Welcome!
This is a dominion guide for Rammus. I have played Rammus in dominion a couple of times and I don't think the current guides are using all Rammus his potential in dominion.
In my opinion Rammus is one of the strongest champions for dominion. Because of Powerball Rammus has great movement around the map, which is very very very useful in dominion. Rammus is also a great defender for captured points.
In this guide I'll explain how I play Rammus and dominion. You will notice that in the gameplay section a lot of it is general gameplay. I chose to implement this in the guide, because dominion is a new game so a bit of extra information can't hurt.
I will do my best to make this guide a complete Rammus dominion guide. However I'm not perfect so if anyone has tips please let me know I would love to improve this guide!
Enjoy!

Runes

My runes

• 9 x Greater Mark of Magic Penetration
• 9 x Greater Seal of Armor
• 9 x Greater Glyph of Magic Resist
• 3 x Greater Quintessence of Movement Speed

greater mark of insight
I take magic penetration marks to do more damage with Powerball, Defensive Ball Curl and Soaring Slam. In dominion I recommend magic penetration because you use your skills way more than your basic attack. And in my item build Sunfire Aegis and Odyn's Veil do magic damage as well.
For the curious rebellions of you armor penetration marks can work on Rammus too. If you rely more on your basic attacks than your skills you should take armor penetration. But for this build / guide I recommend magic penetration marks

greater seals of resilience and greater glyphs of warding
Rammus is a tank so some extra defense in early game is welcome especially armor because of Rammus' passive which converts a percentage of armor into damage.

greater quintessences of swiftness
The quints are the only runes that are really different from playing Rammus on summoners rift. In dominion Rammus greatest advantage is speed. So the quints are to emphasize this. You can ofcourse go with armor quints, but I really think these are better. Play to your strength and this is Rammus' biggest one in dominion.

Masteries

For masteries I take 1/8/21.

1 point in offense is in Exhaust. If you take exhaust take this point too! It's a waste to not take it. It significantly boosts your exhaust.

8 points in defense. Rammus is a tank so this is the tree that would be fully stacked in normal games. But this is dominion so I only take 8 points in it. Notice that I don't take the dodge masteries, because I don't have the dodge runes. If you want to use your dodge runes use these masteries too! But I use armor seals so the health regen is more effective than the dodge masteries.

21 points in utility. As I said above speed is your greatest advantage as Rammus. Play to that. The points in utility give you movement speed and cooldown reduction. In dominion this is very useful. Since you are either running around capturing points or fighting both these masteries are extremly good in dominion.
I do however see that you get mana and mana regen which you don't really need in dominion. So you are 'wasting' a few points. This is a choice you have to evaluate for yourself. I think the benefits of the movement speed and cooldown reduction are better than more points in defense, but if you die a lot or feel like you are missing out without those masteries they can work too.

Capturing not Killing

Gameplay in dominion is very different from summoners rift. Dominion is not about Kills / Deaths / Assist, it's about capturing and defending points. It really doesn't matter if your end score is 5/9/4 you can still be the best of your team. In dominion if you want to know how well you did, you should look at your personal score. You get points from:

neutralizing, capturing and defending points
helping your teammates
using the relics and shrines
completing quests
killing enemy champions

The most important rule of dominion is don't go running around getting kills, go running around capturing points. A point is worth much more than a kill. This partially because you can only damage the enemy nexus with a majority of the points captured for your side and the respawn time in dominion is way lower than in summoners rift. You won't have a minute free play if you score an ace!

Oh ****! They captured a point

In dominion map awareness is very important. I don't mean in the sense of warding properly like in summoners rift, I mean know what is happening where. Don't be surprised when a point is suddenly taken know that it's happening. This is very important for all the champions in dominion, but especially for Rammus. As Rammus you are one of the fastest champions on the map, if you see someone trying to take a point you can probably do something about it because you can be there fast enough! The same thing goes for helping teammates. Know when someone is in trouble and help them!

Respect the religion

On crystal scar there are three different kind of 'buffs':

The health relics: around the map there are health relics. If you consume one you get some hp and mana. These relics can help you get back into a fight. If you are out of danger and going back to base or have full health and mana. Don't take the buff. Someone else might want/need them. Keep in mind when you are chasing an enemy if he walks through a health relic he might heal so much he can kill you. So be careful.

Speed shrines: Speed shrines are patches on the ground, if you walk over them you will gain movement speed for a short time. Contrary to the health relics speed shrines aren't consumed, but used. So if you are chasing someone and they walk through a speed shrine you can just keep chasing them because you will get the movement speed buff too.

Greater relics: in the center of the map there are two greater relics. One for each team. These relics need to be channeled by a champion for a short time. After your champion will get more defense and get stronger, your champion also grows which is pretty cool! This buff is extremely powerful, so don't just take it without thinking. Try to give this buff to the strongest champion in your team (like Akali or Xin Zhao). Rammus is not the champion who benefits most from this buff so keep that in mind. Controlling this buff can also give you an advantage over the other team.

Minions in dominion

In dominion there are minions, but they are not as important as in summoners rift. Minions only spawn between your points and enemy points. The minions spawn three at a time so it's not worth it to wait to farm them.
Minions can be useful though, they can capture a point for you if the enemy team doesn't notice in time. Also the amount of gold you get from farming minions is significant. Don't go looking around the map for farm, but if you have a spare 5 seconds use it to farm minions. This will greatly help your item build.

A great start

With Rammus you are extremely fast, which can help you capture the windmill. The windmill is a point which is most fought over in the first three minutes of the game. It's located at the top of the map. The first thing you should do with Rammus is rush up to this point with Powerball and Ghost (go through the speed shrine as well!) and start capturing the windmill. Make sure your team knows what you are doing, because you will need their help! You won't be able to capture the entire point without their protection, because the enemy team will arrive before you are done. So communicate

With Rammus there are two strategies you can adopt:

Backdoor Rammus

Backdoring means that you will be trying to take enemy points with are undefended. These are usually the points closed to the enemy base. The enemy team will be fighting your team over other points while you are trying to capture one of theirs. This strategy is a very good strategy with rammus because of Powerball you can go very quickly to an undefended point and start capturing it. When you've captured the point you can use Defensive Ball Curl to protect yourself and you can use Soaring Slam to keep the enemy team away from the point. The risk of this strategy is that you need exceptional timing. If the enemy is to close you won't be able to capture the point in time and they will gank you and you will die. With this strategy you will die a lot because of ganks on you and you won't get much kills because you are constantly backdoring. Another risk of this strategy is that you will not be in team fights so your team will probably be fighting 4 vs 5 which won't always go to well.

Capture and Hold

Capture and Hold is the standard strategy for every champion in dominion. You will try to capture and hold points with your team. Also this strategy permits you to defend points that are being backdoored by the enemy team. Because you are so fast you can be there in time to stop the point from being captured. This strategy will mean that you will be in more team fights and you will die less, but that does not mean that this is the better strategy. As I said before dominion is not about kills and deaths. Backdoring can be extremely useful and very annoying.

Which strategy should I pick?

I think that in dominion backdoor Rammus is an amazing strategy. Every team should try to backdoor the other team. Your team can probably handle the 4 v 5 fights if they are defending a point (because they have the help of the 'turret'. However there are some situations when you should not play a backdoor Rammus.

• For instance if your team is very squishy you should support your team as a tank. They will not survive if you are not helping them. You can't permit to be gone in these situations very often, because then you will find that you have just captured a point and your team has lost two because they all died.
• When you have a champion who is better at backdoring than rammus. I don't know much champions who are but one of them is Akali because of her Twilight Shroud she can escape the ganks I mentioned earlier. You can't have two champions in your team who are constantly backdoring, because then your team is fighting 3 v 5 and they can't win that!
• If you are playing dominion for the first time I would recommend playing the strategy capture and hold. Dominion is very hectic and the first time you play it you will be overwhelmed. Try to backdoor a few times in the game so you know how it goes and you experience the pro's and cons.
• If your team is new or if you teamwork isn't great. For the strategy backdoor rammus you need to have a team that will not rage on you because you die or because you are not there. Furthermore they need to warn you when they kill someone, because they will probably respawn very close to the point you're trying to capture. (As I said before you will probably be backdoring the points closest to the enemy base)

Boots

Boots for Rammus are extremely important lvl 2 boots should be one of your starter items
There are two kinds of boots that you should consider on Rammus.

boots of mobility in combination with your Powerball are extremely good on rammus especially if you are playing backdoor Rammus. With this strategy you won't fight much so you will have enhanced movement speed 5 most of the time. Boots of mobility are also a good choice if you are playing capture and hold, but keep in mind that you might miss out on the extra speed if you are constantly fighting.
I recommend boots of mobility if you are doing backdoor Rammus or when you are planning to play capture and hold Rammus who still backdoors a bit. Don't take these boots when you are the only tank or off-tank in your team, because you will constantly have to tank for you team so you will rarely be out of fights.

boots of swiftness are also a good choice for Rammus (or any other champions playing dominion). You will have less movement speed as with Mobility Boots but you won't have to worry about not using your boots to it's full potential. You should take boots of swiftness only when your team can't survive fights without you. It's a waste to not take Mobility Boots if you can backdoor a bit it will help you a lot.

you can take other boots like Mercury's Treads but I think speed is more important tank magic resist or armor or any other kind of boot you want to pick.

The rest of my build

My main item build for Rammus is -> -> ->
I have noticed that you usually don't get much further because dominion doesn't take that long. I will discuss some items that you can take after these, but don't expect you will be able to buy them.

priscilla's blessing is probably the greatest item in the game for dominion Rammus. The health regen is good, but with Priscilla's Blessing your get a passive that enhances your capturing speed with 15%. This is insanely good on backdoor Rammus but also on capture and hold Rammus. Don't make the mistake of thinking it isn't useful if you aren't backdoring. Capturing speed can mean that you can get the point before the other team arrives which gives you a great advantage in the team fight which will follow. Also Priscilla's Blessing has an active which increases your movement speed substantially. This means that you might be able to stop the enemy team from capturing a point or you can save one of your teammates. This is such a good item I would always rush it after your boots.

sunfire cape is a very good item on Rammus in dominion as well as in summoners rift. Sunfire Aegis gives you a bit of extra damage and armor. Sunfire is very effective because of your puncturing taunt and your Soaring Slam. You will do a little bit more damage and have a bit more durability.

odyn's veil is like the missing piece of this build. The only thing you are missing is magic resist. And well here you go. The awesome thing about odyn's veil is its active. You deal magic damage that you have taken around you. This active goes very well with Soaring Slam. The circle of Odyn's Veil active is a little bit bigger than that of Soaring Slam which ensures you do maximum damage to your opponents. If the enemy team has a lot of casters take Odyn's Veil before you build Sunfire Aegis. If the enemy team is evenly built I suggest you take Sunfire Aegis first, because you get a lot of hp from it (more than from Odyn's Veil), which will help you durability.

you will notice that a lot of the items in this build have actives. I did this for a reason. It's like you get two skills extra and it very fun to play. Learn to play with actives because a lot of the dominion items have actives.

Other items

I'll just discuss a few items that I have seen in dominion if you want me to discuss another item just ask.

I really like force of nature on Rammus because of the extra movement speed it is definitely worth considering. If you have a heavy caster enemy team you might want to build Force of Nature instead of Sunfire Aegis.

Guardian angel is a good item for dominion. You are constantly fighting so being able to die and directly get back into the fight. Keep in mind that if you are playing backdoor Rammus this item won't be much use, because you won't be fighting unless you get ganked and then they will just kill you again.

I've seen this in several build for dominion Rammus and I'm not a great fan of it. I get that because of the high paced game Warmog's Armor will stack quickly, but I'm not sure it's worth the gold. However if you really want to build a Warmog's Armor at leat build a Atma's Impaler after it!

Entropy is not really a good item on rammus. It's not bad but it is definitly cool. The dominion items all have cool actives and passives including Entropy. The passive gives you 25% chance to reduce your targets movement speed and its active reduces your targets movement speed. This is not an item that belongs in dominion Rammus' main build, but if you have finished your build and are looking for a bit of extra damage take Entropy.

Ionic spark is another item like entropy. If you have finished your build this is another good option. When you're finished I strongly discourage you to buy more tank items. At this point you are doing really well (or the game is taking very long) so you can afford some damage items. And did I mention the cool passive of Ionic Spark? After every four basic attacks lightning strikes your opponents. (or a chain of lightning)

So my final chapter summoner spells. Rally, Teleport and Fortify are not available in dominion so obviously I won't discuss these.

exhaust is an amazing spell in dominion. The slow is awesome but also the armor and magic resist lowering is great.

ghost in dominion is like Flash in summoners rift. Just take it, it's great. You will be able to get to a point in time.

heal like almost every build says heal is an oke spell, but there are better spells. Heal can sometimes help you get a kill or help you stay alive, but it's just not worth taking this spell, especially because the death timer is very low in dominion.

promote as I said before minions aren't as important in dominion as they are in summoners rift. However promoting a minion can help them push a point. This will not always work so you can better take a spell like Exhaust, Ghost or Garrison

revive contrary to summoners rift revive isn't a worthless spell in dominion. If you revive yourself you walk faster and can support you team once more. And if you use Revive in combination with Ghost its hilarious!

smite is bad in dominion. Don't take this. There is no jungle in dominion so you could only use it on minions and as I said before minions aren't that significant in dominion. so NO SMITE.

cleanse is useful if the enemy team has a lot of crowd control, but I wouldn't use it in dominion.

garrison is very useful in dominion if you are backdoring and the team ganks you and you have captured the point you can buff the point so you probably won't die. If you are playing capture and hold rammus Garrison is even more useful especially in combination with puncturing taunt.

clarity is a bad spell in dominion. You don't really have mana shortages with Rammus. Because you don't have a laning phase Clarity is very useless. Maybe on casters like Lux it could work but not on Rammus.

ignite not a bad spell for a damage dealer, for rammus it's not good. You can get way better spells than this

clairvoyance I haven't really seen clairvoyance work effectively in dominion because you can see all the points and there is no jungle. Even is Clairvoyance is useful in dominion don't take it with rammus.

Flash don't be fooled. In dominion flash isn't that very good. Because dominion isn't about kills and deaths Flash isn't really helpful. Sure you can flash in and kill someone or flash out and survive, but it doesn't really help in dominion. I realize I will get a lot of comments about this, but I can't emphasize this enough Kills and Deaths are not important in dominion.

So I hope this guide will help you play Rammus in dominion and also help you play dominion better. I hope that if you have any tips or questions you will ask me.

Thank you,

Compeyson