This is not your regulair Amumu build that gives you the tankyness you might desire as an Amumu player. However before voting or even trying the guide I would recommend you to at least read some parts of this guide, rather than just the build. Otherwise this guide might end up leaving you a very negative oppinion about Amumu with AP, which is just the opposite of what I am trying to reach here.

First of all, I would like to thank you for taking a look at this guide.

As a second matter, I would like you to read the guide instead of just down-voting or up-voting it based on the build. I would like to receive loads of feedback from you so I can change my guide in something more than just a mere build for amumu.

This build is a work in progress, so it does not cover every single possible game. It's also a guide and you should find your own ways rather then sticking to this guide. But this defiantly is a good way to start and find out your preferences!

I would also like to point out that English is not my native language, therefor there might be spell errors and grammar mistakes.

** Changes made to content of guide on 07-06-2012 **
Added Athene's Unholy Grail to a suggestion. Aswell as an added introduction part.

** Changes made to content of guide on 05-13-2012 **
Fixed a few things, minor tweaks here and there, due to some item and rune changes.

** Changes made to content of guide on 03-03-2012 - part 2 **

On recommendation from a comment I added a second Mastery build for somewhat more experienced players.

** Changes made to content of guide on 03-03-2012 **

I added a section with my own game results and I added another viable item in the item section. This item is Thornmail.


** Guide Created on 03-02-2012 **

space

Pros + Very reliable damage output. + Usefull in a lot of team combs. + Well balanced DPS/Substain. + Good Kiter. + Able to carry. + Strong in many ways. + No separate runepage. + Awesome passive.

space

space

Cons -Less tanky than a full tank build. -Less damage than a full AP build. -Viable depending on team comb. -Requires much gold. -Must play very aggressive. -Requires good team play. space space

For Masteries, I've chosen to let it be more or less plain and simple.

The nice thing about it is that these masteries work on nearly all Tanky Jungler, so there is no need to make a separate Mastery page.

Offensive tree:

The reason this is generally a 0 is because Junglers nearly have no business in this tree. The reason why the other tree's are far superiour will be explained underneath this chapter.

Defensive tree:For a Jungler/Tank this is bread and butter. The tree will give you a nice early game advantage on lane and you will be needing it to jungle properly as well.


I always make sure to get 21 point in here. Since all the masteries I filled in pretty much speak for them selves, I will only cover some of the ones I did not fill in, that could seem viable.

Indomitable 2 reduced damage is kind of nice, especially good early game to take nearly no damage from small jungle monsters and minions. However it becomes completely bull**** after a few levels since the minions and jungle monsters scale pretty good into lategame.

Evasion for start, 3% is nothing, not worth the 3 points, let alone that it's only for area of effect abilities. Complete waste of points!

Initiator Good masterie, it's nice to initiate with, because in a fight your health will quickly drop below 70%, however most AP tanks have a skill to initiate with, making this unnecessary.

There you have it, most masteries have been explained now it's your turn to make a move, by changing any faults in your current masteries, if needed.



Utility tree:You need the neuteral buff duration Masterie, no double about it. Therefore you have to go 9 points into the Utility tree, leaving no points for offensive tree to spare.


First I take Summoner's Insight , to make the cooldown for flash viable, then I take 3 points in Expanded Mind to make sure I have enough mana, once my first blue buff runs out. After this I take Swiftness to enhance my chase ability and increase the time in which I can damage and CC enemys down. My last point goes into Runic Affinity for the neuteral buff duration, to make my blue and red buff last so I can farm faster and gank more effectively.

All these combined create this:

Let's start of discussing the runes of this guide.

Of course your runes depend on the enemy team. But given you can't change your runes once you are in game, you should seek to it to get your runes ready for all kinds of team combinations.

Greater Mark of Magic Penetration your standard AP carry runes, which just makes sence on a offensive amumu, does it not?

Greater Seal of Armor this makes you nice and beefy early game and lets you survive your jungle.

Greater Glyph of Scaling Magic Resist this makes you able to gank lanes and take hits from mid, support and possible AP top. The reason I take magic resistance per level instead of flat, is because these scale nicely into lategame, and because you will generally not gank untill level 4 when playing Amumu.

Greater Glyph of Ability Power this will increase your damage output early game. I normally take 3 of these to ease out the difference between armor and magic resistance, but taking 9 Greater Glyph of Magic Resist is also a very viable option.

Greater Quintessence of Ability Power this makes your Tantrum just literary rape both jungle mobs, and will be your main damage output during ganks.

Flash: Useful to just disengage a fight or quickly re position yourself instantly.

space

Smite: Required for Jungling Amumu even if you are able to jungle without, you should get it to ensure getting the last hit on jungle creeps such as Dragon, Blue Golem, Red Lizard and Baron Nashor.

space

Teleport: When you either do not jungle (which is not recommended) or when you are an experienced player who rather needs to be able to gank by teleporting then repositioning Amumu. Remember that you can always Teleport to sight ward, Vision Ward or skills such as Noxious Trap.

Other than these summoner spells might seem viable, but I'd only recommend these 3. Feel free to use your own summoner spells if you need to.

Cursed Touch
Reduces magic resistance from enemies.
The passive of the great Mummy! Very useful while focusing a single target or someone stacks magic resistance to counter you!
Bandage Toss
Stuns a target and pulls you towards him.
This will be your main initiation tool. Lock a single target up, and start doing damage on it. It is also a great initiation tool for team fights where you can use all you skills after this one to lock the whole team up and do some mayor damage.
Despair
Deal a percentage of enemies max health each second in an area
Such an awesome skill! This is what defines Amumu as a tank slayer! No tank is safe from Amumu and especially with this build this toggle ability will melt those tanks and squishy's away!
Tantrum
Deal a quick burst of magic damage to surrounding enemies.
Take down your jungle fast and let the ganking begin! Take down squishy's instantly in big team fights. This skill makes you able to spamming it more often when you are tanking your enemy!
Curse Of The Sad Mummy
Lock up a huge area around yourself by stunning them.
Your big crowd control. Together with your Bandage Toss you have 2 stuns of which one 1 area of effect! And don't forget that they both stack with Ability power at a 100% ratio! Use this skill to initiate and let your team get a huge advantage in teamfights!

I believe the abilities require little explanation. The reason for it being that simple, is because Amumu has no defensive abilities vs offensive abilities to chose from. Despair allows you to do damage each second, which works very well against Jungle mobs. And leveling it further than lv 1 is not going to make such a big difference as leveling your Tantrum, so make Tantrum your main priority.

Pros of Tantrum

Damage multiple targets.
Get reduced cooldown from junglemobs or minions when ganking.
Does not cancel your despair (W) out for a single second, making you do damage over time while having a little burst now and then.

So naturally you will max the main damage output first and get a single point in utility spells such as Bandage Toss when needed. This will be at either level 3 or 4. This depends on the lanes.



Max Bandage Toss last, since it has a high cool down, als really rather is a gapcloser than a damage ability. And ofcourse make sure to add points to Curse of the Sad Mummy whenever possible (level 6, 11, 16).



Maxing Bandage Toss last is a good call, given you have at least 300 AP late game it will deal around 670 damage, without counting magic resistance. Despair stacks very little, 0,5% every 100 AP, but don't let that scare you off! Because this skill will make you melt down tanks. tauntrum scales relatively low compared to other AP/Tanks, but don't forget it's area of effect damage, which can deal tons of damage to alot enemies. Besides the real power of amumu's tauntrum lies in early game. I will explain how to play Amumu in the following chapters.

• + : You don't want to waste money on a Cloth Armor + 5 health potion[[ you are going to sell anyway, without making any profit off it. I recommend starting with a [[regrowth pendant + 1 Health Potion so you can build this quickly into the next item. This however does require a nice pull on blue buff to start.
  
  
• philosopher's stone: On your first back, ALWAYS get this item. Rushing a gold per 5 item will make you have an unforgettable late game. And since you don't lane, you won't be outlaned for someone who chooses to stacks Doran's Blade for instance, which becomes a huge difference in late game.
  
  
• : If you are lucky and you get a good early game gank on, you might get this the first time you go back. If not, you might want to grab 1 or 2 sight wards on your first back.
  
  
• : Your second gold per 5 item. If you wait to long with going back and keep roaming and getting successful ganks without needing to go back, skip this step, make sure it's still early game if you want to get this item.
  
  
• : Best choice of boots out there for tanks. If your team has no Crowd Control at all, you might want to consider Boots of Swiftness or Ninja Tabi.
  
  
• : Sunfire cape will be your first mayor item, and will also be the only real tank item you get. Reason for getting this? The health and armor makes you have that extra early substain, while the passive adds nice up with Despair.
  
  Note: It's recommended to take this item, given Amumu is naturally pretty squishy. However, I have found that it's also highly likely to build a Rod of Ages or a Rylais Crystall scepter
  

From here on is even more optional. You have to decide what item counters the team best, and you can check if there is a fed AP or AD to switch the order around a little or fully replace an item. You will have to sell your gold per 5 items in the end, but make sure you keep them as long as possible, to have a maximum gold income.

• : I normally start with this baby. It stacks well with your passive, giving champions that don't build any magic resistance around 0 magic resistance! Also as an amumu you dive right into the team, meaning that you will have everyone exposed to a magic resistance decrease, meaning you do more damage and you let your AP carry clean them up! The main attraction about this item is of course the ability power it gives. From this point on you will start stacking AP so your abilities will scale nicely. Not to mention that this item grants you defensive stats as well!
  
  
• : Normally I'd get this item later on, but it needs 10 minutes to stack. It gives 80 Ability power, 530 Health and 725 Mana. What more do you desire?
  
  
• : Nice Ability power boost, more and more HP as well as making all your abilities slow enemy's. This is especially nice since your Despair slows surrounding enemy's 15% the whole time. You need this if you need to lock the enemy's team up for a longer time.
  
  
• : Even though Amumu as a tank might not need the passive even a single time in a game, it might just save you once. Which is nice, considering you won't die often, even if you die at all! It's just some extra armor and of course 100 Ability power, which means 0,5% extra damage on your Despair
  

Carefull items
These are items that are good, but should not be build unless the situation really requires it!

• : Makes you extremely strong! Make your Despair hit about 7-8% of their max HP a second, this is an item you should take when you are not the main tank, or have other tank options (such as support Taric or a beefy solotop such as Olaf, Shyvana, Nasus etc.).
  
  
• : Defiantly a good item when you are facing a fed tank team! But remember that Abyssal Mask beats this anytime. So you should get that one before and only get this one if you still lack penetration. This also makes you have less sustain which why it's generally not recommended.
  
  
• : This item, or any defensive item for this matter such as Randuin's Omen, Thornmail or Force of Nature are all excellent choices when you are the only tank in your team. If you are the only beefy champion in the team, AP Tank Amumu is a risky way to go. I'd rather take just one of these when facing a team that is fed or strong in dealing either Physical damage, Magic damage or True damage.
  
  
• : If you face a team with strong magic damage you might want to consider this item. If you are the second or even third (off-)tank of your team, you might not want to leave the damage to go tanky. Therefore after a Abyssal Mask you can always take Athene's Unholy Grail. This item gives you a little extra MRIS, but it's mostly focussed on the offensive side, giving you more mana, which can be very nice if you have a very sustainable team, so you can keep up. Also it gives you Cooldown Reduction, which is always nice due to less Cooldown on your disruptive spells and Tantrum. Other than that, it's never wrong to get 80 extra AP.
  

I'm making this chapter to ensure people don't blindly follow this guide and think for themselves before buying an item.

Deciding what item to buy first all depends on your opponents choices. This meaning their build, runes and masteries.

You first advantage is possible to get when playing draftpick.
If you see there are 2 or more Physical Damage dealers on their team, make sure to have your masteries and runes with enough armor.

If you see a lot of Magic damage dealers or percentage damage dealers, make sure you get as much Magic resistance as possible.

If the enemy deals true damage, ensure you have enough Health, since any resistance or defense won't work against it.

If you get a nice CV from the support on your team, you can get a quick look at what their main damage dealers are going for type of build, so you can priories your items from minute one. Getting a cloth armor + 5 pots might not be a bad idea after all in some cases.

Before you get your boots or first mayor item you should make sure to have an overview on what item to get first. Blindly getting a mercury threads might become useless, while there were other viable options.


Now you might wonder: But how do I know what champions have which types of Damage??!

To be honest, you should know every champion in game, even if it's just a little. If you don't you might end up picking the wrong items.

I will place a small overview of a build when facing a certain type of champions, you however have to decide which champion you are facing.

• Strong AD team: Stack armor and health. Make sure that after you get your start items you get a Chain Vest and consider getting a somewhat more early Zhonya's Hourglass. Don't forget to get some HP items such as Rod of Ages and Rylai's Crystal Scepter and you will be fine. If the enemy AD carry gets really fed make sure you get a Thornmail to do some of the damage on him.
  
  
• Strong AP team: Having a fed le blanc or Cassiopeia on mid, can be very threatening. Therefore getting an early Sunfire Aegis might be very dangerous]] I'd suggest to get a Negatron Cloak after your Heart of Gold and getting a Giant's Belt after. This will make sure you don't get ganked while doing blue by their mid or solotop AP and you will remain safe. Magic resistance is found in items such as Abyssal Mask and Force of Nature.
  
  
  
• Percentage dealers: These champions are very rare, but extremely dangerous for tanks. The only champions having these powers are: Amumu, [kog'maw]] and mainly AD carry's who build Madred's Bloodrazor/ Kitae's Bloodrazor (in dominion) . You can't counter this by stacking health nor armor, only by getting enough magic resistance. This is found in items such as Abyssal Mask and Force of Nature.
  
  
• True damage dealers: These are also slightly rare, but not as rare as percentage dealers: True damage means that the damage ignores all kinds of defence, but armor as magic resistance. This means your only defense mechanism against this is stacking health (some even deal percentage true damage, like vayne). This is found in good items such as Rylai's Crystal Scepter, Sunfire Aegis and Rod of Ages Champions who deal true damage are: Corki, Irelia, Twitch, Vayne, Ahri, Cho'Gath, Kog'Maw, Olaf, Zilean. You also have certain other things giving true damage such as: Entropy and champions who have the red lizard buff.

There are tons of ways to do your jungle. I will describe the most commonly used by myself, but feel free to improvise as you go, or make your own route from scratch.


First of all you need protection while getting blue no matter what. Amumu ALWAYS starts at the blue sides. Your enemy team knows that, so they know that taking your blue screws up your jungle. Same goes for your red. If they take your red, you will be leveling slow and you might fall behind. Therefore I made this simple map describing how to defend your jungle from early evaders. It requires no money, just a good CV and cooperating allies.



Blue = You
Yellow = Allies

You CV their red/blue depending if their jungler has mana.

Unreliable: meaning you are not reliant on your team mates besides maybe a pull from a mid champion. This works great for solo que when you don't want to risk a whole jungle screw-up.


After this you might have to go back, otherwise can look for ganks if you haven't at level 4 and if that's not possible just continue jungling this way.


The best (team dependent) way: This means you rely on your team damaging wolves for you, since you wont be able to kill them quickly by your self. This enables you to stay longer inside the jungle and you have an advantage over the lanes.



After this you can either go back if needed, go gank lanes or continue jungling clearing the following two camps.




After clearing these camps you MUST go back to get your gold per 5 item!

You generally clear the red buff camp as soon as smite is back off cooldown. Remember to take Wraiths before that at all times, to ensure that when you do golems after the redbuff you can get it again!


Remember to keep your eyes and ears open, because this is only an ideal jungle route, meaning that in game you might get counter jungled or are required to gank at level 3/4 before clearing your whole jungle.

You think this:"WARDING?! That's a Support his job!" And thrust me when I say: It's not. Every single person in the team should ward, besides the AD carry early game. Making you, the jungler also one of the persons who should ward.

I'm not going to bore you with the best places to ward. Because we all should know dragon and baron as well as lane entrances should be warded. But what are the best wards to put down for the jungler?

The main part about a jungler that has to ward is that a jungler is the only champion who goes to every lane early game (aside from an occasional gank from mid). It's important to help your teammates see threaths, have insight in the enemy jungler where about, but most importantly for your own protection!

Amumu is very blue reliant early game. Get counter jungled or ganked in jungle and you are pretty much screwed. Now as I wrote in the last chapter, there are simple ways to evade an early game gank, however from minute 7, when the second blue buff spawns you might be getting invaded. So this is where the wards come in.

This allows you to see your own main buffs at all times and still allows you to see many paths, since the wards are on crossroads. The arrows however are the currently unwarded area's meaning that an enemy could still come in through there, how do fix this?

Arrow #1: This area should be warded by bottomlane to protect theirselves from incomming ganks. There should be both a support and an AD carry so putting a ward down ever 3 minutes should not be a problem.

Arrow #2: This is the most risky entrance. This is because the area should be warded by a mid champion, but still many champions still don't do this. However the worst that could happen is your Wolves being stolen without noticing it, which is nearly neglect able mid game.

Arrow #3: Well, technically this is an entrance, but they can't get your blue buff without being seen. The only danger here is a champion with low health being towerdived at toplane.

As Amumu you will play a big role in teamfights. You will probably be the initiator as well as the main damage taker and Crowd controller. When you lock up their whole team, including the main damage output (AD carry and AP carry) you know you are going to win this team fight.

The initiation

As an Amumu, you start dealing percentage damage as soon as you get close to your enemy, thanks to your Despair. This makes you extremely strong against tanks, however you should never initiate on a tank.

You will always initiate with your Bandage Toss, unless they are chasing you, and that's when Curse of the Sad Mummy comes in. But let's focus on you initiating.

When using your Bandage Toss you might want to consider to smartcast it. This is because your initiation can make the difference between a positive team fight and a negative one. Therefore you should always aim for the AD or AP carry making sure they are both in range of your Curse of the Sad Mummy if hit.

Generally AD and AP carry's will remain in the background, but occasionally they come forward to harras. And that is when you initiate! Take in mind that Bandage Toss takes time to reach it's target so you might want to press it before the AD/AP carry even reaches the most front position.

When you lock on your Bandage Toss on an AD/AP carry you will immediately stun them. Making this person vulnerable to be attacked by the rest of your team. Automatically your team will focus the players that you CC, so makes sure you don't Bandage Toss the tank because you have players who still have no idea of focusing in a battle.

It also makes sure you are the first target the enemy's tank and mainly crowd controller can reach, wasting their cool downs on you instead of the damage dealers. Once you are pulled, instantly press your Tantrum to deal damage, then wait maybe a 0,5 second to use your Curse of the Sad Mummy .

In this 0,5 second you make sure both AP as well as the AD Carry are in range of Curse of the Sad Mummy and if needed flash into the right position. The second reason is so your team can catch up with you, assuming they may not all have a gap closing ability as well as a response time, to respond to your initiation. The third reason may seem kind of stupid, but you want to make sure that you get hit. You want to make sure that before you stun them, their abilities are on cool down, so that when they get out of that 2 second stun, they won't have had the time to rethink their actions and focus your damage dealer instead of you.

Assuming their health should be low after your amazing initiation, they will probably use Heal and such so you still have a long way to go. Your main job now is to:

1. Make sure the AD and AP carry are both death.
2. Defend your AD and AP carry from the enemy.
3. Try to hit as much enemy's possible with Despair and Tantrum.


And this pretty much end the job. Clean up the last tank and carry like a boss~

This is of course my way of playing Amumu. These are some of the results I've gotten in the past.






I will add more and more depending on howmuch I play Amumu, I have had even better results in the past, but I haven't been able to save them. As you can see all 6 games are played in the same day, and are literary all played behind each other. I did not need to exclude a single match.

Thanks for reading my guide!

I have spend quite a few hours on this guide so I hope you will like it, and I would love to get some good feedback! Both on lay out as on content.


Credits:

Credits to jhoijhoi for the template, which you can find here.

I could not have written this guide without her help!

Thank you!