning of the game, the cooldown reduction in your masteries and runes will allow you to slowly accumulate Heat by spamming
Flamespitter as soon as it comes off cooldown. Keep the flames going at all times, and any preliminary skirmishes in the brush will be in your favor with the 30% damage bonus from
Junkyard Titan's Danger Zone.
- Many of Rumble's items, such as
Hextech Gunblade,
Randuin's Omen, and
Quicksilver Sash are items to be used in the midst of battle. Using your items in the middle of a fight can be tricky, and a helpful solution to this is binding your Item #1 to a more convenient location.
- The first time you recall after level six, purchase your


- If at any time you are facerolling them,



- Regardless of whether you are in combat or not, spam your abilities to keep in the range of 50-75 Heat. As you walk to your lane at the beginning of the game, the cooldown reduction in your masteries and runes will allow you to slowly accumulate Heat by spamming


- Many of Rumble's items, such as



This build of Rumble is the simplest to get accustomed to, and if you are starting out on Rumble, practicing using this build is the way to go. The suggested runes, masteries, and purchases are in the first Offensive Rumble build.
As an AP caster Rumble, you want to maximize your
Flamespitter's DoT. By the time you purchase your
Sorcerer's Shoes you should be able to deal enough burst damage to successfully gank. Another option is to purchase
Ionian Boots of Lucidity. The cooldown reduction, which is hard to come by on a manaless caster, will help you have
The Equalizer up for every teamfight. You'll want to lane with a player with snaring or stunning skills in order to get your full 3 seconds worth of damage on
Flamespitter.
Taric is an excellent laning partner thanks to his buffs, heals, and stun, as well as
Morgana, as her
Dark Binding and
Tormented Shadow in tandem with your
Flamespitter is enough to kill an overextended opponent from half HP.
When you are laning with a caster partner, hopefully your opponents will have overextended and got caught in a situation where
Flamespitter removed a significant chunk of their HP. With your sudden advantage in laning presence, use the brush as much as possible. If your enemies see you enter the brush, they will back away in fear and be denied experience and gold. If they don't notice, then you will be in a better position to maximize damage output with
Flamespitter when they get stunned- particularly advantageous when you lane with
Taric, as his ranged stun will have a longer duration.
Your item options should begin with
Doran's Shield, in order to recover health from harassment, following into a
Hextech Revolver and
Sorcerer's Shoes to maintain laning presence while keeping a full health bar. Hopefully, with the help of your lanemate, you should be able to get two or three kills before their tower falls. Once their turret is destroyed, the midgame phase begins. You are free to gank other lanes from bushes, using
The Equalizer as a finisher, preferably to target two or more champions, or as an initiator if you are facing champions that have pushed too far to flee back to their turret- the initial damage and the damage over time will cause a fleeing mentality in the champions you target, leaving you able to slow them with your
Electro-Harpoon and close in for the kill without fear of retaliation.
Late game, if your team has a significant amount of casters, an
Abyssal Mask will provide a significant buff to your teamfights, in which you should be participating 90% of the time. If there are only two casters on your team, including yourself, a
Void Staff will serve you better. If you find yourself being focused by an overwhelming majority of crowd control, a
Quicksilver Sash is the appropriate solution.
Morello's Evil Tome is another valid option, despite the unnecessary mana regen, as it will cap your CDR and have your Level 3 Equalizer have a 36 second cooldown.
As an AP caster Rumble, you want to maximize your










When you are laning with a caster partner, hopefully your opponents will have overextended and got caught in a situation where



Item Choices:
Your item options should begin with





Late game, if your team has a significant amount of casters, an




This Rumble build is not particularly difficult, but it lacks the fulfillment of racking up a fat, juicy killstreak. This build is intended to feed your AD carry during the laning phase by lowering the entire creep wave's health using
Flamespitter, and hopefully sit back and watch the late game fireworks as the carry you babysat tears through a turret in three seconds. Be warned- this build requires a good carry, skilled with last-hitting to do properly. If you're outfarming mid, then you know you're doing a good job. Any less than that, and you should tell your lanemate to step it up or segue into a more offensive build.
As a support Rumble, you will be laning with your carry, making sure to tell them before the game begins. You will be feeding them easy last hits with your
Flamespitter, playing more defensively and focusing less on harassment. As the game progresses, you can begin to build Rumble into an off-tank build with respectable damage output.
As you focus on improving your crowd-control abilities with
Rylai's Crystal Scepter or
Randuin's Omen, you should be participating in as many teamfights as possible, dealing damage to as many enemies as possible with
The Equalizer in the middle of the teamfight (never as an initiation technique) and using your more durable build to rush towards the enemy team's carry with a Danger Zone
Flamespitter active.
Rylai's Crystal Scepter is more suited for chasing down opponents with
Flamespitter, and is prioritized in the more offensive Rumble build, but in this case
Randuin's Omen takes priority due to its low cooldown and your participation in nearly every teamfight. The health and AP bonus from
Rylai's Crystal Scepter is still impressive, though, and it should be your next stop after getting
Randuin's Omen if nothing on their team is targeting you specifically- the additional slow stacked on
The Equalizer's slow can turn the tides of a surprise assault into a deathtrap for the initiators.
Ideally, you would like to begin with a
Doran's Shield, which will provide Rumble with immense staying power. As you are not focusing on harassment much, your health bar should never dip below 50% unless the team begins to focus you- which is a terrible idea, as focusing the carry you are laning with has a far greater impact, and if they focus the carry, you can easily drive them out of range with
Flamespitter.
As you return to base for the first time, you are presented with a variety of options of items to purchase. If you are laning against a particularly frustrating AD DPS, prioritize the acquisition of
Chain Vest. Similarly, if you are having trouble with a caster,
Negatron Cloak is an excellent choice- either of the two can be built into a powerful late-game item for Rumble, giving you the options of
Randuin's Omen,
Thornmail,
Abyssal Mask, and
Quicksilver Sash. If your enemies aren't fazing you at all, and you recall with full health just because you have plenty of gold to spend, getting a
Blasting Wand will do nicely.
As for your choice in footwear,
Mercury's Treads is always a good choice, although if the opposing DPS is giving you significant trouble, buying
Ninja Tabi is not out of the question. If, however, you are dominating the lane and your enemies have taken the defensive posture,
Ionian Boots of Lucidity will help you press your advantage-
The Equalizer's naturally short cooldown should be exploited. If you have gold to spare,
Ruby Crystal to be put towards
Randuin's Omen is your best choice. If possible, pick up a Sight Ward or two, and place one in the middle of the river next to your lane to be better prepared for roamers. Any spare wards should go in the bushes near your river, and then in the bushes on the side of mid. Don't go out of your way to place wards- only do so if you are passing by, with the exception of the first ward position.
Once you destroy a tower in your lane, or your opponents start grouping in lanes, the mid-game has begun, and you should be assisting your team as often as possible. Hopefully, you will have built
Warden's Mail at this point, and as
The Equalizer will have you snapping up assist gold, if not kills, in team fights, your
Randuin's Omen should be up in no time.
Late game, if you find yourself being focused with your opponents'
Exhausts and other forms of crowd control, you can turn that
Negatron Cloak into a
Quicksilver Sash. Likewise, if you are being hassled by their squishy DPS,
Thornmail is a lovely option- on top of both of
Randuin's Omen's abilities, they will be hard-pressed to kill you, even as an extremely fed
Master Yi.
Other excellent late-game options are
Sunfire Aegis,
Abyssal Mask,
Zhonya's Hourglass, and
Force of Nature.

As a support Rumble, you will be laning with your carry, making sure to tell them before the game begins. You will be feeding them easy last hits with your

As you focus on improving your crowd-control abilities with










Item Choices:
Ideally, you would like to begin with a


As you return to base for the first time, you are presented with a variety of options of items to purchase. If you are laning against a particularly frustrating AD DPS, prioritize the acquisition of







As for your choice in footwear,






Once you destroy a tower in your lane, or your opponents start grouping in lanes, the mid-game has begun, and you should be assisting your team as often as possible. Hopefully, you will have built



Late game, if you find yourself being focused with your opponents'






Other excellent late-game options are




This method of playing Rumble, located in the second Offensive Rumble build, is the most skill-intensive of the three. This build adds an additional factor to Rumble's already frantic micromanagement of the heat gauge- maintaining a full eight stacks of
Guinsoo's Rageblade.
Why is it worth the effort?
35 Attack Damage, 93 Ability Power, and 32% attack speed for 2235 gold.
With
Flamespitter's AP ratio, that's an additional 41.85 damage per second, or a full 125.55 additional damage, without being in the Danger Zone. In the Danger Zone, you can fix those numbers to say an additional 54.405 damage per second, or a full 163.215 additional damage. With
The Equalizer's AP ratios, that's an additional initial 46.5 damage, followed by 18.6 more damage per second for five seconds.
Now, the attack speed buff gets fully utilized once you are skilled enough to maintain your Heat gauge in the Danger Zone and activate
Junkyard Titan's Overheat whenever you please, allowing Rumble to optimally use every aspect of
Guinsoo's Rageblade.
You think this item's good on
Jax? Hardly. With the ability to Overheat at a moment's notice, your increased attack speed along with the AP buff offered by the Rageblade will shred your opponent's HP before he can even get out of
Flamespitter range.
Balancing Rageblade stacks and a Danger Zone Heat gauge is an art. Heat decays after four seconds of not using abilities, and Rageblade stacks decay after five seconds. The ability to monitor multiple things at once is paramount for this build, but if you can master this skill, it will come in handy for any game of LoL you play, though more specifically the improvement of Rumble.
Once again, you should begin with a
Doran's Shield, to maintain early lane sustainability. Optimally, you should recall once you are able to purchase a
Blasting Wand,
Boots, and at least one ward, and the second recall should consist of your
Guinsoo's Rageblade, an
Elixir of Brilliance, and your
Sorcerer's Shoes if possible- you want to have the Elixir's cooldown buff on as often as possible, as you want your Equalizer to be up every teamfight, and the AP bonus doesn't hurt either.
The only lategame option I would suggest for AP DPS Rumble that is different from the main build would be
Malady. Improving your DPS to maximize
Junkyard Titan's Overheat is wonderful in addition to the AP and MR Reduction.
Hextech Gunblade and
Rylai's Crystal Scepter are still excellent options for Rumble, though the Gunblade loses a bit of its appeal as the laning sustainability provided by
Hextech Revolver is not present, which makes harassment a more precise art that needs fine-tuning and practice.
The simplest way of maintaining a full 8 stacks of Rageblade is to use your ability once the rotating timer on the effect square hits about 6 o'clock, that should keep your Heat gauge steady at whatever it is you have it at, as well a full stack of Rageblade effects.
Once again, boosting your cooldown reduction to maximize
The Equalizer's frequency is a great move. A lower cooldown on your abilities also means less micromanagement on your part to keep max stacks on
Guinsoo's Rageblade- the convenience is so much, I've been trying
Ionian Boots of Lucidity over
Sorcerer's Shoes and liking it a lot- I'll change the build if I happen to prefer it after more testing.
Morello's Evil Tome is still a solid choice, but as you are capable of utilizing Rumble's DPS offensively,
Nashor's Tooth is also a great option. With the 10% CDR from
Elixir of Brilliance, the 3% from your masteries, the 8.6% from your runes, either item will be enough to maximize your CDR. If there are no casters on your team that require the
Crest of the Ancient Golem, then you can pick that up and devote your item slots to a more focused item without extraneous abilities.

Why is it worth the effort?
35 Attack Damage, 93 Ability Power, and 32% attack speed for 2235 gold.
With


Now, the attack speed buff gets fully utilized once you are skilled enough to maintain your Heat gauge in the Danger Zone and activate


You think this item's good on


Balancing Rageblade stacks and a Danger Zone Heat gauge is an art. Heat decays after four seconds of not using abilities, and Rageblade stacks decay after five seconds. The ability to monitor multiple things at once is paramount for this build, but if you can master this skill, it will come in handy for any game of LoL you play, though more specifically the improvement of Rumble.
Item Choices:
Once again, you should begin with a






The only lategame option I would suggest for AP DPS Rumble that is different from the main build would be





The simplest way of maintaining a full 8 stacks of Rageblade is to use your ability once the rotating timer on the effect square hits about 6 o'clock, that should keep your Heat gauge steady at whatever it is you have it at, as well a full stack of Rageblade effects.
Once again, boosting your cooldown reduction to maximize








I will keep track of any modification and edits regarding Rumble in this section, but since this is my first post, there is nothing to put here yet!
--
I hope you all enjoy playing Rumble- he is a fun champion to play. His initial playstyle is simple to master, but the finer details of Heat gauge management and proper harassment technique take a bit longer to get used to. Please let me know if this guide helped your playing or not!
--
I hope you all enjoy playing Rumble- he is a fun champion to play. His initial playstyle is simple to master, but the finer details of Heat gauge management and proper harassment technique take a bit longer to get used to. Please let me know if this guide helped your playing or not!
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