Hey people my name is LordWillE, I am currently working my way to gold ELO on the NA server and this is my first published guide on Mobafire so please leave some kind of constructive criticism in the comments if you have any. As you may have guessed this is my Rammus guide and I hope to give you some insight on how I play the Swagadillo.

Sidenote: Please do not read just the cheat sheet and vote without reading the entire guide and if you do decide to downvote this guide please tell me why in the comments

Alright people before the real meat of the guide a quick pro/con list for the Swagadillo

PROS +Insane tankiness +Damage increased with tankiness +Very disruptive in teamfights +Ultimate helps push/take turrets +Rammus Swag OP +The Ganks...OMG the ganks

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CONS -Hard CC hurts -Slow Clears -needs successful ganks to keep up -People rage that "TAUNT OP" -Little to no damage early game -Makes you feel indestructible when your not -No real gap closers

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MARKS Greater Mark of Attack Speed: The most common rune for junglers and my preferred one Greater Mark of Magic Penetration: Viable if you don't mind slower clear speeds and want more turret melting via your ult Greater Mark of Armor: Personally I don't like getting secondary runes but if you want a little extra armor these will work

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SEALS Greater Seal of Armor: Only these marks will do for a jungle Greater Seal of Scaling Health however if you want to go against every single jungling guide, these fit the current meta of health stacking

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GLYPHS Greater Glyph of Scaling Magic Resist: Best option for glyphs mainly due to the fact that magic resist is somewhat hard to find especially if your support takes aegis/RB Greater Glyph of Magic Resist: These are an "OK" substitute for scaling magic resist but jungle creeps don't use magic so yea... not as useful

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QUINTESSENCES Greater Quintessence of Armor: Standard quints for jungling and, like the seals, work well with Rammus's passive Greater Quintessence of Movement Speed: Want to move faster? Want your ganks to be even more surprising? Then these are your quints Greater Quintessence of Scaling Health: Once again these come up due to current meta of stacking health but if you want health go play Olaf

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Tier 1: Summoner's Resolve Durability and Tough Skin -I take these for the 10 gold per smite(because of how gold starved the jungle is), an extra 100 health at level 18(health stacking meta remember? and you are atill a tank so beefiness is always welcome), and taking 2 less damage from creeps quickly adds up as a jungler with really slow clears. Also I grab Wanderer in the utility tree because everyone wants to be faster. Tier 2: Hardiness and Bladed Armor because armor makes Rammus feel better and the 6 damage to creeps is meh but it does help to clear faster. Tier 3: Unyielding , Veteran's Scars and Relentless : Tough Skin for champions, this allows you to take a few more hits without recalling and makes poke( Lulu) almost go away. 30 health is good for a bit more survivability in the jungle and making slows less effective makes Powerball scary(maybe scarier?). Tier 4: Block Tenacious and Juggernaut : you take auto-attacks for a living, this will help you take more of them. This will help combat our biggest enemy, crowd control . Juggernaut = MOAR HLTH PL0X HUEHUEHUEHUEHUEHUEHUEEHUHUE... Tier 5:Only got Legendary Armor here but it is so good for Rammus. 5% more armor and magic resist? Thats so ballin you might say its... Powerballin :D Tier 6: Honor Guard : 3% less damage and people fear you so much they throw all their damage at you. This will make them wetting their pants hurt less

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Now on to your Summoner Spells

Preferred/Must Have Smite: You are the jungler. Without this spell you are not jungling you are farming the jungle creeps and roaming. Also this has so many uses like stealing/securing buffs, dragon, baron and is also the reason we put a point into Summoner's Resolve Ghost: Increased movement speed, no unit collision and a much shorter cooldown than flash(90 seconds without masteries) This allows one to Ghost walk through a wave of creeps then Powerball reducing chances of accidently hitting a minion and reduces the time they have to react. Also allows you to Powerball from dragon pit to bot lane in ~3 seconds with just Ninja Tabi. Overall, extremely powerful on Rammus Flash: Most. Versatile. Spell. Ever. Use to initiate, escape, flash over walls and steal baron/dragon, etc. I will explain some more advanced techniques with this in the tips and tricks section. This is my preferred summoner between this and Ghost. Any other spells should not be taken into the jungle because we are not Lee Sin and we do not have 100 ways to GTFO.

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Spiked Shell:Rammus gains additional damage as his shell becomes reinforced, converting 25% of his armor into damage. In season 2 armor plus his w passive would give Rammus over 100 extra ad. However in S3, where armor stacking is almost irrelevant so you must stack health instead, it is slightly underpowered. Still the extra ad is nice when AA'ing a squishy who is taking damage from your Ball Curl, Ultimate, and Sunfire Aegis

Powerball:Rammus switches to his ball state, continually increasing his movement speed. Upon impacting with his enemies, they will be knocked back for an instant and be dealt 100 / 150 / 200 / 250 / 300 (+100% of ability power) magic damage. Additionally, targets affected by the impact will be slowed by 20 / 25 / 30 / 35 / 40 % for 3 seconds. Powerball lasts for up to 7 seconds. Rammus's initiation/ganking/chasing/escaping tool. Due to the fact that the speed increase is the same for all levels(still is strong though), the damage is mediocre even early game and the prevalence of blinks/dashes/ Flash make the slow irrelevant, as such we will max this last. However this does not make it useless but it in fact probably his most/ second most useful skill due to the fact that it will interrupt channeled abilities because it is a small range AOE mini-knockup/back.

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Defensive Ball Curl:Rammus goes into a defensive formation for 6 seconds, increasing his armor and magic resistance by 40 / 60 / 80 / 100 / 120 and returning 15 / 25 / 35 / 45 / 55 (+10% of total armor) magic damage to attackers. Because of his passive, this plus his taunt make him do a lot of damage to enemy carries or this plus his ulti and he will melt turrets in seconds especially if he builds armor and a little AP beforehand.

puncturing taunt:Rammus taunts the unit into a reckless assault, reducing their armor by 10 / 15 / 20 / 25 / 30 and forcing them to attack Rammus for 1 / 1.5 / 2 / 2.5 / 3 second(s). This skill is what makes Rammus so... Rammus. To start lets go over what a taunt does: "A unit that is taunted will attempt to attack the source of the taunt for the duration."-League of Legends Wikipage. So when used with our Defensive Ball Curl, which returns damage when auto attacked we are effectively forcing our enemy to hurt themselves for up to 3 seconds. Now add into that, we can still auto-attack during this time, which is where the other part of this ability comes into play. 30 armor shred at max rank doesn't seem like a lot but in the current meta of stacking health not armor it is huge, especially against squishies. Also remember that we have bonus ad from our Defensive Ball Curl because of our passive. Brazilians say it the best "huehuehuehuehuehuehuehuehuehue" :D

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puncturing taunt

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Soaring Slam:Rammus creates tremors beneath him for 8 seconds, dealing 65 / 130 / 195 (+30% of ability power) magic damage per second to nearby units and structures. Maximum magic damage is 520 / 1040 / 1560 (+240% of ability power) Rammus can move, attack and use other abilities while it is in effect. This skill is a monster. With this, you can: +Melt turrets +Melt entire teams +Split push +etc. The AP ratio on this skill is why building even a tiny amount of AP is really helpful. At 240% of AP this skill has one of the highest ratios in game.

Level 1: which skill you start with is crucial for good jungling. Generally i start with Defensive Ball Curl because it helps with early clearing but some people prefer to go Powerball at level 1 to be able to gank at level 2. The level 1 Powerball start is not recommended for new Rammus players. By level 5 no matter which way you start you should have all 3 skills and level 2 Defensive Ball Curl and puncturing taunt. *read below to figure out which one you should max first*


The skill you max by level 9 depends on one thing: GANKS. If you want the amazing 3 year taunt then max that first, if you need more armor/magic resist or your lanes have enough cc/burst that you only need 1.5 seconds of taunting then max your Ball Curl first, and if you aren't sure, level them equally and the result by level 13 will be the same

As always take your ultimate at levels 6, 11, and 16.

The now classic start for almost any jungler, this start offers lots of sustainability and slightly faster clear times. For most games this is the start that I take and when in doubt this is a good standard.



Before the creation of the machete, this was the Season 2 standard "safe" start. In Season 3 this is still viable and offers slightly more sustainablility but slower clear times than a machete/5 start. Useful if you want to rush Aegis, Tabi or if you believe you will be jungle ganked by someone like Nocturne or Lee Sin.



This start, though now underused, is still extremely potent on junglers such as Rammus and Udyr who rely on high movement speed to gank with. This start offers less sustain than the other two but has the most ganking power.

At the start of S3 this item was, in theory, really useful but, in actuality, had s***ty cost:stat ratios. With recent buffs to this item however, I can look at this item in a new light. It now offers great sustainability for a relatively low price tag, increased damage to monsters and minions allow you to clear faster and helps with split pushing mid-late game.



As I said before, this is needed for any early ganking jungler and if i don't start with this I usually will buy it on my 1st recall



This item has so many build paths that benefit Rammus its stupidly funny. Throughout a match you will probably buy atleast 3 of these as Rammus, so you might as well start buying them early. Also these allow you to tower-dive earlier, which will be explained in greater detail later on in the guide.



This item is really useful primarily when you are having a hard time ganking or are getting counter-jungled(read as " Udyr likes you"). Also builds into one of two really useful items for Rammus but I will get into them later.

TL;DR: Boots are nice, Philo stone if Udyr wants to be your friend, Giant's Belt is our best friend and spirit stone gives us everything we need as a jungler

These shoes have great synergy with Rammus' kit. The 10% block from auto-attacks works well with Unyielding and Block and allows Rammus to take more hits after he taunts someone. Also the small amount of armor is helpful because it grants a little bit of AD to Rammus.



These are my preferred late game shoes. This is because by late game you should be getting rid of your Spirit of the Ancient Golem, so you will need some tenacity. Also the magic resist, though minimal, will get you to about 200 MR if you built RB and Abyssal.



DAYUM. With these boots, Powerball, and Ghost you will outrun Hecarim. These offer, as their name implies, the best mobility in game from boots. Boosting your movement speed by 75 allows you to run to and from lanes fast enough that it wont matter if they ward or not and allow you to gank BY RUNNING THROUGH THEIR TURRET. If these aren't enough speed for you then there is a small problem.



TL;DR: Merc treads for MR and Tenacity, Tabi vs balanced or ad-heavy teams, or Mobies if you wanna gank like a madman

While we will sell this later for a sixth and final item it is well worth the amount you spend on it while you have it and will allow you to pick up Mobility Boots or Ninja Tabi instead of Mercury's Treads. *If you pick up merc treads early game anyway do not build this item but instead build any other health item*



The biggest Health item in the game today and one of the most abused. If any item was used to describe the current meta this would be it. With 1000 health and huge amounts of health regen from the passive this is THE item for tanks, bruisers, adc's, for team's focused around fighting, split pushing, or... really any team or any champ can use this item well.



OK now I know what your thinking... Its Rammus not Amumu so why do I see a rylai's? Let me explain: 1st your ultimate is a huge AOE that scales 2.4:1 with AP and that procs Rylai's so popping your ultimate with rylais will allow you to slow down entire teams without the use of Randuin's Omen. Next your Powerball will stack slows with Rylai's and scales 1:1 with AP so any AP at all is useful. Also anyone who attacks you while in Defensive Ball Curl is slowed. Finally an extra 500 health is nothing to laugh at in a game where you are squishy without 4k health.




Oh how I love this item. Not only does it give us, every stat we love but also a constant field of AOE damage centered around us. This plus your ultimate will allow you to deal decent damage to entire teams. The only downside to this items is that to best use it, you will have to be inside their team during fights and therefore not able to peel for your carry.



Similar to Sunfire Aegis insofar that it gives us many stats that we benefit from but the main attraction of this item is the active slow which, with our Ballcurl active and full build, will last ~9 seconds allowing even the slowest champions to catch up.



Our Defensive Ball Curl's second cousin. This plus our W will make even the manliest ADC cry for mercy and nerfs. Bringing 100 armor and dat passive to the table, you might wonder why this isn't a core item. The reasoning behind this is that although it has the best synergy ever with our W it doesn't bring as much ultility to the table as Randuin's Omen or Sunfire Aegis. Best to get this if they have a very, very, very fed AD carry or if their entire team is AD, preferably right click to winner's.



Mana, CDR, Armor, passive attack speed debuff? These are great stats for almost any tank. ALMOST. Mana and CDR are nice but not really needed on Rammus due to his low base cooldowns (his ult only has a 60 sec cooldown) and relatively low mana costs. Armor as stated before is always sexy on Rammus but the attack speed debuff? No. He does more damage based on how much someone auto-attacks him, so this passive is kind of counter-productive.




This item has great synergy with Sunfire Aegis and Soaring Slam and allows Rammus to have a little more damage, a little magic resist and a great passive. However be careful because although the passive is great, its also unique so if multiple Abyssal Masks are on the same team the passive won't stack. To avoid this, communicate with your team and watch what your teammates buy. If it looks like they are going to build one then don't you build one too



Health, Mana, magic resist, and a spell shield passive makes this item great in lower ELO's but loses usefulness the higher you climb because of how easily the shield is popped. But it does help you survive burst champions, though how a Rammus gets bursted I have no idea, and helps against our greatest enemy, crowd control.



This S3 item is a continuation of one of the most commonly used items in S2, Aegis of the Legion. This buffed up version of the Aegis sports more magic resist, 50 more health and a slightly stronger aura. The same problem as Abyssal applies here, that you should communicate with your team so there is only one per team.




For those games where communication isn't your strong suit and you buy the beginnings of an emblem of valor after your Leona bought an aegis you can either waste your money and sell it, or you can be an intelligent and resourceful team player and buy a locket. With armor, health, CDR, and a team-wide shield for an active you can take more on the front-lines while still providing a good amount of utility for your team.



This is one of the two items that builds from the philosopher's stone I told you about earlier. Offering nice regens, cdr, health and an AOE haste, this is an awesome item that, unlike Abyssal and Bulwark, is good to have an extra one on a team. This will allow you to initiate harder, gtfo, and split push like a boss.



And finally the second of the two items that build from philosopher's stone. Offering a little bit of AP, Good regens, health, mana this would seem more of a support item than tank but it offers one thing that will make your tower-dives that much easier. Its Active prevents a turret from firing for 2.5 seconds, meaning you can dive, take a couple hits, hit the active and life will be good.- so said the Lord...WillE :D




Now on to the live again to disrupt some more item. Guardian Angel is easily one of the most annoying things to play against especially if you just barely won that teamfight and here comes their ADC for round 2. However this item on, say Rammus, is more than annoying mainly because of the fact that he will most likely be the first dead and will take the brunt of the burst then will roll away and leave you at the will of his still living team who is completely off cooldown because they don't waste their burst on the tank with GA.

Now for the part that you all have been waiting for. Rammus, unlike some junglers like Amumu and Malphite, can start either red or blue and have a decent clear time and still have mana enough to gank.





Rammus's blue route is the same as many junglers and is intended for newer rammus players, ganking top/mid immediately at level 3 if you are the purple team or bottom/mid if you are the blue team. Usually you start with wolves when they spawn at 1:40. Move onto Blue buff and with your team kill it preferably without using smite. Take a point in Powerball if you started with Ball Curl. If you manage to do it smiteless move right on to Red buff and kill it, using smite when it has about 520 health left. Move on to ganking after this. If you did not do it smiteless then kill wraiths then wolves , again, taking a point in either your taunt or ball curl at level 3 move onto Red buff again killing it with smite when it has ~540 health left. Go kill wraiths for level 4 and go on to gank.





Rammus's red route is intended for ganking top/mid as soon as you hit level 3 if you are the blue team or ganking bottom/mid if you are the purple team. Start Wraiths when they spawn at 1:40. Move on to the Red buff asking for a leash from your team and do this preferably smiteless, like when doing the blue route. If you are unable to do this smiteless then move on to the double golems. After red buff put a point in either Powerball or Defensive Ball Curl. From double golems go back to wraiths kill them and move on to blue buff, if smite is almost up again, or do wolves then Blue buff smiting at ~540 health. If you managed to do it smiteless move right on to Blue buff smiting at 520 health. Start ganking once you have both buffs.


You should recall when one of 3 things happen: Also make sure to buy at least 2 wards every time you go back in order to have superior vision/control/presence/etc. over the enemy jungler
*A note on levelling skills: The order you level your skills in is the same for both routes... that is all*





In the above image are various ganking paths that are commonly used when ganking top as the blue team or bottom as the red team. To decide which path would be best consider these things:


The above image is to help explain ganking bottom as the Blue team or top as Purple Team. As with the image before consider the following before choosing which path:


This will be final image of gank paths(for now). It is used for ganking mid and has different ward locations than top and bottom. *A note on ganking for new junglers: if all your lanes are pushed to the enemy turret and you recalled recently then don't gank but farm the jungle or even counter-jungle/counter-gank to keep up in levels

Though there are many wards/warding guides on this site, I figure I might as well save you the trouble of looking one up. Enjoy


Teal: self privacy/counter-jungle wards- use to see where the enemy jungle is
Purple: Buff wards- use to keep an eye on your jungle or to do the same with their jungle
Green: Objective wards- always keep a ward on these from about 7 minutes for dragon and 20 for baron. Prefer to pink ward them
Note: This warding map is really only useful for the first ~15-25 minutes. After this I make no guarantees so ward everywhere
Secondary note: To get an idea of where good places to ward are going past this mark, head over to astrolia's support guide supplement because if everyone followed this then jungler unemployment rate would go sky high



An Oracle's Elixir is a must have for when your team wants to do dragon and doubly so when they want to do baron. Also is very useful when the enemy team has warded in the spots mentioned in the gank paths above. For newer players here is a brief explanation of Oracles: It will grant true sight for 5 minutes or until dead. Vision(pink) wards also have true sight. With true sight, one is able to detect stealthed units such as sight wards/ vision wards and enemy champions like Twitch and Shaco.

-As you leave the fountain aand need to get to a lane quickly, use Powerball. This and Enchantment: Homeguard will have you at about 800 movement speed until about your inner turrets
-When ganking pay attention to where the most recently spawned creep wave is. Due to the fact that waves spawn at the same time, by looking at where your creep wave is you can estimate where theirs is and plan accordingly
-If you forgot about the above tip or had to gank anyway and you went with Flash then as you come to the lane and the creeps are coming in wait until you are about to hit the creeps then flash across them. If you are successful then you will be on the same side of the wave as the enemy(s) you are ganking and still in Powerball
-The same trick above can be used to jump stationary aoe crowd controls such as Singed's glue or Graves's smokescreen there by avoiding the cc and allowing a better initiate/escape

These are random videos of the Swagadillo

THE TAUNTS
MOAR TAUNTS OF OPNESS
One for the TSM fanboys
ciderhelm's mini spotlight

JhoiJhoi's Guide to making a guide because where would any guide be without her

laggermeister's Ten Commandments because every new author should know them

Astrolia because her support supplement guide really got me going on making warding its own section and not just a side-note of jungling

Everyone who helped with the BBCoding Guide because of how much I used it.

Anyone who took the time to read this guide, thank you because you guys are the reason I did this

Friday, April 5, 2013- Guide almost fully written(will add enemy champion section later) and is ready to be sent out for a few read-through's before publishing. Here goes nothing

Saturday, April 6, 2013- Guide officially published :)

Sunday, April 7, 2013- Made a few small changes to cheat sheet. also removed armor glyphs thanks to some insight from Lagger.