RAMMUSBALLLL! Rammus is a common high pick in solo queue games due to his extremely powerful ganking ability as well as his superb tanking ability. With his powerball and his defensive curl, he becomes one of the most banned champions in solo queue. Hopefully this guide will put you in the right direction in how to play Rammus jungle.

My masteries tend to be focused more into the defense tree with maybe a few in utility. Often if you see the enemy has high AOE damage or something, we'll put points into it for the 3% reduction (evasion) but if the enemy is lacking on that, we can safely put points elsewhere (like in meditation or mana from utility tree). But mostly all these small defensive masteries add up and Rammus can become extremely resistant to damage.

Standard seals and glyphs, these are very strong for the slot and it's difficult to find superior runes for these slots. MR per level because MR isn't a big factor that early in game while flat armor due to every jungle camp doing physical damage to you as well as Rammus having more damage early on to have a better clear. Quints are flat armor as it not only helps rammus defensively but it also helps him clear camps faster as he does more damage. Marks are choice, I picked attack speed to speed up his clear speed but you can easily substitute magic penetration if clear time isn't an issue for later game strength.

Smite for obvious reasons, flash for the escape/initiate as rammus doesn't need ghost due to his huge movespeed on powerball but he requires flash to jump over minions often who get in the way of his powerball. He also can flash taunt people who get too close, flash is a very useful summoner spell to catch the enemy by surprise.

Passive: Spiked Shell
Rammus gains additional damage as his shell becomes reinforced, converting 25% of his armor into damage.

Explanation:
Often just ignore that this exists, while it does make your jungling faster and give you more damage on your autoattacks, you shouldn't ever solely build armor unless it's for countering the opponent's damage. It's always better to last longer in a fight than have like 25~+ damage because you purposely stacked armor to have more damage to attack with.

Q: Powerball

Rammus accelerates in a ball towards his enemies, dealing 100 / 150 / 200 / 250 / 300 (+100% of ability power) magic damage and causing 20 / 25 / 30 / 35 / 40% reduced movement speed to nearby enemies on impact for 3 seconds.

Cooldown 12seconds
Cost 80 / 90 / 100 / 110 / 120mana
Range 300


Explanation:
This spell is one of the real power moves he has, Rammus can gank extremely well with this as well as flank enemy teams mid-late game by cutting the enemy off from the side. It also has a bit of damage and slow attached to it but this is mostly used for the speed which doesn't change per level, thus one point is often all thats needed in this spell for most of the game.

W: Defensive Ball Curl
Rammus goes into a defensive formation for 6 seconds, increasing his armor and magic resistance by 50 / 75 / 100 / 125 / 150 and returning 20/30/40/50/60 +10% of total armor as magic damage to attackers.

Cooldown 18 seconds
Cost 50 mana


Explanation:
This is how Rammus tanks mid-late game, without this Rammus would fall very fast. With this, he becomes one of the strongest tanks in the game as it vastly increases his armor and magic resist for the duration he is in defensive curl. Note that you should avoid fighting if the enemy is focusing you when this spell is down as you are wide open to damage when you aren't in Curl. With that in mind, the only time you should cancel this is if you need the speed to run away or chase someone down as Rammus is fairly fragile outside of this form.

E: Puncturing Taunt
Rammus taunts the unit into a reckless assault, reducing their armor by 10 / 15 / 20 / 25 / 30 and forcing them to attack Rammus for 1 / 1.5 / 2 / 2.5 / 3 second(s).

Cooldown 12seconds
Cost 50 / 65 / 80 / 95 / 110mana
Range 325

Explanation:
The duration of this spell at later levels is crushing to the enemy, as it allows you to drag the enemy towards your team who'll focus them down. Also note that this spell is very strong against melee champions as a taunted melee champion will be forced to walk with you if you run away from them. I max this first as the first few levels aren't that long in duration but the later levels become absurdly long. The armor shred is also fairly decent early game.

R: Tremors
Rammus creates tremors beneath him, dealing 65 / 130 / 195 (+30% of ability power) magic damage per second to nearby units and structures. Lasts 8 seconds.

Cooldown 60seconds
Cost 120mana
Range 300

Explanation:
This spell actually does a very large amount of damage and is obviously very useful in tower dives and teamfights in order to kill the enemy faster. This can also be used to kill your buff camps if you dont expect the enemy to start a team fight as Rammus is horrible mid-late game at killing buff camps without wriggles or some help. This spell is also strong at killing towers when nobody is around but you have to make sure not to hit a enemy champion with it when doing this as the tower will aggro towards you.

SKILL ORDER

Depending on how level 1 goes, I tend to get defensive curl for a huge defensive boost early as well as a nice attack boost to kill camps, especially the wraiths and wolves. Despite this, Rammus should watch out before level 3 as he is one of the weaker champions at fending off any attackers as everyone simply moves away from him before he levels taunt. So by getting powerball at level 2, it allows us to farm quicker to get a early level 3. From that point on, we max taunt early due to it being extremely useful in ganks and teamfights. I prefer defensive curl over powerball as you require that defensive power at that point in the game and powerball doesn't give that much upon leveling.