Hello I'm rd71, I come from the far far away land of trolls, feeders and AFKs called LAS (so forgive me for my english) and I would like to share with you my way to play my favorite champ: Amumu. I am no pro player: I'm currently Gold III. But got there from Silver V only by playing Amumu Top lane, because I suck as a jungler but love playing Amumu.

Believe me or not, amumu can 1v1 almost any top laner if he doesn't run out of mana. But a lot of champions can do that. Sure, but none of this champions can jump in the middle of the other team and dish out TONS of AOE CC and AOE Damage.

Playing amumu as a top laner allows him to farm enough gold to boost his amazing Area of effect Damage. Only surviving the laning phase can win you the game since your ultimate, Curse of the Sad Mummy is game changing. Add to that the possibility of killing your enemy laner, dropping his towers and creating a lot of pressure to make the enemy team lose time trying to shut you down, while your team secures objectives like towers, dragons and more kills.

If you like playing a champion that can deal Tons of AOE damage, have Tons of CC and be unkillable at the same time, then Amumu is your choice.

Pros:

• Tanky and a lot of damage.
• Shuts down AA-reliant Champions with Tantrum.
• Can 1v1 Almost any champion in the laning phase with Tantrum.
• Curse of the Sad Mummy is a teamfight winner.
• Also kills tanks with Despair.
• Godlike late game.
• Snowballs very hard.
• Can set up super effective ganks.
• Stronger as more enemies are in a fight.
• Underestimated as a duelist.
• Enemy top laner may ragequit if he/she gets stomped by Amumu top.

Cons

• No sustain.
• Very high mana costs.
• No escapes except from casual Bandage Toss.
• Considered as a troll pick.
• Hard time last hitting at the first levels.
• Allies can get mad and blame you if you lose lane.
  

Greater Mark of hybrid Penetration Marks: These Marks increase the Damage of all your spells and also the damage of Sunfire Aegis. . I first stated the use of Greater Mark of Magic Penetration but the armor pen will enhance your AAs increasing your 1v1 potential and will also improve your last hitting. You can use Greater Mark of Magic Penetration if you don't have hybrid marks.

Seals: The only viable choice, armor seals help mitigate Physical damage, Auto attack harass and Minion Damage.

Glyphs: These glyphs are essential against AP top laners. However, against AD top you may consider the use of Greater Glyph of Scaling Magic Resist instead. Use flat if you expect ganks from AP junglers like Fiddlesticks.

Quints: These will boost your early game dueling a lot. Every one of Amumu's abilities have very solid AP scalings so stacking AP is the best choice. You can also use Greater Quintessence of Movement Speed if you feel Amumu is too slow or Greater Quintessence of Magic Penetration if you want to sacrifice early power and wave clear for a great power spike once you get Sunfire Aegis.

Cursed Touch

This passive is awesome and is often ignored as a great source of amumu's damage. Remember that it is a debuff and everyone in your team will benefit from it. Combined with Abyssal Mask at level 13 you will have 45 MAGIC PEN FOR YOUR ENTIRE TEAM, and 51 magic pen for you with runes. Now, consider that most ranged champions will have only 42 Magic resist without buying any extra MR you will deal true damage for you and your AP allies. Remember to always auto attack before using your spells. Also remember to keep Auto attacking as you trade.

Bandage Toss

Amumu's signature spell, the spiderman web. It is your gapcloser, your single target stun, damage source and also your casual escape. Remember the Number One rule of Amumu: When ganking, or killing an enemy, never ever initiate with Bandage Toss. Why? Because as soon as you waste bandage toss your enemy will just flash/escape out of your range and he will not be dead. The correct way to gank or secure a kill is to just walk near your enemy, spam Tantrum and Despair while he runs, wait for your opponent to waste his escape and only then Bandage Toss him.

Escaping with Bandage Toss

You can actually use it as an escape if there is an enemy/neutral unit away from your enemies or even Bandage toss the jungler if he comes from behind and just walk away to your turret. Use your imagination. You can go through walls if you bandage toss a neutral monster (assuming the camp hasn't been cleared). In sticky situations you may need to use Curse of the Sad Mummy before escaping.

The more you play the better you will get with Bandage Toss, and you will be able to do some sick plays with it, like catching enemies in the fog of war, starting a gank by stunning an enemy through a wall or surgically stunning a key member of the enemy team.

Despair

Amumu's most economic source of damage, this spell makes amumu a late game monster since he will be a tank that kills tanks dealing max health % damage. This skill makes amumu very strong against Health tanks like Dr. Mundo, Cho'Gath or Zac. Despair also deals good amounts of damage to Dragon, Baron Nashor and Super Minion. You max this last because %health is more powerful late game, but if you are against a 6 warmog top laner, max this second.

Tantrum

Your main source of raw damage, and also your source of tankiness, this is why you max this first. This skill makes Amumu a very strong pick against AA based champions like Fiora, Jax or even Riven because it reduces the damage of auto attacks AFTER ARMOR. It is very useful at tanking minions because they will deal no damage to you. It also has a very interesting spamability mechanism: Each autoattack that hits Amumu will reduce the cooldown on Tantrum's active by 0.5 seconds.

Exploiting Tantrum

Each time your oponent or a minion AAs you, the cooldown of this ability gets reduced by 0.5 secs. This means that this ability will be more available against AA based champions. Also you can AA your enemy in the middle of a giant minion wave to draw creep aggro and have no cooldown on this spell, and since minion's will do no damage to you, you will be free to abuse this spell.

Curse of the Sad Mummy

THE POWER OF BRONZODIA. This ultimate was the reason Amumu was banned or first picked for a long period of time in low elo's, before the new FOTM picks came alive. It is a very powerful ultimate, SNARING every target in range for 2 seconds and dealing good amounts of damage. 2 seconds the other team will be frozen, 2 seconds the enemy adc will not attack, 2 seconds to pick up key targets. I know this may sound noobish, but your main objective should be snaring the greatest amount of enemies with this. Ensure your team is ready to follow up, this ultimate is Devastating with AOE comps like Katarina, Fiddlesticks, Karthus or Orianna, who will benefit from your Abyssal Mask.

Note: This ability doesn't interrupt channeled spells like Death Lotus, Infinite Duress or Nether Grasp since snares don't interrupt abilities. You will have to use your Bandage Toss to interrupt those.

Flash: No other choice here. Flash is the repositioning skill you need to land your Curse of the Sad Mummy. Amumu lacks reliable escapes so flash is essential. Don't remplace this with Ghost, unless you are playing proxy amumu, because you will die more and kill less.

Ignite: This spell is your aggresive choice, it wins trades and if your opponent has ignite and you don't you are telling him to kill you and play aggressive. This spell is also essential against heal reliant champions like Dr. Mundo, Nasus or Yorick.

Teleport: This spell is an utility choice, you will choose this against opponents that will never leave and will harass you until you die, like Renekton. It is usefull because it will let you go to base without risking your tower or even gank other lane, turn a fight in dragon, etc. I don't pick this against killable opponents because you are dropping a serious amount of kill potential.

Aside from Sunfire Aegis Remember to always itemize depending on your team and the other team. If the enemy team has no AP building more armor and health is the best choice. If the other team is heavy AA-reliant you may want to build a Thornmail. If you find yourself heavily harassed by nidalee's Javelin Toss you should buy a Banshee's Veil, etc.

Sunfire Aegis: Essential on any tank because it gives you raw damage just by standing in the middle of the other team. It also gives you free wave clear and a very strong mix of health and armor. This should be your first big buy against an AD top laner.

Abyssal Mask: This item is CORE on amumu. I know it is very offensive, but it pays for it. It synergizes with everything on your kit: your AOE Spells, your passive. The Sunfire Aegis + Abyssal Mask combo is devastating. It does even allow your allies to deal more damage. Your AP carry will be very happy when you build this.

Randuin's Omen: This is the strongest item to mitigate AD damage. It also comes with a slow and an AS slow that proc's every time you are attacked and an extra slow. I always build this

Frozen Heart: I love this item because it has two of amumu's most needed stats: Cooldown Reduction and Mana. With the 20% CDR you will be able to spam Tantrum even more and the most important: you will have Curse of the Sad Mummy available on every fight. It also comes with lots of armor and to finish an AS reduction aura to cripple AA champions even more.

Warmog's Armor: With a lot of armor Amumu will need some health to be unkillable and also resist some Magic Damage. It comes with extra Health Regen to supply amumu's lack of sustain.

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Choose Boots

Ninja Tabi: Counters AD and auto attacks, and is cheaper than Mercury's Treads.

Mercury's Treads: Gives extra MR and CC reduction, build this against ap Top and if the enemy team has a lot of Crowd Control.

Sorcerer's Shoes: I occasionally build this against teams that are easy to build against, like full AD teams. It boosts even more your damage.

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Other Choices

Banshee's Veil: Build this if an enemy champ is really screwing up your team, often Nidalee or Veigar.

Spirit Visage: Build this against more Magic Damage oriented teams, it is very strong because it gives Cooldown Reduction and Health Regen.

Thornmail: Is some AA champion wreaking havoc and dealing devastating amounts of damage? Like Mike Tyson said: It is better to give than to receive. This item will reflect 30% of the damage before reductions, and it is also magic damage so it will become a lot with your magic penetration. Build This against Tryndamere and Master Yi if they get out of control.

Locket of the Iron Solari: This item does the exact opposite of Abyssal Mask, it gives your team an extra 20 MR. The support should build it but nowadays every support is building Sunfire Aegis instead, so if yours doesn't, build it yourself. Even against full AD teams.

Haunting Guise: If you really want to snowball hard build this item, but dont upgrade it early, you came here only for the magic penetration.

Rylai's Crystal Scepter For extra slows, this item is very strong but it takes a whole slot on your inventory. I only take it when it's easy to itemize against the other team (full AD team, etc).

Early game you should focus on farming... NO, you should focus on LANING. Laning is an art. Here we will see the essential things about laning.

Farming

Idealistically you should last hit and only with AAs because using spells drains out your mana very fast. This is not possible always and using Tantrum is ok if you dont spam it every time. However the fastest, easiest and most efficent way to farm is to tank an entire wave of enemy minions and spam tantrum to last hit them all. This will be easier mid game when you get armor and blue pots. Remember that minions will deal 0 damage to you once you get some armor.

Freezing, Pushing and Letting your lane be pushed

Freezing your Lane

Freezing your lane is the act of maintaining the limit beetween allied and enemy minions at the most favorable place at the moment. This is achieved by Last hitting minions and not pushing. Visit Advanced Guide: Freezing your lane for more.

Pushing

Pushing your lane is the act of killing enemy minions faster by not last hiting, using AOE Spells or tanking minions. Amumu is a very strong pusher because he takes no minion damage. The advantages of pushing are:

[*] you set your tower safer.
[*] you grab a greater minion wave making harder for your opponents to harass you.
[*] you can push to the enemy tower, and the tower kills your allied minions, negating experience and gold to your enemy.
[*] You can deal damage and potentially destroy the enemy tower.
[*] If you are diving the enemy laner it is good to have a significant amount of minions tanking the turret.
[*] Your enemy must choose between tanking your minions or having his turret damaged.
[*] You get experience faster than your opponent.


Cons

[*] The far from your tower the easier to gank you, and amumu has no escapes.
[*] Pushing drains out your mana.
[*] It's harder to disengage if your lane is pushed.


In synthesis you should always push if the enemy laner is gone to deny him cs and exp and also push if you see the jungler away from your lane.

Having your lane pushed to your side:

It is harder to get pushed than to push, but it has a great advantage: You are very safe from ganks and you put your opponent in a very uncomfortable position. For amumu not pushing the lane is hard because all of his harass is AOE, however you may consider to play passive and only last hit to do the SURPRISE COMBO.

Know where the enemy jungler is, ward when you don't:

Enemy junglers like Maokai have very straight jungle routes (BLUE - RED -LVL3 GANK) because of their mana costs. However, enemy junglers like Lee Sin are very versatile. The best moment to use your trinket is when you haven't seen the enemy jungler for a time and you predict he is near you. If you see him bot, its time for the Surprise Combo.

Harassing:

Harassing as amumu is fairly easy, just walk near your oponent and Spam Tantrum and toggle on Despair. You will find yourself using this strategy once your opponent realizes amumu outduels them.

Early game is the stage of the game where Top Laners have less influence overall, however you can still push your lane and roam for an unexpected gank to mid lane or even a devastating gank to bot lane (where Curse of the Sad Mummy is very powerful). Try your best to help your team.

The surprise combo is my favorite way of playing amumu and get an early kill to snowball from there. Play very passive, get harassed and don't harass (this way your enemy draws aggro/ pushes lane with AOE harass) and let your opponent draw a big minion wave. Your opponent may be thinking: amumu top will play passive and farm to his strong late game. Don't get harassed too much, you dont want to engage with 60% health. Find the right moment (mostly as soon as you level up) and Auto Attack your opponent in front of the enemy wave, toggle Despair on and then start to spam Tantrum while your opponent starts to duel you. Keep auto attacking and spamming Tantrum, consume your mana pot and you will notice your opponents health bar will drop faster. As soon as your oponent finds he will die, stick to him, throw Ignite, Curse of the Sad Mummy (if you have it) and Bandage Toss him when he uses his escape. This combo works against most TOP laners, except a few unfavorable matchups.

Amumu will outduel almost anyone ensuring it is a straight 1v1 matchup and he doesn't run out of mana. However try to avoid sustain lanes.

Mid game is the part of the game where teams stop laning and start roaming to rush objectives, to gain extra gold or advantages and prepare for late game (if there is one). Small teamfights will start to occur and Amumu excels at these so try to be always on alert. Try your best to protect your tower's and drop the enemies.

Amumu's Mid game is very strong and Amumu can really Help securing an early Dragon/ turret, teams are way more hesitant to start a teamfight against him and no other Top laner can match his teamfighting power (except Malphite -who should be dead-).

Push like hell when you are free of being ganked or if you couldn't help your teammates. Try your best to gank other lanes and of course Give the kill to your carries if you can. Try to shut down/gank someone if they are getting out of control.

Always, always have Baron Nashor warded since an early baron will turn the tides of a game.

Amumu's Mid game is Strong as hell because he will be Tanky, improving a Lot his survibavility, he will have solverd his mana problems and he has Curse of the Sad Mummy along with his super AOE damage.

Try your best to push your advantage if you are winning the game, or slow the game progression by protecting towers if your team is losing.

Late game is all about teamfights. Amumu is a late game monster: He has a lot of CC via Curse of the Sad Mummy and Bandage Toss, and a lot of AOE damage with Despair (which kills tanks) and Tantrum.

However this doesn't mean he will always win teamfights. The role that has the most influence late game is the Attack Damage Carry because they scale extremely well and deal the greatest amount of damage. That is why you buy a lot of health, armor and AS reduction auras.

Teamfighting as Amumu:

Amumu is a front line Tank, an initiator that deals a lot of AOE Damage. You don't want to be the peeler (that "peels of" people trying to damage your carry) but if your Adc has problems you want to protect him. Smart teams will try to spread up and keep the coordination against Amumu. You don't want this, however this can be beneficial if your team is more Assassin oriented: Zed, LeBlanc and Kassadin love spread teams because they can kill isolated targets with ease.

Your main goal should be to catch the greatest amount of enemies with Curse of the Sad Mummy while your team is ready to follow up. As soon as you see the enemy team coupled throw your Bandage Toss to the middle of the enemy team, Flash to reposition if necessary and wreak havoc. But then what? Then your team should follow up and you should stick to the target that will die faster, while spamming Tantrum and Despair. Be aware of the other team however, you might want to peel your Adc if he gets caught in the follow-up. Landing a good Curse of the Sad Mummy is easier to do if the enemy team is protecting their tower.

Amumu has a lot of utility and a every team will love to have him. The role that amumu has the most synergy is Mid lane because of Amumu's MR reduction. Ofcourse this is intensified if your team has a lot of AOE Damage. So the first greatest synergy with Amumu is the Curse of the Sad bullet Time comp. Comps that have a lot of AOE Damage but need the CC to chain it: Katarina Fiddlesticks Karthus Kennen Anivia Orianna Miss Fortune etc.

But nowadays with the mobility creep team comps have harder time dealing strong Aoe damage and easier time winning fights by just killing key targets faster. Don't worry, Amumu has a great synergy with these too. Kassadin is one of these, you can just go all in, land a good burst and freeze the enemy team with Curse of the Sad Mummy, while Kassadin throws his combo killing an undefended carry.

This works well also with LeBlanc, Fizz and Ahri who will benefit from the Magic pen; and to a minor level with Zed, Riven and Kha'Zix who won't.

At the end Curse of the Sad Mummy is so good it fits any team comp, everyone loves to have amumu on their team if he has good ganks and doesn't get counterjungled to hell and dumpstered in exp, and top lane is the answer to that.

Jax, Fiora, Lee Sin, Gangplank, Irelia, Riven, Rengar Wukong and Yasuo should Die with relatively ease at a 1v1 vs Amumu. Why? they are AA or straight AD champions that are very easy to itemize against. Amumu will build tanky and cheaper items while keeping the damage up. These are the easiest matchups unless they become sustain lanes.

: Amumu deals % Max health and also outduels Mundo. Ensure to save Ignite for his Maximum Dosage post-6.

: Your bronzodia brother, very similar to you: He deals consistent AOE DMG, is a CC bomb and has strong sustain issues to balance everything he has. However Malphite has a key weakness: He is an armor tank and gets destroyed by Magic damage. Far one of the easiest matches, the only risk is the ability malphite has to set up ganks once he gets Unstoppable Force.

: She is FOTM, very strong and deals good amounts of Damage. However she has no CC and will hardly set ganks, and Amumu will outduel her in a straight 1v1.

: If he doesn't kill you before you build armor he will never kill you. Pantheon is a fairly easy matchup because he has mana problems as you do and you win a straight 1v1.

: Amumu outduels garen even if he spins to win. He is very pushy and very prone to the Surprise Combo. Keep toggling Despair so he never has his passive up. Stick to him once he wastes his CDs.

Ranged Champions Are squishier than melee ones: They have less health and don't have Magic Resist per level. However they have ranged Harass and can kite a bad amumu for days. Don't fall into their game. If Amumu can stick to them he will outduel them because they are squishy. Champions that Amumu beats if he doesn't get poked to hell: Elise, Vladimir, Teemo, Nidalee and Jayce.

Skill matchups:

: Yorick is a sustain beast and will harass all day once he gets his Tear of the Goddess, however amumu can still 1v1 him. I would prefer always to 1v1 him at lvl 5 because it becomes harder once he gets his Omen of Death. If it's too complicated you can also start cloth 5 pots and sustain for days until you have your Sunfire Aegis. After that amumu should have no problems against him.

: Aatrox is an AA champion, but has a very different concept. Amumu can still outduel him but he becomes harder to kill below half health because of Blood Thirst. Ensure to Ignite him once he gets low and remember that you will have to kill him twice. Avoid a sustain lane at all costs.

: My former main (before he got permabanned in las). Nasus only wants to farm and will be happy to farm under tower, he has a lot of sustain and Amumu's way of harassing him will push the lane to him. The best way to deny him is by not pushing the lane and setting up a gank. Give up some farm and try to get your lane pushed to your side to make Nasus feel very uncomfortable, then all in him. Notice that Nasus dueling potential Grows heavily at level 6.

The real problem is that nasus will rush MR as soon as possible and once he gets his Spirit Visage he will be harder to deny. Don't cry, nasus will also make a mistake by letting you farm, Amumu's late game is very strong and if you ensure that Nasus doesn't have 700 on his Q he shouldn't be a giant problem.

: It is very hard to kill him or kick him out of lane because of his passive ( Carnivore). Again, Amumu can still 1v1 him but be sure he doesn't get away. He will build Mr and from then it will get harder. From this point, if you didn't kill him or if he killed you I recommend to farm and wait for late game.

: Same problem as Cho'Gath, has infinite sustain and will rush MR. Don't fall into Despair, Shen can't kill you, Amumu outscales him and also has a key factor, amumu can tank entire minion waves and shen is an extremely bad pusher. Push the lane when the jungler is not near and stay on alert to Bandage Toss his Stand United.

: Olaf is also an AA-based champion and will allow a great abuse of Tantrum, however he deals a lot of true damage via Reckless Swing. Olaf has also another card against Amumu: Ragnarok gives him CC immunity. I suggest to Play safe and rush your Giant's Belt. The sooner you get items the easier it will get. Amumu can kill olaf but he can also kill you and you should take no risks here.

: Darius Deals 3 different kinds of damage and you should rush health against him. He can outduel Amumu at the early levels but he has no sustain and no escapes being very easy for Amumu to set up ganks to him. The best moment to 1v1 him is when you complete your Sunfire Aegis before him (since he will rush a The Brutalizer or a Ravenous Hydra).

A lot of people hate singed. Of course Amumu can 1v1 Him if he sticks to him. But sticking to Singed is very hard. He has no MR per level, has serious mana problems and no sustain. But his ultimate makes him uncatchable, gives him MR and will let him kite Amumu for days. The best strategy against him is to bait his ultimate, and try to all in him after that. After you get some MR this will become a farm lane, but beware because Singed can set up very strong ganks.

Amumu does have an ultimate counter? Yes (did you guess it?):

I tried this a long time ago and either had a lot of success or fed my enemy laner got dumpstered in exp and farm. Proxy farm is a very risky strategy but it can be successful against bad pushers with low damage outputs like Shen or Malphite. However it was nerfed and now a Champion that Dies a lot has a higher bounty than before. But if you are bored/smurfing/etc try it because it is very funny to see amumu doing it. Tantrum will help you tank minions.

PD: Don't proxy from level 1 if your enemy jungler starts near your lane.
Start: Crystalline Flask , Health Potion and Stealth Ward.
Runes: Greater Quintessence of Movement Speed, Greater Mark of Magic Penetration, Greater Seal of Armor, Greater Glyph of Ability Power.
Masteries:

I have tried Amumu Mid and Amumu support in ranked (Gold) and they are not so bad as you think. Remember the High amount of utility Amumu provides can win you the game even if you go mid or support. Also support Amumu is very strong against Blitzcrank. I actually think amumu support is quite effective as an all in support (like Leona) so try it if you have time and remember: If you play a champion a lot you can play it any lane (except AD, I don't think Headbanging amumu works very well).

This is my first guide and I made it about my favorite champion. For me, Amumu is a very small crying mummy that holds on a great amount of power. It is very fun also to stomp some of the top tier champions with him.

Please help me with my grammar because English is not my native language. Thanks.