Build Guide by Zypre

Introduction

**YOU HAVE TO LOOK AT THE ITEMS SECTION AT LEAST, I HAVE NEVER USED THE BUILD ABOVE**

Hello, and congratulations for looking at the description. (contrary to 80% of others.)

Rammus is probably my favourite champion of all.
I've played Rammus since level 25 or so, and he is just fantastic.
He doesn't say much, but he sure as hell proves his point!

Now, before you venture any further, you need to know a few things:
1. this WILL be a long read, if you read the whole thing!
2. your job is NOT to get kills, it is to die instead of your allies.
If you die more than the squishies on your team, it's a job well done.
also, most of the time, you get around 20 assists and like 2 kills in a good game, which
is a good thing - you'd rather want your DPS's Mejai's Soulstealer to be stacked than
your levels.

Skill Sequence

First - His passive is AMAZING. if you're up against a full melee team.. trust me.. it'll be fun
25% of his armor is added to his AD. With around 400 Armor in the Full Phys. build, you get 100 extra AD from your armor alone!

Powerball - This skill is Rammus' signature skill. He gains a lot of Movement Speed and the skill also includes an On-Hit slow! you can use this for chasing, fleeing and just for DPS.
I used to max this before the others, but that's changed.. Maxing this first willgive you a great amount of Damage, but it doesn't increase your Movement Speed any further. Also, if you don't level it, your amazing speed costs less.

Defensive Ball Curl - This skill absolutely rocks, as well. in max level, it gives you 150 extra Armor and MR. and also sends back damage. if your enemies have a lot of damage, and you tend to die.. MAX THIS FIRST. Else, level taunt(E) first.

NOTE: THE ARMOR GIVEN WITH THIS SKILL STACKS WITH YOUR PASSIVE, IN LV 5 THAT'S OVER +30 AD! USE IT WHEN YOU ATTACK A TURRET!

Puncturing Taunt - There's nothing more fun than having an enemy on low HP standing by his turret.. Just taunt them out of there (does not aggro the turret) and take him down.
This skill can turn a battle easily! Say you're with an Ashe and you're up against enemy Tryndamere and <insert tank>, and they decide to attack. You don't want them to attack Ashe, so you Taunt Tryndamere. Easily taking him down and Ashe surviving.

Tremors - Oddly enough, i find this to be my least favourite skill on Rammus, even though it's his Ultimate. Even so, it can still turn the tides of Battle. This skill combines REALLY well with Vlad- and Kennen's Ultimate. Since Vlad's Ultimate increases the damage made against targets in AoE.(And that's a great combo, by the way, if you want to know about a good team.)
This is just a basic DPS in AoE, so i'm not gonna go into details on how to use this.

Masteries

I use an odd 0/8/22.
And I don't even pick the last Mastery in the tree that i max out.
I use this mastery setup to get rid of some of Rammus' Mana problems, while still adding some tanking.
Before you flame me for taking the Exp Mastery, it's because Rammus can have a tendency to become underleveled, since you WANT to die, if it can save your teammates.

Items

This will be the most interesting bit of my build, since only 3 items (1 being a potion) are always the same.

The always safe
Doran's Shield - This item is really great. it costs you almost nothing (since you sell it later) and can easily be the difference between life and death, during Firstblood. You should pretty much always get this.

Boots of Swiftness - This is Pretty much always a safe bet! the extra movement speed, can save you in the oddest of times, trust me. It's also used to save your teammates and eventually Turrets later in the game. Although, if you're against 2-3 casters, (and if 2, the last has some decent CC), you might want to go for Mercury's Treads.

The Differing

The 3 BIG are

Thornmail - If you're up against a team that consists of Melee champs, and ESPECIALLY against Tryndamere, Xin Zhao and Jax.

Banshee's Veil - If you're up against 2 casters and a tanky physical, or just 3 magical champs, this is GOLD. every 30 seconds you block a potentially lethal spell, and if you look at how long a game is.. 30 seconds is absolutely nothing!. the item also helps you with your Mana and HP, which is definitely needed.. oh.. and MR, but you know why you want that..

Guardian Angel - *sigh* hybrid teams.. don't you just hate them, too? well, Guardian Angel gives you both armor and MR, which is needed against all champs. And it also gives you the most awesome Passive ever! revive! This thing will save you CONSTANTLY, and it always works.

The Other situationals are

Force of Nature - This thing is the item with the best MR, and regen. simply awesome, if you need to survive against someone like Lux or the like, that will nuke and harass you constantly. But of course, it works against any caster. Even so, i still prefer to get Banshee's Veil before this.

Sunfire Cape - I'm not a big fan of Sunfire Cape, but fact is.. It's great. If you're up against some melee Characters, this will annoy the hell out of them. Say you're against a Tryndamere, you pop W, you have Thornmail and Sunfire Cape. This means he will attack himself more than he will attach you! (most of the time, anyway..) BUT it won't help you much against casters or ranged! even though it gives HP, there are MANY better choices.

Frozen Heart - I really like this item. I'm a BIG fan of CDR, and this gives you: Armor, CDR AND an awesome passive, slowing down your enemy will give you an advantage, and the CDR will affect your Taunt in a positive way. This item is pretty much only for use against melee characters, but it DOES help a lot against them.

Randuin's Omen - again, CDR <3, and HP, and Armor, and SLOWWWWW, and ACTIVE SLOWWWW.. do i really have to say much more?

Zhonya's Hourglass - This is an extremely risky item to get, but it can also be equally great. it gives you as much armor as Thornmail, and also gives you AP, which helps your damage a whole lot! BUT! you are not a DPS! this is only for special occasions such as: you're owning the enemy team or your enemy consists of hard-to-kill melee characters!
if none of those 2 are met.. DO NOT GET!

---

so - those are the items you can get.. you can pretty much combine all of them in any way. but these are my CORE builds:

[HiPr = High Priority. MePr = Medium Priority. LoPr = Low Priority.]
(get the all the HiPr items first,(boots first) then you can mix as you please)

Team with Auto-attackers as main DPS

HiPr: Thornmail, Boots of Swiftness
MePr: Guardian Angel, Frozen Heart, Sunfire Cape
LoPr: Zhonya's Hourglass

Team with mainly Magical DPS

HiPr: Banshee's Veil, Boots of Swiftness
MePr: Guardian Angel, Force of Nature
LoPr: Randuin's Omen

Team with large differences ( for example: Shen, Tryndamere, Lux )

If you don't know your enemies too well, you can almost always go with this.

HiPr: Guardian Angel, Boots of Swiftness
MePr: Sunfire Cape, Banshee's Veil, Thornmail (depending on which DPS is most dangerous/carrier)
LoPr: Randuin's Omen

Team with 2+ champs with CC (Physical)

HiPr: Thornmail, Mercury's Treads
MePr: Guardian Angel, Banshee's Veil
LoPr: Sunfire Cape, Zhonya's Hourglass

Team with 2+ champs with CC (Magical)

HiPr: Banshee's Veil, Mercury's Treads
MePr: Guardian Angel, Force of Nature
LoPr: Randuin's Omen, Quicksilver Sash

Runes

If you've looked at My Warwick Build you'll notice that I use the same runes on him, as i do on Rammus, because they're the runes that I have. and there's a good reason behind the choices.

I chose to go with AD non-level, because
1. i play Akali, too. works nicely with her passive (you can go look at my Akali builds if you want, they're not too good, but whatever :) )
2. it gives you a great kick-off
And then i chose 1 level-scale AD, because extra damage is good.

For glyphs i have Cooldowns, because it gives you that liiittle extra boost that just always works well... and because i play Mordekaiser as CDR...

For Seals Armor - you can always use Armor and it works nicely with Rammus.

Quints are Armor - i got HP, because everyone needs HP, especially tanky champs.

These runes will pretty much help out any champion to some degree, so you don't have to have 10000000 runes, just because you play other champs.
You can fiddle with this as you please, but these will most likely work well, and support you.

Summoner Spells

Personally I choose
Fortify - Because It can save your turrets in a pinch, and nobody else takes it, since they need their other Spells. You don't necessarily need other spells, since you can survive easily, without.
and
Flash - Enemy targets you, you tank, enemy almost dies by your teammate, you have almost no hp left, you flash you, your teammate finishes it. Flash is such a versatile skill. truly a great spell for Rammus, since he'll want a quick escape at times.

OTHER CHOICES

Ghost - Also a great skill for Rammus, as you'll reach up to 1000 Movement Speed when you do Powerball+ Ghost, i used to get this instead of Fortify, but after being with too many teammates that didn't know what "stay in def" meant.. yeah..

Exhaust - If you want some serious chasing and/or solo-saving, this might be good for you. But i'd say - don't get this unless nobody in your team has it AND you really like it

Clarity - Might help you with some of Rammus' mana problems, but generally not the best choice.

Clairvoyance - Just as it is with Fortify, you don't necessarily need something else than flash to do well, so if you'd like a Clairvoyance on the team, you can take this no problem. I generally like having Fortify

DO NOT GET

Smite - you should NOT jungle with this build. unless you're lv 18.. you'll fail miserably in solo.

Heal - The idea is to not take enough damage/be in such a pinch that this is even useful. Save yourself with Flash+ Powerball instead.

Early Game [1-7]

To Be Completed

Mid Game [8-16]

To Be Completed

Late Game [16+]

To Be Completed