Build Guide by JamieOliver

Introduction

Hey all and thanks for taking your time to check out my jungle guide for Amumu.

This guide is pretty straight forward, the items linked in the cheat sheet is what I think are some (note: some) of the core items for Amumu, the Sad Mummy. This lil' fellah is my favorite tank and I will in this guide try and elighten you in perhaps another way to play Amumu than what you're used to.

So here goes nothing!

Pros / Cons

Like every champion in League of Legends, Amumu has a good side and a slightly bad side too.

PROS

Awesome initiater
Well timed ultimate can turn the tide of a team fight
Deals a fair amount of damage
Needs to be focused to go down
Build in escape artist if fighting in woods/near a creep wave
Great at tanking creep waves/turrets
Decent CC

CONS

Will drop dead if focused in a team fight*
No particular survivabilty abilities
VERY dependent on ultimate
No escape artist if fighting in the open/cleared woods
No taunt ability




*) While being easy to down if not insanely well geared is a bad thing, people focusing a tank in team fight are normally ******ed** and this actually leaves more time for your team mates to nuke. All in all, it's better that you're dead with a **** score than your entire team being dead and you running away because it's 5v1.
**) While this is generally true.. Amumu does deal quite a bit of damage, thus early/mid game smart people tends to destroy him.

Runes

Okay, this is my standard Amumu tank-setup.
It has a good amount of base hp (tanks are squishy early game so I like to have an extra 78 hp, because frankly, it makes a bigger difference than one might think), Magic Res/level, Armor/level and flat Spell Penetration. The reason why I chose Greater Mark of Magic Penetration is because combined with Amumu's passive: Cursed Touch, it helps Amumu to deal a great amount of magical damage to someone squishy.

One could i.e. swap the Greater Mark of Magic Penetrations with Greater Mark of Magic Resists, but I personally like a bit of extra magic pen.

The reason why I've picked runes which increase pr. level instead of flat out armor/magic res should go without too much explaining. Early game I'm pretty much hiding in the woods/initating ganks, thus I don't need A LOT of armor/magic res to begin with.. I'll need that mid/end game when we're fighting for glory.

Masteries

The build 1/21/8 is what I've found to be most effective. I've seen a lot of Amumu jungling builds where people go 9/0/21 or 3/6/21... While cooldown reduction, mana regen and increased duration on golem buff is a good thing - you're a still a tank, thus I don't feel confident sacrifcing a lot of survivability talents for a bit of extra regen.

But isn't 0 points in Utility Mastery stupid if you're jungling?
Perhaps... :p
If you're the only jungler this is not a problem as you can steal the golem buff from the other team, thus there's minimal downtime.
If the enemy team has a jungler too.. yeah, your buff runs out fast and unless you can kill the enemy jungler you might end up mana starve if you're doing nothing but ganking, but that is imo the only downside of this jungle build.

Alternate, you sacrifice Plentiful Bounty and Tenacity for 2 points in Utility Master. This would be a matter of playstyle really.

What other ways can I tweak the mastery tree in?
For ranked play, where you can tell by the enemy setup that you'll be getting a lot of mana (situational items to be explained later), I'd swap 1 point from Hardened Skin and 2 points from Evasion into Strength of Spirit .
I'd NEVER go 4/4 in Evasion to get Nimbleness , because I need the additional AS/AP from Ardor and sacrificng Hardened Skin or Defensive Mastery is a bit off if you're to jungle/tank creep waves and towers. Keep in mind Amumu doesn't have any defensive abilities to use when he's being nuked, so the less dmg you take the better imo.

Items

Now, it's pretty much impossible to set a list of items for a tank and go like "Get these and you'll succeed", because every match is different as a tank. The core items listed in the cheat sheet, while pretty good, might not be reliable for the match you're in RIGHT now. Thus I'm gonna explain why the items I've listed up there are awesome and what other items to use and when to use them.

Movement speed items will be listed at the bottom of this section.

- This aura item is a must have on most tanks/support champions, because it's the only item which provides Health, Armor AND Magic Resistance... and it also gives you team a bit too (+ some DMG for the AD carries). This is perhaps one of the items I get regardless of setup because it's pretty good. I won't take it if we have a Janna or another tank picking it.
- Here we already have a situational item. If your team has little to no CC, a slow is godlike so picking this is a must. This item combined with another AP item (I'll explain some choices further down too!) will raise your AP to above 100 - this means another % of dmg from your Despair..... That's mad, bro.
- Sunfire Cape is good on most champions and there's no special need for it on Amumu. I, however, like the million numbers flying around on my screen whenever I initiate a team fight + it adds to your survivability.

Items to pick vs. HEAVY AD carry:

- This + Sunfire + Despair = dead carry when they nuke you.
- A really, really sick item for Amumu and I honestly wishes the passive was something different than slowing down AS. The mana, armor and CDR is godlike, but unless the enemy team has a lot of AD carry the passive goes to waste.
- As a jungler, you'll get a chance to stack this up pretty quickly. The major issue with HP stacking vs. AD carry is you might end up forcing them to buy 2-3 Madred's Bloodrazors. This can be countered by a Frozen Heart tho ;)
- Now, I'd normally never advice you to build this, because if you become immune to dmg as a tank... the enemies will skip you and frankly, your team might end up dying. Not smart, no. However, if you're running around a couple of yards from your team mates and BAM! Out of nowhere you're being jumped by the entire enemy team.. This can actually save you a couple of seconds for your team mates to come to your aid + it also adds to the additional %-dmg on Despair.. Mad, bro!

The reason why I skip Randuin's Omen is because it lacks HP late game and if my team lacks CC or could use another slow, I'd get a Rylai's Crystal Scepter instead.

Items to pick vs. HEAVY AP carry:

- Speaks for itself, magic res is gonna be superior to armor in this case. + I love the health regen!
- Great for all champions, including Amumu. The Magic resistance + spell block is live saving vs. some nasty ultimates or initiaters. If you're fighting a team where they all start stacking this, you have to try and remove as many spell blocks as possible when you initiate. This can be done by Bandage Tossing into a group of enemies and spamming Tantrum when most are down you pop your ultimate and hope for the best. (lol).
- This + Rylai's will take you above 100 AP. This also works great with your passive + runes and it's in general a very, very good item for this lil' fellah. However, keep in mind that this is not something you should go for at first. If you're running around with Rylai's and this + a pair of boots. You're useless to your team as you'll die instantly when initating. You should probably not get this item 'till late game unless you're becoming well fed on assists/occasional kills.
- Now, this is great vs. AD carries too, but... most AP carries can't do sh*t when they have their stuff on CD. Thus if you're being killed by some OP initating combo.. you might still be able to make a difference for your team. Most people don't like this item because it gives a false hope about surviving and I totally agree. But a well timed Flash and Bandage Toss can actually prove to be life saving in this case.

Now, the optimal setup is obviously a mix of both Magic Res and Armor, but in some rare cases you might fight a team with little to no AD or AP. Keep in mind there's no 'perfect' tank build, it all depends on your team and the enemy team

Other fun and more or less useful items:

Disclaimer: You're not a mage and these should only be used in rare cases/if you want to have fun. Don't ruin the game for others by building something too stupid, please.. I don't want to be hated, because you "got it from some guide". :(

- Yes, it's actually viable. You do A LOT of auto attacking and with a bit of AP this helps nuking down squishies.
- CDR + AP to boost Despair. All spells scale with AP but because you're a tank and not a mage there's no point really stacking AP.. Ok?
Shurelya's Reverie - Very situational and I've only ever bought it once. The speed boost is awesome if you need to do a counter push, but meh.. It's not really reliable survivability-wise.

Movement speed:

You may wonder why I'm using Boots of Swiftness and not a 'normal' set of tank boots. But this helps when you initiate. Amumu's ultimate: Curse of the Sad Mummy, requires you to be somewhat in the middle of everyone when using it. This is also why I've picked Flash as my 1st Summoner Spell*. Boots of Swiftness helps chase down the enemies and Flash is awesome for positioning (and feeing!). You may want to chance your boots depending on the enemy setup:

- VS. a heavy disbaling team these are a must have. I sometimes swap out my Boots of Swiftness for these later on should I find my Magic Res is too low or I'm being too heavely disabled.
- Now, I don't spec for Nimbleness thus I don't really see much use in these boots. Dodge is sick, but with a lot of Armor to counter AD carries you'll be fine with other boots.
- CDR is awesome with an ultimate like Curse of the Sad Mummy and these are actually viable to compensate for the lack of CDR from speccing Utility. I still prefer more movement speed tho. Golem buff seems to be sufficient for me CDR wise.

*) Regarding Summoner Spells. I decided not to make a section on the topic. Smite is needed for jungling and Flash makes it easier for a mummy to play both offensive and defensive.

Jungle Route

You start off buying a Cloth Armor and 5x Health Potion like any other jungler. You head out into the woods and scout for enemies. Nothing ruins a game more for a jungler than being camped and ganked at low lvl.

1) Golem. You spec into Despair because it helps you take down the woods so much faster. Whether you need someone to pull the golem for you or you'll do on your own depends on your runes/experience. I normally just pull him myself. Use Smite. Use 1 Health Potion. With 4 points in Awareness you're now level 2! Congratulations! Put 1 point in Tantrum
2) Wolves. Turn off Despair when you're running from creep camp to creep camp. Tantrum + Despair should make this pretty quick. Pop 1 Health Potion during the fight.
3) Wraiths. Same rotation, stand in the middle of the Wraiths and pop Despair and spam that Tantrum as much as possible! Every melee hit reduces its cooldown by 0.5 second, so you need to melee hit too! (you might not be, it can bug!). Pop 1 Health Potion during the fight. You should be level 3 now. GZ! Put another point in Tantrum.
4) Lizard. Pop Despair and Tantrum (do I need to keep saying this? :p). 1 Health Potion and Smite should help you take down this bastard!
5) Twin Golems. Same thing.. Despair, Tantrum and a health potion... You should now be level 4! 1 Point in Bandage Toss and you're ready to gank! Port back to the spawn, ask your team who needs help, buy a pair of Boots of Speed and some Sight Wards and head out to gank.
6) Ward your mid laner if they have an enemy jungler. A ward placed in the bush is better than one placed next to it, because you can spot people in the bush too then!
7) You can now pretty much take down the jungle without Smite, use it whenever you can to get that extra 5 gold (it sounds like nothing, but it does help out in the end most of the time, should you not be a fan of it, remove the point from Plentiful Bounty and place it into Utility Mastery for the next game!)
8) If the enemy team doesn't have a jungler - go take their Golem buff while waiting for yours to respawn. Warding the enemy one can be quite smart too, it's a good way to initiate a gank on someone busy taking down the golem.
9) While Amumu is a great jungler, he's no Warwick. You can't solo the Dragon on level 3 and you most likely won't be able to till you get some gear. If either of your laners aren't busy, have him/her help you out as soon as possible as it's global XP + 190g!


So.. I'm level 4 right, how do I gank?
You run out to a lane and hides in the bush, making sure they havn't warded it by asking your lanes. If it's clear, you stand at the edge of the bush with Bandage Toss ready. Using it on creeps BEHIND the target is actually just as viable, that way they have to get past you before being safe whereas getting a minor stun can result in a flash and they're off. Pop Depair while in the air and start headbutting those noobs while spamming Tantrum.
Once you hit level 6, this becomes even easier (bandage tossing in behind the enemies, pop despair in the air, pop ulti, spam tantrum, stop tantruming so your laners can get the kill unless they're too far away and GZ double kill to you.. lol).
Basically, you're available for gank from level 4+.


Because I in this build havn't specced Utility Mastery there's obviously times when you'll run around with the Golem buff. If you can, try delay your ultimate and use it only when a golem buff is available. Aslong as you use your ultimate with the golem buff active the CD is reduced, it doesn't work the other way around sadly (using your ulti and then taking the blue buff).

Team Work

Right, team work! The key to winning this game. This term includes a lot of things, but I'll use this section to explain something very brief...

As a tank, your role is to ensure the survivability of your team by increasing your own... Really. That makes no sense, ok... What I'm trying to say is. If you initate a team fight, you die, but your team is victories. You're doing what you're supposed to do. You should not be running around with a score like 8/2/5 when your Akali has 0/8/13. Infact, whenever I get a kill on a tank I feel sort of guilty... Because I really don't need it and I often end up appologizing, lol (unless I kill someone who wouldn't of died anyways).

I've seen people flame me for running around with 2/8/28 in a ranked game, and honestly. That's a pretty good score for a tank. Yeah, I might have died 8 times. But if my team has 30 kills+ that means they're staying alive and that's all that counts really.

Okay, this is getting cheesy.. Bottom line is: You're not a carry, get used to not having a positive score. Dying is always bad, but if it ensures your team a victory.. you go die!


While I enjoy typing loads of text I'd love some feedback how to improve. So please, don't hold back! :)