Welcome to the Demolisher Rammus - Jungler and Supporter guide!

If you noticed one specific item in this guides item build, a specific rune and the name of this guide, I'm assuming that you already have some sort of an idea what this guide is about.

The specific item here is the Ohmwrecker and the specific rune is Demolish. Also we are talking about Rammus, who has Soaring Slam. Need I explain more???

As everything above implies, the idea of this build is to quickly destroy enemy turrets and push their lanes. This is your PERSONAL OBJECTIVE. When you are not protecting your allies in teamfights and whenever an opportunity is presented, GO AND DEMOLISH! More on that later...

At first glance, this build doesn't stand out compared to other Rammus builds.
The items are pretty much the same, ability order the same and even runes and summoner spells don't resemble something unique. And this is where you are wrong! You know the old saying it's not about how big it is, rather how you use it. Yeah, I just smuggled that joke here. No, I'm not proud. Not a lot at least.

The obvious difference is the Ohmwrecker. Rammus is well equipped to deal with turrets ( Defensive Ball Curl and Soaring Slam) and with Ohmwrecker and Demolish he can do some serious damage.

This would be some sort of a basic combo:
1) Powerball to the targeted turret;
2) Use Soaring Slam, Defensive Ball Curl and Ohmwrecker;
3) By this time you've proced Demolish;
4) Turret is destroyed or you back off after the Demolish proc and Soaring Slam duration.

In scenarios where you will be 1v1 the turret, which kinda is the spotlight of this build, YOU WANT TO TAKE MINIMAL DAMAGE WHILE DEALING MAXIMAL DAMAGE TO SAID TURRET. Most of this damage comes from Demolish and Soaring Slam, so you wanna make sure to get the most out of Soaring Slam duration and to pop Demolish of course. In order to do this, you need to understand the correlation between these effects.

Soaring Slam - instant cast, lasts 8 seconds, 100/80/60 second cooldown.
Ohmwrecker - instant cast, lasts 3 seconds, 120 second cooldown.
Demolish - 3 second delay, 45 second cooldown.
Defensive Ball Curl - instant cast, lasts 6 seconds, 6 second cooldown.

Defensive Ball Curl is used to increase armor which will decrease turrets damage. After around 2-3 shots (depending on your armor and health it can be more or less) pop Ohmwrecker. Demolish will proc by then and you can Powerball away. Soaring Slam is active from the very start.

If your role is jungle, this is pretty much how you should roam and try to sneak damage whenever you can. Whether you do it with a full combo or just Demolish procs or Soaring Slam is up to you. TAKE AS MANY OPPORTUNITIES TO DAMAGE AND DESTROY ENEMY TURRETS.
If you roll as a support you won't have the luxury to be so picky. However, you will have extra fire power with your ADC and usually you will take the advantage of the minion push as well. You will still have opportunities for some solo demolishing, so take those if/when you can.

A simple question: Is this viable top?
And the answer is: Yes, maybe, I don't know.

You can certainly play Rammus top lane. However, how good is that compared to his performance in the jungle or as a support is the real question. Rammus is a tank not a fighter. Although he could stand his ground, he isn't as independent as some other top laners. In some cases Rammus would struggle to keep up and won't have many opportunities to push. So going top is possible, but really not optimal.

jungle provides the element of surprise and the ability to roam across the map somewhat freely. While in support shoes, you have your ADC to back you up and vise versa. Both roles are more favorable for Rammus.

Players understand what items are required to create the Ohmwrecker. They buy them one by one, all the while being aware of the effect of those items. And then once the Ohmwrecker is complete - they forget everything about it but the active effect. I was guilty of this myself...

Ohmwrecker provides 6 things. SIX THINGS!
1) +50 armor;
2) +10% CDR;
3) +300 HP;
4) +50% Health regeneration (150% base health regen);
5) Point runner (passive): +20% movement speed near turrets and destroyed turrets;
6) The active effect.

The point I'm trying to make is that this is an all around good item, but obviously people buy it for the active effect. In that case, how long should you keep it? Should you sell it for something else once you brake, for example, enemy inhibitor turrets? If so, when exactly should you sell it?
This will be up to you. You decide when or if you will replace Ohmwrecker with something else. Just keep in mind all other benefits that this item provides apart from the active effect.

Apart from the first 3 levels, the ability order will remain the same both in the jungle and as a support. Note that even those slight differences aren't necessary.

Powerball - should be maxed first. This is the only ability which cooldown will decrease with level. Also damage and slow increase with each rank. The movement speed increase is based on CHAMPION LEVEL AND IS NOT AFFECTED BY THE RANK OF Powerball. Both rank 1 through 5 will grant the same amount of movement speed on a given level. Mana cost is SLIGHTLY increased and is not debilitating even if you don't get items that provide mana or mana regen.

Frenzying Taunt - this is a tempting option to max, especially if you go support. Even in the jungle, the attack speed provided from this ability will enable Rammus to land more attacks, which goes well with Spiked Shell and is further enhanced by Defensive Ball Curl. However, this lasts for as long as the taunt lasts - which is not a lot and it doesn't scale really well. There is a 1 second difference between rank 1 and rank 5. This not so great scaling combined with no decrease in cooldown is why you should prioritize Powerball over Frenzying Taunt.

Defensive Ball Curl - this works similarly to Frenzying Taunt. No cooldown decrease per rank. Also no duration increase. However, the scaling is really good - so good in fact that you start out with descent armor and magic resist bonus right from rank 1 and, actually, you don't have to max it. Rank 1 will suffice for a long time.
There might be a puzzling thing about Defensive Ball Curl damage. Here is how it works: Rammus has a passive damage boost Spiked Shell. This is active all the time (duh!). When Defensive Ball Curl is activated, part of its effect is to add additional damage to each attack. This works similarly to Powerball movement scaling - it scaled off champions LEVEL not RANK. Think of it as Spiked Shell 2.0. So whenever you attack, you apply this damage + Spiked Shell damage. The damage dealt is MAGIC - gets countered by magic resistance (duh again!). In addition to all this, 50% of Spiked Shell damage is applied to anyone who attacks Rammus (kinda like Thornmail).


When it comes to Summoner Spells: Flash and Chilling Smite are the way to go. Chilling Smite provides that sweet movement increase which Rammus really needs to get to and stick to his target. Also deals some true damage. Not bad, not bad at all...