Note: This build is for a rather passive gameplay. Not laning with a good damage dealer teammate may cause problem when farming gold. In addition, this guide may be outdated!

This is my first guide I ever wrote. So, it may lack of certain information or not fit your taste. But hey, this is my build and the way I like it for Rammus.

What is Rammus? It or he is a tank champion whose job is to take damage before the enemy kills your teammate. Rammus specialty is his high speed movement due to Powerball(Q). He is the fastest tank in the game (in my opinion). Also, he is ok as a gold farmer due to his passive (armor to attack damage conversion) and Powerball(Q) burst of damage and meele range area of effect(AoE) damage. His cooldown is low enough that you would not feel his ultimate is wasted when used on enemy minions, towers and Nexus. And yes, his ultimate damages towers and Nexus! (as said in the ability description (-_-))

As for this build, I am focusing on early Magic Resistance(MR). Most champions' will have flat rate MR which is 30 and will not increase like champions' Armor(AR). Most champions can take Physical Damage or Attack Damage(AD) pretty well early game but not Magic Damage or Ability Point(AP) damage. However, the weakness of this build is that your Health Point(HP) will be rather low. Keep reading if you are interested. ><

My masteries is 0-21-9.

The benefits of this masteries is it will help you lane longer. It has HP regen and gold generations. As a tanker, it is hard to gain gold like AD and AP champions. So, it is important to stay in lane long enough until you at least get Aegis of the Legion.

It is optional to change the utility mastery. I always go focus on Good Hands instead of Perseverance. Awareness for increase experience gain is a must.

The runes are quite simple. Buy Mark, Seal and Glyph for flat MR. For quintessence, buy the 2% increase in experience gain.

This may be a little bit weird because almost all runes are for MR. However, this build will get you additional 29 MR from just 27 slot of runes(minus quintessence). I say it is a fair deal.

I did experiment with the primary runes like dodge for seals and MR for glyphs. But I soon found out that champions' AR will increase with level but MR does not. This make almost all champions vulnerable to AP enemies(especially nukers). And also, most champions abilities are magic damage like Jax(hate his burst of damage). Thus, I choose this kind of runes and did help a lot for me.

For the quintessence, it is best to take utility runes because only quintessence have that. For me, experience is important to quickly gain level and abilities. Some games will required you to move around the map to help team members and if you can not get kills, you will end up not gaining any experience. It is crucial to avoid being under-level.

First buy Regrowth Pendant to keep you in lane until you got like 700 gold to buy Philosopher's Stone and Boots of Speed(get the Philosopher's Stone as soon as possible!). Later buy Ninja Tabi.

Most games will have combinations of AP and AD enemies. So, it is best to balance your HP,AR and MR. Buy Aegis of the Legion for your third item. It will gives you at least more than 50% reduction against physical attack and magic damage.

Due to Rammus low HP, buy Warmog's Armor as early as you can to increase the item's HP. For me, the best tanker build is by prioritizing the HP over AR and MR. A tank will always need to stay alive as long as possible.

The next item depends on the enemies performance. If the enemies AD is powerful, buy Thornmail first. But if the enemies AD are ranged champions, forget buying Thornmail. Proceed with to the next items. If the enemies AP is powerful, buy Force of Nature first. Force of Nature is a must if an enemy AP champion got Void Staff which penetrates 40% of your MR.

It is crucial to identify the enemies items as AD or AP because if you mess this up, your items will be rather useless. For example, buy Thornmail if the enemy Master Yi bought Bloodlust or buy Force of Nature if the enemy Master Yi bought Sword of the Divine.

Sometimes I found myself buying three Warmog's Armor because the enemy team only has AP and ranged AD champions. In some cases, Force of Nature can be skipped and only need to buy like two or three Warmog's Armor.

If the game is too long, sell Philospher's Stone after you got 3000 gold or so and buy Warmog's Armor or any item you want.

You may want to focus maxing your Puncturing Taunt(E) first to attract damage to you instead of your teammate. Also, this is useful to keep an enemy longer under taunt until your friends come and help you. If you ever caught an enemy try to tower dive, hit the them with your taunt and let the tower kill them. Always remember to use taunt on the most dangerous enemy like Katarina. Your taunt will cancel Katarina ultimate channeling! However, if you are up against ranged enemies, it is wise to balance Powerball(Q) and taunt level because taunt does not work well on ranged enemies.

Max Defensive Curl Ball(W) last because your as a tank already have high armor. Also remember that you can not use Powerball(Q) while in Defensive Curl Ball mode. And do not ever active this while trying to run from enemy hits. It will stop you for a second or so and give the enemy opportunity to hit you with slow, stun, etc.

The Powerball(Q) is my favorite skill. It can chase enemy and a great escaping mechanism. You may find it useful for farming. Position yourself near the enemy range minions (which has low armor). Hit them a little on each minion and activate Powerball(Q) and boom, you got golds. However, do not ever click on the enemy while you almost hit them. Always click ahead of the enemy path to make sure your Powerball(Q) hit them. Powerball(Q) will always stop at melee range and never hit enemy if you click on them... And Master Yi will never get hit by your Powerball(Q) if his ultimate is on. LoL :)

For your ultimate, try to position yourself in the middle of the enemy while activating it. Or maybe the enemies are ambushing you, activate this to do some damage and hopefully you are still alive until your friends come help you. This skills can do a lot of damage if you manage to keep enemies within your range. Also useful to kill enemy while chasing them.

In my opinion, Rammus has great farming skills compared to other tank champions. The burst of damage from Powerball(Q) is really useful in farming and as you raise your armor, your attack damage increase too. Sometimes it is wise to use your ultimate if the enemy minions manage to gather in two or three wave. A lot gold I say :)

Flash is a must to escape and ambush. Escape is kinda obvious but ambush is really fun with Rammus. You can start Powerball(Q) in the brush and wait for the right moment and flash to the enemy. You will slow them and use your taunt to keep them from escaping.

Second spell is up to you. I always want Heal to keep me in lane in early-game. Heal always a good choice for me.

Pros:

1. Early high MR to lane against AP enemies
2. Gold generations to make up for early-game gold farming
3. Two crowd control, Powerball(Q) slow and taunt(E)
4. Low abilities cooldown

Cons:

1. Low early HP
2. Has no range abilities
3. Hard to lane against ranged enemies
4. Difficulties to engage in early-game

This build focusing on early high MR to lane against AP enemies. The purpose of this build is to lane longer. You will have difficulties in killing enemies or being aggressive until you got better HP.

As a tank, you need to focus on your assists(and deaths), not your kills. Never go solo because your damage output is low and always work with your teammates.

Always taunt the right enemies at the right time. Do not ever taunt enemy tank and ranged champions. Taunt enemies that bought Bloodlust and enemies like Katarina ultimate channeling.

Lastly, have fun playing as Rammus :)