In case people didn't see, the Season 3 version of this guide has been released. This outdated guide will be taken down tomorrow. Thanks for your support!

The guide looks great :). The problem though, is that in my opinion, Amumu's Q is more of a utility move. I think you should level despair over bandage toss. However, it all depends on how you like to use him, and if it works for you, by all means, go on. Up Vote from me :)

Thanks! I'm pretty new to LoL as it is and this would be my first "tank" champion so that definitely helps out. If laning doesn't work out for me I'll just have to play Amumu when my partner plays someone other than Warwick.

Lanemu (lane Amumu) is pretty rare nowadays, but it can certainly be done. I have a friend who likes to play him in top lane rather than the jungle. That would be the lane I would recommend most for Amumu. As for this guide's relevance in lane, well...normally top lane is supposed to build pretty tanky, so I'd throw in some better tanking items. Try to fit a Frozen Heart in there somewhere, and then you can give your mid have blue, just in case. RoA can be another good option for a Lanemu, especially if you rush the Catalyst for the lane sustain. Good luck to you :)

I am really considering buying Amumu. Since he is free this week, I can actually try him out. Thanks to your guide, I did quite well with my first game (5 kills 1 death). However, I do not enjoy jungling, and the person I play with prefers jungling a lot (Warwick). Do you -have- to jungle with this build? And if not, what lane should I look to help with? I found out the hard way that he's not a great helper for getting turrets down quickly, but he does clear minions rather fast. I enjoy him a lot so I would like to know if it's possible to play him effectively without jungling. (I can still get the blue buff so that's not a problem).

Hi there! I'm always willing to listen to criticisms, so no worries there. Allow me to address some of your points, though.

Just as an aside, this build aims for a strong, tankier early game to make up for an otherwise poor one, with a late game mixture of AP and defenses to maximize initial teamfight damage.

Addressing Philo Stone and Greed/Gp5 Quints - You're missing the point of taking these masteries/runes. It is not so much to get ahead on gold, but instead to enable you to skip buying a Gp5 item and go right into your core build. On my first back, which is typically after a first clear or an early gank, I can grab upgraded Boots, Chain Vest, or maybe even Giant's Belt instead of Philo. Chain Vest or Giant's Belt grants early tankiness that Philo buyers miss out on, immediately more than making up for any Effective Health lost by not taking defensive Quints. It's well known that the majority of the damage you take early game is physical, especially while jungling, because of physical champions and autoattacks, which hit the hardest (%) in the early game.

The regeneration stats granted by Philo are next to useless unless you have Bluebuff stolen from you and you were unable to counter-invade to recover. Even then, I would rather build a Chalice of Harmony than Philo, because it gives Magic Resistance as well as higher mana regen for close to the same cost.

Regarding Boots Choice and Juggernaut - I normally take upgraded boots on my second back. By now, I will have gotten a feel for what the enemy is building (useful for champions that can go either AP or AD) so that I can build boots accordingly. Truthfully, the only time I take cooldown boots is against a team that has a weak early game, but a strong late game. Otherwise, I take Merc Treads, unless the team is something like 80% physical damage. In that case, I would take Ninja Tabi. As for Juggernaut....why would I need anything besides Bandage Toss and/or Flash to get into position? Unless you're waddling in, I don't really see how this is relevant.

Anyways, please feel free to point out anything I've overlooked above and to continue :)

I know you've theorycrafted the beginning with boots over cloth armor, but you seem to fall flat with a few other points.

First of all, Avarice quints and Greed rob you of the early game damage threat (If AP), Tankiness (if Health/Arm/MR) or MR Shred (If Magpen) which are the three main areas you can build Amumu effectively.
Essentially, you're removing 15 hp/s and 8 mp/s after 6 minutes. This doesn't hurt your sustain much, but in terms of early game stats, especially since you are building cooldown boots (Which also deny early game tank or mrshred) you're putting yourself at a disadvantage.

Say you clear the jungle in an average time of 6 minutes and 30 seconds. You go b and get philo stone and level 1 boots. Until 26:30 you've not earned any gold from it, but you have the stats and if you decide to sell it it's at a profit of 400, which takes your build until 21:00 to generate anyway. So, if we're basing it on time, you're ahead by 5 minutes and 30 seconds in gold generation, at the cost of clear speed (from sorc shoes), tankiness and survivability (from merc treads) and sustainability (from philo stone itself). You're also denying Amumu the bonus from Juggernaught, which the inbuilt tenacity allows him to get into position to use his ultimate unhindered.

I'd like to continue but I'm not sure you're listening, so I'll go over it all if you respond.

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The other three people you unjustly downvoted yesterday and I thank you for your troll vote. I have reported you, as well as reviewed your own guide fairly; purposely downvoting people's guides in an effort to raise the standing of your own is cheating and cannot be tolerated.