Hello, scrublings! This is Lord Waffulz, stuck evermore in Elo hell for Season 2... Or am I? No, I'm not, because I plan to find a way to get Amumu into a ranked match someday. He's always banned because of ridiculous things you can do with him. I've actually carried entire swathes of scrubs in normal games through what seemed impossible (we were down 20 kills in one game... I had the most of any single person by the end. Fun times. Now that I think about it, I need to start PrtScrn-ing things...)

Here are some quick tips, the "golden rules" per se. This is the page that you'd keep up on your second monitor during the game to give you quick reminders.

Rule one as Amumu: Don't not pick Amumu. If you don't pick him, how can you win using him? If someone else locks in on him, just sigh and prepare for a **** tank by following one of my other builds (more to come. I'm always expanding my galactic conquest *cough* ... I mean skill set). Amumu has everything required to make an entire team turn flaccid or even into fully-fledged basehuggers.

Rule two as Amumu: If you did pick Amumu and are doubting what to do next, play as aggressively as possible until you have to use Flash to escape. Once Flash has been used, try to only dive into a mob of minions for multiple kills with Tantrum at once until it cools down. The Philosopher's Stone should do a good job of keeping your squish tank self alive until you get Curse of the Sad Mummy.

Rule three as Amumu: After you get a Sunfire Aegis and the subsequent Golem buff, STAY on the attack and facerolling. A Despair and Tantrum combo can pick up kills EVEN WHILE CHASED. You're doing percentage health damage with a strong flat AoE, and with the good amount of AP and MrP you're packing, they've got to either run away (in which case you Bandage Toss into their scampering dead selves) or die trying to hunt you down. You put out more AoE damage than people realize, and it WILL save you time and time again, even in massive ganks.

Upsides and Downsides (taking into account this item build)
- Has strong HP and effective-HP scores, compounded by Force of Nature's unique
-- But, early-game he can be a tad squishy.
- Spell penetration gives him more damage than he seems capable of
-- But, enemies stacking MagRes will still hinder your damage since most of the MrP is flat-value.
- Late-game mobility is amazing
-- But, early-game mobility is a little lower than your average bootless Urgot
- Can be built to withstand massive amounts of damage from either source OR nearly negate all from one
-- But, the lack of total focus makes him less of a sustained tank than others.
- AP scaling on abilities is phenomenal
-- But, mana costs get ridiculous, and without a Golem buff, you'll be useless in long pushes.

Amumu is strongest in the middle of a group. He also requires metric tons of mana, and with this build we have to solve that problem by either grabbing a Golem buff or using Despair and Tantrum sparingly. I strongly advise you take one of the TWO Golem buffs on Summoner's Rift, and modify the build on the Crystal Scar slightly.

Bandage Toss: This skill is useful, yes, but ridiculously costly and doesn't really affect your FAR more killtacular abilities positively through leveling it up. The increase in damage is NOT worth the several seconds each level up cuts off of your bottom-line Despair usage.

Despair: Best AoE DoT in the game, imho. Percentage health damage nearing or crossing the 5% a SECOND mark makes Amumu an anti-tank, a DPS troller, and a very, VERY mana-starved initiator. This skill is third of four in priority, simply because Tantrum and Curse of the Sad Mummy are far more utilitarian. With Rylai's Crystal Scepter it also makes for an interesting chase denier.

Tantrum: The horror! A flaming pile of toilet paper that can EXPLODE? Tantrum has a great range (you can harass from JUST inside turret range if the enemies are dumb enough to stand on your side of their turret) and reduces physical damage, and every time Amumu gets hit the cooldown decreases by .5sec. It also never increases in cost, only damage, cooldown and physical reduction.

Curse of the Sad Mummy: A lane-width AoE that stuns and damages. For a lot, might I add (it's got a damn 1:1 AP ratio!). Don't listen to the tooltip; it only causes damage once, but between Despair and Tantrum the stragglers should be Bandage Toss-able to death. The cooldown could leave something to desire, but alas, that's what the Golem Buff is for, isn't it?

Flash: This is a must-have. Thanks to your inability to go anywhere without slogging through as many enemies as you can wrap up, you will tend to find yourself either just out of reach, or in too many others' reaches. Flash may save your hide all game, or help you set up perfect pentakills. With the reduced cooldown and then the flat reduction on that from Presence of the Master , you can abuse the good range on the instant movement.

Teleport: Whenever Teleport is up, USE IT. Lots of times it will be to return to lane after you pick up that Philosopher's Stone or to help make a teampush worth Xin Zhao exploding, but for others, you will see a big pile of red dots and just want to farm. Not slogging means you still have a chance to reposition after wiping a big mass of minions, EVEN during pushes. If you had to run all the way out there, just think what may have happened. Your allied Annie in the bushes might have just coned them and made your trip worthless.

Remember the priorities:
Curse of the Sad Mummy
Tantrum
Despair
Bandage Toss (with the first level of this being your second skill picked).

When playing League of Legends, remember that utility is key to steamrolling. When you give Amumu 9%CDR from masteries alone, and another 6%+ from runes, he becomes far more viable even early game as a high damage-output source, and therefore an effective tank. Utility masteries give you more movement speed (for repositioning, catching runners, and fleeing), more mana and mana regeneration (for longer Despair), upgrades for Flash and Teleport, and bake cookies.

The point in Greed is negotiable; the rest are not. If not in Greed, then it goes to Utility Mastery. I just like the ridiculous gold/10 I can get with 3 Greater Quintessence of Gold and Greed, alongside the Philosopher's Stone. This particular build can get really expensive, and without champ kills (which should be progressively easier to attain) the bonus gold helps a lot.

The movement bonus, along with that of the 2 Greater Quintessence of Movement Speed should be enough early game to make up for the fact that you grab boots later than most other champions. Or, if you went the hoarder route instead, you'll grab the boots faster because you're generating passive gold faster than anyone else and Amumu is a king of fast-farm. The lack of mobility is offset again by the points in Spatial Accuracy and Blink of an Eye, as these two will be on near-manageable cooldowns by this point.

The 10% reduction on time dead may seem pointless, since you won't be dying, but when you do, you'll be glad you don't have to wait for 60sec, but instead only 54sec. 6 sec the enemy team could have used to dance around as their Master Yi frogged your nexus turrets and won. The bonus regeneration is far more pointless, as you cannot regenerate when dead, and when you're dead the enemy team will do their damnedest to push as much as possible.

The offensive masteries increase damage output, and therefore effectiveness of all your abilities. It stacks nicely with Amumu's passive, further reducing MagRes and allowing that full 5% drain/sec from Despair. The passive .6AP and .66%CrC aren't worth mentioning; I have, however, gotten last hit criticals on something once or twice in a game. The extra 3%CDR is well worth the waste of points, as without them you can't get to what you want at any rate.

Defensive masteries work better on hybrids than a tank. Don't put points in them unless you absolutely have to (before level 30, finish the Utility tree as far down as possible, then decide if you have enough to make the offensives worth going after). I still advise strongly that you modify your rune page before you modify your masteries to fill whatever you feel lacking in.

Amumu isn't all that item-dependent; you can modify many parts of the build and still perform like an Olympian. One thing doesn't change, though: ALWAYS get elixirs after you feel properly built. All of them.

Item path one: Standard Enemy Team Comp

Regrowth Pendant: This item gives you more sustainability in case you follow my quick tips and stay aggressive, and will eventually make you a ton of gold as people will overextend to kill you, only to find you've regenerated to full.
Philosopher's Stone: AS SOON AS POSSIBLE, "b" and buy this. 365 gold isn't that much, and you should still have 40 or so after starting off with Regrowth Pendant. The 5g/10 effect will add up and allow you to build more quickly. Teleport back into the fray.
Sunfire Aegis: NOW you have some constant damage. Go get a Golem Buff (preferably whichever was nearest your lane to start), run towards the nearest pack of enemies, and start shattering hopes and dreams.* Get health before boots. Why? Flash and movespeed buffs should cover your entrance. To cover your escape you'll have to live through their CC. 430 is a big number this early in the game, too. Soraka MAY have that much HP by this point. Still not enough for Sunfire Aegis? Just finish out the recipe. The armor from Chain Vest will help you jungle the last 800. Scrub.
Mercury's Treads: And finally, now that we have survivability and damage output in one place, time to build up to our anti-CC boots with some nice MagRes attached.
Rylai's Crystal Scepter: Again, we want more health. But instead of stacking Sunfire Aegis, which is just silly, we want CC and more damage output, right? Once again, health is more important than "effective health" or even "damage", so get the Giant's Belt first always, unless you're stomping already and think you can handle less HP, more AP.
Abyssal Mask: In normal team comp, you'll have 2 to 3 AP champions, yourself naturally included. A wide-range MagRes debuff will make all of those champions more happy, and the bonus AP makes you killier. Negatron Cloak first if you must.
Warmog's Armor: More health, you could not want. Well, you could, but at the cost of effectiveness. One Warmog's is plenty for an entire team, so tell that Ashe that says "pro build, scrub!" and builds an Atmas/Warmog's stacking pile of useless nothing to let YOU do the tanking.
Force of Nature: Sell your Philosopher's Stone ONLY when you have enough to replace it with this badass piece of machinery. Even more movespeed, health regen that's almost magical, and even more MagRes to make that Karthus's ultimate feel like a run through the daisies in your underpants.**


*: Warning! This guide does not condone crushing any part of anyone, metaphysical or no.
**: As per requirement by law, I must advise against doing this, as indecent exposure is a class II felony.

The build in "The Meat of the Game" is for nearly every game you play as the win-master Amumu. Every champion in the game will be nearly totally useless in 1v1 against you, now that Warwick can no longer drop your mana bar like it's hot with Maladys.


Item path AD: No (or negligible) Magic Damage (or, what I call, "too easy")

Regrowth Pendant: As above.
philosopher's stone: As above.
Sunfire Aegis: As above. Armor and health, but always Giant's Belt first.
TRADE Mercury's Treads for Ninja Tabi: You won't really need all that MagRes, and the Tenacity (now that all Tenacity effects are equal) will come later. Focus on not dying before wishing you could hit more buttons.
Rylai's Crystal Scepter: As above. Physical damage means Xin and Wukong and their ilk; they'll try to run like scrubs once you start putting out the hurt.
TRADE Abyssal Mask for Thornmail: You'll still be putting magic damage out, but simply taking a LOT LESS from them than you would otherwise.
Warmog's Armor: As above. Health is health is health is health. A tank is no good when dead.
TRADE Force of Nature for Zhonya's Hourglass: Armor and lots of AP. You should have near 300 armor by this point...



Item path AP: No (or negligible) Physical Damage (or, what I call, "stupid bastard team")

Regrowth Pendant: As above.
philosopher's stone: As above.
Giant's Belt: You won't need a Sunfire right off the bat with this one, but still want your health so you can actually get early farming over the harassment.
Mercury's Treads: As above. Nothing better in this game.
Sunfire Aegis: NOW finish it up and farm. Don't get too pushy yet; mages hurt.
Rylai's Crystal Scepter: As above. I'd advise testing yourself at this point, seeing whether or not you can take your enemies' output. If so, go beast mode on 'em.
Abyssal Mask: As above. More MrP, more MagRes. 'Nuff said.
TRADE Warmog's Armor for Force of Nature: The MagRes will keep you alive. This should give far more than enough MagRes by this point...
TRADE Force of Nature for Warmog's Armor: Now that you've mitigated all the damage, just add insult to injury. Dance on the enemy spawn pool a few times (that always gets positive response from your team).*

*: Don't do this. Ever.

Item path 0/10: Getting stomped (or, what I call, "getting stomped")
Basically, follow the original game build, but go ahead and grab Boots between parts of Sunfire Aegis. Do the same with Abyssal Mask; grab the next Giant's Belt after the Negatron Cloak. There's not much you can do until you have a full build if you're getting flattened. The only real advice I can give is that jungles are golden. Literally, the neutral monsters must be cast in gold or something.

Item path 10/0: Stomping (or, what I call, "GG Scrubs")
Go crazy with your build. Swap Mercury's Treads for Boots of Swiftness. Trade Abyssal Mask for Rabadon's Deathcap (something I tend to do if games continue too long anyways). If the game is STILL going, I would continue by trading the Sunfire Aegis for a second Warmog's Armor and then the Rylai's Crystal Scepter for another Rabadon's Deathcap or a Zhonya's Hourglass.

As you can see, the core of the builds stay the same, while certain key variables change. That's because, given his natural abilities, Amumu can fit into nearly any role with the same item build. Jungler, AP burst, initiator, tank, all slots on the team that you're missing are filled except healy support. That's why you brought along the pocket Soraka, right?

These builds don't make you completely invincible, but do a damn good job of making your entire team come out of any situation alive. With consumables and a Golem buff, you should have no problem tanking a turret(s) or an entire enemy team at your own while waiting for assistance.

This build guide and minor tips 'n tricks were all brought to you in conglomerate form by Lord Waffulz, who began playing Amumu using Juffalo's build called "the Bipolar Fireball". Some of the hints may be the same; this is purely coincidental. *wink*

I hope you all enjoy carrying entire 5-man games with this; I sure have, and as with all our young, it's time to release it into the world. Keep in mind this is only the beginning. If you have any ideas, be sure to share them in the box below.

-- Lord Waffulz,
Elo: Who Cares