Pros

Lots of single-target and AOE Damage
Zone Denial
Strong Roams
Strong laning with manaless spells and a shield

Cons

Vulnerable to ganks (No dash or self-peel)
Damage is situational

Junkyard Titan [P]
Rumble's passive is a meter style passive that manages rumble's Heat. With every cast of a spell, rumble builds some heat. Spells that are cast over 50 heat are empowered. This passive is incredibly complicated to master and will be gone over in detail later in the guide.

Flamespitter [Q]
Rumble activates his flamethrower for 3 seconds, gaining 20 Heat and dealing magic damage every 0.25 seconds to all enemies in a cone in front of him, reduced against Minion icon.png minions.

Piloting this ability is a little weird as it's the only ability in the game that forces your character to face the enemy. This ability has the highest base damage out of any non-ultimate spell in the game. Early game, if an enemy eats a full overheated flamespitter, they could easily be chunked for 1/3 of their health.

Scrap Shield [W]
ACTIVE: Rumble shields himself for 1.5 seconds, gaining 20 Heat. Rumble also gains bonus movement speed for the duration.

Scrap Shield is what gives rumble his annoyingly high durability in lane, completely negating poke spells that the enemy lands early game. The speed boost is also very useful for sticking onto enemies with your Q or getting in range to start slowing them with your E.

Electro Harpoon [E]
PASSIVE: Rumble periodically stocks an Electro Harpoon charge, up to a maximum of 2.
ACTIVE: Rumble shoots a harpoon in the target direction, gaining 10 Heat and dealing magic damage to the first enemy hit and slowing them for 2 seconds. Hitting the same target with another harpoon enhances the slow, stacking additively.

Electro harpoon is a nice, all-purpose spell that shores up rumbles weaknesses. It gives him a safe last-hitting tool in lane, some poke against ranged champions, and some sticking power with its slows. The spell is also useful to control heat as it only generates 10 per cast instead of 20 and has a lower cooldown than the other spells.

Note: Rumble can cast E when overheated if he already had a second E charge ready before he overheats.

The Equalizer [R]
ACTIVE: Rumble deploys a barrage of rockets along the target path, landing in a line over 1 second and lasting for 5 seconds. Enemies within the line of rockets take magic damage every 0.5 seconds, lingering for 1 second, and are slowed by 35%.

The Equalizer is one of the best ultimates in the game. It has insanely high damage, good crowd control, a large AOE, and an insanely long cast range. Its ability to dominate a team-fight is what made Rumble so popular in professional play years ago. Rumble can use Equalizer to devastate team fights in dragon and Baron pit, can drop it to gank lanes from within the river, and can completely cover avenues in jungle fights to deal massive damage. Early-midgame, you want to constantly be looking to use the equalizer whenever you can to get value out of this incredible ultimate.

Rumble's spells give him access to good waveclear, poke, and sustain. On top of that, his spells are all manaless as well, giving rumble one of the best laning phases out of any mid-laner. However, rumble is quite weak before he gets his level 3 and has access to all his spells. Early on, play safe, use your E to last hit, and avoid any trades into ranged matchups. Give up some CS to preserve health. So long as you're getting experience, you'll be good to go. Once you hit level 3, you can start playing more aggressively as you're able to have much better control of your heat.

You can cheese out a kill against enemies unsuspecting of your damage early on, but against strong opponents this isn't as likely to happen. While you are able to poke and out-sustain most mid-laners, you will have a hard time killing enemies that respect your damage. Instead of trying to compound your lead in mid, use your superior waveclear to shove in and affect the map. Get deep wards, help your jungler secure crab, or even look to roam pre-6 if the opportunity presents itself.

Work with your jungler as much as possible. It's not just their job to gank your lane and help you, you should also help them whenever you can. One of the most common things to look for is the first crab at 3:15. Around this time, you should be level 3-4, which means you have access to all your spells. Start building prio in your lane at this time. If a crab fight breaks out, you should show up first with your W movespeed and lane prio. Securing a crab will help your jungler a lot, giving them the opportunity to help you later on.

Once you get your ult, you want to look to be making plays as much as possible. Shove in the wave and then look for a roam. Check to see if you can make a play bot lane as your ultimate can hit multiple targets and transition into a free drake for your team. If bot isn't an option, try to help your jungler by securing deep wards or even looking for an invade. The enemy buffs should be spawning around the time after you hit 6, so you can look to kill the jungler as their doing their red or blue.

This period of the game is when Rumble is strongest. You want to build as big of a lead here as possible for the transition into late-game. Get your carries ahead and secure as many drakes and heralds as possible. This is the best opportunity for you to carry the game. Unless you're forced to, try to look to impact the map as much as you can and avoid AFK farming in lane.

By this point, laning phase is long over. People spend the majority of their time grouping, breaking off to occasionally catch waves. Rumble's ability to run down enemies in a fight really falls off here as champions gain access to more self peel or start grouping together with other champions that can peel you off. At this stage, you are looking for a good teamfight. Look for fights in the jungle or around drake or baron, where your ultimate will get the most value. You'll still be a strong team-fighter as E when maxed out in levels and overheated do a huge chunk of damage, but your ability to stick and reliably damage will be heavily reliant on you getting off a big equalizer.

Fights should revolve around your Zhonyas active as it becomes one of your most important timers. Zhonya's will allow you to run deep into the enemy to get off your damage. Your Q will continue burning even when you're in statis so try to get deep into the enemy team and pop your zhonyas as they are burning in your ult and Q.

Working around heat is the biggest learning curve for a new Rumble player, but the biggest 2 tips are as follows:

Always aim to be between 50-70 heat when idle.
Fully overheating to get empowered autos is a core part of Rumble's all-in damage.


When casting spells while in the danger zone (50 heat or above), Rumble spells all become 50% more effective, be it 50% more damage, more shield, more movespeed, etc. That's a huge bonus in effectiveness. Because of this power, Rumble's abilities are balanced to do mediocre damage when non-empowered. Therefore to be effective and out-dps the opponent, you must be fighting them with danger-zone empowered abilities.

Here are some specific tips regarding heat:

With 0 ability haste and a level 1 scrap shield, rumble can spam scrap shield when its off cooldown to maintain the same heat level. This makes scrap shield the perfect spell to spam when roaming as it will maintain whatever heat level you had beforehand.

E's heat is generated after the cast time has finished. This means at 90 heat, it is possible to get off a harpoon and another ability by pressing E and quickly pressing either Q or W.

Because of the mechanic above, this means rumble can cast a full rotation of danger-zoned spells anywhere between 50-70 heat. This is why 50-70 is the heat sweet-spot.

Overheat empowered autos are a substantial portion of damage for early all-ins. If you're trying to all-in your opponent, make sure you take full advantage of your empowered autos.

There are no mechanics that purge the silence from overheating. Be sure not to overheat when a potential fight can break out. Not being able to cast your ultimate for 6 seconds can easily make or break a teamfight.

The Equalizer is a complicated ability to use. There are many ways you can line it up and throw it out, so it is important to identify the best ways to use it. Here are some general tips on good equalizer usage

Jungle Chokes: These are some of the most reliable times to use the Equalizer as enemies are forced to complete the choke or dash out with the walls nearby. Time spent by the enemy relocating is time you can use to close the distance and DPS.

Drake, Baron Pits: An ult that covers the entrance of the pit creates a big rift in the teamfight, forcing the enemy to fight separated and displacing the front from backline. These ults are devastating and just the threat of it can make enemies uncomfortable from starting objectives with you on the map.

Against a wall: If an enemy is lined up against a straight wall, you can ult along the wall, forcing the enemy to walk perpendicular to the wall to get out. These ults are strong if you are close because it forces the enemy to walk in one predictable direction and not away from you as you chase them down.

As a general tip, always drop the Equalizer both where the enemy currently is and where you anticipate they want to go. Settling for just one of those two criteria gives the enemy easy options of avoiding it and greatly reduces the value you get from it. When using the equalizer, take this as a general tip: Use the initial cast close to on top of the enemy to guarantee damage and choose the direction of the ult to deny where the enemy can go.

Rumble top has really fallen in strength since 2 years ago to the point where I'd say it's almost not even viable. Rumble can still be played top to survive lane as he still has access to good laning tools, but most top-laners now have access to sustain, sticking power, and all-in damage that rumble just can't dance with them once they hit level 6. Plus, Rumble's main strength isn't in his ability to lane, but rather transition that laning phase into influence around the map, which is just a lot easier to do from mid than from top.