Hi welcome to my guide on jungle Rammus. He was the first champion I ever played and I haven't stopped since (My friends made me play him because they thought I might not die so much =P).

I wanted to do my guide on jungle Rammus because I feel he has a far more positive impact on the team in that role than in any of the lanes. He's a quick jungler and a very dangerous ganking threat that can leave your opponents frustrated with his nasty taunt.

Plus he's super fun! I love me some Rammus! =D

Marks
9X Greater mark of desolation: Very beneficial in the jungle allowing you to do full damage to most creeps. Also you'll have a decent amount of attack damage later in the game due to your passive and they'll help your damage output in team fights.

Alernatives:
9X Greater Mark of Magic Penetration: Helps the damage from your abilities but really aren't as helpful in the jungle.
9X Greater Mark of Attack Speed: I've heard these are also viable but I have personally never tried them.

Seals
9X Greater Seal of Armor: Not only do they give added defense but they also improve your attack damage(passive) and the magic damage dealt from your "W". Very effective in the jungle.

Alternatives:
9X greater seal of vitality: Helps soak DPS late game but I really feel armor is the far better option though because of the huge impact early game.

Glyphs:
9X Greater Glyph of Scaling Magic Resist: Pretty standard tank glyphs

Alternatives:
9X Greater Glyph of Cooldown Reduction: Help spam those abilities
9X Greater Glyph of Scaling Cooldown Reduction: Help spam those abilities

Quintessences
3X Greater Quintessence of Health: Definitely the best choice imo.

I go 0/21/9 you'll notice I didn't get Evasion. I feel dodge on Rammus is counter productive as often it is actually beneficial to be hit. With your "W" a lot of the time AD carries are actually doing more damage to themselves than to you and with the ability to use your Taunt to force them to attack you I really can't see the benefit in dodge. Aside from that I think the rest of my choices are fairly self explanatory.

Alternatively:
You could go 0/18/12 in order to get an additional point in "utility mastery" for increased neutral monster buff duration and a point into "blink of an eye" for a reduced cooldown on flash which is really helpful in ganking. You also save yourself the 2 points in "Ardor", of which only the attack speed bonus is helping you anyway. The only downside is you lose "tenacity" (4% damage reduction). This is something I debated for quite awhile but currently I like the 0/21/9 route better.

First off I think it's important to say that this is just a general build. As a tank enemy team composition will often dictate your items and you will have to adjust accordingly.

Cloth Armor + 5 Hp potions to start, definitely a must for the jungle.

On my first trip back I like to pick up Boots of Speed, Ruby Crystal and an additional couple HP potions. Also if gold permits, a Ward for dragon. If you need to go back earlier, go. A little lost time isn't worth dying.

catalyst the protector At this point I start to build my Catalyst which I leave as a Catalyst and don't immediately upgrade into Banshee's Veil because the lvl-up proc's really help with mana issues and allow you to start to give the blue buff to an ap carry on your team. I find I usually need the first two blue buffs and then I can give them away. Also the hp from the proc is quite helpful as well, the less times you have to go back the more farming and ganking you can do.

Now I Finish my Merc Treads and start to build the Cloth Armor I originally started with into Aegis of the Legion (unless someone else is). At the beginning of the game find out if anyone else is building Aegis (most likely a support) If so, let them build it. If not, start building one now. The aura from Aegis doesn't stack so it's a waste to have more than one on the team.

Build the rest of the items in order of what you feel you need against the enemy team. Polishing up your Banshee's either when you feel you no longer need the Catalyst's procs or if the enemy team is heavy magic damage and you just need it sooner than later.

Against a heavy AD enemy team you may want to use a Thornmail. I'd swap it with the Force of Nature.

I also wanted to mention Randuins Omen. while it definitely can be a great item for Rammus with the cooldowns, hp and defense I just don't really like how the active slows enemy attack speeds, which can actually be sort of a bad thing for you (less enemy attack speed means less damage they are doing to themselves hitting you). The same applies to Frozen Heart. However there are situations where I would use these items. For example against an extremely heavy ad/auto-attacking enemy team where the bonus for your team would just be overwhelmingly worth it or against a Tryndamere since he's immune to damage for a chunk of time anyway.

If you are going to get Randuins be sure to rush a Heart of Gold as early as possible to maximize the gold payoff.

Starting with Defensive Curl is a must for jungling. Powerball at level 2 for that awesome mobility and a little more damage for creeps. I put into "W" once more at level 3 to help take down red buff and leave me with some more hp for a gank. I suppose it could be possible to go into Taunt at level 3 but I just find it less comfortable.

After that just prioritize as such: Tremors > puncturing tauntTaunt > Defensive Curl > Powerball

Smite: A Must

Flash: Really helps with ganking. Powerball towards your target and if necessary you can flash on top of them instantly bumping/slowing them for a second giving you time to get your Taunt off. Very handy if you know your target has Flash up himself or has another escape mechanism you'd like to prevent. You can also use Flash to hop over the creep wave to prevent them from stopping your ball. Flash Taunt without the Powerball can be just as dangerous in certain situations and of course you can always Flash defensively. I HIGHLY recommend Flash.

Alternatives:

Fortify: The second best pick in my opinion. It's passive can be helpful if your having trouble jungling. Plus the active is handy not only to protect your turrets but if you Taunt an enemy under your tower and turn on Fortify your target takes serious damage and ends up dying more often than not. I still think Flash is a much better choice however.
Ghost: Can be used to speed up your Powerball even more.
Teleport: Quickly travel around the map to help out where needed.
Exhaust: Can be situationally handy. For example, maybe the enemy team has a Master Yi or Tryndamere and your team is lacking Exhaust spells.
Ignite: Help finish off kills. Or reduce someones healing like Mundo, Vlad or Warwick for example.

I suppose this isn't a guide on jungling so I won't go in depth on the mechanics of jungling but just mention what applies to Rammus specifically.

I take the standard route. Blue -> Wolves -> Wraiths -> Golems -> Red -> Gank

Jungling tid bits:
- Always try and get someone to leash blue for you, makes a big difference in the hp you'll have to gank and might save you a trip back.
- If you do get a leash be sure not to turn on "W" until the Blue Golem starts attacking you.
- Use Powerball to damage the creeps as often as possible when you have blue buff (when "W" is on cooldown of course).
- Powerball from camp to camp to increase your jungling speed but don't start it too early or it might run out before you can smack the creeps.

But most important of all do not be too obsessed with simply farming the jungle. Rammus' strong ganking ability is arguably his greatest asset. A jungle Rammus without successful ganks is really just a big waste.

I hope this guide was helpful to you whether you already had a pretty good idea what you were doing and were just looking for a little insight or you had no clue and were thinking about giving Rammus a try.

Either Way GL HF!

"OK" - Rammus