Hey guys.

This is the second guide I have written for Amumu. I wrote the last one in season 5 so I figured it was time for an update. I won't go into too much detail about Amumu's abilities in this guide, like some other guides do. I'm simply going to talk about why Amumu is such a great champ right now, especially in lower lobbies, and why I choose to play him the way that I do.

Here's a little bit about me; my summoner name is SloshyCoin. I am currently Silver 3 but hope to get back to Gold soon, and I will get there by one-tricking Amumu. I have been playing League since season 4 and have been maining Amumu since season 5. He has gone through a small rework recently (if you can even call it that) but is only stronger for it, and it shows (his win rate is 9th highest among champs in elos gold and lower). My win rate in Silver lobby right now is at 78% with a KDA of 6.08:1.

The runes I run are pretty standard for Amumu.

Armor Seals help with sustain in early jungle clears, which are very slow for Amumu.

MR Glyphs serve a similar purpose, though jungle camps mostly do physical damage. It's just nice to be tanky early because, well, your a tank.

MPen Marks are great for clears, and for tearing up tanks mid and late game.

AP Quints for early damage on your Tantrum, again for clears, but also you won't be building a ton of AP usually so these give you a little bit more damage so that you can actually be a threat during the game.

I never do anything other than these runes. I think an argument can be made for Armor Quints or AP Glyphs. It depends on your play style, but I think these runes give you the best chance of carrying or just not ****ing it up.

So I've looked at the masteries from some other current guides. Mine aren't terribly different so I won't go into too much detail.

The Ferocity tree is pretty standard Amumu stuff. It gives you, and your team, some extra damage. Always good, and I think pointing 12 points here is better than what you can get out of the Cunning tree with a 6/6/18 or 0/12/18 setup.

Courage of the Colossus is a must for Amumu, so the rest of the points in Resolve go to tankiness and team fighting buffs. Pretty simple: more health, more armor, more better.

I think this is the first section where my views may differ a little from most builds out there. The core is the same, generally, so I won't go into that. I'll just address the issues I have with Randuins Omen, and what you do after or during the core build process.

Randuins Omen is a great option for Amumu. It gives you health, armor, a slowing active, a attacking-speed reducing passive, and 20% crit resistance. Great... for playing against certain ADC's. Personally I think this item is not necessary in most games. If I'm in-game and I'm getting wrecked by crit champs, like Yasuo, Vayne, Tryndamere, etc... I generally just go Thornmail and Ninja Tabi. Doing this, combined with runes, masteries, and the Frozen Heart that you already built will put you around 330 Armor. I choose Thornmail over Randuins Omen because I will get 40 more armor and I will be reflecting 60+15% of the incoming damage. This renders pretty much all of the lifesteal that these champs build useless against me. Basically it makes it so that I can 1v1 a Vayne or a Yasuo late game and walk away with half or more of my health left...basically I do this so that I can carry hard AF without having to depend on my team to follow me into team fights (because in low elos, they don't).

The rest of the items in this guide are more or less situational. After the core I generally only build items with AP or health unless my team is getting wrecked. Liandry's Torment is generally my fifth item, and I'll follow that up with either Rylai's Crystal Scepter or a Void Staff (though I didn't include that item above, since in most cases it is unnecessary).

Going for a Deathcap is mostly useless. If you have enough money for it late game and you need the damage then go for it. Amumu's AP scaling is not the best. It is almost always better to build Penetration.

Lastly, if the game is going pretty long then you might end up switching out your boots. You can go about this in a couple ways: first, you can switch out your tabi's or merc treads for Sorcerer's Boots. This is a fine option for the penetration. However, if you have the money for it, you can also swap them for a Luden's Echo. The reason that I will do this sometimes is for the AP, extra splash damage, and it still gives you 5% movement speed. Always good if you are the one carrying the team.

So maxing Tantrum(E) first is pretty standard. However, there is some debate about whether to go Bandage Toss(Q) or Despair(W) second.

The reason you go Bandage Toss first is to increase its damage (obviously) but mostly to decrease its cooldown. This is ideal because it means you can gank more and gank successfully...if you land the toss. Bandage Toss is Amumu's only skill shot, which means it's the only ability he can miss (in theory). It is super long range, and is your number one ganking and engage/disengage tool. Having it up as often as possible is nice because it means you can miss a few tosses and still make an impact in you lanes.

There are two reasons I don't max Bandage Toss first: One, it costs A LOT of mana. Early game it is seriously a quarter of your mana per toss. Two, the core build has 30% CDR. This means I get to use my toss more often anyway, though it is not as often early game. I make up for this by simply not missing a toss :)

I don't know why I need to make this section. I have seen other builds giving you options on why you can trade out flash for exhaust or teleport. To there credit, I have used teleport in several games. It increased my farm and map presence which is great. But my Ults were not as impactful. Flash synergizes so well with your Ult and engage that it's not worth trading out in my opinion. Plus you can still use it to get out of that mess that you are bound to Bandage Toss yourself into.

...And Smite...Obviously...

Your job as Amumu is simple. Farm as best you can; I generally start bot side regardless of what buff I get. I then clear chickens, wolves, and my other buff before looking for a gank. When I am looking to gank, I start in river to see if scuttle is still up. If it is then it means the other jungler just disregarded it, or, if its about to despawn, I know that he will be on the other side of the map setting up for a gank, or farming, but I will be able to warn my laners, or get the scuttle and head to the lane for a gank myself.

I feel like I may have confused some of you there so I won't go into much more detail about actual pathing or ganking strategies. Basically, make sure you have a chance to walk up behind the enemy(s), walk in, use your Bandage Toss, Auto attack, W, E, gank success!!

Lastly, remember two things when you jungle:

1. Take advantage of where the enemy jungle is: if he ganks bot and you are top, you need to gank, invade his jungle, or take an objective, whether his gank is successful or not. This is just one example, but if you are not taking advantage of knowing his whereabouts, then you are putting yourself behind.

2. Not every gank needs to be successful. I see it all the time where the jungle or laners dive way to deep and end up inting because they aren't satisfied with a gank. As the jungle, be aware of where towers, laners, and the other jungler are. If you realize it's not gunna work mid-gank, then get out, and tell your teammates to get out, and to move on. It is really easy to dive towers with Amumu, but try and choose the ganks that don't require you too. It's just better play.

Hey, thanks for reading the guide. I hope it goes a little ways towards helping those that already play Amumu and need a little bit of guidance, and those of you that want to start jungling with him. In my mind, Amumu has always been a great champ, and right now he's a good way to one-trick your way to Platinum.

Enjoy playing Amumu while he is still not banned a lot and as always, GLHF!