Rammus Build Guide by FeatJuventus

A little note before we start

Just a little note before you start.

Sometimes, some chapters dissapears without me deleting them. It's a bug and I will try to find out the problem, so remember that some chapters may not be here sometimes, but i will try to add them as quickly as I can.

Acronym Explenation

Introduction

Hello and welcome to my rammus guide! My name is FeatJuventus and i will show you how I play rammus. He is my favorite tank. He can take a lot of beating and just never dies. If you want a fairly easy tank to play as, then look no further!

Pros/Cons

spaaaaaaaaaaaaaace

Pros + Extremly tanky + He rarely dies, especially mid and late game + One of the best gankers in the game + He got a 3 second taunt + He does damage with armor + Great escape and chase + He doesn't talk much

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puncturing taunt

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Cons - Not much of a damage dealer - Not that great early game - Powerball is tricky to controll - Not that effective alone

Masteries

Tier 1


: I take this perk to get to tier 2. I like to spend another point on this.

: Armor is necessary on Rammus. I waste as many points as possible on armor.


Tier 2

: Health regeneation per level is good, next.


Tier 3

: You take some less damage wich is good.

veterans scars: Self explanatory.

: Less AoE damage.


Tier 4


: His ultimate, Tremors can be used to push turrets and this makes it a little easier to do this.

: I spend a point in this skill to get to tier 5.


Tier 5


: You take reduced damage, next.


Tier 6


: It's a great mastery and it's the last perk of the tree.




Tier 1


summoners insight: I take this to upgrade Flash.

: Rammus can have some mana problems if you keep spamming your ability.


Tier 2


: I take this one to get to tier 3.

: As i said about Expanded Mind , Rammus can have some mana problems if you dont use your abilities wisely.


Tier 3


: The blue buff is important especially early game, because it gives you mana regenration and CDR wich works great with Rammus

Runes

• Greater Mark of Armor: Armomage with armor.r is as said, necessary on Rammus because he can take more beating with more armor, but like that isn't enough, he even does damage with armor.
  
  
• Greater Seal of Armor: I take this rune because of the same reason as mark.
  
  
• Greater Seal of Magic Resist: Rammus can be a little weak to magic attacks when he doesn't turn on Defensive Ball Curl.
  
  
• Greater Quintessence of Health: I take this rune on just about every champ. That little extra health is very useful early game.
  
  
  
  Other Viable Runes
  
  
  The only thing i can say in this part is get either magic resist, armor or some additional health.

Summoner Spells

It's a good overall spell. It can be used to escape, chase or passing through minion waves while having Powerball on. More about that last part in the powerball chapter.

I love this spell! Sometimes you need that extra damage that you can't do sometimes. But sometimes you just dont want to overwxtend a chase and instead use Ignite.

Because Powerball can replace both Exhaust and Ghost, i only use this spell to decrease the targets damage output. But Powerball isn't up all the time so having this one can be useful.

Soe may ask, what is clarity doing here? Well let me tell you, Rammus can be extremly mana hungry if you keep spamming your abilities. And I do that often. Clarity have given me a lot of kills when i just don't have enough mana to pop Powerball

Rammus is a good jungler and if you are going to jungle, you will need this one. This isn't a jungle guide but i will provide with a jungle route and some tips.



Powerball is good enough when chasing and escaping but it can be kind of tricky at first so use this spell if you are new.

Im not a big fan of this one, but if you like it, be my guest.

If you keep dying because of CC youmay choose this spell.




Let a support get it or just ward your lane and the river

There are very few games where I loose because everyone in my team died and the enemy team is still alive. Even if get revived when this happened, you dont really stand a chance against 5 enemies.

Powerball is good enough to get around the map.

Doesn't exist.

If you are new to Rammus, take it, otherwise dont even think about it.

Doesn't exist either.

Attack speed doesn't benefit Rammus.

Ability Sequence and Ability Explenation

Items

• : A great starting item that provides armor, health regeneration and some lifesteal.
  
  
• : Now many would disagree when it comes to this item. But the thing is that you need that early armor. I use mercurys treads about 49% of the time so these boots barely made it as first choice for boots.
  
  
• : This item is godlike on Rammus. Combined with Tremors, you can deal some great damage even if you aren't a damage dealer.
  
  
• : Health, armor and magic resist is everything you could ask for on Rammus! Awesome item and it's cheap.
  
  
• : When playing as rammus, you want to take damage to protect your team, but sometimes you take a little too much damage (not often) but when that happens, you will wish that you had a Guardian Angel. But beside the passive, this item got a great ammount of armor and magic resist. A great choice!
  
  
• : Rammus only weakness is magic damage. Defensive Ball Curl can fix that problem most of the time but sometimes it's off cooldown and it gives ap casters a great opportunity to do some nice damage. This item fix that problem and it makes Defensive Ball Curl godlike!
  
  
• : Armor, magic resist and health regeneration is awesome! The passive isn't really godlike but it's decent. If you remember to use the active, then this item becomes even better!

: Some think that every Rammus must rush this item. Whoever says this is wrong. Sure it got the most armor that an item can provide in the game but look at the passive. It converts some of the physical damage to magic damage. And as you know, magic damage is Rammus one weakness, therefore i don't use this item so often, but sometimes I do.

When to pick this item: When the enemy team are dealing physical damage and not magic damage.


: This item is pretty good. The passive is somewhat mediocre for Rammus, but the armor and the mana is very nice. Mana is kind of useful because Rammus can be mana hungry a lot of the time.

When to pick this item: When you keep finding yourself without mana.


: If CC is holding you back from doing your job in your team, you should buy this item. And it got a good ammount of magic resist aswell.

When to pick this item: When CC is holding you back in any way.


: The best thing about this item is magic resist. But sometimes you get a bad early game and you dont farm so well, you could get this item until you start getting some gold.

When to pick this item: When you don't farm so well early game and really need some magic resist.

Powerball

Some people playing as Rammus max this skill first, because of the damage. But it doesn't deal sooo much damage and you aren't even a damage dealer in the first place.

Always choose this skill at level 1, so that you can get to your lane quickly and you can pick up first blood with it. If you don't, maybe your laning partner will.

Remember that once you hit an enemy unit, you are stopped for a second and the enemy gets a small knocked airborne effect (that effect is not big though). Therefore, if you are chasing an enemy be aware of minion waves. If you accedently hit them, then the enemy will get enough time to escape.

Use this as your main initiator, since it can give your teammates a second to catch up and it slows the target.

Defensive Ball Curl

Remember to turn on this ability whenever an AP caster is around, and you suspect him/her to start attack you. It gives you a heavy magic resist and it returns some of the damage (not much).

It's also a great farming ability. Just get aggro of all minions, turn on this ability and attack the melee minions or the cannon. You will clear out a whole minion wave in no time with this strategy.

Remember that you can't turn on this ability at the same time as Powerball so think before you turn on either Defensive Ball Curl or Powerball.

Turn it on in team fights! If the enemy team is focusing, you can stay in the fight for a longer time and you can deal a little ammount of damage back. And your main role is to soak up damage. With this ability, you can soak more damage.

I learn it at level 3 and max it second. Take this as your first ability if you are going to jungle.

Puncturing Taunt

This is Rammus's bread and butter skill. You should ALWAYS max it first. It taunts the enemies. Well, some may ask, whats so special with a taunt? Let me introduce you to the wonderful world of puncturing taunt.

First of all, it can be used to pick up first blood very easily. That extra gold might be just what you need.

Second, it can be used to help your team. Chase down the target, taunt him and get back. The target should be dead in a second or two.

Third, you can use it to lower armor. Doing this will increase not only your damage, but everyone else who attack the target.

Now to the fourth way, wich is my favorite way of using whis wonderful ability. You can get escaping enemies with it. But i already mentioned it, didn't I? But there is another way of chasing opponent with puncturing taunt. If you are going 1 vs 1 against, let say Master Yi. So he gets low on health and you know that he is about to pop Highlander, you could just taunt him and finish him off. I ahve gotten probably a million kills in this way.

Be careful who you tanut. If you taunt someone like Tryndamere who relies on autoattacks, you will take more damage than Tryndamere wich is, quite pointless.

I take this at level 2 and max it first.

Tremors

Great ultimate that even does damage to turrets. Therefore, you can push turrets very effectevily.

Using it togheter with puncturing taunt will deal some nice damage.

Use it to take down turrets. It does some great damage to turrets and you can get some easy gold on this.

Use it in teamfights to deal some damage to all enemies. Using Tremors might just make your team win the fight.

Use it as often as you can. It got a very low cooldown (60 seconds).

As any ultimate, i take it whenever you can.

Your role in your team

You are the damage soaker. You should build resists (armor and magic resist) and just take damage, damage and damage. Because you are almost indestructable, your team can just spam abilities while you keep the enemy team from attacking yours with puncturing taunt. Remember to turn on efensive ball curl and Tremors whenever you can. Also, if someone is trying to kill your carry, just catch that bastard with Powerball and get him/her away from your carry with puncturing taunt.

Early game

Rammus's early game is pretty bad. He doesn't have any high resist so just stay out of the heat but you can engage in fights witch Powerball and puncturing taunt (if you got the taunt). Turn in Defensive Ball Curl whenever you can so that you can farm without problems.

But here you shouldn't protect your teammates like you should mid and late game. Just attack whenever your lanepartner is and push the turrets. Many people that are new to Rammus tend to feed a lot early game, because they think that Rammus is an indestructible juggernaut through the whole game. Remember that it isn't true.

Mid game

You should have started to build some resists by now and you can start taking some damage. Your taunt should last about 2.5 - 3 seconds by now. You can start challenging people now because you got some reists by now. But be careful though, the enemy team might get magic or armor penetration.

Late game

This is where Rammus shines. He can win every teamfight and just never dies. NEVER. Maybe once but not more (if you dont go against 5 enemies with extreme armor or magic penetration). Keep doing your job in your team.

Laning

Laning with Rammus is pretty easy. It can be a little difficult early game, but other than that it's fairly easy. There are some things you should think of when laning as Rammus.

1. Be careful: You must be careful early game, because you don't have any strong resist so you are kind of squishy.

2. Lane togheter with a good laner: You don't need to only lane with good laners, you can lane with supports too. And by good laner, i mean someone with either great harrass, hard CC, any nuker or a support with heavy resist auras.

3. Engage!: If your lanepartner is starting to attack or is saying that he/she is about to attack, you should engage first. With your Powerball + puncturing taunt combo, you could easily take out single targets.

4. Outnumber the enemies: As I said above, you and your lanepartner should take out single targets whenever you can. By doing this, you outnumber the enemies in your lane wich gives you great pushing opportunities.

5. Don't push too hard until you reach level 6: With Tremors, you can take down turrets a lot faster and easier, making it a lot easier for you to escape without having any annoying gankers.

6. Ward your lane!: Ward it! I will show you a picture of where to ward the map.

7. Don't leave to gank unless your lane is safe: Rammus is an amaing ganker so try to gank as often as you can IF your lane is safe. Don't leave when your turret is about to get destroyed and a teammate desperately needs help to def it.

Warding

Ward here to protect your lane and prevent backdoors
Ward here to gank properly and to catch ''unlucky'' enemies in the river
Ward here to protect baron
Ward here to protect dragon

Jungling

Rammus is a good jungler but he is slow and doesn't have a good sustain in the jungle. He is also vulnerable to counter jungles. But his ganks are godlike. Whenever you even approach someone and you have maxed puncturing taunt, you will guaranteed get the kill or assisst. Here is a pic of the recommended jungle route for Rammus.

Get a cloth armor and 5 health pots. Get a point in Defensive Ball Curl and start off at the golem. Turn on Defensive Ball Curl whenever you can and finish him off with Smite.

Go to the wolf camp and take a point in puncturing taunt when you got enough xp. Take out the big wolf and the rest are easy. If you get low on health take a health pot.

Go to the banshees camp. Take them out quickly and go to the ancient golem camp.

Clear out one of the golems with smite and the other is easy.

Now recall or if you didn't loose much health or didn't use Smite at the ancient golem camp, go to the lizard elder. Just taunt him to lower the armor and turn on Defensive Ball Curl.

Now you should recall and get an item but you could gank if there is a really weak target.

Farming

Farming is easy for Rammus. Just pick up minion aggro and turn on Defensive Ball Curl. Now attack the melee minions or the cannon.

Frequently asked questions

I will answer any qustion(s) you got here.

Change log

Ny changes i make in this guide will be written here

2/12/2011 - Guide released on MOBAfire

My other guides

Dr. Mundo - Mundo will do whatever he pleases!

Upcoming updates

I will write any upcoming updates on this guide here

• Videos
• More pics
• Improving some chapters
• Another grammar check just to make sure