Amumu Build Guide by RosePark

Introduction

Well well well, look who's here to learn about a sad mummy....You made the right choice. I've been playing amumu since I started to play LoL and he was the 1st champion I bought. So I thought why not make my own guide just for the fun of it and spread my knowledge even though there are so many guides out there. By the way, there won't be too many images in this guide but I'll try to explain it as detailed as possible.

By the way I didnt list all the items above as I think after the core items most of the time is all about situational items so don't miss the items section in this guide.

Oh well..here goes nothing!

Pros / Cons

Pros
- Awesome Jungle Control
- 2 stuns
- Late game you just wont die
- You deal damage just by being near the enemy
- Despair is one of the best skills to counter the other teams tank

Cons
- Slow Auto-Attack
- Slow champ at the beginning
- Can't 1v1 early
- No escape method
- Useless early without Blue buff
- Cries too much
- Has no friends

Runes

Well technically saying you'll be needing magic penetration marks, clarity seals as amumu has a really low mana pool early-mid game so you'll be getting your and their blue buff a lot and of course the mana regen helps, focus glyphs to reduce your CDs to spam tantrum as much as possible and of course your bandage and ulti to stun, and to finish it of Flat Health Quintessences.

Summoner Spells

Main Spells
Flash: This is the best summoner skill for amumu in my opinion because of all the uses for amumu. You can initiate with this skill to get in the middle of the enemy team and use your ulti. There are so many places you can flash away from the enemy in the jungle. you can even use it to chase by flashing near them and bandage toss to stun them.
Smite: This is a spell that all junglers need. It reduces your time in the jungle by killing creeps faster. The cooldown is not that much, and you can also use it to steal the other junglers buff. For example, you are in the bush and you find the other junlger fighting lizard or golem, what you do, go in right away and start attacking the other jungler? NO!, wait in the bush for the him to lower the lizard or golem health and use smite to steal it and then start attacking the other teams jungler.

Acceptable Spells
Ghost: This spell is a must for the lane amumu as it will help you to chase and run away from your enemies. Some people might take ghost and smite but I still think flash is better for amumu and his combos, but for the lane amumu this is just perfect to chase and run away.
Cleanse: This spell is to get rid of those annoying crowd controls such as stuns, snares, slows, etc. You can switch flash for jungle and ghost for lane for cleanse instead. You won't get Crowd Controled with cleanse but still it might not save you from a chase but it's toally viable and up to you.
Exhaust: With exhaust, you can slow and reduce the enemys' damage. This is mostly used for ganks or even slow them to save a teammate that is being chased or even save yourself. Of course, you might switch flash for jungle and ghost for lane for exhaust instead.
Teleport: This spell is just to move faster from lane to lane but it doesn't mean its totally useless. You might use it on a minion or tower to save your teammate or tower. you can also use teleport to a ward or a pet such as shaco's clone or his jack in the boxes, annies bear, etc. This is done to gank from a bush if the pet or ward is positioned there.

I won't talk about the other spells that are not mentioned here as they have not too many uses for amumu and that's all you need to know. However, if you are still curious you can leave a comment down below or send me a message and I'll be glad to explain you why.

Masteries

Most Amumus would be going full defence but I tried to mix it up with a little bit more of utility to balance amumu. Persay, defence is good and all but even more mana regen with utility, CDR and suviability wouldn't be bad, besides you wanna stay alive as much time as possible to be taking those nasty carry damage for your team. Some people say that nimbleness in defence is bad for amumu because without the dodge percentage, you can spam even more your tantrum however, when you are in a really nasty situation nimbleness can save your life increasing your movement speed. It's a small percentage but its better than nothing.

Skill Explanation

Cursed Touch This is Amumus passive. It reduces the opponents Magic Resistance depending on your level, such as, at levels 1 - 6 is 15; levels 7 - 12 is 25; and at levels 13 - 18 is 35. It is not the best passive but if you can actually hit the oppnent/s before casting any skills on them, with that 35 magic resistance reduced and if they actually didnt get any magic resistance at all they'll be as good as dead.
Bandage Toss This is amumus 1st stun and skill shot. Is kind of hard to master but if you can nail it, this will be your initiator and life saver. Your team and theirs are ready to fight but no one initiates,so you go for them. You can also use this skill to stun a chaser to save your teammates, and to save yourself from some nasty situations, you can either pull to an enemy minion that is behind you or try to aim for a creep in the jungle to escape, however, this depends on luck as some times there might be no creeps in the jungle and never try this if you have extremely little health as you might get killed by the creeps. This is also the way you initiate when ganking lanes.
Despair This skill is why amumu is famous for. The enemy takes magic damage plus a percentage of their maximum health each second. With this skill you dont even have to attack to deal damage, just go run round and round near the enemy and you'll be killing them. It's like singed with his poison but instead of dealing damage by making them follow you, you're the one following them, and imagine this skill toggled on plus sunfire capes damage. This is why amumu is a counter-tank.
Tantrum This is gonna be your main farming skill. Its passive reduces the physical damage you receive and by activating it, it hits all surrounding enemies, besides all that, every time your are hit, the cooldown is reduced by 0.5 seconds. So basically if you are jungling with this skill, you'll be clearing the jungle in no time especially with the wraiths. However, if you are laning use this skill when you see some minions with low health, usse tantrum to last hit and go back to hug the tower depending on the situation.
Curse of the Sad Mummy This is the reason why I play amumu, and the reason amumus banned in ranked games. This is amumus ultimate. It stuns all the enemies in a certain area for 2 whole seconds. Imagine before a team fight starts. You Bandage toss in to stun one of the enemies then when you are in position you use your ulti and stun everybody near you dealing a pretty fair amount of damage of course plus your teammates wasting all their mana and skills on them for 2 whole seconds while they cannot do anything about it not even flash. So only champions like olaf, master yi or somebody with cleanse is able to escape and survive the curse of the sad mummy. However, the cooldown if pretty big so getting the blue for the CDR and the runes hopefully helps. Try not wasting it on only one champion only when you are versus 2 or more champions. Now there are two ways of getting in position with this skill.The first one is to bandage toss in and ulti, the other one is to get near them and if they try to run away from you, you flash in and ulti. It will be hard to master the bandage toss > ulti > despair > tantrum combo but if you can nail it, it's gonna be GG for the other team.

Skill Sequence

This is kind of "depends on the situation stuff". I get 1 skill point in every skill just to have them all early because you don't know when you will need this or that skill.

So for the jungle build, you'll be getting despair 1st as it takes the blue golem pretty fast tantrum works too but despair is faster and uses less mana. Then tantrum and bandage and you can even go gank already at level 3 if you get the chance.

For the laning part I rather get stun 1st as it has happen to me many times that your teammate is dumb and goes face check the bush in the lane and gets raped. So the stun at level 1 can save your idiotic teammate in those awful situations and hopefully your teammate won't make the same mistake over and over again.

So for the combos, you should be doing like this Bandage toss > auto attack to reduce their magic resistance > despair > tantrum.

But in a team fight you should be the one initiating so in this case don't worry about your passive as you won't be able to reduce every enemies magic resistance by auto attacking. In a team fight go as following: bandage toss or flash in the middle of them > Ulti > Despair (if you dont have it on already) > spam Tantrum and auto attack.

There is one more option for initiating a team fight, if you have flash and think you can nail it, go in the middle them ulti > despair > tantrum and wait for some low health champion trying to escape and pull and stun them with bandage toss and get the kill.

Laning

Early-Game

From levels 1 to 6 just focus on farming, most people don't know this but the key to win a game starts from farming. So if you farm really good you get minions kills which means more money and you will be able to get your items faster. Only fight if they gank or dive you but don't be the initiator unless you have a clear opening for an easy kill. if they have a jungler it would be a good idea to buy wards to be aware of ganks so always buy wards when you go back to the fountain. So early is all about FARM FARM FARM! OR if you are laning with a carry, let your carry get all the farm while you protect your carry, harass the enemy with tantrum, zone them out, just remember if this is the current case, go buy a philosopher stone or a heart of gold.

Mid-Game

From levels 7 - 13, try to keep on farming and push the turret of your lane. Farming is still important mid-game so if your lane goes to gank another lane let them and take advantage of this time to push. If you already pushed the turret then it's time to gank and help push other lanes. At this point try pushing lanes and be aware of dragon and kill it. Always get wards to have map awareness. You should have finished at least your boots and aegis or sunfire if you decided to skip aegis.

Late-Game

From levels 14 - 18, you should be ending the game already or pushed the other team to their base. At this point you should be finishing your items depending on the situation. In late-game just be careful as both teams have grown and if you die in a team fight your time spent dead is much larger with means you or the other teams have equals chances to push after a team fight. So let the other team come to you and make the mistake instead of you tower diving which might result losing the team fight giving them the chance to push your base.

Jungling

This part is where I'll be explaining how to jungle. So if you know the combos, skills sequence, runes, masteries and items you could have just skipped to this part but i didn't tell you before because this is suppose to be a guide for new commers so anyways.

Jungling
For the jungling, there's a lot to explain. Get the cloth armor and 5 potions. Go position for the blue golem and ask your teammates for a leash and cover as the other team might be preparing a gank for you. start by auto attacking the big golem and pop a potion right after. Wait for the golem to go below 500 health and use smite on it. Finish of the little minions, get tantrum and head for the wolves camp. Auto attack the big wolf, turn on despair and spam tantrum, after killing them pop another potion and go for the wraith camp. Again auto attack the big wraith, despair and spam tantrum. Here you can either get bandage toss or another point on tantrum but I like to get bandage toss as the middle lane might need a gank right away or the enemy is already really low for the 1st blood, but get another point on tantrum if the middle lane its just fine and no gank is needed. Head for the lizard camp and do the same thing as you did with the blue golem but spamming tantrum this time, and don't forget to use smite when the lizard is below 500 health points. After finishing the lizard camp head for the 2 golem camp and despair plus tantrum dead. Go to your base and get some items. Repeat and clear the other teams jungle if they have no junlger or if they do (even if they dont) go for a gank if you are able to do it.

There are alternatives routes for jungling with amumu such as:

1. Golems (not blue) > Wraiths > Wolves > Blue golem > Lizard buff > Repeat
2. Wraiths > lane mid until level 2 > Wolves > Blue Golem > Golems > Lizard Buff

or gank if needed or go clear the enemys jungle. You can start from anywhere you want however starting from blue is the best way, and always remember to ask for protection and a leash for that matter.

This is a dirty trick but I'm gonna tell you anyways. When you are killing the other teams lizard or golem for the buffs, kill the lizard or golem and leave one of the minions alive so their lizard or golem won't spawn until that little minion is killed.

This is a video (by TheLoLSoul) to make what I just explained a little bit more graphic and you can understand better how to jungle with amumu.
The dragon killing part on this video is not mandatory but you could do it, and you don't need ninja tabi for this, you can do it without it and instead with mercury treads. That was for the ones you are in doubt and will be asking the question "but he got ninja tabi, do I need them too?". So there you go you don't necessarily need them.

Items

Core Items

Mercury Tread This are great for amumu. You reduce the crowd control casted on you and you gain movement speed however, this item has been always debated with boots of swiftness. So technically get this boots only if they have about 3 or more crowd control champions.

or

Boots of Swiftness You can get this item instead of mercury treads. I get this boots most of the times as I don't die easily and if they are smart they won't focus me in a team fight so reducing my crowd control isn't that much of a deal but for my teammates. I like to get the extra movement speed instead.
Aegis of the Legion This is a great item for amumu. It gives not only to you but every teammate that is near you some damage, armor and magic resistance plus some health for you. many people have been telling me it's just not worth it but it is...Getting that extra damage plus the aura for your teammates is worth it. But IF only IF you are in a hurry and your team is getting owned, you shall skip this item and go straight to sunfire cape (for heavy Attack Damage team) or Force of Nature (for heavy Ability Power team).
Sunfire Cape If you are going to play Amumu, you must learn to love this item. This item was made for Amumu but many people do not know about it. Of course with the recent nerf it only deal 35 damage to nearby enemies but it's still the best item for Amumu. It gives you health and armor plus you deal 35 damage to all nearby enemies. Just imagine the damage you'll be doing with this item plus your despair.

Situational Items

Force of Nature This is probably gonna be your next item after your cores. It gives you health regeneration, ton of magic resistance plus movement speed. This is the part where you won't die if played well. You'll only die if their whole fricking team is made of attack damage and attack speed champs such as yi, teemo, ashe, etc.
Banshee's Veil This is for the crowd control. It gives you health, mana and even more magic resistance plus it negates one negative spell so they'll waste one skill on you and there's nothing they can do about it. However, if you see the enemy team with this item just wait for you team to get the shield off for you to go in and ulti.
Guardian Angel If you actually came to this point in game, it means this is it, With this item you just won't die. This items gives you armor and magic resistance all in one and it revives you once every 5 mins. So with this item hopefully you'll be able to tank for a long time and pray that your team know what they are doing and take advantage of your tanking.
Thornmail This is the item opposite of Force of Nature. if you see their team full of attack damage and attack speed this is the item for the job. Let them attack you and die by doing it. This item gives you 100 armor plus if they attack you with auto-attacks, they receive 30% of the damage they just did to you as magic damage.
Warmog's Armor This is not a bad item for amumu. It gives you health plus health regen plus every time you kill something you permanently gain some extra health and health regen.
Randuin's Omen This item is pretty good too. You could get this item instead of aegis right away if you feel like it, it's all up to you. It gives you armor, health and health regen. It's passive is that it has a 20% to slow the attackers movement and attack speed by 35%. It's active is that it slows the surrounding enemies movement and attack speed, so you could use this to flash or bandage toss to initiate, use your ulti and then pop this items active. However, I personally prefer aegis as you won't be needing this active as you'll be owning anyways with the cores.
Frozen heart This item is another good choise to fight against AD/AS champions. it gives you mana and armor plus 20% cooldown reduction and it reduces nearby enemies attack speed by 20%.

Summary

In summary, be careful for noob ganks when you are laning and if you are harassed just hug tower and last hit with tantrum and for jungling remember to leave one of the enemies buff camps minions alive so their buffs won't spawn.

Follow this guide and try it before commenting. I appreciate comments and rates as well, any further questions leave in the comment section below or send me a message and I'll be more than happy to answer any questions you have, I made guide for you, to help you so ask if you need to. Hope you enjoy and LET ME GIVE YOU A HUG!