Why not?

The kid has AoE slows all over the place if you build him right, and because of this he's a perfect candidate to run into the middle of things and mess around the team comp a little bit.

His damage is decent, and sustained, and with this build you should feel pretty safe gettin' your hands dirty and making life miserable for the other team.

Rumble is one of those champions like Mordekaiser (I think he is more like Mord than he is like any other champion) who sort of just don't fit the mold.

For those champions, sometimes you have to work against the immediate ideas you had about them, and try to think about what's going to work the best and the synergy on their skills, etc.

Wouldn't it be cool if Rumble's fire did like a bazillion damage squared?

Sure, I guess =P Until you get one-shotted.

I personally think it would be cool if Rumble was an absolute CC machine, and capable of just wading into the line of fire and mixing things up with 100 different kinds of slows and disables.

So that's the style of Rumble we're going to be looking at.

Keep in mind, the slowing on Rylai's does stack with the slowing that his skills naturally posses =)

Duff, I was a skeptic. I admit I hadn't properly foreseen the application of slowing AoE flames or double slowing ults or triple slowing Electro Harpoons, but now that I've tried it, and been tanky enough to do it, I admit... It was quite successful.

And I gotta say, when I read the build you listed here, it just sounded like some **** you threw together that would never work =(

Have faith, my children. With this build, you won't have the highest HP or resistances (For an Offtank's standard), but your skills and your auto attacks will be doing substantial damage, and you'll be a CC machine.

To be fair, it's sort of half way between the two, and you will need to play accordingly.

Don't afraid to initiate, but also you're not going to be diving into the middle of their team and expecting to get out alive (Unless you're just monstrously fed and way ahead of the other team.)

Because Rumble has good range on two of his skills, we can play this game.

And because the items I've provided will offer you decent move speed bonuses (In addition to the chance for dodge to make you faster) you will be able to jump on most opponents and slow them suddenly if the opportunity presents itself.

But, yes, it is not a full and true Off-Tank build, but rather something in the middle of that and Tanky DPS.

An Off-Tank on a diet?

A Tanky DPS who's been hittin' the gym? =P

Well, Rumble, like previously mentioned, is sort of an oddball.

And these items just sort of compliment him, and yet allow you do complete a few tasks simultaneously.

By the end game, you will be average at everything and excellent at nothing. You'll have a functional auto attack when you over heat that will do a surprisingly decent amount of damage with life steal.

When you're building heat, your skills will do decent damage and you will have spell vamp.

Your powerful stacked slows should keep you safe or allow you to kite or chase...

And your HP and resistances should keep you from being bursted down instantly.

However, because of this, you might not be terribly effective in 1v1. It depends on your opponents, and you'll need to adapt to the enemy team and the play style of the current match.

Luckily, the items are flexible and should allow you to do that quite easily without changing gear! =)

Laning with Rumble depends completely on your opponent, and I don't recommend even picking him unless you're choosing him as a counter champion.

You need to be able to win your lane as Rumble. I find his strength is most impressive around mid game, and that is going to be amplified if you win your lane and deny the opponent CS.

If you're up against melee champions... He will beat 70% of melee champions between his fire and his harpoons.

If you're up against ranged, he -can- beat a lot of them but it's not the same dynamic.

You have to land your harpoons and use the brush a lot.

If you can get them in a wave of fire it's hell on earth for a squishy ranged champ. Sometimes you only need to get the fire on 'em once and you win the lane.

Otherwise, you may need to level harpoon as you go, for both kiting purposes and also for damage.

Once you get good at his ult, things start to happen, but you will still need to play safe and lane correctly.

If you land a good burst of fire, and they take a full 3 seconds of damage, you will usually get a kill with his ultimate ready, particularly with a gank.

If you can keep them in the fire of his ult, it's particularly devastating.

The dynamic is consistent.

Land double slows and fire bursts and judge whether an attack with your ult would be enough for a kill or not.

Not much changes until you get Rylai's. That's when the potatoes really start heatin' up.

From here on out you will have to judge your play style based on what gear you have.

You may want to carry an agility potion once you finish tri-force. It's pretty ridiculous the kind of damage you can deal just by over-heating with trinity ad an agi pot, and chances all they'll be low from all your skills.

When you get Hextech, the life steal, spell vamp, and active will help you out a lot. Also the damage is welcomed.

If you find you are too squishy you can replace Hextech with Guardian Angel.

And for that reason I recommend him.

He's a very strange champion and his style is a bit hard to master (And the way I build him is even harder to master, hah), but when you get used to it, you may find success with Rumble =3