AMUMU-the Sad Mummy



Have you ever wondered why Amumu is the the first champ to be banned in ranked matches? With this guide I will lead you to the answer! Now if you are asking yourself "Why should I use this guide instead of all the other Amumu guides?" I will reply "Well...this guide not only gives you the deep details on your character and his abilities but also how and when to use each spell to maximize your ganking capabilities and utilize your Crowd control to the fullest!"

Passive-Cursed Touch


Amumu's attacks reduce the target's magic resistance by 15/25/35 for 5 seconds.

Although this passive is easily looked over there is one big debuff that it gives, in order to use it to your full advantage you should at least one hit all of the champions standing in your AoE in order to get the most effectiveness out of it.


Q-Bandage Toss


Amumu tosses a sticky bandage at a target, stunning and damaging the target while he pulls himself to them.


This is your main ganking tool, learn and use it wisely! A ranged skill shot stun that will pull you to the enemy! You can use this is many different ways, primarily for shooting at your opponent to jump to them so that you can start blowing them down with your AoE. Other uses are for pulling yourself around the jungle by attacking creeps with it, to go through walls for initiates as well as retreats, this is what makes or breaks you, your bread and butter. Try experimenting with it to see just how helpful it really is.


W-Despair


Overcome by anguish, nearby enemies lose a percentage of their maximum health each second.


This is your main damage dealer, a circle of tears that surround Amumu dealing percentage of health in damage! Need I say more? Very mana hungry but extremely important to have active when in team fights, killing creeps, jungling, and any other time you may be in combat.


E-Tantrum


Permanently reduces the physical damage Amumu would take. Amumu can unleash his rage, dealing damage to surrounding enemies. Each time Amumu is hit, the cooldown on tantrum is reduced by 0.5 seconds.


This is what you want to max out first and its not for the AoE damage, which is nice, but more for the passive reduction of physical damage. This is what helps you on your way to tanky dominance. Also, what is really nice about this skill is the fact that the Cooldown is reduced each time you are hit, meaning when jungling you want to keep smacking the larger foe (ex: Golem, Lizard Elder, etc.) so that the smaller ones keep hitting you to reduce your attack Cooldowns. This is the skill you keep mashing on when in battle.


R-Curse of the Sad Mummy


Amumu entangles surrounding enemy units in bandages, rendering them unable to attack or move and causes them to take damage each second.


This is what turns team fights around. A long term stun that hits all around you in a circle letting the enemy just stew in the Massive AoE you are putting off letting your team tear them down. This is one of the best abilities in the game and when paired with your bandage toss is quite possibly the best initiate too!

Pros

Great Ganker
AoE damage
Despair deals percentage health in damage
Arguably the best initiate in game
AoE stun
2 Stuns
Tanky

Cons

Squishy early game
Low health jungler
Mana hungry

Ghost


Personally I think that this is a must on Amumu. It can be used both as an escape mechanism as well as to catch up to enemies close enough to get your bandage toss off.


Smite


If you are going to be jungling then there is quite the advantage in taking this one. 500 damage to creeps early game is a TON and if you put the point into Smite in your masteries then the extra gold doesn't hurt. Also this is a great spell for stealing Baron Nashor, Dragon, and any other kinds of buffs that may be beneficial to steal.

Possible Alternatives for Smite

Clarity


If you were to choose a spell other than Smite, or if you are not planning on jungling then this should be your spell of choice. Amumu is very mana hungry and this spell gives you the mana to keep you in your lane much longer.


Flash


If you want to have a little bit more movement to help you setting up for ganks, catching up to team fights, or for escaping then you replace this for Smite. I don't much care for Ghost and Flash on Amumu but if you can make it work then kudos.


Cleanse


For those of you who are like a little extra recovery from CC this is for you. The removal is awesome and it even takes off Ignite! A great and underused spell.

What Not to Get

Rally, Revive, Heal, or anything else similar that doesn't seem to fit.

This is the section where I will go through and explain just why these runes are important to have.
First of all the 9 marks of insightare pretty much a given. You deal magic damage, and are not going to be grabbing any items that give magic penetration, therefore of all the Primary Marks there are this is the one that makes the most sense. It gives you about 8.5 magic penetration which when added to the 9 glyphs of potencyyou end up having a lot of strong abilities especially early game. Each of these glyphs give almost 1 AP, that means with these 9 glyphs and the 3 quintessences of potencyyou will have about 24 AP at the beginning of the game and seeing as this is all the AP you will stack throughout the game it is very helpful to have. I generally grab these marks, glyphs, and quints for most AP characters. Lastly, Amumu is very mana hungry and in an attempt to battle this hunger you will take the 9 seals of replenishmentwhich give you almost 4 mana regen per 5 second. Not a ton of mana regen but enough to last you until you can finish off your philosopher stone and between grabbing the blue buff.

When it comes to masteries you will do a standard AP tank build of 9/21/0.

In the Offensive Tree you will put 3 points into Archmage's Savvy (Ability Power) and 1 point into Plentiful Bounty (Smite), follow up with 4 points into Sorcery (Cooldown Reduction) and 1 point into Archaic Knowledge (15% magic pen).

As for the Defensive Tree you will put 3 points into Resistance (magic resistance), 3 points into Hardiness (armor), 3 points into Strength of Spirit (Hp Regen), 3 points into Harden Skin (blocks physical damage), 1 point into Defensive Mastery (damage Reduction from Minions), 4 points into Veteran's Scars (Health), 3 points into Ardor (Attack Speed + Ability Power), 1 point into Tenacity (Overall damage Reduction).


I have found that this best utilizes your survivability with extra health, armor, magic res, and regen while still giving you plenty of offensive capabilities with the added Ability Power, Cooldown Reduction, and magic penetration.

You will start your build with just a Regrowth Pendant, and 1 Health Potion.
This will give you enough health regeneration until you can port back for your next item.

You will build your Regrowth Pendantinto a Philosopher's StoneThis gives some excellent health and mana regeneration as well as an extra 5 gold per 10 seconds. You will want to upgrade AS SOON AS POSSIBLE to be best use the extra gold it will be giving you.

Then you will begin building your Mercury's Treads.
This will help get you a little more speed to catch and hold people in your AoE as well as give you 35 tenacity which reduces Crowd Control effects (stuns, taunts, fears, snares, etc.) by 35%! Also it gives a little bit of magic res which is always nice.
After that you will start on your. This gives you some nice armor, health, and another bit of AoE damage to add to your current AoE.

At this point is when the game starts to turn in your favor. With these items you are generally tanky enough to stay close to your enemies for your AoE's and not die. Therefore this is where your great ganks will normally begin!

To continue adding to your tanky-ness comes the Warmog's ArmorAdding massive health and health regeneration into the pot. Also it stacks giving you more health per minion kill and regeneration per champion kill.

This is where the build will change depending on your foes. Whether they are Attack Damage vs. Ability Power team. If you are facing a heavy Attack Damage team then the Thornmailis a must!
This gives you a ton of armor as well as making 30% of their normal attacks hurt them too. Meaning, if they have less than 1/3rd of your health and they keep auto-attacking they will kill themselves just by attacking you....without you doing anything! This becomes a prime item for those annoying squishy characters that can keep pinging on you.

If the team is primarily Ability Power then you will want to jump straight to your Force of NatureNow some people will ask... "Why FoN? Why not Banshee's Veil?" and I will tell you why. Yes Banshee's is a very nice item and if you have a very heavy AP team you may want to pick one up after your FoN in place of your Tmail, but overall you will be better off with the FoN. Banshee's veil gives you some health (like you need more) and mana (which helps but isn't a must) and 50 magic resistance....FoN gives you a huge amount of health regeneration (which helps a lot more when you have Warmog's too), as well as 76 magic resistance (more than 50), and an added 8% Movement speed (which is needed for Amumu to keep up with his enemies). The big thing that the Banshee's veil gives that even makes it close to considering is the Passive which blocks one negative spell every 45 seconds. This passive is extremely nice when you are a squishy and the other team has that kill hungry Karthus who pops his ultimate every time you get below 200 hp, but for a tank with a ton of health and magic resistance its not nearly as valuable. Also, not to mention that the passive on the FoN gives you .35% health regen a second! That may not sound like a lot but if you have 3000 health and you get a FoN, not including all of the other health regeneration items, we are just talking about the regeneration from the unique passive, 3000 x .35% = 10.5 health Regen! This means that at 3000 health your FoN alone will be healing you for 50 health a second...which is then added in with your other regeneration items.

After your FoN you are pretty much unstoppable! Getting a Tmail after this for the straggling AD dps is a nice idea and if the team is lacking AD all together then you may want to get that Banshee's veil or go for something that may help even more like a Guardian Angelor even a Rylai's Crystal Sceptorwhich is great for chasing those pesky runners down.

Lastly, before finishing your build, stock up on all Elixirs as to better utilize your cash before upgrading your Philosopher's Stone to a Shurelya's ReverieThe reason why you grab this item is because of the stats it gives you, along with the fact that you have half of the recipe already and its Active. The Shurelya's gives you a little bit of health, a lovely amount of both health regen and mana regen, a decent amount of Cooldown reduction (which also helps keeping those runners nearby), and an awesome Active which gives nearby champions an additional 40% movement speed for 3 seconds! This is Awesome for Amumu because his role in team fights is to:

1. Tank
2. Keep enemies stunned as much as possible
3. slowly widdle down their health with AoE
and last but not least...
4. Keep close enough to the enemy as to not let them retreat!

I will usually keybind my Shurelya's to an easy button like the Spacebar so that when I see them running away I just mash that button and then we're right back into the fight. For keybinding's you must go to the options menu in game

After you have these items you will be the Scariest 3 foot crybaby that ever lived!

for jungling Amumu you will start at the Blue Golem. Ask for someone to help leash the golem (hit it first to attract its aggro and then leave) pop your despair, smite the Golem, and keep smacking him, once you get his attention you should use your health potion. The reason why you start here is to ensure your mana regen is high early game. As I have said before Amumu is very mana hungry and this helps satisfy that thirst for mana. After this fight you should wait for the health potion to heal you up and then head over to the Dog Camp. Pop despair again and keep hitting the larger of the three. Once he dies you should level, now put 1 point into Tantrum and keep mashing on it until the other two dogs. Now You will run down to the Banshee's. Run right into the middle of them, use tantrum and then immediately activate your despair. Once killing them you head down to the 2 Golems and fight them the same way by tantrum, despair, and then tantrum as oftem as possible. Now you should be fairly low on health and level 3, put your next point into tantrum and port back to the Nexus. Now is when you buy your Philosopher's Stone and 2 more health potions. Head over to the Lizard Elder Camp and fight the same way. Tantrum in the middle, pop despair, use a health potion, and smite the lizard. Use tantrum as often as possible and once the first health potion runs out use another. after this you should be level 4 or extremely close, grab a point into your bandage toss and you may begin small ganks if your team needs them but you are not nearly tanky enough just yet to take any real damage. keep running around the jungle as the camps respawn. point five goes into tantrum and then point six goes to your ulti. Now is prime time for early game ganks!
After this you will continue to jungle throughout the game while jumping out to help protect towers, protect teammates, or make ganks.



This shows the location of each jungle camp on the map as well as the basic starting route you will be taking. (edited by me)

Ganking is the ability to attack an unsuspecting enemy to either kill them or push them back towards their tower. It is usually done from the bushes or from the other side of a wall. This is probably your most important job in the game other than tanking.


Here we see Amumu setting himself up for a gank on the unsuspecting Soraka bot. I took these in a custom game to help myself set up for pictures. In this picture the Soraka thinks that she has the upper hand on our Annie who is now running away, but little does the Soraka know that I am waiting in the bushes just above her. The important part about ganking as Amumu is knowing how to use the bandage toss. You want the enemy to be somewhere on the line and there is a short delay on the move so you want to be sure you will definitely hit them before blowing the Cooldown.


In this picture I have used my bandage toss to jump in at the Soraka, saving our Annie and after smacking on the Soraka a little bit I have used my ultimate (Curse of the Sad Mummy) to keep her in place to further my damage on her. This is going to be your primary strategy for ganks and can turn games around very easily. You will use your bandage toss, smack them some, and then Ulti them to keep them from moving. Generally in team fights this will allow your team to kill off one or two of them while ensuring more survivability for the team.


Here is myself setting up for another gank on the Shen bot, I know that I do not have my ultimate right now but in this case where it will be 3 on 2 with them at lower health I'm sure that between my stun, Malphite's slow, and Soraka's silence we will be able to bring down the Shen. The biggest importance for ganking is knowing when to initiate. In this case I wanted to wait for Shen to start running back before I leaped in to stun him.


It is important to know when you can win a fight and when it is time to back off. Also, another huge part of ganking is you must always have some sort of escape strategy just in case you (the Ganker) become the Ganked. In this photo I have shown the best possible escape path to use in case a member of the other team had come up from behind me.


*NOTE: Bandage toss does not make you God, know your fights and don't run stupidly into a lost unneeded team battle thinking you will always have a way out*

Here is an example of how to run enemies down. You want to first initiate with them, and let them smack you some while standing in AoE.


And then, once they decide that they aren't going to win the fight and begin to run, now it is time to pop your ultimate and ensure they will not escape.


The best way to traverse your jungle is to use your bandage toss to full effectiveness. This is great for getting places to set up for ganks or for escaping from your enemies so you can live to fight again soon. Here you can see Amumu aiming the bandage toss at the best location as to attach onto the Dog Camp that lies on the other side.


Thus pulling himself to the dogs through the wall allowing must faster travel through the jungles.


Here we see a good example of how being a tanky ganker has its advantages. We see both Yi and Sivir both near full health, chasing our nearly dead Shen. Little do they know that I am coming in from the top planning on giving our Shen the time to get out.


After jumping in and stunning the Yi from being able to use his Highlander to its full effectiveness I use my tantrum, deal some damage, scare Yi away and then further my gank on their Sivir who is now at half health.


Now I chase her for a little while keeping her in my AoE and mashing on my E. Then I pop my ultimate to make sure that she has no way of getting out.


Ganking can completely turn games around if done properly and hopefully this section has helped further your understanding of Amumu's powerful ganking capabilities.

Zone Control

Knowing what is your space and what is your enemies is important. This video will help give you further knowledge on what is what.

Please look past the voice for the content of the video is very important.

Play Video

Map Awareness

You have a mini map on your screen, don't forget to use it. I believe that this fun little video describes this the best.
Play Video

Wards

As a jungler and tank it is generally your job to place wards around the lanes and in the jungle. Your ward placement is key and I feel that in addition to Crowd Control, wards win games. You will notice that as you and your team share the cost for wards they will be a great advantage to you and your team.


Sight Wards

Places an invisible ward with 1100 range sight. Lasts 4.5 minutes, Max: 3 Stacks.

These are used to see visible units. Great to assist in map awareness, gank awareness, and where enemies are jungling.


Vision Wards

Places an invisible ward with 1000 range Magical Sight (see invisible units). Lasts 3 1/2 minutes, Max: 3 Stacks.

These see visible and invisible units. These are great to have if the other team has Stealth type characters like Twitch, Shaco, and Evelyn. These are also great wards to use at Baron Nashor, Dragon, and other prime ward areas as to let you kill the other teams already existing wards.

Placement

I have found these places to be the most helpful areas to ward. Not all required but if you are to get the most out of your wards these are the areas they should be placed in. The Vision wards on the ends are best used if the other team has Stealth type characters.



This way it will best utilize each ward to its full effectiveness, giving you cover from ganks as well as setting up for your own ganks.


I recommend this guide if you want further help or knowledge on warding placement.

http://www.mobafire.com/league-of-legends/build/warding-helper-more-than-your-eyes-can-see-54337

Oracle's Elixir

Gives your Champion stealth detection until they die.

This is a great tool to use for both tanks and junglers and seeing as you are both then it is specifically helpful to you. This elixir lets your character act as a Vision ward, seeing invisible units and items around the map. This will render your enemies stealth characters useless in ganks as well as allow any of your team members that are around you to see invisible units too. Also helpful in finding those annoying Teemo Mushrooms or dispatching the other teams wards.

*Note: If you die you will lose this so don't go blowing the 400g on the item if you don't plan on surviving long enough to use it!*

Amumu has some major Crowd Control effects as well as supreme gank-ability which make him one of the ultimate characters for team play. He deals plenty of damage and ends up becoming one of the tankiest champions in the game if played correctly. With this guide hopefully I have shed some insight on how to use your spells most effectively for ganking enemies and saving allies. You become the run-to guy and eventually the other team will be more scared of you than that pesky Vayne you have on your team. Be wary of when to initiate and when to back off though. You don't want to run in guns blazing just to be shut in and shut down. Be careful, play smart, experiment with your bandages, and of course Have fun! I am now and will forever be an Amumu fan, please feel free to hit me up with any questions you have.

Good luck and Good Games